Children's Home run by Keys Cwc Limited in Somerset

Inspection report children's home: 2568010 1 Registered provider: Keys Cwc Ltd

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Full inspection Inspected under the social care common inspection framework

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Information about this children's home

The children’s home is registered for up to four children with social and emotional difficulties. The home is operated by a private provider, which has several other homes in the area.

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Information about this children's home

There were three children living in the home at the time of the inspection, and they all spoke with the inspector.

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Information about this children's home

The manager has been registered with Ofsted since May 2023.

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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 good

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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: requires improvement to be good

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good

Enforcement action since last inspection: none Inspection report children's home: 2568010 2

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

11/06/2024 Full Requires improvement to be good 10/05/2023 Full Good 23/08/2022 Full Good 02/11/2021 Full Good Inspection report children's home: 2568010 3

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

The children have developed strong and trusted relationships with staff who know them well and invest time in them to promote their welfare. Staff actively encourage children to have a voice and express their thoughts and wishes. Children’s views are listened to and considered. For example, one child shared that they had an interest in brick laying. The managers and staff arranged for the child with support from the maintenance team to knock down an old wall and build a new wall in the home’s garden. This positively enhanced the child’s experiences and is supporting them with their chosen future career path.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff support and encourage children to promote their own rights and have them respected. One child has been supported by staff to join the local authority’s care council and National Children’s Bureau where they represent all children in care and contribute to ensuring their rights are upheld. Leaders and managers also advocate on behalf of children and have successfully challenged the virtual school to ensure that all children receive the right educational provision to meet their needs. Children are making progress from their starting points and staff where appropriate are supporting children to sit important exams to aid their future life chances.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff are committed to ensuring that children enjoy regular, meaningful time with their families. Staff work positively with parents and understand the importance of ensuring that strong family relationships are maintained. One relative stated that they could not rate staff highly enough saying they are absolutely amazing.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff have used research to promote children's emotional wellbeing, physical health and overall development. Staff learnt that rhythmic bouncing motions can be highly regulating, helping to calm the nervous system. A decision was made to purchase a trampoline for the garden to help children with their sensory needs. In addition, staff use the skills of the in-house therapies team to learn and understand how they can appropriately respond to new or changing behaviours that children display in order to best meet their needs.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

The home has gone through an extensive refurbishment and is clean, modern and provides a homely environment in which children can grow. Damage to property is repaired promptly and managers have worked hard to ensure that the children live in a positive safe environment. An extensive garden area is used regularly by children to enjoy barbeques, grow fruit and vegetables for the home and take part in recreational activities. Children’s bedrooms are personalised to reflect their likes and interests and are clean and tidy.

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

Inspection report children's home: 2568010 4 The children say that they feel safe living in their home and have staff they can trust. The children feel that their concerns and worries are listened to by caring staff who hear their fears and compassionately respond to allay them. Staff are able to discuss important and sensitive topics with children and take time to ask how they are feeling when they are upset or frustrated. Staff understand certain behaviours in individual children that indicate when they need support to manage their emotions safely. Staff act quickly to try and prevent situations escalating to a point where the child and others could be at risk.

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

Staff respond promptly and appropriately when adverse incidents occur to help protect children from harm and keep them and others safe. Incident records are mostly well written and give a full description of the event. Management oversight is effective and extremely thorough. The comprehensive review offers praise to children where they have made good choices and praise to staff for their actions. It also identifies areas where improvements need to be made that enables staff to understand the children better and minimise the risk of similar incidents occurring in the future.

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

Staff know the children’s individual vulnerabilities and have a unique understanding of the risks associated with each of them. Risk assessments are thoroughly recorded and regularly reviewed. This ensures that information is up to date and clearly sets out exactly what action staff need to take to address the current risks and help keep children safe. However, some children have risk assessments in place for risks that do not apply to them, while others do not evidence when children have made progression or regression with their known risky behaviours. This could hinder staff’s understanding of children’s current risks and how to keep them safe.

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

Restraint has been used three times to safeguard children from harming themselves or others. Records were detailed and clearly described what led up to the incident. However, although records detail that taught de-escalation techniques were used by staff prior to the restraint they do not clearly define what exactly they were to help staff identify what has helped a child during previous incidents. The manager has taken action to ensure that this information is now captured to inform future practice. The children- 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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How well children and young people are helped and protected: good

Staff are not risk adverse and support children to take positive age-appropriate risks. Staff are flexible in their approach and adapt their practice to enable children where suitable to spend meaningful safe time with their friends in the community without any unnecessary restrictions. Inspection report children's home: 2568010 5

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Children receive good care and support from the experienced manager, who is suitably qualified. Their leadership abilities underpin the culture of the home, and they have high aspirations for staff and children. Staff say they have become a lot stronger as a team over the last twelve months and ensure that the ethos set by the manager is consistently delivered in practice.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Leaders and managers use learning from significant events to inform and improve staff practice to help ensure that children experience positive outcomes. The children’s voices are always sought and used to inform important decisions made around the home. The in-house therapies team is proactively used to help address areas for improvement, provide additional bespoke training and enhance the knowledge and skills of staff so they can better support individual children’s needs.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Staff receive good-quality and supportive supervision sessions and are encouraged to develop. Staff say they feel valued and enjoy working in the home and speak with pride about how they support children and make a positive difference in their lives. Staff express confidence in the leaders and managers, say they are approachable and listen and show concern for their well-being and work-life balance.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Leaders and managers have formed positive working relationships with external agencies, recognising the importance this has in achieving important outcomes for children and ensuring their needs are met. The five professionals and one family member spoken with were very positive about the support staff provide to the children, and not one concern was raised. One social worker commented that the manager and staff had a significant role in helping one child to have their educational needs met and make good progress. Another child through excellent joint working is being supported to study for a GCSE in psychology, something staff and the child told me they were passionate about. Inspection report children's home: 2568010 6

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Recommendation

 The registered person should ensure that staff continually and actively assess the risks to each child and the arrangements in place to keep them safe. In particular, the registered person should ensure that children only have a risk assessment when a known vulnerability exists that could negatively impact on their safety. The registered person should also ensure that risk assessment records clearly evidence when a child has shown progress in managing to reduce their risks. ('Guide to the Children's Homes Regulations, including the quality standards', page 42, paragraph 9.5)

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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 children's home: 2568010 7

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Children's home details

Registered provider address: Maybrook House, Third Floor, Queensway, Halesowen, West Midlands B63 4AH

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Inspector

Gary Turney, Social Care Inspector Inspection report children's home: 2568010 8 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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T: 0300 123 1231 Textphone: 0161 618 8524 E: enquiries@ofsted.gov.uk W: www.gov.uk/ofsted Inspection report children's home: 2568010 9

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