Children's home run by Merryvale Children’s Home Limited in Merton

Inadequate

There are serious and widespread failures that mean that children and young people are not protected or their welfare is not promoted or safeguarded.

p.2

The children’s home provision is inadequate because:

 Leadership and management of the home is poor. There has not been a registered manager since 2014. This results in a lack of cohesion, strategic oversight and challenge to partner agencies.

p.3

The children’s home provision is inadequate because:

 Young people say that multiple changes to the management team make them feel unsettled. They note that where once they felt listened to, this is no longer the case.

p.3

The children’s home provision is inadequate because:

 Safeguarding practice is inconsistent. Although staff have received appropriate training, they lack guidance and support to keep young people safe.

p.3

The children’s home provision is inadequate because:

 Some young people place themselves at risk of exploitation. Despite this concern, lack of leadership and direction means that staff are uncertain how to manage and reduce such risks.

p.3

The children’s home provision is inadequate because:

 Risk assessment is poor and behaviour management is weak. The approach taken by the home fails to recognise the high risks posed by the young people. This means young people do not receive the level of intervention and support necessary to help them reduce their challenging and risky behaviours.

p.3

The children’s home provision is inadequate because:

 Challenges to bullying behaviour is inconsistent. Although not commonplace, the responses to such incidents are unclear.

p.3

The children’s home provision is inadequate because:

 Staff do not receive regular supervision. This means they are unable to reflect on their practice, develop their learning or receive formal support and guidance.

p.3

The children’s home provision is inadequate because:

 The home does not make reports and notifications as required in a timely manner. This means the quality of care cannot be scrutinised.

p.3

The children’s home strengths

 Young people say they are generally happy living in this home.  Young people share good relationships with staff. This is a strength of the home.  The staff team is stable and displays a focus on improving the life experiences of young people.  Staff provide positive boundary setting in the home environment.  Young people who live at the home for extended periods of time make progress in building positive relationships with staff.

p.4

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.

p.5

Requirement Due date

5. Engaging with the wider system to ensure children’s needs are met:

p.5

Requirement Due date

In meeting the quality standards, the registered person must ensure that staff:

p.5

Requirement Due date

(b) seek to secure the input and services required to meet each child’s need

p.5

Requirement Due date

(c) 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 or the relevant person to seek to ensure that each child’s needs are met in accordance with the child’s relevant plans

p.5

Requirement Due date

(d) seek to develop and maintain effective professional relationships with such persons, bodies or organisations as the registered person considers appropriate, having regard to the range of needs of children for whom it is intended that the children’s home is to provide care and accommodation. 1 August 2016

p.5

Requirement Due date

In order to meet the positive relationship standard, with particular reference to supporting children to understand acceptable social behaviour, the registered provider must ensure:

p.5

Requirement Due date

(a) that staff: (ii) help each child to develop socially aware behaviour (iii) encourage each child to take responsibility for the child’s behaviour, in accordance with the child’s age and understanding (iv) help each child to develop and practise skills to resolve 1 August 2016 conflicts positively and without harm to anyone

p.5

Requirement Due date

(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

p.6

Requirement Due date

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

p.6

Requirement Due date

(x) are provided with supervision and support to enable them to understand and manage their own feelings and responses to the behaviour and emotions of children and to help children to do the same

p.6

Requirement Due date

(xi) de-escalate confrontations with children, or potentially violent behaviour by children

p.6

Requirement Due date

(xiii) have the skills to recognise incidents or indications of bullying and how to deal with them

p.6

Requirement Due date

(b) that each child is encouraged to build and maintain positive relationships with others.

p.6

Requirement Due date

12. The protection of children standard:

p.6

Requirement Due date

In order to meet the protection of children standard, with particular reference to ensuring that children are protected from harm, the registered person must ensure: (a) that staff:

p.6

Requirement Due date

(iii) have the skills to identify and act upon signs that a child is at risk of harm

p.6

Requirement Due date

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

p.6

Requirement Due date

(vi) take effective action whenever there is a serious concern about a child’s welfare

p.6

Requirement Due date

(vii) are familiar with, and act in accordance with, the home’s child protection policies 1 August 2016 (b) that the home’s day-to-day care is arranged and delivered to keep each child safe and to protect each child effectively from harm

p.6

Requirement Due date

(c) that the effectiveness of the home’s child protection policies is monitored regularly.

