Children's Home run by Staffordshire County Council in Staffordshire

Inspection report for children’s home – monitoring visit: SC028905 1 SC028905 Registered provider: Staffordshire County Council

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Inspected under the social care common inspection framework

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Information about this children’s home

This local authority-managed home provides care for up to four children who have experienced childhood instability which has resulted in trauma and associated complex behaviours.

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Information about this children’s home

The manager registered with Ofsted in February 2024. He holds the level 5 qualification in leadership and management.

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Information about this children’s home

We last visited this home on 30 April 2024 to carry out a full inspection. The report is published on the Ofsted website.

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Information about this children’s home

Inspectors were aware during this inspection that serious child protection allegations were being investigated by the appropriate authorities. While Ofsted does not have the power to investigate allegations of this kind, actions taken by the setting in response to the allegations were considered alongside other evidence available at the time of the inspection to inform inspectors’ judgements.

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This monitoring visit

The purpose of this monitoring visit was to explore actions taken by managers and staff in relation to an increased level of safeguarding incidents and an external complaint.

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This monitoring visit

There was one child living in the home at the time of the inspection. They were spoken to during the visit. The child has significant complex needs. A high number of staff support the child to keep them safe. There is a large team of professionals involved in the child’s care and care planning. Further work needs to be done to make sure the roles and responsibilities of all professionals are clear to ensure well- coordinated care and care planning for the child. Inspection report for children’s home – monitoring visit: SC028905 2 The child has made considerable progress and has had positive experiences since coming to live in the home. The level of staff intervention required in incidents is reducing. There has been an increase in the child’s access to activities in the community. For example, they have been roller skating, to the park, horse-riding, and alpaca walking. They are excited about a planned trip to go ice skating. The

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This monitoring visit

child has been to the dentist’s and the optician’s. They have also enjoyed a visit to the hairdresser’s, which had a positive effect on their well-being. This is substantial progress for the child, who has had extremely limited access to the community and has not attended health appointments for over two years.

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This monitoring visit

The child is starting to build trusting relationships with staff. This has supported the child to be open with staff about their experiences, wishes and feelings. The child said that the best thing about the home is all the activities they get to go on and the thing that they would change would for there to be fewer staff. The child does understand that high staffing ratios are required to keep them safe.

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This monitoring visit

The home environment has been adapted to meet the child’s needs. The adaptations are necessary and proportionate to keep the child safe. Managers keep any restrictions or adaptations under review and ensure that any maintenance work to repair damage is timely. Staff are working with the child to make their environment more homely and a more comfortable space for them to live in.

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This monitoring visit

Staff work closely with a wide range of safeguarding professionals to ensure that the child is safe. When concerns arise, managers and staff take swift action to ensure that appropriate professionals are informed, extra safeguarding measures are put in place and strategy meetings are arranged.

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This monitoring visit

Leaders and managers take all complaints seriously. The manager promptly investigates any complaints and ensures that the complainant is informed of the outcome. The manager ensures that action is taken on any learning from complaints to improve practice.

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This monitoring visit

Managers update detailed, written safety plans weekly. This ensures that staff have up-to-date clear guidance on the actions they need to take to mitigate risk and keep the child safe.

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This monitoring visit

Staff take appropriate action when the child causes injury to themselves. They seek medical attention when required.

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This monitoring visit

There is a high level of physical intervention required to keep the child and others safe. The manager is aware of all incidents and is confident that, when used, the intervention is necessary and proportionate. More recently, there has been a reduction in the level of the intervention that staff have been required to use. This is noteworthy progress. Inspection report for children’s home – monitoring visit: SC028905 3 Written records are of variable quality. The manager has not had capacity to ensure that he has recorded his oversight on all incidents. Records do not consistently provide clear audit trails of all actions taken to safeguard the child. In addition, physical intervention records are not always compliant with regulation 35. For example, it is not always clear which staff participate in restraints, the exact details of the restraint, or if managers have ensured that they speak to the child after every

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This monitoring visit

incident. Leaders are aware of this shortfall and plan to provide additional support to ensure that the manager’s capacity and oversight are improved.

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This monitoring visit

Leaders and the manager acknowledge that the current care and living arrangements do not currently meet the child’s longer-term needs. There is an ongoing search for a more suitable home for the child. Weekly multi-agency care planning meetings take place to ensure that the child is safe and to determine if any changes or additional support is required. A psychologist has completed an assessment of the child’s care needs. This will be taken into consideration to plan the child’s future care and therapeutic needs.

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This monitoring visit

Requirements made at the last inspection are outside of the scope of this visit and have not been reviewed. These will be reviewed at the next inspection. One additional recommendation was made at this monitoring visit. Inspection report for children’s home – monitoring visit: SC028905 4

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

30/04/2024 Full Requires improvement to be good 16/05/2023 Full Requires improvement to be good 25/01/2023 Full Good 15/02/2022 Full Good Inspection report for children’s home – monitoring visit: SC028905 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 with 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; and

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Requirement Due date

are familiar with, and act in accordance with, the home’s child protection policies.

