Children's home run by Sheffield City Council in Sheffield

Inspection report for children’s home: SC039414 1 SC039414 Registered provider: Sheffield City Council

p.1

Full inspection Inspected under the social care common inspection framework

p.1

Information about this children’s home

This local authority home provides care for up to four children who may have social and/or emotional difficulties. There were three children living at the home during the inspection.

p.1

Information about this children’s home

The home registered with Ofsted on 3 November 2003. The manager has been registered with Ofsted since 8 February 2023.

p.1

Overall experiences and progress of

children and young people, taking into account

p.1

good

How well children and young people are helped and protected good

p.1

good

The effectiveness of leaders and managers good

p.1

good

The children’s home provides effective services that meet the requirements for good.

p.1

good

Overall judgement at last inspection: requires improvement to be good

p.1

good

Enforcement action since last inspection: none Inspection report for children’s home: SC039414 2

p.1

Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

19/07/2023 Full Requires improvement to be good 07/12/2022 Full Requires improvement to be good 02/03/2022 Full Requires improvement to be good 10/11/2021 Full Inadequate Inspection report for children’s home: SC039414 3

p.2

Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

The three children living at this home have made good progress over the last nine months. They have achieved relative stability for the first time, despite there being continued challenges. One child has now lived here for three years and another for two years.

p.3

Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

All children attend their allocated education provision. Each child has a highly individualised education plan. Staff have advocated to ensure that children’s plans meet their needs. One child has recently been allocated a new provision that they are keen to attend, and two other children continue to attend a provision that is meeting their needs well. Staff support and promote children’s attendance and regularly liaise with schools.

p.3

Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children’s health needs, including their mental health, are carefully considered by staff in the home and have improved. Specialist support is sought when needed and staff are tenacious at encouraging children to attend appointments, even when some appointments are missed. Clear boundaries and routines are now in place, so that children know what to expect. As a result, children’s personal hygiene routines have improved. This includes children’s involvement in regular bedroom cleaning and children becoming healthier.

p.3

Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Relationships between staff and children’s families are a real strength of the home. One parent praised the good work and communication from staff and said ‘it feels like we co- parent [name of child]’. Another parent shared similar views and said that they use the same rules and boundaries, which support a cohesive and consistent experience for children. Family members are confident that their children are safe and well cared for, and they are proud of the successes of their children.

p.3

Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children are encouraged to express themselves and share their views. Children take opportunities, such as at children’s meetings, statutory visits with their social worker, and conversations with staff and management, to share concerns or make complaints. When children make a complaint, they are taken seriously. Appropriate investigations take place and children always receive a written response.

p.3

Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

The environment feels homely. Children’s bedrooms are decorated in line with their wishes. One child’s ability to tolerate their room being decorated, marks significant progress. Staff understand the importance of offering consistency around cleaning bedrooms. All children now understand that staff will clean their rooms and bedding regularly and, even if they do not agree with this, they accept the boundaries.

p.3

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

Strong relationships between staff and children, a consistent staff team, and a good understanding of therapeutic parenting has contributed to a significant reduction in the Inspection report for children’s home: SC039414 4 number of incidents taking place in the home. When incidents do take place, the severity of them has reduced. Staff now work to understand children’s behaviour, to support a further reduction in incidents. Physical intervention is rarely used as staff focus on supporting children to de-escalate their behaviour in line with children’s individual needs. When physical intervention does take place, it is proportionate and needed to keep everyone safe. The manager always speaks to staff and children after this has happened.

p.3

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

Documents that detail staff responses to children provide clear, individualised strategies for staff to use to promote positive behaviour. Plans also detail how staff should support children when they are in a crisis. All documents contain relevant information, including analysis of incidents. Plans also have clear strategies for the promotion of positive behaviour, which include individualised incentives.

