PSM Healthcare Limited

Inspection report for supported accommodation provider: PSM Healthcare Limited 1 PSM Healthcare Limited Registered provider: PSM Healthcare Limited

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Inspected under the social care common inspection framework

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provider

A private provider operates this supported accommodation service. The provider can accommodate up to 14 individuals in five shared or group-living homes that are limited to accommodating looked-after children and care leavers.

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provider

At the time of the inspection, the service was providing supported accommodation for nine children aged 16 and 17.

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provider

The service manager registered with Ofsted when the organisation was registered in November 2023.

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provider

Inspection dates: The inspection was announced on 27 January 2025 and started that day. The inspectors were on site on 29 and 30 January 2025.

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Outcome

Consistently strong service delivery leads to typically positive experiences and progress for children. Where improvements are needed, leaders and managers take timely and effective action. The next inspection will be within approximately three years.

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Summary of findings

Children make good progress. The registered manager and staff build meaningful and trusting relationships with children. These relationships make children feel safe, valued and respected and give them the confidence to make positive decisions about their lives.

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Summary of findings

Children benefit from individualised support that is responsive to their needs, risks and behaviours. This includes the involvement of specialist support when required. Children are helped to develop strong foundations for adult life. Inspection report for supported accommodation provider: PSM Healthcare Limited 2 Staff listen to and respond to what children have to say. Conversations about children’s experiences and progress are meaningful. Children contribute to their plans and, when necessary, staff strongly advocate on their behalf.

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Summary of findings

Children are encouraged to understand and take age-appropriate risks. Staff know children well and take effective action to help them stay safe. This is strengthened by a well-coordinated multi-agency approach.

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Summary of findings

Effective leadership and management result in positive outcomes for children. The manager is visible, known to children and supports staff to take a child-centred approach.

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Summary of findings

Some aspects of management oversight require improvement.

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Overall experiences and progress of children

Children make good progress in most areas of their independence journey. This is because of the high quality of individualised support they receive from dedicated and committed staff.

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Overall experiences and progress of children

Children’s needs are well considered at the point of referral. The registered service manager consults with placing authorities and carefully considers the needs of children moving in and of those already living in the accommodation. This coordinated approach provides a platform for a stable and effective placement.

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Overall experiences and progress of children

Staff know children well and are responsive to their known and emerging needs, risks and behaviours. Positive and meaningful relationships are used to provide a sensitive approach to supporting children when it is most needed. One child said, ‘I get along with [registered person]. He would be my first person to go to if I had concerns.’

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Overall experiences and progress of children

Planning for independence is effective. Staff support children to work towards and achieve their aims and goals. They provide opportunities for children to develop a range of independence skills in preparation for adult life. This includes cooking, budgeting, looking after their own physical and emotional health and community networking.

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Overall experiences and progress of children

Staff take a proactive approach to education, training and employment. They identify and use children’s interests to remove barriers and re-engage children on a pathway to employment. This approach has been effective in helping children to make good progress.

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Overall experiences and progress of children

Managers have been proactive in ensuring specialist support is available when required. Following a recent bereavement, managers arranged for children and staff to have access to a counsellor. This provided much-needed support that is helping children and staff come to terms with their loss. Inspection report for supported accommodation provider: PSM Healthcare Limited 3 Children are well supported to develop resilience. Staff take the time to understand children’s past experiences and provide child-centred support that helps children manage the challenges they face in life. Staff are committed to broadening their knowledge and skills but are realistic in what they can achieve, and will engage specialist agencies, such as mental health professionals, when necessary.

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Overall experiences and progress of children

Children benefit from living in nurturing, welcoming and homely accommodation. Staff and children take pride in the accommodation, which is personalised.

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Overall experiences and progress of children

Some records, such as support plans and safety plans, do not provide an up-to-date picture of children’s needs, experience or progress.

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How well children are helped and protected

Children said they feel safe and staff help them to make the right choices. Staff recognise that taking age-appropriate risks is part of growing up and take a supportive and educational approach to helping children understand and manage risk. This approach has been effective in reducing risk-taking behaviour and helping children make good choices that keep them safe.

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How well children are helped and protected

There is a multi-agency approach to keeping children safe. Good links with safeguarding partners are used to develop coordinated responses to children’s risk- taking behaviour. Incidents of concern are scrutinised and used for learning and influencing future practice. However, children’s records are not always updated to ensure that these approaches are written down.

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How well children are helped and protected

Procedures are in place and implemented effectively when children go missing. This includes reporting, sharing information and working with the relevant agencies to minimise risk and secure a safe return for the child. A social worker said, ‘[Name of child] has been able to build trusting and respectful relationships with the manager and staff. The staff have a strong process in place to monitor and assess risks. They are aware of [name of child]’s specific safeguarding risks and show the appropriate professional curiosity to understand his time away.’

