Children's home run by Blue Elephant Childcare Limited

Inspection report for children’s home: 1278020 1 Registered provider: Blue Elephant Childcare Ltd Full inspection Inspected under the social care common inspection framework

p.1

Information about this children’s home

The home is owned and managed by an independent organisation. It provides short- and medium-term care for up to three children. At the time of the inspection, two children were living in the home.

p.1

Information about this children’s home

The manager registered with Ofsted in July 2018 and was present throughout the inspection.

p.1

Overall experiences and progress of

children and young people, taking into account

p.1

good

How well children and young people are helped and protected good

p.1

good

The effectiveness of leaders and managers good

p.1

good

The children’s home provides effective services that meet the requirements for good.

p.1

good

Date of last inspection: 14 November 2023

p.1

good

Overall judgement at last inspection: good

p.1

good

Enforcement action since last inspection: none Inspection report for children’s home: 1278020 2

p.1

Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

14/11/2023 Full Good 13/10/2022 Full Good 08/03/2022 Full Good 26/06/2019 Full Requires improvement to be good Inspection report for children’s home: 1278020 3

p.2

Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children who live in the home make progress. Staff have consistently encouraged them to reflect on their behaviours and actions and how these affect themselves and others. This has led to a reduction in risk-taking behaviours, an improvement in the quality of relationships and a calmer home. One child has started to recognise the need for them to take time out when they are playing on the games console, to avoid them feeling angry.

p.3

Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff support children to attend educational settings and to achieve. They communicate and work with schools effectively to ensure that children attend local schools that meet their needs. Staff transport children to school, acknowledging that this is in their best interests as opposed to using an external transport provider. A teacher said that they have observed staff being warm and patient with a child, providing clear boundaries. Staff provide children with consistent routines, which results in them being up and ready for learning and for days at home.

p.3

Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff recognise the health and social benefits of an active lifestyle for children. They take them to a variety of activities in the community, including football and bowling, and they encourage trips to the park with friends from school. Positive outcomes have been seen in relation to ongoing work with a child to educate them on their body, the feelings that they are having and social boundaries. One child was supported to overcome their fear of the dentist. This resulted in the child receiving the treatment they needed.

p.3

Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff acknowledge the importance of family relationships for children. One child said that staff take them to see their family, which makes them feel happy. When children’s experiences of family time are not positive, staff promptly share information with other professionals to allow for protective action to be implemented. Staff are curious about children’s thoughts, wishes and feelings and provide opportunities for them to reflect on their experiences and relationships. Two parents said that they receive a good level of communication about their child from staff. They said that they believe their child receives a good level of care and is happy living in the home.

p.3

Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Photos of children’s experiences while living in the home are captured and put into memory books. These are essential for children to retain memories of their time in the home.

p.3

Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

The quality of planning for children to move into the home is mixed. Information about children is gathered and considered in line with the skill set of the team and location of the home. However, the potential impact of children’s behaviours on the other children who live in the home or the capacity of staff to meet the needs of all the children is not evaluated or assessed for risk before a child moves in. Inspection report for children’s home: 1278020 4

p.3

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

Two children said that they like living in the home and feel safe. They said that they talk to staff if they have any worries and that staff help them to know how to behave. One child said that they get taken to fun places. Three professionals and two parents said that staff keep children safe.

p.4

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

Staff spend time building relationships with children, getting to know their personalities and behaviours. They provide children with consistent boundaries and routines and appropriate and honest guidance and advice. This has allowed children to feel secure enough in their relationships with staff to talk about their day-to-day lives and past experiences.

p.4

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

Staff have good knowledge and understanding of risk. They know the children and their behaviours well and are committed to keeping them safe. Staff teach children about risks and the consequences of their actions. As a result, one child can independently access the community and knows how to keep themselves safe. However, documents that assess risk and contain care planning for children are not always up to date. They do not always provide staff with clear guidance and strategies on how to achieve care planning aims and to manage and reduce risk. Fortunately, due to the good level of communication and understanding in the staff team, this does not appear to have impacted negatively on children’s care.

p.4

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

Incidents in the home have reduced in frequency. During incidents, staff use known and tested techniques to support, distract and comfort children to keep them safe. Recordings of children’s and staff’s actions allow the reader to know what happened. When restraint has been used, this has been appropriate. Following incidents, managers speak to staff and children and support them to reflect on their actions.

p.4

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

The children who live in the home have a difficult relationship. They do not always get on and can be unkind to each other. Staff usually step in to prevent escalation of behaviours, having conversations with the children about friendships, boundaries, impact and expectations. However, on one occasion, staff did not address unkind behaviours which left a child upset. One child can reflect on their behaviours and choose their consequence. There has been a reduction in incidents between the children.

p.4

The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The home is led by an experienced and committed manager. She is visible in the home, choosing to spend time with children and carers. This has allowed her to build positive relationships and to know what is going on in the home. The manager leads a conscientious and ambitious team. The team is reflective and open to feedback, wanting to continually improve the care that children receive. Inspection report for children’s home: 1278020 5 Management oversight on documents about children has improved. However, the quality of it is mixed. At times, it is reflective, analytical and provides feedback on practice. Other times, it is a brief sentence. On one occasion, following a concern being raised by a child, they were not offered the opportunity to make a complaint, and no action was taken to review staff practice. This was a missed opportunity to ensure that a child felt listened to and heard.

