Children's Home run by Northamptonshire Children’s Trust Limited in West Northamptonshire

Inspection report for children’s home: 2608968 1 Registered provider: Northamptonshire Children’s Trust 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 run by a voluntary provider. It provides care for up to six children and young people who need support with social and emotional difficulties.

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Information about this children’s home

The home is led by a manager who is qualified and registered with Ofsted.

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Information about this children’s home

There are currently four children living in the home. Three children were seen during the inspection, but only two children were spoken to.

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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 requires improvement to be 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: 2608968 2

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

04/07/2023 Full Good 15/11/2022 Full Good 20/10/2021 Full Good Inspection report for children’s home: 2608968 3

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children’s bedrooms are decorated and personalised to reflect their taste. The home has a warm, calm and relaxing atmosphere. Children say they are happy living at the home. They have positive relationships with staff.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff have high aspirations for children. Children are enrolled and attend education. When children are unable to attend school externally, the home has a designated resourced space to facilitate learning for children. Children benefit from the independent living skills work offered by a chef working at the home. Through this work, some children have managed to attain Level 1 Food Hygiene certificates. For one child they were able to use this to seek employment.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

The team works effectively with other professionals. They advocate on behalf of children to ensure that they receive the right support. For some children this has supported them in being able to process past trauma.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children have key-work sessions completed with them by staff on various important topics. However, the quality of work is compromised due to a lack of professional curiosity in discussions with children to further explore and manage risk. Staff do not always capture the full conversations held with children. This can lead to missed opportunities where safety can be created for children. Staff’s recordings about children have not always respected children’s choices in regard to how they choose to identify as a person.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children have care plans and risk assessments in place. These inform staff of children’s needs, risks and how they should respond. Children’s plans are lengthy and not child friendly. The language in children’s records sometimes reads as blaming and does not support positive relationships.

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

When children go missing from care, staff are proactive in locating them. They work closely with the police and the child’s network to ensure that children are quickly found. Children are offered return home interviews and are encouraged to engage in the interviews. Following missing-from-care episodes staff regularly monitor children to make sure they are safe. This was observed during the inspection.

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

Staff can identify risks in the community for children. They actively consider ways to disrupt negative influences to reduce risk. For one child, their family time was brought forward. Staying in a different location with their parent allowed the child to disengage, and this reduced the risk for the child. Inspection report for children’s home: 2608968 4 Staff are attuned to children’s behaviours and triggers. They engage children when they are unsettled and explore the reasons behind this. Staff use effective de-escalation techniques to support children. Consequently, children have not been involved in many physical interventions.

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

Children know how to complain. For one child, the manager has responded to their complaint in detail. The manager has talked the child through their response in order to support the child’s understanding of the complaint outcome. The manager understands that children need to know that they are listened to, and that their worries are taken seriously.

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

Children are involved in fire drills. However, staff need to ensure that children have appropriate personal evacuation plans that support their individual needs.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: requires improvement to be good

The home is managed by a suitably qualified manager, supported by an assistant team manager. Together, managers are aspirational for children and staff. The manager acknowledges the areas of improvement and is in the process of developing effective monitoring systems that support oversight of the home.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: requires improvement to be good

The oversight of staff supervision is poor. For one member of staff, there were no supervision records for a period of six months. Staff supervision records are not reflective. Discussions with staff do not cover the important areas, such as management responsibilities, areas of development and performance. This can lead to missed opportunities of addressing poor practice or identifying staff’s developmental needs.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: requires improvement to be good

The manager is well thought of by professionals. Staff and professionals speak positively about his tenacity in escalating and advocating on behalf of children. Staff feel supported and can raise concerns.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: requires improvement to be good

Managers do not have robust monitoring and reviewing systems in place. The oversight of staff training is compromised by records of staff training not being visible and accessible on the computer system. Children’s records have not received the appropriate management oversight.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: requires improvement to be good

Staff team meetings take place, and they discuss key issues for the children. There is little reflection and learning from the meetings to support how staff practice could be improved to positively impact the care provided to children.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: requires improvement to be good

Not all significant safeguarding incidents have been reported to Ofsted. Inspection report for children’s home: 2608968 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, 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 registered person must notify HMCI and each other relevant person without delay if—

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Requirement Due date

a child protection enquiry involving a child —

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Requirement Due date

concludes (in which case, the notification must include the outcome of the child protection enquiry); or

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Requirement Due date

there is any other incident relating to a child which the registered person considers to be serious. (Regulation 40 (4)(d)(i)(ii)(e)) 30 September 2024

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Requirement Due date

The children’s views, wishes and feelings standard is that children receive care from staff who—

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Requirement Due date

develop positive relationships with them;

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Requirement Due date

take their views, wishes and feelings into account in relation to matters affecting the children’s care and welfare and their lives. (Regulation 7(1)(a)(b)(c))

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Requirement Due date

In particular, this refers to staff having and recording reflective conversations with children, asking children direct questions to ensure management of risk for children and using non-blaming language on children’s records.

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Requirement Due date

This also refers to staff referring to and recording children’s preference for how they wish to be identified. 31 October 2024

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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— 31 October 2024 Inspection report for children’s home: 2608968 6 helps children aspire to fulfil their potential; and

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Requirement Due date

In particular, the standard in paragraph (1) requires the

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Requirement Due date

demonstrate that practice in the home is informed and improved by taking into account and acting on—

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Requirement Due date

research and developments in relation to the ways in which the needs of children are best met; and

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Requirement Due date

use monitoring and review systems to make continuous improvements in the quality of care provided in the home. (Regulation 13 (g)(i)(h))

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Requirement Due date

This specially refers to leaders and managers making sure that staff complete mandatory training to ensure that staff can provide safe care to children.

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Requirement Due date

This also refers to leaders and managers making sure that there is management oversight of children’s plans, and that staff supervision records, training records and significant events records are accessible and visible to legitimate people with reasons to view these records.

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Recommendations

 The registered person should ensure that all children’s case records (regulation 36) must be stored securely whilst they remain in the home. Children’s records should be held at the individual home in accordance with data protection principles. (‘Guide to the Children’s Homes Regulations, including Guidance on Chapter 5 of the regulations- policies, records, complaints and notifications’, page 61, paragraph 14.2, and page 62, paragraph 14.3)  The registered person should ensure the home has enough suitably trained staff on duty to meet the assessed needs of all children in the home. (Guide to the Children’s Homes Regulations, including the leadership and management standard’, page 51, paragraph 10.1)  The registered person should ensure that children must feel safe and be safe. Staff should support children to be aware of and manage their own personal safety inside the home to the extent that any good parent would. (‘Guide to the Children’s Homes

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Recommendations

Regulations, including the protection of children standard’, page 43, paragraph 9.9) Inspection report for children’s home: 2608968 7

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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: 2608968 8

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Children’s home details

Registered provider: Northamptonshire Children’s Trust Limited

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: One Angel Square, Angel Street, Northampton, Northamptonshire NN1 1ED

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Inspector

Netsai Muzuva, Social Care Inspector Inspection report for children’s home: 2608968 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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