Children's home run by Park Blue Homes Limited

Inspection report for children’s home: 2628430 1 Registered provider: Park Blue Homes Ltd 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 five children with social and emotional difficulties, who may also have a learning disability. At the time of this inspection, four children were living at the home.

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Information about this children’s home

The manager registered with Ofsted in January 2023.

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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

Overall judgement at last inspection: good

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good

Enforcement action since last inspection: none Inspection report for children’s home: 2628430 2

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

08/03/2023 Full Good 15/02/2022 Full Good Inspection report for children’s home: 2628430 3

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children enjoy living in the home and benefit from a range of opportunities and experiences to give them enjoyable and memorable childhoods. Children have busy weekends visiting local attractions, going out for meals, or enjoying creative activities at home. Staff capture photos of these memories to share with children’s families. Children’s families are a central part of care in the home. All children enjoy meaningful time with people who are important to them. Families say that children are well supported by staff who care for them and know them well.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff seek children’s views and ideas regularly, and make changes in the home as a result of this feedback. Staff noticed that one child enjoyed rocking on the dining room chair, and so purchased one designed for this. Children’s rooms are personalised to their own interests and provide relaxing spaces for them to spend time in.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

All children attend school or college regularly. The manager develops positive working relationships with education providers, which helps to ensure continuity of support. Children are in good physical health. They attend routine appointments as needed. Staff support one child to visit the GP surgery regularly to help familiarise them with the waiting room environment.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

All children make progress. Staff understand their needs well, and know what the overall goals are for children to achieve. Staff set targets for children which are realistic. However, these are not always broken down into specific, meaningful activities that can be supported by staff. Some targets are tracked well through a life skills tracker. For others there is only review at the time of a structured evaluation after a period of several months.

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

Children feel safe and settled. However, there has been a recent period of instability in the home. One child has struggled with their emotional well-being. For another child, there were concerns with substance misuse and missing-from-home incidents. This child’s placement ended due to the level of risk. Long-standing relationships supported the other child to accept help. They now meet with external agencies to support their emotional health. Children benefit from regular conversations with staff about their feelings, experiences, friendships and safety. This helps to improve their understanding and emotional literacy.

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

Behaviour in the home is well managed. Behaviour support plans demonstrate how well managers and staff know children. These are clear documents, outlining areas where children might need support and how to respond to specific concerns. Restraint has been used for two children. These interventions have been as a last resort and to ensure children’s safety. Managers complete a thorough analysis of Inspection report for children’s home: 2628430 4 incidents that occur. They explore whether staff action could have been different so as to avoid issues escalating. Although children are spoken to after incidents, they do not always get spoken to about the use of the restraint specifically.

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

Staff respond in a timely way to safeguarding concerns or children going missing. The manager records clear chronologies. These show the action taken and how incidents conclude. Some records have a clear management summary, reviewing the concern and highlighting the learning to take forward. However, this summary is not consistently in place across all records.

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

Safer recruitment processes are followed, including scrutiny of employment gaps.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

An enthusiastic manager leads the home. She has good relationships with children and understands the quality of care they receive. The manager has effective systems in place for overseeing practice. She is able to identify patterns and trends, and uses this knowledge to understand the impact of care in the home. The manager recognises and seizes the opportunity for learning when children leave the home, whether they leave in a planned or unplanned way. One child has left the home in an unplanned way. The manager and wider leaders recognised that the needs of this child were not able to be safely met by the staff team, or the location of the home.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The staff team has experienced change. A core team of workers has provided consistency for children. New staff have opportunities to spend time with children and develop relationships. Supervision by managers provides all staff with opportunities to talk about their work in the home. Managers hold explorative conversations with staff to unpick how staff feel they are performing and what their relationships with children are like. Clear actions are set at supervision and reviewed. Team meetings take place regularly and provide a further space to talk about issues in the home and support for children. Staff enjoy working in the home. They say they like working with the children and feel well supported by their managers. Staff receive training relevant to their role.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Professionals are positive about the support provided by staff. They say that staff work well together to provide care for children. They say that communication is good, and they describe managers as proactive in responding to any concerns that arise.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Leaders are reflective about the therapeutic approach to providing care in the home and recognise opportunities for further development or change. This is adapted according to the identified needs of children.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Managers ensure that children’s plans and documents are up to date. Plans contain information to help staff know how to support children. However, placement plans are lengthy, and some contain information that is out of date, or is not particularly Inspection report for children’s home: 2628430 5 relevant to day-to-day care in the home. For one child, plans are not consistently clear about how to support them with their specific communication needs. Inspection report for children’s home: 2628430 6

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Recommendations

 The registered person should ensure that they consider how progress against targets is reviewed and captured. (‘Guide to the Children’s Homes Regulations, including the quality standards’, page 52, paragraph 10.5)  The registered person should ensure there is clear management review of safeguarding concerns and missing from home incidents. (‘Guide to the Children’s Homes Regulations, including the quality standards’, page 46, paragraph 9.31)  The registered person should ensure staff speak to children about their experience of restraint following an incident, where appropriate. (‘Guide to the Children’s Homes Regulations, including the quality standards’, page 50, paragraph 9.60)  The registered person should ensure children’s plans are reviewed to consider relevance of information and length of the document. They should also ensure the communication needs for one child are clearly recorded across all of their

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Recommendations

plans and documents. (‘Guide to the Children’s Homes Regulations, including the quality standards’, page 62, paragraph 14.4)

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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: 2628430 7

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Children’s home details

Registered provider: Park Blue Homes Ltd

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: 38 Freemans Way, Harrogate, North Yorkshire HG3 1DH

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Inspector

Clare Nixson, Social Care Inspector Inspection report for children’s home: 2628430 8 regulates and inspects 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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