Children's Home run by Aone Children’s Services LTD in Wiltshire

Inspection report for children’s home: 2774120 1 Registered provider: Aone Children’s Services 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

This home is owned by a private organisation. It provides care for up to three children with learning disabilities, autism and associated needs. At the time of the inspection, three children were living at the home.

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Information about this children’s home

The manager registered with Ofsted on 21 October 2024.

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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 for children’s home: 2774120 2

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

14/08/2024 Full Requires improvement to be good Inspection report for children’s home: 2774120 3

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children are happy and enjoy living at the home. They said that they feel safe, well looked after and that the staff care about them. Children were able to name staff who they would go to if they were worried or concerned. This shows the strong, positive relationships the children and staff have with each other. Staff talk with pride and passion about the children they care for. They want the best outcomes for the children and will effectively advocate for them to achieve this. Children contribute to creating a homely environment in the home. One child said, ‘This is the best bedroom I have ever had.’

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children are encouraged and supported to take part in a range of activities and access local clubs. These include local cadet groups and youth clubs as well as children being able to make and record their own music. The children plan to go on a summer holiday together this summer. One child has been on a weekend trip to pursue their interest in trains. Another child has been invited on holiday abroad with a friend’s family.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

The assessment of potential new children moving into the home has been reviewed following a placement ending. Leaders and managers have taken learning points from this event to increase the robustness of the admission process. Leaders and managers have received praise from a fellow professional on the quality of this new process, even though leaders and managers made the decision not to offer this particular child a placement.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children have either full-time or bespoke packages of education. Staff understand the importance of the children’s education and they advocate strongly for this. Leaders and managers will escalate their concerns around a child’s education provision as required. Recently, leaders and managers carried out a detailed review of a child’s educational journey as they were concerned that the child was not receiving the educational support or input they needed. The outcome of this review is being used to increase the child’s education package.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children’s healthcare needs are well met. Medication is well managed, and medication errors are appropriately addressed with additional training and supervision for the staff involved.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children’s plans are current, detailed, reflect their needs and provide good, clear guidance for staff on how to support each child. These plans are written in a child- friendly way and demonstrate the children’s input into each plan. Consultation with children is a strength of the home. This makes the plans meaningful to the child both now and in the future should they wish to revisit their time in care and empowers them to be involved in making decisions about their lives.

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

Inspection report for children’s home: 2774120 4 Children feel, and are, safe at the home. Staff have a good understanding of their safeguarding responsibility, safeguarding practice and, especially, the vulnerabilities of the children in their care. Leaders and managers effectively use scenarios to explore staff’s safeguarding knowledge. Lessons learned from safeguarding events are used to update children’s plans and staff practice.

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

Children are making good progress around their independence skills, self-management of their emotions and behaviours. Children are developing their understanding of risk and how to identify and manage this. Staff effectively use key-worker sessions to support the children’s development. This includes revisiting topics with the child to explore their understanding and having further discussions to embed learning. Children are involved in creating plans to help staff support them, saying how they feel that staff can best support them during a time of upset or crisis. As a result, behaviour is well managed.

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

Risk is well managed, and staff are not risk averse. Staff have a comprehensive understanding of each child’s risks and how to manage these, which include supporting the child to be able to identify and manage risk as part of their development. This approach is supported by detailed risk assessments, which are kept under review to ensure that they are current.

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

When children have been missing from the home, staff take action to look for them and they ensure return home interviews are carried out in a timely manner. Since the previous inspection, children have been missing from the home 14 times, of which 13 were for the child whose placement was ended. Leaders and managers review all incidents when children go missing, to identify any triggers and look at how future incidents can be prevented.

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

Recruitment practices generally follow safer recruitment practice, which protects children. Information obtained about agency staff does not include the agency workers’ childcare experience. This does not support leaders and managers in assessing if agency workers are suitable to care for the children.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The manager has a clear understanding of the home, children and staff team. They can identify the developments and areas of improvement in the home. The manager expresses their pride in the progress the children have made and for the staff team who have supported the children to achieve this.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The manager effectively reflects on practice in the home and children’s outcomes. They use this information to further develop staff practice, which enhances the quality of care the children receive. The manager is aspirational for the children, her team and herself.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Since the previous inspection, there have been some changes to the staff team. The team is very positive about working at the home. Staff feel well supported by leaders Inspection report for children’s home: 2774120 5 and managers, who they find very approachable and easy to contact when they need them. Staff comments about the manager include, ‘she is brilliant’ and ‘amazing’.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Staff supervision is of a good quality. It is reflective, supportive and addresses any practice concerns or areas for improvement, providing clear strategies to support staff development. There is clear evidence of the importance of staff well-being being understood and promoted. Staff receive good-quality training, which links to the needs of the children as well as the team and the individual member of staff’s development.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Feedback received from fellow professionals is very positive. They praise the staff for the commitment to the children, the quality of the care they provide, the team’s communication skills and how effectively they co-work with other professionals involved in the children’s lives. Inspection report for children’s home: 2774120 6

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Recommendations

 The registered person should ensure that the profiles they maintain on agency staff consistently include the agency workers’ experience of working in childcare. (‘Guide to the Children’s Homes Regulations, including the quality standards’, page 61, paragraph 13.1)

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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: 2774120 7

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Children’s home details

Registered provider: Aone Children’s Services Ltd

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: Unit 1, Oatley Trading Estate, Seymour Road, Kingswood, Bristol BS15 1SD

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Children’s home details

Responsible individual: Samantha Choules

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Inspector

Wendy Anderson, Social Care Inspector Inspection report for children’s home: 2774120 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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