Children's home run by Hull City Council in Kingston upon Hull, City of

Inspection report for children’s home: SC034706 1 SC034706 Registered provider: Kingston upon Hull City Council

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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 run by a local authority. It offers care for up to four children who may experience social and emotional difficulties.

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Information about this children’s home

At the time of the inspection, four children were living in the home and they were spoken with during the inspection.

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Information about this children’s home

The manager registered with Ofsted in January 2019 and is suitably qualified.

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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: SC034706 2

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

04/07/2023 Full Good 26/07/2022 Full Good 02/06/2021 Full Good 08/08/2019 Full Good Inspection report for children’s home: SC034706 3

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

The children speak positively about their relationships with staff. They feel that staff care about them and that they help them to spend time with their families and friends. Children feel that they are treated fairly and with respect. The manager and staff use therapeutic approaches when speaking with children to show them that they are valued and cared about.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

The manager and staff are supporting children with high levels of need and risk. They work with teams who provide specialist support and complete targeted work with the children. The manager and staff are respected as an important part of these multi- agency teams. Their input is said to be ‘invaluable’ when considering how to manage and reduce the risk for children.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children’s education arrangements vary. Some children do not have a school to attend, while other children need help to remove the potential barriers to their learning. The manager and staff work tirelessly with education professionals to ensure that the children receive a formal education. Some children have made progress with their attainment, including sitting exams.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Activities inside and outside of the home are encouraged. Children can choose what they would like to do and who with, and this includes their friends and families coming to the home. The children are looking forward to their planned summer holidays.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children choose to personalise their bedroom. However, one child’s room had evidence of damage that had not been repaired. It also had no window dressing or light shade, which takes away from the homely feel and does not provide adequate privacy for the child.

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

Children do go missing from this home. When this happens, the staff ensure that children are swiftly reported as missing. Staff are proactive in searching for the children and use their knowledge of the child to try and locate them quickly and safely. Work is completed with children after they return to try and understand why they have been missing and reduce the risk of it happening again.

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

Children are at risk of exploitation. The manager and staff are aware of this risk, they understand it, and they are working with specialist agencies to support the children that are victims of this abuse. The manager has researched additional learning material to develop the staff knowledge and responses to exploitation as a risk.

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

Staff understand the risks associated with the children and support them to keep safe. Children’s risk assessments are completed and regularly reviewed. However, there is Inspection report for children’s home: SC034706 4 important information missing from some risk assessments. This includes appropriate physical intervention methods. This could lead to staff not taking the appropriate action to keep a child safe.

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

The home has bedroom door alarms fitted to alert staff to the movement of children leaving their bedrooms. The rationale and consent for the use of this monitoring method are not routinely evidenced and evaluated.

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

Anti-climb spikes have been fitted on the lower roof. Despite this, one child has climbed on the roof and there are concerns that they could come to significant harm should they fall. Anti-climb spikes also make the home stand out from the other homes on the street and do not represent a homely feel.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The registered manager is well liked and respected by the staff and by the wider professional network. She is described as solution-focused, caring and approachable. She will challenge professionals when needed and advocate for children to ensure their voices are heard. She takes a child-centred, therapeutic approach to the care provided to the children and feels this ethos resonates across the whole staff team.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The registered manager has identified that children who leave the home and move on to independence are returning for emotional support. The manager and her staff have developed a resource to complete with children in preparation for their move on from the home. This helps the child to identify their support network and increase their emotional resilience ready for when they move out of the home.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

One child quickly moved into and out of this home. The registered manager has reflected and applied lessons learned from this child’s experience. To prevent children experiencing premature moves, the registered manager has implemented additional pre- admission checks to help to identify if they are unable to meet a child’s needs.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The registered manager has not ensured that all serious events are notified to Ofsted in the timescale specified within the guidance. This affects the regulator’s ability to review them in a timely way.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The registered manager has not ensured that all staff have completed the relevant qualification in the timeframe permitted. Although the staff are now suitably trained, the completion of the qualification has taken some staff longer than the two years allowed for completion. Inspection report for children’s home: SC034706 5

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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 with 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. (Regulation 12 (1) (2)(a)(i))

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Requirement Due date

In particular, information is missing from children’s individual risk assessments and missing protocol documents, which is needed so that staff know what action to take to keep the children safe.

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Requirement Due date

In addition, the registered person must ensure that the garden is a safe space for the children to use, with no hazardous objects that could cause them harm. 16 August 2024

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Recommendations

 The registered person should ensure that all notifications made to the regulator under regulation 40 are submitted within the permitted timeframe. (‘Guide to the Children’s Homes Regulations, including the quality standards’, page 63, paragraph 14.13)  The registered person should ensure that all staff complete the required qualification within the two-year timeframe. (‘Guide to the Children’s Homes Regulations, including the quality standards’, page 53, paragraph 10.12)  The registered person should ensure that each child’s bedroom is equipped with everything they need for the space to provide privacy, is decorated to their taste and is in a good state of repair. (‘Guide to the Children’s Homes Regulations, including the quality standards’, page 16, paragraph 3.19) Inspection report for children’s home: SC034706 6

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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: SC034706 7

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: Kingston upon Hull City Council, The Guildhall, Alfred Gelder Street, Hull HU1 2AA

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Inspector

Gail McGann, Social Care Inspector Inspection report for children’s home: SC034706 8 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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