Children's home run by Harmony Children’s Services

Inspection report for children’s home: SC424759 1 SC424759 Registered provider: Harmony Children’s Services 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

This is a privately run children’s home that offers care for up to three children who may experience social and emotional difficulties.

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Information about this children’s home

Two children were present. One child moved out of the home on day one of the inspection. This was part of a planned move.

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Information about this children’s home

The manager is suitably qualified for the role and was registered with Ofsted in April 2024.

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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: SC424759 2

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

05/03/2024 Full Good 24/01/2023 Full Good 15/03/2022 Full Good 12/06/2019 Full Good Inspection report for children’s home: SC424759 3

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

The home provides a welcoming environment for children to relax and play. They have easy access to books, computer consoles, toys and a ‘chill out’ room that they can use at their leisure. The children’s bedrooms are personalised with their belongings and they are all decorated to their choice. This helps the children to feel at home and develop a sense of belonging.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff make sure that children live an active life, and they keep them busy doing the things that the children love. Staff encourage children to pursue their hobbies and interests, such as swimming and horse riding. Furthermore, children enjoy spending time with staff and have been able to widen their experiences by going on caravan holidays.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

One child receives tailored support to manage their complex health needs, with specialist input provided to both the child and staff. This ensures a clear understanding of the child’s health requirements. Staff are also available to address the child’s questions, fostering deeper understanding. The child actively participates in these sessions, which have significantly improved their awareness and ability to manage their own health effectively.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

When children struggle with their education, the manager advocates on their behalf during meetings. This has resulted in changes to children’s plans and has increased some children’s school attendance. Furthermore, one child attends extra tuition and is making progress. However, staff are not consistently utilising opportunities to support one child’s development in reading and speaking. This is a lack of targeted intervention for the child and has resulted in missed opportunities to improve the child’s progress in this area.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff use one-to-one sessions with the children to discuss all areas of their development and answer any questions that the children have. These sessions help children to explore their own thoughts and feelings, giving them a better understanding of themselves and the world around them.

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

Risk assessments in place provide staff with clear strategies to follow to reduce risk of harm to the children.

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

Children rarely go missing from the home. Each child has a missing-from-home protocol in place that staff follow consistently. If a child goes missing, staff speak to them when they return home, to gather their views on why they left home or school without permission. This is to see if anything differently could be done to reduce the likelihood of this happening again. Inspection report for children’s home: SC424759 4 Physical interventions are used infrequently and are used as a last resort to keep children safe. Each incident has management oversight. Children and staff are spoken to after the incident. This helps everyone to reflect, learn, and move on.

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

Children are supported to access safe, age-appropriate content when online. Staff speak to the children about keeping safe both online and in the community. These sessions are revisited, and this reinforces to children that their safety is important.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The registered manager has worked hard to make sure that staff have good leadership in the home, and to help them in their roles. She is actively involved and leads by example and understands the progress that the children make. This commitment has helped the home to move forward.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The manager will challenge any practice issues that she feels are not in the best interest of the children. This in turn is slowly embedding a consistent approach by staff. Staff feel valued by their manager and well supported by one another. This supports them to fulfil their roles effectively.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Staff supervisions are reflective and focus on staff practice. This helps with staff development as it gives staff the opportunity to adapt their way of working to better meet the children’s needs. The manager refers to the good work and commitment that staff have towards the children. This feedback helps staff to feel valued and supported in their roles.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Staff are supported through training to develop the skills that they need to provide effective care for the children. Training is individualised to the children’s specific needs. This ensures that staff are meeting children’s needs as they change over time.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The manager is aware of the home’s strengths and areas for development. The monitoring systems in place mean that, when shortfalls are found, the manager takes immediate action in ensuring that they are swiftly rectified.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Professionals and parents spoken with all echoed the good work that staff do with the children, and the progress made from children’s starting points. One parent said, ‘Staff really cannot do anything better for my child.’

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The requirements and recommendations raised at the last full inspection have been met. Inspection report for children’s home: SC424759 5

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Recommendation

 The registered person should ensure that staff play a key role in supporting children in line with their personal education plan or education, health and care plan, in particular the staff should support children with their reading and writing in the home. (‘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: SC424759 6

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Children’s home details

Registered provider: Harmony Children’s Services Limited

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: 3 Park Square, Leeds LS1 2NE

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Inspector

Gemma McDonnell, Social Care Inspector Inspection report for children’s home: SC424759 7 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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