Children's home run by Broadwood Education Services in Rossendale

Inadequate

There are serious and widespread failures that mean that young people are not protected. Their welfare is not promoted and safeguarded. Their care and experiences are poor.

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The children's home provision is inadequate because:

 Leaders and managers have made poor decisions about the admission of young people to the home, including accepting new placements in quick succession without allowing enough time for the young people already living in the home to settle. Young people are not well matched and their needs adversely impact on each other. As a result, young people take part in unsafe behaviour that has led to them being in police custody.  The relationships between young people are at times abusive. Staff do not deal effectively with bullying that is taking place. Nor do they safely de- escalate aggressive and dangerous behaviour that young people display.  Behaviour plans and risk assessments are of poor quality. These documents have insufficient information to help staff to effectively manage young people’s behaviour. As a result, staff do not deliver care that keeps young people safe and that protects them effectively from harm.

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The children's home provision is inadequate because:

 The manager’s response to safeguarding concerns is inadequate. Allegations young people make about staff are not always referred to the local area designated officer. They are not reported within the timeframe set out in statutory guidance.  The manager’s investigations into safeguarding concerns and allegations are unsatisfactory. Young people and staff are not routinely spoken to as part of the investigation. In addition, not all concerns have been investigated. As a result, leaders’ and managers’ learning from these incidents is narrow.  The manager’s recruitment and vetting of agency staff is inadequate.  Staff do not adequately promote all the health needs of the young people.  Staff do not help young people who have been excluded from school to re- integrate successfully.

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The children's home strengths

 Two young people engage well with their education placement. One is taking his GCSE exams and has had an interview for a job.  One young person shows some progress with his emotional development and has formed a good relationship with the manager.

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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 within the given timescales.

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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 of care standard, the registered person must ensure that children receive care from staff who: (a) understand the children’s home’s overall aims and the outcomes it seeks to achieve for children; (b) use this understanding to deliver care that meets children’s needs and supports them to fulfil their potential.

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Requirement Due date

(2) In particular, the standard in paragraph (1) requires the registered person to— (c) ensure that the premises used for the purposes of the home are designed and furnished so as to — (i) meet the needs of each child. 17 June 2016

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Requirement Due date

In order to meet the education standard, the registered person must ensure: (1) that children make measurable progress towards achieving their educational potential and are helped to do so.

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Requirement Due date

(2) In particular, the standard in paragraph (1) requires the registered person to ensure — (a) that staff help a child who is excluded from school, or who is of compulsory school age but not attending school, to access educational and training support throughout the period of exclusion or non-attendance and to return to school as soon as possible. 17 June 2016

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Requirement Due date

In order to meet the health and well-being standard, the registered person must ensure that: 17 June 2016 (1) (a) the health and well-being needs of children are met; (b) children receive advice, services and support in relation to their health and well-being; and (c) children are helped to lead healthy lifestyles. (2) In particular, the standard in paragraph (1) requires the registered person to ensure— (a) that staff help each child to — (ii) understand the child’s health and well-being needs and the options that are available in relation to the child’s health and well-being, in a way that is appropriate to the child’s age and understanding, and (iii) take part in activities, and attend any appointments, for the purpose of meeting the child’s health and well- being needs.

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Requirement Due date

11: The positive relationships standard *

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Requirement Due date

In order to meet the positive relationship standard, the registered person must ensure: (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 (c) positive responses to other children and adults.

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Requirement Due date

(2) In particular, the standard in paragraph (1) requires the registered person to ensure — (a) that staff — (i) meet each child’s behavioural and emotional needs, as set out in the child’s relevant plans (iv) help each child to develop and practise skills to resolve conflicts positively and without harm to anyone (vi) help each child to understand, in a way that is appropriate according to the child’s age and understanding, personal, sexual and social relationships, and how those relationships can be supportive or harmful (xi) de-escalate confrontations with or between children, or potentially violent behaviour by children (xii) have the skills to recognise incidents or indications of bullying and how to deal with them, and (b) that each child is encouraged to build and maintain positive relationships with others. 17 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 person must ensure: (1) that children are protected from harm and are enabled to keep themselves safe.

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Requirement Due date

(2) In particular, the standard in paragraph (1) requires the registered person to ensure— (a) that staff— (iv) manage relationships between children to prevent them from harming each other (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. 17 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 ensure: (1) that they enable, inspire and leads a culture in relation to the children’s home, in order to: (a) help children to fulfil their potential; and (b) promote their welfare.

