Children's Home run by The Partnership of Care Today in Leeds

Inspection report for children’s home: SC437645 1 SC437645 Registered provider: The Partnership of Care Today Full inspection Inspected under the social care common inspection framework

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Information about this children’s home

This home is privately operated and provides care for up to four children who may experience social and emotional difficulties.

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Information about this children’s home

At the time of the inspection, four children were living in the home.

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Information about this children’s home

The manager registered with Ofsted in July 2022 and is suitably qualified.

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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: SC437645 2

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

19/03/2024 Full Good 28/02/2023 Full Good 10/11/2021 Full Good 15/01/2020 Full Good Inspection report for children’s home: SC437645 3

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

All four children living in the home were spoken with during the inspection.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children live in a stable home with consistent staffing arrangements, and the children have known each other for a long length of time. The children benefit from a team of staff who are committed to helping them succeed and meeting their needs.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

All children benefit from having a named staff member who takes full responsibility for ensuring that their voice is heard and who advocates on their behalf, inside and outside of the home. Children say that they value this and it is important to them. Children live in a home where their views are listened to and acted on when appropriate to do so.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff work hard to help children rebuild relationships with those who are important to them. As a result, children have positive relationships with loved ones that they can continue and maintain into adulthood.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Most children have made significant improvements in their engagement and attendance in education. Staff are creative when trying to help children return to formal learning and work well with other professionals to apply coordinated and structured support. Children are given opportunities to achieve and fulfil their goals and aspirations.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff have tried to make the children’s environment homely and nurturing. However, the home needs important repairs carrying out and requires decorating, which has gone unaddressed by leaders and managers. Significant delays to improve the garden have also prevented the children being able to engage in enjoyable activities in the space, which is something they would like to do.

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

Staff continue to work proactively to try and reduce risks to children. They work hard to help children understand risks and how they can help keep themselves safer. Following incidents, staff consistently speak with children to help educate them and to support them to repair relationships and understand risk.

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

There has been an increase in missing-from-care incidents and other antisocial behaviour for two of the children. The staff consistently act to reduce risks and to try and disrupt outside influences. The staff work with other professionals, including the local police, fire service and other specialist services, to put plans in place to protect children. Restrictions are in place in the home to try and reduce the risks of children leaving the home at night. These are agreed and reviewed by all professionals and only used as a short-term option. Inspection report for children’s home: SC437645 4 When children go missing, staff are inquisitive, and because of the positive relationships, children disclose details to staff even when they have done something they should not have done. This ensures that staff can act on the information and try and help educate children further. Good relationships with the emergency services mean that the children

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

are spoken to by an adult who is independent from the home. However, children are not always receiving return home interviews from their local authorities, and this has not been appropriately escalated.

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

Staff physically intervene when needed to keep everyone safe, and the use of physical intervention has increased. The manager has effective oversight of all holds that he is not directly involved in. However, the process of reviewing holds that the manager is involved is not as well established. This could leave some holds without oversight from an appropriately qualified person.

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

Consequences are used to address minor issues. These are restorative in nature, and staff generally focus on rewarding positive behaviours. However, children have hefty financial reparations applied for serious or extension issues, usually in relation to items being damaged. These are not recorded as consequences, and staff do not understand how they are imposed as this is done by managers. The manager confirmed that behaviour would not be managed in this way moving forward.

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

The manager knows the children well and has positive relationships with them. He recognises the strengths and weaknesses of the home and that there are shortfalls that need to be addressed. The manager is eager to make improvements for the benefit of the children.

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

The manager’s systems to ensure that he has oversight are ineffective. The manager identifies areas for improvement in the children’s care but does not then check that improvements have been made. Important documents are out of date or not on file. Established staff know the children well, but inaccurate records do not help new staff to understand the needs of the children or how the home should run.

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

Staff feel well supported by the manager. However, formal supervision sessions are still not taking place in line with the statement of purpose. This lack of supervision does not help staff’s development. However, when supervision sessions do take place, they are of good quality.

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

The manager has not acted on recommendations from previous inspections or those made by the independent visitor. Recommendations made at the previous inspection have both been raised as requirements following this inspection.

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

The manager advocates for children and works with the staff to be creative to support children to progress. Team meetings are well attended and take place frequently to keep children’s plans on track. Inspection report for children’s home: SC437645 5

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Statutory requirements

This section sets out the actions that the registered person 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 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

In particular, the registered person must ensure that damage and repairs in the home are addressed quickly and renovations in the garden are completed to ensure that children can benefit from this space. 1 January 2025

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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— 1 January 2025 Inspection report for children’s home: SC437645 6 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))

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Requirement Due date

In particular, the registered person must ensure that systems are in place to support the manager to have effective oversight of all aspects of the home, including children’s documents and health and safety. In addition, changes made by the manager must be monitored to assess their effectiveness. This includes responding quickly to recommendations made by the independent visitor that will benefit children.

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Requirement Due date

within 24 hours of the use of a measure of control, discipline or restraint in relation to a child in the home, a record is made which includes—

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Requirement Due date

details of the child’s behaviour leading to the use of the measure;

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Requirement Due date

the date, time and location of the use of the measure;

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Requirement Due date

a description of the measure and its duration;

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Requirement Due date

details of any methods used or steps taken to avoid the need to use the measure;

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Requirement Due date

the name of the person who used the measure (“the user”), and of any other person present when the measure was used;

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Requirement Due date

the effectiveness and any consequences of the use of the measure; and 1 January 2025 Inspection report for children’s home: SC437645 7 within 48 hours of the use of the measure, the registered person, or a person who is authorised by the registered person to do so (“the authorised person”)—

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Requirement Due date

has spoken to the user about the measure; and

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Requirement Due date

has signed the record to confirm it is accurate; and

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Requirement Due date

within 5 days of the use of the measure, the registered person or the authorised person adds to the record confirmation that they have spoken to the child about the measure. (Regulation 35 (3)(a)(i)(ii)(iii)(iv)(v)(vi)(vii)(b)(i)(ii)(c))

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Requirement Due date

In particular, the registered person must ensure that any incidents of physical intervention involving a manager are reviewed. Financial consequences must be clearly recorded, monitored and reviewed for proportionality and effectiveness.

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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. (Regulation 12 (1) (2)(a)(i))

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Requirement Due date

In particular, the registered person must ensure that children’s risk assessments are up to date and contain clear strategies for staff to use, which includes the children’s preferred strategies. 1 January 2025

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must ensure that all employees—

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Requirement Due date

receive practice-related supervision by a person with appropriate experience. (Regulation 33 (4)(b))

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Requirement Due date

In particular, the registered person must ensure that all staff receive regular supervision in line with the home’s statement of purpose. 1 January 2025 Inspection report for children’s home: SC437645 8

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Recommendation

 The registered person should ensure that they escalate any concerns with a child’s local authority for any missing information or records. The registered person should also ensure that return home interviews are carried out as they should be for children. (‘Guide to the Children’s Homes Regulations, including the quality standards’, page 11, paragraph 2.3)

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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: SC437645 9

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Children’s home details

Registered provider: The Partnership of Care Today

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: 2nd Floor, Lansdowne House, 85 Buxton Road, Stockport, Cheshire SK2 6LR

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Inspectors

Debra Boldy, Social Care Inspector Rachel Moore, Social Care Inspector Inspection report for children’s home: SC437645 10 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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