Children's Home run by Prime Nurture Services Limited in Nottinghamshire

Inspection report for children’s home - monitoring visit: 2749804 1 Registered provider: Prime Nurture Services Ltd

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Inspected under the social care common inspection framework

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Information about this children’s home

The home is privately owned. It is registered to provide care for up to three children who may have social and emotional needs.

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Information about this children’s home

There has been no registered manager since September 2024. The appointed manager has applied to register with Ofsted.

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Information about this children’s home

There was one child living at the home at the time of the inspection. Since the last inspection, two children have moved out.

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This monitoring visit

The purpose of this visit was to monitor the steps taken by the home following the compliance notices served following the full inspection on 20 and 21 January 2025.

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This monitoring visit

Several statutory requirements were set, and three compliance notices were issued in relation to regulation 12, the protection of children standard, regulation 13, the leadership and management standard, and regulation 14, the care planning standard.

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This monitoring visit

Ofsted issued a restriction of accommodation notice to ensure that no further children were admitted, given the inspection findings and concerns for this home.

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This monitoring visit

This visit was carried out to judge whether the actions set following the judgement of inadequate have been completed. It was also carried out to ensure that the restriction of accommodation notice is being adhered to.

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This monitoring visit

Leaders and managers have worked to improve safeguarding practice. Risk assessments for children now provide clear and detailed information about the nature and level of risk. They are now individualised to each child and updated and reviewed regularly, including after incidents. Risk assessments help staff to understand how to respond and what strategies to use to keep children safe. When Inspection report for children’s home - monitoring visit: 2749804 2 there have been changes to staff or changes in the risk assessment, managers now have robust processes in place to ensure that all staff have read and understood children’s assessments and plans. Assessments and plans are shared with children and relevant professionals.

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This monitoring visit

Staff are clear about how they need to respond to keep children safe when children are missing from home. When children have left the home at night or have not returned when they are expected to, staff have been consistent in the steps they take to return children safely to the home.

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This monitoring visit

Staff have not been effective in ensuring that children do not go into each other’s bedrooms when it is not deemed safe. Further serious incidents, including staff assaults by children, have taken place, leading to a child leaving the home with immediate effect.

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This monitoring visit

Leaders and managers have ensured that staffing levels in the home are sufficient for current needs. This was put in place at the full inspection and continued while assessed as being needed? Two children have since moved out of the home. Leaders and managers ensure that those caring for children are familiar adults to them and no agency workers have worked in the home since the full inspection. When staff from other homes have been used, they have been consistent staff. Contingency plans are in place to increase staffing when necessary, and managers have given thought to the rota to ensure that the right balance of staff, as well as number of staff, are available. Managers have engaged with local authorities to agree the required levels of staffing for children.

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This monitoring visit

Specialist training to help staff to respond to children’s needs has now taken place across the staff team. This is training which in some cases was identified, but not implemented for staff before children with relevant needs moved into the home. Staff have found face-to-face training and team meetings useful in supporting children, and have enabled reflection and development of the team.

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This monitoring visit

Leaders and managers have introduced new systems when planning for children to move into the home. This includes what information is needed to enable informed decisions to be made about the care planning of all children.

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This monitoring visit

Steps have been taken by leaders and managers to increase the experience of the staff team and build on their confidence and skills. Staff have shared that they continue to feel well supported by managers, including senior managers. This includes staff who have been involved in some serious incidents.

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This monitoring visit

Sufficient progress has been made to consider the compliance notices met. The statutory requirements, including those previously subject to compliance notices, remain in place and will be considered at the next inspection. This is to enable practice and changes to become embedded. The restriction of accommodation notice has been lifted. Inspection report for children’s home - monitoring visit: 2749804 3

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

20/01/2025 Full Inadequate 30/01/2024 Full Good Inspection report for children’s home - monitoring visit: 2749804 4

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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 with the given timescales.

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Requirement Due date

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

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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

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;

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Requirement Due date

that the home’s day-to-day care is arranged and delivered so as to keep each child safe and to protect each child effectively from harm. (Regulation 12 (1) (2)(a)(b))

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Requirement Due date

This relates in particular to the manager and staff being equipped to manage and challenge children’s behaviour to ensure the safety of children and staff.

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Requirement Due date

This also relates to staffing being arranged to meet the needs of the children according to current assessed risks.

