Children's home run by Keys Child Care Limited

Inspection report for children’s home: 2701927 1 Registered provider: Keys Child Care 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 run by a private organisation. It provides care for up to five children who may experience social, emotional or behavioural needs.

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Information about this children’s home

The manager is qualified to level 5 and registered with Ofsted in July 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: good

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good

Enforcement action since last inspection: none Inspection report for children’s home: 2701927 2

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

27/04/2023 Full Good Inspection report for children’s home: 2701927 3

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

This home provides children with a good standard of care. Staff are warm and caring to the children. Professionals are positive about the care that staff provide children. The manager has good oversight of the home and staff say that they feel part of a ‘family’.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Four children were living in the home at the time of the inspection. One child has moved into the home this inspection year. The manager ensured that the child’s move was well planned.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff meet children’s health needs quickly and effectively. They support children to attend specialist health appointments. This helps staff understand the children’s additional vulnerabilities.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

The staff support children well with their education. They help children to attend school or college. When children are unable to access education, staff plan enriching and meaningful educational opportunities.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff are curious about the children in their care. They show an interest in children’s likes and dislikes. This helps them to plan varied and meaningful activities with children. Children have visited dog shows and crocodile parks. One child is looking forward to their first trip abroad later this year. The responsible individual also visits children weekly. They take the children out for treat nights. These activities broaden children’s social experiences and help them to share their wishes and feelings.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children know how to make a complaint. The manager offers restorative options such as mediation and responds to children by letter. She has also made sure that concerns about potential bullying among children have been addressed.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children spend meaningful time with family and friends. Staff understand the need to build and sustain children’s relationships with their families. One child had not seen their family since their early childhood. Staff worked with the child’s social worker. They made a memory book for the child. It had photographs of their early childhood and wider family. This helped the child to feel some connection with their birth family and spend time with them.

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

Children feel safe in the home. Social workers and independent reviewing officers all agree that children are safe living in the home. One child’s mental health worker said that the child was safer for having lived in the home. They said that staff had been ‘exceptional’ in the support that they have offered their child at a time of great crisis.

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

Staff are proactive when children are missing or leave the home without agreement. They search for children and work tenaciously with police and social workers. Staff Inspection report for children’s home: 2701927 4 advocate for children to have return home interviews. They also welcome the children back warmly.

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

Staff understand children’s vulnerabilities. Children’s risk assessments are detailed, but lengthy. The manager is currently implementing more simplified ‘grab sheets’. One child’s grab sheet did not match all the risk ratings in their main risk assessment. However, this was an administrative error and had not led to a safeguarding concern. The manager rectified it immediately.

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

Staff speak to the children about what they are worried about. They write ‘keyworks’ with children and share them in a letter to them. Staff have completed some sensitive work with children. However, the language used to record this work is not consistently written in a child-friendly way. The language used can infer that children are to blame for their own vulnerability. This is not in line with the therapeutic ethos of the home’s statement of purpose.

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

At the time of the inspection, staff had not adequately assessed the potential risks of one child storing an unlocked toolbox in their bedroom. They had also not updated a child’s written razor agreement when the child’s risk changed. The manager had relied on a verbal update to staff. Not all staff were aware of this update, and this meant that staff did not store the child’s razors safely.

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

Staff’s use of consequences is not always proportionate. One child was banned from having snacks. In addition, time limits for consequences are not always clear and the language used by staff is not consistently therapeutic.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The suitably qualified and registered manager is aspirational for the home and has a clear focus on staff development. She is supported by an aspirational, warm and child- focused responsible individual, who offers the manager challenge and support. The manager is supported by other managers in the organisation.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The manager has improved the home’s induction process. She has introduced a competency-based questionnaire that is completed at the end of new staff’s probation period. This ensures that staff are knowledgeable about their role and know how to support the children. Staff feel well supported by managers.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Children are supported by competent, knowledgeable staff who are trained to meet children’s needs. The manager regularly reviews staff’s training needs to ensure that training is meaningful and enables staff to provide good-quality care.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

External professionals say that children are safer since living at the home. One professional attributes this to the manager taking advice and feedback from other professionals in the children’s network. Inspection report for children’s home: 2701927 5 Children and staff understand the risks present in the local community. The manager identifies local risks and consults with services local to the home to reduce these risks.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The manager ensures that staff are suitable by following safer recruitment processes. She takes steps to ensure that there are sufficient skilled staff supporting the children.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Staff supervision sessions are not always held regularly. Staff are not always prompted to reflect on their practice with children. This does not help staff to develop good practice. Inspection report for children’s home: 2701927 6

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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

understand the roles and responsibilities in relation to protecting children that are assigned to them by the registered person. (Regulation 12 (1) (2)(a)(v)) 3 June 2024

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Requirement Due date

The following measures may not be used to discipline any child—

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Requirement Due date

any punishment of children involving the deprivation of food or drink. (Regulation 19 (2)(b)) 3 June 2024

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Recommendations

 The registered person should ensure that records relating to children are written in child-friendly language and that language used to describe children is appropriate. (‘Guide to the Children’s Homes Regulations, including the quality standards’, page 62, 14.4)  The registered person should ensure that there are systems in place so that all staff, including the manager, receive supervision of their practice from an appropriately qualified and experienced professional, which allows them to reflect on their practice and the needs of the children assigned to their care. (‘Guide to the Children’s Homes Regulations, including the quality standards’, page 61, 13.2) Inspection report for children’s home: 2701927 7

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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: 2701927 8

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Children’s home details

Registered provider: Keys Child Care Ltd

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: Maybrook House, Second Floor, Queensway, Halesowen B63 4AH

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Inspectors

Majella Russell, Social Care Inspector Andrea Bounden, Social Care Inspector Inspection report for children’s home: 2701927 9 and inspects 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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Inspectors

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Inspectors

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Inspectors

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