Children's Home run by Progressive Care Limited in Sheffield

Inspection report for children’s home: 2751408 1 Registered provider: Progressive Care Limited

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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 registered with Ofsted on 13 November 2023 and is run by a private provider. It offers care for up to four children who experience social and/or emotional difficulties.

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Information about this children’s home

One child has continued to live in the home since the last inspection.

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Information about this children’s home

The registered manager left the home soon after registration. Another manager and senior managers are overseeing the running of the home until a new manager is 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 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: 13 February 2024

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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: 2751408 2

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

13/02/2024 Full Good Inspection report for children’s home: 2751408 3

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

The child lives in a home that is well maintained and provides a welcoming and calm environment. The longevity of this placement, from the child’s starting point, reflects that she feels settled. The child has personalised her bedroom and enjoys cooking for herself and watching films in the lounge.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

The child is making steady progress in some areas. The child has improved her sleep routine. Staff facilitated a consultation for the child with her doctor and supported her to attend her looked after review. The child’s engagement in education and with specialist workers is slower. The manager strongly advocates for the child and appropriately challenges professionals to ensure that services are delivered in line with the child’s needs. This helps the child to trust the adults caring for her.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff mostly manage the child’s behaviour well. They help the child to manage her emotions and de-escalate quickly without physically intervening or requesting additional support from the police. She has developed stronger attachments to some members of staff, who she will go shopping with and out to have a meal. However, in recent weeks, there has been some reluctance from the child to go on structured activities offered by staff. Staff are mindful of the child’s history and interact with her at her pace. That said, staff are not always successful at engaging with the child to participate in activities within and outside of the home, allowing the child to develop positive relationships.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff support the child to maintain relationships with the people who are important to her. Staff welcome the child’s family into the home. The child’s mother reports regular and timely communication from staff, which helps her to feel included in her daughter’s care. This helps to improve the quality of their time together.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff have begun collecting photos, which they collate in a memory book for the child. This serves as a visual record of the experiences the child has enjoyed while living at the home.

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

Staff understand risks to the child’s safety and respond quickly and effectively when risks increase. Following incidents involving a cigarette lighter the child had, staff appropriately completed room searches and liaised with the fire service for education resources. The child engaged well, and this risk has reduced.

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

The child continues to go missing from the home. Staff understand that some of the missing episodes are linked to the child wanting to see one of her sisters. The manager advocates for defined contact on the child’s behalf. The child recently brought her sister into the home without staff initially being aware. The manager had Inspection report for children’s home: 2751408 4 not, through her oversight of the child’s records, identified that staff had not recorded this in the logbook. The logbook did not therefore provide a contemporaneous account which triangulated recording in the child’s daily diary.

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

Staff act appropriately when the child leaves the house by following her and report her as missing when they lose sight of her. Staff attempt contact with the child through her phone. They also oversee internet activity on her phone and have responded appropriately to their findings to safeguard the child.

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

The manager works closely with the child’s social worker to understand missing- from-home patterns and complete mapping exercises. This intelligence is fed into child protection investigations and multi-agency risk management meetings to safeguard this child and other children in the city.

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

The child’s risk assessments contain plans to reduce potential harm. Actions identified are often repeated from one review of the risk assessment to the next. The manager does not always analyse or evaluate what has worked well and identify future learning or alternative strategies. Positively, new risks are assessed, such as the recent unrest across the country, including riots where the home is located. This shows a dynamic response to risk management.

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

The manager maintains effective records of action taken to keep the home safe, including regular testing of firefighting equipment and fire evacuations.

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

Three staff have joined the home since the last inspection. The recruitment process is robust. This ensures that managers have vetting information to help them consider the suitability of the applicant’s background and skills before they commence working in the home.

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good

A manager, who is from another home owned by the private provider, has continued to oversee the operation of this home since the last inspection. She is child-focused and maintains a visible presence for the staff working in the home. A new manager, who has not yet applied for registration with Ofsted, has recently been appointed. Until the manager commences in role, there remains no dedicated manager committed to the long-term running of the home.

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good

Staff from the acting manager’s home also continue to work in this home while several posts remain vacant. This provides some continuity of care as rota shortfalls are completed by these staff rather than agency workers. Although team meetings are held regularly and provide guidance and support for staff, there remains no distinct team that is dedicated to the child who lives in this home.

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good

The acting manager knows the strengths and areas for development of her staff. She has commissioned training delivered by the child and adolescent mental health Inspection report for children’s home: 2751408 5 services to help staff understand the impact of trauma on a child’s behaviour. Staff benefit from regular supervision. Staff are therefore being encouraged to enhance their skills to improve the quality of care they provide to the child, including a focus on building trusting relationships with child.

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good

The acting manager has worked hard to address requirements raised at the last inspection. This demonstrates the manager’s commitment to learning from external scrutiny to further develop this children’s home in its first year of registration. She has reviewed the suitability and appropriateness of the home’s location, having received updates from the safeguarding partnership and police. The manager has submitted notifications of serious incidents, including at the conclusion of child protection investigations, in a timely way. The inspector has therefore been able to oversee the effectiveness of the child’s care.

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good

Leaders have appointed a new independent person since the last inspection. He visits as required but has not always been effective in engaging with the child, parent or professionals to triangulate staff reports and findings from records.

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good

Professionals, including the child’s social worker and specialist workers, report excellent teamworking, with regular and effective communication with the manager and staff. This supports the provision of effective wraparound care for the child. Inspection report for children’s home: 2751408 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 positive relationships standard is that children are helped to develop, and to benefit from, relationships based on—

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Requirement Due date

positive responses to other children and adults.

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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

strive to gain each child’s respect and trust;

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Requirement Due date

understand how children’s previous experiences and present emotions can be communicated through behaviour and have the competence and skills to interpret these and develop positive relationships with children. (Regulation 11 (1)(a)(c) (2)(a)(viii)(ix)) 31 October

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

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Requirement Due date

ensure that the home’s workforce provides continuity of care to each child; 30 September Inspection report for children’s home: 2751408 7 use monitoring and review systems to make continuous improvements in the quality of care provided in the home. (Regulation 13 (1)(a)(b) (2)(d)(e)(h))

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Requirement Due date

In particular, the registered person must ensure that the home has sufficient staff to meet both the care needs of the child and the operational oversight of the home.

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Requirement Due date

In particular, the registered person must ensure that the child’s records, including the logbook and risk assessments, are overseen to accurately reflect the child’s circumstances and plans.

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Recommendation

 The registered person should ensure that any individual appointed to carry out visits to the home as an independent person makes a rigorous and impartial assessment of the home’s arrangements for safeguarding and promoting the welfare of the children in the home’s care. (‘Guide to the Children’s Homes Regulations, including the quality standards’, page 65, paragraph 15.5)

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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: 2751408 8

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Children’s home details

Registered provider: Progressive Care Limited

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: 51 Attercliffe Common, Sheffield S9 2AE

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Inspectors

Joanna Warburton, Social Care Inspector Rachel Fairhurst, Social Care Inspector Inspection report for children’s home: 2751408 9 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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