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Requirement Due date

This also relates to risk assessments being individualised and specific to the current needs and risks of the children and including strategies to be used to help mitigate the risks, for example how staff should respond if children leave the home late at night or how to prevent them being in each other’s bedrooms at night. 7 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; promotes their welfare. 7 April 2025 Inspection report for children’s home - monitoring visit: 2749804 5 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 work as a team where appropriate;

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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 has sufficient staff to provide care for 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

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)(a)(b) (2)(a)(b)(c)(d)(e)(f)(h))

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Requirement Due date

This relates in particular to leaders and managers ensuring that staff receive training in a timely manner which equips them to understand and respond to children’s needs effectively.

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Requirement Due date

This also relates to leaders and managers continually assessing staffing in order to ensure that the needs of the children can be met.

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Requirement Due date

This also relates to children being cared for by staff who are familiar to them.

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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; and

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Requirement Due date

have a positive experience of arriving at or moving on from the home. 7 April 2025 Inspection report for children’s home - monitoring visit: 2749804 6 In particular, the standard in paragraph (1) requires the registered person to ensure—

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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;

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Requirement Due date

that arrangements are in place to— manage and review the placement of each child in the home. (Regulation 14 (1)(a)(b) (2)(a)(b)(ii))

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Requirement Due date

This relates in particular to the registered person being assured that impact risk assessments are robust, and that the needs of all children in the home can be met.

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Requirement Due date

This also relates to the need to reassess risk assessments for all children following emerging or changing risks, such as when children leave the home together or violent incidents have happened in the home.

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Requirement Due date

The positive relationships standard is that children are helped to develop, and to benefit from, relationships based on—

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Requirement Due date

an understanding about acceptable behaviour; and positive responses to other children and adults.

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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

meet each child’s behavioural and emotional needs, as set out in the child’s relevant plans;

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Requirement Due date

help each child to develop socially aware behaviour;

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Requirement Due date

encourage each child to take responsibility for the child’s behaviour, in accordance with the child’s age and understanding;

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Requirement Due date

help each child to develop and practise skills to resolve conflicts positively and without harm to anyone; 7 April 2025 Inspection report for children’s home - monitoring visit: 2749804 7 communicate to each child expectations about the child’s behaviour and ensure that the child understands those expectations in accordance with the child’s age and understanding;

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Requirement Due date

help each child to understand, in a way that is appropriate according to the child’s age and understanding, personal, sexual and social relationships, and how those relationships can be supportive or harmful;

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Requirement Due date

strive to gain each child’s respect and trust;

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Requirement Due date

understand how children’s previous experiences and present emotions can be communicated through behaviour and have the competence and skills to interpret these and develop positive relationships with children;

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Requirement Due date

are provided with supervision and support to enable them to understand and manage their own feelings and responses to the behaviour and emotions of children, and to help children to do the same;

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Requirement Due date

de-escalate confrontations with or between children, or potentially violent behaviour by children;

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Requirement Due date

understand and communicate to children that bullying is unacceptable; and

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Requirement Due date

have the skills to recognise incidents or indications of bullying and how to deal with them. (Regulation 11 (1)(a)(b)(c) (2)(a)(i)(ii)(iii)(iv)(v)(vi)(viii)(ix)(x)(xi)(xii)(xiii))

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Requirement Due date

This relates in particular to children being cared for by familiar staff with whom they are able to build relationships, in order that behaviours can be challenged effectively and situations de-escalated.

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Requirement Due date

This also relates to supporting staff to respond consistently when children are asked to leave each other’s bedrooms at night or if children leave the home at night.

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Requirement Due date

The education standard is that children make measurable progress towards achieving their educational potential and are helped to do so.

