Children's Home run by Brighter-Futures-Cymru Limited in South Gloucestershire

Inspection report for children's home: 2701401 1 Registered provider: Brighter-Futures-Cymru Ltd

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Inspected under the social care common inspection framework

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Information about this children’s home

The home provides care for up to three children who have experienced trauma and who have social and emotional difficulties.

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Information about this children’s home

The registered manager has been in post since January 2023.

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Information about this children’s home

At the time of the inspection, two children were living in the home. The home has cared for three children since the last inspection.

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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: 2701401 2

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

12/07/2023 Full Good Inspection report for children's home: 2701401 3

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children like living in the home because they have meaningful relationships with staff, who make them feel valued, prioritised and loved. Interactions between staff and children are playful and respectful. Staff are nurturing and empathetic. They use consistent boundaries to help children understand healthy and safe behaviours.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

When entering the home, it is immediately clear that children live there. Children have developed a strong sense of belonging because staff have decorated the home with their artwork, poetry and photos. Children’s toys and signs of their interests are around the home, including the garden, which has a bug hotel and paintings on the fence.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff are very aware of children’s individual needs and tailor children’s care around these. Children benefit from these individualised approaches as staff offer them the care and support that is going to best suit them. For example, staff might use a direct approach with one child while with another they use bespoke emotion booklets and seek their views and feelings through play. Staff have achieved this through regular conversations with the child, which are empathetic, educational and reflective.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children’s education is prioritised by staff. They work hard to ensure that children attend schools that understand their needs and help them to make progress. Staff have collaborative relationships with schools. However, they will respectfully challenge them to achieve better outcomes for children, for example, highlighting the need for speech and language therapy. They also organised meetings with the schools to agree consistent approaches..

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff are committed to helping children to understand their health needs and support them to access services that are beneficial to their emotional and physical well-being. Staff work collaboratively with social workers and healthcare professionals to make complex decisions regarding the children’s health and well-being. They hold the children’s best interests at the core of these decisions, strongly advocating for them.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children have made good progress from their starting points. Staff support them to expand their lived experiences through hobbies, planned activities and holidays. For example, one child climbed Snowdon for charity and the other child recently returned from a holiday in Paris.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children are supported to spend time with people who are important to them. This includes their parents, siblings, foster carers and friends. Staff are particularly good at helping children to maintain connections with their heritage. For example, staff are teaching one child to speak a dialect commonly used in their community.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

One child has moved out of the home since the last inspection. They were admitted to hospital for specialist care, where they remained for a long time. Staff regularly visited Inspection report for children's home: 2701401 4 the child and the registered manager attended daily meetings with professionals. He took this opportunity to influence decisions about the child’s treatment plan and future care arrangements. He has maintained a relationship with this child and supports them to spend time with their peer, who still lives in the home. The local authority praised the staff for their relentless commitment to this child.

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

Staff have a good understanding of the children’s lived experiences, needs and vulnerabilities. They understand how trauma can impacts children’s development. Staff’s relationship-based approach means they can have open conversations with children.. This helps children to process their lived experiences and to reflect on their behaviours, prompting healthier coping strategies.

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

Staff are proactive in identifying risks and managing them. They are not risk averse and, where possible, they seek to collaborate with children to agree plans that work for them. Staff make good efforts to strike a balance between mitigating risk and allowing children to have age-appropriate freedoms. When children struggle to follow agreed plans, staff tactfully explore this with them, while reiterating boundaries.

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

For one child, there has been a reduction in incidents of going missing from home and self-harm. On the occasions when the child has gone missing, staff carry out extensive searches and work jointly with the police to locate them. Staff comfort the child and give reassurance when they return home. They are curious about the child’s physical and emotional well-being, creating space to check in with them.

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

One child has experienced restraint on a number of occasions after de-escalation strategies have not been effective. In these instances, staff have used the least restrictive restraint, which has been proportionate. Staff support this child to understand the importance of personal space and boundaries. They also help them to maintain a healthy relationship with their peer by making them accountable and encouraging kind behaviours.

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

Overall, risk assessments provide clear and concise guidance to staff. However, pertinent information was missing from one child’s risk assessment. While the child was not adversely impacted by this, the missing information related to an important multi-agency decision.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The registered manager is committed to ensuring the children are safe, make progress and have positive experiences. He strongly advocates for the children’s needs while maintaining relationships with external professionals. He models good practice and has high expectations of staff, quickly addressing any shortfalls in their performance.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Leaders provide staff with thorough inductions and refresher training. This enables them to deliver good care to children. However, staff’s participation in training is not accurately Inspection report for children's home: 2701401 5 recorded. This gives the impression that training is out of date when it is not. Staff have regular supervision and feel supported by managers.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Some missed opportunities for learning and reflection were found across some of the children’s records. However, the registered manager had already identified this and taken action to address it. Staff have recently started ‘formulation meetings’ with the home’s psychologist. They use these meetings to reflect on the children’s behaviours, learn from incidents, and to make positive changes to practice.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

There are plans for the registered manager to step into the responsible individual role. Consequently, he has been searching for a replacement manager while continuing to provide good leadership in the home. There have been three trainee managers in total; two have not been able to fulfil the role. The third trainee manager has been in post since January 2024. He recently submitted an application to become registered. Inspection report for children's home: 2701401 6

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Recommendation

 The registered person should ensure that the workforce plan includes any new training and qualifications completed by staff while working at the home and is used to record the ongoing training and continuing professional development needs of staff, including the home’s manager. (‘Guide to the Children’s Homes Regulations, including the quality standards’, page 53, paragraph 10.8)

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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: 2701401 7

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Children’s home details

Registered provider: Brighter-Futures-Cymru Ltd

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: The Malthouse Business Centre, Malthouse, Regent Street, Llangollen LL20 8HS

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Inspector

Tara Webb, Social Care Regulatory Inspector Inspection report for children's home: 2701401 8 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 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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Inspector

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