Children's Home run by Advocate Recruitment Ltd in Gateshead

Inspection report for children’s home: 2656590 1 Registered provider: Advocate Recruitment 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

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

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Information about this children’s home

There were three children living at the home at the time of this inspection. The inspector spoke to one child during the inspection.

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Information about this children’s home

The manager registered with Ofsted in February 2022.

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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: 2656590 2

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

26/06/2023 Full Good 12/07/2022 Full Requires improvement to be good Inspection report for children’s home: 2656590 3

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Some of the children have remained living at the home since the last inspection. This provides them with stability and allows them to develop deeper bonds with the staff team.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

The dynamics within the peer group have noticeably improved. The children spend time together in the communal areas chatting to each other and planning activities together. For example, there is a ‘Come Dine with Me’ challenge where children plan and cook their own menu for the house. This develops the children’s relationships as they get to know each other.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children are at the centre of everything that the staff team do. The voice of the child and their wishes and feelings are important. The children have a lot of opportunities to say what they want and how they feel. However, not all the language used in records is caring, and this is not helpful for children when they read their records now or in the future.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children attend school or college. One child has been supported by staff with their mock exams and revision. Another child is now going to school after a long gap and has good attendance since living at the home. There are some challenges for one child, which sometimes impacts on their ability to go to college. Staff have a good understanding about the barriers they face and are continually looking for ways to support them. For example, the child can attend smaller classes and are with a tutor that they like.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

All the children are learning new life skills. One child has made progress with practical tasks such as budgeting, shopping and cooking. This will help children develop independent living skills for when they are ready to leave the home.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children receive support from staff if they experience mental health issues. This includes receiving excellent help and encouragement to work with specific mental health services. As a result, children’s emotional well-being improves.

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

Staff know the key issues that affect children well, such as self-harming behaviours, social anxiety or going missing from care. The risk assessments are thorough, although one child’s risk assessment had not been updated. However, staff speak with confidence about what the children’s risks and vulnerabilities are, what behaviours to look out for and what action they need to take to keep children safer.

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

Staff act when the risks to children escalate, such as an increase in the times when children self-harm. Staff support children during times of crisis and take additional steps, such as completing bedroom searches and obtaining medical assistance, and they follow Inspection report for children’s home: 2656590 4 advice from other professionals. Children learn to trust staff and share their feelings. They also have access to extra emotional support from external providers, which helps them talk about their feelings and learn strategies to manage them. Additionally, staff receive extra training to make sure that they have the skills to help children with their emotional well-being.

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

Children’s trusting relationships with staff helps to promote positive behaviour. Additionally, staff use consequences and rewards. This approach is successful as staff are consistent with all the children. As a result, staff rarely need to hold or guide children to keep them and others safe.

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

Staff talk to the children about worries and concerns that they have for their safety, for example when a child returns from going missing from care. This discussion helps children to understand why staff are worried about them, and it encourages them to consider their actions in the future.

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

There has been an increase in the times that one child has been missing from the home. Staff take action to find and contact children when they are away from home. However, if a child leaves the home and says that they are not coming back, staff are not always consistent in their approach. There is no guidance within the child’s missing from care protocol, and this is a missed opportunity for staff to intervene at an early stage to encourage children to come back to the home.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The manager cares about the children and wants what is best for them. She involves herself in the day-to-day routines within the home. This results in good relationships developing with the children and the staff. This has not taken away from her managerial tasks or oversight of the care provided.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The manager will make tough decisions. For example, if she assesses that the team is unable to meet a child’s needs or keep them safe, she will request that the child moves to a more suitable home. The manager is realistic about what the team can achieve. When a child has needed to move from the home, the manager has used this as a learning opportunity, for example to inform the admissions process for when a new child is due to move in to the home. Changes have been made to the information gathered at the point of referral in order to enable the manager to understand the needs of prospective children in a more detailed way. This is in its infancy and still needs to be embedded in practice to help avoid unnecessary moves for children in the future.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The home has recently developed an escalation process to challenge professional bodies when information or plans are not provided or more information is needed. However, one pathway plan and a care plan have not been received, and these are now outside the required timescales. This means that the manager is still not appropriately challenging placing authorities. Inspection report for children’s home: 2656590 5 There is a stable staff team and some staff have worked at the home for a long time. When there was a need for more staff to support a child, the manager asked for the same group of agency staff to work in the home. By limiting the number of people caring for the children, this provides some consistency for the children.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The commitment from the staff team to the children is visible. The team works well together and staff say that they like working there. Staff feel well supported by the leadership and management team. There is a culture of learning and the manager and team are open to feedback. This enables discussions to take place to consider how to improve the care they are providing for children and to make sure that amendments are made as the children’s needs change.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The feedback from other professionals is universally positive. They say that the children have safe care and that the staff advocate for them. Inspection report for children’s home: 2656590 6

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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 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; and

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Requirement Due date

that the effectiveness of the home’s child protection policies is monitored regularly. (Regulation 12 (1) (2)(a)(i)(e))

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Requirement Due date

In particular, the manager needs to ensure the missing process involves all missing scenarios and that risk assessments are always updated after significant events. 27 September 2024

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Requirement Due date

In meeting the quality standards, the registered person must, and must ensure that staff—

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Requirement Due date

if the registered person considers, or staff consider, a placing authority’s or a relevant person’s performance or response to be inadequate in relation to their role, challenge the placing authority or the relevant person to seek to ensure that each child’s needs are met in accordance with the child’s relevant plans. (Regulation (5)(c))

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Requirement Due date

In particular, the manager needs to use the new escalation policy to challenge local authorities about children’s missing documents. 27 September 2024 Inspection report for children’s home: 2656590 7

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Recommendations

 The registered person should ensure that staff are familiar with the home’s policies on record-keeping and understand the importance of careful, objective, and clear recording. In particular, ensure that supervision records reflect the detail of discussions. (‘Guide to the Children’s Homes Regulations, including the quality standards’, page 24, paragraph 14.4)  The registered person should ensure that staff record information on individual children in a non-stigmatising way that distinguishes between fact, opinion, and third- party information. Information about the child must always be recorded in a way that will be helpful to the child. (‘Guide to the Children’s Homes Regulations, including the quality standards’, page 24, paragraph 14.4)

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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: 2656590 8

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Children’s home details

Registered provider: Advocate Recruitment Limited

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: Bell Anderson, Lindum, 264–266 Durham Road, Gateshead NE8 4JR

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Inspector

Miriam Dolman, Social Care Inspector Inspection report for children’s home: 2656590 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 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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