Children's Home run by Sheffield City Council in Sheffield

Inspection report for children’s home: SC066747 1 SC066747 Registered provider: Sheffield City Council Full inspection Inspected under the social care common inspection framework

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Information about this children’s home

The home is owned and managed by a local authority and provides care for up to five children who may have social and/or emotional difficulties. In addition to supporting children already in care, the home acts as a bridging placement to allow children to achieve permanence in a foster family, with their birth family, or, for older young people, in the community.

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Information about this children’s home

There were three children living at the home at the time of the inspection.

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Information about this children’s home

The manager is qualified and experienced and has been registered with Ofsted since May 2021.

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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: requires improvement to be good

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requires improvement to be good

Enforcement action since last inspection: none Inspection report for children’s home: SC066747 2

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

27/07/2022 Full Requires improvement to be good 10/02/2022 Interim Sustained effectiveness 21/12/2021 Full Requires improvement to be good 14/08/2019 Full Requires improvement to be good Inspection report for children’s home: SC066747 3

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improvement to be good

The staff’s limited understanding of some children’s emotional and behavioural needs has adversely affected all of the children’s experiences at the home. This is because some children have not been helped to cope with their emotions effectively. This has had a detrimental impact on the children’s sense of safety and a limiting impact on the overall judgement of this home.

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improvement to be good

When incidents of bullying have occurred, staff have brought children together to reflect on the impact on themselves and others. This helps children to consider other people’s feelings. However, this approach is not embedded as part of staff’s day-to- day practice, as children are generally unhappy living together.

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improvement to be good

Staff’s inconsistent practice and several changes in the staff team compound the frustrations children experience. This is demonstrated by children saying they are not happy or feeling safe living at the home. One child’s repeated arrest by the police, in response to physical aggression towards members of staff, and their prolonged periods in custody further undermine the children’s sense of safety and well-being.

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improvement to be good

Children do have enjoyable periods that they spend together with staff and can identify an adult they can turn to should they need help. One child has been encouraged to spend more time at the home, rather than being in the community for long periods. This approach helps to nurture positive connections between children and staff.

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improvement to be good

Children with a history of disruption to their education go to school, college or employment. Children travel independently and are positively engaged with their chosen pathway. Staff offer guidance to children when they experience challenges and share this with other professionals to help them understand the barriers to the children’s progress. This enables education professionals to develop learning plans that help children to overcome some of their barriers.

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improvement to be good

Children attend their primary healthcare services and have the medical help they need. Some children are encouraged to maintain more specialist help through the regular sessions they have with the local child and adolescent mental health service. Staff frequently speak with children about their health and signpost them to services that offer support relevant to their individual needs, for example the sexual health clinic and the substance misuse service.

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improvement to be good

The challenge for children moving on to independent living is minimised through staff maintaining their trusting relationships with children after they leave the home. Staff are readily available to offer daily guidance and advice. This adds considerable strength to the children’s support network as they adjust to adulthood. Before Inspection report for children’s home: SC066747 4 leaving the home, children develop independence skills that enable them to care for themselves. For example, these include independent travel, budgeting, cooking, shopping and domestic chores.

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improvement to be good

Meaningful family time is established for all children, with most children seeing their family members independently. Staff use empathy to help children when they experience relationship difficulties. This reduces the children’s sense of isolation as they continue to live away from those who are most important to them.

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improvement to be good

Children enjoy a variety of activities with staff. Over the summer, children had individual holidays at the seaside. These arrangements allow children to have uninterrupted fun and build positive memories with staff who they enjoy spending time with.

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improvement to be good

Complaints are taken seriously and acted on accordingly by the manager. The context of the complaints reflects the difficult experiences children have had while living at the home. However, the way in which complaints are managed is helping children to feel listened to by staff.

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improvement to be good

Staff lack the required confidence and strategies needed to help the children live together harmoniously. There have been some incidents when children have experienced physical and emotional harm caused by other children. Staff have also sustained injuries from incidents of aggressive behaviour that they were not able to de-escalate effectively. There are occasions when children and staff spend more positive time together. However, this is overshadowed by the prospect and impact of aggressive incidents not being managed effectively by staff.

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improvement to be good

Restraint is used to protect staff and children when the children’s behaviour becomes unsafe. However, the manager’s debrief with staff after incidents lacks exploration of their behaviour management practice, and further training has not been arranged, despite several staff being injured during holds. The lack of effective control measures during behavioural incidents increases the likelihood of the police needing to be called. As a result, staff continue to be at risk of injury and children are at risk of being criminalised.

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improvement to be good

One child’s behaviour support plan is not aligned to their needs because not enough has been done to understand how best to meet these needs. The lack of specialist support and training for staff has resulted in the child experiencing inconsistent help from staff.

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improvement to be good

Staff do not have a clear plan about contacting the police when children’s behaviours escalate and are not manageable by staff. The impact of one child being arrested on a number of occasions may have a long-term effect on them and increase the likelihood of them being criminalised. Inspection report for children’s home: SC066747 5 Staff follow the children’s missing-from-care protocols to help children return to the home safely after they have been missing. Staff have regular conversations with children on a variety of matters about their safety and well-being. There are some trusting relationships that staff have developed with children. This helps encourage children to want to be in the home.

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improvement to be good

When there are escalated concerns for the children’s safety in the community, managers follow safeguarding procedures and ensure that there is multi-agency involvement. The collaborative work with safeguarding agencies enables others to take action to reduce the risks for children. For example, a harbouring notice was served following concerns being shared about an individual.

