Children's Home run by Prime Nurture Services Limited in Nottinghamshire

Inspection report for children’s home: 2749804 1 Registered provider: Prime Nurture Services Full inspection Inspected under the social care common inspection framework

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Information about this children’s home

The home is privately owned. It is registered to provide care for up to three children who may have social and emotional difficulties.

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Information about this children’s home

The manager is experienced and registered with Ofsted in November 2023.

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Information about this children’s home

There were two children living at the home at the time of this inspection.

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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: not previously inspected

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good

Overall judgement at last inspection: not applicable

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good

Enforcement action since last inspection: not applicable Inspection report for children’s home: 2749804 2

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

Not previously inspected Inspection report for children’s home: 2749804 3

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

This is the first full inspection of the home since its registration in November 2023. Two children moved into the home during December 2023. They said that they had a warm welcome and staff are kind to them. The children are beginning to settle and build positive relationships with the staff. The staff team is gaining in knowledge about the children’s daily needs and routines.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

The children benefit from activities and spending time with staff. They enjoy dog walks, shopping trips and other social activities, such as cadets. The manager and staff are supporting the children to establish a daily routine. This is not without challenge. The children are finding it difficult to sleep through the night and need a lot of support to achieve this. Staff are using a range of approaches to help them, trying different ideas and approaches in conjunction with external professionals. Consistency in care practice is not yet established and this is still work in progress. This is understandable, as the children have lived at the home for only a short period of time. The manager and staff have a good understanding of the children’s healthcare needs. Children are supported to attend appointments. There are plans in place to help children with their emotional well-being. Both children have services available

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

to them if they wish to explore their feelings in a safe space. This is a recent development, which the children are being encouraged to engage with. Children have opportunities to share their wishes and feelings in house meetings, key-work sessions and ad hoc conversations with staff. They are listened to and, where possible, their wishes are acted on. Children know how to complain. They have raised issues with different professionals, and these are being investigated. However, there are not yet clear records in place relating to those complaints and the responses to them. It is important that children have access to written records of complaints. Records are also important for management oversight and analysis to identify any emerging patterns. Both children are finding school attendance difficult. This is linked to their sleep routine, which predates them moving to the home. As such, children are not

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

receiving regular formal education. Staff are providing some informal learning at home, and the children have made some small steps forward with a lot of encouragement. However, the children are not yet achieving their educational potential. The manager and staff are working with external agencies to ensure that children spend time with people who are important to them. As they are new to the home, these arrangements are still evolving. Children are currently supported to see their families both in person and online. The manager and staff are building relationships with family members because they know this is important to children’s sense of Inspection report for children’s home: 2749804 4 identity. One child is missing her pets and has expressed a wish to have one at the home. This is currently being explored.

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

The manager and staff are working closely with external agencies to ensure that they understand the risks posed to and from children. They have developed risk- management plans in relation to known risks. Where new risks emerge, these plans are updated. Professionals are aware of an ongoing activity for one child that, while it is not currently posing risks, has the potential for this. The manager recognises the importance of staying alert to any changes and updating the risk assessment to reflect their practice. Missing-from-care incidents are managed in a well-coordinated way. Each child has an individual risk assessment. When children leave the home without permission, staff encourage them to return and report them missing at the earliest opportunity. Staff work with relevant professionals and family members to ensure that children are returned home safely. Information is gathered after each missing-from-care

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

incident, which means that professionals are alert to risks from exploitation. The manager and staff are supporting children to reduce their incidents of going missing by understanding the reasons why children are leaving the home. The manager and staff have been required to manage incidents at the home where children have become distressed and upset. Some of these incidents have been prolonged and caused a disturbance in the local area. Staff have managed these incidents to the best of their ability. Incidents are beginning to reduce as staff increase their understanding of the children’s needs. Some incidents were prompted by children feeling that their wishes were being overlooked. Steps have been taken to ensure that children’s wishes and feelings are listened to and actioned. This will help children to feel more empowered and build trusted relationships with the adults around them. Overall, children said that they feel safe, although there have been a small number

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

of allegations regarding staff. These have been in respect of the use of physical interventions. One allegation has been formally investigated and there is a plan in place to support staff with identified practice issues. A more recent allegation is currently being investigated. One child is yet to be updated regarding the outcome of their allegation. It is important that children are informed of the outcome of their allegation, so that they can give their views on the outcome and be involved in actions to repair relationships where appropriate. Children are helped to move forward in terms of taking risks appropriate to their age, such as having agreed independent time away from the home to see friends. Decisions are undertaken with relevant professionals so that children’s safety is always promoted. Staff use sensitive approaches during times when children have harmed themselves. Incidents are recorded clearly and, when needed, room searches are undertaken to

