Children's Home run by Full Circle Care Limited in Tameside

Inspection report for children’s home: SC396104 1 SC396104 Registered provider: Full Circle Care Ltd 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 private company. It provides care and support for up to six children who may have experienced social and emotional difficulties.

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Information about this children’s home

At the time of the inspection, five children were living at the home.

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Information about this children’s home

The manager registered with Ofsted in July 2019.

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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: 13 September 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: SC396104 2

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

13/09/2022 Full Good 10/08/2021 Full Good 12/11/2019 Full Good 25/09/2018 Full Outstanding Inspection report for children’s home: SC396104 3

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children who move into the home experience planned moves that are managed sensitively. Five children have moved out of the home. Three of the children have moved on to semi-independence. Two of the children left the home in an unplanned way, but staff have offered support to enable them to have a positive ending to their time living at the home.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff have high aspirations for children and support them with their education. They communicate effectively with children’s school and college settings. As a result, barriers to learning are quickly identified and resolved.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff understand the children’s health needs, which are often complex. The manager has effective oversight of the administration of children’s prescribed medications and they work closely with health professionals. Staff carry out direct work with the children, which supports children to understand their own health needs and lead a healthy lifestyle.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

The staff nurture children’s relationships with their families and friends. This includes facilitating children’s time with their family and providing them with regular updates. This helps children to maintain important relationships and further develop their networks for the future.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff seek children’s views to learn about their individual interests so they can identify opportunities to promote these. Such activities include snooker, jujitsu and football. One child also engages in volunteer work. This ensures that children are supported to engage in a range of positive experiences in their day-to-day lives.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children’s independence skills are actively promoted by staff. The staff have developed an independence programme, which children are supported to work through at their own pace to ensure that they feel confident and prepared when they are able to live independently.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff work hard to build trusting relationships with the children. They regularly seek and act on children’s views. This enables children to feel valued and listened to. Children know how to make a complaint and they feel confident that staff will respond effectively. This means that children are equipped to raise any concerns they have about the care that they receive.

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

Staff have a good knowledge of safeguarding procedures, which means that they know what to do when concerns arise. Care plans and assessments clearly identify Inspection report for children’s home: SC396104 4 any concerns and include actions to take to reduce the impact of these on children. Regular multi-agency meetings take place to monitor identified risks.

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

Children experience consistent boundaries and support to manage their feelings safely. Staff carry out direct work with the children to help them understand risks and the steps they can take to keep themselves safe. As a result, children’s unsafe behaviours have reduced.

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

Praise and rewards are used regularly to promote positive behaviour. Staff use consequences in line with children’s behaviour management plans. These are usually proportionate and staff support children to have a clear understanding of why these have been used. The registered manager has recently developed a new process that ensures consequences are restorative and balanced, and that these are used consistently by the staff team.

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

Children receive regular support from an in-house therapist. The therapist works closely with staff. This ensures that staff understand children’s therapeutic needs. As a result, children receive care from staff who use a therapeutic approach in their practice. This has further supported positive relationships between staff and the children.

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

Physical intervention is only used when necessary to keep children safe. Staff are trained to hold children safely. Staff undertake searches of children’s bedrooms sensitively. The manager ensures that staff and children are spoken to after any incident. This ensures that practice in this area remains safe and appropriate.

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

Missing-from-home protocols are in place in the event of a child going missing from home. These are followed consistently by staff and ensure that children return to the home as quickly and safely as possible. Children are offered the opportunity to speak to an independent person on their return to the home, which enables staff to develop their understanding of the reasons children have been missing.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The home is managed by a dedicated, committed and suitably qualified manager. She is child-centred, has a wealth of experience and is well respected by her team. Two experienced deputy managers support her in the operation of the home.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Staff are overwhelmingly positive about the support that they receive from the manager and senior staff team. Staff enjoy working at the home. The manager and staff work together to understand children’s changing needs. The manager leads by example and has consistently high expectations. This ensures that staff have a clear sense of purpose and direction.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Staff access a range of training, which supports them to develop their skills in caring for the children. The manager sources additional training specific to individual children’s needs and where gaps in staff knowledge have been identified. The Inspection report for children’s home: SC396104 5 manager actively reviews the training completed by staff and has developed tools to challenge staff knowledge to support consistency.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Regular team meetings and good-quality practice-related supervision ensure that staff understand their roles, the needs of the children and how best to support them. This helps staff to put skills and learning into practice.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The manager and staff have excellent working relationships with children’s families and partner agencies. Professionals who are involved with the children currently living at the home are complimentary about the standard of care provided for the children. Family members also stated that their experience of working with the home has been positive, with one family member advising that they could not have asked for more for their child.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The manager has actively challenged care plans for children where she feels their needs are not being promoted. She has advocated strongly on children’s behalf and supported one child to pursue a complaint in line with his wishes. This resulted in the child’s care plan being reviewed and ensured the child felt his voice was heard and valued. Inspection report for children’s home: SC396104 6

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Recommendations

 The registered manager should ensure that information from independent and internal monitoring is used to make continual improvements. ('Guide to the Children’s Homes Regulations, including the quality standards', page 55, paragraph 10.24)  The registered person should ensure that the views of the children and relevant professionals are considered when completing appraisals with staff. ('Guide to the Children’s Homes Regulations, including the quality standards', page 61, paragraph 13.5)

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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: SC396104 7

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Children’s home details

Registered provider: Full Circle Care Ltd

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Children’s home details

Registered manager: Danielle Barton-Crump

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Inspector

Carrie Mayes, Social Care Inspector Inspection report for children’s home: SC396104 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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