Children's Home run by The Partnership of Care Today in Leeds

Inspection report for children’s home: SC437645 1 SC437645 Registered provider: The Partnership of Care Today Full inspection Inspected under the social care common inspection framework

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Information about this children’s home

This home is privately run and provides care for up to four children who may 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 in the home. Both children were spoken with during the inspection.

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Information about this children’s home

The manager registered with Ofsted in July 2022.

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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

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: SC437645 2

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

17/09/2024 Full Good 19/03/2024 Full Good 28/02/2023 Full Good 10/11/2021 Full Good Inspection report for children’s home: SC437645 3

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children are happy living in the home and are supported by staff who know them well. Staff have built good working relationships with children. This helps staff to understand children’s wishes, and they use this information to inform how they offer children support.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

All children are enrolled in education, and staff actively encourage them to attend. When children do not attend, they are asked to stay with staff and complete home education activities. When there are barriers to education, the manager and staff continue to explore alternative provisions to engage children in full-time education.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

The manager and staff work with healthcare professionals to support children to support children with their mental and physical health.’ Staff shadow clinical practitioners to develop their ability to have therapeutic discussions and, therefore, explore children’s emotional health and well-being.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

The manager and staff regularly assess if they are consistently meeting children’s needs. If a placement comes to an end, the manager ensures that children move on to appropriate settings. When children leave the home, they receive a personalised compilation of their achievements, conversations and activities, which gives them a meaningful memoir of their time living at the home.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff ensure that children maintain relationships with loved ones when it is safe to do so. Staff have purchased translating headphones to enable a child to have better communication with multilingual family members. The manager also sources and uses legal and financial support, where possible, to facilitate these relationships. When children return to living with their family, arrangements are made to increase their time spent together to work towards this.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

The home is maintained to a high standard, with everyone respecting the environment and contributing to cleanliness and maintenance. Children have been actively involved in the design and decoration of all communal areas, and they take pride in their bedrooms.

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

Staff build trusting relationships with children. Children have honest conversations with staff, including when they have done things wrong, without fear of reprisal. These conversations allow staff to take actions to keep children safe and avoid staff having to take more invasive measures such as room searches.

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

Children rarely leave the home without consulting staff. When children return home late, staff follow missing-from-home protocols and use their knowledge of children’s networks Inspection report for children’s home: SC437645 4 and phone use to coordinate their response. Children now benefit from return home interviews.

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

Staff only use physical intervention when necessary. Staff use a therapeutic approach with children, and this has been successful in significantly reducing the number of times children have been held. When the manager is involved in a physical intervention, this is independently reviewed to ensure that it is necessary and proportionate.

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

Staff use the least restrictive practice wherever possible, for example not using door alarms. When children request more freedom, such as having more access to their mobile phones, staff grant this where possible and make agreements with children about their safe use and review. However, the rationale for such decisions is not always documented in the children’s records.

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

Staff use consequences for unwanted behaviours proportionately and prioritise a restorative approach and praise. The amount of financial reparation children receive has reduced. However, staff recording of consequences is unclear, and they have not always been reviewed for their duration and effectiveness. This makes it difficult to evaluate how successful the use of consequence was. The manager took immediate action to introduce a fortnightly review with staff, and they agreed how to develop their existing systems to improve the recording of consequences.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The manager is suitably qualified and experienced, and this has contributed to them creating a positive work culture in the home. Staff work in a consistent and restorative way with children’s best interests at the heart of decision-making.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Children’s voices are prevalent in the home. The manager has created a variety of ways to capture children’s opinions and understands that this needs to be reflected in children’s risk planning. The manager is confident in challenging decisions made by professionals to ensure the voice of the child is fed into decision-making.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The manager conducts meaningful and reflective supervision sessions with staff. The manager is passionate about upskilling the staff team and takes on board staff’s suggestions to make improvements in the home. Team meetings are held frequently so that all staff are up to date on any changes or developments in the children’s care.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The manager has improved their oversight processes and has implemented learning from external scrutiny and the findings of recent inspections. The manager understands that improvement is ongoing. They continue to be receptive to feedback and are aware that staff are a large support in the oversight of practice in the home.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The manager has introduced training in therapeutic models of care. The manager consults with the staff to evaluate whether they think such approaches will be effective in the home. This is a developing piece of work. Inspection report for children’s home: SC437645 5 The home is improving the language used in children’s records. However, some of the written language used is outdated. Some records written for children are not written in line with the child-centred ethos of the home. Inspection report for children’s home: SC437645 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

within 24 hours of the use of a measure of control, discipline or restraint in relation to a child in the home, a record is made which includes—

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Requirement Due date

a description of the measure and its duration;

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Requirement Due date

details of any methods used or steps taken to avoid the need to use the measure;

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Requirement Due date

the effectiveness and any consequences of the use of the measure; and

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Requirement Due date

and within 48 hours of the use of the measure, the registered person, or a person who is authorised by the registered person to do so (“the authorised person”)—

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Requirement Due date

has spoken to the user about the measure; and

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Requirement Due date

has signed the record to confirm it is accurate; and

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Requirement Due date

within 5 days of the use of the measure, the registered person or the authorised person adds to the record confirmation that they have spoken to the child about the measure. (Regulation 35 (3)(a)(iv)(v)(vii)(b)(i)(ii)(c))

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Requirement Due date

In particular, the registered person must ensure that consequences are clearly recorded, monitored and reviewed for proportionality and effectiveness. 6 June 2026 Inspection report for children’s home: SC437645 7

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Recommendations

 The registered person should ensure that staff see the home’s records as ‘living documents’ and support children to view and contribute to the records in a way that reflects their wishes and feelings. (‘Guide to the Children’s Homes Regulations, including the quality standards’, page 58, paragraph 11.19)  The registered person should ensure that information about children is recorded in a way that will be helpful to each child. (‘Guide to the Children’s Homes Regulations, including the quality standards’, page 62, paragraph 14.4)

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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: SC437645 8

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Children’s home details

Registered provider: The Partnership of Care Today

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: 2nd Floor, Lansdowne House, 85 Buxton Road, Stockport, Cheshire SK2 6LR

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Inspector

Vikki Thwaites, Social Care Inspector Inspection report for children’s home: SC437645 9 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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