Children's Home run by Aspris Children’s Services Limited in Herefordshire

Inspection report for children’s home: SC402426 1 SC402426 Registered provider: Aspris Children’s Services Limited Full inspection Inspected under the social care common inspection framework

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Information about this children’s home

This home is privately owned and provides care for up to five children who may have experienced trauma.

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Information about this children’s home

The manager registered with Ofsted in 2009 and is suitably qualified.

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Overall experiences and progress of

children and young people, taking into account

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requires improvement to be good

How well children and young people are helped and protected requires improvement to be good

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requires improvement to be good

The effectiveness of leaders and managers requires improvement to be good

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requires improvement to be good

The children’s home is not yet delivering good help and care for children and young people. However, there are no serious or widespread failures that result in their welfare not being safeguarded or promoted.

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requires improvement to be good

Overall judgement at last inspection: good

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requires improvement to be good

Enforcement action since last inspection: none Inspection report for children’s home: SC402426 2

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

21/03/2023 Full Good 26/07/2021 Full Good 25/02/2020 Full Good 05/11/2018 Full Good Inspection report for children’s home: SC402426 3

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improvement to be good

Since the last inspection, two children have come to live at the home. One child’s needs were suitably considered in light of the needs of the child already living in the home. However, an assessment of how all of the children’s needs would be met when a third child moved in was poor. Consequently, when the child moved into the home staff could not meet their needs and plans are being made for the child to move from the home. Poor care planning has negatively affected children’s experiences and has resulted in an unnecessary move for a child.

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improvement to be good

Children’s in-house placement plans are not kept up to date. When plans are reviewed, children are not involved in updating their plans. The plans are not set out in a child-friendly way and do not set or track goals and objectives. This means that children are not involved in setting their goals and cannot easily understand the progress that they are making.

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improvement to be good

One child has lived in the home for several years and continues to make progress with their health and education, and developing their skills through hobbies, including dance and trampolining. Another child has made progress with increasing their food choices and improving their relationship with the other children who live at the home.

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improvement to be good

One child continues to make progress at school and has exceptional attendance. Another child has been offered alternative education to support them in receiving therapy. However, their attendance and engagement are poor. Another child is declining to attend school and is waiting to start in a new educational setting. It is unclear how staff encourage children to attend education or how they support children to engage in learning when they refuse to go to school.

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improvement to be good

Staff maintain positive relationships with children’s families and keep them updated about the child. Staff help children to spend quality time with people who are important to them. As a result, one child has increased their time with their family, which supports the plan for the child to return to the care of their family.

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improvement to be good

The children enjoy en-suite bedrooms that have been personalised to their own taste. However, there are areas of the home that require attention. For example, the decor throughout is tired and the carpets are worn. Due to the age of the property, there are ongoing issues with dampness. Inspection report for children’s home: SC402426 4

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improvement to be good

Children’s behaviour and risk management plans are part of their in-house placement plans. Despite placement plans not being kept up to date, children do have individual risk assessments that are updated to ensure that staff are aware of the risks posed to children and how to reduce these.

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improvement to be good

There has been an increase in incidents in the home. This is because one child is particularly unsettled as a result of their needs not being fully met. This means that the child is displaying some challenging behaviour to secure the attention they need to feel safe and secure in their home. The staff are not appropriately skilled and experienced to respond to this behaviour therapeutically. However, they are able to keep the child physically safe. Despite an increase in incidents, the use of physical intervention is avoided where possible and no children have gone missing from care since the last inspection.

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improvement to be good

Children are encouraged to participate in house meetings with staff. However, topics for these meetings are led by the adults and children do not receive feedback about their requests. In addition, individual direct work with the children is limited, is of poor quality and does not reflect the needs of the children and support their progress. This limits children’s opportunities to influence their care and the development of the home.

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improvement to be good

Children are helped by staff to take medication to meet their health needs. However, on some occasions staff have failed to record when a child has refused to take their medication. A lack of regular auditing by managers means that this shortfall had not been identified.

