Children's Home run by Keys Educational Services Limited in Somerset

Inspection report for children’s home: 1239953 1 Registered provider: Keys Educational Services 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 children’s home provides care for up to three children who may have social and emotional difficulties. At the time of this inspection, three children were living in the home.

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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: 6 February 2024

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requires improvement to be good

Overall judgement at last inspection: good

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requires improvement to be good

Enforcement action since last inspection: none Inspection report for children’s home: 1239953 2

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

06/02/2024 Full Good 04/08/2022 Full Good 21/03/2022 Interim Improved effectiveness 18/05/2021 Full Requires improvement to be good Inspection report for children’s home: 1239953 3

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improvement to be good

The children have built trusted and secure relationships with their key person. Staff care deeply for all the children and want them to do well. Children naturally gravitate to their key person for support and to gain a sense of belonging. While it is positive they develop these relationships with key people it has meant children feel left out of secure relationships with all members of staff.

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improvement to be good

Some children make progress in the education provided to them. This is not consistent for all the children in the home. Staff are not able to ensure that children attend education consistently and, therefore, there are gaps in their learning. One child has been out of education for a significant period and the staff have been unable to secure a solution to enhance their educational progress.

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improvement to be good

Staff are unable to promote a healthy approach to diet and sleep for the children. There is a lack of understanding around how to ensure that the children eat structured meals that are nutritionally balanced. Staff are not able to support the children to maintain healthy routines. Without clear plans and boundaries, regular meals are missed and sleep patterns are irregular. The lack of boundaries and routines is impacting on children’s well-being and progress.

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improvement to be good

Staff endeavour to support the children to develop skills to manage their emotional needs and difficult feelings. Responses from staff to children are mixed. Some staff respond to children in a timely way and record key reflections and learning. This shows how the children have been supported to understand their feelings and develop positive responses. Some key conversations are limited and do not give the children the space to fully develop their thoughts and feelings. This results in children experiencing inconsistent care from the staff team.

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improvement to be good

Children are supported to spend time with their family and people who are important to them. Plans around this time are carefully assessed, and when time needs to be supervised or supported there are agreements in place between parents, the home and the placing authority. Plans are developed in line with the children’s wishes and feelings.

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improvement to be good

New experiences are encouraged for all the children. One child has recently been on a holiday abroad, one child experienced a holiday in the UK, and one child has been able to develop their skills around trampolining outside of the home. Plans are developed around activities that the children have prior interest in, such as horses, dogs and army cadets. The children can experience new things and nurture the interests they already have. Inspection report for children’s home: 1239953 4

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improvement to be good

Staff understand the importance of the children having access to technology and social media. There is a lack of understanding around the negative impact this use can have on children. There are limited plans and monitoring in place to fully understand the impact of children’s exposure to a wealth of information that is available via social media and gaming platforms. Regular phone and gaming checks are not part of the children’s plans and there is an overreliance on the children to keep themselves safe. Staff have not been given the tools to prevent children accessing content that has caused children harm and increased their vulnerabilities within the home and the wider community.

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improvement to be good

The lack of a robust response from the home to reduce and prevent incidents of significant self-harm, has left the children vulnerable to ongoing harm. The lack of understanding and recognition of the risk by the manager has left the children without robust plans on how to safely manage their emotions. In the absence of appropriate care and understanding, the children can view damaging online content. This has resulted in children learning and developing ways to express their emotions that cause them harm and the risk of significant self-injury.

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improvement to be good

Investigations into allegations are shared with appropriate agencies and handled fairly and quickly. During investigations, managers take sufficient action to protect children from harm. Support is provided to those making the allegation and those subject to it. Outcomes are shared with everyone involved, and learning is taken forward by individuals and the wider team as required.

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improvement to be good

Children know how to, and are supported to, make complaints. These are managed in a timely way and a clear process is followed. The outcome of complaints is shared, and there is understanding of what has happened because of any complaint made. Complaints are treated seriously.

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improvement to be good

Staff understand the risks arising from the children going missing. The home has effective working relationships with the police, and there is a well-coordinated response to reduce the time of any missing episode and reduce harm. Staff spend time finding out the children’s individual feelings about going missing, and return to home interviews are arranged and supported.

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

The manager recognises the need to monitor the care provided to the children in the home, and has started to implement a plan around this. However, the completed documents that feed into this monitoring are inconsistent, meaning there are gaps in manager and staff knowledge about the care provided and progress made by the children. Inspection report for children’s home: 1239953 5 The children’s plans are not updated in a timely way. This means that staff, including agency staff, are unable to know the accurate information about the children in the home. The children’s plans are not a true reflection of their current needs or risk.

