Children's Home run by Cambian Childcare Limited in Shropshire

Inadequate

There are serious and/or widespread failures that mean children and young people’s 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:

 The registered provider does not effectively identify risks to help keep young people safe.  The implementation of safeguarding procedures by staff is not sufficiently rigorous or effective to safeguard young people.  Admission decisions are not child focused and do not take account of the needs of all young people.  Young people are not given opportunities to share their views and feelings after a physical intervention.  Physical intervention records do not hold all essential information.  Inconsistent staffing has led to young people feeling unsafe.  An over-reliance on agency staffing has resulted in young people’s welfare being compromised.  Staff do not have the skills and experience to manage young people’s complex needs.  Leaders and managers have failed to learn from incidents within the home or to implement appropriate strategies to reduce future risk.  Monitoring of the home by managers is poor and has meant that required

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The children’s home provision is inadequate because:

improvements to the care that young people receive have not been implemented.  Care planning is weak. Young people’s case files do not contain essential information.  The home has failed to deliver the quality of care that meets its statement of purpose.

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The children’s home strengths

 There is a new manager in post who is committed to improving the quality of care that young people receive.  The provider has started to implement a robust action plan to make the necessary changes.  Leaders and managers recognise the failings of the home and are taking action to effect immediate change.

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Statutory Requirements

This section sets out the actions which must be taken so that the registered person 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 must comply with the given timescales.

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Requirement Due date

6. Quality and purpose of care standard. In order to meet the quality and purpose of care standard, the registered person must ensure that: 2 (b)(iv) staff provide personalised care that meets each child’s needs, as recorded in the child’s relevant plans, taking account of the child’s background. 15 July 2016

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Requirement Due date

12. The protection of children standard. In order to meet the protection of children standard, the registered person must ensure that: (2) (a)(i) staff 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 (v) staff understand the roles and responsibilities in relation to protecting children that are assigned to them by the registered person (b) 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. 15 July 2016

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Requirement Due date

13. The leadership and management standard. In order to meet the leadership and management standard, the registered person must: 2 (a) lead and manage the home in a way that is consistent with its approach and ethos, and delivers the outcomes set out in the 15 July 2016 home’s statement of purpose (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 (e) ensure that the home’s workforce provides continuity of care to each child (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 (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

The registered person must ensure that within 24 hours of the use of a measure of control, discipline or restraint in relation to a child in the home, a record is made which includes details of any methods used or steps taken to avoid the need to use the measure (Regulation 35 (3)(a)(v)). 15 July 2016

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must ensure that within 48 hours of the use of the measure, the registered person, or a person who is authorised by the registered person to do so (‘the authorised person’) has spoken to the user about the measure (Regulation 35 (b)(i)). 15 July 2016

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must ensure that within 48 hours of the use of the measure, the registered person, or a person who is authorised by the registered person to do so (‘the authorised person’) adds to the record confirmation that they have spoken to the child about the measure (Regulation 35 (c)). 15 July 2016

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must maintain records for each child, which include the information and documents listed in Schedule 3 in relation to each child (Regulation 36 (1)(a)). 15 July 2016

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Information about this children’s home

This is a privately owned children’s home registered to provide care and accommodation for up to four young people. It specialises in providing a 12-month therapeutic programme for young people at risk of, or involved in, child sexual exploitation.

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Recent inspection history

Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

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Inadequate

Staff have insufficient information to underpin well-informed decisions about the risks and needs of each young person in their care. For example, young people’s individual needs are not thoroughly assessed when they arrive at the home and their behaviour management plans do not contain information specific to them. Pre-admission decisions are based on assessments which do not take into account young people’s needs, either individually or as a group. Poor matching of young people has led to significant safeguarding incidents and the home being described as ‘in crisis’.

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Inadequate

Staffing is inconsistent. Due to staff shortages, there has been an over-reliance on agency staff and staff from other homes who do not know the young people. Young people have said that they have felt unsafe at times as they do not know who is caring for them. This led to an instance where a young person went missing from the home due to feeling unsafe with a particular member of staff that they had not met before. A significantly high turnover of staff has meant that young people have not had the opportunity to form relationships with staff. This has had a significant and adverse impact on their daily experiences and progress in the home.

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Inadequate

Young people do not make progress across all areas of their development from their starting points. Poor admission planning and poor matching of young people, alongside inconsistent staffing, haves led to a chaotic home environment and significant damage has been caused. Young people have not had the stability within the home that they need to be able to start to recover from their previous traumatic experiences. Young people’s relationships with one another have been poor and have led to risk taking and destructive behaviours. For example; running away, violence to staff and damage to the home. The quality of plans in such areas as education and health is inadequate. Staff do not have regular ongoing contact with young people’s schools to support their education and there are no individual education plans in place. The registered provider has failed to prioritise young people’s education or encourage young people to be involved in their care

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Inadequate

planning. Staff fail to ensure young people receive key working sessions which help young people to address any issues they may have. They do not have any meaningful or regular input into how the home is run. When young people have raised their concerns, such as regarding the use of irregular staff who do not know them, nothing has changed.