p.7

Requirement Due date

In order to meet the care planning standard, with particular reference to the relevancy of plans, the registered person must ensure:

p.7

Requirement Due date

(e) that the child’s placing authority is contacted, and a review of that child’s relevant plans is requested, if:

p.7

Requirement Due date

(i) 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. 1 August 2016

p.7

Requirement Due date

The registered provider must appoint a person to manage the children’s home if: (a) there is no registered manager in respect of the home, and (a) the registered provider: (i) is an organisation or a partnership (ii) does not satisfy regulation 28 (iii) is not, or does not intend to be, in day-to-day charge of the home. 1 August 2016

p.7

Requirement Due date

The registered person must ensure that all employees:

p.7

Requirement Due date

4 (b) receive practice-related supervision by a person with appropriate experience. 1 August 2016

p.7

Requirement Due date

44 Independent person: visits and reports

p.7

Requirement Due date

The registered person must ensure that an independent person visits the home at least once each month. 1 August 2016 (7) The independent person must provide a copy of the independent person’s report to HMCI.

p.7

Requirement Due date

(2) In order to complete a quality of care review, the registered person must establish and maintain a system for monitoring, reviewing and evaluating- (a) the quality of care provided for children

p.8

Requirement Due date

(b) the feedback and opinions of children about the children’s home, its facilities and the quality of care they receive in it

p.8

Requirement Due date

(c) any actions that the registered person considers necessary in order to improve or maintain the quality of care provided for children.

p.8

Requirement Due date

(5) The system referred to in paragraph (2) must provide for ascertaining and considering the opinions of children, their parents, placing authorities and staff. 1 August 2016

p.8

Recommendations

To improve the quality and standards of care further, the service should take account of the following recommendation:  Ensure that there is a workforce plan which can fulfil the workforce-related requirements of regulation 16, schedule 1 (paragraphs 14 and 19). (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 53, paragraph 10.8)

p.9

Information about this children’s home

This is a privately run children’s home for up to five children and young people with emotional and/or behavioural difficulties. It is the only home provided by this company.

p.10

Recent inspection history

Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

p.10

Recent inspection history

14 January 2016 Interim Declined in effectiveness

p.10

Recent inspection history

11 August 2015 Full Requires improvement

p.10

Inadequate

The provider has appointment several different managers in the past 18 months. None of the managers have remained long enough to be registered as manager for the home. A young person said, ‘It is feeling less of a home and more of a business… changes are now imposed on us’. This lack of stability in management arrangements has had a negative impact on the overall experiences and progress of the young people.

p.11

Inadequate

Young people say they do not feel listened to by managers. Staff do encourage young people to share their views and feelings on the home and the care provided in weekly house meetings. Staff use these meetings to discuss relevant issues of interest to young people. Typically, issues are around meal planning, leisure activities, and any areas of conflict within the home. However, young people state that their views and opinions are lost because of the constant management changes. They also note that new managers make little effort to get to know them as individuals. Young people said, ‘…before we were listened to and involved in decision making’. This means that although the views of young people are considered, they are not acted upon.

p.11

Inadequate

Staff work to support the education of young people. Despite this, some young people struggle to attend their school and college placements. Other young people do much better and have maintained a reasonable level of attendance. These young people are working toward gaining GCSEs and have obtained college placements to advance future career plans.

p.11

Inadequate

Young people receive inconsistent levels of support to help them learn and develop as they approach adulthood. Although some young people have made progress since moving into the home, this is not a common experience. For example, most young people have not started on programmes to help them prepare for independent living. A member of staff commented, ‘We need to do more to stretch young people to enable them to achieve independence skills.

