New Park Project (The)

Unique reference number SC065046 Inspection date 12/07/2013 Inspector Maureen Hamer Type of inspection Full Provision subtype Children's home

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Date of last inspection 11/12/2012 Website: www.ofsted.gov.uk

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This document may be reproduced in whole or in part for non-commercial educational purposes, provided that the information quoted is reproduced without adaptation and the source and date of publication are stated.

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Brief description of the service

This setting is a small children's home owned and operated by a private provider. The home caters for up to four children and young people.

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The inspection judgements and what they mean

Outstanding : a service of exceptional quality that significantly exceeds minimum requirements Good : a service of high quality that exceeds minimum requirements Adequate : a service that only meets minimum requirements Inadequate : a service that does not meet minimum requirements

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Overall effectiveness

The overall effectiveness is judged to be inadequate .

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Overall effectiveness

Inappropriate placement decisions and poor management of young people’s behaviour have led to the needs of some young people not being met. Progress for young people is inadequate.

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Overall effectiveness

The aims of the home as outlined in its statement of purpose are not being met. The conduct in the home is not conducive to a positive environment. There is conflict between young people and a lack of respect for staff. Staff feel supported by the manager but they are not sufficiently skilled or trained to meet the needs of young people and staff are not provided with good quality and regular supervision.

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Overall effectiveness

Staff engage young people in their care and offer them a range of activities to promote positive engagement. Intimidating behaviour and collusion between young people contributes to a high incidence of challenging behaviour and damage in the home.

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Overall effectiveness

Care plans do not contain sufficient details or measurable outcomes to enable the keyworker to monitor the young people’s progress against their care plan. Plans are being developed to improve care plans but this is not yet in place. The manager is aware of the negative impact that the home is having on some young people and is considering the appropriateness of placements for some young people.

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Overall effectiveness

The home's policy covering the administration of controlled drugs needs to be reviewed.

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Overall effectiveness

Measures of control, restraint and discipline are not always well recorded or evaluated. Significant events are not always notified to relevant partners and there is a lack of understanding of risk of harm from some incidents.

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Overall effectiveness

Quality assurance monitoring is ineffective at identifying and demonstrating action to effectively address shortfalls. Plans are in place to improve the evaluation of incidents. There are significant failures to meet regulations and inadequate management of the home.

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Overall effectiveness

The home has been damaged, is in need of some redecoration making it un-homely. Window restrictors have been damaged an windows cannot be opened. Staff report that bedroom door sensors are not effective in monitoring the whereabouts of young people.

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Statutory Requirements

This section sets out the actions which must be taken so that the registered person/s meets the Care Standards Act 2000, Children's Homes Regulations 2001 and the National Minimum Standards. The registered person(s) must comply with the given timescales.

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Reg. Requirement Due date

(2001) ensure that the children's home is conducted in a manner which is consistent with its statement of purpose (Regulation (4)(6)) 22/08/2013

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Reg. Requirement Due date

(2001) ensure that the children's home in a way that promotes the welfare young people; in particular through the management of young people’s challenging behaviour and that staff assertively engage children in ceasing or reducing their cannabis misuse (Regulation 11 (1)(a)+(b)) * 22/08/2013

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Reg. Requirement Due date

17B (2001) prepare and implement a written policy whereby appropriate behaviour is promoted in the home (Regulation 17B (1)(b)) * 22/08/2013

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Reg. Requirement Due date

17B (2001) complete within 24 hours of the use of the any measure of control, restraint or discipline in a children's home, a written record is made in a volume kept for the purpose of which shall include all prescribed details (Regulation (17B)(3) (a-i)) 22/08/2013

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Reg. Requirement Due date

(2001) ensure that children make use of educational facilities appropriate for their age, aptitude, needs interests and potential (Regulation (18) (1)(a)) 22/08/2013

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Reg. Requirement Due date

(2001) make suitable arrangements for the recording, handling, safe administration and disposal of any medicine (Regulation (21)(1)) 22/08/2013

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Reg. Requirement Due date

(2001) review use of electronic or mechanical surveillance to ensure it is for the purpose of safeguarding and promoting the welfare of the child concerned, or other children accommodated in the home that it is no more restrictive than necessary and that it works (Regulation 22 (1)(d)) 22/08/2013 (2001) provide sufficient staff to safeguard and promote the health and welfare of children which provides effective supervision of children throughout the day, and in particular the night (Regulation 25 (1)(b)) 22/08/2013

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Reg. Requirement Due date

(2001) provide all persons employed in the home with suitable training and supervision (Regulation (27)(4)(a)) 22/08/2013

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Reg. Requirement Due date

(2001) ensure that any event listed in column 1 of the table in schedule 5 shall without delay notify the persons indicated in respect of the event in column 2 of the table (Regulation 30 (1)) * 22/08/2013

