Children's home in Rochdale

Inadequate

There are serious and widespread failures that mean children 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:

 The registered manager, and the wider Meadows organisation has failed to consider the impact of a new child moving into the home on the existing child living at the home. As a result, neither child’s welfare is promoted.

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The children's home provision is inadequate because:

 A new child has been accepted into the home when there was insufficient staff to care for them. Consequently, there are different temporary staff caring for the children every day. They do not all possess the qualifications, experience or skills to care for the children. This does not promote consistent care and boundaries.

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The children's home provision is inadequate because:

 The registered manager does not ensure that there is an accurate record of who has worked in the home. The staff rota is incomplete, the staff register is incomplete and she does not ensure that each temporary member of staff is able to meet the children’s needs.

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The children's home provision is inadequate because:

 Children are not adequately safeguarded. Staff do not understand what constitutes an allegation. Children who are alleging harm following restraints, where injuries are noted, are not subject to immediate referral to the placing authority and the local designated officer (LADO).

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The children's home provision is inadequate because:

 Children are not protected from harm. Staff do not follow the home’s own risk assessments regarding the provision of care and, as a result, children are able to open the door while travelling in moving cars.

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The children's home provision is inadequate because:

 The registered manager does not ensure that she challenges the placing authority robustly or requests a review of the child’s plans when she is concerned that the care provided is inadequate to meet the child’s needs.

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The children's home provision is inadequate because:

 Staff are ineffective in managing the relationships between the children so that they are able to harm each other. They do not support them to understand that bullying is unacceptable.

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The children's home provision is inadequate because:

 The registered manager does not ensure that, following the use of restraint, there is a record that the incident was discussed with the child or that the member of staff who used the restraint is debriefed. This means that crucial information is lost which could improve the quality of care.

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The children's home strengths

 The core staff team endeavours to develop positive relationships with children. They show commitment to children by continuing to come to work and to support each other.

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The children's home strengths

 Children’s school attendance is good, and provides them with some security.

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The children's home strengths

 A new manager has been appointed and is just starting working in the home. He has a strong record of improving outcomes for children.

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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 ‘Guide to the children's homes regulations including the quality standards’. The registered person(s) must comply within the given timescales.

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must ensure that the policy is implemented of the procedure to be followed in the event of an allegation of abuse, in particular the prompt referral of an allegation about current or ongoing abuse in relation to a child to the placing authority (Regulation 34(2)(b)). 3 June 2016

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must provide for records to be kept of an allegation of abuse and the action taken in response (Regulation 34(2)(d)). 3 June 2016

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must ensure that staff understand the measures which may be necessary to protect children, following an allegation of abuse (Regulation 34(2)(e)). 3 June 2016

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Requirement Due date

In order to meet the protection of children standard the registered provider 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. 3 June 2016

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Requirement Due date

In order to meet the protection of children standard the registered provider must ensure— (2) (a)(ii) that staff help each child to understand how to keep safe. 3 June 2016

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Requirement Due date

In order to meet the protection of children standard the registered provider must ensure— (2) (a)(iv) that staff manage relationships between children to prevent them from harming each other. 3 June 2016 12: The protection of children standard

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Requirement Due date

In order to meet the protection of children standard the registered provider must ensure— (2) (a)(v) that staff understand the roles and responsibilities in relation to protecting children that are assigned to them by the registered person. 3 June 2016

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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— (2)(c) ensure that staff have the experience, qualifications and skills to meet the needs of each child. 3 June 2016

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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— (2) (d) ensure that the home has sufficient staff to provide care for each child. 3 June 2016

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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— (2) (e) ensure that the home's workforce provides continuity of care to each child. 3 June 2016

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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— (2) (f) understand the impact that the quality of care provided in the home is having on the progress and experience of each child and use this understanding to inform the development of the quality of care provided in the home. 3 June 2016

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Requirement Due date

In order to ensure the care planning standard is met the registered provider must ensure that children— (1) (a) receive effectively planned care in or through the children's home; and (b) have a positive experience of arriving at or moving on from the home. 3 June 2016 14: The care planning standard

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Requirement Due date

In order to ensure the care planning standard is met the registered provider must ensure—

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Requirement Due date

(2) (e)(i) that the child's placing authority is contacted, and a review of that child's relevant plans is requested, if the registered person considers that the child is at risk of harm or has concerns that the care provided for the child is inadequate to meet the child's needs. 3 June 2016

