Children's Home run by Enhanced Young Persons Care Limited in Durham

Inspection report for children’s home: 2715200 1 Registered provider: Enhanced Young Person’s Care Limited Full inspection Inspected under the social care common inspection framework

p.1

Information about this children’s home

The home is owned and managed by a private provider. It offers care for up to five children who may experience social and emotional difficulties and who may have mental health difficulties, learning disabilities, and alcohol or drug dependence.

p.1

Information about this children’s home

The manager registered with Ofsted in July 2024.

p.1

Information about this children’s home

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

p.1

Overall experiences and progress of

children and young people, taking into account

p.1

good

How well children and young people are helped and protected good

p.1

good

The effectiveness of leaders and managers good

p.1

good

The children’s home provides effective services that meet the requirements for good.

p.1

good

Overall judgement at last inspection: good

p.1

good

Enforcement action since last inspection: none Inspection report for children’s home: 2715200 2

p.1

Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

15/05/2024 Full Good 31/10/2023 Full Requires improvement to be good Inspection report for children’s home: 2715200 3

p.2

Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

The inspector spoke with or observed all four children during the inspection.

p.3

Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children are helped to have positive moves into and on from the home. Before children move into the home, staff develop a good understanding of their likes and dislikes. This helps children to experience positive beginnings at the home. As a result, children develop trusting relationships with staff and make good progress from their starting points.

p.3

Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

One child who moved to the home speaks English as an additional language and has been provided with all key documents translated into their first language. This helps to overcome language barriers and ensures that children have access to important information about the home.

p.3

Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children’s education is considered important by staff in the home. They encourage children to attend school or access alternative education provisions. Where there are barriers to attendance, staff work with relevant professionals to understand and overcome these. This helps to reduce the impact of any gaps in the children’s education.

p.3

Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff work hard to develop positive relationships with key adults in children’s lives and support good-quality family time. Feedback from family members about the home and the care given to children is positive. One parent said, ‘The care from the staff towards [name of child] was brilliant. They were fantastic.’

p.3

Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff understand each child’s individual needs. Care plans help staff to know how to respond to children. Staff understand the aims of the therapeutic approaches used and evidence this approach in key records of discussions. However, some records are not written in a way that is helpful to children and lack clarity over what is fact and opinion.

p.3

Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children are helped to express their views, wishes and feelings in regular meetings and key discussions. However, one child’s request for a specific piece of bedroom furniture has not been fulfilled. This prevents children from seeing the results of their wishes and prevents them from feeling that their views are valued.

p.3

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

Staff are aware of children’s individual vulnerabilities and the risks they face. Children’s risk assessments are thorough and reviewed regularly. This means staff have the necessary guidance to determine what steps to take to keep children safe.

p.3

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

When the manager considers referrals for children who may move to the home, she assesses the risks to all children at the home. These assessments help her to evaluate Inspection report for children’s home: 2715200 4 suitability and decide whether the child’s needs can be safely met. This helps to ensure that all children’s needs are fully considered before any moves take place.

p.3

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

When children go missing, staff follow agreed protocols to locate them in the community and return them safely to the home. Children are warmly welcomed on their return. Staff help them to reflect on reasons why they were missing and encourage them to take part in return home interviews.

p.4

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

The manager follows the organisation’s safeguarding procedures when allegations occur in the home. They work with relevant professionals to investigate and agree on actions to manage incidents effectively. Children are kept up to date with the outcomes of any investigations. This gives children confidence to share their worries and know that they are taken seriously.

p.4

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

When staff give children consequences as a response to poor behaviour, they are not always restorative, and some are punitive. This prevents children from learning about how their behaviour affects others.

p.4

The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The manager is enthusiastic about improving outcomes for children and is supported in her role by a stable and dedicated staff team. The manager has a visible presence in the home and offers practical support to staff. The staff speak highly of the manager and recognise the quality of her leadership.

