Children's home run by Life Change Care Limited

Inspection report for children’s home: 2720360 1 Registered provider: Life Change Care 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 private children’s home that provides care for up to three children. Children living in this home may have a range of social and/or emotional difficulties.

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Information about this children’s home

One child lived in the home at the time of the inspection.

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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 requires improvement to be good

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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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good

Date of last inspection: 10 October 2023

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good

Overall judgement at last inspection: requires improvement to be good

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good

Enforcement action since last inspection: none Inspection report for children’s home: 2720360 2

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

10/10/2023 Full Requires improvement to be good Inspection report for children’s home: 2720360 3

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improvement to be good

One child lives at the home. Since the last inspection, two children have moved on from the home. Their experiences and progress of living at the home were mixed, and both children experienced moves that were not in line with their plans. This has been unsettling for the child remaining in the home.

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improvement to be good

The child described feeling happy living in this home. They have trusted relationships with staff who understand their needs. Staff provide the child with individualised care. This helps the child to have positive experiences, and they are making progress from their starting points.

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improvement to be good

Staff understand the value of education and ensure that the child’s educational needs are met, and the child is supported to attend school. Outside of school, staff support the child to gain confidence and learn new skills by exploring hobbies and interests, such as swimming, cooking and martial arts.

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improvement to be good

Staff are beginning to understand the child’s identity needs, but there are some gaps in knowledge about wider issues of diversity.

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improvement to be good

Some of the language used by staff in records is not child-focused and does not capture a full description of events. There is a plan to address this, but changes in practice have not yet been consistently embedded.

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improvement to be good

Consequences and rewards to manage behaviour do not always promote a restorative approach. Some of the consequences are not proportionate or relevant to the behaviour, and therefore, they are not understood by the child.

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

Plans to minimise risk are up to date and reviewed regularly, with clearly understood actions for staff to follow. Leaders and managers are taking steps to ensure that learning from incidents is becoming embedded into practice.

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

Physical restraints are rarely used. They are only used as a last resort to stop the child from hurting themselves or others. Staff are debriefed to help reflect on alternative ways to support children to manage their emotions. The child is also given the opportunity to talk to the manager. This enables staff and the child to think about ways to prevent such events from happening again.

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

Staff respond promptly when a child is missing from home. They try to follow the child, search local areas, contact all relevant agencies and reassure the child on their return. The child also gets the opportunity to speak to someone independent of the Inspection report for children’s home: 2720360 4 home about why they went missing from home and what happened while they were missing.

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

The child is supported to discuss varied topics in their key-work sessions. Staff hold creative sessions that cover topics such as living in the home, school routine and staffing, which are relevant to the day-to-day care for the child.

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

Leaders ensure that safer recruitment procedures are followed. This provides assurance that staff have been appropriately vetted before they provide care.

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good

When children move into the home, the manager has not ensured that the most appropriate planning takes place.

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good

When incidents occur, there is management oversight and learning documented. However, the monitoring and review systems used are not consistent, which impacts on the quality of record-keeping and expectations of staff.

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good

Lone-working practices are not in alignment with the child’s risk management plans. This places children at potential risk of harm. Staff have expressed their concerns about safety and lone working.

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good

The staff team understands the child’s individual needs and vulnerabilities. Staff have regular supervision, clinical supervision and team meetings. This provides opportunities to reflect and consider approaches to use with the children. Equally, this allows management to have oversight of staff’s strengths and development areas. Inspection report for children’s home: 2720360 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, 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 care planning standard is that children—

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Requirement Due date

have a positive experience of arriving at or moving on from the home. (Regulation 14 (1)(b)) 10 October

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Requirement Due date

The positive relationships standard is that children are helped to develop, and to benefit from, relationships based on—

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Requirement Due date

an understanding about acceptable behaviour.

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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

meet each child’s behavioural and emotional needs, as set out in the child’s relevant plans;

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Requirement Due date

help each child to develop and practise skills to resolve conflicts positively and without harm to anyone;

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Requirement Due date

communicate to each child expectations about the child’s behaviour and ensure that the child understands those expectations in accordance with the child’s age and understanding;

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Requirement Due date

understand how children’s previous experiences and present emotions can be communicated through behaviour and have the competence and skills to interpret these and develop positive relationships with children;

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Requirement Due date

de-escalate confrontations with or between children, or potentially violent behaviour by children. (Regulation 11 (1)(b) (2)(i)(iv)(v)(ix)(xi)) 30 September Inspection report for children’s home: 2720360 6 In particular, behaviour management strategies should be considered in line with the child’s needs and not limited by staffing ratios, in order to keep children and staff safe.

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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

In particular, the standard in paragraph (1) requires the registered person to—

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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. (Regulation 6 (1)(a) (2)(b)(iv))

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Requirement Due date

In particular, children’s identities should be acknowledged and promoted positively within the home. 30 September

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Recommendations

 The registered person should ensure that any consequences used to address poor behaviour are restorative in nature, to help children recognise the impact of their behaviour on themselves, other children, the staff caring for them and the wider community. It is important for children to make reparation in some form to anyone hurt by their behaviour, and the staff in the home should be skilled to support the child to understand this and carry it out without using punitive measures. (‘Guide to the Children’s Homes Regulations, including the quality standards’, page 46, paragraph 9.38)  The registered person should ensure that staff are familiar with the home’s policies on record-keeping and understand the importance of careful, objective and clear recording. Staff should record information on individual children in a non- stigmatising way that distinguishes between fact, opinion and third-party information. Information about the child must always be recorded in a way that

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Recommendations

will be helpful to the child. (‘Guide to the Children’s Homes Regulations, including the quality standards’, page 62, paragraph 14.4) Inspection report for children’s home: 2720360 7

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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: 2720360 8

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Children’s home details

Registered provider: Life Change Care Limited

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: Pennine View, Off Trafalgar Street, Burnley, Lancashire BB11 1TQ

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Inspectors

Sally Mitchell, Social Care Inspector Angeline Clarke, Social Care Inspector Inspection report for children’s home: 2720360 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 children looked after, safeguarding and child protection.

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Inspectors

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Inspectors

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Inspectors

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