Children's Home run by John-Edwards Care Homes Limited in Swindon

Inspection report for children’s home: SC437171 1 SC437171 Registered provider: John-Edwards Care Homes 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

The home provides care for up to five children who may have learning and physical disabilities. The home offers long-term care for some children and a short break service for others. At the time of this inspection, four children were living in the home and five children were receiving short breaks at different times. The inspector was able to spend time with the four children who were living in the home.

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Information about this children’s home

The manager has been registered with Ofsted since July 2022.

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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: 15 January 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: SC437171 2

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

15/01/2024 Full Good 18/01/2023 Full Requires improvement to be good 12/10/2022 Full Inadequate 20/04/2021 Full Good Inspection report for children’s home: SC437171 3

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children are happy in this home. They are supported to share their views and wishes about their care, and these conversations are often filled with laughter and smiles. Staff have developed positive relationships with children, who they know well and care for with compassion and sensitivity. When children struggle to express their views, staff recognise children’s non-verbal body language as an expression of their feelings.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children are encouraged to participate in a range of enjoyable activities. Children are asked what they would like to do and are supported to do it. Children have been pumpkin picking, attended a speedway event, listened to music and spent time reading. Children have access to a cinema room to watch films and videos on the big screen, as well as a waterplay and sensory-play station in their home.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children are supported to spend time with their friends and family, who regularly visit their home. Staff create memory books for children that display photos of them doing the things that they enjoy. However, memory books provide no descriptive narrative and children may struggle to remember where they were, what they were doing and who they were with when they look back on the photos in later life.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children are making progress from their starting points. They are supported to develop important life skills, such as maintaining their personal hygiene, budgeting their money and expressing their frustrations in safe ways. This is helping children to become more confident and independent.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Three children are attending school regularly. Staff recently went to children’s parents’ evening and received positive feedback about children’s progress. One child has been supported to significantly increase their attendance at school. This was a well-planned and gradual process, which was led by the child’s individual needs. However, a suitable educational provision for another child is yet to be identified. Delays in this process have not been challenged and staff are not supporting the child to participate in structured educational activities while plans are being explored by professionals.

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

Staff’s interactions with children are warm, friendly and kind. When staff consider children’s behaviours to be socially unacceptable, children are supported to reflect on what happened and what they could do differently in the future. When helping children to reflect on their behaviour, staff are non-judgemental and patient.

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

Children’s care plans help staff to understand children’s individual needs and the care that they require. Plans are detailed and clearly outline children’s goals and how staff support children to achieve them. When children have more complex needs, additional Inspection report for children’s home: SC437171 4 guidance is available for staff. Plans include photos to help staff to understand what the support that they are providing should look like.

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

Behaviour support plans and risk assessments complement children’s care plans and help staff to respond to children and mediate risk effectively. Care plans and other supporting documents for the children who access the short breaks provision are of a similar quality to the plans of the children who live in the home.

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

Overall, feedback from staff about the quality of care offered to children is positive. Staff say that they enjoy working in the home and that the care that they provide is ‘good’. One member of staff commented that they care for the children ‘like you would care for your own children’. However, not all members of staff have a sound understanding of basic safeguarding procedures. The registered manager is helping staff to develop their knowledge by facilitating regular safeguarding discussions and reflections in team meetings.

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

Appropriate fire-safety arrangements are in place. When vulnerabilities regarding fire safety have been identified, immediate action has been taken to mediate risk and help protect children from harm.

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

The registered manager has taken action to address the requirement and recommendations that were raised at the last inspection. During this inspection, one person raised concerns about a child’s care. These concerns were shared with the child’s social worker and the registered manager of the home. Similar concerns had also been reported to Ofsted earlier in the year and an assurance inspection was held. These concerns have not been substantiated.

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

Systems are in place to help managers to maintain oversight of the home and the care that is provided to children. However, these systems are not always effective. Following professional reviews of children’s care, up-to-date information is not always shared with the staff team. As a result, staff cannot be confident that they are always meeting children’s changing care needs in the best way.

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

Children are supported to access external healthcare services. However, the recommendations that are made by healthcare professionals are not always recognised or followed up by staff or managers in a timely manner. This has resulted in one child’s sleeping arrangements not being thoroughly reassessed or reviewed in line with their preferences.