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

ensure that items that could cause further harm are removed. These searches are carried out with children’s agreement when possible and children’s views are Inspection report for children’s home: 2749804 5 captured to ensure that they are involved in these processes. This helps children to maintain their dignity and shows respect for their privacy.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The experienced registered manager has been in post since the home opened. At the time of the inspection, the deputy manager was managing the home as the manager was on leave. Continuity of care is being achieved. The manager has recruited an experienced staff team and is supporting staff to establish consistent care to both children. The manager is committed to the children achieving their potential. Staff spoke positively about the manager and the support she provides. They benefit from regular supervision, team meetings and performance reviews. This helps them to reflect on their practice, and consider the children’s needs and any training requirements. There are no staff vacancies and staff said that they enjoy their work. They have shown resilience in recent weeks and an ongoing commitment to children in their care. The manager ensures that training provided is relevant to children’s needs. The staff

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

are also supported by a therapeutic service to help them respond to children in trauma-informed ways. This is helping them to maintain an empathic and sensitive approach. The manager requests information about children where there are gaps in records provided and she is persistent in her approach. When needed, she requests multi- agency meetings to discuss specific issues and changes to care plans that may improve children’s lives. Leaders and managers recognise that the home is in the early stages of becoming established and that there are areas for development. The manager and her deputy welcome feedback from other professionals to improve practice, such as through recent quality assurance visits from external agencies. This is encouraging in terms of the home continuing to make positive progress. Records are not yet routinely kept in relation to all professionals visiting the home, which could limit the value of

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

such visits. Neighbours have made complaints in recent weeks following some incidents. Leaders and managers are sympathetic to the issues raised. They are working hard to resolve the complaints through liaising with the relevant agencies, improving communication with neighbours, increasing support for children during the night and making changes to children’s care plans. This is starting to have a positive effect and incidents are reducing. The manager has created an action plan showing her commitment to continuing improvement. There was evidence of this being implemented during the inspection. Inspection report for children’s home: 2749804 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

help each child to achieve the child’s education and training targets, as recorded in the child’s relevant plans;

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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. (Regulation 8 (1) (2)(a)(i)(iii))

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Requirement Due date

This relates to ensuring that children engage with learning and are supported to attend school regularly so that they can achieve their educational potential. 1 May 2024

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Recommendations

 The registered person should ensure that staff are familiar with the home’s policies on record-keeping and understand the importance of careful, objective and clear recording. This includes keeping records of contact with professionals who visit the home and the purpose and outcome of those visits. Information about the child must always be recorded in a way that will be helpful to the child. (‘Guide to the Children’s Homes Regulations, including the quality standards’, page 62, paragraph 14.4)  The registered person should ensure that concerns raised by children about their care or other matters are recorded as soon as they arise. Children must be able to take up issues or make a complaint with support, and the responses to their complaints explained to them and recorded in writing. (‘Guide to the Children’s Homes Regulations, including the quality standards’, page 22, paragraph 4.13) Inspection report for children’s home: 2749804 7

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Recommendations

 The registered person should ensure that children are informed of the outcome of any allegations they make. Any allegation of harm or abuse must be addressed in line with the home’s child protection policy. (‘Guide to the Children’s Homes Regulations, including the quality standards’, page 22, paragraph 9.17)  The registered person should ensure that each child’s day-to-day health and well- being needs are met. Staff should work together in a coordinated and consistent way to help children establish healthy routines, particularly in relation to sleep. (‘Guide to the Children’s Homes Regulations, including the quality standards’, page 33, paragraph 7.3)  The registered person should ensure that staff have the knowledge and skills to recognise, and be alert to, any signs that might indicate that a child is in any way at risk of harm. The registered person should ensure that skills in safeguarding are gained, refreshed and recorded in the home’s workforce development plan.

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Recommendations

(‘Guide to the Children’s Homes Regulations, including the quality standards’, page 43, paragraph 9.12)

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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: 2749804 8

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Children’s home details

Registered provider: Prime Nurture Services

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: Newstead House, Pelham Road, Nottingham NG3 5TA

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Inspector

Laura Walker, Social Care Inspector Inspection report for children’s home: 2749804 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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Inspector

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Inspector

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Inspector

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