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Requirement Due date

(2) In particular, the standard in paragraph (1) requires the registered person to: (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, and (g) demonstrate that practice in the home is informed and improved by taking into account and acting on — (ii) feedback on the experiences of children, including complaints received. 17 June 2016

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Requirement Due date

(2) In order to meet this requirement, the registered person must ensure that they only — (a) employ an individual to work at the children’s home; or (b) if an individual is employed by a person other than the registered person to work at the home in a position in 17 June 2016 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

(3) The requirements are that— (a) the individual is of integrity and good character; (b) the individual has the appropriate experience, qualification and skills for the work that the individual is to perform; (c) the individual is mentally and physically fit for the purposes of the work that the individual is to perform; and (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

(4) In order to meet this requirement, the registered person must ensure that all employees— (b) receive practice-related supervision by a person with appropriate experience. 17 June 2016

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Requirement Due date

34: Policies for the protection of children

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Requirement Due date

(1) In order to meet this requirement, the registered person must ensure that prepare and implement a policy which — (b) sets out the procedure to be followed in the event of an allegation of abuse or neglect.

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Requirement Due date

(2) The procedure to be followed in the event of an allegation of abuse or neglect must, in particular — (d) provide for records to be kept of an allegation of abuse or neglect, and the action taken in response. 17 June 2016

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Requirement Due date

35: Behaviour management policies and records

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Requirement Due date

(3) The registered person must ensure that — (b) 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’)— (i) has spoken to the user about the measure; and (ii) has signed the record to confirm it is accurate. 17 June 2016

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Requirement Due date

* These requirements are subject to a statutory requirement notice.

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Information about this children's home

The home is registered to provide care and accommodation for four young people who may have emotional and/or behavioural difficulties. It is owned by a large childcare organisation that has several other children’s home in the same county.

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Recent inspection history

Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

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Recent inspection history

15 February 2016 Interim Sustained effectiveness

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Inadequate

Young people are not protected from harm because staff are not able to manage their behaviour safely. Young people’s actions are frequently out of the staff team’s control. As a result, there are regular incidents of aggressive and violent behaviour between young people and from young people to staff. Young people have placed themselves and other residents in dangerous situations.

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Inadequate

Staff use the police to manage the young people’s behaviour. Young people have been in police custody and criminalised for their actions, some for the first time. This approach has negatively affected young people’s outcomes as they now have criminal records.

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Inadequate

Relationships between young people are poor. A young person has told his social worker that he is not happy living at the home and that bullying takes place between two of the young people. Another young person’s behaviour is out of character and suggests that he is scared living alongside the others. He told the inspector that a young person kicked his bedroom door down and that he likes his room more now that he has a double lock fitted. Staff do not deal with bullying effectively. Some discussions take place between staff and young people in response to identified incidents. However, further planned work using external training resources has not taken place. Consequently, bullying continues between young people.

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Inadequate

All young people have education placements. Two attend school regularly. One young person has been excluded from school for four weeks. The staff team’s arrangements for the young person’s re-integration to school are poor and resulted in him attending without a proper discussion taking place with the school and without the necessary support being arranged. He was sent home shortly after arriving for poor behaviour. The lack of planning further impacts negatively on the young person’s confidence and enthusiasm to re-join his school.

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Inadequate

Staff do not promote the young people’s health needs well. A young person refuses to attend his health appointments. This is an historic issue which staff have not successfully resolved. As a result, the young person does not have suitable glasses and his teeth have not been examined. Staff do not provide a consistent response to deter young people who smoke. They have been seen to light cigarettes for young people, which represents poor practice.

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Inadequate

Young people know how to raise a complaint. The staff team’s response to their complaints is unsatisfactory as young people are not routinely kept informed of the progress of their complaint and are sometimes not spoken to as part of the investigation. The manager’s letters to young people to follow up their complaints are very formal. These letters are not written in a style that is easy for children to understand and do not demonstrate a warm and caring approach.

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Inadequate

Young people are not provided with a calm and homely environment to live in. During incidents, significant damage has been made to the home. There is a continuous programme of maintenance to repair the damage. In the meantime, young people are without furniture and fixtures in their bedrooms.

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Inadequate

A social worker reports that one young person has made some progress since he moved into the home. He has an education placement, following a six-month gap. His behaviour is improving. Another young person is currently taking his GCSE exams and is actively seeking employment.

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Inadequate

Young people go missing from the home together. They encourage each other to abscond from the staff team’s care resulting in high risk situations. Young people do not always receive independent return-to-home interviews or have them within the required timeframe of 72 hours. This does not help staff to understand and deal with the reasons why a young person has run away. It further prevents them, as professionals, taking effective and immediate action to prevent further risk.

