Children's home run by Salford City Council in Salford

Inspection report for children’s home: SC040511 1 SC040511 Registered provider: Salford City Council

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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 home is a support service provided by a local authority alongside their outreach programme. The home is registered to provide care for up to six children.

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Information about this children’s home

The home’s statement of purpose states that it provides care to children on a short- to medium-term care basis and can also provide emergency care.

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Information about this children’s home

At the time of the inspection, there was one child living in the home.

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Information about this children’s home

The registered manager post has been vacant since April 2023.

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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: 20 September 2023

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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: SC040511 2

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

20/09/2023 Full Good 24/05/2022 Full Good 25/11/2021 Interim Improved effectiveness 28/07/2021 Full Requires improvement to be good Inspection report for children’s home: SC040511 3

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff ensure that the children’s views, wishes and feelings are heard and acted on. This supports children to feel valued.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children are supported by staff to engage in a wide range of activities that meet their hobbies and interests. Children have opportunities to try new activities. This supports them to gain a sense of identity and helps to build their self-esteem.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children’s health needs are met. Staff support them to register with local dentists, doctors and opticians, and to attend routine health appointments. When specialist health intervention is needed, staff work with external professionals, such as the looked after children’s nurse and the local authority’s child and adolescent mental health services team.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

When children move into the home, leaders assess whether the home is suitable to meet their needs before they move in. These assessments consider all relevant and necessary information. However, this is not always documented to identify if the staff’s skills and experience can meet the child’s needs.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

The home operates a ‘No Wrong Door’ model of care. This means that children often move into the home in an emergency with little or no planning. Staff support children to move into the home as sensitively as possible, taking into consideration their individual circumstances.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Due to the nature of the service, children often move out after staying just a short amount of time, dependant on their individual circumstances. When children move on, staff support this in a way that is right for the individual child. Reflective work has taken place at the end of some children’s placements to identify lessons learned and improve future practice.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Since the last inspection, the home environment has improved. The home’s layout provides children with separate areas so they can spend time alone or as a group.

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

There has been one complaint made by a child against staff. Leaders and managers took appropriate action to investigate and respond to this. All relevant and necessary professionals were notified, and the child was kept up to date throughout.

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

Children’s plans and risk assessments are detailed documents with guidance and strategies for staff to follow. Staff understand these documents and put these strategies into practice. Inspection report for children’s home: SC040511 4 Direct work sessions take place to support the children to understand significant events, learn new skills and help them to understand their behaviours and manage their emotions appropriately. These are completed with children in response to their individual needs, age and level of understanding. The sessions also cover topics such as healthy relationships, personal hygiene and bullying.

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

When there has been a significant incident and the police have been called, it has been reasonable. Staff have liaised with appropriate professionals following incidents to ensure that children have access to external support if needed.

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

Suitable action has been taken by staff to search for and locate children when they have been missing from the home. Staff work with the children’s friends, families and the police to support their safe return. When children are back at the home, they receive a return home interview with someone independent from the home.

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

Staff work with external professionals to address concerns of exploitation. Staff also complete direct work with children to help them understand what exploitation is and how it could impact them.

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

There has been no registered manager in post since April 2023. The day-to-day management of the home has been supported by the deputy manager and the service manager. Recruitment of a permanent manager is ongoing.

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

There are shortfalls in the monitoring and oversight of the home. When there have been significant events, managers have not ensured that a review has been undertaken. This means that there is not sufficient reflection following events and this limits their ability to identify lessons learned and improve practice. In addition, Ofsted has not received the quality of care review.

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

Leaders in the company have completed internal audits and identified shortfalls and created plans to address these.

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

Staff have access to a comprehensive training programme. However, not all staff have completed refresher training in subjects required to meet children’s needs, such as safeguarding, exploitation and missing from home. Systems that are in place to identify shortfalls in training are not effective. Consequently, gaps in staff training have not been addressed with staff in a timely manner.

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

Staff have not received regular one-to-one supervision sessions. The deputy manager and practice leads have started to provide some individual supervisions and group supervision sessions. However, staff have not received these regularly, and supervisors have not completed supervision training. When staff have received supervision, these sessions have focused on changes to the service and the impact on staff roles, and are not practice related. Inspection report for children’s home: SC040511 5 Team meetings are held regularly and are well attended. They are an opportunity for the staff to share information with each other about children’s updates and changes to the service. They are also an opportunity for staff to establish their roles and responsibilities.

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

Professionals spoken to during the inspection praised the staff team for their positive approach to partnership working. Inspection report for children’s home: SC040511 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 registered provider must appoint a person to manage the children’s home if—

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Requirement Due date

there is no registered manager in respect of the home. (Regulation 27 (1)(a)) 1 April 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

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

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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;

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Requirement Due date

demonstrate that practice in the home is informed and improved by taking into account and acting on—

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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)(b)(c)(f)(g)(h)) 1 April 2025 Inspection report for children’s home: SC040511 7 Specifically, the registered person must ensure that they have appropriate monitoring and review systems in place.

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Requirement Due date

In addition, the registered person must ensure that staff complete training to meet the individual needs of the children.

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must ensure that all employees—

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Requirement Due date

receive practice-related supervision by a person with appropriate experience. (Regulation 33 (4)(b)) 1 April 2025

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must complete a review of the quality of care provided for children ("a quality of care review") at least once every 6 months.

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Requirement Due date

In order to complete a quality of care review the registered person must establish and maintain a system for monitoring, reviewing and evaluating—

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Requirement Due date

the quality of care provided for children;

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Requirement Due date

the feedback and opinions of children about the children’s home, its facilities and the quality of care they receive in it; and

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Requirement Due date

any actions that the registered person considers necessary in order to improve or maintain the quality of care provided for children.

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Requirement Due date

After completing a quality of care review, the registered person must produce a written report about the quality of care review and the actions which the registered person intends to take as a result of the quality of care review ("the quality of care review report").

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Requirement Due date

supply to HMCI a copy of the quality of care review report within 28 days of the date on which the quality of care review is completed; and

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Requirement Due date

make a copy of the quality of care review report available on request to a placing authority, if the placing authority is not the parent of a child accommodated in the home.

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Requirement Due date

The system referred to in paragraph (2) must provide for ascertaining and considering the opinions of children, their parents, placing authorities and staff. 1 April 2025 Inspection report for children’s home: SC040511 8 (Regulation 45 (1) (2)(a)(b)(c) (3) (4)(a)(b) (5))

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Recommendations

 The registered person must ensure that there are procedures in place to identify if the staff team has the skills and experience to meet the child’s individual needs prior to the child moving into the home. (‘Guide to the Children’s Home Regulations’, Page 57, paragraph 11.7)

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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: SC040511 9

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: Civic Centre, Chorley Road, Swinton, Manchester M27 5DA

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Inspectors

Katie Tomlinson, Social Care Inspector Chibuzo Otache, Social Care Inspector Inspection report for children’s home: SC040511 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.

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Inspectors

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Inspectors

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Inspectors

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