Children's Home run by Compass Children’s Homes Ltd in Surrey

Inspection report for children's home: 2692638 1 Registered provider: Compass Children’s Homes Limited

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Inspected under the social care common inspection framework

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Information about this children’s home

The home is owned and run by a private organisation. The home provides care for up to five children who may experience social or emotional difficulties. There were two children living in the home at the time of this inspection.

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Information about this children’s home

The home was registered in October 2022. The manager has been managing the home since March 2023 and registered with Ofsted in April 2024.

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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: 2692638 2

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

04/07/2023 Full Good Inspection report for children's home: 2692638 3

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children live in a spacious, comfortable and homely home. Children’s photos and artwork are displayed. Their bedrooms each reflect an aspect of their individuality and personality. Children are proud to show their collections of cosmetics and their posters on their bedroom walls. One child has their room decorated with LED lights with changeable colour effects, which provides a calming and yet energising effect to their space. The attention staff give to creating a nice place for children to live and grow helps children to have a sense of belonging.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children have opportunities to express their views. The staff seek these through regular conversations and house meetings. Children choose weekly menus and what they want to do in their free time. This helps them feel respected and valued.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

The staff help the children make progress in relation to their engagement, attendance and achievement in education. One child is sitting their GCSEs and has completed a trial shift for an apprenticeship in a hair salon. In preparation for her trial, she practised on staff’s hair to perfect her skills. Another child is on track with their learning and staff are supporting their routines in preparation for taking their exams next year.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children are encouraged to integrate with their local community. Staff have supported children to make and sell baked goods at a local church for its chosen homeless charity, which has enhanced children’s connections with the needs of their local community.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children are content to spend time with staff and each other. Meals and significant celebrations are shared together, which enables children to feel accepted and experience a family-like environment.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff promote the importance of children’s time with their families. They work well in partnership with families to support these arrangements to ensure children and their families are able to spend meaningful good-quality time together.

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

Staff understand the particular risks for each child and manage these well. They are guided by the suitably detailed, and regularly updated, individual risk assessments. Staff advocate for extra support from other professionals when they are concerned about children’s safety and well-being. On one occasion, the manager made a difficult decision to end a child’s placement when other agencies did not provide the support needed and the staff were not able to keep the child safe. This demonstrates that the staff know their limitations in dealing with emerging and increasing risks for children.

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

Staff are aware of their safeguarding responsibilities and work in partnership with the local authority designated safeguarding officers. When allegations are made, they are Inspection report for children's home: 2692638 4 managed appropriately. The manager ensures that the concerns are well recorded, reported to all relevant agencies and investigated appropriately. The children who currently live in the home have not gone missing. However, staff know what to do should a child go missing. They have responded well when previous children in the home have gone missing. They informed appropriate professionals and requested the child’s local authority to carry out return home interviews.

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

The staff use positive behaviour approaches to encourage the children to engage in constructive and appropriate behaviour. Staff reward positive behaviour and use reparative approaches to negative behaviour. Children are taken on trips to the theatre and coffee shops for achieving set behaviour targets or restoring fractured relationships. Staff help children to learn from their behaviour and give them time to reflect. Any consequences used are proportionate and appropriate to the child’s age and understanding.

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

The staff are trained in positive behaviour support management. On the very few occasions restraint has been used, this has been necessary to prevent a child from harming themselves. When restraint has been used, the techniques have been appropriate. The manager ensures that both children and staff are given opportunities to reflect and learn from incidents, through conversations and debriefs.

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

The manager ensures that effective safer recruitment processes are in place to ensure that only appropriate adults work with the children. Staff ensure that suitable health and safety processes are implemented.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

This is the manager’s first role as a registered manager for a children’s home. They are enthusiastic about caring for the children and are keen for them to have a positive experience living in the home.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Staff feel well supported and enjoy working at the home. They receive regular supervision and annual appraisals. Supervision is a safe space for staff to reflect on practice and the children in their care. One member of staff said, ‘The management team provide excellent support to the team through regular supervisions and I often see adults [staff] benefit from their use of supervisions.’

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The manager is committed to staff’s professional development. They make sure that the staff have the right training and are skilled to meet the needs of the children. The home’s psychologist works with staff to help them understand the impact of children’s early trauma experiences and how this continues to affect how they respond to situations. Staff use this improved understanding to inform their practice and provide the children with the care and support they need.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The manager has suitable overall oversight of the home. They have an action plan in place to further develop the home. However, there is limited analysis and evaluation of Inspection report for children's home: 2692638 5 the effect of the care and of the progress of children. This is a missed opportunity to have greater understanding of the quality of the care provided to children.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The independent visitor has not consistently attempted to gain feedback from professionals and other significant people connected to the children. This restricts opportunities for leaders and managers to obtain vital external scrutiny of the home and drive further improvement.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

While some partner professionals note that staff’s communication with them has recently improved, this has not consistently been the case. Some professionals highlight shortfalls in staff interactions and communication with them. On one occasion, this meant that the child’s placing authority was not aware that staff had not adhered to the child’s contact plan. Consequently, the placing authority was unaware the child was having overnight stays with a family member or the location of where staff were supervising family time. Inspection report for children's home: 2692638 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

In meeting the quality standards, the registered person must, and must ensure that staff—

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Requirement Due date

seek to involve each child’s placing authority effectively in the child’s care, in accordance with the child’s relevant plans;

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Requirement Due date

seek to develop and maintain effective professional relationships with such persons, bodies or organisations as the registered person considers appropriate having regard to the range of needs of children for whom it is intended that the children’s home is to provide care and accommodation. (Regulation 5 (d)) 31 July 2024

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Recommendation

 The registered person should actively seek independent scrutiny of the home and make best use of information from independent and internal monitoring (including under regulations 44 and 45) to ensure continuous improvement. (‘Guide to the Children’s Homes Regulations, including the quality standards’, page 55, paragraph 10.24)

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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: 2692638 7

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Children’s home details

Registered provider: Compass Children’s Homes Limited

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Children’s home details

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

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Inspector

Karen Flanagan de Martinez, Social Care Inspector Inspection report for children's home: 2692638 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.

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Inspector

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Inspector

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Inspector

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