Children's home run by Collaborative Care Services Limited

Inspection report for children's home: 2793863 1 Registered provider: Collaborative Care Services Ltd

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Inspected under the social care common inspection framework

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Information about this children’s home

The home is operated by a private provider and was registered with Ofsted on 24 June 2024. This is the first inspection of the home. The home provides care for one child with emotional and/or social difficulties.

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Information about this children’s home

The manager who registered at the same time as the home subsequently left. The new manager joined the organisation in September 2024 and is applying to register with Ofsted.

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Information about this children’s home

The responsible individual was out of the country during the inspection but available online. They delegated the running of the inspection to the manager. They were available remotely to the manager and the inspector and attended the feedback virtually.

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Information about this children’s home

At the time of the inspection, one child had been living in the home for almost 10 weeks. They moved out of the home on the first day of the inspection.

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Overall experiences and progress of

children and young people, taking into account

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requires improvement to be good

How well children and young people are helped and protected requires improvement to be good

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requires improvement to be good

The effectiveness of leaders and managers inadequate

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requires improvement to be good

The children’s home is not yet delivering good help and care for children and young people. However, there are no serious or widespread failures that result in their welfare not being safeguarded or promoted.

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requires improvement to be good

Date of last inspection: not previously inspected

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requires improvement to be good

Overall judgement at last inspection: not applicable Inspection report for children's home: 2793863 2 Enforcement action since last inspection: not applicable Inspection report for children's home: 2793863 3

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improvement to be good

The leadership and management judgment is inadequate but, despite significant issues, the child who lived in the home has made some progress. Additionally, they have enjoyed some positive experiences, including a trip to a theme park and a day out at an air show.

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improvement to be good

The home is well decorated and provides a nice space for children, with access to toys and games. The manager is proud of the home and the attention to detail from staff to make the environment warm and welcoming. However, the use of office-style blinds in the lounge and child’s bedroom and a lack of photos detracts from the overall feel. The manager plans to address these minor points.

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improvement to be good

The manager escalates concerns and challenged the local authority when statutory documentation about the child was not received.

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improvement to be good

The manager and staff respond to the child’s basic healthcare needs. They ensure that they are supported to attend the dentist. They also respond to the child’s emotional and physical health needs, seeking assessment by specialist services to emerging issues and to crisis incidents. However, the information from these specialist assessments, including following self-injurious behaviour and significant incidents, is not consistently recorded in plans, to ensure the child’s safe care.

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improvement to be good

The manager and staff recognise that trauma and past complex relationship dynamics impact the child’s ability to develop new positive relationships. They support the child sensitively to recognise these dynamics and are committed to developing positive, safe and reliable relationships. External professionals said the child’s relationship skills had progressed, which contributed to improved self-esteem.

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improvement to be good

The manager and staff have aspirations for children to succeed. Educational attendance is promoted. They champion the child’s success, express their pride and celebrate achievements with them. They support formal and vocational learning, taking the child to and from school and providing activities. They advocate on the child’s behalf and consequently they successfully helped to secure a full-time timetable for the child. The staff participate with the child in outdoor learning activities, including kayaking and climbing, modelling to the child a willingness to try anything.

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improvement to be good

When children go missing, staff understand the action to take in line with the home’s policy and procedures, appropriately alerting relevant individuals to ensure support to locate the child. The manager effectively challenged the local authority to ensure return Inspection report for children's home: 2793863 4 home discussions were carried out. However, the recording of incidents is inconsistent, with important detail missing, including the time of the child’s return. The manager is focused on the number of missing incidents reducing. However, they were not sufficiently curious about the increased time the child spent out of the home including overnight. The manager did not take action to escalate their concerns when they felt authorised arrangements for the child to spend time away from the home presented a significant risk.

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improvement to be good

Overall, restraint is not used. Distraction and engagement strategies are used with the child to get them to take part in fun, positive and meaningful activities. There was one incident of restraint identified by the independent visitor in a review of missing from home documentation. The manager took swift action to understand the situation, ensure an accurate record was completed and that learning was shared with the member of staff involved and the staff team. The record of supervision did not capture the robust challenge that the manager described having taken. Records of team meetings similarly lack consistent quality and detail.

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improvement to be good

The staff have received safeguarding training, as well as other critical training in line with the role. Despite this, many of the staff do not have experience in the care of children or safeguarding. This has negatively impacted their ability to take appropriate action on occasions, and there have been times when the child was left in risky situations due to a lack of action by staff. The oversight of the manager following these incidents did not consistently focus on the practice improvements required and was limited to the therapeutic evaluation of support for the child after the incident. The manager and leaders are not robustly ensuring and recording that all staff learn from incidents.

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improvement to be good

The manager did not communicate effectively with the child about the decision to move them from the home. This left the child confused and without any understanding of what support they could access after their move.

