Children's home run by Wrottesley Care Limited

Inspection report for children’s home: 1280623 1 Registered provider: Wrottesley Care Limited Full inspection Inspected under the social care common inspection framework

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Information about this children’s home

This is a privately owned children’s home. The home is registered to provide care for up to three children with complex needs.

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Information about this children’s home

Two children were living in the home at the time of this inspection.

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Information about this children’s home

There is a suitably experienced manager in post. The manager registered with Ofsted in February 2024. She is working towards the diploma level 5 qualification.

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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 December 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: 1280623 2

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

13/12/2022 Full Good 27/09/2022 Full Inadequate 16/03/2022 Interim Improved effectiveness 21/04/2021 Full Requires improvement to be good Inspection report for children’s home: 1280623 3

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Since the last inspection, there have been some significant changes in the home. There is a new management and staff team in place and two children have moved into the home and three children have moved on. Two children moved on to supported accommodation and one child moved to another home better suited to their needs. Staff have supported all the children who have lived in the home to make progress from their original starting points, in areas such as education, relationships and improving independence skills. Staff have also ensured that children have positive experiences while living in the home.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children live in a welcoming and homely environment. The home is beautifully decorated, suitably furnished and clean and tidy throughout. There are photos of children, their adventures and achievements on display throughout the home. Children’s rooms are personalised to their own tastes. This helps children to feel comfortable in their surroundings and gain a sense of belonging.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children have positive and trusting relationships with staff. There are caring and mutually respectful relationships between the children and staff. Staff hold children in high regard and want the best for them. One child said the best thing about living in the home is the staff.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Care planning is effective. There are detailed impact risk assessments in place and managers have shown curiosity around risks and anomalies in referral paperwork. In addition, the manager and staff ensure that there are thoughtful, well-planned transitions when children move into the home. Before moving in, children are encouraged to visit the home to meet the staff and other children and to get their bedrooms ready. This robust approach to care planning helps children to settle into the home quickly and helps to prevent placement breakdowns.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff support children with their education. There is effective communication with education professionals to ensure children get the educational support they need. When children are not in school, the manager advocates for children, ensuring they get education to which they are entitled. There are bespoke education plans in place that support children’s learning. This approach to learning supports children to achieve academically and improves their future life prospects.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff support children to have good physical and mental health. They support children to attend all routine health appointments and refer children to external support when required. Staff are sensitive to children’s needs and encourage children to talk about their feelings. Staff have developed a mood alcove to allow one child to express their emotions without having to talk to staff. This innovative approach helps children to be more confident in expressing their thoughts and feelings and seeking support from staff when required. Inspection report for children’s home: 1280623 4 Staff celebrate children’s strengths and achievements. This is evident through the pictures on display in the home and the reward systems in place for children. The support and encouragement from staff help to build children’s confidence, self- esteem and resilience.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff support children to see their family and friends. As a result, one child has recently re-established links to family they had not seen for a long time. Through assistance from staff, children stay connected to people who are important to them, which supports them with their identity and contributes to their life story.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff actively encourage children to share their views, wishes and feelings through daily conversations, key-working sessions and children’s meetings. Staff carry out direct work with children when they move into the home about their likes, dislikes and how they want to be cared for. This information is fed into their care and behaviour management plans. These practices ensure that children feel heard and involved in the decisions that affect them.

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

Overall safeguarding practices are effective. There have been times when policies and procedures have not always been followed, however, the new manager has reviewed the systems for monitoring how children are cared for and kept safe. As a result, practice has improved and incidents have reduced. For the two children currently living in the home, there have been no physical interventions, complaints from children or incidents of going missing from care.

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

Children say they feel safe and well cared for by staff. Staff know the children well, and their risks, triggers and how to manage their behaviours and keep them safe. In addition, there are regularly updated comprehensive risk and behaviour management plans in place, which provide clear guidance to staff on how to mitigate risk.

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

Incidents requiring staff to physically intervene are rare. Restraint is only used as a last resort. Managers have good oversight of all incidents. They ensure that children and staff are spoken to after any incidents. This ensures that, when used, intervention is necessary and proportionate.

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

Internal systems for managing children’s use of the internet are good. There is a robust and timely response from staff when children access social media inappropriately. Staff carry out regular phone checks and talk to children about the risks and strategies are put in place to reduce the risk for children. The clear and consistent boundaries help to keep children safe.

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

Staff are sensitive in their response to children who display self-injurious behaviour. They provide first aid, encourage children to talk to them and explore alternative coping strategies with children. Inspection report for children’s home: 1280623 5 There have been occasions when staff have not always followed the missing-from- care protocols. For example, staff have tried to contact children and their friends and reported children missing to police but have not always gone searching for children. This inconsistent practice does not promote the safety and well-being of children. However, under the leadership of the new manager, staff’ practice has improved, and they now consistently search for children when they leave the home without authority. As a result, there have been no incidents of children going missing from home since September 2023.

