Children's home run by Unity Residential Care Services Limited in Newcastle-under-Lyme

Inspection report for children’s home: SC469761 1 SC469761 Registered provider: Unity Residential Care 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 privately owned home provides care for up to three children who may have social and emotional difficulties. This home was registered in October 2013.

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Information about this children’s home

The manager registered with Ofsted in June 2024 and is suitably qualified and experienced.

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Information about this children’s home

One child lived at the home at the time of inspection. The child was present during the inspection and spoke to the inspectors.

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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: 6 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: SC469761 2

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

06/02/2024 Full Good 24/10/2023 Full Inadequate 30/11/2022 Full Good 13/07/2021 Full Good Inspection report for children’s home: SC469761 3

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Since the last inspection, one child has moved in, and two children have moved out of the home. At the time of this inspection, one child lived at the home.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

The manager carefully considers the needs of children before agreeing for them to move into the home. Children receive information about the home, the staff and the children already living there, before they move in. They can visit the home, view their bedrooms, and spend time with staff. This helps children to understand their future living environment and eases potential anxieties.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Not all children have positive experiences when moving out of the home. One child moved out earlier than planned, but this decision was made in the child’s best interest. The manager and staff worked hard to help the child understand the decision, aiming to minimise any negative impact. They also supported the child during the move to their new home and helped the child settle in on their first day.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff ensure that children’s health needs are met. Children are supported to attend all of their routine health appointments. Staff promote children’s fitness and well-being by assisting them to attend activities such as going on nature walks. The provider’s clinical team helps staff to provide care that supports children’s emotional health. Additionally, staff seek specialist help when necessary.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children are encouraged to become more independent according to their age and abilities. Staff prepare children for the next stage in their lives by teaching them essential skills for independence. This includes cooking their own meals, managing finances and travelling alone on public transport. These invaluable skills have proven effective, as demonstrated by one child, who successfully moved into a semi-supported living environment.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff support children well with their education. The child attends education and is doing well. The manager and staff worked with external professionals, creating a well-thought- out plan to meet the child’s educational needs. A school staff member said, ‘The child is doing so well from their starting point.’ Another child left school after successfully completing their BTEC qualifications. The combined efforts of staff and education providers motivate children to achieve their best.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children benefit from a range of activities that offer them new opportunities and enhance their social experiences. These include rock climbing, waterfall hiking and camping holidays. As a result, children are making long-lasting memories, learning new skills and having fun.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

The manager and staff understand the importance of promoting children’s relationships with people who are important to them. The manager and staff have been instrumental Inspection report for children’s home: SC469761 4 in supporting one child to stay overnight with family. Staff have supported transition and provided safety protocols to parents to ensure the child receives the right support. One parent said, ‘Staff have exceeded my expectations in how they support me and my child.’ This also demonstrates how children’s views are listened to and acted on. This practice supports children to maintain their identity safely, alongside developing a sense of belonging which leads to positive experiences and progress.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

The home environment is warm and welcoming. Children’s bedrooms are personalised and decorated in line with their wishes. The manager and staff use a range of monitoring systems to ensure that the home is appropriately maintained. The child has a pet, which adds to the nurturing atmosphere of the home.

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

The manager and staff understand children’s risks. There are effective systems in place to keep children safe. The child said they like the staff and has no worries about any of the adults that look after them.

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

There have been no incidents of children going missing from home This is a testament to the positive and trusting relationships that staff have developed with the children. There is clear guidance and actions for staff to follow should any incidents occur.

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

When children hurt themselves, staff respond promptly, sensitively and with compassion. As a result, children feel confident in seeking help from staff when needed. Additionally, staff actively seek specialist external support to assist children and help prevent future incidents occurring.

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

There have been very few incidents of allegations and complaints. When such incidents are reported, they are managed well. The manager takes prompt action, ensuring that information is shared quickly with external professionals to avoid delay and making sure that children are protected from harm. Children are kept informed of any outcomes. These actions support children to feel confident to raise concerns and help children to feel safe.

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

Staff only use physical intervention when it is necessary to safeguard children and others. However, following the use of physical intervention, children are not always spoken to or given the chance to talk about what has happened. This is a missed opportunity for children to express their feelings. Additionally, staff are not consistently spoken to within the required timescale of the incident occurring. This absence of oversight and evaluation means that managers fail to identify whether restraint practices are proportionate, safe, or effective, and hinders opportunities for staff to learn from incidents.

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

Staff do not consistently help children to understand their behaviour. For example, in one instance, a consequence given to a child was not restorative. This did not support the child to understand their actions and the impact of their behaviour. As a result, Inspection report for children’s home: SC469761 5 children are not always guided effectively to prevent or reduce similar behaviours happening again.