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

The manager does not have oversight of all areas of the children’s care. There are gaps in recordings across the children’s records, which have not been identified by the manager. There is no shared approach to how the children’s days are recorded by staff. This has led to inconsistent case records, the manager does not have a clear understanding of the care that is being provided and children will see gaps in their records should they wish to access them in the future.

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

Some staff have raised concerns about the approach that the manager wants to take to care for the children. They do not feel it is effective in meeting their needs. Staff align themselves to one specific child as key persons. This has impacted on the children’s feelings of being left out by other staff members and it has created conflict between the children.

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

Supervisions take place. On the whole, they give staff space to reflect on their own well- being and their role in the team. There is a gap in completing and tracking supervisions for staff. Where supervisions have been completed, supervisions do not have a robust focus on safeguarding, to enhance staff practice.

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

The manager has forged positive working relationships with external agencies for all the children. Where one child has not been in education for a significant period of time, the managers has not escalated this sufficiently to ensure there is a plan in place for the new academic year.

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

Team meetings regularly take place and are focused on practice. They are used to give staff clear expectations on practice and allow staff to come together to discuss their work in the home. Inspection report for children’s home: 1239953 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 education standard is that children make measurable progress towards achieving their educational potential and are helped to do so.

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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

understand the barriers to learning that each child may face and take appropriate action to help the child overcome any such barriers;

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Requirement Due date

help each child understand the importance and value of education, learning, training and employment;

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Requirement Due date

promote opportunities for each child to learn informally;

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Requirement Due date

maintain regular contact with each child’s education and training provider, including engaging with the provider and the placing authority to support the child’s education and training and to maximise the child’s achievement. (Regulation 8 (1) (2)(a)(iii)(iv)(v)(vi))

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Requirement Due date

In particular, the registered person should ensure they work with agencies to overcome any barriers that the children face in education to support them to consistently engage with the maximum education time available to them.

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Requirement Due date

In addition, the registered person should ensure that all children are supported to understand and value the benefit of education.

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Requirement Due date

In addition, the registered person should ensure that children are provided with informal education as an addition to formal learning and not a substitute. 27 September 2024

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Requirement Due date

The health and well-being standard is that— 27 September 2024 Inspection report for children’s home: 1239953 7 the health and well-being needs of the children are met;

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Requirement Due date

children receive advice, services and support in relation to their health & well-being;

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Requirement Due date

children are helped to lead healthy lifestyles.

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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

achieve the health and well-being outcomes that are recorded in their child’s relevant plans;

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Requirement Due date

understand and develop skills to promote a child’s well-being. (Regulation 10 (1)(a)(b)(c) (2)(a)(i)(iv))

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Requirement Due date

In particular, the registered person should ensure that all children are helped to maintain healthy sleep patterns and have a healthy and balanced diet and structured mealtimes.

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Requirement Due date

In addition, the registered person should ensure that all children have regular health appointments.

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Requirement Due date

In addition, the registered person should ensure that all children’s plans and logs accurately reflect their diet.

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Requirement Due date

In addition, the registered person must ensure that robust plans are in place for carers to fully understand the children’s social media use and the impact on their physical and emotional well- being.

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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

help each child to understand how to keep safe; 30 August 2024 Inspection report for children’s home: 1239953 8 have the skills to identify and act upon signs that a child is at risk of harm;

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Requirement Due date

manage relationships between children to prevent them from harming each other;

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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. (Regulation 12 (1) (2)(a)(i)(ii)(iii)(iv)(v)(vi))

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Requirement Due date

In particular, the registered person should adapt approaches to the children’s care immediately after a serious incident. They must actively seek to identify and reduce children’s exposure to harmful online content.

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Requirement Due date

In addition, the registered person must recognise their role to take effective action to prevent serious harm.

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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

In particular, the standard in paragraph (1) requires the registered person to—

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Requirement Due date

ensure the staff work as a team where appropriate;

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Requirement Due date

ensure the home’s workforce provides continuity of care to 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;

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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) (2)(b)(c)(e)(f)(h))

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Requirement Due date

In particular, the registered person must ensure the staff work towards shared goals and aspirations for the home. 27 September 2024 Inspection report for children’s home: 1239953 9 In addition, the registered person must ensure that there is continuity of care across the team, including in practice with each individual child and in administrative tasks.

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Requirement Due date

In addition, the registered person should implement an effective monitoring system to evaluate care to safeguard and promote the children’s well-being.

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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: 1239953 10

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Children’s home details

Registered provider: Keys Educational Services Limited

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: Maybrook House, Third Floor, Queensway, Halesowen, West Midlands B63 4AH

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Inspector

Hannah Spencer-Townesend, Social Care Inspector Inspection report for children’s home: 1239953 11 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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