p.4

The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Management oversight of the home is effective. The manager uses monitoring tools to evaluate how staff and the team are performing. This enables the manager to understand what the home does well and address areas for development. A clear development plan identifies the improvements the manager wants to make and promotes continuous development in the home.

p.4

The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

When the manager identifies shortfalls in the support professionals give to children, she escalates concerns to senior managers in the children’s individual home authorities. The manager can do this because she has developed positive professional relationships with others. Professional feedback about the manager and the home is consistently positive.

p.4

The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The manager ensures that staff have access to training to develop their knowledge and skills. She identifies training needs and requests training to meet specific needs relating to children’s care. This helps staff to develop important knowledge and skills relevant to their roles.

p.4

The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Regular team meetings help staff feel supported. Staff have opportunities to discuss important issues and agree on their approach to caring for children. However, there have been missed opportunities in team meetings and supervision sessions to discuss identified shortfalls in incident recording, impacting the improvement of this practice. Furthermore, supervision does not always take place at a frequency that is consistent Inspection report for children’s home: 2715200 5 with organisational expectations. This prevents staff from having individual opportunities to reflect on and develop their practice.

p.4

The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The staff team is made up exclusively of female workers. This has had an effect on one of the children, who said they are looking forward to having male staff in the home. Furthermore, the manager has not considered or described how the home mitigates the impact of this in the home’s statement of purpose. This prevents children from developing relationships with appropriate role models of both sexes. Inspection report for children’s home: 2715200 6

p.5

Statutory requirements

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

p.6

Requirement Due date

The registered person must ensure that all employees—

p.6

Requirement Due date

receive practice-related supervision by a person with appropriate experience. (Regulation 33 (4)(b)) 3 June 2025

p.6

Requirement Due date

The registered person must compile in relation to the children’s home a statement (“the statement of purpose”) which covers the matters listed in Schedule 1. (Regulation 16 (1))

p.6

Requirement Due date

In particular, the registered person must describe how the home promotes appropriate role models of both sexes if the staff are all of one sex or mainly of one sex. 3 June 2025

p.6

Recommendations

 The registered person should ensure that staff record information about children in a non-stigmatising way that distinguishes between fact, opinion and third-party information. Information about the child must always be recorded in a way that will be helpful to the child. (‘Guide to the Children’s Homes Regulations, including the quality standards’, page 62, paragraph 14.4)  The registered person should ensure that children are able to see the results of their views being listened to and acted on. (‘Guide to the Children’s Homes Regulations, including the quality standards’, page 22, 4.11)  The registered person should ensure that any consequences used to address poor behaviour are restorative in nature, to help children recognise the impact of their behaviour. In some cases, it will be important for children to make some form of reparation for anyone affected by their behaviour. Staff in the home should be skilled

p.6

Recommendations

in supporting the child to understand this and carry it out. (‘Guide to the Children’s Homes Regulations, including the quality standards’, page 46, paragraph 9.38) Inspection report for children’s home: 2715200 7

p.6

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: 2715200 8

p.7

Children’s home details

Registered provider: Enhanced Young Person’s Care Limited

p.8

Children’s home details

Registered provider address: 1 Fox Street, Sunderland Road, Gateshead, Tyne and Wear NE10 0BD

p.8

Inspector

Mark Cryer, Social Care Inspector Inspection report for children’s home: 2715200 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.

p.8

Inspector

If you would like a copy of this document in a different format, such as large print or Braille, please telephone 0300 123 1231, or email enquiries@ofsted.gov.uk . You may reuse this information (not including logos) free of charge in any format or medium, under the terms of the Open Government Licence. To view this licence, visit www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/doc/open-government-licence , write to the Information Policy Team, The National Archives, Kew, London TW9 4DU, or email: psi@nationalarchives.gsi.gov.uk .

p.9

Inspector

Interested in our work? You can subscribe to our monthly newsletter for more information and updates: http://eepurl.com/iTrDn .

p.9

Inspector

T: 0300 123 1231 Textphone: 0161 618 8524 E: enquiries@ofsted.gov.uk W: www.gov.uk/ofsted

p.9