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How well children are helped and protected

Children’s individual plans are not always reviewed and updated following a missing- from-home event. This means that they do not contain the most up-to-date information for staff to use to inform their practice.

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How well children are helped and protected

Physical restraint has been used on one occasion to keep a child safe. Staff action was proportionate to the risk. However, the record of this incident was incomplete and there was a delay in the management review of this incident. Furthermore, this incident was not reported to Ofsted.

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How well children are helped and protected

Overall, recruitment practice is thorough and ensures that staff are suitable and safe to work with children. However, on one occasion, managers failed to get a suitable reference. Inspection report for supported accommodation provider: PSM Healthcare Limited 4

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers

The service is run effectively by a knowledgeable and experienced service manager. He is highly visible and has a positive impact on the lives of children. He promotes a strong ethos of child-centred support which is valued by staff. One staff member said, ‘I feel supported, and it’s been easier for me to understand what is expected of me because the management are always on call and always there to assist us whatever time of night.’

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers

Staff work closely with a range of professionals to ensure that the quality of support provided to children is well coordinated. Feedback from a range of professionals was unanimously positive, with one social worker saying, ‘They are amazing. I can pick up the phone and speak with the manager at any time. They keep me informed and respond to my calls.’

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers

Staff are passionate about their work. They have regular meetings to reflect on their practice, improve their knowledge and find new ways of working to meet the needs of children. Staff say that they feel supported by managers and that induction, supervision and training are beneficial in helping them improve their skills and develop professionally.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers

The registered person is a strong advocate for children. He challenges other professionals to ensure that children receive the support they need and deserve. On occasions, he has gone to great lengths to ensure this. For example, he travelled a considerable distance to meet with legal professionals, which resulted in a child receiving the targeted support that he needed.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers

The service manager has a good understanding of what the service does well. As part of an improvement agenda, he also recognises the need to better quality assure staff practice, quality of support and children’s experiences.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers

Children understand their rights and know how to make a complaint. The registered person ensures that any concerns are quickly investigated and addressed. This assures children that any issues they raise are taken seriously. However, not all children have been given feedback regarding the outcome of their complaint. Inspection report for supported accommodation provider: PSM Healthcare Limited 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 Supported Accommodation (England) Regulations 2023 and the ‘Guide to the Supported Accommodation Regulations, including 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 supported accommodation undertaking that puts children first and prioritises their wellbeing and development.

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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 supported accommodation undertaking in a way that is consistent with the ethos, and delivers the outcomes, set out in the undertaking’s statement of purpose. (Regulation 4 (1) (2)(a)) 14 March 2025

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Requirement Due date

The support standard is that children receive individual and tailored support that meets their needs.

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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

keep the child’s support under review, taking into consideration the plans for support, and relevant plans, to ensure that the child’s needs continue to be met and that the child is kept safe. (Regulation 7 (1) (2)(c)) 14 March 2025

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Requirement Due date

Where there is use of a measure of restraint ("the measure") of a child in premises used for supported accommodation, the registered person must ensure that—

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Requirement Due date

within 24 hours of the use of the measure, a record is made which includes—

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Requirement Due date

details of the child’s behaviour leading to the use of the 14 March 2025 Inspection report for supported accommodation provider: PSM Healthcare Limited 6 measure;

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Requirement Due date

the date, time and location of the use of the measure;

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Requirement Due date

a description of the measure and its duration;

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Requirement Due date

details of any methods used or steps taken to avoid the need to use the measure;

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Requirement Due date

the name of the person who used the measure, and of any other individual present when the measure was used;

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Requirement Due date

the effectiveness and any consequences of the use of the measure. (Regulation 22 (2)(a)(i)(ii)(iii)(iv)(v)(vi)(vii))

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must notify the CIECSS and any relevant person without delay if—

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Requirement Due date

there is an incident involving the use of a measure of restraint of a child. (Regulation 27 (3)(e)) 14 March 2025

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Recommendations

 The registered person should ensure that a record is made of any complaint, including the outcome of any investigation, and that this outcome is shared with the child making the complaint. (‘Guide to the Supported Accommodation Regulations, including Quality Standards’, page 61)  The registered person should ensure that all employment checks are completed prior any member of staff starting work. (‘Guide to the Supported Accommodation Regulations, including Quality Standards’, page 16)

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Information about this inspection

Inspectors have looked closely at the experiences and progress of children 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 Supported Accommodation (England) Regulations 2023. Inspection report for supported accommodation provider: PSM Healthcare Limited 7

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Supported accommodation provider details

Registered provider: PSM Healthcare Limited

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Supported accommodation provider details

Registered service manager: Michael Mutekedza

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Supported accommodation provider details

Email address: admin@psmhealthcare.co.uk

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Inspectors

Patrick McIntosh, Social Care Inspector Tara Lovatt, Social Care Inspector Inspection report for supported accommodation provider: PSM Healthcare Limited 8 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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