Children's Home run by Residential Child Care Community (Town Hall) Limited in Lancashire

Inspection report for children’s home: 2675591 1 Registered provider: Residential Childcare Community (Town Hall) 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

This home is owned and managed by a private provider. It provides care for up to five children who may have social and emotional difficulties.

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Information about this children’s home

At the time of the inspection, the home was providing care for three children.

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Information about this children’s home

The manager registered with Ofsted in September 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

Date of last inspection: 18 September 2023

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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: 2675591 2

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

18/09/2023 Full Requires improvement to be good 23/01/2023 Full Good Inspection report for children’s home: 2675591 3

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children are provided with good quality care from a committed and child focused staff team. As a result, children are making good progress. Staff spend time developing their relationships with children and have a clear understanding of their needs. Transitions, both into and out of the home, are managed sensitively by the staff who continue to offer support to children following their move from the home.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff have high aspirations for children and their education is positively promoted. Staff have developed effective communication links with children’s schools and colleges, which means that any barriers to learning are identified as swiftly as possible. One child has recently returned to a school setting after a significant period of receiving tutoring at home. The registered manager was a strong advocate in attaining this transition in line with the child’s views.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff support children to see health professionals when necessary. When children need additional support with their emotional health, staff make appropriate referrals to external agencies, resulting in children receiving therapeutic support where required.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff regularly seek views from children and ensure that activities relating to their interests are promoted. Subsequently, children are provided with opportunities to engage in activities both inside and outside the home. Children have been supported to attend the gym, horse riding, trampoline parks and go on holidays with staff.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children are supported to speak to the people who are important to them. This helps children maintain and often further develop their relationships with their family and friends. Staff are nurturing and show understanding to children when they have experienced challenges in their family relationships.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children say that they are listened to by the staff and that their views are valued. In line with one child’s wishes, the registered manager supported safe and positive family time with their family by providing furniture and decoration for the child’s bedroom at the family home.

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

The home provides children with safe and predictable care. There are clear boundaries and routines in place that support children to understand acceptable behaviours. There is a strong focus in the home of praising positive behaviours which means that formal consequences are rarely used. Staff respond to negative behaviours by using research informed techniques to explore the behaviour with children and identify alternative approaches. Inspection report for children’s home: 2675591 4 Children are rarely missing from the home. When incidents do occur, these are for brief periods and staff speak with children to support them to know how to help keep themselves safe. Staff understand and follow the missing-from-home procedures which are individual to children and reflect their specific needs.

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

The registered manager provides professional challenge to shortfalls in staff practive and undertakes reviews to identify any learning to improve future practice. This is shared with staff to promote a consistent approach, which is in the process of being embedded throughout the staff team.

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

Children understand how to complain with the registered manager ensuring that children can raise any issues both verbally and in written format to meet their individual needs. Appropriate action is taken in response to any allegations or complaints and is well documented. Children are kept informed throughout the process which ensures that they feel confident that their voices are heard.

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

Children’s risk assessments evaluate any known behavioural responses and triggers that may escalate these behaviours further. Staff follow the agreed strategies to support children in crisis. However, there has been an occasion where staff have not accurately followed the child’s care plan regarding supervision in the community. Staff were also delayed in their response to ensure that a child’s environment was safe by completing a room search following an allegation.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The home is managed by a dedicated registered manager who is child centred and leads by example. Staff are overwhelmingly positive about their experiences of working in the home and they feel supported by the registered manager and leadership team.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The registered manager values staff’s views and opinions. Team meetings take place on a regular basis. These are well attended and staff engage positively. The registered manager uses these meetings to review any incidents with the staff team and encourages theoretical evaluation. This enhances the practice of staff and promotes consistent approaches.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

New workers have been recruited to the staff team so that there is sufficient staff to care for children in the home. On the rare occasion non-permanent staff members have worked in the home, the registered manager has ensured that they are appropriately trained and wherever possible are known workers that are familiar to the children.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Staff have regular supervision with the registered manager or senior staff member. Staff members are actively encouraged to develop their practice with clear action plans in place for areas of development. The registered manager supports staff to Inspection report for children’s home: 2675591 5 consistently attend a range of mandatory training and has sought subject specific training based on the individual needs of the children in the home.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The registered manager completes appraisals of staff. However, these do not always record the views of children and other professionals. This is a missed opportunity to support staff to reflect on their practice and inform further development.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The registered manager encourages regular communication with all adults involved in the support of the children. Professionals say they have positive working relationships with the registered manager and the staff team. The registered manager has shown some evidence of making requests for statutory documents and meetings where required. However, there are still some outstanding meetings which have not been escalated which means children’s case files and recordings are not consistently up to date. Inspection report for children’s home: 2675591 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

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.

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Requirement Due date

In particular, the registered person must ensure that staff responded in a consistent and timely manner to concerns raised for children’s welfare by confirming their immediate environment is safe.

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must also ensure that staff follow children’s individual care plans when additional staff are required to supervise children due to the risks faced. 19 August 2024

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must maintain records (“case records”) for each child which—

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Requirement Due date

include the information and documents listed in Schedule 3 in relation to each child;

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Requirement Due date

are kept up to date. (Regulation 36 (1)(a)(b)) 19 August 2024 Inspection report for children’s home: 2675591 7

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Recommendation

 The registered person should include the views of the children and other professionals when completing appraisals with staff. (‘Guide to the Children’s Homes Regulations, including the quality standards,’ page 61, paragraph 13.5)

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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: 2675591 8

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Children’s home details

Registered provider: Residential Childcare Community (Town Hall) Limited

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: 843 Finchley Road, London NW11 8NA

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Inspector

Carrie Mayes, Social Care Inspector Inspection report for children’s home: 2675591 9 regulates 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 children looked after, safeguarding and child protection.

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Inspector

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Inspector

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Inspector

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