Children's Home run by Total Care Matters Limited in Nottingham

Provision subtype Children's home

Registered person Total Care Matters Ltd.

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Requires improvement

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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because:

 Children and young people are experiencing some inconsistency in their care as a result of the regular use of casual and agency staff. This is due of high levels of staff sickness and staffing shortages. Staff feel under pressure and work hard to minimise the impact of this on children and young people. However morale within the staff team is low.  On some occasions, there is not a sufficient number of staff on duty to respond flexibly to the diverse needs of young people or to unexpected events which occur in the home.  Emergency placements are not consistently and carefully planned.  Young people have been placed at the home despite the Registered Manager having knowledge that their needs may be difficult to meet due to the completing needs of children and young people already placed in the home.  Some staff feel unsupported and undervalued. They do not consistently receive supervision at a level as outlined in the home’s Statement of

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because:

Purpose.  Staff have not accessed training to assist them to fully understand the challenges of caring for children and young people who display self-harming behaviours.  Children and young people do not have access to all areas of the home. For example, the games room is sometimes kept locked without their being a sufficient explanation for this.

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The children’s home strengths

 Children and young people have developed extremely positive relationships with a core group of staff members.  Children and young people are central to their own care planning. With the support of staff they are fully involved in setting the aims and goals of their placement.  A restorative approach to behaviour management is effective. As a result, young people’s behaviours have improved within a short period of time.  The senior manager of the home has already identified the areas of weakness and is implementing plans to swiftly address the shortfalls identified above.

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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 (England) Regulations 2015 and the Guide to the children's homes regulations including the quality standards. The registered person(s) must comply with the given timescales.

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Requirement Due date

In order to meet the leadership and management standard the registered person must ensure that:

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Requirement Due date

2(b) staff work as a team where appropriate;

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Requirement Due date

2(c) staff have the experience, qualifications and skills to meet the needs of each child, with specific reference to training in relation to self-harm;

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Requirement Due date

2(d) the home has sufficient staff to provide care for each child;

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Requirement Due date

2(e) the home’s workforce provides continuity of care to each child

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Requirement Due date

(Regulation 13 (b)(c)(d)(e); 24/07/2015 In order to meet the care planning standard the registered person must ensure that:

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Requirement Due date

2(a) children are admitted to the home only if their needs are within the range of needs of children for whom it is intended that the home is to provide care and accommodation, as set out in the home’s Statement of Purpose, with particular reference to ensuring they have fully considered the impact that the placement will have on the existing group of children and young people

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Requirement Due date

2(b) (i) arrangements are in place to ensure the effective induction of each child into the home

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Requirement Due date

Privacy and Access- ensure that children can access all appropriate areas of the children’s home premises (Regulation 21 (b)). 24/07/2015

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Requirement Due date

* These requirements are subject to statutory requirement 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):  Review and amend the Statement of Purpose to correct minor errors within the document (Guide to the Children’s Home’s Regulations and Quality Standards 3.7).

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Information about this children's home

The home is privately owned. It is registered to provide care and accommodation for three children and young people with emotional and behavioural difficulties.

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Recent inspection history

Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

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Recent inspection history

18/02/2015 CH - Interim Sustained effectiveness

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requires improvement

Children and young people’s experiences and progress are variable. A young person said; ‘I am happier than before I lived here, the permanent staff really care and I get on really well with them. I do not get on with the agency staff though.’ The positive relationships children and young people have with a core group of staff have provided a secure base from where children and young people can develop. They have minimised the disruption to children and young people caused by staff sickness.

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requires improvement

Children and young people’s views are central to the running of this home. Their views are heard during regular young people’s meetings and during key work sessions. Children and young people are also fully involved in the preparation and review of their own placement plans, behaviour plans and risk assessments. This helps to motivate children and young people to work towards the goals which they have identified and wish to achieve. This provides them with a level of control over their lives and helps raise their confidence and self-esteem.

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requires improvement

Children and young people make progress in a variety of ways. They are supported by staff to engage in educational and training opportunities. One young person said: ‘I am really thankful to staff. They kept pushing me to attend my course and would not have completed it without them. I now feel proud of myself and am planning my future.’ Such positive support helps develop children and young people’s confidence and self-esteem. It provides them with a better opportunity to reach their full potential and it helps to increase their future life chances.

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requires improvement

Children and young people make progress in respect of their physical and emotional health. Their physical health is enhanced by attending core health appointments, engaging in regular physical activity and eating a healthy balanced diet. Access to services appropriate to children and young people’s specific needs, including the child and adolescent mental health service and specialist drug and alcohol services ensures that children and young people have the opportunity to address areas of difficulty and thrive physically and emotionally.

