Children's Home, Residential special school run by Sheffield City Council in Sheffield

Inspection report for children’s home: SC458115 1 SC458115 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

A local authority runs this children’s home. It is registered to provide care for up to 19 children with learning disabilities. The accommodation and service are divided into long-term care and short breaks.

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Information about this children’s home

At the time of the inspection, there were five children living at the home and no children were experiencing short breaks.

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Information about this children’s home

The home registered with Ofsted in February 2013. The home has not had a registered manager since August 2023. The home has an interim manager but no application to register has been made.

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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 requires improvement to be 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: 22 November 2022

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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: SC458115 2

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

22/11/2022 Full Good 22/02/2022 Full Good 29/01/2020 Full Good 30/01/2019 Full Good Inspection report for children’s home: SC458115 3

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children have trusted relationships with the staff. The children are relaxed at the home and seek care from staff comfortably. Staff are caring and warm, understand how to care for the children well and can communicate with children effectively. Children’s records contain individual plans, which provide the staff with complete and holistic information about children’s needs. Staff talk to children regularly, using pictures and colours through resources, to help the children to become more independent and learn how to keep themselves safe in a way that they understand.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

The children have positive experiences of moving in to and on from the home. Children who have moved out of the home have been involved in and had well- planned and supported transitions. One of the children came to live at the home for a brief time; despite this, the staff fully committed to meeting the child’s needs and ensuring that the child enjoyed their time at the home.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children enjoy activities at home and in the community with staff and their friends and families. For some children, relationships with families have improved since moving to the home. Overall, families feel supported by staff and are kept up to date with information about their children. Professionals feel that staff are effectively communicating essential information with them about children.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

The staff ensure that children’s health and educational needs are met. Staff have a good understanding of children’s emotional and physical health. Children attend regular appointments with relevant health professionals, and there is easy access to a dedicated team of child and adolescent mental health and health professionals. All children attend school, and staff regularly attend meetings with schools to discuss children’s education needs. Staff advocate well for children and challenge professionals appropriately.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

The home is a large and old property, which provides a lot of space, but means it does not feel like a family home. However, staff’s presence and positive interactions with the children improve how homely it feels. Most of the children’s bedrooms are bare, contain limited personal possessions, and have minimal decoration. Some of the bedrooms are worn and tired. Children are not always supported to be involved in decisions made about their home and in making it feel more homely in a way that is suitable for the children.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

The home has additional security, such as locked entrances, to reduce the risk to children’s safety, and some children have high levels of supervision. This is appropriate to meet the needs of some of the children who live in the home. However, for some older children, assessments are not completed to ensure that any restrictions on children’s liberty are in their best interests and in line with legislation and guidelines. Inspection report for children’s home: SC458115 4

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

Staff understand the children and the risks to their safety well. The staff follow comprehensive risk assessment and risk management plans. As a result, there are low levels of incidents as staff anticipate risks well and, wherever possible, de- escalate potential incidents effectively. This helps to better protect children from risks to their safety and help children to manage their feelings and emotions more positively, reducing distress.

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

Staff have a positive, calm approach, and implement consistent boundaries for children, which are set out in their care plans. As a result, children receive predictable and stable care. This means that incidents are infrequent. When incidents occur, staff attempt to defuse them. On rare occasions, incidents are sudden or escalate very quickly. When this happens, the use of physical restraint is needed to appropriately protect children and others from a greater risk of harm. Staff report incidents, and managers ensure that incidents are reviewed promptly and thoroughly. Consequences are rarely used as staff recognise these are typically not suitable for the children.

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

Staff have a good understanding of their roles and responsibilities in relation to safeguarding children. Staff are confident in raising concerns and understand the whistle-blowing procedure for escalating concerns. When concerns are raised, these are reported appropriately and investigated thoroughly. Managers make sure that all staff are suitably checked and vetted to ensure that any risks to children’s safety from staff providing their care are sufficiently reduced.

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

The home is suitably safe and secure for children. Children take part in regular fire drills to make sure that they understand how to leave the home safely and quickly in the event of an emergency. This is a key improvement since the last inspection.

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good

The previous registered manager left the home in July 2023 and managers have worked hard to maintain stability and consistency for children and staff. The interim manager has been managing and overseeing more than one children’s home. This has impacted the manager and assistant manager’s capacity to maintain effective leadership and management oversight of the home.

