Children's Home run by Empower Residential Ltd in Somerset

Inspection report for children’s home: 2547967 1 Registered provider: Empower Residentials Limited

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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 by a private provider. It is registered to provide care for up to two children who have social and emotional difficulties or learning disabilities. At the time of this inspection, one child was living at the home.

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Information about this children’s home

The manager registered with Ofsted in July 2023.

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Overall experiences and progress of

children and young people, taking into account

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outstanding

How well children and young people are helped and protected outstanding

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outstanding

The effectiveness of leaders and managers outstanding

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outstanding

The children’s home provides highly effective services that consistently exceed the standards of good. The actions of the children’s home contribute to significantly improved outcomes and positive experiences for children and young people who need help, protection and care.

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outstanding

Date of last inspection: 22 October 2024

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outstanding

Overall judgement at last inspection: good

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outstanding

Enforcement action since last inspection: none Inspection report for children’s home: 2547967 2

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

22/10/2024 Full Good 13/06/2023 Full Good 09/11/2022 Full Requires improvement to be good 27/07/2022 Full Inadequate Inspection report for children’s home: 2547967 3

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: outstanding

Staff are passionate and devoted in ensuring that the child has a stable base from which to achieve and thrive. They place a strong focus on education, recognising the positive impact this has on the child’s life. The child enjoys and attends all of their learning. Staff have consistently shown over a sustained period of time that even in very difficult circumstances they never give up on the child, and, due to this dedication from a consistent staff team, the child has remained living in the home for over five years. The child has made remarkable progress during their time in the home. A tutor commented that the home was wonderful, and that the child had made fantastic progress.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: outstanding

Staff understand the importance for the child to have friends to have fun and spend time with. They have proactively enabled appropriate friendships to develop, and through this, the child was able to enjoy a camping holiday with their friends. Staff understand how important it is for the child to spend meaningful time with their family. Staff have built a good relationship with the child’s loved one and positively work alongside them to ensure that the child maintains regular, meaningful and safe contact with them. This helps support the child to develop and maintain a sense of their own identity and promotes their well-being.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: outstanding

Staff unreservedly place the child at the centre of everything they do. Staff enthusiastically spend valuable time with the child, inspiring them to fulfil their potential and to experience positive outcomes. The child has formed solid and trusted relationships with staff and has developed a strong sense of belonging. Staff are now focused on ensuring that the child, who is moving towards adulthood, is developing independent life skills that they will require as they move forward, and on ensuring that they have the best possible chance to succeed in their future.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: outstanding

The home is welcoming and has a lovely, homely feel to it. The child’s influence can be felt in every room in the house. At the child’s request, music is always playing throughout the day. Staff provide a happy, fun atmosphere and are full of energy as they enable the child to take part in various activities, including water fights in the garden, baking and playing darts. There is a bespoke sensory room in the home for the child to use whenever they choose. The room contains a large number of items that reflect the child’s individual key interests, and these items have been sourced by the child and staff.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: outstanding

Staff celebrate the child’s talents and harness their interests, enabling the child to achieve and flourish in many aspects of their life. Certificates celebrating the child’s many achievements hang on walls around the whole home. An advocate for the child expressed that the team members are amazing, and they couldn’t wish for a more passionate, dedicated and outstanding support network, a network whose members encourage the child to thrive at every opportunity.

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

Inspection report for children’s home: 2547967 4 The child is cared for and supported by a strong, competent, knowledgeable, and highly skilled staff team. Well-written, regularly reviewed and detailed risk assessments address the known vulnerabilities of the child. This helps staff have the most up-to-date information to effectively inform their practice. Over a long period of time staff have developed an in-depth understanding of the child’s very complex needs and know exactly how to manage and support them effectively on a day-to-day basis to help keep the child safe and protected from harm.

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

Staff have developed strong and trusting relationships with the child. The child benefits from consistent boundaries being applied by all staff. Staff continually support the child to express any concerns or worries. They help the child to learn how they can manage their own feelings and help them to keep themselves safe. Staff take time to listen intently to the child and have important conversations with them and do not shy away from having delicate and sensitive discussions with the child to help keep them safe.