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Reg. Requirement Due date

(2001) maintain all parts of the children's home used by children so they are kept clean and reasonably decorated and maintained (Regulation (31)(2)(e)) 22/08/2013

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Reg. Requirement Due date

(2001) establish and maintain a system for the quality of care provided in the children's home. (Regulation (34)(a)) 22/08/2013

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Reg. Requirement Due date

*These requirements are subject to a compliance notice

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Recommendations

To improve the quality and standards of care further the service should take account of the following recommendation(s):

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Recommendations

 review incidents of challenging behaviour, examine trends or issues emerging from this, to enable staff to reflect and learn to inform future practice (NMS 3.21)  ensure good links with health agencies, including specialist services where appropriate, such as CAMHS and sexual health services. The availability of such services is taken into account when deciding on admissions (NMS 6.9)  ensure staff provide help to children to achieve their educational or training goals (NMS 8.4)  only provide admission to children whose assessed needs can be reasonably expected to be met by the home (NMS 11.2)  monitor in line with regulations all records kept by the home to ensure compliance with the home's policies, to identify concerns about specific incidents and to identify patterns and trends. Immediate action is taken to address any issues raised by this monitoring (NMS 21.2)  visits carried out under regulation 33 include relevant checks set out in

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Recommendations

regulations and guidance including use of restraint (21.7)  monitoring of each child's placement plan is done by the keyworker who ensures that the requirements of the plan are implemented in the day-to-day care of the child (NMS 25 2)  include in the home's policies effective policy and procedures in relation to e safety. Ensure that staff know how to implement the policy. (Volume 5 Statutory guidance paragraph 2.67)

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Outcomes for children and young people

Outcomes for young people are inadequate .

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Outcomes for children and young people

Young people are not making adequate progress in this home. The high level of challenging behaviours and easy access to illegal drugs is contributing to increased self-harm, anti-social behaviour and low self-worth.

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Outcomes for children and young people

Most young people attend school and some have secured Higher Education places. Some young people have improved attendance at school one young person said: ‘The school has been good they have really helped me to do well. The one to one they gave me has been good.’ Other young people are living in the home and have no educational placement; this hinders their educational progress. The home environment is very disruptive and not conducive to learning. Staff have purchased revision guides to help young people but have not given practical guidance to young people to enable them to attain their educational potential.

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Outcomes for children and young people

Staff encourage young people to engage in positive activities and this promotes their self-confidence, develops social skills and reduces opportunities for bullying. Young people report enjoying activities such as fishing, other young people do not want to engage. Young people are disaffected with their immediate surroundings and show little respect for the home. There is a high incidence of damage in the home and intimidating behaviour.

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Outcomes for children and young people

Access to universal health services such as registering young people with the local general practitioner is in place. Medication for some young people requires close monitoring for negative impact on their physical and mental well-being. Reviews of medication is in place with specialist services and staff have good links with the looked after young people nurse to ensure monitoring of weight is in place.

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Outcomes for children and young people

Young people are provided with information on positive lifestyles but young people continue to compromise their long term health by continuing unhealthy lifestyle choices such as drinking alcohol and using cannabis on a regular basis.

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Outcomes for children and young people

Young people are engaged in their care planning. In response to very high levels of disruptive and challenging behaviour staff work with young people to develop behaviour contracts. This method is employed to help enhance young people’s awareness of their negative behaviours on others. However there is a lack of regard for staff and the rules of the home and young people do not engage in the contract and negative behaviours continue.

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Outcomes for children and young people

Young people are provided with effective support to enable them to have contact with family. This enables them to continue important relationships that give them support.

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Quality of care

Staff are not able to adequately manage the level of need of some young people in their care. Some young people have high levels of anxiety that staff are unable to de-escalate. Challenging behaviours such as self-harming, arguments between young people and damage to property escalate and young people and staff are not safe.

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Quality of care

Young people do not always have positive and constructive relationship with each other or with staff. Young people meetings have stopped due to poor dynamics between young people. A young person’s school raised a concern on behalf on the young person about bullying behaviour between young people in the home. Staff have responded by increasing supervision of young people and young people have been offered positive activities to creatively divert them.. However though episodes have reduced they do still continue and one assault has led to a court appearance. The young people concerned are still in living in the home. This is contributing to young people’s poor progress.

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Quality of care

Young people state that they appreciate staff’s efforts to keep them safe. However as a member of staff stated in regard to what a young person had said: ‘You do your best but you’re not really trained to look after me.’ Other young people state the home provides them with a roof over their head but have little respect for the home stating: ‘I don’t care what staff think about what I do. I commit crime and I don’t care what they think.’ Staff and the young person tell me that since the young person has come to live in the home cannabis use has increased.

