Children's home run by Arc-HD Services Ltd in Eastleigh

Inspection report for children’s home: SC420410 1 SC420410

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Registered provider: Arc-HD Services 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 home provides care for up to three children who may have emotional, behavioural and learning needs.

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Information about this children’s home

A private provider operates the home. There are three children living in the home. All three children were present in the home during the inspection.

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Information about this children’s home

The manager registered with Ofsted in June 2024.

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Information about this children’s home

At the time of the inspection, the registered manager was on leave. The responsible individual and assistant manager supported 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 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: SC420410 2

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

08/08/2023 Full Good 23/08/2022 Full Good 17/03/2022 Interim Improved effectiveness 30/11/2021 Full Requires improvement to be good Inspection report for children’s home: SC420410 3

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children living in the home are making good progress. They feel secure, safe and cared for. There is a lot of laughter in the home, and there are warm and caring interactions between staff and children. Staff find ways of making sure that the children know they are there for them, and children benefit from this trusted relationship with longstanding staff members. This has been particularly important for children when they have needed time and space away from staff to process difficult events and emotions. For one child, the gentle tenacity and unified approach taken by staff have helped the child to become actively involved in decision-making about their future plans. Children also enjoy spending time with their family, who are welcomed into the home. Staff appropriately involve family members in helping to support children during difficult times. Children benefit from this approach and seeing their families and staff working together to help them.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children feel able to express themselves in their own unique ways and to explore their developing sense of identity. They are encouraged to feel proud, and their talents and successes are celebrated. They enjoy a range of hobbies and interests, including sports, arts, fun days out and holidays. These help them to develop their self-esteem and confidence. Children love taking care of their pets, and they are involved in all aspects of the running of the home, including creating garden projects that support their sensory and emotional well-being. The children live alongside each other, which is in line with their preferences, and staff manage the dynamics between the children well. Personalised photobooks capture key moments, memorable events and achievements for children. For one child, using these books as a form of journalling is helping them to understand their emotions and to process their experiences.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children who move into the home are helped to settle quickly. They get to meet and spend time with staff and the other children before they move in. This helps them to feel a little less anxious about moving into the home. Children are also well supported to achieve positive endings when they move on from the home.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children are actively involved in setting their own goals, and staff sensitively encourage them to achieve these. Staff support children to develop their independence skills and to take on more responsibility for their day-to-day care and routines. This is working well for the children and is in line with their future care plans. Their wishes and feelings are clearly recorded in their plans, individual sessions with staff and using feedback forms. When children share helpful and insightful ideas with staff about what could be changed about the running of the home, it is not always made clear to the children how this has been taken forward and put into practice.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children are healthy and supported to stay healthy. Their health needs are met well. They are encouraged to eat healthily and to be physically active. They are well Inspection report for children’s home: SC420410 4 supported by the home’s mental health practitioner as well as specialist therapeutic services to support their emotional well-being. While the registered manager and responsible individual are persistent and strong advocates for children, they did not make use of external escalation processes to address the significant delays in mental health services being provided to one child.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff take a proactive role in supporting the children’s education, and they are rightly proud of the children’s achievements. Managers and staff work effectively with schools and education providers to address and resolve any barriers that the children are facing with education. They are strong advocates for the children and help to ensure that the right education arrangements, plans and supports are in place.

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

Staff are alert in identifying safeguarding concerns and take appropriate action to raise these with managers. Staff extensively have meaningful conversations with children to explore any emerging concerns and to provide appropriate information, advice and guidance to help children stay safe online and in the community. Comprehensive risk assessments and behaviour support plans identify children’s needs and how staff should respond to these.