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improvement to be good

One child does not have a personal emergency evacuation plan (PEEP) to support their safe exit from the premises in the event of a fire.

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good

The registered manager has not had day-to-day oversight of the home since August 2023. There has also been a change of responsible individual. The current responsible individual is overseeing the day-to-day operation of the home and is working hard to make improvements.

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good

Staff report that they have been deskilled. For example, until recently, staff have had limited access to the online recording system and have been unable to complete wider administration tasks. Staff spoke of a ‘regimented’ culture. Despite this, they had no safeguarding concerns in respect of the children and their care.

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good

Staff say that they feel supported by the current responsible individual and that positive changes are happening in the home. For example, more recently they have started to learn and develop their skills and they now have access to all aspects of Inspection report for children’s home: SC402426 5 the home administration systems. Gaps in the team’s skills, knowledge and experience have been identified, and support and guidance have been provided by the responsible individual.

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good

Managers ensure that staff are safely recruited and that new staff complete an induction and mandatory training as part of their probation period. However, staff have not received regular supervision since May 2023. When supervision has taken place, it has not been effective in identifying goals and objectives to support the development and progress of staff.

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good

Staff complete mandatory training and have access to additional training online. However, not all staff have completed the additional training required to raise their awareness of the needs of the children currently living in the home, including self- harm.

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good

Managers’ monitoring of the operation of the service is not effective. This means that managers do not have a good oversight of what is happening in the home and that children’s records are not always kept up to date.

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good

The responsible individual has failed to notify Ofsted of the changes in respect of the day-to-day management of the home in the registered manager’s absence. Inspection report for children’s home: SC402426 6

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Statutory requirements

This section sets out the actions that the registered person(s) must take to meet the Care Standards Act 2000, The Children’s Homes (England) Regulations 2015 and the ‘Guide to the Children’s Homes Regulations, including the quality standards’. The registered person(s) must comply within the given timescales.

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Requirement Due date

The education standard is that children make measurable progress towards achieving their educational potential and are helped to do so.

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Requirement Due date

In particular, the standard in paragraph (1) requires the registered person to ensure—

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Requirement Due date

understand the barriers to learning that each child may face and take appropriate action to help the child to overcome any such barriers;

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Requirement Due date

help each child to understand the importance and value of education, learning, training and employment;

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Requirement Due date

promote opportunities for each child to learn informally;

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Requirement Due date

help each child to attend education or training in accordance with the expectations in the child’s relevant plans. (Regulation 8 (2)(a)(iii)(iv)(v)(x))

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Requirement Due date

This specifically relates to ensuring that staff support children to overcome barriers to their education and that staff engage children in learning when they are not in education or are refusing education. 30 November

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Requirement Due date

The protection of children standard is that children are protected from harm and enabled to keep themselves safe.

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Requirement Due date

In particular, the standard in paragraph (1) requires the registered person to ensure—

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Requirement Due date

help each child to understand how to keep safe; 30 November Inspection report for children’s home: SC402426 7 have the skills to identify and act upon signs that a child is at risk of harm;

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Requirement Due date

that the premises used for the purposes of the home are designed, furnished and maintained so as to protect each child from avoidable hazards to the child’s health. (Regulation 12 (1) (2)(a)(i)(iii)(d))

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Requirement Due date

This specifically relates to ensuring that staff have the skills to meet children’s complex needs to help reduce risk and that children are supported to understand risk.

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Requirement Due date

In addition, managers must ensure that the home environment is safe and risk-free and that all children have a PEEP.

