Children's Home, Residential special school run by Sheffield City Council in Sheffield

Inspection report for children’s home: SC458115 1 SC458115

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Registered provider: Sheffield 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

This home is run by a local authority and is registered to provide care for up to 19 children with learning disabilities. The accommodation and service are divided into long-term care and short breaks.

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Information about this children’s home

At the time of the inspection, five children were living at the home and no children were receiving short breaks. The home registered with Ofsted in February 2013.

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Information about this children’s home

There has been no registered manager since July 2023. A manager has started in post.

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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 requires improvement to be 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 is not yet delivering good help and care for children and young people. However, there are no serious or widespread failures that result in their welfare not being safeguarded or promoted.

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good

Overall judgement at last inspection: inadequate

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good

Enforcement action since last inspection: none Inspection report for children’s home: SC458115 2

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

10/04/2024 Full Inadequate 21/11/2023 Full Good 22/11/2022 Full Good 22/02/2022 Full Good Inspection report for children’s home: SC458115 3

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improvement to be good

Children live in a large and spacious home which has new facilities, including an arts and crafts and a sensory room. Children’s bedrooms have been redecorated to suit individual children’s needs and interests. Restrictions have been reduced to enable children to have more freedom in the home. However, further work is needed to refresh the decoration and appearance of communal areas and the garden and to review whether locks on doors to communal areas are necessary.

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improvement to be good

When children are upset and are struggling to manage their emotions and feelings, staff, on the whole, are managing these situations well. Staff talk to children to enable them to understand and think about the impact of their behaviour. However, some of these conversations show that some staff have a limited understanding of the reasons for children’s behaviour, and the language used when speaking to children is inappropriate.

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improvement to be good

Staff know the children well and talk about them with warmth and positivity. They understand children’s communication and are responsive to meeting children’s needs. Wherever possible, managers try to make sure children are supported by regular staff. Children’s care plans are well written, holistic and child-centred. These provide staff with key information on children’s needs and how best to support children and help them achieve their goals and outcomes.

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improvement to be good

Staff advocate on behalf of children and challenge the wider system to make sure that professionals fulfil their roles and responsibilities. Staff played a pivotal role in ensuring that a young person had a well-planned transition when leaving the home. They also offer ongoing support to the young person. Staff appropriately challenge education professionals and the police in the interests of children.

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improvement to be good

Children are in good health and attend routine medical appointments. Staff help children to prepare for and understand what will happen at appointments and any changes to their usual routine through social stories.

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improvement to be good

Children enjoy a range of activities in and out of the home. Staff use a variety of ways to record children’s memories of their time living at the home. This includes through a monthly article, in memory scrapbooks and in photobooks. For one of the children, staff created an accessible photobook of their holiday to enable the child to remember it.

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improvement to be good

Staff work well to ensure that families and professionals are kept up to date with important information about children and help children to stay connected to those who mean the most to them. Inspection report for children’s home: SC458115 4

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improvement to be good

Staff do not always recognise, assess and respond well to risks posed to children’s safety. Staff are not sufficiently curious about things happening to reduce the risk of incidents and accidents happening. Children’s risk assessments do not always contain clear information on current risks, and staff have inconsistent understandings of what should be reported as an incident. As a result, opportunities are missed to talk to children and understand how they need to be guided and supported to build resilience and learn new skills and knowledge.

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improvement to be good

Although staff were able to demonstrate an understanding of their roles and responsibilities in safeguarding children during this inspection, there have been some shortfalls in staff appropriately responding to safeguarding concerns. This resulted in one of the children being at increased risk until managers identified and addressed these safeguarding concerns.

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improvement to be good

Staff have received additional training to enable them to have the skills and knowledge to meet emotional and trauma-related needs. Staff feel more confident and have a greater understanding and ability to manage children’s behaviour and incidents effectively.

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improvement to be good

Staff rarely need to hold children. When they do, this is a last resort to prevent greater harm to children or others. Staff talk to children following incidents, but they are not talking to children to enable them to express their wishes or feelings about being held. There have been no incidents of children being missing from home. If children go missing, there are clear missing-from-home protocols in place.