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

The manager and staff must ensure that monitoring systems are only implemented when necessary. For example, one child’s bedroom door had an alarm, but there was no assessment or justification for its use. During the inspection, the bedroom alarm was removed.

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

The registered manager is appropriately qualified and experienced. She has been managing the home for five months, and has introduced some good systems. However, there are still shortfalls, which she acknowledged during the inspection. The manager has put processes in place to embed these new systems and gave assurances that improvements will follow once they are fully implemented.

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

The manager’s monitoring is not effective in identifying shortfalls. Several gaps were found in recording practices. For example, children’s plans are not consistently updated, and discussions with staff following incidents are not always recorded. These shortfalls limit the manager’s oversight of the quality of care provided to children and reduces the opportunities to develop staff practice through learning from incidents.

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

The home has relied on agency staff to cover shifts. Leaders and managers must recruit enough permanent staff to meet each child’s care needs, ensuring that children’s individual staffing ratio support does not depend on agency workers.

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

Leaders have failed to consistently provide welfare support to the staff and manager, which goes against the home’s statement of purpose. For example, after an upsetting incident in the home, leaders did not offer additional support to the staff or the manager. This can negatively affect staff morale and, in turn, impact the quality of care and attention given to the children.

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

The registered manager’s six-monthly quality of care review report does not provide feedback and opinions of the children living in the home. In addition, there is no plan of action to address shortfalls identified. This is a missed opportunity to improve children’s experiences.

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

Team meetings and supervision sessions take place monthly. The manager also ensures that the performance of staff is appraised annually. This helps staff to be supported in their roles and development.

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

Staff receive regular training to make sure that they have the skills and competencies necessary to meet the diverse needs of the children who they look after. There are systems in place to make sure that training is regularly updated or refreshed.

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

The manager has positive relationships with external professionals and children’s families. One social worker said, ‘Communication with the home is fantastic, the Inspection report for children’s home: SC469761 6 manager is very good. The manager and staff also communicate really well with the parents.’ This means there is a coordinated approach to meeting children’s needs. Inspection report for children’s home: SC469761 7

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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 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

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

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

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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)(d)(h))

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Requirement Due date

This specifically relates to ensuring that all leaders offer welfare support to both the staff and the home management in alignment with the home’s statement of purpose.

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Requirement Due date

That sufficient permanent staff are employed to meet the individual needs of the children.

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Requirement Due date

That monitoring systems are effective in quickly identifying any shortcomings. 1 November 2024

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Requirement Due date

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")— 1 November 2024 Inspection report for children’s home: SC469761 8 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)(b)(i)(ii)(c))

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Requirement Due date

This specifically relates to the registered person ensuring that staff and children involved in physical interventions are spoken to within timescales and that this is recorded.

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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. (Regulation 36 (1)(a)(b)(c)

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Requirement Due date

This specifically relates to the registered person ensuring that all children’s records are up to date. This includes recording all incidents children are involved in. 1 November 2024

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Requirement Due date

In order to complete a quality of care review the registered person must establish and maintain a system for monitoring, reviewing and evaluating—

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Requirement Due date

the quality of care provided for children;

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Requirement Due date

the feedback and opinions of children about the children’s home, its facilities, and the quality of care they receive in it; and

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Requirement Due date

any actions that the registered person considers necessary in order to improve or maintain the quality of care provided for children. (Regulation 45 (2)(a)(b)(c))

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Requirement Due date

This specifically relates to the registered manager ensuring that children’s views are captured in the report, and there is a clear action plan to make improvements to the quality of children’s care. 1 November 2024 Inspection report for children’s home: SC469761 9

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Recommendations

 The registered person should ensure that children’s monitoring and surveillance systems are only used when necessary, making that children are not subject to unnecessary invasions of their privacy. (‘Guide to the Children’s Homes Regulations, including the quality standards’, page 19, paragraph 3.36)  The registered person should ensure that any consequences used to address poor behaviour are restorative in nature, to help children recognise the impact of their behaviour. (‘Guide to the Children’s Homes Regulations including the quality standards’, page 46, paragraph 9.38)

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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: SC469761 10

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Children’s home details

Registered provider: Unity Residential Care Services Limited

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: 2 Lymevale Court, Lyme Drive, Parklands, Stoke-on- Trent ST4 6NW

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Inspectors

Jas Nahar, Social Care Inspector Charlotte Tippett, Social Care Inspector Inspection report for children’s home: SC469761 11 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 children looked after, safeguarding and child protection.

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Inspectors

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Inspectors

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Inspectors

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