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Quality of care

Placement plans, care plans and individualised behaviour plans are in place but they do not identify detailed actions or measurable targets. Consequently staff do not have a written plan to work to and to evaluate. Keyworkers have regular discussions with young people to listen to their concerns and to engage them in their care. Progress reports are provided for statutory reviews and they do contain some relevant information about young people’s progress. However information for example about the number of incidents and the triggers to incidents is not adequately reported on to enable partners to have a full account of young people’s progress. This impacts on placing authorities ability to understand what progress a young person is making in the home.

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Quality of care

Pathway plans were not available at inspection. Staff report that they have been requested from the placing authority consequently plans for young people's futures are inadequate.

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Quality of care

Each young person has an individual behaviour plan that identifies their trigger factors and states actions to take to de-escalate anxiety and negative behaviours. Staff promote positive behaviour using incentives which the young people are involved in identifying. However not all young people respond positively to this incentive programme. There are instances of challenging behaviour towards the property, staff and other young people. This is often under the influence of cannabis. On such occasions staff are not able to effectively manage young people’s behaviour. Damage is done to the home, young people are not safe and staff told me: ‘It’s better to keep out of their way. We go to the office until it’s finished.’ As a result young people and staff are not safe.

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Quality of care

Following incidents of physical restraint, control and discipline documentation is not always completed to clearly report on events. On occasion staff and manager do not recognise the incident should be recorded. Staff state that they receive a debrief. But they are not always robust. This does not support staff learning lessons from such incidents to reduce future incidents occurring.

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Quality of care

The home's environment does not meet the needs of all young people. There is a high level of disruptive behaviour. Some doors have been replaced due to damage done by a previous resident and they are in need of redecoration. Areas are badly scuffed and one area is dirty. A curtain rail was not well secured in one bedroom and had fallen down and is waiting to be repaired. This makes the home look uncared for and reduces young people's ownership of the home.

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Quality of care

Window restrictors have been vandalised and windows cannot be opened. Use of bedroom door sensors are in place. Staff say they are there to prevent young people from intimidating each other and to safeguard young people. However young people and staff state they are not effective. Young people have learnt how to make them ineffective by blocking them. There are night sleeping staff and they state that they hear the alarm in the night but they fall back to sleep before knowing if the young person has returned. Staff state they are meant to be sleeping night staff but they are always being kept awake by incidents, they feel tired and state that there is a need for waking staff to provide effective night-time supervision.

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Quality of care

A social worker commented that: ‘There are questions about the supervision of young people in the home. If the supervision is good and room sensors work how did a young person have shoes stolen from his bedroom and put down the toilet. How was his bed made wet without anyone knowing about it?’

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Quality of care

One bedroom window has a bar across it and the young person stated: 'its like lock down, like a secure unit. There is a magnet on the front door so only staff can open it. If staff are not there to open it we brake the fire alarm then it opens.' This reflects the negative attitude of young people to staff in the home and to their home environment. This has a negative impact on their sense of well-being.

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Quality of care

Staff administer controlled drugs to young people without them being double checked. Staff state that the organisation allows a young person to double check the drugs but this practice was not carried out during inspection. The home’s policy does not state what procedure staff should take when administering such drugs.

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Safeguarding children and young people

The service is inadequate at keeping children and young people safe and feeling safe.

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Safeguarding children and young people

There are times when young people are not safe in this home. Young people have complex emotional needs with associated depression, anxiety, self-harming and suicidal thoughts. Staff state that they do not feel equipped to keep all young people safe.

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Safeguarding children and young people

Staff act to protect young people from harm and young people do turn to staff that they trust for help. However staff are not always able to manage some challenging behaviours and young people are not always safe inside or outside of the home.

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Safeguarding children and young people

Young people have come to live in the home and have been introduced to cannabis. For some young people their cannabis use has increased since living in the home and this habit stops them being able to go off to sleep. As a result there are occasions in the early hours of the morning that to relieve boredom they will use Facebook to communicate with friends. The manager is unable to stop access. In addition or as an alternative young people will disturb other young people by knocking on their bedroom doors.

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Safeguarding children and young people

Other incidents of intimidating behaviour have involved physical attacks and a pending court case. This has led to an increase in staffing and better recording of intimidating incidents but the young people remain living together. Young people state that staff do intervene when bullying occurs.

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Safeguarding children and young people

The increased use of cannabis in the home has contributed to increased levels of anxiety, challenging behaviour and anti-social behaviour inside and outside of the home. There is a significant number of incidents that occur as a result of young people colluding with each other to disrupt the home. On occasion staff go to the office leaving the young people to cause damage and then return to the home when the episode has finished. On one occasion young people let water run so excessively that it resulted in all electricity being cut off in the house. On another occasion young people managed to get the home’s car key and locked themselves in the car and then proceeded to drive off the forecourt of the house. A member of staff stood in front of the car and managed to stop them. Young people are not effectively supervised or managed and this contributes to them not being safe.

