Amber House

Inspection report for children’s home: SC356604 1 SC356604 Registered provider: Pebbles Care Limited Full inspection Inspected under the social care common inspection framework

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Information about this children’s home

The home is owned and managed by a private provider. It offers care for up to two children who may experience social and emotional difficulties.

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Information about this children’s home

At the time of the inspection, one child was living in the home.

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Information about this children’s home

The registered manager has been in post since May 2023 and is suitably skilled and qualified. The registered manager is on a period of extended leave. The interim manager supported the inspection. The interim manager has applied to register with Ofsted.

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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 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: SC356604 2

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

03/10/2023 Full Good 15/02/2023 Full Good 02/02/2022 Full Outstanding 10/09/2019 Full Outstanding Inspection report for children’s home: SC356604 3

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

The child has good relationships with the staff. They feel comfortable and safe with staff, and they want to spend time in their company. One professional identified that the child now has a better understanding of positive relationships. The child was spoken to as part of this inspection.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

The child has positive experiences while living at the home. Staff support the child to engage in activities and hobbies that they enjoy. Additional funding has been used to pay for the child to have one-to-one horse riding lessons. This lesson structure helps the child to enjoy their time at the stables and not be affected by group influence. This demonstrates that the child’s wishes and feelings are being heard and acted on by staff.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff help the child to access weekly mental health support sessions from an external agency. This support is slowly helping the child to process their trauma and learn healthy coping strategies. Staff support the therapeutic arrangements and ensure that they are consistently using the model of therapeutic care. This supports the child’s emotional health and well-being.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

The child does not attend school and has no formal education to support their learning and educational progress. The manager has challenged the lack of education being provided by the child’s responsible local authority. Staff are encouraging the child to undertake some learning in the home. The child has an interest in hair and beauty as a career, so staff are helping the child to achieve qualifications and learn about this area of interest.

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

Staff help the child to understand their risks through regular one-to-one discussions. These sessions focus on helping the child to explore their risks and how these affect them. Staff work with the child to look at how they can manage their own behaviours with the support of staff. Staff sensitively approach these sessions and ensure that the child’s voice is heard and informs their care planning documents. This helps the child to have a greater understanding of their own needs and how to keep safe.

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

The child has been missing from the home. Following missing-from-home episodes, the manager ensures that debriefs are carried out with the child to explore the incident further and to make sure that the child’s voice is heard. The manager challenges the child’s responsible local authority when it does not carry out return home interviews within statutory time frames. This demonstrates the manager’s ability to hold professionals accountable for their actions in relation to the safeguarding of children. Inspection report for children’s home: SC356604 4 The child has a risk of self-injurious behaviours, where they will cause physical harm to themselves. Staff have not foreseen these incidents, but the child trusts staff and confides in them, so they can respond quickly and consistently when the child has harmed themselves.

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

Staff understand the child’s current risks and how to respond to these to safeguard the child. Incidents are recorded in detail and shared with the relevant agencies. Following incidents, appropriate actions are taken by the staff to ensure the child’s safety and well- being. The management team has learned from past concerns and used this learning to ensure that staff maintain a consistent approach to support the child’s needs.

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

There has been an increase in significant incidents. Most of these incidents centre around the child going missing from the home and their vulnerability when they are with peers in the community. The child’s risk assessments contain conflicting information and are not consistently updated with recently agreed risk management strategies. This could affect the action taken by staff to respond to the child’s needs and presenting risks.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Staff feel supported by the manager. One member of staff stated, ‘The manager has done an amazing job managing the home and is a great support for all the staff and the child.’ Staff receive regular supervision and have mid-year and annual appraisals. These systems help staff to reflect on their practice and acknowledge areas of achievement and development.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Staff receive training in areas which are specific to the child’s risks. This supports them to have the knowledge and skills to work effectively with the child. The manager supports the ongoing professional development of the team by actively sourcing training courses.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The manager uses a variety of auditing tools to ensure that they have a comprehensive oversight of the home. This helps the manager to monitor the progress of the child and staff. The audits support the manager to identify patterns and trends relating to the child’s needs. Feedback from other professionals, such as the independent visitor, also supports the continuous improvement of practice in the home.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Some of the child’s case recordings are not updated as required. Differing information is recorded over numerous systems, which creates difficulties for staff when trying to find up-to-date information regarding the child. However, the manager is aware of this and is working with the company to streamline children’s records to one system.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The manager understands the local area and what it offers to children and has captured this in an assessment. The manager has not included information that has been obtained through consultation with the child and external agencies. This may result in staff having limited knowledge and understanding of risks in the local area, which could impact on their ability to safeguard the child. Inspection report for children’s home: SC356604 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 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

take effective action whenever there is a serious concern about a child’s welfare. (Regulation 12 (1) (2)(a)(i)(vi)) 30 November 2024

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must review the appropriateness and suitability of the location of the premises used for the purposes of the children’s home at least once in each calendar year taking into account the requirement in regulation 12(2)(c) (the protection of children standard).

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Requirement Due date

When conducting the review, the registered person must consult, and take into account the views of, each relevant person. (Regulation 46 (1) (2)) 30 November 2024

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Recommendation

 The registered person should ensure that all children’s case records are kept up to date and contain sufficient detail. (‘Guide to the Children’s Homes Regulations, including the quality standards’, page 62, paragraph 14.3) Inspection report for children’s home: SC356604 6

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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: SC356604 7

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Children’s home details

Registered provider: Pebbles Care Limited

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: 2 The Calls, Leeds LS2 7JU

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Inspector

Ladean Wilson, Social Care Inspector Inspection report for children’s home: SC356604 8 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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