p.4

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

Staff have meaningful conversations with children to support their safety and progress. These conversations develop children’s understanding of issues that are relevant to them, including internet safety. Staff do not shy away from holding difficult conversations with children, and they often take opportunities to have purposeful discussions when children bring up relevant topics. Not all children can absorb information through conversations, and staff could be more creative at helping children to understand difficult concepts.

p.4

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

Children rarely go missing from home. When they do go missing from home, staff search for children and follow their missing-from-home plans. Staff proactively develop plans to increase the safety of children and reduce further missing-from-home incidents.

p.4

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

Professionals who work with the children believe that children are making excellent progress. Communication between staff and professionals is good, and professionals feel that the staff team advocates for the children. Professionals celebrated the relationships between staff and children’s families, and acknowledged that children are safe in the home.

p.4

The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The home is effectively and efficiently managed by a dedicated and passionate manager, who is appropriately qualified and experienced. The manager has effective oversight of all elements of the home. This allows her to promote positive practice in line with the statement of purpose. This also enables areas of good practice to be shared with the whole team.

p.4

The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The manager uses her monitoring systems and feedback to evaluate practice and continue to improve the experiences of children. The analysis of the information gathered provides clear evidence of progress across various elements of the children’s lives. This allows patterns of behaviour to be noticed and acted on.

p.4

The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Staff greatly enjoy working at the home. They know the children well and understand their life experiences. Staff are proud of the progress that children make. Therapeutic Inspection report for children’s home: SC039414 5 parenting is becoming embedded across the team. This is further supported by regular, reflective team meetings, which most of the staff team attend. Children are discussed in detail and staff are consulted around changes that are being considered. Clear actions are set at the meetings, and these are reviewed at the following meeting. Staff supervision also takes place regularly. Staff are up to date with their mandatory training, and additional training that is relevant to children’s needs is being rolled out.

p.4

The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The manager models to staff how to build strong, multi-agency networks around the children. This supports agencies to work together to achieve positive outcomes for children.

p.5

The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Children’s documents detail a shift to a more-therapeutic response from staff. However, there is still progress to be made in other children’s documents in relation to the recording representing children’s experiences. Inspection report for children’s home: SC039414 6

p.5

Recommendations

 The registered person should ensure that staff have the skills to facilitate appropriate conversations or direct work with children to support the building of safe relationships with people inside and outside of the home. For children with additional learning needs, this may be supported with pictures, social stories, or other visual tools. This work will support children to understand social norms around issues such as personal space and safe touch. (‘Guide to the Children’s Homes Regulations, including the quality standards’, page 38, paragraph 8.16)

p.6

Recommendations

 The registered person should ensure that staff understand the importance of children’s documents reflecting the care they receive, and that they are written in a way that a child can understand how they were cared for and kept safe by staff day to day. (‘Guide to the Children’s Homes Regulations, including the quality standards’, page 58, paragraph 11.19)

p.6

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: SC039414 7

p.6

Children’s home details

Registered provider: Sheffield City Council

p.7

Children’s home details

Registered provider address: Town Hall, Pinstone Street, Sheffield S1 2HH

p.7

Inspector

Joanna Beal, Social Care Inspector Inspection report for children’s home: SC039414 8 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.

p.7

Inspector

If you would like a copy of this document in a different format, such as large print or Braille, please telephone 0300 123 1231, or email enquiries@ofsted.gov.uk . You may reuse this information (not including logos) free of charge in any format or medium, under the terms of the Open Government Licence. To view this licence, visit www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/doc/open-government-licence , write to the Information Policy Team, The National Archives, Kew, London TW9 4DU, or email: psi@nationalarchives.gsi.gov.uk .

p.8

Inspector

Interested in our work? You can subscribe to our monthly newsletter for more information and updates: http://eepurl.com/iTrDn .

p.8

Inspector

T: 0300 123 1231 Textphone: 0161 618 8524 E: enquiries@ofsted.gov.uk W: www.gov.uk/ofsted

p.8