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

Key-work sessions are used by staff to help children to understand what is happening around them. A range of topics are explored, and staff use children’s preferred communication tools to support their engagement. However, managers do not robustly review the content or quality of key-work sessions. As a result, some important opportunities to support children’s understanding and learning are overlooked. Inspection report for children’s home: SC437171 5 Safer recruitment checks are in place for all permanent members of staff. However, agency-employed staff are not always subject to the same rigorous checks. Managers were unable to locate the Disclosure and Barring Service check for an agency-employed member of staff. As a result, managers were not able to demonstrate that all staff working with children were suitable to do so. This was resolved during the inspection.

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

Staff feel supported by managers. However, agency-employed staff do not have the same support systems in place as permanently employed staff do. Agency-employed staff do not receive regular staff supervisions, nor do they have the same opportunities to attend team meetings. As a result, agency-employed staff are not helped to reflect on the needs of children or the care that they provide in a structured and collaborative way.

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

Managers are not proactive in seeking the views of professionals, family members and staff when they are identifying how the care that is provided to children can be improved on. However, professionals say that their children are happy and have developed healthy routines and relationships with staff. Professionals can identify the progress that their children have made and are positive about the ‘personalised’ care that is provided. Inspection report for children’s home: SC437171 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 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

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

demonstrate that practice in the home is informed and improved by taking into account and acting on—

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Requirement Due date

feedback on the experiences of children, including complaints received; and

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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)(f)(g)(ii)(h))

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Requirement Due date

In particular, the registered person should ensure that robust monitoring systems are in place that support them to evaluate the effectiveness of the care and support that is provided to children. This should help staff to identify when children would benefit from additional support, guidance and changes to the care with which they are provided.

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Requirement Due date

Furthermore, monitoring systems should help managers to ensure that staff have the most up-to-date and useful information about children that supports them to meet children’s needs. 1 January 2025 Inspection report for children’s home: SC437171 7 Finally, the registered person should ensure that they regularly seek feedback from staff, family members and professionals about the care that is provided to children. This feedback should be used to help inform the delivery of care.

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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

understand the roles and responsibilities in relation to protecting children that are assigned to them by the registered person; and

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Requirement Due date

are familiar with, and act in accordance with, the home’s child protection policies. (Regulation 12 (1) (2)(a)(v)(vii))

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Requirement Due date

In particular, the registered person should ensure that staff have a clear understanding of how to respond to and report concerns that are raised about other members of staff. Specifically, staff should ensure that all concerns are taken seriously and, when necessary, are reported to external professionals. Staff should understand the relevant safeguarding procedures so that they can assure themselves that appropriate actions have been taken to help protect children from harm. 1 January 2025

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must recruit staff using recruitment procedures that are designed to ensure children’s safety.

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Requirement Due date

employ an individual to work at the children’s home; or

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Requirement Due date

if an individual is employed by a person other than the registered person to work at the home in a position in which the individual may have regular contact with children, allow that individual to work at the home,

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Requirement Due date

if the individual satisfies the requirements in paragraph (3).

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Requirement Due date

The requirements are that— 1 January 2025 Inspection report for children’s home: SC437171 8 full and satisfactory information is available in relation to the individual in respect of each of the matters in Schedule 2. (Regulation 32 (1) (2)(a)(b) (3)(d))

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Requirement Due date

In particular, the registered person should ensure that agency- employed members of staff are subject to the same rigorous safer recruitment checks as permanent members of staff are. Specifically, the registered person should review the safer recruitment checks that are performed by a staffing agency so that they are satisfied that agency-employed staff are suitable to work with children.

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Recommendations

 The registered person must have systems in place to ensure that all staff receive supervision sessions and are able to attend team meetings. These forums should support staff to reflect on their practice and the needs of children. In particular, agency-employed staff should receive the same opportunities for support and reflection as permanent members of staff do. (‘Guide to the Children’s Homes Regulations, including the quality standards’, page 61, paragraph 13.2)  The registered person should ensure that when children are not in full-time education, they are supported to engage in suitable structured activities that promote their development and learning. (‘Guide to the Children’s Homes Regulations, including the quality standards’, page 28, paragraph 5.15)  The registered person should ensure that staff keep appropriate memorabilia of children’s time living in the home. In particular, staff should provide context to the

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Recommendations

photos that are included in memory books so that children are helped to remember where they were, what they were doing and who they were with when they look back at the photos in later life. (‘Guide to the Children’s Homes Regulations, including the quality standards’, page 62, paragraph 14.5)

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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: SC437171 9

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Children’s home details

Registered provider: John-Edwards Care Homes Limited

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: 1 Suffolk Way, Sevenoaks TN13 1YL

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Inspector

Martin Brown, Social Care Inspector Inspection report for children’s home: SC437171 10 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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Inspector

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Inspector

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