Children's home run by Hull City Council

Inspection report for children’s home: 2598205 1 Registered provider: Hull 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

The home is run by a local authority. It provides care for one child who may experience social and emotional difficulties and/or have learning disabilities.

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Information about this children’s home

At the time of this inspection, one child was living in the home. The inspector consulted with the child.

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Information about this children’s home

The manager registered with Ofsted in 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: 2598205 2

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

07/05/2024 Full Requires improvement to be good 05/06/2023 Full Good 28/03/2023 Full Requires improvement to be good 05/01/2022 Full Good Inspection report for children’s home: 2598205 3

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Experienced staff provide the child with commitment and consistency, particularly during traumatic events that occur. Staff speak about the child in the highest regard and warmly describe the child’s personality. This unwavering support enables the child to build trusting relationships with staff. One professional said, ‘They [staff] worked hard to build trusting relationships, and this has made a huge difference for [name of child].’

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff understand the child’s care needs. Staff and the manager advocate on the child’s behalf and ensure that they are supported to be part of their own care planning. This enables personalised care to be afforded to the child. Furthermore, the relationship-based approach has helped the child to make progress in various areas such as improved behaviour, health and with family relationships.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Education remains a challenge; however, staff have appropriately prioritised the child’s complex health needs. In the absence of education, staff engage the child in activities in line with their presenting needs. This is responsive, often linked to attending the gym and developing independence skills. The manager has provided challenge and escalation to the local authority for the child to have an up-to-date education, health and care plan.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff have worked tirelessly to meet the child’s physical and mental health needs. They understand barriers that the child experiences in making healthy lifestyle choices and work to alleviate these. This ensures that the child regularly attends appointments to receive the right treatment or support.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff help the child spend time with those that are important to them, while also recognising the risks posed by others. They advocate to ensure that family time arrangements occur in a safe manner and that they remain consistent in line with original plans.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff help the child to access a range of activities and opportunities in keeping with the child’s interests, such as watching their favourite rugby team at the national stadium in a final. These experiences are captured in memory books for the child to cherish and look back on.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

The child has input into the decor of the home, and it is personalised to their liking. The environment is enriched with family photos and the child’s pet that visits regularly. This helps it to be more vibrant. Inspection report for children’s home: 2598205 4

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

A consistent staff team ensures that the child’s risk assessment and boundaries evolve in response to the child’s presenting and changing needs. This gives staff dynamic information about current risks and guidance on how to manage or reduce the risks. However, the document does contain some historical information, which can lead to confusion.

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

Staff understand the need for a deprivation of liberty order due to significant safeguarding concerns for the child. They have worked with the child to develop a step-down plan, which allows the child to feel listened to. Staff work collaboratively with relevant professionals to enable this to happen. While some significant risks remain, the child’s progress is represented with the court-imposed restrictions being reduced over time.

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

Staff engage the child in discussions to address areas of worry, such as relationships, knife crime and substance misuse. These open discussions enable the child to share their views while also receiving advice and guidance from staff. This has seen a reduction in concerns. Some language used in the recordings is not child friendly or does not fully reflect the quality of the intervention.

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

When missing-from-home episodes occur, staff take appropriate actions in line with the child’s plan. They actively look for the child and liaise with others, including the police, to return the child home safely. This has seen a reduction in missing-from- home incidents for the child.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

A consistent manager and staff team provide the child with security and stability. Staff work well together and say that there is a positive environment. They are ambitious and invested in the child’s future. They advocate to ensure that the child’s goals can be achieved through planning with other relevant professionals.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Staff speak highly of the support afforded to them by the manager. They benefit from regular supervision sessions that enable them to reflect on their practice. Team meetings occur regularly and focus on plans for the child. These forums allow staff to have their say, feel valued and, in turn, agree on strategies to deliver good quality of care to the child.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Staff benefit from accessing training specifically related to the child’s needs. The manager and staff use advice from partner agencies to enhance their understanding of the child’s needs. This ensures that the child is cared for by knowledgeable and skilled adults.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Partnership working with other agencies ensures that the child has the right support available to them and the multi-agency approach is consistent. Professionals describe positive and effective communication with staff. One professional said, referring to Inspection report for children’s home: 2598205 5 risk management, ‘They [the staff and manager] do really well. They follow up with medical advice given. I am always notified about the child’s care.’

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The independent person’s reports contain historical information and do not always reflect the current situation in the home for the child. On one occasion, there was poor use of language to describe the behavioural needs of the child. Collectively, leaders and managers have not identified or challenged these shortfalls. This does not reassure the regulator that external scrutiny of the child’s care is effective or helping to improve outcomes.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The manager ensures that the regulator receives the quality of care review reports. However, there is limited analysis to inform what impact the care afforded to the child has had, and the action plan is vague and does not show how continuous improvements will be made.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

There is management oversight when incidents occur. However, there is sometimes limited professional curiosity to explore if anything could be done differently or lessons learned. This hinders management from identifying potential solutions to avoid a reoccurrence of situations arising. Inspection report for children’s home: 2598205 6

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Statutory requirements

This section sets out the actions that the registered person 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 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

use monitoring and review systems to make continuous improvements in the quality of care provided in the home. (Regulation 13 (1)(a)(b) (2)(h)) 17 October

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Recommendations

 The registered person should be responsible for deciding what each quality of care review should focus on. The review should enable the registered person to provide analysis regarding the identified areas of strength and possible weaknesses in the care provided, which will be captured in the written report. The report should clearly identify any actions required for the next six months and how those actions will be addressed. (‘Guide to the Children’s Homes Regulations, including the quality standards’, page 65, paragraph 15.4)  The registered person should ensure that staff are familiar with the home’s policies on record-keeping and understand the importance of careful, objective and clear recording. Staff should record information on individual children in a non- stigmatising way that distinguishes between fact, opinion and third-party information. Information about the child must always be recorded in a way that

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Recommendations

will be helpful to the child. (‘Guide to the Children’s Homes Regulations, including the quality standards’, page 62, paragraph 14.4) Inspection report for children’s home: 2598205 7

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Information about this inspection

The inspector 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: 2598205 8

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: The Guildhall, Alfred Gelder Street, Hull HU1 2AA

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Inspector

Jess Elliott, Social Care Inspector Inspection report for children’s home: 2598205 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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