Children's Home run by Compass Children’s Homes Ltd in Essex

Inspection report for children’s home: 2683331 1 Registered provider: Compass Children’s Homes Ltd Full inspection Inspected under the social care common inspection framework

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Information about this children’s home

The home is run by a private provider and offers care for up to six children who experience social and emotional difficulties.

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Information about this children’s home

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

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Information about this children’s home

There has been no registered manager at the home since August 2024.

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Overall experiences and progress of

children and young people, taking into account

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inadequate

How well children and young people are helped and protected inadequate

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inadequate

The effectiveness of leaders and managers inadequate

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inadequate

There are serious and widespread failures that mean children and young people are not protected or their welfare is not promoted or safeguarded, and the care and experiences of children and young people are poor, and they are not making progress.

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inadequate

Date of last inspection: 11 November 2024

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inadequate

Overall judgement at last inspection: good

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inadequate

Enforcement action since last inspection: none Inspection report for children’s home: 2683331 2

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

11/11/2024 Full Good 19/02/2024 Full Good 27/02/2023 Full Outstanding Inspection report for children’s home: 2683331 3

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: inadequate

While leaders, managers and staff have good intentions, they have not always ensured children’s safety and well-being. As a result, children have had poor experiences and faced further instability.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: inadequate

Leaders and managers have not planned children’s moves into the home well. They have not demonstrated professional curiosity in relation to information held by external professionals. Consequently, managers and staff have not understood or been able to meet the children’s needs safely and effectively. This has undermined children’s stability and resulted in abrupt endings for three children.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: inadequate

Staff have not always understood their roles in relation to keeping children safe and healthy. On one occasion, staff delayed seeking medical attention for children following the child’s misuse of aerosols.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: inadequate

The language used by staff with the children and in recordings is not always kind and caring. At times, this has potentially contributed to children feeling distressed and situations escalating that might otherwise have been resolved.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: inadequate

There have been a significant number of staff changes and use of temporary workers. Children said that they had begun to develop positive relationships with some staff. However, changes in staff have the potential to undermine children’s ability to form trusting relationships with a range of staff.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: inadequate

The staff provide opportunities for the children to take part in activities that interest them. These include attending the gym, a trampoline park, go-karting and crabbing. Children said that if there was something they wanted to do, the staff would help them do it.

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

Leaders and managers have demonstrated a lack of professional curiosity and planning from the start of children’s journeys into the home. For two children, known risks were not explored or considered at the time they moved in. Consequently, staff were unaware of levels of risk and vulnerability and therefore unable to act to mitigate risk before situations arose.

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

Leaders and managers have not ensured that children’s individual and group risk assessments provide clear details of risk and vulnerability. These risk assessments are not sufficiently detailed and do not provide clear guidance to staff. Leaders and managers have not ensured that emerging information of concern has been shared among the team. This has resulted in children not being safeguarded effectively and occasionally coming to harm. Inspection report for children’s home: 2683331 4 Staff do not help children learn how to keep themselves safe and navigate everyday life. Risk management and any existing restrictive measures are not regularly reviewed to ensure their appropriateness. Responses to risk are sometimes restrictive and potentially disproportionate. Cutlery in the home is locked away due to one child being focused on weapons, but this practice restricts the other child’s free access in the home. Despite not

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

self-harming for nine months, the home still restricts one child from using razors without a clear rationale.

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

Staffing arrangements have not always kept children safe. On occasion, staffing arrangements have not been adequate to respond effectively to children’s presenting risks. Contrary to a risk assessment, a staff member has been left alone with children on two separate occasions.

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

Staff do not support children effectively so they understand how to keep themselves safe or why adults are concerned about them. Several different contextual safeguarding concerns have been identified. However, there is a lack of conversation and exploration with the child about them. These are missed opportunities to keep children safe and support their learning and understanding.

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

Staff responses to children have not always been helpful. Staff have been unable to manage difficult situations, and they have used the police as a punitive behaviour management tool. The disproportionate use of police potentially increases children’s risks of criminalisation.

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

Leaders and managers have not ensured that the consequences applied in response to children’s negative behaviours are relevant and effective. For example, on occasion, internet access in the home is restricted if children do not settle on time or are missing out of the sight of staff. These consequences have not been subject to a review of their effectiveness. This significantly undermines leaders’ and managers’ ability to ensure that consequences are used to help children learn about socially acceptable behaviour.

