Children's Home run by A Significant Other Limited in Durham

Inspection report for children’s home: SC429995 1 SC429995 Registered provider: A Significant Other 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

A private provider owns and manages the home. It offers care for up to four children who may experience social and emotional difficulties.

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Information about this children’s home

Four children were living at the home at the time of the inspection.

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Information about this children’s home

The home has a separate annex on the grounds, which is being used by one child.

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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 outstanding

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good

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

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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: SC429995 2

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

14/05/2024 Full Good 06/07/2023 Full Good 25/01/2023 Full Good 08/09/2021 Full Good Inspection report for children’s home: SC429995 3

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

The inspector met all four children and spoke to three of them.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children are making progress from their starting points and are supported to do so by a consistent team of nurturing staff.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Education is seen as important, and the staff have worked hard to ensure that children, even those who were not attending education before coming to live at the home, have opportunities to learn and achieve. A professional commented, ‘This was a girl with no ambition and had no joy in her. She is now full of life, has ambition and is working hard to achieve it without complaint. I never thought this would be possible for her.’

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children access a wide range of activities to meet their needs. Staff consult children on a regular basis about food choices and activities they would like to do. Children personalise their bedrooms and have a say in the decor of the home.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff understand that time with family and friends is important to children and helps them build resilience for the future. Staff support children to meet up with family and friends as appropriate. The manager has advocated on behalf of children to have sleepovers and holidays with friends.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Transitions to and from the home are well planned and supported by staff and managers. New children coming to live at the home are discussed in a sensitive manner with those who already live there, and plans are made to develop positive relationships between children. There is a leaving care plan for children who are older and getting ready for adulthood. Staff complete the plans and add evidence, but children would benefit from taking a more proactive part in the plans to help to reinforce the learning for adult life.

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

Children say they feel safe in the home and can identify staff they would go to if they needed help. Care plans and risk assessments are comprehensive and reviewed on a regular basis and when an incident occurs.

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

Staff understand the children’s needs and behaviours. Staff support children through effective key-work sessions and debriefs to help them learn to manage their own behaviour and emotions. There has been a significant reduction in behaviours that pose a risk, such as missing-from-home episodes and self-harm. The children recognise the progress they have made. Inspection report for children’s home: SC429995 4 Staff use individualised incentives, praise and their relationships with children to manage behaviour effectively. This is having a positive impact on the children’s experiences and decision-making.

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

The recording of key-work sessions is now online, but staff print off hard copies to enable the manager to add her comments to improve practice. This makes it difficult to be clear about which is the final and most up-to-date version of the record, which could lead to inconsistency in practice.

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

New staff coming into the home have a clear induction, having gone through the recruitment process. The process meets the requirements for safer recruitment, but on one occasion, the verification of a relevant reference was not followed up.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

The registered manager is a long-standing member of the staff team and is supported by a deputy. Together, they make a strong leadership team. Both staff and children value the leadership team’s support. The core of the staff team has worked here for several years and talks about loving the job, the children and wanting the best for them. Praise and positive comments to children are regular and help to encourage progress.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

The leadership team is ambitious for children. The level of advocacy to ensure that children living here have the same opportunities as other children is a significant strength. This has resulted in children feeling listened to and changes to the practice of other organisations and apologies to children from other professionals.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

The manager is visible to both staff and children and leads by example. She has highly effective monitoring systems and is aware of all aspects of the care of the children and the practice of staff. She is exceptionally supportive to staff when needed but will also challenge and support to ensure that children receive the best care possible.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

The manager supports the staff team through regular practice-related supervisions, annual appraisals and team meetings. Records of these are comprehensive and show discussions about each child. Monthly team meetings are used as reflective sessions and training, with input from the organisation’s psychologist.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

The home cares for children from a range of local authorities, and the manager notifies the local authority where the home is based when children come to live at the home. However, not all of the required information is included to help the local authority manage resources for children. Inspection report for children’s home: SC429995 5

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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 care planning standard is that children—

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Requirement Due date

have a positive experience of arriving at or moving on from the home.

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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

plan for, and help, each child to prepare to leave the home or to move into adult care in a way that is consistent with arrangements agreed with the child’s placing authority. (Regulation 14 (1)(b) (2)(b)(iii)) 1 July 2025

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must notify, without delay, the local authority for the area in which the children’s home is located of every admission of a child into the home and every discharge of a child from the home.

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Requirement Due date

A notification under this regulation must be in writing and must state—

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Requirement Due date

the independent reviewing officer appointed for the child’s case; and

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Requirement Due date

whether the child has an EHC plan or a statement of special educational needs and, if so, details of the local authority with responsibility for the EHC plan or for maintaining the statement of special educational needs. (Regulation 41 (1) (3)(d)(ii)(e)) 1 July 2025 Inspection report for children’s home: SC429995 6

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Recommendations

 The registered person should ensure that records of key-work sessions have manager’s comments on the final copy held online. (‘Guide to the Children’s Homes Regulations, including the quality standards’, page 61, paragraph 14.2)  The registered person should ensure that the verification of a reference is followed up. (‘Guide to the Children’s Homes Regulations, including the quality standards’, page 51, paragraph 10.1)

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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: SC429995 7

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Children’s home details

Registered provider: A Significant Other Limited

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: 2 The Calls, Leeds LS2 7JU

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Inspector

Sue Atkinson Millmoor, Social Care Inspector Inspection report for children’s home: SC429995 8 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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