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Inadequate

The manager’s response to allegations young people make about staff is inadequate. The manager decides which allegations should be reported to the local area designated officer based on how many staff were present at the time of the allegation. This approach does not protect young people from potentially collusive practice and is not in line with the Working Together to Safeguard Children (2015) statutory guidance. As a result, not all allegations made by the young people have been reported to the local area designated officer. In addition, the full content of one allegation was not shared correctly and was not reported immediately. This approach does not protect young people from abuse.

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Inadequate

The manager does not manage child protection concerns effectively. Safeguarding and child protection records are poorly ordered. Staff record safeguarding concerns in many different documents and not always in the ‘central safeguarding log’ as required by the home’s policy. Concerns are written down by staff but there is no evidence to show what action staff take about each of the concerns. The manager does not track incidents to identify patterns and trends. As a result, young people’s welfare is not promoted.

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Inadequate

The staff team’s response to challenging young people’s negative behaviour and swearing lacks consistency. Young people’s behaviour management plans and risk assessments do not provide staff with adequate direction so that they know what to do to prevent inappropriate behaviours from escalating. The narrative in these documents is not specifically linked to each of the identified behaviours and the strategies for dealing with the behaviour are not sufficiently detailed. This results in some staff challenging what they think is unacceptable behaviour whereas others do not.

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Inadequate

The team’s response to inappropriate sexualised behaviour is ineffective. One young person’s risk assessment does not identify concerns about this behaviour escalating to include peer-on-peer abuse or the impact of other young people witnessing this behaviour. Incidents of sexualised behaviour between young people are not effectively recorded or followed up by staff to protect them.

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Inadequate

The manager’s recruitment and vetting of staff provided by an agency is inadequate. The manager has failed to ensure that the agency has obtained a full employment history for an agency employee as well as the required number of suitable references. Another agency member of staff has made a declaration on their disclosure and barring certificate, which the manager is not aware of and does not have a risk assessment for. The same member of staff has neither provided a full employment history nor had a criminal records check carried out for the previous country where he lived. This lack of scrutiny by the manager does not ensure that young people are protected from individuals who may be unsuitable to work with vulnerable children.

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Inadequate

The staff team’s work following the use of restraint requires improvement. The manager restrained a young person. She was not spoken with about this event after it happened and had to evaluate the incident herself. This approach does not ensure that all staff are engaged in a discussion following the use of restraint to reflect and learn from the incident and that their recordings have independent oversight and sign off.

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Inadequate

The admission’s process for young people coming to live at the home is inadequate. Social workers of young people already at the home are not routinely consulted about new placements. The manager states that young people were admitted ‘too quickly’ after each other and that none of them had the opportunity to settle and build good relationships with staff. Social workers, staff and educational professionals visiting the home recognise that the dynamics between young people are not safe.

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Inadequate

The manager’s investigations into allegations are inadequate. Young people are not always spoken with to ascertain their views. The manager does not evidence her conclusions or demonstrate that staff practice is improved by taking into account the experiences of young people. In addition, not all allegations have been investigated. The local area designated officer has advised that managers take time to reflect on the learning from all allegations.

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Inadequate

The manager can only evidence that she has received one supervision in the previous seven months. This does not demonstrate that she is receiving sufficient support to fulfil her role.

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Inadequate

There is a reliance on agency staff and staff from other homes to fulfil the complement of staff on duty. The manager identified that certain staff teams were experiencing more challenging behaviour from young people than others. She has appointed an experienced care worker to a senior post in an attempt to redress the balance across the staffing rota. It is too early to assess the impact of this appointment.

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Inadequate

The manager has identified that staff require further training to help them manage young people safely. Staff have recently attended training on supporting young people with an attachment disorder and addressing inappropriate sexualised behaviour displayed by young people. Staff have recently attended a behaviour management course that was specific to the needs of the young people.

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Inadequate

The manager has attended strategy meetings with the social workers and a family member to discuss plans that may help encourage young people to calm their behaviour. Further plans are in place for one young person to move into foster care in five weeks.

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Inadequate

The manager has been registered with Ofsted since 2007 and has the necessary qualifications.

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Inadequate

The manager has met the requirement and a recommendation from the previous inspection. As such, there is now less likelihood that a young person may fall over the upstairs bannister and young people now have access to a computer and can log onto the internet.

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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 children looked after 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 that 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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