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Safeguarding children and young people

Young people have often threatened staff verbally, there are also occasions when young people spit at staff and throw crockery. On one occasion a member of staff was aggressively threatened with a craft knife; this was not notified to Ofsted. Risk assessments do not reflect young people’s level of risk to others putting young people and staff at risk of harm.

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Safeguarding children and young people

Behaviour management strategies are in place. The individual vulnerabilities of young people such as the need for a calm environment is not met and consequently levels of anxiety are high and contributes to young people’s poor emotional well- being.

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Safeguarding children and young people

Use of restraint is not always well recorded and actions to respond to poor report writing is not in place. There are episodes such as staff barring access of one young person to another young person to protect them and this is not recorded. This impacts on effective monitoring of incidents in the home: greatly hinders opportunities to learn lessons from such incidents and of effective reviewing of behaviour strategies.

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Safeguarding children and young people

Staff are aware of and follow procedures when young people go missing from care and act to work with relevant partners such as the police to find young people and to secure their safety.

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Safeguarding children and young people

The home uses electronic surveillance on the outside of the property due to young people in the house causing damage to the home. In addition there are concerns about local youths, some of whom are friends of young people in the home, congregating around the home. The police have been heavily involved in many incidents occurring in the home and in the community.

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Safeguarding children and young people

There is a robust recruitment procedure in place to ensure that new staff are suitable to care for vulnerable young people.

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Leadership and management

The leadership and management of the children's home are inadequate .

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Leadership and management

A Registered Manager is in post who is also the manager of another of the companies homes. The home is not being effectively managed. Staff are not meeting the aims and objectives of the home's statement of purpose. Young people’s needs are not met and it is not providing them with a safe environment.

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Leadership and management

Staff state that they feel supported by the manager. The manager is approachable and staff say is always positive and works at solving problems. However supervision is not always done regularly and the content of supervision does not demonstrate discussion with staff about concerns arising about young people. This reduces staff's ability to reflect on their practice and to be effectively supported to provide good care to young people.

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Leadership and management

Staff have not received sufficient training and do not have sufficient experience to meet the needs of the young people in their care. Staffing has increased to supervise very vulnerable young people, however there are reports of incidents where there has been a lack of staff supervision that has contributed to an unsafe environment. Staff state that they feel unable to meet the complex needs of all young people and unable to keep them all safe. The manager reported to a young person's social worker during inspection that: 'Staff are not able to meet all the needs of young people.’ She further added: ‘We are not a settled environment and this is heightening the young persons' anxieties. We do not have the staff and are not trained to manage.’

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Leadership and management

Quality assurance monitoring is undertaken on a regular basis and identifies some shortfalls in the service. However a range of information held by the home related to incidents is not being effectively collated or evaluated. Consequently priorities and actions to address shortfalls have not been identified. Inadequate action has been taken to ensure the needs of young people are met. The manager showed me some evidence of plans to improve care planning for young people that do include actions. In addition the manager showed me an example of the way in which their new Information Technology (IT) system would enable them to have reports about the numbers of incidents that had taken place in the home. Over time the manager hopes that this will provide the home with trends to help staff to improve their evaluation of young people's progress.

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Leadership and management

The home’s development plan does not reflect the issues arising in the home and there is no evidence of any monitoring of progress of actions arising from the plan. There were no requirements or recommendations made at the last inspection.

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Leadership and management

The manager does not identify all significant events that should be notified to Ofsted. The police were informed of such a significant event but there is a lack of awareness by management about the seriousness of an event involving a knife. This impacts negatively on the safety of young people and staff.

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Leadership and management

A comprehensive set of staff rotas were made available. However the minimum staffing levels against levels of supervision needs for young people is not transparent to ensure appropriate supervision is in place. The night-time staffing relies on door sensors to monitor movement of young people, but the absence of waking night staff means these may go unmonitored. This impacts on management’s ability to have readily available information to assess staffing levels.

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Leadership and management

Young people's records are kept securely. Not all information, for example risk assessments are signed by relevant partners for example the social worker. This hinders transparent information about encouraging agreement to young people’s plans and assessments.

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About this inspection

The purpose of this inspection is to assure children and young people, parents, the public, local authorities and government of the quality and standard of the service provided. The inspection was carried out under the Care Standards Act 2000 to assess the effectiveness of the service and to consider how well it complies with the relevant regulations and meets the national minimum standards.

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About this inspection

The report details the main strengths, any areas for improvement, including any breaches of regulation, and any failure to meet national minimum standards. The judgements included in the report are made against the Inspections of children’s homes – framework for inspection and the evaluation schedule for the inspection of children's homes.

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