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improvement to be good

The failure by managers and leaders to ensure that children have well-written plans, with updates made when risks change, impacts on the care provided by staff and its consistency. Successful strategies are not shared appropriately and information is recorded sporadically in different records. The lack of consistency in documents increases the risk that staff will miss important updates and increases the likelihood of inconsistent use of expectations, consequences, actions and boundaries for the children in and out of the home.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

The staff group and management and leadership team are all relatively new in working together. In the brief period that the home has been operational there has been a change of manager. The current manager is not registered with Ofsted, but they have previous experience as a registered manager and are in the process of applying. The home is near another home run by the same provider and the manager is seeking dual registration for the two homes. The responsible individual and directors are new to this regulated sector. Inspection report for children's home: 2793863 5 The manager recognises there are gaps in staff’s skills, and that time is needed to embed staff training and learning in practice to develop the staff in their individual roles. The manager frequently supports practice and models behaviours to the staff. However, this has impacted on their managerial responsibilities of oversight, monitoring and

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

quality assurance. The responsible individual and other leaders have not taken action to respond to this.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

The recent appointment of an experienced operations manager is a positive step. However, the clarity about the role and their remit has not been agreed and communicated effectively to the team. Currently, there has been limited positive impact and there is potential for conflict without clear, understood areas of responsibility and the development of an open and transparent culture. For example, the manager said a change to the rotas had been made by the operations manager which led to challenge from staff, who did not feel consulted.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

The manager had identified issues with the home’s recording system and the new staff team learning the system, but they had not grasped the seriousness and impact of the issues. For example, information generated from the system had inconsistent omissions, and the staff and manager reported lost documents, including the record of an incident that should have been notified to Ofsted. There is a lack of knowledge, skill and expertise in how to use the recording system, resulting in staff lacking confidence or willingness to use it, and negatively impacting the quality and timeliness of recording. The training delivered has not supported staff to use the system effectively and confidently.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

Safer recruitment processes are not adequately implemented before staff are employed to work in the home.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

Managers and leaders have failed to assess and plan for how to support the staff to deliver effective and safe care, with a focus on key priority areas. The home does not have a development plan. The manager suggested a development plan drawn up by a previous manager was not fit for purpose. However, they have done nothing to rectify this. Leaders are not setting clear expectations for the manager of what they need to deliver in the role. The manager and leaders do not fully understand the home’s strengths and areas for development. Inspection report for children's home: 2793863 6

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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, The 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 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 promotes their welfare.

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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 work as a team where appropriate;

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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 has sufficient staff to provide care for 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 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;

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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.

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Requirement Due date

(Regulation 13 (1)(a)(b) (2)(a)(b)(c)(d)(e)(f)(h))

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Requirement Due date

In addition, the registered person must ensure that robust monitoring systems are in place that support them to evaluate 1 February 2025 Inspection report for children's home: 2793863 7 the effectiveness of the care and support that is provided to children.

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Requirement Due date

Furthermore, monitoring must help managers to ensure that staff have the most up-to-date and useful information about children that supports them to meet children’s needs.

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Requirement Due date

The quality and purpose of care standard is that children receive care from staff who—

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Requirement Due date

understand the children’s home’s overall aims and the outcomes it seeks to achieve for children;

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Requirement Due date

use this understanding to deliver care that meets children’s needs and supports them to fulfil their potential.

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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

protect and promote each child’s welfare;

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Requirement Due date

provide personalised care that meets each child’s needs, as recorded in the child’s relevant plans, taking account of the child’s background;

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Requirement Due date

make decisions about the day-to-day arrangements for each child, in accordance with the child’s relevant plans, which give the child an appropriate degree of freedom and choice. (Regulation 6 (1)(a)(b) (2)(b)(ii)(iv)(ix))

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must ensure that they understand the child’s personal care support needs. The support required from staff should be recorded clearly in the child’s relevant plan to inform the day-to-day arrangements for the child and to promote their safe care. 1 February 2025

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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 14 January 2025 Inspection report for children's home: 2793863 8 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

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)(d))

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Requirement Due date

In particular, the registered person must ensure that all safer recruitment checks carried out for workers from overseas include checks from their home countries, including references. Also, they must ensure that all necessary information is checked, so that they are satisfied that employed staff are suitable to work with children.

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must ensure that the following items, which may be kept in electronic form, are kept in an accessible manner—

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Requirement Due date

placement plans for children who are not looked after (see regulation 18);

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Requirement Due date

the policy for safeguarding children (see regulation 34);

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Requirement Due date

the policy for preventing bullying (see regulation 34);

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Requirement Due date

the missing child policy (see regulation 34);

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Requirement Due date

the behaviour management policy (see regulation 35);

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Requirement Due date

records of the use of measures of control, discipline or restraint (see regulation 35);

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Requirement Due date

children’s case records (see regulation 36);

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Requirement Due date

the procedure for considering complaints (see regulation 39); records of complaints (see regulation 39); 1 February 2025 Inspection report for children's home: 2793863 9 the independent person’s reports (see regulation 44);

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Requirement Due date

quality of care reviews (see regulation 45);

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Requirement Due date

annual reviews of the appropriateness and suitability of the location of the home’s premises (see regulation 46). (Regulation 38 (a)(b)(c)(d)(e)(f)(g)(h)(i)(j)(k)(l)(m)(n)(o))

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Requirement Due date

In particular, the registered person must ensure that the home’s recording system is fit for purpose and secure, and staff have the relevant training and support to be confident in using it and trusting its reliability.

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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: 2793863 10

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Children’s home details

Registered provider: Collaborative Care Services Ltd

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: 25 Pure Offices, Kembrey Park, Swindon, Wiltshire SN2 8BW

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Children’s home details

Registered manager: Post vacant (Alan Nichol proposed)

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Inspector

Ashley Arkless, Social Care Inspector Inspection report for children's home: 2793863 11 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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