Children's home run by Unity Residential Care Services Limited in Newcastle-under-Lyme

Inspection report for children’s home: SC470413 1 SC470413

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Registered provider: Unity Residential Care 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

A private company owns this home. It is registered to provide care for two children with social and emotional difficulties.

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Information about this children’s home

There is a permanent registered manager, who is suitably experienced and qualified.

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Overall experiences and progress of

children and young people, taking into account

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outstanding

How well children and young people are helped and protected outstanding

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outstanding

The effectiveness of leaders and managers outstanding

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outstanding

The children’s home provides highly effective services that consistently exceed the standards of good. The actions of the children’s home contribute to significantly improved outcomes and positive experiences for children and young people who need help, protection and care.

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outstanding

Date of last inspection: 20 February 2024

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outstanding

Overall judgement at last inspection: good

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outstanding

Enforcement action since last inspection: none Inspection report for children’s home: SC470413 2

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

20/02/2024 Full Good 29/11/2022 Full Good 21/09/2021 Full Good 26/02/2020 Interim Sustained effectiveness Inspection report for children’s home: SC470413 3

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outstanding

At the time of this inspection, one child was living in the home. They have lived in the home for almost 11 months. They were spoken to during the inspection. The child receives exceptional care from an enthusiastic and resolute staff team. Staff are knowledgeable and attuned to the child’s needs. They provide the child with a stable, warm and loving home. The child has made substantial and sustained progress from their starting point. They are now enrolled in and are attending education, participating in regular therapy and enjoying improved relationships with family and peers. Incidents have dramatically reduced.

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outstanding

The child said that they like living in the home. They rate the home ‘nine out of 10’. They are extremely positive about the staff and how well they are cared for. Staff and the child are proud to celebrate the child’s successes. These positive relationships and experiences support children to feel safe and secure and develop a sense of belonging. The child’s parent was also incredibly positive about the care the child receives from staff and the progress that they have made since living in the home.

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outstanding

The home is beautifully decorated, clean and homely. Staff have supported the child to personalise their bedroom. They have moved furniture around to better suit their needs. This ensures that the child feels comfortable, safe and at home in their surroundings.

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outstanding

The manager and staff’s approach to children’s education and learning is highly effective. Staff have high aspirations for the child. They have ensured that the child now has access to specialist education that is appropriate to meet their individual needs. When the child is unable to attend school, staff are proactive, supporting the child to complete education-based activities. This ensures that their routine is maintained, and they have opportunities to learn. The manager has also ensured that the child has had the appropriate educational and psychological assessments to enable the home and school staff to better understand how to meet the child’s needs.

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outstanding

Staff persistently encourage the child to try new things, develop their hobbies and interests and have fun. They have been involved in various clubs and groups, such as football, fishing and rugby. The child has been to theme parks and Halloween celebrations with staff. Sharing activities enables children to grow in confidence and improve their self-esteem. They also help to build relationships with carers and support children to improve their social skills.

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outstanding

Staff help the child to have good physical and emotional health and well-being. The support that staff provide to children to maintain their physical and emotional health Inspection report for children’s home: SC470413 4 is excellent. The child is registered with local health services and now has regular therapy with the home’s clinical team. A full psychological and sensory assessment has been completed to fully assess the child’s needs. The recommendations from these have been incorporated into the child’s plans and have supported the staff to gain a better understanding of the child and how to best care for them.

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outstanding

Staff understand the importance of children’s voices being heard. The child’s views are highly valued by staff and managers and sought through general chats, house meetings and extensive key-working sessions. The manager has made a bespoke feedback form for the child to make it easier to gather the child’s views. The child said that they know how to make a complaint but they ‘have no reason to’, and that there was ‘nothing’ they would change about the home.

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outstanding

Staff provide the child with opportunities to influence the care and support that they receive. They also have the space to share and talk about their achievements and reflect on and learn from incidents. This means that children feel valued and listened to, and they are supported to build trusting relationships.

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outstanding

Staff understand the importance of promoting children’s relationships with their families and friends. Staff ensure that they support the child to regularly visit and spend time with their family. This helps them maintain relationships with people that are important to them and helps them to maintain their sense of identity.

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outstanding

The child said that they feel ‘happy’ and ‘safe’.

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outstanding

Managers and staff have great regard for the safety and well-being of children. The child’s written plans are extremely comprehensive and kept up to date. Detailed individual support and safety plans provide staff with clear guidance and strategies to support the child. The oversight of managers is highly effective in ensuring that staff always have up-to-date guidance.

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outstanding

There have been no incidents of the child being missing from home, no complaints or allegations, and incidents in the home are rare. There has been a significant reduction in incidents for the child since they moved into the home.

