Children's home run by Warrington Borough Council

Inspection report for children’s home: SC037302 1 SC037302 Registered provider: Warrington Borough 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 local authority children’s home is registered to care for up to three children who may have social and/or emotional difficulties. Three children were living in the home at the time of the inspection.

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Information about this children’s home

The manager registered in October 2023. The manager was not present during the inspection due to planned leave.

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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

Date of last inspection: 12 September 2023

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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: SC037302 2

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

12/09/2023 Full Good 08/06/2022 Full Good 08/03/2022 Full Requires improvement to be good 25/02/2020 Full Good Inspection report for children’s home: SC037302 3

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Three children are currently living in the home but only two children were present during the inspection. One child was staying with parents as part of a planned transition to move out of the home. All children were spoken to. Two children said they liked living in the home and shared good relationships with staff. One child did raise some concerns about living in the home, which was followed up by managers.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Initial assessments consider the needs of children moving into the home. This includes consideration of the needs of the children already living in the home. This helps to ensure that children have positive experiences living together in the home. There has been one incident of a child moving into the home, which had a negative impact on the other children. Effective action was taken by managers to address this and areas for learning considered to make improvements in the quality of care being provided.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff support and encourage children’s education. Two children are enrolled at mainstream school. Staff work with school staff effectively, to minimise the barriers to learning and to support attendance. One child is not currently accessing full-time education but engages with a tutor and with an alternative provision. Education is continuing to be offered throughout the summer holidays to provide consistency.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff promote children’s health needs and children are registered with relevant health professionals. Staff refer children to specialist health professionals in line with their needs. Staff also access advice and support to enable them to understand children’s emotional and behavioural needs. Staff are accessing professional advice to support a child to build their self-esteem to enable the child to progress.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children are supported to develop independence skills, including budgeting, cooking and cleaning. This helps to ensure that they have the necessary skills and preparation for longer term plans to move out of the home.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Key-work sessions are effective in supporting children’s understanding of how to keep themselves safe and healthy. Staff also use this opportunity to gain the child’s wishes and views. This helps to ensure that children are listened to.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children are supported to see their family and friends. Staff work with children to build relationships. This has been successful as one child is moving back to live with their parents in the family home. Staff are supporting one child to go on a caravan holiday with her sister. This ensures that children maintain their relationships with meaningful people in their lives.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

There are continual improvements being made to the home. The bathrooms have recently been upgraded and several rooms re-painted. There are plans in place to replace the kitchen and to make improvements to the outside areas of the home. Staff Inspection report for children’s home: SC037302 4 have maintained communal areas to a good standard. However, one child’s bedroom was not well maintained and did not provide a nurturing environment. Staff made appropriate steps to rectify this during the inspection.

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

Children’s risks are assessed, and staff understand what action to take to keep children safe. Risk management plans are in place and are regularly updated with incidents. Children are offered support when using drugs or alcohol, and referrals are offered to support services. However, strategies to manage children’s risks are not consistently updated in the written plans, such as seeking medical advice if children are under the influence of substances.

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

Behaviour management strategies have been effective. The staff use de-escalation skills to manage behaviours. There have been no incidents of physically holding children, as staff understand how to support children to manage their emotions. This promotes a positive relationship between the children and staff.

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

When incidents occur, staff talk to children and encourage them to share any concerns. Children are offered the opportunity to make complaints or to access an independent advocate. Managers provide oversight and evaluation of incidents, which allows them to find areas to improve staff practice.

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

There have been a number of incidents of children going missing from the home. Staff take effective action to ensure that children return home safely. Children have the opportunity to speak to an independent person to ensure that they can raise any concerns. One child has recently been missing from the home on several occasions during the night by damaging the window restrictors in their bedroom. Effective action has been taken by managers and staff to safeguard the child. However, staff have locked internal doors to the education room during the night, and this was not an agreed safeguarding strategy.

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

The home is managed by a suitably experienced and qualified manager. The manager was not present during the inspection due to planned leave. The inspection was supported by the assistant manager, who demonstrated a child-centred approach and knew the children well.

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

The home has a consistent team of staff, who feel supported by managers. Staff are suitably trained and qualified. Staff have completed all mandatory training. However, records were not clear or updated in relation to the mandatory training completed by sessional staff.

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

Staff describe a supportive environment. They receive regular supervision and have opportunities to reflect on their practice. Staff also complete yearly appraisals to ensure that they have opportunities to develop. Inspection report for children’s home: SC037302 5 The staff benefit from regular team meetings. Staff have the opportunity to discuss the needs and progress of the children. They reflect on their day-to-day practice and consider how this can be improved.

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

Several shortfalls were found in the recording and reporting in the home. Some reports contain inaccurate information and not all documentation relating to children has a clear author or has been signed and dated. This makes it unclear who has completed the record. Furthermore, when children have been involved in accidents and received an injury, this is not being consistently recorded in the assigned accident record book.

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

The manager uses various monitoring and review tools. However, the monitoring and oversight of leaders and managers have not identified the shortfalls found during the inspection. This means that action has not always been taken to improve the quality of care. Inspection report for children’s home: SC037302 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 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

assess whether each child is at risk of harm, taking into account information in the child’s relevant plans, and, if necessary, make arrangements to reduce the risk of any harm to the child;

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Requirement Due date

understand the roles and responsibilities in relation to protecting children that are assigned to them by the registered person;

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Requirement Due date

take effective action whenever there is a serious concern about a child’s welfare; and

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Requirement Due date

that the premises used for the purposes of the home are designed, furnished and maintained so as to protect each child from avoidable hazards to the child’s health.

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Requirement Due date

In particular, the registered person should ensure that strategies to keep children safe from harm are detailed in their plans and are clear for staff to follow.

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Requirement Due date

The registered person should ensure that any limitation placed on a child’s access to any area of the home’s premises needs to be assessed as necessary, is proportionate to safeguard the child and kept under review.

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Requirement Due date

The registered person should ensure that staff seek medical advice if children are under the influence of substances. 20 September 2024 Inspection report for children’s home: SC037302 7 The registered person should ensure that staff support children to maintain their bedrooms.

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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

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

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Requirement Due date

In particular, the registered person must ensure that there is an accurate record of mandatory training completed by all staff, including sessional staff.

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Requirement Due date

The registered person should ensure that there are effective monitoring systems in place in order to have oversight in all aspects of the day-to-day running of the home. 20 September 2024

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must maintain records ("case records") for each child which—

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Requirement Due date

include the information and documents listed in Schedule 3 in relation to each child;

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Requirement Due date

are signed and dated by the author of each entry.

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Requirement Due date

In particular, the registered person should ensure that children’s records contain factual information and when documents are updated, they are signed and dated. 20 September 2024 Inspection report for children’s home: SC037302 8 The registered person should ensure that any accidents involving children living in the home are recorded appropriately.

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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: SC037302 9

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Children’s home details

Registered provider: Warrington Borough Council

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: 1 Time Square, Warrington WA1 2NT

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Inspector

Suzanne Birchall, Social Care Inspector Inspection report for children’s home: SC037302 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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Inspector

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Inspector

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Inspector

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