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

The child has permitted restrictions in place, in line with their deprivation of liberty order. Staff work closely with other professionals to ensure this continues to meet the child’s needs. This has included sourcing new equipment to support increased independence in a safe way. As a result, Staff are able to take a positive risk approach and use the least restrictive practice possible to promote the child to have more freedom within the home and community and be better prepared as they move into adulthood.

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

When adverse incidents occur, staff respond promptly and effectively to protect the child from harm and bring the event to an end safely. Incident records are comprehensively written, giving a full and concise account of the event. Management oversight is extremely robust and effective. The detailed review offers praise to the child when they have made positive choices, praise to staff for their actions, and it identifies information that enables staff to understand the child better and minimise the risk of a similar incident occurring in the future. A practitioner commented that the staff are hyper vigilant to the child’s needs, and they are excellent at safeguarding them.

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

Restraint has been used to safeguard the child from harming themselves or others. Records were detailed and clearly described what led up to the incident and the taught de-escalation techniques staff used prior to the restraint. There is strong oversight from the manager following any incident where physical intervention has been necessary. The manager has a thorough conversation with the child and staff after the event to fully gather their thoughts and feelings and check that they are unharmed. The very well- written child-focused records evidence that restraint was proportionate and only used as a last resort and for a minimal amount of time.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

The presence of a strong and dedicated manager over a sustained period of time has been influential in positively changing the child’s life. The manager has high aspirations for the child and sets a culture in the home that all staff work vigorously to achieve. The highly regarded manager is inspirational in their approach. Their strong leadership Inspection report for children’s home: 2547967 5 abilities underpin the whole ethos of the home and ensure that excellent care is consistently delivered to improve the child’s life and enable them to flourish. A visiting therapeutic play practitioner stated, ‘The manager really cares; they are so passionate, and that is fantastic! They lead by example, and the whole team shares their enthusiasm and passion.’

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

Leaders and managers have formed excellent working relationships with external agencies, recognising the importance this has in achieving positive outcomes for the child and ensuring the best possible care. Staff work alongside the child’s advocate to ensure that the child’s voice is heard, their wishes are respected, and their rights are promoted. The seven professionals spoken with were overwhelmingly positive about the support that is provided to the child, and not one concern was raised. A senior mental health practitioner commented that the skilled staffing team were excellent in their support for the child and the care they provide is outstanding.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

Records are written in a child-friendly way and fully reflect how staff support the child’s everyday life. The child’s voice is constantly sought so they can contribute to their records and their voice is strongly evidenced throughout. They clearly show what is important to the child and ensure a focus is maintained on their hopes and dreams for their future. The child is praised and their achievements, no matter how small, are celebrated. Records clearly illustrate the considerable progress the child has made from their starting points.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

Leaders and managers interact with the child and staff with kindness and affection. Three members of staff have supported the child from the time they started living in the home. Staff retention is high, and agency staff are never used, meaning that the child is supported by consistent, well-established staff team, whose members know them extremely well. This has been fundamental to the excellent progress that the child continues to make.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

Staff are overwhelmingly positive about working at the home and are proud of the role they play in supporting the child to experience positive outcomes. They benefit from a robust supervision process and feel that the leaders and managers are inspirational in supporting their development and enhancing their well-being. Training is of a very high standard. Staff have gained qualifications and promotion to aid their professional development. External professionals commended staff for their excellent communication and spoke highly of the care provided to the child and the positive impact staff have on the child’s life. Inspection report for children’s home: 2547967 6

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Information about this inspection

The inspector has 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: 2547967 7

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Children’s home details

Registered provider: Empower Residentials Limited

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: Unit 2, Prockters Farm, West Monkton, Taunton, Somerset TA2 8QN

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Inspector

Gary Turney, Social Care Inspector Inspection report for children’s home: 2547967 8 regulates and inspects to 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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