Children's Home run by Milestones Care Homes Ltd in Wirral

Inadequate

There are serious and widespread failures that mean children and young people are not protected or their welfare is not promoted or safeguarded and their care and experiences are poor and they are not making progress.

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The children's home provision is inadequate because:

 Young people’s needs in relation to their safety, health, emotional well- being and education are not being met.

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The children's home provision is inadequate because:

 Young people are at significant risk of sexual exploitation because managers and staff do not recognise potential or actual safeguarding concerns. This has included failing to take action to support young people in response to serious concerns about child sexual exploitation.

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The children's home provision is inadequate because:

 Some young people do not have access to a full-time education limiting their progress and ability to reach their full potential.

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The children's home provision is inadequate because:

 Care planning and risk assessments are not effectively reviewed and amended to address the changing emotional and social needs of the young people to ensure they get the best possible support and guidance.

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The children's home provision is inadequate because:

 The written records do not provide a factual record of the young people’s care experience or contribute to an understanding of their lives.

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The children's home provision is inadequate because:

 Staff are not sufficiently skilled or competent to meet the individual needs of the young people living in this home.

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The children's home provision is inadequate because:

 Poor recruitment practices do not ensure that only suitably checked adults only work with the young people in line with safer recruitment procedures.

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The children's home strengths

 One young person is making make good progress with her education.  Young people are supported to spend time with their families and maintain important relationships.

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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 education standard the registered person must ensure– 2 (a) that staff

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Requirement Due date

(vi) maintain regular contact with each child's education and training provider, including engaging with the provider and the placing authority to support the child's education and training and to maximise the child's achievement;

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Requirement Due date

(viii) help a child who is excluded from school, or who is of compulsory school age but not attending school, to access education and training support throughout the period of exclusion or non-attendance and to return to school as soon as possible.

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Requirement Due date

In particular ensure that a personal education plan is in place for each child and follow up their education needs with the Virtual Head. 30/09/2015

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Requirement Due date

In order to meet the positive relationships standard the registered person must ensure:

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Requirement Due date

(1) that children are helped to develop, and to benefit from, relationships based on— (a) mutual respect and trust; (b) an understanding about acceptable behaviour; and (c) positive responses to other children and adults.

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Requirement Due date

(2) (a) that staff— (i) meet each child’s behavioural and emotional needs, as set out 30/09/2015 in the child’s relevant plans;

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Requirement Due date

(ii) help each child to develop socially aware behaviour;

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Requirement Due date

(iii) encourage each child to take responsibility for the child’s behaviour, in accordance with the child’s age and understanding;

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Requirement Due date

(iv) help each child to develop and practise skills to resolve conflicts positively and without harm to anyone;

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Requirement Due date

(v) communicate to each child expectations about the child’s behaviour and ensure that the child understands those expectations in accordance with the child’s age and understanding;

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Requirement Due date

(vii) help each child to develop the understanding and skills to recognise or withdraw from a damaging, exploitative or harmful relationship;

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Requirement Due date

(viii) strive to gain each child’s respect and trust;

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Requirement Due date

(ix) understand how children’s previous experiences and present emotions can be communicated through behaviour and have the competence and skills to interpret these and develop positive relationships with children.

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Requirement Due date

In order to meet the protection of children standard the registered provider must ensure that staff:

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Requirement Due date

(2)(a) (i) assess whether each child is at risk of harm, taking into account information in the child's relevant plans, and, if necessary, make arrangements to reduce the risk of any harm to the child; (ii) help each child to understand how to keep safe; (iii) have the skills to identify and act upon signs that a child is at risk of harm;

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Requirement Due date

(v) understand the roles and responsibilities in relation to protecting children that are assigned to them by the registered person; 30/09/2015

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Requirement Due date

30/09/2015 (vi) take effective action whenever there is a serious concern about a child's welfare; and

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Requirement Due date

(vii) are familiar with, and act in accordance with, the home's child protection policies; (b) that the home's day-to-day care is arranged and delivered so as to keep each child safe and to protect each child effectively from harm; (c) that the premises used for the purposes of the home are designed, furnished and maintained so as to protect each child from avoidable hazards to the child's health;

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Requirement Due date

(d) ensure that the effectiveness of the home's child protection policies is monitored regularly.

