Children's Home run by Isle of Wight Council in Isle of Wight

Inspection report for children's home: SC395944 1 SC395944 Registered provider: Isle of Wight 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 owned and operated by the local authority. It is registered to provide care for up to 10 children with learning disabilities and social and emotional difficulties. It provides both short breaks and long-stay placements.

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Information about this children’s home

The manager has been registered with Ofsted since September 2023.

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Information about this children’s home

At the time of the inspection, 5 children were living in the home and three children were staying for short breaks.

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Overall experiences and progress of

children and young people, taking into account

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requires improvement to be good

How well children and young people are helped and protected requires improvement to be good

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requires improvement to be good

The effectiveness of leaders and managers requires improvement to be good

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requires improvement to be good

The children’s home is not yet delivering good help and care for children and young people. However, there are no serious or widespread failures that result in their welfare not being safeguarded or promoted.

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requires improvement to be good

Date of last inspection: 11 November 2024

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requires improvement to be good

Overall judgement at last inspection: good

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requires improvement to be good

Enforcement action since last inspection: none Inspection report for children's home: SC395944 2

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

11/11/2024 Full Good 19/03/2024 Full Good 01/03/2023 Full Good 17/03/2022 Full Good Inspection report for children's home: SC395944 3

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improvement to be good

Since the last inspection, a child was admitted to the home in an emergency and stayed at the home for a period of 2 months. The short-breaks service was subsequently closed to enable the child to be accommodated safely. The overall judgement of ‘requires improvement to be good’ has been given primarily because of shortfalls in how well this child was helped and protected, and the effectiveness of leadership and management during their stay in the home.

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improvement to be good

Relationships between staff and children are caring and nurturing. Staff understand most children’s care needs well. However, one child’s support needs were not well understood at the point that they moved in, and staff did not have the skills or experience to help the child. Subsequently, an external staffing agency was commissioned to provide the care for this child while they lived in the home. Leaders did not adequately consider the impact of the removal of familiar care staff from the child’s life, even though the child had begun to build relationships with the staff team. As a result, the child became disengaged from meaningful interactions with others, and restraint was increasingly used to manage the child’s behaviour.

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improvement to be good

Most of the children who live and stay at this home have positive experiences. They are helped by a dedicated team of staff to make progress in ways which are important to them, such as improved independence skills. For example, one child is doing their laundry with reduced help from staff. Children’s achievements are celebrated by staff, and evidence of their successes is displayed throughout the home.

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improvement to be good

Children enjoy an excellent range of things to do. Indoor spaces include several interactive sensory rooms, lounges and soft-play areas. The garden contains a range of play equipment and wheelchair-accessible areas. Activities take place regularly, and children enjoy off-site visits to local parks, activity centres and zoos. There are further refurbishments taking place to enhance children’s experiences.

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improvement to be good

Staff understand children’s communication needs well and use a variety of methods to communicate with them. This includes effective use of non-verbal communication techniques, for example with picture cards, symbols or electronic aids. Care planning is personalised and child centred. Children’s preferences are prevalent throughout their care plans. Care plans contain clear guidance for staff to follow, helping them to provide consistent care for children, including those who stay infrequently.

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improvement to be good

All children are enrolled in specialist full-time education locally and are making good progress academically. Staff have good communication with children’s schools to ensure that important information is transferred from one setting to another. Staff promote children’s education in the home and help children to work towards agreed goals, which are monitored frequently by multi-agency education meetings. Inspection report for children's home: SC395944 4

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improvement to be good

The use of restraint in the home is usually rare. When it is used, managers critically review incidents and speak to staff to determine the proportionality. However, for one child, the use of restraint was more frequent when they were cared for by agency staff. The home does not hold any records of the use of restraint during this period, and the manager is unclear about how many times the child was restrained. Consequently, managers did not have oversight of the safety or proportionality of the restraints used. Additionally, staff have not always communicated with children about their experiences of being restrained. As a result, the manager does not know whether children may wish to raise concerns about their care.

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improvement to be good

There has been one incident involving a child being missing from the home. The child involved was being cared for by agency staff at the time of the incident. Managers have not reviewed the effectiveness of the response from agency staff, and there is no record of this incident held by the home. This lack of information significantly impacts on the management oversight of children’s safety.

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improvement to be good

Managers work closely with safeguarding partners when they identify concerns about staff practice. This ensures that all safeguarding matters are responded to appropriately. When managers identify learning, this is shared with the wider team, and additional training is provided for staff. New staff who join the home are appropriately vetted, minimising the risk of unsafe adults working in the home.