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outstanding

The child is safer, and their risks have significantly reduced. Staff are extraordinarily successful in supporting the child to reduce their risk. Through the support of the clinical team and the manager implementing therapeutic models of parenting effectively, such as ‘connection before correction’, both the staff and the child have gained insight into the child’s triggers and risk. This has helped the child to reflect on their actions, show more empathy and build their emotional resilience. It has also helped the child to keep themselves safer. The child said they have been ‘calmer’ since living in this home. Inspection report for children’s home: SC470413 5 Staff’s approach to behaviour management is excellent. Incidents requiring staff to use physical intervention have significantly reduced. Staff use effective de-escalation techniques well to defuse situations. Staff and the manager have extensive

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outstanding

knowledge of the child and their risks. They use this knowledge alongside their experience and understanding of the child’s behaviours to work restoratively with them. The manager has a thorough oversight of incidents and ensures that staff and the child reflect on all incidents. This creates a culture of reflection and learning for all. It supports children to feel safe, secure and more confident in their relationships with staff.

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outstanding

Managers and staff know how to keep children safe online. There are robust systems and safeguards in place. These are regularly reviewed to ensure that any restrictions in place are necessary and proportionate.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

The manager has been in post since September 2021. They have an exceptional understanding of the home’s strengths and areas of development. The manager has created an open and inclusive culture that places children at the centre of practice. They have exceptional knowledge of the child’s starting points and what they have accomplished since living in the home.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

The manager is an ambitious and inspirational leader. They lead by example, providing highly effective leadership. They have created an environment where everyone can succeed. They have high aspirations for both children and staff alike and will go above and beyond to help them reach their potential. This ethos is shared by the team, as this leadership inspires staff to provide exceptional care.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

The manager has effective systems in place to monitor the quality of care that children receive. The manager has excellent oversight on all the home’s and child’s records, through the online recording system. The manager completes an abundance of regular audits to scrutinise the performance of the home and the child’s outcomes. They use these extremely well. They have a plethora of detailed improvement plans, including a home and a workforce development plan, to continuously develop the service and ensure that staff’s practice consistently exceeds the standard of good. However, when completing the six-monthly review of the quality of care, the manager did not seek feedback from the child or professionals, which can impact on the quality of their review.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

The manager ensures that an independent person completes an assessment of the home monthly. There have been occasions where there have been factual inaccuracies in the report and/or the assessment did not meet regulation, as the independent person did not clearly state if they felt that the child was safeguarded and that their well-being was promoted. While these shortfalls were not identified by the manager, the effectiveness of the audits is being considered by senior leaders. Inspection report for children’s home: SC470413 6 The manager ensures that children have a stable and skilled team of staff who can meet their needs. They support the staff team extremely well, valuing the importance of staff development. Staff receive high-quality supervision sessions and annual appraisals. The manager uses research in practice to enhance and upskill staff practice. They have used Belbin’s theory of the team to better understand the staff

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

team and evaluate staff competencies. As a result, staff have individualised personal development plans in place to help them achieve their aspirations.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

Staff say that they feel extremely well supported by the manager. They feel that the manager is approachable and will go out of their way to support them and the child. One staff member said, ‘The management is the strong link that keeps the team together and motivated by supporting the staff with any issues they may face, whether it be personal, or job related.’

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

The manager has developed an outcome tracker, which is now being used across the organisation to enable managers and staff to track children’s progress and areas of development. This gives clear data on children’s progress and where work may still be required.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

The manager is leaving their role soon. They have ensured that there has been a clear succession and transition plan in place to reduce the impact on the child and staff team. They made sure that new managers have had a handover and have worked with the child to provide a positive ending to their relationship. Inspection report for children’s home: SC470413 7

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Recommendations

 The registered person should ensure that when completing the review of the quality of care, they focus on the experiences of the child living in the home and the impact that the care is having on outcomes and improvements for the child. This includes seeking feedback from the child. (‘Guide to the Children’s Homes Regulations, including the quality standards’, page 64, paragraph 15.2)  The registered person should ensure that any individual appointed to carry out visits to the home as an independent person must make a rigorous and impartial assessment of the home’s arrangements for safeguarding and promoting the welfare of the children in the home’s care. The registered person should ensure that the assessments and reports are accurate, meet regulation and are effective in supporting the home to develop. (‘Guide to the Children’s Homes Regulations, including the quality standards’, page 65, paragraph 15.5)

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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: SC470413 8

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Children’s home details

Registered provider: Unity Residential Care Services Limited

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: 2 Lymevale Court, Lyme Drive, Parklands, Stoke-on- Trent ST4 6NW

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Inspectors

Sonia Sullivan, Social Care Inspector Latoya Morgan, Social Care Inspector Inspection report for children’s home: SC470413 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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Inspectors

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Inspectors

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Inspectors

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