Children's home run by Semi-independent House Limited

Inspection report for children's home: 2510315 1 Registered provider: Semi-independent House Limited

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Inspected under the social care common inspection framework

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Information about this children’s home

This home is one of a group of privately owned homes run by an independent provider. The home provides care for up to three children who have experienced social and/or emotional difficulties.

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Information about this children’s home

The manager registered with Ofsted in April 2024.

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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 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: 30 January 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: 2510315 2

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

30/01/2024 Full Good 29/11/2022 Full Good 14/09/2021 Full Good 13/01/2020 Full Good Inspection report for children's home: 2510315 3

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

At the time of this inspection, there were three children living at the home. Since the last inspection, two children have moved into the home and two have moved out. One child contributed to the inspection.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children are settled and making progress from their starting points. Staff are committed to helping children build trust in them. Children’s parents and social workers are highly complimentary about how well their children are cared for.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff are consistent in their approach to children’s needs. Before moving into the home, one child struggled to manage their personal hygiene. With staff support, the child has built healthier and more independent routines. This has enhanced the child’s well-being.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Most children’s engagement with education is positive. Two children have excellent attendance. Another child has struggled to maintain full-time attendance. Staff work with the child to overcome barriers. Staff provide consistent boundaries and structure to help motivate the child. Consequently, their school attendance rate has doubled.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff understand the importance of children’s relationships with their families. A professional said, ‘Staff support has been pivotal in [name of child] spending quality time with their family.’ This has meant children have maintained regular time with their families.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff provide a variety of activities for children that reflect their interests. Children enjoy attending clubs, bowling, skating, golf and walks. One child enjoys cooking for everyone weekly. Another child enjoyed their first holiday with staff. Staff are keen to help children identify activities they enjoy. This helps children to develop their interests and hobbies. However, the staff do not routinely keep memorabilia relating to children’s experiences, which does not help children easily reflect on meaningful activities.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff understand how to communicate with children effectively. They use a therapeutic model to guide their practice. Staff understand the model and embed this in their communication. Overall, the children have formed positive and close relationships with the core staff team.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children have learned some skills in relation to developing their independence. However, staff do not have methods of measuring children’s progress or identifying specific support to increase children’s skills.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Some children are not able to leave the home without supervision. Staff do not routinely help children learn skills to reduce risk. This means children do not learn to be out in the community safely and independently. Inspection report for children's home: 2510315 4 Some staff have recently left. Remaining core staff and bank staff work extra shifts to help minimise disruption to children. However, there is a reliance on staff who are not familiar to the children. This may impact children’s ability to form and maintain positive relationships with staff.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

The children’s guide to the home is not written in an age-appropriate way and does not use language sensitive to a child’s first experiences of the home.

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

Staff understand safeguarding and whistle-blowing procedures. They receive training which gives them the skills to recognise and take immediate action when concerns arise.

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

Staff have a good understanding of children’s needs. This has helped children to build positive relationships with the staff and experience stability.

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

Children’s risks have reduced from their starting points. Staff help children develop coping mechanisms to improve their resilience. When incidents have the potential to escalate, the staff use creative responses that work well. These have reduced the number and level of incidents. The staff adopt a relational approach. This helps enable discussions that help children to reflect on their behaviours. This has helped children learn from their behaviours. On occasion, staff use consequences with children as part of a wider approach to behaviour management. Consequences are proportionate and help children find alternative ways to manage their emotions.

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

There have been few missing-from-home incidents. These are managed well; the staff take appropriate action to escalate concerns and search for children. Children are warmly welcomed back to the home. Staff are curious about where children have been and why, helping the child understand why they left.

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

There are effective strategies in place to help children stay safe online. Staff have educated children to help them understand risks, and make regular checks of their devices. This has meant children can use their devices safely.

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

Staff are confident in taking immediate measures to protect children. Staff feel comfortable to approach managers with any concerns in relation to children.