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

There has been one occasion when the previous registered manager did not share a safeguarding concern with the appropriate external professionals. The manager did not seek guidance from the local authority designated officer, in line with the organisation’s policies and procedures, when a child made an allegation against an adult working in the home. The child quickly retracted their allegation; however, this lack of transparency and partnership working does not help keep children safe.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The new manager has been in post since October 2023. She has worked hard to rebuild the staff team and develop a positive ethos in the home. The manager is compassionate and caring and is extremely child-centred. She has high aspirations for children and is making changes to improve the quality of care that children receive. An equally resolute deputy manager supports her. Together, they are creating a home where children and staff are all encouraged to reach their full potential.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The manager is making improvements to the monitoring systems in place to ensure that she has effective oversight to enable her to quickly identify shortfalls in practice. For example, she has added a manager’s sign-off to all children’s case file records on the online reporting and recording system. The manager has developed a thorough understanding of the home’s strengths and areas for development. She has plans in place to support the continuous development of the home. However, she has not always sought feedback from children or external professionals when completing her six-monthly review of the quality of care. This is a shortfall. It will impact on the manager’s ability to fully review how the care children receive impacts on their progress and experiences.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Staff say that they feel very well supported by the new manager. They receive regular, high-quality, practice-related supervision and annual appraisals. There are personal development plans in place for all staff. There is a comprehensive training plan in place to support staff to meet children’s needs. In addition, frequent highly reflective team meetings further support staff to develop in their roles and for them to work together to provide consistent good-quality care. Staff are complimentary about the new manager’s leadership style and the positive difference she has made since she has been in post.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The manager normally informs Ofsted when there are safeguarding concerns. However, on two occasions, the previous manager failed to notify Ofsted about Inspection report for children’s home: 1280623 6 safeguarding issues. While this had minimal impact on children, it does mean the regulator may not have had all the relevant up-to-date information to understand what was happening in the home.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The manager is an avid advocate for children and will go above and beyond to ensure children receive well-coordinated care from all professionals involved. She will challenge those who are not meeting children’s needs, or when she feels decisions are not in the best interests of the children. Feedback from professionals is consistently good. They are positive about the care children receive and the progress that children make whilst living in the home. Inspection report for children’s home: 1280623 7

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Statutory requirements

This section sets out the actions that the registered person 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 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

take effective action whenever there is a serious concern about a child’s welfare;

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Requirement Due date

are familiar with, and act in accordance with, the home’s child protection policies; and

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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)(a)(vi)(vii)(b))

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Requirement Due date

Specifically, the manager must ensure that staff consistently follow risk management and missing-from-care protocols, to reduce the risk of harm to children. In addition, all staff, including the registered manager, must follow safeguarding policies and procedures, promptly sharing safeguarding concerns with the appropriate professionals. 17 May 2024

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must notify HMCI and each other relevant person without delay if—

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Requirement Due date

a child is involved in or subject to, or is suspected of being involved in or subject to, sexual exploitation;

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Requirement Due date

an incident requiring police involvement occurs in relation to a child which the registered person considers to be serious;

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Requirement Due date

there is an allegation of abuse against the home or a person working there; 17 May 2024 Inspection report for children’s home: 1280623 8 a child protection enquiry involving a child —

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Requirement Due date

(concludes (in which case, the notification must include the outcome of the child protection enquiry); or

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Requirement Due date

there is any other incident relating to a child which the registered person considers to be serious.

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Requirement Due date

A notification made under this regulation—

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Requirement Due date

the other persons, bodies or organisations (if any) who or which have been notified;

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Requirement Due date

any actions taken by the registered person as a result of the matter; and

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Requirement Due date

must be made or confirmed in writing. (Regulation 40 (4)(a)(b)(c)(d)(i)(ii)(e) (5)(a)(i)(ii)(iii))

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Recommendation

 The registered person should have a system in place which allows them to monitor the matters set out in the regulation at least once every six months (also see regulation 13 (2)(h), the leadership and management standard). The registered person should undertake a review that focuses on the quality of the care provided by the home, the experiences of children living there and the impact the care is having on outcomes and improvements for the children. Reviews should be underpinned by the quality standards as described in regulations 5 to 14. The review should include consultation and feedback from the children, professionals and, where appropriate, parents. (‘Guide to the Children’s Homes Regulations, including the quality standards’, page 64, paragraph 15.2) Inspection report for children’s home: 1280623 9

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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: 1280623 10

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Children’s home details

Registered provider: Wrottesley Care Limited

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: Office 28, 28 Cleveland Street, Wolverhampton WV1 3HT

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Inspector

Sonia Sullivan, Social Care Inspector Inspection report for children’s home: 1280623 11 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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