Children's home run by North East Lincolnshire Council

Inspection report for children’s home: SC394101 1 SC394101 Registered provider: North East Lincolnshire 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 managed by a local authority. The home provides care for up to three children who may experience social and emotional difficulties.

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Information about this children’s home

Three children were living in the home at the time of the inspection. All three children were spoken with.

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Information about this children’s home

The home is managed by a suitably qualified and experienced manager who registered with Ofsted in November 2023. The registered manager was present throughout the 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: requires improvement to be good

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good

Enforcement action since last inspection: none Inspection report for children’s home: SC394101 2

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

07/06/2023 Full Requires improvement to be good 17/08/2022 Full Requires improvement to be good 03/03/2022 Interim Improved effectiveness 29/09/2021 Full Requires improvement to be good Inspection report for children’s home: SC394101 3

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children make progress in the home and have positive experiences due to the strong and trusted relationships that they build with the staff. The staff enjoy spending time with the children and getting to know them. This helps the staff to understand and meet the individual needs of the children living in the home. It also helps the staff to know how the children can be supported to achieve their goals and ambitions.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children are welcomed into the home in a planned and child-centred way. Before a child moves into the home, relevant information is gathered to assess if the staff can provide the right care and support for the child. This supports children to quickly settle into the home and reduces the risk of children having to move on from the home in an unplanned way.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

The staff are ambitious for children and assist them to make progress in education. If a child is struggling to take part in formal education, the staff work closely with education providers, the child’s social worker and the virtual school to find ways in which the child’s education needs can be met. In addition, the staff find creative ways to engage the children in educational activities in the home and the community.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children are supported by the staff to access universal and specialist health services. If children are reluctant to attend health appointments, the staff have conversations with the children about the benefits of being physically and emotionally healthy. This has aided one child to attend all routine health appointments and another child to accept specialist support for their emotional well-being.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

The children are provided with a range of opportunities to take part in many different activities that are aligned with their individual interests. This allows the children to have an enjoyable experience while living in the home, develop new skills and build positive memories.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

The staff assist the children to spend time with their family members and friends, where it is safe to do so. This allows the children to maintain relationships with the people that matter the most to them and develop a support network outside of the home.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children’s achievements and important milestones are captured in well-presented memory books and memory boxes. Photos, memorabilia and accompanying narratives help the children to feel valued and understand their time in the home.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children are encouraged by the staff in numerous ways to express their wishes and feelings. The children’s views have an impact and influence with respect to meal planning, activities, holidays, the way their bedrooms are decorated and furnished and the decor of the home. However, not all children know what to do should they wish to make a complaint about the care that they receive while living in the home. This shortfall Inspection report for children’s home: SC394101 4 prevents children from sharing concerns they have about their care with external professionals and may impact on their progress and safety while living in the home.

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

Children feel safe in the home and are comfortable in their surroundings. One child said, ‘I would rate the home 10 out 10, I feel safe and there is always someone to talk to.’ Professionals said they felt assured about the staff’s ability to keep children living in the home safe.

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

The staff understand the risks children are vulnerable to and how to manage these. Risk assessments and safety plans are easy to understand and are regularly reviewed and updated following incidents. This helps the staff to know how to keep children safe when changes in the children’s behaviours occur.

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

The quality of the children’s risk assessments and safety plans have contributed towards a significant reduction in self-harm for two of the children living in the home. However, for one child, risks concerning sexual health have not been included in the child’s plans. Although the staff have supported the child with their sexual health, this shortfall prevents staff from keeping this risk under review.

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

Staff understand and follow the children’s individualised missing-from-home plans when children go missing. This includes staff looking for children when they go missing. When children return home, the staff have discussions with children to try to identify why the child went missing and the staff can then help the child to prevent further instances. This has resulted in a significant reduction in episodes of going missing for two children.

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

Staff promote positive behaviour in the home by keeping up to date with relevant training, involving children in developing their behavioural support plans and following these plans when children become unsettled. This has resulted in children rarely being physically held by the staff. On the one occasion where a child was held, this was done as a last resort to ensure the safety of the child and others in the home.

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

The staff understand their roles and responsibilities in keeping children safe. The staff have a good understanding of contextual safeguarding and self-harm and know how to respond when they are concerned about a child’s safety. Unfortunately for one child, this has not prevented them from being subject to a criminal investigation.

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

Searches of children’s rooms, personal possessions and mobile phone checks are only undertaken when the staff are worried about the safety of the children living in the home. These measures are detailed within the children’s individual risk assessments and completed with the consent and knowledge of the child. This helps to keep children safe while, at the same time, promoting their dignity.

