Children's Home run by Reflexion Care Group Limited in Shropshire

Inspection report for children's home: 2677057 1 Registered provider: Reflexion Care Group 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 privately owned and provides care for up to 23 children with learning difficulties, sensory impairment, autism and/or challenging behaviours. Young people may stay beyond the age of 18 to complete their education.

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Information about this children’s home

The home is split into six separate houses, one of which is used for short breaks. Four houses can accommodate up to three children in each house. One house can accommodate up to two children. One house can accommodate up to nine children.

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Information about this children’s home

The home is situated on the same site as a special school. The inspectors only inspected the social care provision on this site.

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Information about this children’s home

The registered manager is qualified to level 5 in leadership and management. He was registered with Ofsted in April 2018.

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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 requires improvement to be 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: 17 September 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: 2677057 2

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

17/09/2024 Full Good 22/08/2023 Full Good 31/01/2023 Full Good Inspection report for children's home: 2677057 3

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

At the time of the inspection, 12 children were living at the home. There were no children on a short break. Since the last Ofsted inspection three new children have moved into the home.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

All children were seen by the inspectors. Some children shared their views about living in the home, expressing enjoyment of activities such as bowling, crazy golf, having caravan stays and playing on the beach.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff sensitively support children to move into the home and with transitions between houses. Before any move, staff develop a detailed plan in partnership with key individuals, ensuring the child’s individual needs are considered. As a result, children have quickly settled into their new homes.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff actively support children in making progress and developing new skills. They listen to children and celebrate their successes, fostering a sense of achievement. Children lead busy and healthy lifestyles, receiving encouragement to eat healthily, exercise regularly and develop self-care skills.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children attend the organisation’s on-site school, where care and education staff collaborate with parents to ensure support for local authority education, health and care plans. The home provides effectively for children’s need to learn through play, with indoor and outdoor equipment, toys and other resources keeping children engaged and entertained.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff promote children’s participation and engagement, creating an environment where children feel comfortable and enjoy spending time with staff. Children regularly go into the local community and take part in a wide range of activities. However, there are occasions when adequately trained staff are not on duty to support planned activities. Managers have not ensured that additional funding agreed with placing authorities has been used to facilitate one child’s planned activities.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff and key workers have a good day-to-day understanding of children, but they do not always have detailed knowledge of care plans or outcomes from review meetings. While staff encourage children to participate in daily tasks, such as shopping, laundry and food preparation, they have not developed focused independence targets for a child to prepare them for adulthood.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff are committed to ensuring that children who come to the home for short stays have an enjoyable experience. They plan activities tailored to individual preferences. However, current initial assessments focus on parental respite needs rather than children’s wishes and outcomes. Additionally, staff have yet to develop effective Inspection report for children's home: 2677057 4 communication tools to allow children to give feedback on their stays or share their experiences with families.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children live in six different houses, which are set in large grounds. The houses have all been refurbished to a good standard, which helps to ensure that each child can feel relaxed, warm and comfortable. Staff have created environments that are personalised to the children’s individual tastes and needs.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Some of the houses have been open for longer than others and are beginning to look tired. The main house does not have adequate clothes washing and drying facilities. Staff are not adequately maintaining some areas. Some bathrooms did not have soap or towels, there was an unpleasant odour in one bedroom and some of the office spaces were not well organised. Some of these shortfalls were addressed during this inspection and the registered manager has development plans which include timescales for refurbishment.

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

Managers and staff demonstrate a strong understanding of child protection and whistle- blowing procedures. Concerns regarding staff practice or safeguarding issues are reported through internal and external channels. When a concern or shortfall in practice is identified, the registered manager takes appropriate action, including making referrals to relevant external professionals. When necessary, staff are suspended pending external and internal investigations, followed by disciplinary procedures if required.

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

Staff are successful at building positive and meaningful relationships with the children. These relationships help staff to promote the children’s safety and emotional well-being. Children learn new communication skills and alternative ways to manage their needs and emotions. This increases their ability to cope successfully in a range of situations, as well as to live alongside others. These skills have a positive impact on their quality of life and the progress that they make. As a result, since the last inspection, there have been no missing-from-home incidents and the number of physical interventions has continued to reduce.

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

The home’s recruitment and vetting processes ensure that all new staff are suitable to work with children.

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

The senior management team has identified the need to strengthen security measures in the home and surrounding grounds. Action has been taken in all areas, except for the short-breaks home. Senior managers are aware of this and are in the process of implementing necessary improvements.

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

The senior management team has a clear vision for the home and is steadily developing its systems as it evolves. Some staff have recently moved on from the home or moved to roles in the organisation’s school. During the recruitment process, the senior Inspection report for children's home: 2677057 5 management team has taken the opportunity to restructure staffing across the houses to enhance management oversight and provide staff with greater opportunities for internal progression. While implementing the new structure and developing staff skills and knowledge, the decision has been made not to admit any new children until June 2025.

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

There have been serious incidents that have posed risks to both children and staff. These have been managed effectively by the senior management team, who have undertaken reviews and implemented some changes to improve staff practice. However, these reviews have not incorporated learning from external professionals or research specific to children with learning disabilities. For example, the senior management team has not followed up on the progress of police investigations, the outcomes of placing authority visits or, in one case, the reasons why they were not invited to a strategy meeting. As a result, leaders are not making full use of all available information that could support improvements in care provision, staff practice, recruitment and training.