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

One significant concern was investigated promptly, with safeguards to protect the children. However, leaders and managers did not submit a referral to the Disclosure and Barring Service within an appropriate time frame. This means that concerns about an adult working with children outside the home have not been shared promptly.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The home is led by a child-focused manager. The manager is working towards an appropriate management qualification. An experienced deputy manager supports the registered manager. Inspection report for children's home: 2510315 5 Managers encourage the staff to take a kind and nurturing approach with children. This has created a culture where children are treated with care and compassion.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Leaders and managers take effective action to address staff practice that has fallen short of expectations. This includes carrying out investigations to identify wider learning for staff. This helps staff to improve their practice.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Leaders and managers make carefully considered decisions when moving new children into the home. Consequently, children have settled in quickly.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Leaders and managers have arranged for staff to have access to a good range of training courses before children have moved into the home. This has meant staff have the skills to provide effective care to children with specific needs.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Staff said that managers are approachable, supportive and empathetic. They understand the challenges relating to the impact of high staff turnover. Staff have chosen to work extra shifts, helping to maintain continuity for children.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Leaders and managers are highly regarded by parents and external professionals, including social workers and teachers. They feel that managers understand the children they care for. An education professional said, ‘Communication is great.’ A family member said, ‘She [the teacher] and the managers are always on the same page. [Name of child] feels the benefit of consistent care.’

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The staff do not receive regular supervision sessions or support. One staff member had no supervision for 10 months. This has meant opportunities to continue their professional development have been missed.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The manager has submitted a recent review of care. However, it does not include any actions to help improve the quality of care provided to children. The review was also not submitted within the required time frame. Inspection report for children's home: 2510315 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 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 (1) (4)(b)) 18 March 2025

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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

understand the roles and responsibilities in relation to protecting children that are assigned to them by the registered person;

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Requirement Due date

take effective action whenever there is a serious concern about a child’s welfare; and

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Requirement Due date

are familiar with, and act in accordance with, the home’s child protection policies. (Regulation 12 (1) (2)(a)(v)(vi)(vii)) 18 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

any actions that the registered person considers necessary in order to improve or maintain the quality of care provided for children. 28 July 2025 Inspection report for children's home: 2510315 7 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. (Regulation 45 (1) (2)(a)(c) (3) (4)(a))

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Recommendations

 The registered person should ensure that they are able to demonstrate every effort is made to achieve continuity of staffing so that children’s attachments are not overly disrupted. (‘Guide to the Children’s Homes Regulations, including the quality standards’, page 51, paragraph 10.1)  The registered person should ensure that staff take reasonable precautions and make informed professional judgements based on the individual child’s needs and developmental stage about when to allow a child to take a particular risk or follow a particular course of action. In particular, support children to safely access community activities independently. (‘Guide to the Children’s Homes Regulations, including the quality standards’, page 42, paragraph 9.7)  The registered person should ensure that staff evidence support for children in learning practical skills such as cooking, housework, budgeting and self-care. (‘Guide

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Recommendations

to the Children’s Homes Regulations, including the quality standards’, page 17, paragraph 3.27)  The registered person should ensure that the home’s staff keep and encourage children to keep appropriate memorabilia of the time spent living at the home and help them record significant life events. (‘Guide to the Children’s Homes Regulations, including the quality standards’, page 62, paragraph 14.5)  The registered person should ensure that the children’s guide is written in an accessible format. In particular, the children’s guide should be age appropriate and use suitable language. (‘Guide to the Children’s Homes Regulations, including the quality standards’, page 24, paragraph 42.2) Inspection report for children's home: 2510315 8

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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: 2510315 9

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Children’s home details

Registered provider: Semi-independent House Limited

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: 51 Ploverly, Peterborough PE4 6HZ

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Inspector

Lexi Mitchell, Social Care Inspector Inspection report for children's home: 2510315 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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Inspector

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Inspector

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