Children's Home run by Bay View Child Care Limited in Lancashire

Unique reference number SC416318 Inspector Gillian Walters Type of inspection Interim Provision subtype Children's home

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Registered person Bay View Child Care Limited Registered person address 3-5 Dalton Square Lancaster Lancashire LA1 1PP

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Responsible individual Martin Richard Horner Registered manager Thomas Peter Buckley Date of last inspection 07/11/2014 2 of 7 Inspection date 16/03/2015

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Previous inspection outstanding Enforcement action since last inspection none

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This inspection

This home was judged outstanding at the last full inspection. At this interim inspection Ofsted judge that it has declined in effectiveness .

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This inspection

This is because their approach to admissions has fallen short of their usual good practice. As a result of limited information being obtained prior to placements, assessments of individual need, including risk assessments were poor. As a result limited assessment was given to the impact of existing and new admissions would have on the group dynamics, which effectively placed some children at potential risk.

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This inspection

Communication with placing authorities, including the absence of some essential documentation for one young person demonstrated a further shortfall in effective placement planning. For some young people consistent arrangements are not in pace to support their care on a day-to-day basis. Further inconsistencies in the young person’s individual risk assessment documentation highlighted that the home’s approach was insufficiently robust to ensure that both the individual and other young people were kept safe.

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This inspection

Overall, young people living in this home have become more vulnerable as a result of poor decision making around admissions to the home. Individual needs and potential risks have not been fully explored and addressed to ensure the welfare and safety of young people is clearly promoted. As a result, Ofsted has issued a compliance notice to enable early monitoring of progress on this significant shortfall.

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This inspection

Overall, in the period since last inspection, young people have enjoyed good placement stability and all speak highly of the care and support they receive in this home. They appreciate the efforts that staff make, particularly for those new to the home, to ensure all young people feel welcome and accepted. As such, young people have developed strong bonds with staff and report to feeling safe and well cared for. One young person commented, 'It's a good house here; the best I've been in. The staff are sound and funny, they support you and if you have a problem you can go and speak to them anytime. I feel safe here.' Another young person 3 of 7 said, 'Its brilliant, you can talk to anyone, you can’t say the wrong thing. There are no disadvantages to living here.'

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This inspection

The home is generally very comfortable and well maintained. Young people are encouraged to personalise their rooms with their belongings and posters, and make their own choice about soft furnishings enabling them to create a comfortable space that promotes their unique identity. However, the home's choice to have exposed floor boards somewhat detracts from the homely feel of the property. The flooring is grubby and damaged in parts and tends to give the home a rather bare and unfinished appearance that lacks warmth. Additionally, during this inspection the standard of cleanliness in the upstairs communal shower room fell short of the high standards that were evident in the rest of the home. This shortfall indicated that staff were not consistently promoting good standards of housekeeping that enable young people to take pride in their home.

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This inspection

Young people particularly enjoy spending time with staff and participating in the many activities they promote. The home provides a good balance and range of outings and activities that enable young people good opportunities to socialise and develop new friendships, as well as providing fun and regular exercise. These include activities such as football, fishing and playing pool. For some young people, these provide new and exciting experiences that they may not have ordinarily enjoyed prior to coming to the home. One young person commented, 'We are out more or less every day. I have been go-karting and I have never done that before; staff have taken me to the cinema and I can’t remember the last time I did that when I was at home.'

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This inspection

Young people benefit from the considerable support that the home provides to help them successfully re-engage with their education and achieve positive outcomes. Consequently, young people are making tremendous progress in their education from low starting positions from when they first arrived at the home. Staff effectively promote and support young people's learning, participating in regular meetings, parents’ nights and in some cases maintaining daily contact with education providers. As such, staff have a good understanding of young people's progress, the challenges they face in school or college and how they can be further supported to achieve. Young people appreciate the support they receive and know that staff are genuinely interested and eager for them to succeed.The home has arrangements for both the internal and external monitoring of the home to ensure that there is a level of scrutiny of its operation and function and opportunity for the Registered Manager

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This inspection

to develop and make improvements to his service. But on this occasion the systems in place failed to identify the inappropriate admission to the home. In addition, the home's annual development plan was observed to be out-dated and as such did not effectively demonstrate how the home plans to progress and develop the service it provides. This means that there is a lack of clarity and expectation for staff, young people and other stakeholders of how the home will promote and achieve continuous improvement. 4 of 7 One recommendation that was made as a result of the last inspection in relation to the Registered Manager's knowledge of safer recruitment practice has been successfully addressed. The Registered Manager has completed relevant training, improving his knowledge and understanding of the process and checks to follow to ensure that only staff deemed suitable to work with children and young people are

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This inspection

employed to work at the home. Two requirements and three recommendations have been made to address shortfalls and omissions identified as a result of this inspection. 5 of 7

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Information about this children’s home

The home is registered to accommodate four young people with emotional and behavioural problems. It is operated by a private organisation. The home offers emergency, medium and long-term placements for young people.

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

07/11/2014 Full outstanding 25/02/2014 Interim good progress 28/11/2013 Full outstanding 16/01/2013 Interim good progress

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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) promote and make proper provision for the safeguarding and welfare of children and their care, education, supervision and support (Regulation 11(1)(a)&(b) * 24/04/2015

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Reg. Requirement Due date

12A (2001) co-operate with the child's placing authority in agreeing and signing the plan for the child's placement prepared in accordance with the provisions in regulation 9 of the Care Planning, Placement and Case Review(England) Regulations 2010. This relates to establishing a detailed plan that sets out the home's arrangements for promoting the safety and welfare of those admitted. (Regulation 12A (1)) 24/04/2015

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Reg. Requirement Due date

*These requirements are subject to a compliance notice 6 of 7

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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

 ensure the home provides a comfortable and homely environment and is well maintained and decorated. Avoidable hazards are removed as is consistent with a domestic setting. This relates specifically to the quality of flooring in the hall, stairway and young people's bedrooms and the cleanliness of young people's showering areas (MNS 10.3)  provide a written development plan, reviewed annually, for the future of the home. This relates specifically to having a plan for the current year ahead (NMS 15.2)  work with the responsible authority to ensure effective sharing of information held in the home's records about the child and information held in the responsible authorities records. This relates specifically to obtaining relevant legal documents and information. (NMS 22.7) Website: www.ofsted.gov.uk

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Recommendations

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What inspection judgements mean

At the interim inspections we make a judgement on whether the home has improved in effectiveness, sustained effectiveness, or declined in effectiveness since the previous full inspection. This is in line with the Inspection of children’s homes: framework for inspection.

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Information 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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Information 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 framework of inspection for children's homes.

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