Children's Home run by N H Care Limited in Birmingham

Inspection report for children's home: 1276111 1 Registered provider: NH Care Limited

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Inspected under the social care common inspection framework

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Information about this children’s home

The home provides care for up to five children with learning disabilities. Four children were living at the home at the time of the inspection and were spoken to by the inspector.

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Information about this children’s home

The previous manager left in October 2024. A new manager has been appointed and has submitted their application to register with Ofsted.

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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 provides effective services that meet the requirements for good.

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good

Date of last inspection: 28 February 2024

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good

Overall judgement at last inspection: good

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good

Enforcement action since last inspection: none Inspection report for children's home: 1276111 2

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

28/02/2024 Full Good 21/11/2022 Full Good 28/07/2021 Full Good 03/03/2020 Full Good Inspection report for children's home: 1276111 3

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff build trusting relationships with children, which helps them to communicate about their daily experiences and show their emotions. Staff show genuine love and care towards children and create a family atmosphere in the home. Children are helped to have positive relationships with each other and this contributes to them having positive experiences while living at the home.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff know the children and their individual care needs well. They take the time to understand children’s different ways of communicating, especially if children are nonverbal. One child has a communication book specifically for their music choices, and staff play songs that the child requests. Experienced staff ensure that they share their knowledge of children with new members of staff, so that children’s care needs are met quickly and correctly.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

The manager understands the importance of children spending time with family members. Staff support children to spend time with their family, at the home and elsewhere, helping them maintain relationships which are important to them. This also helps staff to build trusting relationships with family members who have struggled to adjust to their child living away from their family home.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff prioritise children’s education and encourage them to attend. They understand the importance of education and the effect it has on children if they do not have an appropriate education provision in place. The manager escalated concerns for one child who has been unable to attend education, resulting in the child beginning to attend school.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

The manager ensures that children are offered specialist support to meet their additional needs. This includes children accessing alternative education provisions and mental health support services. This support helps children achieve milestones in line with their level of development and abilities.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff strive to ensure that children have positive experiences of moving to and from the home. Two children experienced a natural progression on from the home due to their ages. One of their parents said, ‘It was a big change, but the transition helped. We had a really good experience, as did [name of child]. It helped us as a family.’ Staff remain in contact with children who have left the home, as well as their families, demonstrating the high level of commitment that they have towards helping children.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

The home environment is in need of improvement. Some areas show signs of wear and tear and there are repairs which are outstanding. This compromises how welcoming and suitable the environment is for children. Inspection report for children's home: 1276111 4

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

Children’s risk assessments and behaviour support plans are detailed and clear. These plans provide staff with information and guidance to support children’s needs effectively and keep them safe. Staff are confident when providing all aspects of care to children and are knowledgeable about safeguarding procedures. Safeguarding procedures are frequently discussed in team meetings, supervisions and general discussions. Ensuring safeguarding is always considered helps ensure that children are kept safe.

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

Staff provide children with lots of praise and recognition to help with their development and independence. Staff support children’s cognitive and physical abilities by playing games with them and involving them in daily tasks in the home. Staff display a good level of professional curiosity and persevere when children are unable to share their views and wishes easily. A parent said the manager and staff ‘have successfully encouraged [name of child] to visit local shops, get their hair cut and most importantly for them to navigate a safe form of transport to return to school’.

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

The manager and staff have good communication with external professionals. This ensures all professionals have the information to meet the needs of children and allows children to have the opportunity to have a positive experience every day.

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

There are few incidents in the home and physical intervention is seen as a last resort to manage children’s behaviour. Records of physical interventions show they have been appropriately used. However, some records lacked description to understand the incident fully. In addition, the manager does not provide an analytical overview of incidents to ensure good practice.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: requires improvement to be good

The manager is new to the role and is assisted by the previous manager and operations manager. He is reflective and transparent, which enables him to identify his strengths and areas for development easily. He receives regular support from senior managers and staff. However, managers do not always apply learning to practice. This includes being able to use online systems with confidence to access children’s files.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: requires improvement to be good

Auditing processes carried out by the manager and senior managers are not robust. For one child, the manager did not have copies of an important court document and other essential documents to fully inform their care and safety plan. The documents were outstanding for a number of months, and the matter was not escalated to more senior professionals. This caused delay in staff being able to fully understand the child’s care needs.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: requires improvement to be good

Most staff have completed a good range of training. However, the manager failed to identify that two members of staff had not completed any training in over a year. In addition, a lapse in management oversight prevented staff accessing additional training to help them understand their care responsibilities when one child’s care needs changed. Inspection report for children's home: 1276111 5 The manager did not challenge a child’s arrangements when they had been subject to a temporary court order for an extended time. Although the child is safe, the lack of professional curiosity has prevented the manager having certainty that early permanence has been achieved for the child.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: requires improvement to be good

The staff are highly supportive of one another and feel well supported by the manager. The manager is adaptable and flexible to the changing needs of children and staff and adjusts rotas accordingly to ensure the home runs smoothly. The manager knows the staff’s skill sets well, which enables him to have high levels of trust in them.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: requires improvement to be good

The manager has ensured that staff are suitable to work in the home. Staff and the manager speak fondly of children and have high aspirations for them. Staff are committed to their roles, which has resulted in low staff turnover. Some staff have been working at the home for years, which provides high levels of consistency for children. Inspection report for children's home: 1276111 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 care planning standard is that children—

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Requirement Due date

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

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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

ensure the effective induction of each child into the home;

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Requirement Due date

manage and review the placement of each child in the home; and

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Requirement Due date

that the child’s placing authority is contacted, and a review of that child’s relevant plans is requested, if—

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Requirement Due date

the registered person considers that the child is at risk of harm or has concerns that the care provided for the child is inadequate to meet the child’s needs. (Regulation 14 (1)(a) (2)(b)(ii)(e)(i))

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Requirement Due date

This specifically relates to the manager and staff having a copy of all children’s essential care planning documents and escalating with professionals when these documents are not received in a reasonable time frame. In addition, the manager must advocate and challenge the local authority when a child’s legal status may no longer meet their care needs. 28 February 2025

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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. 28 February 2025 Inspection report for children's home: 1276111 7 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 have the experience, qualifications and skills to meet the needs of 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

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

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Requirement Due date

This specifically relates to the manager using effective monitoring systems to ensure that all staff have completed mandatory training in reasonable time frames. This includes specific training relating to deprivation of liberty orders.

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Recommendation

 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. This includes the manager and staff being confident in using online recording systems to locate children’s documents easily. (‘Guide to the Children’s Homes Regulations, including the quality standards’, page 62, paragraph 14.4)

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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: 1276111 8

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: 69 Steward Street Business Lofts, Steward Street, Birmingham B18 7AF

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Inspector

Caoimhe Richards, Social Care Inspector Inspection report for children's home: 1276111 9 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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