Children's Home run by East Riding of Yorkshire Council in East Riding of Yorkshire

Inspection report for children's home: SC035543 1 SC035543 Registered provider: East Riding of Yorkshire Council Full inspection Inspected under the social care common inspection framework

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Information about this children's home

This home is run by a local authority. It provides care for up to 4 children who may have social and emotional difficulties.

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Information about this children's home

The manager is suitably qualified and registered with Ofsted in November 2022. The manager was not available during the inspection. The deputy manager supported the inspection with support from another manager within the local authority.

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Information about this children's home

There were 3 children living in the home at the time of the inspection, and 2 children were spoken to as part of the inspection.

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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: SC035543 2

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

29/04/2025 Full Good 03/06/2024 Full Good 06/06/2023 Full Good 25/05/2022 Full Requires improvement to be good Inspection report for children's home: SC035543 3

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Summary of findings

Staff in this home are nurturing and committed to the children who live there. This helps children to build trusted relationships and feel safe in their home. There are restrictions on one child's access to the kitchen in the home.

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Summary of findings

Staff understand the children's vulnerabilities and work closely with wellbeing specialists to hone their responses to children. Staff are reflective and responsive to the children.

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Summary of findings

Leaders and managers have struggled to recruit and retain sufficient staff, and this has added pressure to core staff, as they have been working with temporary staff who are less familiar with the children.

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Summary of findings

Leaders and managers have not ensured that children's plans are kept up to date, and staff have not had regular supervision or opportunities to meet together.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff who support children in this home are caring and nurturing. The warmth and acceptance staff show to children helps them to form trusting and positive relationships. Children are confident to express their feelings and share their views with the staff and know that they will be listened to. Staff persevere in building these relationships with children and understand that this can take time and patience.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children living in the home are making progress from their starting points. For older children this means learning independence skills to help them prepare for the future. One child has been successful in gaining employment. Another child is engaged with their education and follows a wide variety of community activities and interests. Managers and staff work with education professionals to identify options for children who are not attending education and support children to maintain positive daily routines.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff recognise the importance of family time to children. Staff support them to meet regularly and also ensure that family time works well for all. Staff value and respect the children's wishes around seeing and speaking to family. One family reports that some staff could not do any more to help the child, but there are times when unfamiliar staff are working in the home, and this worries their child.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

The home is spacious, and children's bedrooms are personalised and reflect their interests and important people in their lives. However, doors are locked in the home, which means that one child has to seek staff support to access food and equipment in the kitchen. Inspection report for children's home: SC035543 4 Staff write about children factually in the records they keep and mostly use positive language. Records of discussions with children are reflective, but daily records do not capture the care and nurture that children receive and are not helpful to a child who wants to read them.

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

Staff understand the risks that children face in the community. Managers and staff work closely with a multi-agency team, including specialists and other professionals, sharing information effectively to minimise and monitor the risks to children. Staff invest time with children, discussing these risks and helping them understand how to keep themselves safe.

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

Staff understand the processes to follow when children go missing and actively share information with other people involved. Staff are curious and explore with children their feelings, people, and places and who they spend time with, and they change their own practice to increase safety.

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

Staff do not use physical intervention and instead offer reassurance and support to children when they are distressed. Staff reflect on their own practice after incidents and also encourage children to reflect. Staff are skilled at putting boundaries in place to help children feel secure and build structure and routine into their daily lives.

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

Concerns raised by children are handled appropriately by staff. Safeguards are put in place for children while managers investigate these. Managers update safeguarding professionals and take action to safeguard staff and children.

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

Fire extinguishers were locked behind closed doors in the building, and, while staff knew where these were stored, there were delays in accessing the required keys at times. This poses additional risk if there was a fire. A fire alarm call point was also missing in the kitchen after being damaged.

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

Room searches have taken place at times when staff have suspected a child may be misusing substances in their room. These have not been consistently done, and some staff have not felt confident to do this. Children also vape in the home, which may affect other children.

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

Staff do not always capture comments made by children accurately in daily recordings.

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

Managers have been struggling to recruit and retain permanent staff in the home. Managers rely on support from other staff teams, relief staff, and temporary staff. Children struggle with unfamiliar staff in the home, affecting activity planning and staff morale, which is described as low. A core team of permanent staff try to cover shifts Inspection report for children's home: SC035543 5 themselves to ensure that children have trusted staff, but many staff feel burnt out from doing this.

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

Not all staff working in the home have been registered for their qualifications, and some have not completed them within the timescales.

