Children's Home run by Green Harvest Capital Consulting Ltd in Thurrock

Inspection report for children's home: 2637805 1 Registered provider: Green Harvest Capital Consulting Ltd

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Full inspection Inspected under the social care common inspection framework

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Information about this children’s home

This privately owned home provides care for up to four children with social and emotional difficulties.

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Information about this children’s home

The manager registered with Ofsted in August 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 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: 20 September 2023

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good

Overall judgement at last inspection: requires improvement to be good

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good

Enforcement action since last inspection: none Inspection report for children's home: 2637805 2

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

20/09/2023 Full Requires improvement to be good 20/06/2023 Full Inadequate 04/04/2022 Full Requires improvement to be good 14/12/2021 Full Inadequate Inspection report for children's home: 2637805 3

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Since the last inspection, one child has moved into the home and no children have left. Two children were living at the home at the time of the inspection. Both children have complex needs. They are making steady progress because of the support of a patient and nurturing staff team.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

The staff and managers know how to approach situations when children are upset or struggling to regulate their emotions. Staff are attuned to the children’s needs and respond appropriately to enable them to talk about things that are troubling them.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff are empathetic and offer children support and reassurance. When children are involved with the criminal justice system, staff make sure they work in a way that is non- judgemental. They recognise that this situation creates anxiety and distress for the child. A social worker said, ‘I think [name of child] feels comfortable there. He’s had a hard run of placements and never felt cared for in previous homes and there he does feel cared for.’

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff adopt a restorative approach to help children take ownership of areas and property in the home. Recent incidents have resulted in damage to the home. Following incidents, the staff work with the children in a way that supports them to repair or replace broken items.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

The maintenance team is quick to respond to improve and upgrade areas of the home to to make them nicer for the children. One child is waiting to move into a larger newly decorated room. The entrance of the home has been improved with an artificial lawn laid to create a front garden. The garden area is well maintained and equipped with a punch bag and goalposts, for children to play with neighbouring children.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

The manager has acted quickly to provide children with educational plans when they are not in full-time education. The manager has recruited a staff member who is a qualified tutor and has been designated as education champion. This enables the team to be guided by someone who is skilled in strategies to educate and support children who are currently out of education.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff support the children to take risks and enjoy activities and events. Staff help the children to enjoy time outside the home, taking them to the gym, out on their scooters, to boxing and to nature parks and animal sanctuaries. The staff also prepare for annual events such as Halloween and involve children in the activities. One child likes to cook spicy foods for the staff and children. Inspection report for children's home: 2637805 4

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

The manager and staff communicate with children in ways that reduce the likelihood of incidents happening or reoccurring. A ‘communication passport’ is used to understand how to respond to children when they are angry or upset, using an approach suggested by the children to reduce the risk of escalation.

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

Children do not go missing from the home. If children are late returning home, staff take swift action to find out where they are and bring them home promptly. Staff appropriately follow procedures to keep children safe. When children have court-imposed curfews, staff take appropriate action to prevent them breaching their curfews.

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

The manager ensures steps are taken to keep children safer online. Staff have completed all necessary safeguarding training, including in online safety. When children do access inappropriate material online, action is taken immediately to reduce the likelihood of this happening again.

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

When bullying incidents have occurred in the home, the staff and manager have been quick to respond appropriately. Staff have restorative conversations with the children and maintain high levels of supervision to reduce the potential for further incidents. Staff devised a presentation for the children enabling discussion about what constitutes bullying, to help children build a greater level of understanding.

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

When children have raised concerns, these have been taken seriously and the manager has taken the necessary steps to ensure the children are safe. This includes involving external agencies without delay and keeping external professionals updated.

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

The manager has good oversight of incidents in the home and follows correct safeguarding procedures. When it has been necessary for staff to use physical intervention, this has been done as a last resort to keep children and adults safe and prevent significant damage to property. Records are clear. Discussions take place with the staff and children involved. One social worker said, ‘The staff deal with incidents in the home without calling police, which is nice. They seem to manage situations well.’

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

Recruitment processes are robust. Managers use an electronic system to show all necessary checks have been completed and verified, and any gaps in employment explored, to make sure staff are well vetted before working at the home.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: requires improvement to be good

The registered manager is working towards a relevant level 5 qualification. They are supported by a recently appointed experienced responsible individual, who works closely with them. The manager has plans for improving the home, but these are not yet embedded. Internal monitoring and reviewing are not sufficiently thorough to identify some weaknesses in the home. Despite children having clearly defined diagnoses, staff have not had training in these specific areas. In addition, staff have not always received regular supervision. Consequently, leadership and management requires improvement. Inspection report for children's home: 2637805 5 The manager has developed new systems for recording information in relation to managing concerns in the home. However, on one occasion, records relating to safeguarding concerns were written in a way that had the potential to impact on the timeliness of information-sharing. Internal monitoring had not identified this.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: requires improvement to be good

Monitoring by managers has also not identified inaccuracies in at least one risk assessment. In addition, staff have been given conflicting information regarding the timings of administering medication. Although these issues have not had a direct impact on children, they create a risk that mistakes and misunderstandings could occur.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: requires improvement to be good

The children have complex needs and the manager has made sure staff receive training to help them understand how to respond to associated risks, such as exploitation, gang and youth violence, bullying and safeguarding. However, the children have needs arising from diagnoses that need to be understood by the staff. Leaders and managers have not ensured that staff receive training in these areas, such as attention deficit disorder and oppositional defiance disorder. Consequently, they have not ensured that staff have access to all the learning necessary to fully understand children’s needs.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: requires improvement to be good

Staff have not always received regular supervision. Managers have recognised this and plans have recently been put in place for supervisions and appraisals to take place in future. However, these plans have yet to be implemented.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: requires improvement to be good

Recently, some staff have been working very long shifts, of up to 24 hours. Some staff say they have significant concerns about this model and are feeling tired. Monitoring by leaders and managers has not sufficiently considered the potential impact on the quality of care of such arrangements.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: requires improvement to be good

External monitoring is generally effective. Areas for improvement are identified and the manager acts on them. Inspection report for children's home: 2637805 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 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; and

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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

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

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Requirement Due date

understand the impact that the quality of care provided in the home is having on the progress and experiences of each child and use this understanding to inform the development of the quality of care provided in the home.

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Requirement Due date

use monitoring and review systems to make continuous improvements in the quality of care provided in the home. (Regulation 13 (1)(a)(b) (2)(c)(f)(h))

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Requirement Due date

In particular, ensure that internal monitoring is effective in identifying areas for improvement, that staff receive the neccesary training to understand the impact of children’s diagnoses and that appropriate consideration is given to staff concerns about the recent change in shift patterns. 30 May 2024

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Recommendation

 The registered person should ensure that plans to provide staff with supervision of their practice from an appropriately qualified professional are implemented and that a record of the supervision is kept that includes the content and outcome of the meeting. (‘Guide to the Children’s Homes Regulations, including the quality standards’, page 61, paragraph 13.2) Inspection report for children's home: 2637805 7

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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: 2637805 8

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Children’s home details

Registered provider: Green Harvest Capital Consulting Ltd

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: Biz Hub, Belasis Business Centre, Coxwold Way, Belasis Hall Technology Park, Billingham TS23 4EA

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Children’s home details

Registered manager: Kayathry Karunakaran

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Inspector

Dan Williams, Social Care Inspector Inspection report for children's home: 2637805 9 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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