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Requirement Due date

That the home’s day-to-day care is arranged and delivered so as to keep each child safe and to protect each child effectively from harm; and

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Requirement Due date

that the effectiveness of the home’s child protection policies is monitored regularly. (Regulation 12 (1) (2)(a)(i)(vi)(vii)(b)(e))

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Requirement Due date

This specifically relates to the registered manager’s consideration of the actions they need to take when children make allegations from a safeguarding perspective. Additionally, that child protection policies are reviewed to consider the actions managers need to take when children make allegations. Furthermore, risk assessments contain all identified strategies to enable consistent practice. 23 June 2024 Inspection report for children’s home – monitoring visit: SC028905 6 This requirement was raised at the last inspection and has been restated.

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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 staff have the experience, qualifications and skills to meet the needs of each child.

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Requirement Due date

ensure that the home’s workforce provides continuity of care to each child.

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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; 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)(a)(c)(f)(h))

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Requirement Due date

This specifically relates to managers ensuring that monitoring systems are effective in identifying shortfalls in practice. In addition, managers must ensure staff have the training to enable them to meet children’s needs.

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Requirement Due date

This requirement was raised at the last inspection and has been restated. 23 June 2024

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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— 23 June 2024 Inspection report for children’s home – monitoring visit: SC028905 7 the effectiveness and any consequences of the use of the measure; and

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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.

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Requirement Due date

This specifically relates to the manager ensuring that all records of restraint are consistently in accordance with regulation 35. The manager must ensure that staff are spoken to following any physical intervention.

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Requirement Due date

This requirement was raised at the last inspection and has been restated.

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Requirement Due date

The care planning standard is that children—

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Requirement Due date

receive effectively planned care in or through the children’s home; and

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Requirement Due date

have a positive experience of arriving at or moving on from the home. (Regulation 14 (1)(a)(b))

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Requirement Due date

Specifically, the manager must ensure that children receive well-planned care that does not have a negative impact on their future care plans. In addition, the manager must ensure that when children leave the home, staff always promote positive endings and help them to build their life story. When endings are unplanned, the welfare and well-being of children remain paramount.

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Requirement Due date

This requirement was raised at the last inspection and has been restated. 23 June 2024

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Recommendations

 The registered person should ensure that Ofsted and other relevant persons are notified, without delay, if one of the situations specified in regulation 40 (4)(a)– (d) occurs, or if there is an incident relating to the protection, safeguarding or Inspection report for children’s home – monitoring visit: SC028905 8 welfare of a child living in the home which the registered person considers to be serious (40(4)(e)). This recommendation was raised at the last inspection and has been restated. (‘Guide to the Children’s Homes Regulations, including the quality standards’, page 63, paragraph 14.10)  The registered person should have a system in place which allows them to monitor the matters set out in the regulation at least once every six months. The registered person should undertake a review that focuses on the quality of the care provided by the home, the experiences of children living there and the

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Recommendations

impact the care is having on outcomes and improvements for the children. Reviews should be underpinned by the Quality Standards as described in regulations 5 to 14. The registered manager should ensure that they forward a copy of the quality-of-care review report to Ofsted within 28 days of the date on which the quality of care review is completed. This recommendation was raised at the last inspection and has been restated. (‘Guide to the Children’s Homes Regulations, including the quality standards’, page 64, paragraph 15.2)  The registered person should ensure that those with a leadership and/or management role are visible and accessible to staff and able to deliver their leadership and/or management responsibilities. The registered manager employed in the home should have sufficient capacity to ensure that the Quality Standards are met for each child in the home. In particular, the registered person should

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Recommendations

ensure that: - The quality of written records is improved to ensure that there are clear audit trails, to enable the manager to review incidents effectively. - Physical intervention records are consistently compliant with regulation 35. - All professionals are clear on their roles and responsibilities in relation to care planning, to ensure that care planning is well coordinated. (‘Guide to the Children’s Homes Regulations, including the quality standards’, page 52, paragraph 10.7) Inspection report for children’s home – monitoring visit: SC028905 9

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Children’s home details

Registered provider: Staffordshire County Council

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: 1 Staffordshire Place, Stafford, Staffordshire ST16 2DH

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Children’s home details

Registered manager: Toby Williamson-Smith

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Inspectors

Sonia Sullivan, Social Care Regulatory Inspector Amy Richards, Social Care Regulatory Inspector Inspection report for children’s home – monitoring visit: SC028905 10 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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Inspectors

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Inspectors

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Inspectors

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Inspectors

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