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

Staff respond appropriately and try to ensure children’s safe return when they are missing from home. However, leaders and managers have not routinely liaised with children’s social workers to ensure that they provided the child with the opportunity to have an external return home interview. This is a missed opportunity to understand risk and how to keep children safer.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

There have been significant changes in leadership and management in a relatively short space of time. There has been no registered manager at the home since August 2024. The manager, who has been in post since December 2024, left the day before the inspection. This manager did not apply to register with Ofsted. There has been a change in the responsible individual and wider senior leadership team. Consequently, there has been ineffective leadership and management monitoring and oversight of the home. As a result, children have not always been kept safe, and their experiences have been poor. Inspection report for children’s home: 2683331 5 Leaders and managers have not ensured that they have the important documents and information required to care for children effectively. Children’s files contain unclear information or are missing important information, such as individual and group risk management plans and local authority care plans.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

On several occasions, leaders and managers have failed to ensure that information relating to serious incidents is shared with children’s social workers or Ofsted in an appropriate or timely manner. This may compromise Ofsted's and other professionals' capacity for effective oversight of children's care.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

Leaders and managers provide staff with supervision. However, supervision is not reflective and does not help staff consider the children’s needs and how to best support them. This has undermined staff’s understanding of their roles and responsibilities in relation to behaviour management and safeguarding.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

Leaders and managers have failed to ensure that the therapeutic ethos of the home outlined in the statement of purpose is understood and followed. Staff have not always understood therapeutic parenting and delivered therapeutic approaches to children in their practice.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

Leaders and managers have not maintained effective monitoring and oversight. They have not acted on the independent visitor’s recommendations or understood the widespread shortfalls in the service. They have recently identified some shortfalls and started to address them, but they were unaware of the serious and widespread concerns noted at this inspection. Inspection report for children’s home: 2683331 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 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

help each child to understand how to keep safe;

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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. (Regulation 12 (1) (2)(a)(i)(ii)(v)(vi)) 31 May 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; and

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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

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; 31 May 2025 Inspection report for children’s home: 2683331 7 ensure that the home has sufficient staff to provide care for 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)(d)(f)(h))

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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

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Requirement Due date

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

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. (Regulation 11 (1)(b)(c) (2)(a)(i)(ix)(x)) 31 May 2025

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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. (Regulation 14 (1)(a)(b)) 31 May 2025

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Requirement Due date

The registered provider must appoint a person to manage the children’s home if— 31 May 2025 Inspection report for children’s home: 2683331 8 there is no registered manager in respect of the home; and

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Requirement Due date

is not, or does not intend to be, in day-to-day charge of the home. (Regulation 27 (1)(a)(b)(i)(ii)(iii))

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Recommendations

 The registered person should ensure that they have a system in place so that all serious events are notified, within 24 hours, to the appropriate people. (‘Guide to the Children’s Homes Regulations, including the quality standards’, page 63, paragraph 14.13)  The registered person should ensure that the home is a nurturing and supportive environment that meets children’s needs. The home must comply with relevant health and safety legislation, such as alarms and food hygiene. However, in doing so, it should seek, as far as possible, to maintain a domestic rather than ‘institutional’ impression. (‘Guide to the Children’s Homes Regulations, including the quality standards’, page 15, paragraph 3.9)  The registered person should ensure that supervision sessions for staff include reflective discussions regarding children's needs, incidents that have occurred, and how staff can learn to improve their practice. These conversations should be

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Recommendations

thoroughly recorded. (‘Guide to the Children’s Homes Regulations, including the quality standards’, page 61, paragraph 13.2)  The registered person should ensure that any consequences used to address poor behaviour are restorative in nature and help children recognise the impact of their behaviour on themselves, other children, the staff caring for them, and the wider community. The registered person should ensure that consequences are regularly reviewed. (‘Guide to the Children’s Homes Regulations, including the quality standards’, page 46, paragraph 9.38)  The registered person should ensure that when a child returns to the home after being missing, they request that the responsible local authority provides an opportunity for the child to have an independent return home interview. (‘Guide to the Children’s Homes Regulations, including the quality standards’, page 45, paragraph 9.30) Inspection report for children’s home: 2683331 9

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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: 2683331 10

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Children’s home details

Registered provider: Compass Children’s Homes Ltd

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: Compass Community Ltd, 3 Rayns Way, Syston, Leicester LE7 1PF

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Inspector

Naomi Starbuck, Social Care Inspector Inspection report for children’s home: 2683331 11 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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