Children's home run by Jasmine Gardens Private Limited

Inspection report for children’s home: 2711543 1 Registered provider: Jasmine Gardens Private Ltd

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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 privately owned home provides care for up to four children with social and emotional difficulties.

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Information about this children’s home

At the time of the inspection, three children were living at the home.

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Information about this children’s home

The manager is suitably qualified and registered.

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Overall experiences and progress of

children and young people, taking into account

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requires improvement to be good

How well children and young people are helped and protected requires improvement to be good

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requires improvement to be good

The effectiveness of leaders and managers requires improvement to be good

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requires improvement to be 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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requires improvement to be good

Date of last inspection: 17 October 2023

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requires improvement to be good

Overall judgement at last inspection: requires improvement to be good

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requires improvement to be good

Enforcement action since last inspection: none Inspection report for children’s home: 2711543 2

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

17/10/2023 Full Requires improvement to be good Inspection report for children’s home: 2711543 3

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improvement to be good

Children live in a well-kept home. There is plentiful space where children can be together or apart outside of their bedrooms. Children’s bedrooms are personalised and decorated to their tastes, and each child has their own ensuite bathroom. While children are encouraged to maintain their bedrooms, these were observed to be unclean and untidy. Staff are not yet being proactive in supporting children to keep their personal spaces at an acceptable standard.

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improvement to be good

The manager plans carefully for children’s moves to the home. Children’s needs are well understood by staff, Consideration is given to the possible dynamics with other children at the home. The manager prioritises children’s education, and school or college placements are quickly sought. As a result, children are aspirational about their futures. Children are supported by staff to see people who are important to them. Staff have been proactive in supporting children with their cultural and religious beliefs. Children said that they like living at the home.

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improvement to be good

Children’s care plans have a clear structure. They offer a good level of information and a sense of who children are. However, plans are not kept up to date and actions are not time bound or appropriately delegated. Key pieces of information are also not up to date, and one child who had lived at the home for several months did not yet have a care plan developed for them. This means that staff do not have the necessary guidance to assist children to make progress.

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improvement to be good

Children can share their views of the home and are consulted by staff. However, children’s meetings are not happening collaboratively, which means that children cannot work together to impact the care they receive. There is no certainty that children are receiving the same messages from staff or having their views explored in a consistent manner. There is therefore a missed opportunity to strengthen the dynamics among children, which are known to be difficult.

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improvement to be good

Children are engaged in one-to-one discussions with staff, but these are largely reactive to incidents within the home. Staff are not undertaking planned sessions that are linked to children’s individual risks or care plans. One-to-one discussions are not completed by consistent staff members and often do not inform what key work needs to be completed next. As a result, these discussions are not yet supporting the overall aims for children.

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improvement to be good

There have not been a high number of missing episodes during the inspection period. There are missing procedures in place for each child resident at the home, which are clear to follow. These are updated in line with each individual child’s known risks and Inspection report for children’s home: 2711543 4 behaviours. Managers feel confident to guide staff to manage risk taking behaviours and have been able to implement some strategies that have been effective at keeping children safe. One social worker said that an agreement to allow a child space to feel calm at a safe distance from the home had significantly reduced their episodes of going missing from home.

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improvement to be good

Children know how to complain and feel comfortable to approach staff to share their feelings. Children can identify staff and managers who they trust and could go to with their worries. However, responses to complaints have not been consistent, and children have not always been made aware of outcomes in a timely way.

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improvement to be good

Children at the home are known to self-harm. Staff offer a caring response to children and support them to access medical advice when needed. Staff lack the confidence to manage incidents effectively, and they often rely on the advice of managers. Records do not always include the necessary detail about the actions taken initially by staff, such as first aid, or information provided by healthcare professionals.

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improvement to be good

Risk assessments lack specific guidance for staff about the actions they should take to keep children safe. They often offer overarching statements and are not informed by behaviour strategies that have worked in the home. Risk assessments do not consistently include known risks for the children or what steps staff need to take to manage or educate children about these risks. However, there have not been many significant or notifiable incidents in the inspection period, which the manager attributes to the strong relationships between children and staff.

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improvement to be good

When there are concerns about staff practice, there are not clear plans agreed about how staff performance will be monitored and their development and learning encouraged. Sometimes, children feel responsible for trying to rebuild relationships with staff.

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

The home is run by a committed management team who have shown that they are willing to go the extra mile to support children. Children acknowledge this and are grateful. The manager was able to identify areas of shortfall. She has acknowledged that wider infrastructure within the service has impacted her ability to undertake essential management specific tasks.

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

Staffing levels at the home are not to an acceptable standard. While recruitment is ongoing, it has not always been successful. As a result, managers are often needed to work shifts on the rota to ensure that there is a core number of staff to care for children. This means that managers are not always able to have objective oversight of potential allegations, incidents and debriefs. It also regularly takes managers away from essential managerial activity.

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

Staff can regularly come together in team meetings, and staff value this space. The manager uses these meetings as opportunities for staff to learn and adapt their practice. Inspection report for children’s home: 2711543 5 However, minutes of the meetings lack a clear agenda and recording. This would make it hard for staff who are not in attendance to understand the discussion and outcomes of the meeting.

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

Staff are not receiving regular supervisions with managers, but do report that they feel well supported by managers. Supervisions have not occurred regularly where there are known concerns about staff practice. This means that staff do not have the space to discuss the children they care for, or for managers to appropriately challenge staff when required.