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Requirement Due date

In order to meet the positive relationship standard is met the registered provider must ensure that—

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Requirement Due date

(1) 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. 3 June 2016

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Requirement Due date

In order to meet the positive relationship standard is met the registered provider must ensure that—

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Requirement Due date

(2) (a)(i) staff meet each child's behavioural and emotional needs, as set out in the child's relevant plans, and (xii) staff understand and communicate to children that bullying is unacceptable. 3 June 2016

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Requirement Due date

In order to meet the positive relationship standard is met the registered provider must ensure that—

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Requirement Due date

(2) (b) each child is encouraged to build and maintain positive relationships with others. 3 June 2016

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Requirement Due date

6: The quality and purpose of care standard

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Requirement Due date

In order to meet the quality and purpose of care standard is met the registered provider must ensure that—

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Requirement Due date

(2) (b)(i) staff understand and apply the home's statement of purpose. 3 June 2016 In order to engage with the wider system to ensure children's needs are met if the registered person considers, or staff consider, a placing authority's or a relevant person's performance or response to be inadequate in relation to their role, challenge the placing authority to seek to ensure that each child's needs are met in accordance with the child's relevant plans (Regulation 5)(c)). 3 June 2016

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must ensure that within 48 hours of the use of a measure of control, discipline or restraint in relation to a child in the home, the registered person, or a person who is authorised by the registered person to do so, has spoken to the user about the measure and has signed the record to confirm it is accurate. The registered person must ensure that within 5 days of the use of the measure, the registered person or the authorised person adds to the record confirmation that they have spoken to the child about the measure (Regulation 35(3)(b–c). 3 June 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 a child, are kept up to date and are signed and dated by the author of each entry (Regulation 36(1)). 3 June 2016

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must maintain in the home the records in Schedule 4 and ensure that the records are kept up to date (Regulation 37 (2)(a)– (b)). 3 June 2016

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must establish and maintain a system for monitoring, reviewing and evaluating and any actions that the registered person considers necessary in order to improve or maintain the quality of care provided for children (Regulation 45(2)(c)). 3 June 2016

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Information about this children's home

The home is registered to provide care for two children with emotional and/or behavioural difficulties. The home forms part of a large social care company. It is contracted to one local authority to provide assessment and care placements for up to six months.

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Information about this children's home

Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

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Information about this children's home

1 March 2016 Interim Improved effectiveness

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Information about this children's home

13 January 2015 Interim Sustained effectiveness

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Inadequate

Since the recent interim inspection there has been one new admission to the home. The registered manager has agreed to accept a child to live in the home when she has insufficient staff to care for them. Therefore, children live in an unstable environment without consistency of staff or care provided. Staff endeavour to develop positive relationships with children, but these are undermined by frequent changes in staffing. Children use the inconsistency in staffing to control their environment and to achieve what they want. Temporary staff do not support permanent staff so that victimisation and assaults are not prevented.

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Inadequate

Staff do not all have the training, qualifications or experience to meet the children’s needs. Some staff behave inappropriately and swear at children when they attempt to harm them. This negative behaviour replicates the children’s experiences before coming into care which have caused them significant harm, and reflects the serious impact of having staff working in the home who are unable to meet children’s needs.

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Inadequate

Children’s progress is inadequate. They lack a sense of permanence and belonging. Staff do not ensure that children learn how to keep themselves safe. Children’s risk-taking behaviour escalates as they go missing or threaten to go missing, assault staff and harm themselves during angry outbursts.

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Inadequate

Children’s attendance at school is good. It provides a consistency in their lives. Staff support children by attending their parents evenings and by engaging in games with them that encourage counting and turn-taking. Staff ensure that children access different activities. There is poor planning of activities, as there is a lack of coherent view about how and when to offer children activities. Children enjoy going swimming and visiting the local shopping centre. There is some progress, as children’s bedwetting is being reduced. Judgement grade

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Inadequate

Children are not supported to become increasingly safe. The core staff team develops detailed risk assessments about most activities and situations, which staff do not follow. This places children at risk of physical and emotional harm. For example, staff do not follow the risk assessment about ensuring that child locks are activated on the rear passenger doors when children use them. As a result, a child was able to open the door of a moving car and attempted to get out onto the road. Some situations are not adequately risk-assessed, such as using public transport. Children are taken on buses through familiar areas, where they abscond and return to their families.