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good

Managers and staff work hard and want to achieve the best for each child. They are skilled in developing positive and trusting relationships with children. However, a lack of support for training about trauma-informed practice has had a detrimental impact on the children’s care experience. This absence of specialist help means staff lack the skills and strategies they need to support highly complex behaviours.

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good

A programme of recruitment has bolstered the number of staff available, with several new workers joining the team. However, the impact of children having to develop new relationships with several new people has been made worse by more established members of staff being away from the home. This makes it harder for children, as they have to develop several new relationships without the familiarity of the staff they know well.

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good

Staff use practice-related supervision to good effect by having reflective conversations about the individual children. Staff recognise that there has been progress made over recent months to improve their supervision experience. Managers use the sessions to check in on staff’s well-being and health, which helps staff to feel well supported.

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good

Senior management’s oversight of the home recognises the difficult time the children and staff have experienced. Leaders have identified the gaps in practice and have a plan to address these shortfalls, although this plan is yet to take effect.

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good

Staff provide children with a comfortable and well-maintained home to live in. The house is well decorated throughout. Minor areas of damage are less noticeable because of the overall quality of the environment. Timely repair work helps to quickly address damage as it occurs. There is ample space for children, and each room has unique characteristics. Children also personalise their bedrooms to their liking. Inspection report for children’s home: SC066747 6 Staff do not keep individual memory books for children. This limits the children’s ability to look back on their time living at the home and may contribute to children having muddled memories about their experiences.

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good

External monitoring of the home occurs through an independent person, as required by the regulations. However, during the visits, the independent person does not always speak with social workers, parents and staff. This limits the independent person’s ability to make a rigorous assessment of the children’s welfare.

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good

The manager’s quality of care review report lacks analysis of the feedback from children and key stakeholders and does not evaluate what this means for children or identify actions to help improve the service. Inspection report for children’s home: SC066747 7

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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 positive relationships standard is that children are helped to develop, and to benefit from, relationships based on—

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Requirement Due date

an understanding about acceptable behaviour; and

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Requirement Due date

positive responses to other children and adults.

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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

meet each child’s behavioural and emotional needs, as set out in the child’s relevant plans;

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Requirement Due date

encourage each child to take responsibility for the child’s behaviour, in accordance with the child’s age and understanding;

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Requirement Due date

help each child to develop and practise skills to resolve conflicts positively and without harm to anyone;

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Requirement Due date

are provided with supervision and support to enable them to understand and manage their own feelings and responses to the behaviour and emotions of children, and to help children to do the same;

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Requirement Due date

de-escalate confrontations with or between children, or potentially violent behaviour by children;

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Requirement Due date

understand and communicate to children that bullying is unacceptable; and

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Requirement Due date

have the skills to recognise incidents or indications of bullying and how to deal with them. 31 December Inspection report for children’s home: SC066747 8 (Regulation 11 (1)(a)(b)(c) (2)(a)(i)(iii)(iv)(x)(xi)(xii)(xiii))

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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

assess whether each child is at risk of harm, taking into account information in the child’s relevant plans, and, if necessary, make arrangements to reduce the risk of any harm to the child;

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Requirement Due date

manage relationships between children to prevent them from harming each other. (Regulation 12 (1) (2)(a)(i)(iv))

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Requirement Due date

In particular, the registered person must:

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Requirement Due date

review the children’s risk assessments to ensure that the threshold for calling the police is clear and focused on reducing the risk of unnecessary criminalisation of children;

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Requirement Due date

ensure that the day-to-day care and support for all children prevents them from being unsafe in their own home. 31 December

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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. (Regulation 13 (1)(a)(b) (2)(a)(c)) 31 December Inspection report for children’s home: SC066747 9 In particular, the registered person must ensure that:

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Requirement Due date

staff have the required training and support to meet the children’s individual complex needs;

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Requirement Due date

there is sufficient scrutiny of staff’s restraint practice to reduce the risk of staff being injured and increase the effectiveness of their behaviour management practice.

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Recommendations

 The registered provider should have a system that captures the children’s experiences of living at the home so they can take with them when they leave their memories of living at the home. Photos taken of the children’s experiences should have the dates of the events to help the child understand at what point in their time at the home the events occurred. Photos should be kept in a way that helps the children and their family to reflect on their time living at this home. (‘Guide to the Children’s Homes Regulations, including the quality standards’, page 62, paragraph 14.5)  The registered person should ensure that when completing the quality of care review, they analyse the feedback from children and key stakeholders, evaluate what this means for children and identify actions to help improve the service. (‘Guide to the Children’s Homes Regulations, including the quality standards’, page 65, paragraph 15.4)

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Recommendations

 The registered person should ensure that the independent person speaks with professionals, parents and staff more consistently to help them make a rigorous and impartial assessment of the home’s arrangements for safeguarding and promoting the welfare of the children in the home’s care. (‘Guide to the Children’s Homes Regulations, including the quality standards’, page 65, paragraph 15.5)

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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: SC066747 10

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Children’s home details

Registered provider: Sheffield City Council

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: Town Hall, Pinstone Street, Sheffield S1 2HH

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Inspectors

Aaron Mcloughlin, Social Care Inspector Ed McCallum, Social Care Inspector Inspection report for children’s home: SC066747 11 regulates and inspects 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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Inspectors

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Inspectors

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Inspectors

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