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requires improvement

The home admits children and young people on either a planned or an emergency basis. In the case of emergency placements, these are not consistently planned. For example, on a recent occasion, there was a delay in key information being shared with the staff on duty responsible for welcoming the young person into the home. A manager was not present to welcome the new young person into the home and no additional staff were brought in to help support the new and current residents. Poor planning of emergency placements has the potential to impact negatively on the success and stability of placements for all children and young people living in the home in the short term as well as the longer term.

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requires improvement

The home is well maintained. It provides a comfortable environment. However, children and young people do not always have full access to all areas of the home. On the day of the inspection the children and young people’s games room was locked. A young person confirmed that this is usually the case. Managers and staff were unable to provide any reason for this room being locked. While this door being locked does not have an impact on the safety and wellbeing of children and young people, it means that their access within their home is restricted. As a result, children and young people are not living in a home that is as homely and welcoming as they need and deserve.

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good

Staff are well trained in respect of safeguarding practices and work in accordance with the home’s safeguarding policies. They demonstrate a good understanding of how to respond should a young person disclose any form of abuse to them or should they have any concerns about the practice of other staff. This helps to increase levels of safety in the home.

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good

Young people have a sense of safety while living in this home. A young person said: ‘It feels a kind of safe place to live. Most of the time there is someone here that I feel I can talk to.’ The positive and trusting relationships children and young people have with a core group of staff have helped to create an emotionally safe and secure environment for children and young people.

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good

Bullying is not tolerated in this home. Proactive enforcement of the home’s anti- bullying policy helps to promote an environment of mutual respect and acceptance between peers within the home.

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good

Children and young people are helped and protected as a result of detailed risk assessments being implemented and regularly reviewed by staff. Staff engage children and young people in regular key working sessions in response to incidents and issues which arise. For some children and young people, this has helped significantly reduce risk-taking behaviour in relation to self-harm, substance misuse, going missing and in respect of criminal behaviour. As children and young people are fully involved in the decision making process in respect of their own safety, they are much more likely to work within the guidelines of their risk assessments.

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good

There is not high incidence of children and young people going missing from this home. However, there have been some unauthorised absences, albeit for short periods of time and with children and young people usually remaining in telephone contact with staff during these periods. Regarding periods of missing or absence, staff understand what to do in each individual circumstance as this is clearly recorded in each child or young person’s risk assessment. In addition, the home has good and regular contact with the local police, who are provided with an overview of all of the children and young people living in the home and the risks associated with each of them.

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good

Children and young people’s behaviour is well managed in this home. An ethos of proactive behaviour management and a focus on restorative practice is effective. A social worker said: ‘Staff encourage positive behaviour. They provide young people with fun experiences but with very clear boundaries and nurturing. Staff are helping this young person to reflect on their behaviour. They are learning to take responsibility for their actions.’ When physical intervention has been used as a last resort, incidents are well monitored and analysed by leaders and managers. This increases the capacity for practice to improve further in this area.

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good

The home is a physically safe environment. All health and safety checks are undertaken on a regular basis. Fire drills take place regularly and safety equipment in the home is checked and serviced at regular intervals. This further contributes to children and young people’s protection and wellbeing.

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good

Staff are safely recruited to ensure that unsuitable people do not have the opportunity to work with children and young people.

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requires improvement

The Registered Manager is suitably experienced and qualified. She has been in post as the manager of the home for approximately nine months.

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requires improvement

The senior management and staff acknowledge that the home has experienced some instability since the last inspection. In February 2015, a young person was admitted without full account being taken of the needs of all young people living in the home. This resulted in an increase in significant incidents during March 2015 and notice being given to terminate a placement in order to safeguard the welfare of other children and young people and the staff. Action has been taken to reflect upon and learn lessons from this shortfall. This needs to be fully implemented to ensure that children and young people are safeguarded as a result of robust matching processes in the home.

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requires improvement

Staff sickness has had an impact on the stability of the home. High use of agency and casual staff has prevented the staff team from working together effectively to provide children and young people with stability and security. Staff morale is low. Staff feel under pressure and undervalued. While staff remain committed to maintaining good standards of care to children and young people, ongoing low staff morale has the potential to impact on the care children and young people receive in the future.