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

There are gaps identified in mandatory training for several staff members. Despite requests from the manager for more bespoke training that would best meet the needs of children, this has not been approved by senior managers. This means that staff are not well informed when they are responding to incidents and the needs of children.

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

There are gaps in the safer recruitment processes of the home. References are not consistently received from the applicant’s last employer. The employment history of one staff member was hard to decipher. This means that the manager cannot be assured of the appropriateness of staff working in the home and the safety of children.

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

The manager has plans in place to audit and oversee the care offered to children, but these have not been embedded into practice. The regulation 45 report has not been received by Ofsted in a timely way. Consequently, the children’s journeys and progress are not fully evaluated or understood by the manager. Inspection report for children’s home: 2711543 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 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 home’s overall aims and the outcomes it seeks to achieve for children;

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Requirement Due date

use this understanding to deliver care that meets children’s needs and supports them to fulfil their potential.

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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

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)(b) (2)(c)(i)(ii))

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Requirement Due date

This specifically relates to ensuring that the staff help children to keep their bedrooms clean and tidy. 2 September 2024

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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

that the home’s day-to-day care is arranged and delivered so as to keep each child safe and to protect each child effectively from harm. (Regulation 12 (1) (2)(b))

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Requirement Due date

This particularly refers to there being risk assessments and home care plans in place that identify known and potential risk for each child, and staff being skilled and confident in challenging and dealing with inappropriate and risky behaviour. 2 September 2024 Inspection report for children’s home: 2711543 7 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

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

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Requirement Due date

ensure that the home has sufficient staff to provide care for each child;

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Requirement Due date

understand the impact that the quality of care provided in the home is having on the progress and experiences of each child and use this understanding to inform the development of the quality of care provided in the home; 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 (1)(a)(b) (2)(c)(d)(f)(h))

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Requirement Due date

This specifically refers to there being sufficient staff to care for the children living in the home. This also refers to the need for managers to have effective oversight of the home, including where there are concerns about staff practice. Staff should be able to access regular training that informs the care of children and regular, structured team meetings that produce clear minutes for staff. 2 September 2024

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Requirement Due date

The care planning standard is that children—

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Requirement Due date

receive effectively planned care in or through the children’s home; and

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Requirement Due date

have a positive experience of arriving at or moving on from the home.

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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

that each child’s relevant plans are followed. 2 September 2024 Inspection report for children’s home: 2711543 8 (Regulation 14 (1)(a)(b) (2)(c))

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Requirement Due date

This particularly refers to ensuring that all the children have a plan that staff can work to, to ensure that children are helped, protected, and their welfare promoted at all times.

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must recruit staff using recruitment procedures that are designed to ensure children’s safety.

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Requirement Due date

employ an individual to work at the children’s home; or

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Requirement Due date

if an individual is employed by a person other than the registered person to work at the home in a position in which the individual may have regular contact with children, allow that individual to work at the home, if the individual satisfies the requirements in paragraph (3).

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Requirement Due date

full and satisfactory information is available in relation to the individual in respect of each of the matters in Schedule 2. (Regulation 32 (1) (2)(a)(b) (3)(d)) 2 September 2024

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must ensure that all employees—

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Requirement Due date

undertake appropriate continuing professional development;

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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)(b))

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Requirement Due date

This particularly refers to the supervision of staff taking place regularly to support staff’s understanding of their role. 2 September 2024

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must complete a review of the quality of care provided for children ("a quality of care review") at least once every 6 months.

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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; 2 September 2024 Inspection report for children’s home: 2711543 9 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.

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Requirement Due date

After completing a quality of care review, the registered person must produce a written report about the quality of care review and the actions which the registered person intends to take as a result of the quality of care review ("the quality of care review report").

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Requirement Due date

supply to HMCI a copy of the quality of care review report within 28 days of the date on which the quality of care review is completed; and

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Requirement Due date

make a copy of the quality of care review report available on request to a placing authority, if the placing authority is not the parent of a child accommodated in the home.

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Requirement Due date

The system referred to in paragraph (2) must provide for ascertaining and considering the opinions of children, their parents, placing authorities and staff. (Regulation 45 (1) (2)(a)(b)(c) (3) (4)(a)(b) (5))

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Requirement Due date

This particularly refers to ensuring that there is a suitable monitoring system in place, and that reports are completed at least every six months and sent to HMCI within 28 days.

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Recommendations

 The registered person should ensure that children are consulted regularly on their views about the home’s care, to inform and support continued improvement in the quality of care provided. Due consideration should be given to the child’s cognitive ability in the development and implementation of any consultation processes. Children should be able to see the results of their views being listened to and acted upon. (‘Guide to the Children’s Homes Regulations, including the quality standards,’ page 22, paragraph 4.11) Inspection report for children’s home: 2711543 10  The registered person should ensure that where a child may express wishes that are not always in their best interests, or which may conflict with the views of other children in the home, the responsible adults balance the wishes of the child against what they judge to be in the best interests of the child, and reach a reasonable view about the best way forward in the interests of all. The reasons for reaching any

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Recommendations

decision will need to be carefully explained to, and understood by, the child or children concerned. (‘Guide to the Children’s Homes Regulations, including the quality standards,’ page 22, paragraph 4.9)

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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: 2711543 11

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Children’s home details

Registered provider: Jasmine Gardens Private Ltd

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: 81 Jasmine Gardens, Hatfield AL10 0BN

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Inspectors

Louise Copping, Social Care Inspector Teresa Godfrey, His Majesty’s Inspector Inspection report for children’s home: 2711543 12 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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