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Inadequate

Young people are poorly prepared for their futures. They do not always have appropriately planned endings to their time at the home. Due to an escalation in young people’s risk taking behaviours such as self-harm and aggression coupled with a deterioration in their emotional wellbeing, young people’s placements have ended quickly and have been unplanned. Staff have been unable to manage young people’s increase in risk taking behaviours safely. This has meant that some young people have required secure placements.

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Inadequate

The registered provider has failed to keep young people safe. Staff have failed to refer young people’s allegations to the appropriate safeguarding professionals. They have not followed their own safeguarding policies and procedures. Risk assessments have not been put into place after young people have made allegations about members of staff. This has left the staff and young people in vulnerable situations.

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Inadequate

Management decisions regarding young people’s day-to-day care have been poor. For example, they have allowed young people to go out on activities in areas where they are not safe due to an increased risk of child sexual exploitation, without the prior agreement of the placing authority and contradicting the request of the placing authority and police. Managers did not ensure that thorough and robust risk assessments were in place to ensure that the staff were adequately informed of the risks. This has resulted in young people going missing and their safety and welfare being significantly compromised. When young people go missing, staff do search for them. However, there is a lack of learning from incidents in order to prevent similar missing episodes.

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Inadequate

Staff have also not learnt from other safeguarding incidents, such as young people having access to mobile phones and contacting adults who are known to pose a risk to them. Preventative measures have not been implemented, which means that risk-taking incidents have continued to occur. For example, young people have been able to take the home’s phone and mobile phone on separate occasions. This is due to a failure to implement strategies to prevent another occurrence.

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Inadequate

Recording of physical interventions is poor and is not robust. Recordings lack detail and often have gaps in information. For example, staff do not detail what behaviour management strategies they used prior to using a physical intervention on a young person. Young people have not been given the opportunity to share their views, wishes and feelings regarding a physical intervention, and there has been a lack of accountability due to staff not signing physical intervention forms. Ineffective deployment of staff leaves young people frequently experiencing care from adults whom they do not know and who do not understand their emotional needs. This has led to one occasion where a young person asked a police officer to stay with her until she was settled in her bedroom, as she did not know the staff member and did not feel safe.

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Inadequate

Recruitment practice is inconsistent. Required checks are not undertaken and consequently staff recruitment is not robust. For example, leaders and managers have not always checked references and placed all staff members’ information such as qualifications on file. Staffing has been inconsistent and on occasion over half the staff team has been made up of agency staff. This fails to provide young people with the stability they need.

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Inadequate

Leadership and management of this home have been poor and ineffective. There have been recent changes to the management of the home and there is currently a new manager in post. He is enrolled on his national vocational qualification level 5 in leadership and management. The new manager started in post two days prior to the full inspection. He is committed to improving the quality of care for young people. He is aware of both existing strengths and the areas of care that require development in the home. Leaders and managers have started to implement an appropriate action plan. However, at the time of the inspection, the impact of this was unable to be measured due to it being in its infancy.

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Inadequate

Eight members of staff have left and seven new members of staff have joined the team. Five of those staff are qualified up to national vocational qualification level three.

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Inadequate

Managerial monitoring has been weak in this home. They have not incorporated learning from the monthly independent visits to the home. Managers have not ensured that learning from incidents have been fully incorporated into the behaviour management of young people; for example, young people accessing the homes phones. Staff supervision sessions are poor. They are infrequent and do not provide staff with the managerial support and guidance they need to reflect on their practice and to learn new skills. Management support to staff has been poor during a period of time where staff needed increased levels of support due to escalating risk taking behaviours of young people. Consequently, staff have left employment and there has been increased use of agency staff. Young people’s continuous progress from their starting points across all aspects of their development has been significantly hindered as a result of a lack of

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Inadequate

management oversight. This particularly relates to risks faced by young people unclear expectations of how staff should manage their behaviours. Leaders and managers have made unsafe and inappropriate decisions. Managers have failed to consistently work in partnership with other professionals, such as placing authorities. Following young people making allegations, managers have not ensured that they have robustly addressed any identified issues or taken necessary steps to prevent future occurrences. This includes staffing ratios and ensuring that there is an appropriate staff gender balance which meets the complex needs of young people.

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Inadequate

Young people’s case files do not contain important information, such as looked after review documents and previous school reports. Leaders and managers have not ensured that staff have all the relevant information on file that they need to be able to provide effectively planned care.

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Inadequate

Leaders and managers are not delivering care or services that meet the homes statement of purpose. Agency staff are not trained within the clinical model of care around child sexual exploitation. Consequently, young people are not receiving the therapeutic care they need.

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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, work- based 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

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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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