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

Behaviour support strategies are used effectively by staff, and restraint is rarely used in the home. When they do occur, they are at the lowest level and to help keep children safe from immediate harm. Children and staff are supported to talk about difficult incidents afterwards to help process these events and to reflect on what happened. Records of physical incidents do not include a record of management evaluation

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

Managers share relevant information about significant incidents and missing-from- home episodes with the extended professional network for the children. They work collaboratively and effectively with other professionals to create multi-agency safety plans and to identify appropriate behaviour support strategies to help prevent further incidents from happening. They take on board advice and guidance and put this into practice. On a very small number of occasions, one child, who has since left the home, was reported as missing by staff. When the child went missing, staff took responsive actions and appropriately followed the missing-from-home plan for the child. While managers oversee all missing-from-home episodes, the record-keeping for one significant episode was not sufficiently detailed or complete in showing all the actions and decisions taken by staff and managers. The record did not include any

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

evaluation by the manager or show the learning and actions taken by them to inform future practice.

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

Managers follow safe recruitment processes. When concerns are raised for staff conduct, these are addressed thoroughly and appropriately by managers. Medication is stored and administered safely in line with the home’s policies. Inspection report for children’s home: SC420410 5

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good

The children live in a very comfortable and well-furnished home that meets their needs to a high standard. The home presents as a family home, with the children’s artwork, craft projects and photos on display. Their bedrooms are highly personalised.

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good

Since the last inspection, there has been a change of registered manager in the home. This was an internal appointment and has worked well for the children and staff. The aim to create a family around children is being achieved, and the ethos, culture and values within the home remain strong. There is a sense of ‘togetherness’ within the home and everyone having a meaningful role in the children’s lives.

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good

Managers spend quality time with the children on a weekly basis to support their care and progress. The registered manager regularly reviews the progress the children are making, and the learning from independent review and quality assurance activity is supporting them in understanding the quality of care and practice within the home. Professional feedback is very positive about how well the children are being looked after.

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good

Earlier this year, a new electronic recording system was introduced in the home. While this has gone well, the responsible individual accepts that there is still more to do to get this fully embedded across the staff team and to achieve better consistency in recording and timeliness in uploading documents. This makes it more difficult for the registered manager to maintain effective oversight of the quality of care and to identify any learning for children and staff.

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good

While systems are in place to oversee the quality of care and practice in the home, some significant records, including physical restraint forms and missing-from-home incident records, do not include the details of the management evaluation of these incidents. This limits the opportunity for managers to identify themes and triggers for children or to track the progress of the resulting actions and the impact of learning on practice. When children do not want to talk about incidents, it is unclear from records what steps will be taken to gather their views at a later stage and how.

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good

Staff feel very well supported by managers. Supervision is regular, and staff are encouraged to develop new skills and to progress in their careers. There is some variance in the depth of reflective practice discussions in supervision records, and actions are not always timebound to ensure that staff know what is expected of them and by when. While a good range of training is widely available to staff, there is very limited exploration with them by managers about what they have learned and how they will put this into practice in their role. Team meetings are purposeful and held regularly. Staff use this time to hold reflective practice discussions around the children’s progress. The learning from incidents and external reviews is not consistently shared by managers during team meetings to enable staff to support workforce development and take learning back into practice. Inspection report for children’s home: SC420410 6

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good

Staff enjoy working at the home, and they play to their strengths as a team. They enjoy seeing themselves as a big extended family. Their absolute commitment to the children and their warmth, care and how proud they are of the children’s progress and achievements continue to be a strength of the home. Staff are rightly aspirational and ambitious for children and for themselves as a staff team. Inspection report for children’s home: SC420410 7

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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 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

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;

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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)(f)(h)) 30 November

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Recommendations

 The registered person should ensure that children are supported, in a way that helps them most, to express their feelings about their experience of restraint and that there is consistent management oversight of the child’s feelings about their experiences of restraint to maximise the opportunity for learning. (‘Guide to the Children’s Homes Regulations, including the quality standards’, page 49, paragraph 9.59, and page 50, paragraph 9.60)  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 Inspection report for children’s home: SC420410 8 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 on. (‘Guide to the Children’s Homes Regulations, including the quality

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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: SC420410 9

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Children’s home details

Registered provider: Arc-HD Services Ltd

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: Arc-HD Services, Wessex House, Upper Market Street, Eastleigh SO50 9FD

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Inspectors

Kendra Bell, Social Care Inspector Ashley Arkless, Social Care Inspector Inspection report for children’s home: SC420410 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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