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

Staff are subject to safer recruitment processes when employed to reduce the risk of unsuitable adults working in the home. Inspection report for children’s home: SC394101 5

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The home is managed by a permanent and suitably qualified registered manager who is supported by an experienced responsible individual and deputy manager. Leaders and managers are child-centred and committed to providing a home environment that helps children to flourish.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Leaders and managers closely monitor the safety and progress of the children living in the home by being visible in the home and building relationships with the children. In addition, a comprehensive monthly monitoring tool supports leaders and managers to have good oversight of and evaluate the progress that the children are making and take suitable action when concerns arise.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Staff enjoy working in the home. They describe a supportive and resilient team where staff learn from one another. The staff feel supported in their role through regular supervision, appropriate training and regular team meetings. The staff have confidence in the leaders and managers of the home.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Although practice-based supervision takes place regularly, supervision records do not always evidence reflective practice and are not consistently signed and dated. In addition, not all staff have completed relevant training in food hygiene and infection control. Although these shortfalls have had no impact on the children living in the home, they do not align with the home’s statement of purpose.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Professionals report a positive working relationship with the registered manager and her staff team. They describe the registered manager and the staff as knowing the children well and being good advocates for the children. The strength of professional relationships promotes the children’s safety and progress.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The registered manager and staff provide a safe, well-maintained, spacious and clean home environment for children. The home looks and feels like a family home for children. One professional said that the home is ‘one of the nicest homes’ and is like a ‘home from home’.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Leaders and managers value feedback from external monitoring by the independent visitor to continually review, evaluate and make improvements to the quality of care provided to the children. However, the independent scrutiny provided by the independent visitor lacks feedback from the children and their family members. This shortfall prevents the registered manager and Ofsted from having a thorough understanding of the experience of the children living in the home.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The home’s statement of purpose is kept under regular review by the manager and submitted to Ofsted in a timely way. However, it lacks information about the experience and qualifications of staff, arrangements for staff supervision and how the gender imbalance within the staff team is mitigated against so the children have a range of Inspection report for children’s home: SC394101 6 positive role models. This lack of information does not assist social workers when they are considering if the home is suitable to meet the needs of a child.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The registered manager reviews the suitability of the premises monthly. While the review assesses the suitability of the home in terms of the safety of children, it does not provide information about the local area and the services that children can access, such as local amenities, places of worship and health and education services. Inspection report for children’s home: SC394101 7

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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 leadership and management standard is that the registered person enables, inspires and leads a culture in relation to the children’s home that—

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Requirement Due date

helps children aspire to fulfil their potential; and

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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

lead and manage the home in a way that is consistent with the approach and ethos, and delivers the outcomes, set out in the home’s statement of purpose;

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Requirement Due date

ensure that staff have the experience, qualifications and skills to meet the needs of each child;

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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 (1)(a)(b) (2)(a)(c)(h))

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Requirement Due date

I n particular, the registered person must ensure that all plans contain all known risks; that all supervision records are of good quality, evidence reflective practice and are signed and dated by the supervisee and supervisor; that the independent visitor reports include feedback from children, staff and parents and family members; and that all staff complete mandatory training, including food hygiene and infection control. 1 September 2024 Inspection report for children’s home: SC394101 8

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Recommendations

 The registered provider should ensure that all children in the home are aware of the complaints procedure and remind children of this procedure as necessary. (‘Guide to the Children’s Homes Regulations, including the quality standards,’ pages 22 and 23, paragraph 4.13)  The registered person should ensure that the home’s statement of purpose contains details of the experience and qualifications of staff. It should also include details of arrangements for professional supervision of staff. Also, if the staff are all of one sex, or mainly of one sex, it should include a description of how the home promotes appropriate role models of both sexes. (‘Guide to the Children’s Home Regulations, including the quality standards’, page 14, paragraph 3.5)  The registered person should ensure that the home is suitably located so that children are safeguarded effectively and can access services to meet the needs

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Recommendations

identified in their relevant plans. This includes details of access to local amenities, health and education provisions. (‘Guide to the Children’s Home Regulations, including the quality standards’, page 64 paragraph 15.1)

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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: SC394101 9

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Children’s home details

Registered provider: North East Lincolnshire Council

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: Civic Offices, Knoll Street, Cleethorpes DN35 8LN

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Inspectors

Shirin Khan, Social Care Inspector Vikki Thwaites, Social Care Inspector Inspection report for children’s home: SC394101 10 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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Inspectors

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Inspectors

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Inspectors

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