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

Staff value supervision, but this has not taken place regularly and there have not been regular opportunities to meet together as a team. This reduces opportunities for staff to share and support each other and to ensure that they are consistent in their practice. A professional noted that these missed opportunities add to negative staff feelings.

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

Managers could not easily access all information relating to staff in the registered manager's absence. Inspectors were able to access enough information to make an informed judgement, but all records should be stored so that they can be accessed.

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

Children's plans have not all been updated after incidents, and some plans describe using physical intervention as a last resort. Staff advise that this would not be an appropriate option for these children. Managers have not given clear directions to staff to follow in the child's plans

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

Relationships with other professionals are positive, and the support of therapeutic specialists is helping staff understand the children's needs and why they may do certain things. Workers support the team to reflect on incidents and learn from them.

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

There has been a period of change in the home, and the deputy manager led the inspection supported by a manager from another home. The deputy manager is caring and knowledgeable about the children and their needs and was reflective in her practice. Leaders and managers recognise the need to rebuild structures and systems with the team, and core staff have shown resilience and commitment to the children throughout this time. Inspection report for children's home: SC035543 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

After consultation with the fire and rescue authority, the registered person must—

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Requirement Due date

take adequate precautions against the risk of fire, including the provision of suitable fire equipment in the children's home;

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Requirement Due date

provide adequate means of escape from the home in the event of fire. (Regulation 25 (1)(a)(b)) 4 June 2026

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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 has sufficient staff to provide care for each child;

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Requirement Due date

ensure that the home's workforce provides continuity of care to each child. (Regulation 13 (1)(a)(b) (2)(c)(d)(e)) 23 July 2026

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Requirement Due date

The quality and purpose of care standard is that children receive care from staff who—

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Requirement Due date

understand the children's home's overall aims and the outcomes it seeks to achieve for children;

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Requirement Due date

use this understanding to deliver care that meets children's needs and supports them to fulfil their potential. 23 July 2026 Inspection report for children's home: SC035543 7 In particular, the standard in paragraph (1) requires the registered person to-

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Requirement Due date

provide to children living in the home the physical necessities they need in order to live there comfortably;

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Requirement Due date

make decisions about the day-to-day arrangements for each child, in accordance with

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Requirement Due date

the child's relevant plans, which give the child an appropriate degree of freedom and choice;

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Requirement Due date

ensure that the premises used for the purposes of the home are designed and furnished so as to—

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Requirement Due date

enable each child to participate in the daily life of the home. (Regulation 6 (1)(a)(b) (2)(vii)(ix)(c)(i)(ii))

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Requirement Due date

In particular, that all children should be able to access shared areas of the home freely.

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Requirement Due date

The health and well-being standard is that—

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Requirement Due date

children are helped to lead healthy lifestyles. (Regulation 10 (1)(c))

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Requirement Due date

In particular staff should give clear expectations around vaping and smoking in the home. 23 July 2026

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must notify HMCI and each other relevant person without delay if—

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Requirement Due date

there is an allegation of abuse against the home or a person working there;

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Requirement Due date

a child protection enquiry involving a child —

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Requirement Due date

concludes (in which case, the notification must include the outcome of the child protection enquiry); or

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Requirement Due date

there is any other incident relating to a child which the registered person considers to be serious. 23 July 2026 Inspection report for children's home: SC035543 8 (Regulation 40 (4)(c)(d)(ii)(e))

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Recommendations

 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 will be helpful to them. ('Guide to the Children's Homes Regulations, including the quality standards', page 62, paragraph 14.4)  The registered person should have systems in place so that all staff, including the manager, receive supervision from an appropriately qualified and experienced professional, allowing them to reflect on their practice and the needs of the children assigned to their care. ('Guide to the Children's Homes Regulations, including the quality standards', page 61, paragraph 13.2)  The registered person should ensure that records kept electronically can be easily

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Recommendations

accessed by anyone with a legitimate need to view them and, if required, be reproduced in a legible form. ('Guide to the Children's Homes Regulations, including the quality standards', page 61, paragraph 14.2)

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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: SC035543 9

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Children's home details

Registered Provider: East Riding of Yorkshire Council

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Children's home details

Registered provider address: County Hall, Cross Street, Beverley HU17 9BA

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Inspectors

Carol Jagger, Social Care Inspector Gemma Sheader, Social Care Inspector Inspection report for children's home: SC035543 10 regulates 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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Inspectors

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Inspectors

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Inspectors

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Inspectors

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