Children's home run by Acorn Homes (UK) Ltd

Inspection report for children’s home: 1256417 1 Registered provider: Acorn Homes (UK) Ltd Full inspection Inspected under the social care common inspection framework

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Information about this children’s home

This children’s home is privately owned. It is registered to provide care for up to seven children who may experience social and emotional difficulties. Six children were living at the home at the time of the inspection.

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Information about this children’s home

The manager has been in post since August 2023 and has submitted their application to register with Ofsted.

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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: 7 February 2023

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good

Overall judgement at last inspection: outstanding

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good

Enforcement action since last inspection: none Inspection report for children’s home: 1256417 2

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

07/02/2023 Full Outstanding 16/03/2022 Full Outstanding 10/03/2020 Full Outstanding 04/10/2018 Full Good Inspection report for children’s home: 1256417 3

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children are happy and make progress at this home. They are cared for by staff who are consistent in their approaches. As a result, children have positive and secure relationships with staff.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

The home is welcoming and well presented. Areas of the home have been redecorated and the games room has recently been refurbished. Communal areas are well furnished and provide children with opportunities to relax and socialise. Children’s bedrooms are spacious and encapsulate their interests and hobbies.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

All children are engaged in education. For some, this is significant considering their starting points and previous time out of school. Staff support children well to maintain their educational placements and make progress with their education. This includes taking children to school a significant distance away from the home to ensure there is consistency in their learning. Children respond well to the emphasis that staff place on the importance of education. As a result, children are starting to take responsibility for their own education.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children’s views in the home are well understood by staff and are obtained through a mix of one-to-one work and manager consultation. Planned weekly one-to-one sessions are supplemented with ad hoc sessions. This has enabled children to contribute to some of the changes that have happened in the home, such as the refurbishment of the games room and identify any individual requests that children have.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children have positive daily experiences. They access a range of activities and attend a variety of clubs, such as football and Scouts. Following management consultation, children were able to enjoy a recent holiday. The holiday was a success, enjoyed by all and there are already plans in place for another.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff use creative ways to capture children’s memories, events and some of their progress. For instance, staff use ‘sparkle’ and ‘memory’ books to showcase children’s experiences. Children enjoy looking at these and can see how much progress they have made.

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

Children’s risks are, in the main, well understood by leaders. All children have a range of risk assessments and personal support plans to help guide staff on how to best look after them. These are usually reviewed regularly. However on one occasion, following a recent incident involving children, risk assessments were not reviewed or updated in line with a personal safety plan developed for one child. This means staff had conflicting information to safeguard children. Leaders did not react Inspection report for children’s home: 1256417 4 to emerging changes of children’s behaviour and, again, this information was not considered as part of risk management strategies.

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

Children do not go missing from the home. Strong relationships with staff allow children to feel safe. These relationships, along with the skill of staff, have helped to ensure that serious incidents are infrequent and restraints less so. Staff demonstrate a good knowledge of how to calm and de-escalate behaviour that challenges. Consequently, there has been one incident of restraint in recent months. This incident was responded to by staff effectively and the child had the opportunity to talk it through and reflect on what happened.

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

When concerns are raised about children, managers and staff liaise with external safeguarding professionals promptly and diligently. This has helped to develop effective partnership working with external professionals, ensuring that children are at the centre of important decisions.

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

Safer recruitment processes are effective. They feature an extensive interview, which includes an assessment in the home, and questions devised by children. This means that leaders take appropriate action to ensure that all staff are safe to work in the home.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

There has been a change to the leadership and management arrangements since the last inspection. A new manager who has previously been the homes deputy manager, and responsible individual have been appointed and are new in post.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The new manager is supported by the suitably experienced deputy manager and a new interim deputy manager. There has been good preparation and support for all management changes, through supervision, sharing information and training during the leadership and management changes. This has helped staff to fully understand their roles and responsibilities along with the individual needs of children.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The new manager has clear aspirations for the home and what he would like to achieve. He is dedicated to expanding the knowledge and skills of the staff team and is implementing a new strategy to help further develop these skills. All staff are positive about this and are already developing a greater understanding of their work. Staff are confident that the new manager is having a positive impact on their practice and children’s daily experiences. He is deemed approachable and available to staff and responds well to both concerns raised and any requests that are made.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Leaders and the manager have good understanding and oversight of the progress that children make. This is captured through review reports and placement plans.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

All staff receive regular and effective supervision. This includes a good level of reflection and allows staff to reflect on some of the challenges of their role. The manager has a strong focus on research-based practice and ensures that he and the Inspection report for children’s home: 1256417 5 team continue to develop their skills. Learning from research is shared in supervisions and team meetings.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The manager is making improvement to monitoring systems to further develop his oversight. The recent quality of care review demonstrates that the manager has a good understanding of the successes and challenges of the home. However, this level of scrutiny is not mirrored in visits by the home’s independent visitor. This is because reports provided by the independent visitor reflect positives of the home and do not provide the challenge that leaders need to make further progress. This has been identified by leaders, who are proactively addressing this. Inspection report for children’s home: 1256417 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 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; and

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Requirement Due date

that the home’s day-to-day care is arranged and delivered so as to keep each child safe and to protect each child effectively from harm. (Regulation 12 (1) (2)(a)(i)(iii)(v)(vi)(b)) 28 February 2024

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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: 1256417 7

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Children’s home details

Registered provider: Acorn Homes (UK) Ltd

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: Unit 73 And 74 Maple Leaf Business Park, Manston, Ramsgate CT12 5GD

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Inspectors

Mark Newington, Social Care Inspector Chris Warren, Social Care Inspector Inspection report for children’s home: 1256417 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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Inspectors

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Inspectors

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Inspectors

T: 0300 123 1231 Textphone: 0161 618 8524 E: enquiries@ofsted.gov.uk W: www.gov.uk/ofsted

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