Children's home run by Kennet Care Limited

Inspection report for children’s home: 1185488 1 Registered provider: Kennet Care Limited Full inspection Inspected under the social care common inspection framework

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Information about this children’s home

This home is operated by a private provider. The home provides care for up to three children between the ages of eight and 17 who may experience social and emotional difficulties. At the time of the inspection, three children were living in the home.

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Information about this children’s home

The manager registered with Ofsted on 14 June 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: 1185488 2

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

27/03/2023 Full Good 05/07/2021 Full Good 25/02/2020 Full Good 26/06/2018 Full Good Inspection report for children’s home: 1185488 3

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children live in a welcoming, well-furnished home. They are enabled to choose their preference of decor in their bedrooms, which reflect their interests. Children’s personal space reflects their individual needs and self-expression. One child has pet guinea pigs, and staff encourage the child to take responsibility in looking after them by promoting their well-being.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Most children have meaningful relationships with staff. However, one child, who is due to move on from the home, is clear that they no longer wish to engage with staff. Despite this, staff do all they can to promote positive relationships and consistently make attempts to engage with the child. This is because they are committed to ensuring that the child experiences a positive end to their time in the home.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children are consistently listened to, and their views are valued. The children’s meetings provide a space for them to choose their weekly activities and daily meals, which promotes their right to be heard. Activities and hobbies that children enjoy include trips to a local skatepark, cycling and spending time with family and friends.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Most children make positive progress with their engagement in education. Staff go above and beyond to support them. For instance, one member of staff provides one- to-one support to a child in school every day. Two other members of staff are training to become exam invigilators. This is to enable a child to take their exams in the home. These creative practices enable children to access an education. One education professional said, ‘The staff in the home will go over and beyond to support [name of child] in the home with education and pushed for his education to be prioritised.’

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children are fully supported by staff to have regular time with their families and friends. Two of the children’s families live near to home. These children are able to spend time with their family and friends on most days. Staff take another child, whose family lives far from the home, to visit their family regularly. This helps children to maintain significant relationships that are important to them.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

There have been various challenges in the home since the last inspection. This included an increase in missing-from-home instances for one child. The response to this included collaborative work between the manager, staff and external safeguarding agencies to develop a safety plan for the child. However, despite this focused work, the safety plan was ineffective, and the risks continued to increase for this child. Consequently, the child moved on from the home so that specific risks in relation to the child and the local area could be reduced. Inspection report for children’s home: 1185488 4

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

Staff fully understand the risks to children in the home. Risk management plans are individual to each child and are kept updated. These plans are used to inform staff practice. However, staff have not yet been able to fully address concerns in relation to one child and their smoking and cannabis misuse. Although appropriate action is being taken to address this, and the manager and staff are taking steps to mitigate the risks, this work is ongoing and is not yet effective. At times, the child has been smoking in the home, and this has a negative impact and increased risk not only on the child, but also on the other children in the home.

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

There have been no missing-from-home incidents for the children who currently live in the home. This is due, in part, to the learning identified from previous missing- from-home incidents. Furthermore, there are clear plans and protocols in place should a child go missing from the home.

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

Staff know and understand the processes for reporting safeguarding issues. Staff respond well to children when they need support, and they manage incidents well. This is evident as restraint practice is infrequent. Effective behavioural management strategies focus on relationship building. This contributes to the low level of physical interventions. When physical interventions do take place, they are managed well, and children are fully supported to talk through what happened. Despite these positive approaches, there are occasions when staff do not address inappropriate language used by children towards others. These are missed opportunities to ensure that behaviour is responded to consistently by staff.

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

Robust recruitment practices are in place. This ensures that only appropriate individuals work at the home and provide care for children. Senior staff are aware of their responsibilities to ensure that effective health and safety processes are in place.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Since the last inspection, the registered manager has moved on from the home. A new manager was appointed, and they are now registered. The manager knows the children well, and they are comfortable to discuss their wishes and feelings with her. She is accessible to both children and staff. She leads by example and interacts positively with children and staff.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The manager and senior members of the staff team know the strengths and areas of development for the home. The current focus is on retaining and developing new staff. There is ongoing work with staff to develop their recording skills. New staff are supported well in their role to develop practice through individualised training and support. This promotes consistency in staff developing their role to meet children’s needs.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Senior members of the staff team model good practice and help to ensure that there is a shared ethos and that children are cared for consistently in line with the home’s Inspection report for children’s home: 1185488 5 statement of purpose. Staff are positive about the support provided by the registered manager and senior staff.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Leaders and managers provide effective supervision to staff in the home. These sessions are reflective and capture what is going on for each child. Staff receive relevant training to manage the needs of children. All staff have completed training to help them support children who may experience behaviours that challenge. This enables them to keep children safe.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Staff engage in regular team meetings. These include effective discussions that reflect and focus on children’s behaviours, their past experiences and known risks. This helps to strengthen staff’s understanding and enables them to collaboratively explore how they respond to children’s needs consistently.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The registered manager has regular clinical supervision. Furthermore, the whole team has access to a linked therapist. This provides staff with a safe place to discuss relational challenges that may arise in the home. This has helped staff to better understand children’s internal worlds, which has informed how they work and relate to children.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The manager and staff have established effective relationships with external professionals. This includes social workers and education professionals. For instance, one social worker praised staff for how well they engage with a child’s parent and the frequency and quality of the communication they receive. Inspection report for children’s home: 1185488 6

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Statutory requirement

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

assess whether each child is at risk of harm, taking into account information in the child’s relevant plans, and, if necessary, make arrangements to reduce the risk of any harm to the child. (Regulation 12 (1) (2)(a)(i))

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Requirement Due date

In particular, ensure that the risks of children smoking in the home are fully mitigated. 31 March 2024

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Recommendation

 The registered person should ensure that staff consistently address inappropriate language used by children towards others. (‘Guide to the Children’s Homes Regulations, including the quality standards’, page 39, paragraph 8.13)

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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: 1185488 7

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Children’s home details

Registered provider: Kennet Care Limited

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: Goringe Accountants Waterside, 1650 Arlington Business Park, Theale, Berkshire RG7 4SA

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Children’s home details

Responsible individual: Dennis Austin-Visser

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Children’s home details

Registered manager: Lauren Follett-Smith

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Inspector

Karen Flanagan de Martinez, Social Care Inspector Inspection report for children’s home: 1185488 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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