Children's home 2775797

Inspection report for children's home: 2775797 1 Full inspection Inspected under the social care common inspection framework

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Information about this children's home

This home can care for up to six children with learning disabilities. There are currently two children living in the home. This is the first inspection since registration.

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Information about this children's home

The registered manager left the home in June 2024. A new manager is in post and 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

Date of last inspection: not previously inspected

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good

Overall judgement at last inspection: not applicable

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good

Enforcement action since last inspection: not applicable Inspection report for children's home: 2775797 2

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

The inspector spent time with both children living in the home.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff care for children focuses on improving their experiences and expanding their opportunities. Children receive support from staff who embody a can-do attitude of aspiration. This leads to children making progress.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff support children to lead healthy and active lifestyles. They encourage children to try new food, leading to more vegetables at mealtimes. Staff prepare tasters of different food for interest and variety. Children enjoy the large garden with play equipment, whatever the weather. Outside of the home, children enjoy visiting parks, beaches and the trampoline park. Through providing children with different experiences, staff help children to explore their identity. However, support for children’s culture and identity is not done with intent or purpose.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff work closely with children’s schools, to understand their targets and abilities. This is then incorporated into the goals for children in the home. Staff help children develop their fine motor skills, their counting and their communication. By working with schools, staff ensure consistency of approach. Staff use advice from professionals at school such as, the school nurse and occupational therapist, to develop plans in the home.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

The home is a warm and welcoming space. Children’s rooms are personalised to their interests and have recently been painted in colours chosen by them. Children enjoy freedom to move around and explore the spaces in their home. One child enjoys sitting at the breakfast bar and helping to prepare food.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff support children to spend positive time with their families. One parent describes visiting her child as a completely different experience for both of them. She sees the positive progress the child has made with their behaviour, speech, signing and personal care.

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

Staff keep children safe. They are confident about who to report safeguarding concerns to and understand whistleblowing processes. Staff vigilance has identified one safeguarding concern. Swift action was taken to report the concern to the relevant authorities and staff identified the wider associated risks. The record itself is not flagged as a safeguarding matter, which impacts on the managers longer term understanding of risks and trends. The record also lacks detail about the specific concerns seen, meaning staff cannot link other incidents with this issue.

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

Staff work well as a team to support children. They communicate and collaborate well to create a positive environment. Staff support children to take developmentally appropriate Inspection report for children's home: 2775797 3 risks, and as such, they enjoy new opportunities. They help children to develop life skills for safety and independence in the future. Staff support children to develop their communication skills. They confidently and consistently use clear speech, signing and other communication aids. Children’s communication is improving. In turn, this reduces their frustrations, helping to give them a voice and means to express themselves.

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

Incidents that have occurred are well managed. The staff team meet regularly to discuss children’s behaviours and strategies to support them. Managers encourage a collaborative approach to creating support plans. While the discussion and collaboration is strong, the behaviour support plans lack clarity and some details.

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

Staff make clear records of lower-level behaviour that is seen to help identify what works. However, this is not pulled together and analysed by managers. This means the impact of behaviour support strategies is not fully understood.

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

There has been one incident of restraint. The member of staff did not recognise this as a restraint at the time, however the management overview identified that it had taken place. Because the incident is not captured as a restraint, it has not been recorded or reviewed in the required manner.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

A confident and enthusiastic manager leads the home. The manager understands the strengths and areas for development well. The manager recognises the relative inexperience of many members of staff. She provides them with opportunities for mentoring and development to build their skills and confidence.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Staff are positive about working in the home. They feel well supported by managers. They take pride in their work and in the progress they help children to achieve. Staff receive training relevant to the role. This includes face-to-face opportunities to learn about safeguarding disabled children.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Recruitment of permanent staff follows safer recruitment processes. However, managers do not ensure they have all the information required for temporary staff who work in the home, such as a full employment history or right to work check.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The manager builds positive working relationships with families and professionals. Social workers for the children say there is good communication with the staff, and that their children have made good progress. They observe positive relationships between the children and staff.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Plans and documents are mostly well written and provide helpful information to inform staff about children’s support needs. Some documents are written in the first person but contain assumptions about children’s views. Some language in documents lacks clarity or shared meaning for staff, impacting on the understanding and learning from what is written. Inspection report for children's home: 2775797 4 The manager and responsible individual identified that the reports from their independent person lacked robust scrutiny of care in the home. They have taken action to address this, and a new independent visitor is in place. Inspection report for children's home: 2775797 5

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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, 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 registered person must prepare and implement a policy (“the behaviour management policy”) which sets out—

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Requirement Due date

how appropriate behaviour is to be promoted in the children’s home; and

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Requirement Due date

the measures of control, discipline and restraint which may be used in relation to children in the home.

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must keep the behaviour management policy under review and, where appropriate, revise it.

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Requirement Due date

within 24 hours of the use of a measure of control, discipline or restraint in relation to a child in the home, a record is made which includes—

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Requirement Due date

details of the child’s behaviour leading to the use of the measure;

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Requirement Due date

the date, time and location of the use of the measure;

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Requirement Due date

a description of the measure and its duration;

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Requirement Due date

details of any methods used or steps taken to avoid the need to use the measure;

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Requirement Due date

the name of the person who used the measure (“the user”), and of any other person present when the measure was used;

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Requirement Due date

the effectiveness and any consequences of the use of the measure; and 6 December 2024 Inspection report for children's home: 2775797 6 a description of any injury to the child or any other person, and any medical treatment administered, as a result of the measure;

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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”)—

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Requirement Due date

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 (1)(a)(b) (2) (3)(a)(i)(ii)(iii)(iv)(v)(vi)(vii)(vii)(b)(i)(ii)(c))

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Requirement Due date

In particular, ensure that there is a full record of any restraint that is carried out, in line with the regulations.

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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 individual is of integrity and good character;

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Requirement Due date

the individual has the appropriate experience, qualification and skills for the work that the individual is to perform;

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Requirement Due date

the individual is mentally and physically fit for the purposes of the work that the individual is to perform; and

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Requirement Due date

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)(a)(b)(c)(d)) 6 December 2024 Inspection report for children's home: 2775797 7 In particular, ensure the required checks have been completed for non-permanent staff.

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Recommendations

 The registered person should ensure staff understand and promote children's culture and identity. ('Guide to the Children's Homes Regulations, including the quality standards', page 14, paragraph 3.2)

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Recommendations

 The registered person should ensure safeguarding concerns are clearly recorded to ensure risks are tracked and monitored. ('Guide to the Children's Homes Regulations, including the quality standards', page 62, paragraph 14.3)

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Recommendations

 The registered person should ensure they review children's behaviour with consideration to the effectiveness of the support plans in place. ('Guide to the Children's Homes Regulations, including the quality standards', page 54, paragraph 10.23)

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Recommendations

 The registered person should ensure that language in records is clear to understand and avoids professional jargon where possible. In addition, ensure that if first person perspectives are used this is an accurate representation of children's views. ('Guide to the Children's Homes Regulations, including the quality standards', page 62, paragraph 14.4)

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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: 2775797 8

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Children's home details

Registered provider address: 22-24 Harborough Road Kingsthorpe, Northampton NN2 7AZ

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Inspector

Clare Nixson, Social Care Inspector Inspection report for children's home: 2775797 9 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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