Children's Home run by Compass Children’s Homes North East Limited in Newcastle upon Tyne

Inspection report for children’s home: SC472795 1 SC472795 Registered provider: Compass Children’s Homes North East Limited

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Full inspection Inspected under the social care common inspection framework

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Information about this children’s home

The home is owned and managed by a private provider. The home can provide care for up to five children with social and emotional difficulties.

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Information about this children’s home

Four children were living in the home at the time of inspection. The inspectors met with and spoke to all the children.

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Information about this children’s home

The manager was registered with Ofsted in November 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: requires improvement to be good

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good

Enforcement action since last inspection: none Inspection report for children’s home: SC472795 2

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

20/04/2023 Full Requires improvement to be good 04/05/2022 Full Good 02/11/2021 Full Good 04/09/2019 Full Good Inspection report for children’s home: SC472795 3

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children say that they feel safe and are happy. They enjoy stable, trusting relationships with those who care for them. The staff deliver personalised care that helps the children to make good progress in all areas of their lives.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Most children have lived in the home for around two years. They describe each other as being like brothers, sisters and friends all rolled into one. One child said, ‘I never imagined having a family like this.’

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children are well supported when they move out of the home. One child benefited from a social story to help them to prepare for the change. The manager challenges the plans of a child’s placing local authority, if she feels moving the child out of the area is not in the best interest of the child. This shows children that the staff care about their future, while helping to maintain children’s wider support networks.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children make good progress with their education and training. When children face barriers with attending their education or training provision, staff structure the day to include activities that are educational in nature. The provider pays for one child to attend a training provision that will support them into employment. Another child has secured part-time work while attending college. This approach ensures that children continue to have opportunities to develop and learn.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

The staff support the children to participate in activities and events. This helps to develop the children’s confidence and provides them with new experiences and opportunities to learn. Staff also spend time with the children during their days off, so that they can participate in special events in the children’s lives. This means that the children feel important, cared for, and valued by the staff. Staff recently hired a venue and organised an Eid party for one child. This provided an opportunity for the children to celebrate together and to learn about culture and religion.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children are helped to keep memory books of their time living in the home. Most children keep these in their bedrooms so they can access them regularly. These books contain photos of events children have attended and of their day-to-day lives. However, these do not contain details of what the occasion was, when the occasion happened or who is in the photo. This could prevent children from reflecting on the details of special memories they may have.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff support the children to maintain positive relationships with their families. This includes, staff advocating for and supporting children to spend more time with their family. Staff also provide support to the families of children if required. This helps the child to understand that staff care about them and their family. This contributes towards the trusting relationships that the staff have with the children. Inspection report for children’s home: SC472795 4 The home is decorated to a good standard and damage is repaired quickly. The outdoor area is being remodelled to provide an outdoor space where the children can relax. This is to encourage children to spend more time around the home.

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

Staff and the manager are creative when helping children to understand risks. They have supported one child to become involved in a local knife crime charity, which has created links to families who have had similar experiences. This helps the child understand first- hand the dangers and consequences associated with their behaviours.

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

There has been a significant reduction in the frequency that children go missing from the home. When they do go missing, the staff follow the appropriate procedures to keep the children safer. The staff share any relevant information with the police on a regular basis. This appears to have also resulted in a significant reduction in children using illegal substances. The staff’s responses help to improve children’s safety.

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

Consequences are only used if necessary and recordings are detailed. Consequences are restorative in nature. For example, children are supported to repair damage they have caused when they have been angry or upset. This helps children to understand the impact that their behaviour has on themselves, the staff and other children.

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

Room searches are only conducted to help to improve children’s safety. However, children are not consistently involved in this process. Consequently, children can become upset and angry, feeling that their privacy has been invaded. This prevents children from being helped to understand that staff conduct these searches because they care.

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

Physical interventions are rare. When they are used, children tend to be guided by staff and are seldom held. Staff always speak with a child after an incident, to help the child to understand that the staff are helping to keep them safe. These reflective discussions have resulted in children learning how to improve their responses to difficult situations.

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

Risks to children reduce because the staff know and understand the children and their needs. When new risks for the children emerge, the manager and staff are proactive in developing updated safety plans. However, while staff know how to keep the children safe, several key documents for one child were seen to contain outdated and conflicting information. This prevents that child from receiving consistent care in line with their current assessed needs.

