Children's Home run by New Focus Child Care LTD in Staffordshire

Inspection report for children's home: 2724906 1 Registered provider: New Focus Childcare 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 home is operated by a private company. It is registered to provide care for up to two children who experience social and emotional difficulties and/or have learning disabilities.

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Information about this children's home

The registered manager left in February 2024. There is now a new manager, recently appointed to the home. They are suitably experienced and qualified and have applied to become registered with Ofsted.

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Overall experiences and progress of

children and young people, taking into account

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requires improvement to be good

How well children and young people are helped and protected requires improvement to be good

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requires improvement to be good

The effectiveness of leaders and managers requires improvement to be good

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requires improvement to be good

The children's home is not yet delivering good help and care for children and young people. However, there are no serious or widespread failures that result in their welfare not being safeguarded or promoted.

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requires improvement to be good

Date of last inspection: 24 October 2023

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requires improvement to be good

Overall judgement at last inspection: good

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requires improvement to be good

Enforcement action since last inspection: none Inspection report for children's home: 2724906 2

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

24/10/2023 Full Good Inspection report for children's home: 2724906 3

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improvement to be good

There are shortfalls in relation to the care provided to the child and the leadership and management within the home. Recent changes in management have impacted upon the consistency of oversight of the child's care. This has resulted in some drift in their care planning.

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improvement to be good

There is one child living at the home and they have been living there since March 2024. Three other children have lived at the home since the last inspection. One child's stay ended after just six days. Managers did not understand the extent of their needs. This resulted in staff being unable to keep them safe. Two children had planned and positive moves from the home.

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improvement to be good

Managers have failed to identify that key documents for the child’s care planning were not shared by the Local Authority. This inhibits the ability of the staff and manager to fully understand the child’s history and needs. Furthermore, the last health review highlighted a need for a referral for an attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) assessment. While this was due to be raised with the new clinical team, there has been an unacceptable delay.

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improvement to be good

Staff have arranged and helped the child to attend health appointments. The child smokes and staff have talked to them about the negative impact of smoking to discourage this. However, there has been no escalation to make referrals to health agencies to address this need.

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improvement to be good

The child is not accessing any formal education. Staff have helped the child secure a college placement, for the new school year. Managers have worked in partnership with the social worker. However, managers have not escalated a concern about the lack of interim arrangements. Staff have embedded a good daily routine for the child, in preparation for returning to the structure of education.

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improvement to be good

The child has a good relationship with staff and managers. They will seek out staff company and is happy to go out to activities with them. The home has photos of the child on display, and their bedroom is personalised, this gives them a sense of pride. Staff help the child to keep in touch and spend time with family members.

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improvement to be good

Managers and staff support the child’s hobbies and interests. For example, the child is an active member of a trampoline club. Staff exhibit pride in celebrating the child’s success at sporting competitions. Inspection report for children's home: 2724906 4

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improvement to be good

Managers have written plans that identify the child’s risks. However, these are not always written in a sufficiently clear way to enable staff to understand the strategies needed to keep the child safe. As a result, measures are not consistently followed. For example, the timeliness of welfare checks when the child is at unsupervised activities. Records do not show that these are conducted in accordance with the child’s plans.

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improvement to be good

The manager has recently taken steps to increase the child’s online safety. However, strategies are not yet fully effective, as they continue to access inappropriate videos in their bedroom. Staff have talked to the child about online safety to help them learn about keeping themselves safe. However, an action in the child’s plan was for the Police Community Support officer to visit, this has not taken place. As a result, the child has not been helped to understand the potential legal implications of inappropriate social media use.

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improvement to be good

A bedroom door alarm is in use on the child’s room. There is no assessed need, consent, or review of this surveillance. This impinges on the child’s privacy. There has been a lack of curiosity by managers and staff to resolve this matter. There are also some minor gaps in safer recruitment checks.

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improvement to be good

Staff do promote positive behaviour at the home. For the child that currently lives at the home, there have been minimal behavioural incidents. Staff have used planned strategies in managing unwanted behaviours. Staff implement guidance and boundaries. When these have changed, managers and staff talk with the child, to help them to understand and accept these changes.

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improvement to be good

Staff have been proactive when the child has left the home with heightened emotions. The staff’s persistence and nurturing approach has prevented these occasions escalating into the child running away. The risk of children running away from the home is considered in children's plans and staff have clear guidance of how to prevent and respond.