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

Overall, staff are positive about the support they receive from line managers and colleagues. They benefit from a planned induction, probation period and mandatory training, all of which equip them to meet the needs of the children they care for. The senior leadership team actively seeks feedback from staff to review and refine these processes. A system is in place to identify additional training needs, particularly when new children move into the home.

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

Staff attend regular whole-site and house meetings. Some staff also receive consistent supervision and value the opportunity to reflect on and develop their knowledge and practice. However, others do not receive regular, high-quality supervision, and some staff responsible for delivering supervisions and appraisals have not completed relevant training. This does not support the delivery of consistent, high-quality guidance to staff across all houses.

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

Certain areas of practice and policy remain underdeveloped. There is no clear policy or established practice regarding staff bringing dogs into the houses, and current implementation lacks consistency across settings. It is unclear how the presence of dogs benefits the children. Additionally, some language used by staff and in reports is institutional and does not reflect outcomes from recent national consultations with children who have experienced living in care. Inspection report for children's home: 2677057 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 that staff –

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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. (Regulation 12 (1) (2)(a)(i))

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Requirement Due date

This specifically relates to ensuring the security of the home and grounds. In particular, ensure that there is appropriate security to the rear of the main building. 31 July 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 homes overall aims and 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 –

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Requirement Due date

Ensure that the premises used for the purpose of the home are designed and furnished so as to –

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Requirement Due date

Meet the needs of each child. (Regulation 6 (1)(a)(b) (2)(c)(i))

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Requirement Due date

This specifically relates to ensuring that –

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Requirement Due date

the decor and furnishings are maintained to the same high standard across all the houses; 31 August 2025 Inspection report for children's home: 2677057 7 the laundry and drying facilities in the main house meet the needs of the number of children living there;

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Requirement Due date

bedrooms are free from unpleasant odours;

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Requirement Due date

staff office spaces are well organised and presented;

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Requirement Due date

soap and towels are available in bathrooms and toilets.

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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 homes overall aims and 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. (Regulation 6 (1)(a)(b))

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Requirement Due date

This specifically relates to ensuring that staff understand the contents of the children’s care plans, know what the placing authority’s plans are for the children and what has been agreed at the children’s placing authority review meetings. 31 July 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 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

lead and manager 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

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)(h))

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Requirement Due date

This specifically relates to ensuring that -

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Requirement Due date

all staff receive regular, good-quality supervision; 31 August 2025 Inspection report for children's home: 2677057 8 there is a clear policy that is consistently applied on staff bringing dogs into the houses;

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Requirement Due date

the senior management team follows up any ongoing investigations by the police and visits by placing authorities and questions when strategy meetings are held without them being invited;

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Requirement Due date

the senior management team uses learning from safeguarding concerns and serious incidents and implements training and learning for staff that ensures consistent practice, security and conduct so that children do not come to harm. This includes learning from in-house incidents, external abuse in children’s homes and other learning disability establishments.

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Recommendations

 The registered person should ensure that all staff delivering supervisions and appraisals have attended relevant training. (‘Guide to the Children’s Homes Regulations, including the quality standards’, page 51, paragraph 10.1)  The registered person should ensure that staff support children to take part in a wide range of activities both inside and outside of the home. This specifically relates to ensuring that there is good shift planning so that there are sufficient staff and appropriately qualified staff for planned activities to take place. Where a child has additional funding for increased staffing to support with such activities, there should be appropriate management oversight that this is taking place. (‘Guide to the Children’s Homes Regulations, including the quality standards’, page 31, paragraph 6.5)  The registered person should ensure staff are familiar with the home’s policies on record-keeping and understand the importance of careful, objective and clear

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Recommendations

recording. Staff should record information on individual children in a non-stigmatising way. Information about the child must always be recorded in a way that will be helpful to the child. Specifically, that staff think about the terminology they use, taking account of language which care leavers have suggested staff do not use when talking to or making records about children. (‘Guide to the Children’s Homes Regulations, including the quality standards’, page 62, paragraph 14.4)  The registered person should ensure that the care given meets each child’s needs and promotes their welfare, taking account of the child’s gender, religion, ethnicity, cultural and linguistic background, sexual identity, mental health, any disability, their assessed needs, previous experiences and any relevant plans. Specifically, for children accessing short breaks, that their care is focused on their needs and not the parents’ need for a

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Recommendations

break. (‘Guide to the Children’s Homes Regulations, including the quality standards’, page 14, paragraph 3.2) Inspection report for children's home: 2677057 9  The registered person should ensure records of restraint are kept that enable the registered person and staff to review the use of control, discipline and restraint to identify effective practice and respond promptly where any issues or trends of concern emerge. Specifically, that conversations with the child following an intervention are undertaken by someone not involved and that staff are spoken to individually. (‘Guide to the Children’s Homes Regulations, including the quality standards’, page 49, paragraph 9.59)

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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: 2677057 10

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Children’s home details

Registered provider: Reflexion Care Group Limited

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Inspectors

Dawn Bennett, Social Care Inspector Laura Norcop, Social Care Inspector Debbie Bond, Social Care Inspector Inspection report for children's home: 2677057 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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Inspectors

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Inspectors

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Inspectors

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