Children's home run by Newcastle City Council

Inspection report for children’s home: 2623842 1 Registered provider: Newcastle City Council

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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 operated by a local authority. It provides care for up to three children who may experience social and emotional difficulties and/or have learning disabilities.

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Information about this children’s home

Three children were living in the home at the time of the inspection. The inspectors spoke with all three children.

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Information about this children’s home

The home has been without a registered manager since April 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 requires improvement to be 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: good

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good

Enforcement action since last inspection: none Inspection report for children’s home: 2623842 2

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

14/05/2024 Full Good 15/08/2023 Full Good 11/10/2022 Full Good 14/09/2021 Full Good Inspection report for children’s home: 2623842 3

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

There has been a significant change to the staffing structure, which has resulted in some children losing relationships with staff members that they value. However, a core staff team has remained at the heart of the care that the children receive, and they have supported the children through this difficult period. Children speak positively about the care they receive.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff talk about the children with warmth and affection. They take pride in the progress that children make and understand children’s needs well. They are creative in how they communicate with children and adjust their approach when children’s needs change. One child’s social worker described the child’s progress as ‘significant’.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff take the time to get to know those who are important to the children. The children’s friends and family are encouraged to visit the home, which helps children to understand that the staff care about them. Children feel comfortable introducing their friends and family to the staff. Staff advocate for children to visit family members whom children have not been able to see. Staff accompany children on long-distance journeys to support and develop these relationships. This helps children to better understand their identity and to feel valued.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff act as effective advocates for children and their educational needs. For example, they challenge inaccurate information contained in legal documents and have also challenged a child’s exclusion from their educational setting. Staff support children to achieve their goals. This includes sourcing private tuition to help children achieve the qualifications they need for their chosen career. Staff are creative in their approach to identifying volunteering opportunities, training and apprenticeships. This help provides children with a range of skills and training that will support them to be successful in the workplace.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children are well supported when they move into the home. However, the planned support provided to one child who moved out in an emergency was changed to enable another child to move into the home. The child’s social worker said that this led to the child feeling abandoned. This does not demonstrate that the best interests of children are at the centre of the decisions made by leaders and managers.

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

Staff understand the children’s vulnerabilities and associated risks. Staff are quick to respond when new risks to children emerge. Staff contact the relevant professionals to keep them informed and specialist services are identified to provide support to children. This helps to improve children’s safety and shows children that staff care about their safety and well-being. Inspection report for children’s home: 2623842 4 Staff make good use of therapeutic services to help them to better understand the emotional needs of the children. Staff are proactive in identifying events that may act as triggers for children’s negative behaviours. Information is shared with professionals and used to ensure that plans to help children to manage their emotions are effective in reducing those associated behaviours. This has resulted in fewer incidents of self-harm, children going missing from home and substance misuse.

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

Staff sometimes rely on police to support them in managing children’s behaviour. This exposes children to unnecessary police involvement and on one occasion resulted in a child going missing from the home. This places children at an increased risk of harm and is not aligned to the ethos of care set out in the home’s statement of purpose.

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

Managers do not review the use of consequences to ensure that they are appropriate and effective. One child has had a financial penalty imposed for regularly using taxis when they miss the last bus home. This has not been recorded by staff and has not had effective oversight by managers.

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

Managers do not follow the local authority’s safer recruitment policy. The documents that managers rely on to oversee staff recruitment are not always available. Therefore, the manager is not able to assure themselves that all checks and references are received and that gaps in employment have been explored. This leaves children exposed to working with staff who have not had the required safeguarding checks.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: requires improvement to be good

The home has been without a registered manager since April 2024. The new manager started in May 2024 but has been absent from the home for a significant period during this time. Consequently, she has only been in consistent day-to-day charge of the home since March 2025. The staff and the home have been supported by acting managers on an interim basis. The management of the home has been inconsistent and this has impacted on the care that children receive.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: requires improvement to be good

The manager does not ensure that there is an appropriate mix of experienced staff alongside newer staff caring for children. This means that at times the staff working in the home do not always have the sufficient skills and experience to meet the needs of children.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: requires improvement to be good

Not all staff feel well supported by leaders and managers. They say that communication is not effective and that this can lead to confusion when plans for children or the home change. Furthermore, not all staff have received supervision sessions in line with the local authority’s policy and one staff member has not received supervision for six months. This hinders the manager’s oversight and understanding of the development needs of the staff team.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: requires improvement to be good