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Requirement Due date

In particular staff: follow local authority care plans and reviews in relation to child sexual exploitation; consult with young people on what helps them manage their behaviour; receive good quality training in safeguarding; follow policies and procedures in relation to serious safeguarding concerns; care planning documents including daily records are complete and legible; and address the bare aerial wire hanging from a young person’s bedroom wall. 30/09/2015

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Requirement Due date

13. The leadership and management standard*

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Requirement Due date

In order to meet the leadership and management standard the registered person must -

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Requirement Due date

(2)(a) lead and manage the home in a way that is consistent with the approach and ethos, and delivers the outcomes, set out in the home's statement of purpose;

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Requirement Due date

(c) ensure that staff have the experience, qualifications and skills to meet the needs of each child;(d) ensure that the home has sufficient staff to provide care for each child;

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Requirement Due date

(f) understand the impact that the quality of care provided in the home is having on the progress and experiences of each child and use this understanding to inform the development of the quality of care provided in the home;

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Requirement Due date

(g) demonstrate that practice in the home is informed and improved by taking into account and acting on – (i) research and developments in relation to the ways in which the 30/09/2015 needs of children are best met;

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Requirement Due date

(h) use monitoring and review systems to make continuous improvements in the quality of care provided in the home.

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Requirement Due date

In particular, the manager has suitable oversight of the day-to- day care provided for young people; and staff receive training in safeguarding, first aid, medication, behaviour management, and in Asperger’s Syndrome to meet the individual needs of the young people living in the home.

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must provide each employee with a job description outlining the employee’s responsibilities. This relates to ensuring that the correct name is entered into the employee’s employment records. Also, ensure that all staff undertake appropriate continuing professional development.

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must recruit staff using recruitment procedures that are designed to ensure children’s safety.

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Requirement Due date

(a) employ an individual to work at the children’s home; or

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Requirement Due date

(b) if an individual is employed by a person other than the registered person to work at the home in a position in which the individual may have regular contact with children, allow that individual to work at the home, if the individual satisfies the requirements in paragraph (3).

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Requirement Due date

(a) the individual is of integrity and good character;

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Requirement Due date

(b) the individual has the appropriate experience, qualification 30/09/2015 and skills for the work that the individual is to perform;

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Requirement Due date

(c) the individual is mentally and physically fit for the purposes of the work that the

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Requirement Due date

(d) full and satisfactory information is available in relation to the individual in respect of each of the matters in Schedule 2.

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must notify HMCI and each other relevant person without delay if - (a) a child is involved in or subject to, or is suspected of being involved in or subject to, sexual exploitation; (b) an incident requiring police involvement occurs in relation to a child which is the registered person considers to be serious; (e) there is any other incident relating to a child which the registered person considers to be serious.

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Requirement Due date

(Regulation 40(4)(a)(b)(e)) * 30/09/2015

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Requirement Due date

* These requirements are subject to statutory requirement notice.

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Information about this children's home

This is a privately owned children’s’ home. It is registered to accommodate three young people with emotional and behaviour difficulties.

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Recent inspection history

Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

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Recent inspection history

18/03/2015 Interim Improved effectiveness

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inadequate

Serious weaknesses in the quality of care provided mean that young people’s welfare is not promoted or safeguarded. Young people do not have positive or trusting relationships with staff.

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inadequate

Young people said ‘I don’t feel safe in here and I wouldn’t speak to any of them’ and ‘Sometimes if I go to the door they shout through the door “go away or I will restrain you” – they don’t even know what I want.’ This means that their safety is compromised because they feel unable to speak to staff or the managers about any concerns they may have.

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inadequate

One young person is making good progress in their education. She said ‘I go to the best school in the area and I love it I am doing my GCSEs.’

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inadequate

However, some young people are not making measureable process towards achieving their educational potential. Staff do not have an understanding about their educational needs and progress. They did not know what the predicted grades are for the young people, despite this information being available in a report from the school in the young person’s file. Also staff are not actively supporting and promoting young people’s education. One young person has not been education since March 2015. She does not have a personal education plan, setting out her needs, abilities and progress, and the arrangements for supporting her learning. Staff are not working with local authority to identify a suitable placement for her. They are not liaising with the Virtual Head, and, in fact, did not know their name or role in supporting young people’s education. This young person does not have an alternative education provision or suitable arrangements

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inadequate

to help her prepare to return to full time education. The weekly planner shows a list of chores she is expected to carry out and does not address her education or care needs. As a result opportunities for her to reach their full educational potential are limited, seriously affecting her future life chances.

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inadequate

Young people are not involved in the plans for their care and their wishes and feelings are not taken into consideration. A young person said ‘I don’t know what’s in my plans I have asked to see them and the staff told me that I couldn’t see any of my records until I was 18.’ They are not consulted in any aspect of their care or day-to-day living arrangements. Young people commented: ‘They don’t ask us anything, we just get told what to do, I feel like I’m in a fishbowl they just keep watching me and writing and watching and writing’ and ‘We haven’t had a young people’s meeting for about three months I wouldn’t want to say anything because they will get moody with me.’ Staff members consult with workers from child and adolescent mental health service on how to meet some of the needs of young people. However staff have not received training on how to understand and support young people with specific health needs or conditions, for example

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inadequate

Asperger’s Syndrome. The young person said ‘I mask my emotions because I don’t know who to talk to in here I can talk to CAMHS.’ This means that young people’s specific health and support needs are not being met or taken into consideration in the support and care she receives.

