Children's Home run by Kisimul Group Limited in Lincolnshire

Inspection report for children's home: 2808010 1 Registered provider: Kisimul Group Limited

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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 provides care for up to 6 children and young people with learning disabilities.

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Information about this children's home

At the time of this inspection, 5 children were living at the home but one was at home for the school holidays. Their views were considered during the inspection.

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Overall experiences and progress of

children and young people, taking into account

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outstanding

How well children and young people are helped and protected outstanding

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outstanding

The effectiveness of leaders and managers outstanding

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outstanding

The children's home provides highly effective services that consistently exceed the standards of good. The actions of the children's home contribute to significantly improved outcomes and positive experiences for children and young people who need help, protection and care.

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outstanding

Overall judgement at last inspection: outstanding

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outstanding

Enforcement action since last inspection: none Inspection report for children's home: 2808010 2

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

04/06/2025 Full Outstanding Inspection report for children's home: 2808010 3

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Summary of findings

Children continue to make exceptional progress from their individual starting points. Staff provide consistent, nurturing and compassionate care, enabling children to develop trusting and meaningful relationships with those who support them. Children are encouraged and supported to participate in a wide range of activities in both the local and wider community. This helps them to broaden their experiences and develop new interests, skills and confidence. Staff recognise the importance of children maintaining positive relationships with their families and work hard to ensure that family time is meaningful, supportive and beneficial for all involved. The manager and staff share a strong ambition for every child and are committed to helping children thrive, make progress across all areas of their lives and achieve outstanding outcomes.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: outstanding

The staff create a warm and nurturing environment where children are safe and well cared for. They are focused on enabling children to reach their full potential. Staff demonstrate a positive, 'can-do' attitude in all aspects of their work. They embrace the challenges they encounter and proactively explore solutions to ensure that all tasks are completed effectively and to a high standard.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: outstanding

All the children have made significant progress since the last inspection. This has been achieved through the consistent and nurturing approach of the deeply committed staff team. For one child, this has meant that they have gone from spending most of their time in the home, to now accessing the community on a regular basis. Historically, family time for the child was also in the home, but is now community based, with the child recently spending time at the beach with their family. The whole family benefited from this time together and the parents described it as the 'best day ever'.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: outstanding

Each of the children have their own way to communicate their needs. Staff are attuned to this and can easily adapt their approach to the children they are supporting. Staff recognise the potential in each child to develop their communication skills. One child has greatly benefited from staff strongly advocating for them, as it resulted in the child being provided with a new communication aid. This allows the child greater opportunities to make their wishes and feelings known.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: outstanding

Moves into and out of the home are exceptionally well planned and children are central to the process. Strong collaboration between agencies and parental involvement is led by the manager with a view to there being minimal impact on the child. Children are provided with the time and opportunity to build connections with new staff, who support them prior to the move going ahead. This proactive approach has resulted in children experiencing smooth transitions that reduce uncertainty and disruption and promote continuity of care. Inspection report for children's home: 2808010 4 Children have been supported to develop positive relationships with each other. Over time, this has created a warm, family-style environment. Everyone comes together at mealtimes to eat and talk about the day. Another time when children come together is for the monthly house meeting. Children are encouraged to share their views about

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: outstanding

meals, activities and other aspects of daily life. Staff ensure that every child can express their wishes and feelings in a way that suits them. Children can see that their views are valued and acted upon, helping them to feel listened to and involved in decisions about their home.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: outstanding

The manager is keen to provide the children with varying life experiences and opportunities to contribute to their local community. This has included the children participating in charitable clothing and toy collections at Christmas time for the local church. This has helped the children to understand the importance of helping others and promotes their sense of belonging in the area that they live.

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

Children benefit from a consistent and stable staff team to deliver their care. Over time, children have become used to familiar and known staff. This has enabled the children to form strong, safe and caring relationships with the staff.

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

Staff are proactive in ensuring that children are safe and feel safe. When a child indicated that they did not feel safe, the manager was quick to ensure that this was explored with the child. Staff created a bespoke direct-work session and worked alongside the child to develop their knowledge and understanding. Staff recognise that learning about safety is an ongoing process. Therefore, they regularly revisit and reinforce key messages, helping the child to develop a meaningful awareness of what it means to feel safe.

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

The risks relating to each child are captured in key documents. These are reviewed on a regular basis and changes are made when necessary. The documents contain a large amount of information and clearly show that the staff know the children well. To maximise the support from staff, they have received additional training to develop child- specific responses. This results in the children receiving highly personalised and child- centred care.

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

The nature of the children's complex needs mean that, at times, they become dysregulated and upset. Physical interventions are proportionate, necessary and only used as a last resort. There is manager oversight of all incidents and staff receive a thorough debrief. The home has been selected to trial a newly developed organisational children feedback toolkit. They were chosen based on their reputation of wholeheartedly engaging in what is asked of them and consistently striving to improve all aspects of their work.

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

The continued safety of the children is an ongoing consideration of the manager and staff. Recently, the organisation has developed tools to effectively analyse behavioural Inspection report for children's home: 2808010 5 data. The manager has ensured that this key information is shared with staff, toegther with suitable strategies to support the children. For example, for one child, the data clearly highlighted factors that contribute to their dysregulation. This enabled the staff to tailor their responses to the child. As a result, even within a short space of time, incidents are starting to reduce for this child.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

The manager is highly dedicated to their role and demonstrates a genuine commitment to achieving the best possible outcomes for children. He consistently seeks opportunities to improve the quality of care and support provided in the home. The manager has a clear understanding of the home's strengths, while also maintaining insight into areas requiring further development. The manager recognises that every aspect of practice is interconnected and influences children's experiences and progress. As a result, staff are provided with clear direction and purpose, ensuring that work is meaningful, child centred and responsive to each child's individual needs and stage of development.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

There is a strong and stable leadership team that supports the manager in their role. Together, they lead by example and consistently reinforce their expectations of staff, outlining that all work completed should be of a high standard. To support staff in achieving this, staff have benefited from mentoring and coaching along their own learning journeys.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

The manager is keenly aware of the rights of the children and will always advocate on their behalf. For example, one child is deeply affected by the warmer weather. The staff have worked hard to provide the child with a cooler environment but, ultimately, the child would benefit from air conditioning in their bedroom. The manager has represented the child and asked the child's local authority to consider funding this, but they have declined to do so. The manager, albeit disappointed with the response, continues to seek further possible options to keep the child as comfortable as possible.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

There are many opportunities for staff to discuss and reflect on their individual or team practice. Staff benefit from regular, high-quality supervision that is underpinned by a strong and consistent management approach. Team meetings and group supervisions provide a forum for all to explore their practice and consider if any developments could be made for the benefit of children. These activities are a crucial element of the work that staff undertake. They are used purposefully to drive continuous improvement and strengthen reflective practice.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

The manager and staff team's exceptional practice has been recognised across the organisation and through national awards. This recognition reflects a culture of excellence and continued commitment to children receiving the highest quality care and support that enables them to thrive and achieve outstanding outcomes. Inspection report for children's home: 2808010 6

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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: 2808010 7

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Children's home details

Registered provider: Kisimul Group Limited

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Children's home details

Registered provider address: The Old Vicarage, High Street, Swinderby, Lincoln LN6 9LU

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Inspector

Lizette Watts, Social Care Inspector Inspection report for children's home: 2808010 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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Inspector

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