Children's Home run by Positive Outcomes Childcare Ltd in Dudley

Inspection report for children’s home: SC483958 1 SC483958 Registered provider: Positive Outcomes Childcare Limited

p.1

Full inspection Inspected under the social care common inspection framework

p.1

Information about this children’s home

This is a privately owned children’s home that provides care for up to three children who may experience social and emotional difficulties.

p.1

Information about this children’s home

The home has a registered manager who was registered with Ofsted in April 2024.

p.1

Overall experiences and progress of

children and young people, taking into account

p.1

good

How well children and young people are helped and protected good

p.1

good

The effectiveness of leaders and managers good

p.1

good

The children’s home provides effective services that meet the requirements for good.

p.1

good

Overall judgement at last inspection: good

p.1

good

Enforcement action since last inspection: none Inspection report for children’s home: SC483958 2

p.1

Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

30/05/2023 Full Good 27/04/2022 Full Good 03/02/2022 Interim Improved effectiveness 08/06/2021 Full Requires improvement to be good Inspection report for children’s home: SC483958 3

p.2

Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

At the time of this inspection, two children were living at the home. Since the last visit in January 2024, two children have moved to the home and two children have left. At this visit, both children were spoken to and gave the inspector their views about the home. Both said they liked living at the home.

p.3

Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Moves to the home are well planned. The manager carefully considers whether they can meet the needs of any new children. Despite this careful planning, on one occasion, a child struggled to settle. This had a negative effect on the children already living at the home. As a result, the manager made the difficult decision to end the child’s placement.

p.3

Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff form positive relationships with children. This gives children stability and security. The positive relationships children have with staff have meant children who were unsettled have quickly settled back into their routines.

p.3

Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children make good progress. With staff support and commitment, one child who had lived at the home for several years was able to successfully return to their family home.

p.3

Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

A strength of this home is the therapeutic input staff and children receive from the home’s clinical director. She helps staff to better understand the impact of trauma on children’s lives. This gives staff the skills and knowledge to help children understand and explore their feelings. Staff do many sessions with children, in which children explore their feelings and learn about positive relationships.

p.3

Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff help children to understand the importance of education. Some children have struggled to overcome barriers to their education in order to engage in it. However, most have good attendance and are progressing well. One child who has struggled to engage has taken some of their exams and is now looking at colleges to further their education. Children’s independence is encouraged by staff. Children are given age-appropriate freedoms, have friends outside the home and are supported to do things around the house. Children are responsible for their bedrooms, and they catch public transport independently and manage their money.

p.3

Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff encourage children to take part in activities and try something new. Staff took the children on holiday during the summer, which they all enjoyed.

p.3

Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

The environment is homely and children’s bedrooms are personalised to their tastes. However, the garden is less inviting, which means children rarely use this space.

p.3

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

Inspection report for children’s home: SC483958 4 Staff know the children well and are good at being able to defuse many situations. As a result, physical intervention is only used on rare occasions.

p.4

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

Children have gone missing from the home. There have been times when children have been able to leave the home without staff knowledge. When children have been found to be missing from the home, staff have acted and followed children’s plans so that children are found and returned quickly. The manager has put preventative measures in place, such as tamper-proof door alarms and waking night staff.

p.4

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

The manager has considered risks to and from children. However, emerging risks, such as how one child was influencing another child to go missing, were not fully assessed by the manager. No clear guidance was given to staff so that they knew what action they needed to take to reduce risks.

p.4

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

When there are concerns about staff practice or when children raise concerns about staff, the manager takes prompt action. She has reported to those that need to know, investigated, and where necessary, suspended staff while investigations take place.

p.4

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

The manager is now recruiting staff and following safer recruitment practices. She has taken on board the learning from previous inspections and developed a more robust recruitment procedure. As a result, omissions in checks identified at the previous visit have been rectified by the manager, and new staff have been safely recruited.

p.4

The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The manager is child focused and committed to providing good-quality care. Over the past year, she has grown in confidence and competence.

p.4

The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The manager has a positive vision for the home and sets clear standards for staff. She is not afraid to challenge those staff who do not share the same vision.

p.4

The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The manager has improved the monitoring of the home. She encourages others within and outside the organisation to undertake audits and offer critical feedback. This has helped her to better understand the progress of the children and the home. The manager has used this to develop a plan to make further improvements.

p.4

The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

When reviewing children’s records, the manager had not noticed one delegated authority form was past its review date, and she had not spoken to the placing authority about what the home can or cannot agree to without their consent.

p.4

The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Staff feedback was positive about the home and the support given by the manager. Staff said they receive regular supervision. In addition, staff receive support when needed from the clinical director.

p.4

The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Staff receive a variety of learning opportunities, online and face to face. In addition to the mandatory training, the clinical director provides staff with more bespoke learning. Inspection report for children’s home: SC483958 5 The manager is good at making sure there is positive multi-agency working, which supports children’s progress and learning. She seeks out others who may be better placed to offer children advice and guidance. For example, she arranged for the local police community support officer to come in and talk to the children about concerns that may affect them. Inspection report for children’s home: SC483958 6

p.4

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.

p.6

Requirement Due date

The protection of children standard is that children are protected from harm and enabled to keep themselves safe.

p.6

Requirement Due date

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

p.6

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;

p.6

Requirement Due date

help each child to understand how to keep safe. (Regulation 12 (1) (2)(a)(i)(ii))

p.6

Requirement Due date

This is in relation to the effective management of all risks, including incidents of children going missing from home, and ensuring that they are fully assessed along with strategies to help staff understand what action they need to take to reduce those risks. 8 November 2024

p.6

Recommendations

 The registered person should ensure that each child’s placement plan sets out the permissions that their placing authority has delegated to the registered person. This should provide clarity on the home’s ability to give permission for school trips, sleep- overs or the child’s involvement in sporting, leisure and cultural activities. Specifically, that any delegated authority that needs review is reviewed, including where the placing authority is not giving permission for care tasks such as haircuts. (‘Guide to the Children’s Homes Regulations, including the quality standards’, page 30, paragraph 6.2)  The registered person should ensure that the children’s home is a nurturing and supportive environment that meet the needs of their children, and is a homely domestic environment. Specifically, that the garden is inviting and a space children want to use. (‘Guide to the Children’s Homes Regulations, including the quality

p.6

Recommendations

standards’, page 15, paragraph 3.9) Inspection report for children’s home: SC483958 7

p.6

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: SC483958 8

p.7

Children’s home details

Registered provider: Positive Outcomes Childcare Limited

p.8

Children’s home details

Registered provider address: 16 Queen Street, Wellington, Telford, TF1 1EH

p.8

Children’s home details

Responsible individual: Laurence O’Dwyer

p.8

Children’s home details

Registered manager: Yaiza Sanchez Storniolo

p.8

Inspector

Debbie Bond, Social Care Inspector Inspection report for children’s home: SC483958 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.

p.8

Inspector

If you would like a copy of this document in a different format, such as large print or Braille, please telephone 0300 123 1231, or email enquiries@ofsted.gov.uk . You may reuse this information (not including logos) free of charge in any format or medium, under the terms of the Open Government Licence. To view this licence, visit www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/doc/open-government-licence , write to the Information Policy Team, The National Archives, Kew, London TW9 4DU, or email: psi@nationalarchives.gsi.gov.uk .

p.9

Inspector

Interested in our work? You can subscribe to our monthly newsletter for more information and updates: http://eepurl.com/iTrDn .

p.9

Inspector

T: 0300 123 1231 Textphone: 0161 618 8524 E: enquiries@ofsted.gov.uk W: www.gov.uk/ofsted

p.9