p.4

The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Staff like working in the home. They describe their work as ‘rewarding’, particularly as they are seeing good outcomes for children. They speak positively about the culture in the home, saying that they can voice their views and feel heard. Staff said that managers provide them with regular, good-quality supervision. However, written records do not fully document the safeguarding, learning and developmental culture in the home. This includes records of team meetings. Carers said that they are full of discussion and reflection, but this is not documented in the written records.

p.5

The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Leaders and managers advocate for children. On two occasions, concerns about the actions of organisations and how these were negatively affecting a child have been raised and escalated. This resulted in positive action being taken and good outcomes for the children.

p.5

The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Leaders and managers ensure that all staff receive training that allows them to have the skills and knowledge to provide children with a good level of care. Recruitment practice ensures that checks necessary to determine whether staff are safe to work with children are carried out. Inspection report for children’s home: 1278020 6

p.5

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.

p.6

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—

p.6

Requirement Due date

helps children aspire to fulfil their potential; and

p.6

Requirement Due date

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

p.6

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;

p.6

Requirement Due date

ensure that staff have the experience, qualifications and skills to meet the needs of each child;

p.6

Requirement Due date

understand the impact that 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;

p.6

Requirement Due date

use monitoring and review systems to make continuous improvements in the quality of care provided by the home. (Regulation 13 (1)(a)(b) (2)(a)(c)(f)(h))

p.6

Requirement Due date

In particular, the registered person must ensure that all plans and documents that provide information about children, assess risk and provide guidance for carers to care for children are up to date, detailed and directive.

p.6

Requirement Due date

In addition, the registered person must ensure that they have oversight of all practice carried out in the home and that this oversight is clearly recorded. This should be reflective and provide carers with clear actions and direction. 6 April 2025 Inspection report for children’s home: 1278020 7 The care planning standard is that children—

p.6

Requirement Due date

receive effectively planned care in or through the children’s home; and

p.7

Requirement Due date

have a positive experience of arriving at or moving on from the home.

p.7

Requirement Due date

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

p.7

Requirement Due date

that children are admitted to the home only if their needs are within the range of needs of children for whom it is intended that the home is to provide care and accommodation, as set out in the home’s statement of purpose. (Regulation 14 (1)(a)(b)(2) (a))

p.7

Requirement Due date

In particular, the registered person must ensure that a full analysis of the ability of staff to meet all children’s needs is completed prior to a new child moving in. 6 April 2025

p.7

Requirement Due date

The protection of children standard is that children are protected from harm and enabled to keep themselves safe.

p.7

Requirement Due date

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

p.7

Requirement Due date

assess whether each child is at risk of harm, taking into account information in the child’s relevant plans, and, if necessary, make arrangements to reduce the risk of any harm to the child;

p.7

Requirement Due date

help each child to understand how to keep safe; have the skills to identify and act upon signs that a child is at risk of harm;

p.7

Requirement Due date

manage relationships between children to prevent them from harming each other;

p.7

Requirement Due date

understand the roles and responsibilities in relation to protecting children that are assigned to them by the registered person. (Regulation 12 (1) (2)(a)(i)(ii)(iii)(iv))

p.7

Requirement Due date

In particular, the registered person must ensure that any incident of unkind or harmful behaviour between the children is dealt with effectively. 6 April 2025 Inspection report for children’s home: 1278020 8 In addition, the registered person must ensure that any concerns raised by children about staff practice are reviewed and that appropriate action is taken.

p.7

Recommendation

 The registered person should ensure that staff follow the home’s policies and procedures to benefit the children who live there. There should be clear lines of accountability. In particular, the registered person should ensure that documents detailing supervision sessions and team meetings show the discussion and reflection that take place. (‘Guide to the Children’s Homes Regulations, including the quality standards’, page 54, paragraph 10.20)

p.8

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: 1278020 9

p.8

Children’s home details

Registered provider: Blue Elephant Childcare Ltd

p.9

Children’s home details

Registered provider address: Unit 30 Chivenor Business Park, Barnstaple EX31 4AY

p.9

Inspector

Carla Simkiss, Social Care Inspector Inspection report for children’s home: 1278020 10 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.

p.9

Inspector

If you would like a copy of this document in a different format, such as large print or Braille, please telephone 0300 123 1231, or email enquiries@ofsted.gov.uk . You may reuse this information (not including logos) free of charge in any format or medium, under the terms of the Open Government Licence. To view this licence, visit www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/doc/open-government-licence , write to the Information Policy Team, The National Archives, Kew, London TW9 4DU, or email: psi@nationalarchives.gsi.gov.uk .

p.10

Inspector

Interested in our work? You can subscribe to our monthly newsletter for more information and updates: http://eepurl.com/iTrDn .

p.10

Inspector

T: 0300 123 1231 Textphone: 0161 618 8524 E: enquiries@ofsted.gov.uk W: www.gov.uk/ofsted

p.10