Children's Home run by Treetops Children Homes in Derby

Inspection report for children's home: 2731415 1 Registered provider: Treetops Children’s Homes Limited Full inspection Inspected under the social care common inspection framework

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Information about this children’s home

This home is owned and operated by a private provider.

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Information about this children’s home

The home is registered to provide care for up to three children with emotional and social difficulties.

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Information about this children’s home

At the time of the inspection, one child was living at the home.

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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: 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: 2731415 2

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

The child lives in a home that is kept to a beautiful standard. It has an inviting and homely feel and several spaces where the child can complete educational and leisure activities outside of their bedroom. The staff are encouraging the child to personalise their bedroom, as its current decoration is quite basic.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

The child was well supported when they moved into the home. Staff collaborated well with involved professionals to ensure important information was shared to support the transition. The child had the opportunity to spend time with staff before moving to the home and was able to keep in touch with their previous carers. This is encouraging the child to begin to settle at the home.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

The child is beginning to make progress. There are improvements in their self-care, including their patterns of eating and personal hygiene. This has meant that staff’s monitoring of the child has been able to be gradually reduced. The child is engaging well with an educational tutor and takes pride in the work they complete. The home’s manager is being proactive in finding a school environment that will meet their needs in the near future.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff have begun to develop good relationships with the child. Staff have worked in an empathetic and patient way with the child and their complex needs. Consequently, the child’s engagement with staff is slowly improving. Staff work well with involved agencies.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

One-to-one discussions with the child are occurring regularly. Recordings, while reflective, do not always clearly capture the child’s views and feelings. There is a good mechanism for recording the child’s likes and dislikes on the online system, but this is currently underused by staff.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

The child is currently reluctant to leave the home and is socially isolated. Staff are being creative to encourage the child to engage in social activities in the community and have recently introduced them to a peer from another home.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

The child’s care plan lacks detail. It does not capture the child’s current progress or how staff are expected to respond to known behaviours. The manager relies on staff understanding the current care model in the home without changes to approaches being documented. This has the potential for information not to be properly disseminated or understood by all staff.

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

The child is not currently engaging in risk-taking behaviours. They do not go missing from care, do not engage in self-harm and have not been restrained. When significant events have occurred, the home’s manager has ensured that both staff Inspection report for children's home: 2731415 3 and the child are offered appropriate debriefs. The recording of incidents does not currently capture the wider context of the event. This, therefore, makes it difficult to understand what happened before and after an incident and how the child was reassured and supported.

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

Staff at the home understand the vulnerabilities and needs of the child well. They take a measured approach to managing the child’s behaviours that are not risk averse. A recent decision to reduce observations and nurture the child’s independence in the home has encouraged them to settle. They are beginning to trust the staff caring for them.

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

Staff are effective at maintaining and developing relationships with professionals from social care and child mental health services. Regular meetings are ensuring that there is important specialist input, which is informing the care approach in the home.

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

Risk assessments are not developed enough to be a useful tool for staff. Where risks are considered to be of low likelihood, there is no documented planning for how staff should respond to this behaviour should it occur. Risk assessments lack key planning for already identified behaviours, such as the child’s social isolation. The manager has begun to develop a behaviour support plan, but this is not yet embedded into practice.

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

The child is not engaging in fire drills occurring at the home. The staff cannot therefore be assured that the child would understand what to do in an emergency. Staff have not been proactive to explore this directly with the child or help them to understand the importance of their engagement. A personal emergency evacuation plan is not yet developed, and this potentially leaves the child at risk.

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good

Where there have been concerns about staff practice, these have been well explored by the manager. The manager is child-focused and able to challenge staff appropriately. He is encouraging a culture of staff caring for and supporting each other. Staff spoke highly of the manager and responsible individual. They feel that they are well supported and that managers are accessible to them when they need advice. As a result, there is a consistent staff team retained at the home.

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good

The manager is ambitious for the home. He has acknowledged fully the challenges faced by a relatively new staff team and has identified areas for improvement. He has plans to improve his managerial oversight of documentation in the home.

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good

Staff are receiving supervision sessions of good quality; these have a focus on talking about the staff member’s well-being and the safeguarding of the child. These have not, however, occurred regularly, despite some staff being new to residential care. Inspection report for children's home: 2731415 4 An overview of staff training is not clear. There is not a system established that would assist the manager to know easily when training was completed and when it would be due for renewal. Some important mandatory training has not been completed by the manager. This is of particular concern as most of the team members are new employees.

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good

The safe recruitment of staff is an issue of concern in the home. Gaps in employment history for newly recruited staff are not fully understood. Where concerns in references have been raised, these have not been sufficiently explored by the manager. As a result, the manager cannot be assured that the staff working at the home are suitable to work with children. Inspection report for children's home: 2731415 5

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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

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)(b))

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Requirement Due date

This particularly refers to there being risk assessments and behaviour support plans in place that identify known and potential risks for each child, and staff being skilled and confident in challenging and dealing with inappropriate and risky behaviour. This also refers to a Personal Emergency Evacuation Plan being required to be developed for the child in the case of a fire. 19 February 2024

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Requirement Due date

The leadership and management standard is that the registered person enables, inspires and leads a culture in relation to the children's home that—

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Requirement Due date

helps children aspire to fulfil their potential;

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Requirement Due date

In particular, the standard in paragraph (1) requires the registered person to—

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Requirement Due date

lead and manage the home in a way that is consistent with the approach and ethos, and delivers the outcomes, set out in the home's statement of purpose;

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Requirement Due date

ensure that the staff work as a team where appropriate;

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Requirement Due date

ensure that staff have the experience, qualifications and skills to meet the needs of each child;

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Requirement Due date

(Regulation 13 (1)(a)(b) (2)(a)(c)) 19 February 2024 Inspection report for children's home: 2731415 6 This specifically refers to ensuring that staff are safely recruited, receive the appropriate training to meet the needs of children in their care and access regular supervision. The care planning standard is that children—

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Requirement Due date

receive effectively planned care in or through the children's home; and have a positive experience of arriving at or moving on from the home.

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Requirement Due date

In particular, the standard in paragraph (1) requires the registered person to ensure— that each child's relevant plans are followed. (Regulation 14 (1)(a)(b)(2)(c))

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Requirement Due date

This particularly refers to ensuring that the child has a plan that staff can work to, to ensure they are helped, protected, and their welfare is promoted at all times. 19 February 2024

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Recommendation

 The registered person should ensure that children are offered a wide range of activities both inside and outside of the home (where appropriate) and are encouraged to participate in those activities. Staff should support children to take part in school trips, out of school and other clubs, volunteering and leisure activities. ('Guide to the children's homes regulations, including the quality standards', page 31, paragraph 6.5)

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Recommendation

 Appropriate forms of contact should be promoted and facilitated for each child, including where appropriate visits to the child in the home; visits by the child to relatives and/or friends; letters, emails and texts; use of social media and other forms of contact via the internet. ('Guide to the Children's Homes Regulations, including the quality standards,' page 58, paragraph 11.8)

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Recommendation

 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. Staff should record information on individual children in a non-stigmatising way that distinguishes between fact, opinion and third-party information. 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) Inspection report for children's home: 2731415 7

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Information about this inspection

The inspector has 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: 2731415 8

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Children’s home details

Registered provider: Treetops Children’s Homes Limited

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: 71-75 Shelton Street, London WC2H 9JQ

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Inspector

Louise Copping, Social Care Inspector Inspection report for children's home: 2731415 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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