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improvement to be good

Staff actions help the child to feel protected and safe at the home. There is a structured approach to increasing the child’s unsupervised time. This is effective in promoting their independence.

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

There has been significant changes in leadership and management at the home. This has led to delays in managers taking effective action to progress plans for the child.

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

Managers have notified the regulator of serious incidents at the home. However, follow- up actions have not always been completed. For example, a concern over staff mobile phone use exposing children to personal content, did not result in a review of the policy, Inspection report for children's home: 2724906 5 as the notification stated it would. Furthermore, managers have not ensured that staff can access the homes policies and procedures. This leaves staff without adequate guidance for the care and protection of children.

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

While managers have monitored the quality of care at the home, they have failed to share information about any lessons learnt. This has largely hampered the development of the staff team and practice at the home.

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

Staff are not trained in the model of care, as set out in the home’s statement of purpose. Staff have had training in a range of topics, this in part equips them well for caring for children. However, managers do not currently understand the development needs of the staff team. There is no clear plan of what skills and training staff are required to complete, to ensure that they are competent to provide quality care to children.

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

There is a consistent staff team at the home, with only minimal changes of staff. There have been no agency staff used. Staff receive supervision, this is supportive of their well-being and development. Staff are committed to their roles, and they are progressing with their qualifications.

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

The newly appointed manager and responsible individual know what needs to be done to improve children’s experiences and progress at the home. However, the shortfalls and delays for some actions, are resulting in a reduction in the quality of the care the child receives at the home. Inspection report for children's home: 2724906 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 secure the input and services required to meet each child's needs;

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Requirement Due date

if the registered person considers, or staff consider, a placing authority's or a relevant person's performance or response to be inadequate in relation to their role, challenge the placing authority or the relevant person to seek to ensure that each child's needs are met in accordance with the child's relevant plans; (Regulation 5 (a)(b)(c))

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Requirement Due date

This specifically relates to managers ensuring that they have a copy of and understand children's Local Authority care plans.

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Requirement Due date

This also relates to managers taking prompt action to seek relevant assessments and services to meet children's health needs, such as smoking cessation.

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Requirement Due date

This also relates to managers ensuring that they escalate concerns and challenge any delay in provision of services, such as education. 31 July 2024

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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 that staff—

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Requirement Due date

assess whether each child is at risk of harm, taking into account information in the child's relevant plans, and, if necessary, make arrangements to reduce the risk of any harm to the child; 31 July 2024 Inspection report for children's home: 2724906 7 help each child to understand how to keep safe;

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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)(i)(ii)(b))

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Requirement Due date

This specifically relates to managers ensuring that children have risk assessments that are updated and clearly set out actions staff must take to keep children safe.

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Requirement Due date

This also relates to ensuring that staff complete all actions set out in children's plans consistently.

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Requirement Due date

This also relates to ensuring that safer recruitment checks are made for all staff who provide care to children.

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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 promotes their welfare.

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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

lead and manage the home in a way that is consistent with the approach and ethos, and delivers the outcomes, set out in the home's statement of purpose;

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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

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

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Requirement Due date

This specifically relates to managers ensuring that staff are trained and skilled to deliver the model of care as set out in the home’s statement of purpose.

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Requirement Due date

This also relates to managers having a clear plan of what skills and training staff must have to equip them to provide safe and good quality care to children. 31 July 2024 Inspection report for children's home: 2724906 8 This also relates to managers embedding monitoring and review systems. Additionally, that learning from monitoring is shared to bring about improvements.

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Requirement Due date

The registered person may only use devices for the monitoring or surveillance of children if—

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Requirement Due date

the monitoring or surveillance is for the purpose of safeguarding and promoting the welfare of the child concerned, or other children;

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Requirement Due date

the child's placing authority consents in writing to the monitoring or surveillance;

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Requirement Due date

so far as reasonably practicable in the light of the child's age and understanding, the child is informed in advance of the intention to do the monitoring or surveillance; and

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Requirement Due date

the monitoring or surveillance is no more intrusive than necessary, having regard to the child's need for privacy. (Regulation 24 (1)(a)(b)(c)(d)) 31 July 2024

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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: 2724906 9

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Children's home details

Registered provider: New Focus Childcare Ltd

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Children's home details

Registered provider address: Unit A4, Dewsbury Road, Fenton Industrial Estate, Stoke-on-Trent ST4 2TE

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Inspectors

Alison Snell, Social Care Inspector Caoimhe Richards, Social Care Inspector Inspection report for children's home: 2724906 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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