Children's home run by Compass Children’s Homes Ltd

Inspection report for children's home: 2692653 1 Registered provider: Compass Children’s Homes Limited Full inspection Inspected under the social care common inspection framework

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Information about this children’s home

This home is owned by a private organisation. It provides care for up to four children with social, emotional and behavioural difficulties.

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Information about this children’s home

The manager registered with Ofsted in July 2022.

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Overall experiences and progress of

children and young people, taking into account

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good

How well children and young people are helped and protected good

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good

The effectiveness of leaders and managers good

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good

The children’s home provides effective services that meet the requirements for good.

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good

Date of last inspection: 8 February 2023

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good

Overall judgement at last inspection: good

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good

Enforcement action since last inspection: none Inspection report for children's home: 2692653 2

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

08/02/2023 Full Good Inspection report for children's home: 2692653 3

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Four children were living at the home at the time of this inspection. Two children have moved in since the February 2023 inspection. Children’s moves into the home were well considered by the manager, and the children already living at the home were consulted about these changes.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children are supported to engage with their education plans. Two children are in full-time education, and their school said that staff supported the children to make ‘excellent transitions’. One child attends an alternative educational provision that better meets their educational needs. Another child, who has recently moved in, engages in online learning. Staff support the child to participate in learning activities in their community in addition to online work. The manager has advocated for a face-to-face educational package for this child, which is due to begin by the end of the autumn term. All four children are making good progress with their learning.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children have lots of new and varied experiences living at this home. Children have been paintballing, fishing, horse riding, go-karting, bowling and river swimming. Staff promote children’s individual hobbies and interests. One child now regularly volunteers at a local outdoor activity centre. All three children who were living at the home in the summer went on holiday together and participated in outdoor adventure activities that they enjoy. Children make happy memories from these new experiences and achieve a sense of belonging as a result of being part of shared activities at the home.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children are offered healthy, home-cooked meals and a balanced diet, including healthy snacks, when they return home from school. Children take part in cooking and baking. When one child asked for more variety on the menu, this was listened to. Staff and children spend all their mealtimes together. This helps to create positive routines at the home.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff regularly encourage children to spend time together in children’s meetings and to share issues they have with each other or staff in positive ways. Previously, children have found it difficult to live with one another and made complaints about their peers’ behaviours. Children’s concerns have been listened to, and staff support children to talk about their feelings in a calm way. Children have developed the confidence to appropriately challenge one another about their own behaviours, and children’s relationships are improving.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

The home environment is of a high standard. The home is welcoming, has plenty of space for children to play and learn, and has photos of the children in the communal living spaces. This helps children to feel part of their home. Children’s bedrooms are personalised to their own tastes. One child’s room shows their love of building with toy plastic bricks and fishing. Another child has a pet snake living in their room. Inspection report for children's home: 2692653 4

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How well children and young people are helped and protected: good

Children are safer as a result of living at this home. The risks children previously experienced in the community have been reduced. No children have been missing from care since the last inspection. Children are regularly supported to access their community safely and to develop their independence when they spend time away from the home.

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How well children and young people are helped and protected: good

Children have trusted relationships with staff. Children share their worries with staff, and staff respond with nurture and care. Children seek physical affection and have warm relationships with staff and the manager. In addition, staff are supporting children to make more positive choices in their relationships with their peers. Overall, incidents between peers are reducing because of the support staff provide to children.

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How well children and young people are helped and protected: good

Children sometimes display behaviours that challenge staff. On some occasions, to help keep children safe, staff have needed to hold them. These incidents are well recorded, staff debriefs routinely take place and there is good management oversight on these records. On two occasions, staff physically intervened to remove items from a child when this was not necessary or proportionate. The manager reviewed these incidents in a timely way, shared the information with all appropriate agencies and identified and responded to practice concerns appropriately.

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How well children and young people are helped and protected: good

Children receive regular positive reinforcement and have different opportunities to help them earn more pocket money. Children are regularly praised and rewarded for their good behaviour. Children sometimes receive negative consequences to help them learn about their behaviour. Consequences are often proportionate. However, there are a few occasions where staff have used consequences that are punitive and do not help children to learn. The manager has good oversight of these consequences and has adjusted them to be more reparative in nature. However, not all staff are effectively skilled in balancing appropriate behaviour consequences.

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How well children and young people are helped and protected: good

The leadership team has investigated concerns and taken necessary steps. In most cases, the leadership team reports safeguarding concerns to Ofsted and to the local authority designated officer in a timely way. However, on one occasion, a concern that was shared with other safeguarding agencies was not reported to Ofsted in a timely way. This does not help Ofsted to have appropriate oversight of safeguarding concerns.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The home is managed by an experienced registered manager. The manager has a vision for the home and has high aspirations for all the children that live there. The manager routinely advocates for children’s needs, and she makes changes based on children’s suggestions.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The manager actively monitors the quality of care provided to children and identifies staff practice and learning needs. The manager identifies shortfalls in recordings and Inspection report for children's home: 2692653 5 uses team meetings to share practice learning. Good management oversight allows children to benefit from improved staff practice and interactions and helps to demonstrate their individual progress.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The manager has good relationships with the children and professionals, and she is viewed as an important part of the home by staff and professionals. Feedback from professionals is positive about the manager, the staff and the support that they provide to children. One social worker commented on the ‘commitment’ staff show to all the children. Another social worker said that their child ‘has developed skills they have never had before’ because of living at the home.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Staff receive regular and effective supervision that explores their well-being, their practice and their relationships with children. Staff said the home is a supportive environment and that the manager is approachable.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The manager regularly updates the children’s care plans used by the home. The plans are clear and support staff to meet children’s needs. However, some local authority care plans are not clearly recorded on the online system used by the staff. This makes it difficult for staff and the manager to find the most up-to-date and relevant plans for some children. It also makes it difficult for staff to know they are working in line with the relevant local authority care plan.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Staff have accessed some training to enable them to meet the needs of the children, for example first-aid training. However, training has not yet been effective in embedding the home’s therapeutic approach in the whole staff team. The staff do access a therapeutic lead professional in the organisation to support them in their therapeutic practice development. This is being more regularly discussed with staff in team meetings. However, some practice and recording demonstrate that this is not yet ingrained. Inspection report for children's home: 2692653 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 registered person must notify HMCI and each other relevant person without delay if—

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Requirement Due date

there is an allegation of abuse against the home or a person working there. (Regulation 40 (4)(c)) 16 November

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Recommendations

 The registered person should ensure that staff can access appropriate facilities and resources to support their training needs and should understand the key role they play in the training and development of staff in the home. In particular, the registered person should ensure training approaches to behaviour support, consequences and physical intervention are effective in helping staff to learn to care for children in therapeutic ways as set out in the home’s statement of purpose. (‘Guide to the Children’s Homes Regulations, including the quality standards’, page 53, paragraph 10.11)  The registered person should ensure all children’s case records (Regulation 36) are kept up to date. Regulations 35–39 detail the records that must be kept in children’s homes. In particular, the registered person should ensure they have accurate and up-to-date children’s local authority care plans and reviews and that

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Recommendations

staff are able to find and access them. (‘Guide to the Children’s Homes Regulations, including the quality standards’, page 62, paragraph 14.3)

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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: 2692653 7

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Children’s home details

Registered provider: Compass Children’s Homes Limited

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: 3 Rayns Way, Syston, Leicester LE7 1PF

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Inspector

Rebecca Hannell, Social Care Inspector Inspection report for children's home: 2692653 8 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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