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Requirement Due date

In particular, the standard in paragraph (1) requires the registered person to ensure— 7 April 2025 Inspection report for children’s home - monitoring visit: 2749804 8 that staff—

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Requirement Due date

help each child to achieve the child’s education and training targets, as recorded in the child’s relevant plans;

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Requirement Due date

support each child’s learning and development, including helping the child to develop independent study skills and, where appropriate, helping the child to complete independent study;

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Requirement Due date

understand the barriers to learning that each child may face and take appropriate action to help the child to overcome any such barriers;

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Requirement Due date

help each child to understand the importance and value of education, learning, training and employment;

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Requirement Due date

promote opportunities for each child to learn informally;

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Requirement Due date

maintain regular contact with each child’s education and training provider, including engaging with the provider and the placing authority to support the child’s education and training and to maximise the child’s achievement;

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Requirement Due date

raise any need for further assessment or specialist provision in relation to a child with the child’s education or training provider and the child’s placing authority;

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Requirement Due date

help a child who is excluded from school, or who is of compulsory school age but not attending school, to access educational and training support throughout the period of exclusion or non-attendance and to return to school as soon as possible;

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Requirement Due date

help each child to attend education or training in accordance with the expectations in the child’s relevant plans. (Regulation 8 (1) (2)(a)(i)(ii)(iii)(iv)(v)(vi)(vii)(viii)(ix)(x)(b))

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Requirement Due date

This relates in particular to ensuring that children are supported to access education and learning by being in good routines and up and ready to learn, and also supported with extra-curricular learning.

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Requirement Due date

It also relates to any concerns that the registered person may have about a lack of a suitable education plan or Inspection report for children’s home - monitoring visit: 2749804 9 placement being escalated to the child’s education provider and the child’s local authority.

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Requirement Due date

This requirement was made at the last inspection and is restated.

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Requirement Due date

If the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005(30) applies to the home—

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Requirement Due date

the registered person must ensure that the requirements of that Order and any regulations made under it, except for article 23 (duties of employees), are complied with in respect of the home.

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Requirement Due date

In this regulation, "the fire and rescue authority" means the fire and rescue authority under the Fire and Rescue Services Act 2004(31) for the area in which the home is located. (Regulation 25 (2)(b) (3))

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Requirement Due date

In particular, this relates to the registered person ensuring that known risks around fire-starting are properly assessed before children come to live in the home. This includes contacting the fire service to reassess fire risks, seek advice and meet with the child when they move in. 7 April 2025

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Requirement Due date

have the capacity, experience and skills to supervise the management of the home, or the homes, in respect of which the responsible individual is nominated. (Regulation 26 (7)(b))

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Requirement Due date

This relates to the responsible individual being the person responsible for ensuring safety and quality of care in the home in the absence of the registered manager 7 April 2025

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Requirement Due date

The quality and purpose of care standard is that children receive care from staff who—

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Requirement Due date

understand the children’s home’s overall aims and the outcomes it seeks to achieve for children;

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Requirement Due date

use this understanding to deliver care that meets children’s needs and supports them to fulfil their potential.

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Requirement Due date

In particular, the standard in paragraph (1) requires the registered person to— 7 April 2025 Inspection report for children’s home - monitoring visit: 2749804 10 ensure that any care that is arranged or provided for a child that—

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Requirement Due date

relates to the child’s development (within the meaning of section 17(11) of the Children Act 1989) or health; and is not arranged or provided as part of the health service continued under section 1(1) of the National Health Service Act 2006 M1,

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Requirement Due date

satisfies the conditions in paragraph (3).

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Requirement Due date

that the care is delivered by a person who—

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Requirement Due date

has the experience, knowledge and skills to deliver that care. (Regulation 6 (1)(a)(b) (2)(d)(i)(ii) (3)(b)(c)(i))

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Requirement Due date

This relates in particular to the responsible person ensuring that they seek and consider accurate information before a child moves into the home, and that risk assessments and care plans are updated regularly.

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Requirement Due date

This also relates to ensuring that all children have up-to-date care plans.

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Recommendation

 The registered person should ensure that when serious incidents have happened, such as staff being injured when they have been assaulted by children, notifications are submitted to Ofsted. (‘Guide to the Children’s Homes Regulations, including the quality standards’, page 63, paragraph 14.10)

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Information about this inspection

The purpose of this visit was to monitor the action taken and the progress made by the children’s home since its last Ofsted inspection.

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Information about this inspection

This inspection was carried out under the Care Standards Act 2000. Inspection report for children’s home - monitoring visit: 2749804 11

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Children’s home details

Registered provider: Prime Nurture Services

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: Newstead House, 17 Pelham Road, Nottingham NG5 1AP

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Inspector

Caroline Hose, Social Care Inspector Inspection report for children’s home - monitoring visit: 2749804 12 regulates 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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Inspector

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Inspector

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Inspector

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