Children's Home run by Duty of Care Limited in Durham

Inspection report for children’s home: SC392549 1 SC392549 Registered provider: Duty of Care Limited Full inspection Inspected under the social care common inspection framework

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Information about this children’s home

The home is owned and managed by a private provider. It offers care for up to three children who experience social and emotional difficulties.

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Information about this children’s home

The manager registered with Ofsted in May 2016.

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Information about this children’s home

At the time of this inspection, three children were living at the home. The inspector spoke with one child who lives in the home.

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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: requires improvement to be good

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good

Enforcement action since last inspection: none Inspection report for children’s home: SC392549 2

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

05/03/2024 Full Requires improvement to be good 14/02/2023 Full Good 22/06/2021 Full Good 09/07/2019 Full Good Inspection report for children’s home: SC392549 3

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Two children have lived at the home for five and six years. This provides them with stability. Another child has lived at the home for a year but is not as settled as their peers due to a delay in their long-term planning. In these situations, the manager attends meetings to advocate on behalf of children and to represent their views.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children have positive relationships with staff. One child talked about the staff who they will go to and for what. Children are confident about seeking help when they need to. Staff show empathy for children’s feelings, which is important given children’s past experiences and trauma. Staff help children to understand why they feel angry, sad and fed up, and they help them learn how to deal with these emotions in a productive way.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children continue to make progress. One child has sat their GCSE exams. This is a huge achievement, and staff say how proud they are. This child aspires to go to college and is supported by staff with this. The other two children continue to have excellent attendance at school, which supports their learning.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

The manager has addressed the issues raised previously about the home environment. There is a new monitoring tool which allows the manager and staff to see what maintenance tasks are needed. There are clear expectations for high and low priority tasks to ensure that the more urgent repairs are dealt with sooner. This makes sure that children live in a home that meets their needs.

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

Risk assessments for children focus on the vulnerabilities that they are currently experiencing. Tracking systems allow staff to understand if a risk is improving or becoming more serious. There is a better understanding about the model of care and how staff use this daily to help the children, for example staff being curious or asking the right questions to help keep children safer.

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

Children rarely go missing from the home; however, staff know the procedure to follow if this happens. Furthermore, staff attend bite-sized training sessions to ensure that their knowledge remains up to date.

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

Staff use a supportive approach to help children to manage their behaviour. This includes using their good relationship to distract, redirect and help children to understand the rules and boundaries. Further reinforcement by staff is through giving rewards for good behaviour, and children can achieve incentives. There is the occasional consequence to help children to understand the impact of their behaviour on others. Overall, this lessens the need for tougher measures, such as staff needing to physically guide or hold children. The manager now has better management oversight of when these Inspection report for children’s home: SC392549 4 interventions are used. This allows any learning for staff to be identified and implemented quickly.

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

Staff have individual discussions with children about the current challenges that they face, such as vaping or sexual health, to help children understand the impact of their decision-making. Bedroom searches are only carried out when necessary, such as to confiscate vapes. Staff ensure that children know about bedroom searches and give their consent, which enables them to be part of this process and helps them to understand why these steps are needed.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The manager is committed to the children and staff. She has solid, trusted relationships with children and staff alike. The manager knows the children well. She understands the issues that they are experiencing and what support they need from staff.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The manager continues to be dual registered. She manages this home alongside another of the provider’s homes, which involves her also helping staff to care for the children. She understands that this is not sustainable in the longer term.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The manager has prioritised spending time in this home to address the shortfalls identified at the last inspection. Furthermore, changes to the management monitoring systems have improved her oversight of the home. This includes the manager identifying learning opportunities for staff more quickly, particularly in respect of ensuring that staff use the home’s therapeutic model of care for children. As a result, staff’s support to children has improved. In addition, a psychologist helps the team to think about their care for the children and how best to reflect therapeutic parenting in their day-to-day practice.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

There is now a full team of staff. They have worked hard to make sure that children receive continuity of care if there are any staff shortages. Staff work well as a team and support each other. They receive regular supervision sessions, which ensures that they are well supported to discuss the children as well as any personal issues affecting them. This helps the leadership team to respond accordingly. Staff use team meetings as opportunities to reflect on their practice. For example, any changes or learning the manager has identified are discussed to ensure that the staff know what to do.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

There is positive feedback from professionals. They say that there is effective communication about the children for positive days and for days when children struggle. This helps other professionals, such as teachers, to adapt their approach to meet the needs of the children in school. This ensures that children have the response they need daily from the home and school.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Occasionally, and in an emergency, the responsible individual has been involved in the children’s care while they have been at the home. The responsible individual still needs to complete the mandatory training. This was a recommendation from the last inspection and remains unresolved. Inspection report for children’s home: SC392549 5

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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

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

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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

ensure that staff have the experience, qualifications and skills to meet the needs of each child. (Regulation 13 (1)(a)(b) (2)(c))

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Requirement Due date

This specifically relates to ensuring that the responsible individual completes mandatory training. 16 August 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: SC392549 6

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Children’s home details

Registered provider: Duty of Care Limited

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: 13 Front Street, Staindrop, Darlington, County Durham DL2 3LZ

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Children’s home details

Responsible individual: David Heartfield

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Inspector

Miriam Dolman, Social Care Inspector Inspection report for children’s home: SC392549 7 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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