Children's Home, Residential special school run by Kedleston (High Peak School) Limited in Cheshire East

Inspection report for children’s home: SC484134 1 SC484134

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Registered provider: Kedleston (High Peak School) 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 home is owned and managed by a private company. It provides care for up to four children who may have social and emotional difficulties and/or learning disabilities.

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Information about this children’s home

This children’s home shares the same grounds as a school. The inspectors only inspected the children’s home.

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Information about this children’s home

At the time of this inspection, two children were living in the home.

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Information about this children’s home

The manager registered with Ofsted in December 2020.

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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: 23 January 2024

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good

Overall judgement at last inspection: outstanding

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good

Enforcement action since last inspection: none Inspection report for children’s home: SC484134 2

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

23/01/2024 Full outstanding 29/11/2022 Full good 03/02/2022 Full good 03/03/2020 Interim declined in effectiveness Inspection report for children’s home: SC484134 3

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff work hard to build good relationships with children. These relationships provide the foundation for children to flourish. Children enjoy living in this home. A social worker said that one child identifies the other children they live with as ‘brothers.’ Children choose to maintain relationships with staff when they move out of the home. This shows the success of the relationships staff build with children.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children who move out of this home in a planned way experience carefully considered transitions that are informed by their views. Managers advocated for one child to ensure that the correct support was in place. As a result, this child had a successful move into their new home.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children’s health improves because of the care provided by staff. Staff work closely with health professionals to ensure that children’s health needs are met. Staff support children to learn to manage their own health needs and develop healthy routines. This helps children to learn life skills for their future.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff are ambitious for children and support them to develop a positive attitude towards learning. Children attend school in line with their individual plans and make progress from their starting points. Staff build on the opportunities that children access in school. For example, one child was introduced to skiing in school, and staff supported the child to pursue this as a sport. Subsequently, this child has won several awards at skiing competitions.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff support children to take part in a range of activities. This enables children to pursue their own interests and talents. Staff encourage children to form friendships with other children. Staff celebrate children’s achievements, which helps children to develop self-confidence. Staff capture children’s memories and achievements in records and photos. This provides children with an important record of their childhood.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children’s views about the care that they receive are routinely sought. Children understand how their views have been considered and responded to. Staff support children to contribute to care planning meetings. This ensures that children’s views inform decisions that are made about their care.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff nurture relationships between children and the people who are important to them. This helps children to maintain relationships and build on their support networks for the future. Good communication between staff and parents creates continuity between home and family. Staff support parents to understand the evolving needs of their children. Inspection report for children’s home: SC484134 4

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

Children’s known risks reduce because of the care they receive from staff. Staff understand their safeguarding roles and responsibilities. Staff understand the needs of the children well and take a conscientious approach to keeping children safe.

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

Routines and boundaries are in place, and positive behaviour is rewarded. Children are involved in identifying their own incentives and rewards. This helps children to take responsibility for their own behaviours. Staff support children to manage difficult feelings safely, and as a result, unsafe behaviours have reduced.

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

Children rarely go missing from home. When children are missing from home, they experience coordinated responses from staff. This ensures that children are located quickly. When children return home, they are given the opportunity to speak to an independent person, which helps staff to understand the reasons why children go missing.

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

Staff rarely hold children and only do this as a last resort and only when necessary to keep them safe. When children have been held by staff, they are given the opportunity to share their views about this. This helps practice in this area to remain safe.

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

Children are enabled to take risks in line with their individual abilities. This helps children to develop their independence skills, confidence, and social skills. For example, one child has learned to plan journeys and travel independently.

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good

A permanent and suitably experienced registered manager manages the home. The manager is visible in the home and leads the staff team by example. The manager has good relationships with children. Children identify the manager as a person they can share any worries they have with.

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good

Staff are overwhelmingly positive about the support they have from the management team. Staff enjoy working in this home and feel supported by the manager. There is a full staff team in place, which ensures that children are cared for by familiar adults.

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good

Induction arrangements for staff new to the home are effective. Staff access a wide range of training that gives them the skills to care for the children. Staff feel valued and contribute to decisions made about children’s care. Staff access regular supervisions and team meetings. This motivates staff and helps them to remain enthusiastic about their role.

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good

The manager has built positive working relationships with partner agencies, which promotes a team around the child approach. Feedback from professionals is positive. However, the manager has not consistently delivered appropriate challenge to Inspection report for children’s home: SC484134 5 professionals when children’s needs are not met. This does not ensure that matters are resolved quickly for children.

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good

Monitoring and review systems are not always effective. The manager has not identified inaccuracies and gaps in children’s records. As a result, children’s records do not consistently evidence the rationale for decisions made about children’s care and are not always clear. This does not help children understand why things have happened or provide them with a reliable record for the future. Inspection report for children’s home: SC484134 6

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Statutory requirements

This section sets out the actions that the registered persons 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 persons must comply within the given timescales.

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Requirement Due date

In meeting the quality standards, the registered person must, and must ensure that staff—

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Requirement Due date

if the registered person considers, or staff consider, a placing authority’s or a relevant person’s performance or response to be inadequate in relation to their role, challenge the placing authority or the relevant person to seek to ensure that each child’s needs are met in accordance with the child’s relevant plans. (Regulation 5 (c))

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Requirement Due date

Specifically, in circumstances when the registered person feels that another professional is not meeting a child’s individual needs, they should use escalation processes to resolve this quickly. 26 March 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

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

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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

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

use monitoring and review systems to make continuous improvements in the quality of care provided in the home. (Regulation 13 (1)(b) (2)(e)(f)(h)) 26 March 2025 Inspection report for children’s home: SC484134 7 Specifically, the registered person must ensure that management monitoring and review systems are effective.

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Requirement Due date

In addition, the registered person must ensure that children’s records are accurate and detail the decisions that have been made about their care.

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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: SC484134 8

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Children’s home details

Provision sub-type: Residential special school

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Children’s home details

Registered provider: Kedleston (High Peak School) Limited

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: Unit 7 Brook Business Centre, Cowley Mill Road, Uxbridge, Middlesex UB8 2FX

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Inspectors

Sally Griffiths, Lead Professional Quality Assurance Regulation and Social Care Gareth Dakin, His Majesty’s Inspector Inspection report for children’s home: SC484134 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 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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