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improvement to be good

Managers make sure that staff appointed to work with children are suitably checked and vetted to reduce the risk of unsuitable people working with children. They also make sure that the regulator is notified of any serious events.

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improvement to be good

Staff are supporting children to develop independence and take proportionate risks which are appropriate to their age and needs. For example, even though children require a high level of supervision, they are supported to form friendships and relationships with other children with as much freedom as possible.

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good

The home has a new management team that consists of a manager and two assistant managers. Senior leaders are more present, which enables them to have an improved view of the quality of children’s care. Staff now know who senior leaders are, and they feel valued, listened to and confident to raise concerns. There is a clear understanding of where the home and the staff team are and a vision for the future. There are clear and realistic plans on how this will be achieved. Inspection report for children’s home: SC458115 5 As a result of the recent changes in the management team, the day-to-day oversight of children’s records and care has not always been maintained. This means that when shortfalls have happened, these have not always been recognised and addressed in a timely way.

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good

Staff now receive regular supervision but the quality of this is variable, and it is not always reflective or representative of children’s needs. A decision was made for appraisals to be paused to support staff well-being during a difficult period of time.

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good

Staff have received additional training on trauma, and there are further plans to expand the training that staff receive to support them to develop their knowledge, skills and confidence further. The oversight of staff training is an area for development as the system in use is not maintained to reflect whether staff have completed the training the provider has set as mandatory for their roles.

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good

There have been improvements made in the organisation of children’s records and in consultation with local relevant people to inform the review of the location of the home. There has not been another review of the quality of care since the last inspection. Senior leaders are taking action to make sure that the visits by an independent person are thorough.

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good

New medicines management systems and storage have been put in place. Regular audits are being completed, which show that errors are reducing, and medicines are being managed safely. Inspection report for children’s home: SC458115 6

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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 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

are familiar with, and act in accordance with, the home’s child protection policies;

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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)(vii)(e)) 10 November

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Requirement Due date

The quality and purpose of care standard is that children receive care from staff who—

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Requirement Due date

understand the children’s homes overall aims and outcomes it seeks to achieve for children;

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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

provide personalised care that meets each child’s needs, as recorded in the child’s relevant plans, taking account of the child’s background.

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Requirement Due date

ensure that the premises used for the purposes of the home are designed and furnished so as to—

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Requirement Due date

enable each child to participate in the daily life of the home. (Regulation 6 (1)(a)(2)(b)(iv)(c)(i)(ii)) 10 November Inspection report for children’s home: SC458115 7 In particular, the registered person must make sure that staff use appropriate language and discussions with children.

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must ensure that all employees—

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Requirement Due date

receive practice-related supervision by a person with appropriate experience; and

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Requirement Due date

have their performance and fitness to perform their roles appraised at least once every year. (Regulation 33 (4)(a)(c)) 10 November

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Requirement Due date

In order to complete a quality of care review the registered person must establish and maintain a system for monitoring, reviewing and evaluating—

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Requirement Due date

the quality of care provided for children;

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Requirement Due date

the feedback and opinions of children about the children’s home, its facilities and the quality of care they receive in it; and

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Requirement Due date

any actions that the registered person considers necessary in order to improve or maintain the quality of care provided for children. (Regulation 45 (2)(a)(b)(c)) 10 November

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Recommendations

 The registered person should make sure that children are given the opportunity to express their feelings about their experience of restraint. (‘Guide to the Children’s Homes Regulations, including the quality standards’, page 50, paragraph 9.60)  The registered person should make sure that any decisions to limit children’s access to any area of the home are only made where this is intended to safeguard children’s welfare. These decisions should be informed by a rigorous assessment that is regularly reviewed. (‘Guide to the Children’s Homes Regulations, including the quality standards’, page 15, paragraph 3.10)

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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: SC458115 8

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Children’s home details

Provision sub-type: Residential special school

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Children’s home details

Registered provider: Sheffield City Council

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: Town Hall, Pinstone Street, Sheffield S1 2HH

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Inspectors

Honor Hamshaw, Social Care Inspector Rachel Fairhurst, His Majesty’s Inspector Inspection report for children’s home: SC458115 9 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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Inspectors

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Inspectors

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Inspectors

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