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good

Managers have not ensured that staff are receiving regular and effective supervision. This was a shortfall identified at the last inspection. Managers have not maintained the workforce development plan. This means that there has not been an assessment or projection of staff’s development needs to ensure that they have the right skills and knowledge to effectively care for children. Staff are supporting some children to move around using equipment, without the relevant training. This means that there Inspection report for children’s home: SC458115 5 is a risk that they may do this incorrectly, which could place both children and staff at risk of harm.

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good

The systems in use are not fully effective in evaluating the quality of care provided to children, their experience and progress made at the home. This includes the home’s weekly overview report, which lacks depth in evaluating children’s progress. There has not been any consultation with children in the review of the quality of care, which lacks evidence of children’s voices, analysis, and evaluation. The independent person is also visiting the home at times when children are not present and, when they are present, there is limited evidence of efforts to consult with children. This means that opportunities to identify concerns or good practice could be missed.

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good

There was a delay in notifying Ofsted of an allegation of abuse made about a member of staff working at the home. This impacts on the regulator’s ability to maintain oversight of the home, including risks to children’s safety, in a timely way.

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good

Staff reported that they felt supported and valued by managers. The staff attend regular team meetings and report a positive team working culture. With bank, regular agency, and permanent staff, there are sufficient staff to provide children’s care. Improvements have been made to ensure that appropriate checks are completed to reduce the risk to children from unsuitable people providing their care. Inspection report for children’s home: SC458115 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, 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 ensure that all employees—

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Requirement Due date

receive practice-related supervision by a person with appropriate experience. (Regulation 33 (4)(a)) 23 February 2024

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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)) 23 November

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Requirement Due date

When the independent person is carrying out a visit, the registered person must help the independent person—

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Requirement Due date

if they consent, to interview in private such of the children, their parents, relatives and persons working at the home as the independent person requires. (Regulation 44 (2)(a))

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Requirement Due date

In particular, the registered person must make sure that the independent person consults with the children in order to form an opinion whether children are effectively safeguarded and their well-being is promoted. 23 February 2024

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Requirement Due date

In order to complete a quality of care review the registered person must establish and maintain a system for monitoring, reviewing and evaluating—

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Requirement Due date

the quality of care provided for children;

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Requirement Due date

the feedback and opinions of children about the children’s home, its facilities and the quality of care they receive in it; and

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Requirement Due date

any actions that the registered person considers necessary in order to improve or maintain the quality of care provided for children. (Regulation 45 (2)(a)(b)(c)) 24 May 2024 Inspection report for children’s home: SC458115 7

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Recommendations

 The registered person should make sure that all areas of the home feel as much like a family home as possible to reduce an ‘institutional impression’. In particular, the registered person should make sure that children’s bedrooms are decorated and furnished suitably. This should balance a homely feel with the children’s individual needs. (‘Guide to the Children’s Homes Regulations, including the quality standards’, page 15, paragraph 3.9)

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Recommendations

 The registered provider should make sure that appropriate assessments and applications are completed where children are subject to continuous supervision and control and are not free to leave the home and therefore are being deprived of their liberty. (‘Guide to the Children’s Homes Regulations, including the quality standards’, page 50, paragraph 9.63)

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Recommendations

 The registered provider should make sure that the children’s guide is in an accessible and suitable format for the children who live in the home and their level of needs and understanding. (‘Guide to the Children’s Homes Regulations, including the quality standards’, page 24, paragraph 4.21)

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Recommendations

 The registered provider should make sure that the there is a workforce plan that assesses and records the development and training needs of staff. (‘Guide to the Children’s Homes Regulations, including the quality standards’, page 53, paragraph 10.8)

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Recommendations

 The registered person should make sure that staff have access to all the training required to support their training needs. This should include training on moving and handling children where appropriate. (‘Guide to the Children’s Homes Regulations, including the quality standards’, page 53, paragraph 10.11)

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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: SC458115 8

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Children’s home details

Provision sub-type: Residential special school

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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

Honor Hamshaw, Social Care Inspector Ed McCallum, Social Care Inspector Inspection report for children’s home: SC458115 9 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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