Children's home run by Northumberland County Council in Northumberland

Inspection report for children’s home: SC468929 1 SC468929

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Registered provider: Northumberland County Council

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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 is operated by a local authority. It provides short- and long-term care for up to four children who may experience social and emotional difficulties.

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Information about this children’s home

The manager registered with Ofsted in October 2013.

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Information about this children’s home

There were four children living at the home at the time of the inspection.

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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 requires improvement to be 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

Date of last inspection: 20 November 2023

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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: SC468929 2

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

20/11/2023 Full Good 21/06/2022 Full Good 11/05/2021 Full Good 28/01/2020 Full Good Inspection report for children’s home: SC468929 3

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children build trusting relationships with staff who know them well and understand how to communicate with each child. The trust that children have in staff allows them to make positive progress in talking about their early experiences. Staff help children to reflect on their behaviour and talk about their emotions. This enables the staff to respond in a way that meets each child’s individual needs.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children’s health needs are a priority for staff. Children are registered with dentists, opticians and doctors in the local area. Staff support children to attend their appointments and are proactive in seeking out additional support for children when this is needed. This has helped one child make good progress with their physical health since they moved to the home.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff have been proactive in supporting children to maintain and develop relationships with people who are important to them. This includes thinking of alternative ways to support one child to rebuild their relationship with family following a significant period without seeing them. Staff work together with family members to help them feel included in their children’s care plans. This enables children and families to invest in the support from staff. For some families, this is the first time they have felt involved in their children’s care.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff encourage children to pursue their hobbies and interests. Children enjoy spending time with staff and discovering new activities, including going on holiday together. Children are each involved in creating a memory book with pictures of activities and outings with staff and each other. This enhances the children’s experiences, promotes relationships within the home and provides them with a record of their time in the home.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Not all children are accessing full-time education or training. Staff are not always proactive in working with professionals to identify alternative provisions. Furthermore, staff have not been effective in identifying one child’s barriers to attending school or helping them to maintain a consistent routine. This means that one child is not prepared to engage in their education.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Communal bathrooms are not maintained to a good standard and are in need of updating. Also, when children have caused damage to some areas of the home, this has not been repaired in a timely manner. This does not provide children with a home that is in a good condition Inspection report for children’s home: SC468929 4

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improvement to be good

When children go missing from home, staff do not always follow the missing-from- home protocol. One child’s plan had not been followed by staff, and they were unable to reduce concerns effectively, and the risk to the child increased. This does not demonstrate to children that their safety and well-being are important.

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improvement to be good

Staff are not supporting all children to develop strategies to keep themselves safer. Staff complete some positive work with children to help them understand risk and how to stay safer. However, one child’s plan was not reflective of their risks, and they were not provided with support to help them understand and reduce these risks.

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improvement to be good

Children are not always offered an opportunity to discuss incidents after they have been held by staff. The manager reviews all incidents and has discussions with staff, but this does not include the children. This limits the manager’s oversight of the children’s experiences and hinders staff learning from incidents.

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improvement to be good

Staff have responded quickly when children are not getting along. Individual risk assessments have clear actions in place for staff to follow to reduce risks children pose to each other. Staff have worked with outside agencies and completed key-work sessions with children to help develop their relationships. This has resulted in children being better protected in the home, and their relationships with each other have improved.

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improvement to be good

The use of consequences to address negative behaviour is proportionate and balanced. Children understand why consequences are in place and have said that they are fair. Staff use a restorative approach to work with the children. Staff support the children to explore their feelings, which helps staff to identify triggers for negative behaviour. This has been effective in reducing the frequency of incidents.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The home is run by an experienced manager. She is committed to the children and aspires for them to achieve their goals. The manager also has plans to further develop the skills of staff and the service. This helps to embed a positive culture of achievement in the home.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Multi-agency working is strong. The staff advocate for the children and escalate any concerns in a timely manner. Professionals and family members give consistently positive feedback about the progress children are making because of the support they receive from the staff.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

When new staff are recruited to the home, there is a robust recruitment process in place. Staff are suitably vetted and undertake a thorough induction, which includes shadowing experienced staff. This helps the children to get to know new staff before they work unsupervised in the home. Inspection report for children’s home: SC468929 5 The manager uses effective internal monitoring systems and external reports by the independent visitor to develop the home. The manager acts on any recommendations for improvement and embraces learning opportunities.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Team meetings keep staff up to date with any changes and areas for development. This helps to increase staff knowledge and skills to support them to provide consistently good care to children.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Staff say that they feel supported by the manager and the team. They receive regular supervision that allows them to talk about the children’s needs, their own emotional well-being and professional development. There are clear actions set so these can be reviewed to see progress throughout supervisions. However, sessions do not always include opportunities for staff to reflect on their practice and learn lessons from their mistakes and successes. This hinders their personal development and ability to analyse what works well for children. Inspection report for children’s home: SC468929 6

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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

help each child to understand how to keep safe; and

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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)(ii)(vi)) 4 December

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Requirement Due date

The education standard is that children make measurable progress towards achieving their educational potential and are helped to do so.

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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 barriers to learning that each child may face and take appropriate action to help the child to overcome any such barriers;

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Requirement Due date

promote opportunities for each child to learn informally; and

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Requirement Due date

help a child who is excluded from school, or who is of compulsory school age but not attending school, to access educational and training support throughout the period of exclusion or non-attendance and to return to school as soon as possible. (Regulation 8 (1) (2)(a)(iii)(v)(viii)) 4 December Inspection report for children’s home: SC468929 7

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Recommendations

 The registered person should have systems in place to ensure that any child who has been restrained is given the opportunity to express their feelings about their experience of the restraint as soon as is practicable, ideally within 24 hours of the restraint incident. Children should be encouraged to add their views and comments to the record of restraint. (‘Guide to the Children’s Homes Regulations, including the quality standards’, page 50, paragraph 9.60)  The registered person should ensure that the children’s home is a nurturing and supportive environment that meets the needs of their children and is a homely, domestic environment. In particular, improvements to the bathrooms need to be made and maintenance of the home needs to be undertaken in a timely manner. (‘Guide to the Children’s Homes Regulations, including the quality standards’, page 15, paragraph 3.9)  The registered person should have systems in place so that all staff, including the

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Recommendations

manager, receive supervision which allows them to reflect on their practice and the needs of the children assigned to their care. (‘Guide to the Children’s Homes Regulations, including the quality standards’, page 61, paragraph 13.2)

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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: SC468929 8

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Children’s home details

Registered provider: Northumberland County Council

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: County Hall, Morpeth NE61 2EF

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Inspector

Natalie Clark, Social Care Inspector Inspection report for children’s home: SC468929 9 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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Inspector

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