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improvement to be good

Systems for managing medication are implemented well. Staff follow suitable administration and auditing procedures. The manager has strengthened these procedures to ensure that the risk of administration errors is reduced. This helps to ensure that medication is administered effectively.

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

Since the previous inspection, managers have successfully applied to vary the conditions of the registration of the home so that they can accommodate children with social and emotional difficulties as well as children with learning difficulties. The manager has made some updates to the statement of purpose to include this change but has not fully reviewed the document to clearly describe how the home intends to meet these children’s needs.

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

The manager is suitably qualified and experienced in his role. He has an excellent understanding of most of the children’s needs. Management oversight of the children’s home and short-breaks provision has generally been strong. However, there was minimal supervision and oversight of the care being delivered to one child in the home by an external agency. As a result, the manager cannot be confident that this care was safe or in line with the child’s plans. The manager has identified learning from these circumstances but has not yet implemented the required changes. Inspection report for children's home: SC395944 5 Supervision sessions and annual appraisals take place regularly for all staff. Staff are positive about these sessions and value the opportunity to seek support and reflect on their practice with managers. However, supervision sessions do not routinely test staff’s understanding of safeguarding procedures. For example, some staff are unaware of the

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

role and function of the local authority designated officer.

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

Staffing vacancies and emergency admissions have resulted in short-breaks cancellations. This has impacted heavily on the children and families who use the service. Managers attempted to mitigate this impact by providing outreach support when possible. Successful staff recruitment has recently improved the resilience of the service, and the number of families using the service has increased.

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

Staff say that they feel well supported by managers. Following a period of high staff vacancies and low morale, there is now optimism in the team about the future of the service. Managers have acknowledged the contributions of staff to the success of the home and have used team-building days to further enhance cohesion among the staff team. Staff speak fondly about the children in their care. Staff value their roles and feel enthusiastic about helping children to enjoy their stays.

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

Staff have good working relationships with families and professionals. Most parents and professionals gave positive feedback to the inspectors. They feel that their children have good experiences, and they value their child’s short breaks. Complaints are infrequent, but when made, managers have worked with parents to try to resolve them. Inspection report for children's home: SC395944 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

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

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Requirement Due date

ensure that the home’s workforce provides continuity of care to each child;

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Requirement Due date

understand the impact that the quality of care provided in the home is having on the progress and experiences of each child and use this understanding to inform the development of the quality of care provided in the home; 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)(c)(e)(f)(h))

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Requirement Due date

In particular, the registered person must only accept placements for children where they are satisfied that staff have sufficient skills, training and experience so that the home can respond effectively to the child’s assessed needs.

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must ensure that they have sufficient oversight of the care being delivered in the home to fully understand the impact that the care is having on the experiences of children. The monitoring systems in place must 30 January 2026 Inspection report for children's home: SC395944 7 ensure that the care being delivered is consistent with the home’s statement of purpose.

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must implement systems that allow them to identify learning and implement changes to continuously improve the quality of care for all children.

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must prepare and implement a policy which sets out—

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Requirement Due date

how appropriate behaviour is to be promoted in the children’s home; and

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Requirement Due date

the measures of control, discipline and restraint which may be used in relation to children in the home.

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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 (1)(a)(b) (3)(c)) 30 January 2026

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must maintain records (“case records”) for each child which—

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Requirement Due date

include the information and documents listed in Schedule 3 in relation to each child. (Regulation 36 (1)(c))

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Requirement Due date

In particular, the registered manager must ensure that they hold and maintain records relating to the care, protection and safety of the child, specifically involving the circumstances of all incidents when a child goes missing from the home and of any measure of control, discipline or restraint, in line with Regulation 35. 30 January 2026

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Requirement Due date

keep the statement of purpose under review and, where appropriate, revise it; and

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Requirement Due date

notify HMCI of any revisions and send HMCI a copy of the revised statement within 28 days of the revision. (Regulation 16 (3)(a)(b)) 30 January 2026 Inspection report for children's home: SC395944 8 In particular, the registered person must ensure that the statement of purpose contains detailed information about how they intend to meet the needs of the children who may live in the home.

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Recommendation

 The registered person should ensure that staff are engaged in the safeguarding culture of the home so they understand what they would need to do if they found other staff misusing or abusing their position to the detriment of the safety of a child. They should also understand the roles and functions of external safeguarding professionals. (‘Guide to the Children’s Homes Regulations, including the quality standards’, page 43, paragraph 9.14)

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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: SC395944 9

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Children’s home details

Registered provider: Isle of Wight Council

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: County Hall, High Street, Newport, Isle of Wight PO30 1UD

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Inspectors

Glen Strowbridge, Social Care Inspector Tracy Beard, Social Care Inspector Inspection report for children's home: SC395944 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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