Children's Home run by North Yorkshire Council in North Yorkshire

Inspection report for children's home: SC034189 1 SC034189 Registered provider: North Yorkshire County 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 owned and managed by a local authority using the ‘No Wrong Door’ model.

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Information about this children’s home

The home provides care for up to six children with social and emotional difficulties. The home can also care for a further two children in separate accommodation for up to 28 days.

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Information about this children’s home

At the time of the inspection, the home was providing care for five children. Four children were spoken with as part of the inspection process.

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Information about this children’s home

There has been no registered manager since August 2024. A manager has been in post since March 2025 and has submitted their application to register with Ofsted.

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Overall experiences and progress of

children and young people, taking into account

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requires improvement to be good

How well children and young people are helped and protected requires improvement to be good

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requires improvement to be good

The effectiveness of leaders and managers requires improvement to be good

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requires improvement to be good

The children’s home is not yet delivering good help and care for children and young people. However, there are no serious or widespread failures that result in their welfare not being safeguarded or promoted.

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requires improvement to be good

Overall judgement at last inspection: Good

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requires improvement to be good

Enforcement action since last inspection: None Inspection report for children's home: SC034189 2

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

15/05/2024 Full Good 12/12/2023 Full Good 07/11/2022 Full Requires improvement to be good 17/08/2022 Full Inadequate Inspection report for children's home: SC034189 3

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improvement to be good

Children said they were not always happy living in the home as currently it is, “always kicking off,” and children state that they felt divided from the staff team. Children are feeling the emotional impact of other children in crisis despite staff efforts to offer support, and on occasion have contacted external agencies in an attempt to resolve conflicts. Staff do engage with children in educational and emotionally supportive conversations, activities they enjoy, celebrations and events, and give children unconditional support despite challenging circumstances in the home.

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improvement to be good

Children are not always making progress with their education as they are not always in an educational setting that meets their needs. One child has been out of an education setting for two years, and although they had recently visited a college to attend in the future, they felt they had lost confidence to pursue this due to the amount of time they had not attended education. However, one child was about to commence a new alternate education provision and children do express aspirations for their future. Staff encourage activities that will help towards children’s goals and have supported one child to apply and interview for prospective job roles.

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improvement to be good

Children have not always had their transitions from the home planned and actioned in a timely way. For one child who is 18 in five weeks, there is no formal arrangement in place despite planning commencing a year ago. The home is keen to take learning away from this to ensure transition planning is more effective for children in future. The home considers if they are the correct placement for children, whilst ensuring children have a sense of home and permanence if they do stay at the home longer term. When children do transition from the home, this is done in a planned and child-centred way.

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improvement to be good

The home needs continuous work to maintain the feel of a welcoming environment due to the property being damaged when children are in times of crisis. There is a maintenance person appointed who make ongoing improvements including decoration and there are plans in place to develop the environment.

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improvement to be good

Children’s health is promoted, and they are accessing services from the GP dentist and optician. There is a link therapeutic worker in the home that supports children’s emotional needs and for one child this has improved their sense of self. There is ongoing multi-agency work and direct sessions from staff to support children with sexual health education as children have come to harmful outcomes by engaging in unsafe sexual behaviours.

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improvement to be good

Children have their family time arrangements supported and encouraged. Where children may return to living with family, arrangements are made to increase time spent together to work towards this. The service works in a therapeutic way to overcome obstacles to Inspection report for children's home: SC034189 4 the child spending time with their family and this has resulted in regular family time arrangements.

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improvement to be good

Children felt that physical intervention was used inappropriately, staff recording of restraint was not comprehensive enough to demonstrate whether the least restrictive options are used. Several physical intervention records suggest inconsistent methods of behaviour management by staff, which may have avoided the need to hold children, using a technique outside of their approved training and that areas of the home are sometimes restricted, but the reasons why are not documented.

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improvement to be good

Children told us they felt unable to raise concerns with staff as they felt they would not be heard and felt that action would not be taken. Children had raised concerns about the home to external professionals. However, there are processes in place for children to raise complaints, of which children are regularly reminded and, on an occasion where a child had raised a concern, management had followed the complaints procedures appropriately.

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improvement to be good

When staff conduct bedroom searches, these are required to ensure children are kept safe, documented and children are informed that they are taking place and the findings. Staff do conduct routine bedroom checks weekly, dependent on children's risk factors, and these are successful in removing potential risks.

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improvement to be good

Children continue to go missing from care. Staff are aware of the process when children do go missing and have a thorough understanding of children, their networks and behaviours, which allows them to proactively search for children. Records kept about missing from care incidents are comprehensive. However, children and professionals felt police were unnecessarily involved when children go missing from care and had been contacted outside of the protocols in place.