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

Children’s safety plans do not inform staff of what they should do in the event a child sustains an unexplained injury. As a result, one child was not offered medical attention after they obtained an unexplained injury. Furthermore, poor records prevent the reader from understanding if the injury had been sustained during a physical intervention the staff had used, or while the child was in police custody. This has prevented an independent review of the physical intervention to determine if it was safe, and prevented the child from being offered the opportunity to make a complaint. The Inspection report for children’s home: SC472795 5 manager addressed this during the inspection and has a process in place to reduce the likelihood of this reoccurring.

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

Staff feel confident to challenge each other’s practice if it falls short of the expectations of the provider. This demonstrates positive role modelling behaviour to children about what is appropriate behaviour, how to challenge someone’s use of language and how to manage conflict appropriately.

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

When children make allegations, or staff implement the whistleblowing process, there is a quick response and they are investigated using the appropriate protocols. Children and staff are supported throughout the process and are informed of the outcome. This helps children to feel safe and listened to, and helps to improve children’s safety.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The manager is dedicated to the children in her care. She has a clear vision to progress the home and she can identify the strengths. She is realistic about the areas that need to be developed, and she continuously seeks ways to improve the operation of the home. This ensures that she and the staff provide a good level of care to the children.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The manager is visible to the children, who enjoy a positive relationship with her. The manager has clearly developed a fine balance of conducting her managerial duties, while spending time with the children. This means the children feel comfortable to approach her for practical and emotional support.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

There is a safer recruitment policy and process in place. The process ensures that the appropriate references and safeguarding checks are completed prior to a potential employee being offered employment. The home benefits from an experienced staff team who have, or are working towards, the necessary qualifications.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Staff report feeling well supported by their manager. They describe her as approachable. The manager values the diversity of her staff team and supports them to maintain their religious and cultural beliefs as employees. This helps staff to feel valued.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

When staff practice falls short of the high expectations the manager has, staff are supported to understand how they need to improve their practice. This creates a learning environment where staff feel safe to learn from minor mistakes. Equally, the manager is not afraid to challenge more serious behavioural breaches and follows the provider’s disciplinary policy. This helps to keep children safe.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Supervision sessions are regular and reflective. They give staff the opportunity to discuss the needs of each individual child, their performance, and areas for continued development. The individual training needs of staff are also considered in these sessions. However, not all records of supervision sessions are available in a timely manner, and one set of supervision session minutes is missing. This prevents the manager and staff member from having an accurate record of the discussions held. Inspection report for children’s home: SC472795 6 The manager has an escalation process in place. However, this is not consistently effective. This has resulted in one child being without a local authority plan for five months. This prevents the staff from putting the necessary support in place to help to prepare the child for moving on from the home. Inspection report for children’s home: SC472795 7

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Recommendations

 The registered person should ensure staff continually and actively assess the risk to each child and the arrangements in place to protect them. The registered person should ensure that there is an effective plan in place which supports staff to make the necessary checks about a child's welfare. This relates to when a child sustains injuries and the cause of these is unknown. (‘Guide to the Children’s Homes Regulations, including the quality standards’, page 42, paragraph 9.5)  The registered person should work in close partnership with all those who play a role in protecting and caring for the child, but particularly the child’s local authority and statutory social worker. The registered person and the staff of the home cannot force a relevant person to engage or work productively with them and the regulation does not require this. The registered person should evidence what they have done to achieve engagement, including any actions taken to escalate concerns, and

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Recommendations

demonstrate that this has been effective. (‘Guide to the Children’s Homes Regulations, including the quality standards’, page 11, paragraph 2.3)  The registered person should keep and encourage children to keep appropriate memorabilia of the time spent living at the home and help them record significant life event. The registered person should ensure that staff support the children to record details of important events and those attending them with the child. (‘Guide to the Children’s Homes Regulations, including the quality standards’, page 62, paragraph 14.5)  The registered person should ensure that, good practice is followed and that a note of the content and/or outcomes of supervision sessions to be kept and to ensure that both the person giving the supervision and staff member have a copy of the record. (‘Guide to the Children’s Homes Regulations, including the quality standards’, page 61, paragraph

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Recommendations

` Inspection report for children’s home: SC472795 8

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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: SC472795 9

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Children’s home details

Registered provider: Compass Children’s Homes North East Limited

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: 3 Rayns Way, Syston, Leicester, Leicestershire LE7 1PF

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Inspectors

Julia Hagan, Social Care Inspector Kerry Chater, Social Care Inspector Inspection report for children’s home: SC472795 10 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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Inspectors

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Inspectors

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Inspectors

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Inspectors

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