The manager has a monitoring system in place to track children’s progress and experiences. The manager also maintains oversight of documents that capture significant Inspection report for children’s home: 2623842 5 incidents. However, staff use stigmatising and blaming language throughout these documents and this is not addressed by the manager. This is not helpful to children who may access these documents in the future.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: requires improvement to be good

The manager has not escalated concerns to the local authority that there is no plan for a child who is due to move on from the home. The child is approaching their 18th birthday but does not know where they will live or when they will be moving on. This places unnecessary stress on the child, who is uncertain about their future.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: requires improvement to be good

Leaders and managers have not ensured that a review of the quality of care has been completed. This limits leaders and managers from gaining a good understanding of the impact that practice in the home has on the experiences and progress of children. It also prevents them from understanding what needs to improve and how those improvements will be achieved. Inspection report for children’s home: 2623842 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

The leadership and management standard is that the registered person enables, inspires and leads a culture in relation to the children’s home that—

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Requirement Due date

helps children aspire to fulfil their potential; and

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Requirement Due date

In particular, the standard in paragraph (1) requires the registered person to—

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Requirement Due date

lead and manage the home in a way that is consistent with the approach and ethos, and delivers the outcomes, set out in the home’s statement of purpose;

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Requirement Due date

ensure that staff have the experience, qualifications and skills to meet the needs of each child; and

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Requirement Due date

use monitoring and review systems to make continuous improvements in the quality of care provided in the home. (Regulation 13 (1)(a)(b) (2)(a)(c)(h))

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Requirement Due date

In particular, the manager must ensure that there is an experienced member of staff in the home at all times. 26 August 2025

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Requirement Due date

The care planning standard is that children—

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Requirement Due date

receive effectively planned care in or through the children’s home; and

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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— Inspection report for children’s home: 2623842 7 that arrangements are in place to—

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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)(a)(b) (2)(b)(iii))

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Requirement Due date

In meeting the quality standards, the registered person must, and must ensure that staff—

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Requirement Due date

seek to involve each child’s placing authority effectively in the child’s care, in accordance with the child’s relevant plans;

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Requirement Due date

seek to secure the input and services required to meet each child’s needs;

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Requirement Due date

if the registered person considers, or staff consider, a placing authority’s or a relevant person’s performance or response to be inadequate in relation to their role, challenge the placing authority or the relevant person to seek to ensure that each child’s needs are met in accordance with the child’s relevant plans. (Regulation 5 (a)(b)(c)) 26 August 2025

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must recruit staff using recruitment procedures that are designed to ensure children’s safety.

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Requirement Due date

employ an individual to work at the children’s home; or

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Requirement Due date

if an individual is employed by a person other than the registered person to work at the home in a position in which the individual may have regular contact with children, allow that individual to work at the home,

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Requirement Due date

if the individual satisfies the requirements in paragraph (3).

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Requirement Due date

the individual is of integrity and good character;

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Requirement Due date

the individual has the appropriate experience, qualification and skills for the work that the individual is to perform;

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Requirement Due date

the individual is mentally and physically fit for the purposes of the work that the individual is to perform; and 26 August 2025 Inspection report for children’s home: 2623842 8 full and satisfactory information is available in relation to the individual in respect of each of the matters in Schedule 2. (Regulation 32 (1) (2)(a)(b) (3)(a)(b)(c)(d))

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must complete a review of the quality of care provided for children (“a quality of care review”) at least once every 6 months.

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Requirement Due date

After completing a quality of care review, the registered person must produce a written report about the quality of care review and the actions which the registered person intends to take as a result of the quality of care review (“the quality of care review report”).

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Requirement Due date

supply to HMCI a copy of the quality of care review report within 28 days of the date on which the quality of care review is completed. (Regulation 45 (1) (3) (4)(a)) 26 August 2025

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Recommendations

 The registered person should ensure that consequences are kept under review. When financial penalties are not effective, consideration should be given to a more effective, restorative approach. (‘Guide to the Children’s Homes Regulations, including the quality standards’, page 57, paragraph 9.38)  The registered person should ensure that they and the staff are familiar with the home’s policies on record-keeping and understand the importance of careful, objective and clear recording. Staff and managers should use language on individual children in a non-stigmatising way. Information about the child must always be recorded in a way that will be helpful to the 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: 2623842 9

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Children’s home details

Registered provider: Newcastle City Council

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: Civic Centre, Newcastle-upon-Tyne NE1 8QH

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Inspectors

Dawn McCluskey, Social Care Inspector Julia Hagan, Social Care Inspector Inspection report for children’s home: 2623842 10 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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Inspectors

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Inspectors

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Inspectors

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Inspectors

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