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improvement to be good

Children have individualised risk assessments in place that direct staff on how to respond to risks. When matching children's placements in the home, risks between children are well assessed for their impact on each other and consultation with children occurs.

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improvement to be good

Staff set proportionate consequences for children's behaviour, these are educational in nature and relate to the behaviour displayed. The staff team review consequences, conduct restorative conversations with children and reduce consequences proportionately if children partake in restorative activities with them.

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

The home has been without a registered manager since August 2024. A manager has been recently appointed whose registration application is in with Ofsted. The appointed manager places children at the centre of the ethos of the home and said, “I am a Inspection report for children's home: SC034189 5 manager who works in their (children’s) home, they do not live in my work.” The manager is focused on driving improvement within the service to ensure that children build relationships and receive a positive experience of care. The home is currently recruiting for a second deputy manager role to support the leadership team, and is developing the structure and roles of senior staff.

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

Learning has not always taken place in a timely way. There are repeat regulatory breaches, quality assurance processes are not always in place and both internal and external reports and notifications are not always reviewed and sent to partner agencies promptly. The manager demonstrated a willingness to accept external scrutiny as a development tool.

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

The manager is aware of the areas for improvement in the service and has begun to take action to address these. The effectiveness of quality assurance processes is under review to ensure they are meaningful and capture areas for development such as language used within and the clarity of children’s records, medication recording, restraint recording, training oversight and quality assurance reports.

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

The manager is beginning to formulate proactive relationships with other agencies and most professionals speak positively about working with the service. The effect of not having a registered manager has meant that advocacy on behalf of children's transitions and education has been delayed.

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

The manager has identified where staff require mandatory training refresher and has begun to schedule these. However, staff are confident in their roles and understand that they will give unconditional support to children within their care. The manager has reintroduced regular team meetings and supervision that are reflective on the development of children and staff practice. Inspection report for children's home: SC034189 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, 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 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 promotes their welfare.

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

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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;

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Requirement Due date

In particular, the registered person must ensure that staff understand how to record documents accurately, the need for staff to ensure that case records are helpful for children to understand how staff have helped them, and have review systems in place to identify areas for improvement in the service and use these to implement change. 10 June 2025

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Requirement Due date

within 24 hours of the use of a measure of control, discipline or restraint in relation to a child in the home, a record is made which includes—

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Requirement Due date

a description of the measure and its duration;

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Requirement Due date

details of any methods used or steps taken to avoid the need to use the measure;

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Requirement Due date

the name of the person who used the measure ("the user"), and of any other person present when the measure was used; 10 June 2025 Inspection report for children's home: SC034189 7 (Regulation 35 (3)(a)(iv)(v)(vi))

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Requirement Due date

In particular, the registered person must ensure that staff clearly document the above mentioned details of any restraint to enable them to quality assure records and identify if restraint used is necessary and proportionate. The registered person must notify HMCI and each other relevant person without delay if—

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Requirement Due date

a child is involved in or subject to, or is suspected of being involved in or subject to, sexual exploitation;

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Requirement Due date

an incident requiring police involvement occurs in relation to a child which the registered person considers to be serious;

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Requirement Due date

there is an allegation of abuse against the home or a person working there;

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Requirement Due date

a child protection enquiry involving a child is instigated; or concludes (in which case, the notification must include the outcome of the child protection enquiry); or

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Requirement Due date

there is any other incident relating to a child which the registered person considers to be serious. (Regulation 40 (4)(a)(b)(c)(d)(i)(ii) and (e)) 10 June 2025

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Recommendations

 The registered person should provide a nurturing environment that is welcoming for children. This includes ensuring that the home is decorated throughout to a good standard (‘Guide to the Children’s Homes Regulations, including the quality standards,’ page 15, paragraph 3.7)  The registered person should ensure that when completing the location risk assessment that they consult, and take into account the views of, each relevant person. (‘Guide to the Children’s Homes Regulations, including the quality standards’, page 64, paragraph 15.1)  The registered person should agree with their local police force, procedures and guidance on police involvement with the home to reduce unnecessary police involvement in managing behaviour and criminalisation of behaviours. (‘Guide to the Children’s Homes Regulations, including the quality standards’, page 47, paragraph 9.40)  The registered person should ensure that all their staff have been adequately trained

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Recommendations

in the principles of restraint and any restraint techniques appropriate to the needs of the children the home is set up to care for as defined in the home’s Statement of Inspection report for children's home: SC034189 8 Purpose. (‘Guide to the Children’s Homes Regulations, including the quality standards’, page 49, paragraph 9.57)

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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: SC034189 9

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Children’s home details

Registered Provider: North Yorkshire County Council

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: County Hall, Racecourse Lane, Northallerton, DL7 8AD

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Inspector

Vikki Thwaites, Social Care Inspector Inspection report for children's home: SC034189 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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Inspector

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