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inadequate

Young people are supported to spend time with their families. This positive contact helps them identify with extended family members and spend time in their own community. And helps young people build a picture of their family background.

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inadequate

Poor safeguarding practice is leaving young people at risk of harm. The manager and staff do not always following the safeguarding procedures, including when a young person disclosed a significant concern about possible child sexual exploitation. They did not take action to ensure the young person’s welfare was safeguarded.

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inadequate

The poor quality of written risk assessments do not help staff understand the risks to each young person and the steps required to manage these safely. Young people do not have individual risk assessments. The level of risk is not reviewed following serious incidents or changes in young people’s behaviour or care reviews. Also, their individual placement plans have not been reviewed or updated after any significant incident. Consequently the plans do not always reflect young people’s current needs and the level and nature of risk. Also, the staff’s practice is not consistent with the expectations of the placing authority’s plans for young people; for example, a young person who required to be monitored using the internet was allowed to have unlimited and unsupervised access. Her social worker said ‘I was under the impression that the service were monitoring (the young person’s) internet use as it is in her care plan’. As a result of this failure she was left at risk

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inadequate

The quality of written records about young people is poor. They lack the detail and analysis to contribute effectively to an understanding of the young person's life and their future plans. There is very little written evidence to show how young people are being supported on a daily basis and how effectively they are being looked after in line with their plan. Care plans are not complete; some sections stop mid- sentence and do not give a clear, concise direction on how young people’s needs should be met. The managers, therefore, have little information to measure young people’s progress and help to develop a better understanding of how to promote their welfare.

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inadequate

Young people do not have behaviour management plans, which means staff do not have clear and agreed strategies to help them to manage difficult or risky behaviour. As a result, they not equipped to manage and de-escalate challenging situations. For example, staff have been instructed to call police to manage behaviour that involves damage to property within the home. This is disproportionate and ineffective and could lead to young people being criminalised.

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inadequate

Staff do not talk to young people about how best to support them when they are upset and what works for them to manage their behaviour. A young person said ‘they don’t talk to me at all, and you know, if they did then maybe I could walk away sometimes and calm down and they wouldn’t have to say that I am bad all the time.’

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inadequate

The failure to thoroughly follow safer recruitment procedures for people working at the home means that the young people are around adults who have not been suitably vetted. Suitable written references have not always been obtained or verified by telephone. The content of some references has been changed; the original typed name of an employee had been obliterated and a different employee’s name entered onto the reference. Gaps in applicants’ employment histories have not been followed up. Staff files do not always include a record of interviews or evidence that interviews took place. Judgement grade

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inadequate

The ineffective leadership and management of this home are compromising the young people’s progress, welfare and safety.

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inadequate

There is a lack of thorough management oversight and monitoring of the quality of care and the day-to day-running of the home. This means that areas of weakness and poor practice have not been identified and action has not been taken to put things right. More robust systems are needed to ensure the safety and well-being of the young people is promoted at all times. Potential risks are not identified and addressed. The monitoring failed to identify weaknesses in practice and hazards around the house, such as a bare aerial wire hanging from the wall in a young person’s bedroom.

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inadequate

The home’s Statement of Purpose states that ‘(The home) will provide a caring, structured and homely environment, specifically designed to meet the needs of the residing children/young people’. Leaders, managers and staff are failing to apply this objective within their practice. The care provided does not meet young people’s needs and does not enable them to keep safe and well. Staff do not have any knowledge of the home’s statement of purpose or the new quality standards. This demonstrates a staff group that are not up-to-date with the relevant national standards for residential child care and how they can most effectively put them into practice with placed young people to help keep them safe and well.

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inadequate

Staff said that they feel well supported on a day-to-day basis. However, they are not sufficiently supported, guided and supervised to enable them to provide a good quality of care to vulnerable young people. The manager is not routinely reviewing their performance and practice or enabling their continued professional development. Not all the staff have had training in key areas of their work, including safeguarding, first aid, medication, behaviour management, and in understanding Asperger’s Syndrome. As a result they have not had opportunities to develop the skills, expertise and knowledge that they require to safeguard and meet the needs of the young people they are working with.

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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

The National Archives, Kew, London TW9 4DU, or email: psi@nationalarchives.gsi.gov.uk .

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Information about this inspection

Interested in our work? You can subscribe to our monthly newsletter for more information and updates: http://eepurl.com/iTrDn .

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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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