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requires improvement

Staffing levels in the home at specific times are not sufficient to enable staff to respond flexibly to the diverse needs of young people or to unexpected events which occur in the home. For example, when a new young person was admitted to the home, additional staff were not scheduled into the staff rota to take account of the increase in numbers and to allow for a period of settling in. A young person commented: ‘We need more staff. I have had to miss an appointment because of this.’ In order to alleviate staffing problems relating to sickness and shortages, successful recruitment has recently taken place. This will help minimise the potential negative impact of this on children and young people. Staff receive formal supervision from their line managers. However, for some staff, supervision does not consistently take place at a frequency as outlined in the home’s Statement of Purpose. This limits management oversight of staff

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requires improvement

performance and makes it difficult to assess how effective supervision is in meeting individual staff needs. All staff are trained in mandatory areas such as safeguarding, first aid, health and safety and physical intervention. Staff have not however, participated in more specialised training in respect of all areas which potentially effect children and young people they are working with. For example, despite self-harm being an issue which does or could potentially affect children and young people living in the home, staff have not undertaken any formal training in this area. While this is not having an impact on children and young people at the present time, this limits staff understanding and insight into such an issue and has the potential to limit the effectiveness of practice. The home’s Statement of Purpose provides information for parents and placing authorities about the care and services the home offers. There are however, some

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requires improvement

minor errors within this document in relation to the police authority which works in partnership with the home and in relation to the name of the home. While this does not have any impact on children and young people, it means that parents and stakeholders do not have absolute clarity in respect of the service the home offers. Systems to effectively monitor the progress children and young people make while living in this home are robust. Data is collected and an auditing tool is used to monitor and evaluate patterns and trends in behaviours and the progress children and young people are making in the different areas of their development. As a result, leaders and managers are able to clearly demonstrate the impact living in the home is having on children and young people. In addition to the above and effective internal and external quality assurance systems which monitor the service, the operations manager has been quick to

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requires improvement

identify the shortfalls highlighted during this inspection. He is passionate about improving the lives of children and young people and has plans in place to address all areas of weakness and ensure the quality of care and service provided significantly improve.

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What the inspection judgements mean

The experiences and progress of children and young people are at the centre of the inspection. Inspectors will use their professional judgement to determine the weight and significance of their findings in this respect. The judgements included in the report are made against Inspection of children's homes: framework for inspection.

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What the inspection judgements mean

An outstanding children's home provides highly effective services that contribute to significantly improved outcomes for children and young people who need help and protection and care. Their progress exceeds expectations and is sustained over time. A good children's home provides effective services that help, protect and care for children and young people and have their welfare safeguarded and promoted. In a children's home that requires improvement , there are no widespread or serious failures that create or leave children being harmed or at risk of harm. The welfare of looked after children is safeguarded and promoted. Minimum requirements are in place, however, the children's home is not yet delivering good protection, help and care for children and young people. A children's home that is inadequate is providing services where there are widespread or serious failures that create or leave children and young people being

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What the inspection judgements mean

harmed or at risk of harm or result in children looked after not having their welfare safeguarded and promoted.

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Information about this inspection

Inspectors have looked closely at the experiences and progress of children and young people living in the children's home. Inspectors considered the quality of work and the difference adults make to the lives of children and young people. They read case files, watched how professional staff work with children, young people and each other and discussed the effectiveness of help and care given to children and young people. Wherever possible, they talked to children, young people and their families. In addition the inspectors have tried to understand what the children's home knows about how well it is performing, how well it is doing and what difference it is making for the children and young people who it is trying to help, protect and look after. This 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 Children's

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Information about this inspection

Homes (England) Regulations 2015 and the Guide to the children's homes regulations including the quality standards. the guidance raising concerns and making complaints about Ofsted, which is available from Ofsted's website: www.gov.uk/government/organisations/ofsted . If you would like Ofsted to send you a copy of the guidance, please telephone 0300123 4234, or email enquiries@ofsted.gov.uk .

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Information about this inspection

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, workbased learning and skills training, adult and community learning, and education and training in prisons and other secure establishments. It inspects services for looked after children and child protection. If you would like a copy of this document in a different format, such as large print or Braille, please telephone 0300 123 4234, or email enquiries@ofsted.gov.uk . You may reuse this information (not including logos) free of charge in any format or medium, under the terms of the Open Government Licence. To view this licence, visit www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/doc/open-government-licence , write to the Information Policy Team,

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Information about this inspection

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Information about this inspection

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Information about this inspection

Store Street Manchester M1 2WD T: 0300 123 1231 Textphone: 0161 618 8524 E: enquiries@ofsted.gov.uk W: www.gov.uk/government/organisations/ofsted

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