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Requirement Due date

The leadership and management standard is that the registered person enables, inspires and leads a culture in relation to the children’s home that—

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Requirement Due date

helps children aspire to fulfil their potential; and

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Requirement Due date

In particular, the standard in paragraph (1) requires the registered person to—

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Requirement Due date

lead and manage the home in a way that is consistent with the approach and ethos, and delivers the outcomes, set out in the home’s statement of purpose;

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Requirement Due date

ensure that staff have the experience, qualifications and skills to meet the needs of each child;

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Requirement Due date

understand the impact that the quality of care provided in the home is having on the progress and experiences of each child and use this understanding to inform the development of the quality of care provided in the home;

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Requirement Due date

use monitoring and review systems to make continuous improvements in the quality of care provided in the home. (Regulation 13 (1)(a)(b) (2)(a)(c)(f)(h))

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Requirement Due date

This specifically relates to ensuring that the staff have the skills to provide the required care to children and that managers have systems in place to monitor and develop children’s care effectively. 30 November Inspection report for children’s home: SC402426 8 The care planning standard is that children—

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Requirement Due date

receive effectively planned care in or through the children’s home. (Regulation 14 (1)(a))

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Requirement Due date

This specifically relates to ensuring that children have individualised care plans that are reviewed and updated in consultation with children.

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Requirement Due date

This specifically relates to ensuring that thorough consideration is given to how the needs of all children will be met as part of a new child moving into the home. 30 November

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must make arrangements for the handling, recording, safekeeping, safe administration and disposal of medicines received into the children’s home.

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Requirement Due date

In particular, the registered person must ensure that—

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Requirement Due date

medicine which is prescribed for a child is administered as prescribed to the child for whom it is prescribed and to no other child; and

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Requirement Due date

a record is kept of the administration of medicine to each child. (Regulation 23 (1) (2)(b)(c))

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Requirement Due date

This specifically relates to ensuring that children are administered their medication as prescribed and that refusal is recorded. 30 November

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must ensure that all employees—

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Requirement Due date

undertake appropriate continuing professional development;

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Requirement Due date

receive practice-related supervision by a person with appropriate experience. (Regulation 33 (4)(a)(b))

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Requirement Due date

This specifically relates to ensuring that staff have appropriate training to meet the needs of children and that staff have regular professional supervision. 30 November

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must maintain records (“case records”) for each child which—

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Requirement Due date

include the information and documents listed in Schedule 3 in relation to each child;

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Requirement Due date

are kept up to date; and 30 November Inspection report for children’s home: SC402426 9 are signed and dated by the author of each entry. (Regulation 36 (1)(a)(b)(c))

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Requirement Due date

This specifically relates to the registered manager ensuring that staff keep children’s records up to date.

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must give notice in writing to HMCI, as soon as it is reasonably practicable to do so, if any of the following events take place or are expected by the registered person to take place—

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Requirement Due date

a person other than the registered person carries on or manages the children’s home;

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Requirement Due date

a person ceases to carry on or manage the home. (Regulation 49 (a)(b))

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Requirement Due date

This specifically relates to ensuring that HMCI is updated about the arrangements for the day-to-day management of the home in the registered manager’s absence. 10 November

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Information about this inspection

Inspectors have looked closely at the experiences and progress of children and young people, using the social care common inspection framework. This inspection was carried out under The Care Standards Act 2000 to assess the effectiveness of the service, how it meets the core functions of the service as set out in legislation, and to consider how well it complies with The Children’s Homes (England) Regulations 2015 and the ‘Guide to the Children’s Homes Regulations, including the quality standards’. Inspection report for children’s home: SC402426 10

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Children’s home details

Registered provider: Aspris Children’s Services Limited

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: Aspris, The Forge, 43 Church Street West, Woking, Surrey GU21 6HT

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Inspector

Stacie Sharpe, Social Care Inspector Inspection report for children’s home: SC402426 11 to achieve excellence in the care of children and young people, and in education and skills for learners of all ages. It regulates and inspects childcare and children’s social care, and inspects the Children and Family Court Advisory and Support Service (Cafcass), schools, colleges, initial teacher training, further education and skills, adult and community learning, and education and training in prisons and other secure establishments. It assesses council children’s services, and inspects services for looked after children, safeguarding and child protection.

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Inspector

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Inspector

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Inspector

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