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Inadequate

Children continue to go missing. Staff follow children as quickly as they are able. However, children quickly put themselves at considerable risk such as walking in front of oncoming traffic and approaching unknown adults to ask to use their phone. Staff work effectively with the police and family members to locate children. However, they do not challenge the placing authority that sanctions the children, contrary to court orders, being able to remain with their family.

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Inadequate

Staff do not manage children in a consistent way, and temporary staff do not provide boundaries which are commensurate with their need for predictable care. Staff do not follow simple reward systems to reward the children’s positive behaviour in a consistent way. This is despite the company’s placement plans detailing the importance of consistency in behaviour management for the children to achieve emotional security. Staff are not supportive of each other when a child victimises them or assaults them. Core staff implement boundaries, but temporary staff do not support them. This leads to children’s behaviour escalating as they become increasingly anxious over the lack of reliable care.

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Inadequate

Some staff do not receive safeguarding training, and other staff are unfamiliar with how to manage allegations made by children about staff. Consequently, staff do not take appropriate actions when children make allegations or are injured during restraints. This places children at risk of harm, as they are not supported following these allegations. Staff contact the LADO regarding safeguarding concerns which the LADO has no role in managing. This lack of clarity about recognising how safeguarding concerns should be managed constitutes a significant shortfall in keeping children safe. Staff restrain children to try to keep them safe. The recording of these incidents is poor. The registered manager does not ensure that there is a record of the restraint being discussed with the child or the staff being debriefed. This means that important information is lost to improve staff’s responses to children’s behaviour and to drive forward improvements in staff practice. The registered

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Inadequate

manager has arranged for staff to receive further training in the use of restraint. Staff are unable to keep children safe and, at times, they harm each other. The actions taken by staff to address bullying behaviours with children are not recorded.

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Inadequate

The home is managed by a suitably experienced registered manager who has been in post for three years. She holds the relevant qualification to level 5 for residential leadership and management. The home operates under contract to a local authority.

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Inadequate

The registered manager has failed to prioritise the needs of children, as she has accepted a placement of a new child who was not a suitable match for the existing child. At the point of the second child’s admission to the home this child was making progress, on the basis of a staffing ratio of two to one, and was beginning to develop positive relationships with staff. The registered manager accepted a placement for which she had insufficient staff to meet that child’s needs. Consequently, there needs to be numerous temporary staff employed in the home to provide for two children who are staffed on a two-to-one ratio. This has led to great inconsistency in the staff who provide care for the children.

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Inadequate

Children are unsettled and continually seek out information about who will be caring for them, to try to regain control of the situation by choosing who works with them. The inconsistency of care is noted by stakeholders. A teacher said: ‘there is a lack of consistency in staffing which becomes noticeable, particularly when the child has been collected from school by home staff with whom he is not familiar.’ The existing child who was already in placement is adversely affected. There is an increase in the number of incidents of both verbal and physical aggression, and of the need for restraint to be used, and a withdrawal from engaging with their therapist. The registered manager lacks decisiveness and ability to make effective challenge to the placing authority in terms of accepting a new child into the placement whose needs she did not have sufficient staff to meet. She has not requested that there is a review of the placement when it is evident that children that are not

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Inadequate

being safeguarded. Neither has she challenged the placing authority about its lack of robust action when a child has absconded to their family, contrary to court orders. She does not hold crucial children looked after documentation in the home, such as up-to-date local authority care plans, education healthcare plans or personal education plans. This greatly affects her ability to challenge children’s plans when they are at risk of harm.

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Inadequate

The registered manager fails to ensure that she has staff working in the home who have the necessary skills, experience and qualifications to meet the needs of the children. Staffing is chaotic. It is unclear who is working in the home on a day-to- day basis and who has worked in the home over the preceding month. The registered manager neither ensures that staff complete the staff register nor maintains a completed rota. This poses significant safeguarding risks to children, and does not meet their need for reliable and skilled care givers.

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Inadequate

The registered manager has completed the monitoring of the quality of care provided until the end of March. However, this neither includes an evaluation of the recent new placement, nor details what actions need to be made to improve or maintain the quality of care. The registered manager has recently been appointed to another post. The time that she has been away from the home, including being on leave, has left inadequate managerial oversight. This has left staff without clear management accountability during a challenging time.

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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 ‘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 0300 123 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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