p.11

Inadequate

The approach to care planning and review is inconsistent. In general, young people are cared for in line with their individual placement and care plans. Care plans contain relevant areas of care, including an assessment of emotional, physical and educational needs. However, some plans are poor and fail to capture all elements of young people’s care needs and how these should be met. They also lack the views of young people themselves. A number of care plans have not been reviewed as and when required. Strategies put in place to support young people to reduce their negative behaviours are clearly not working. These shortfalls fail to acknowledge the current needs of young people or capture their views on how they wish to be cared for. Staff are expected to undertake key- work with young people that uses a reflective approach. However, training is not provided on reflective work and team members do not fully understand the

p.11

Inadequate

Young people are encouraged to live healthy lifestyles. The introduction of a personal health trainer and individual healthy living plans has had some impact on young people taking responsibility for their health. This has led to young people achieving healthy weight targets that improve their feelings of self-worth.

p.12

Inadequate

Staff support young people to maintain positive relationships with important people in their lives. They help young people with contact arrangements and keep in touch with family members which aids communication and planning.

p.12

Inadequate

Young people are encouraged to be involved in, and have access to, a range of leisure activities. These include trips to the cinema, dance classes, youth clubs and in-house pampering sessions. During the inspection, young people were busy thinking about and planning their annual summer holiday.

p.12

Inadequate

The home is well maintained, safe and creates a homely and comfortable environment. Young people are encouraged to personalise their rooms and other areas of the home.

p.12

Inadequate

The continued lack of strong leadership and management has led to a poor approach to managing risk. The staff team has little understanding of their responsibilities for the protection of young people. For example, they have been allowed to attend venues alone where appropriate checks on adults have not taken place. While staff have identified concerns of risk, they do not take decisive actions to reduce them. As a consequence, young people are at risk of exploitation.

p.12

Inadequate

Staff are unable to demonstrate how to keep young people safe. They have received training on safeguarding, child sexual exploitation and trafficking alongside other relevant areas. However, staff are unable to demonstrate how they apply this in practice. Young people receive poor support and intervention to address their challenging and complex behaviours. Assessments fail to identify strategies for managing identified risks to young people and the wider community. Where these risks are high, the day-to-day arrangements for managing concerns are weak. For example, young people who have recently carried out unprovoked violence toward members of the public continue to travel alone to and from education. Their route taking them directly through areas they had engaged in such negative behaviour.

p.12

Inadequate

There is a widespread failure by the provider to work in partnership and to develop effective and professional relationships with other organisations. As a consequence, young people do not benefit from joined-up care. This results in inconsistent approaches to enabling young people to understand socially acceptable behaviour, to learn from their mistakes or to understand the impact of their behaviour on others. For instance, there is a lack of cohesive working with young people subject to intervention from the youth offending service. No attempts are made to hold joint strategy meetings to consider better ways to manage criminal-type behaviours in the community. This means extremely negative behaviours continue without an agreed approach to intervene.

p.13

Inadequate

The levels of young people going missing are low. Staff actively seek young people when they leave. However, opportunities to talk through issues with them on their return are not taken. This means that young people are not fully supported to consider the risks when away from adult supervision or indeed to talk about why they left the home.

p.13

Inadequate

Despite some young people engaging in high-risk behaviour in the community, most of them report feeling safe in the home. They also say they enjoy the company of each other and have good relationships with the staff team. Staff are generally able to maintain positive boundaries on behaviour in the home, to which young people largely adhere. This is in stark contrast to assisting them with their negative behaviours outside of the home.

p.13

Inadequate

An effective system is in place for the safe recruitment and vetting of staff. This ensures their suitability to work with young people. The number of staff qualified to a minimum of level three standard is good.

p.13

Inadequate

The home’s premises and location risk assessment promotes the safety of young people. Health and safety risk assessments are completed regularly which ensures young people live in a hazard free environment. A suitable location risk assessment provides practical strategies to combat local issues of concern. Judgement grade

p.13

Inadequate

This home has significant weaknesses. There are a number of regulatory breaches that compromise the safety of young people. The lack of leadership impacts negatively on the home’s capacity to improve the experiences and progress for young people.

p.14

Inadequate

Leadership and management are weak. The home has been without a registered manager since October 2014. During this period three interim managers submitted their applications to register with Ofsted but subsequently withdrew them and have since left the home. As result there is a chronic lack of consistent and effective leadership of the home.

p.14

Inadequate

The registered provider has no interim arrangements in place for the day-to-day management of the service. There is no evidence that the provider has the capacity or resources to bring about improvements to the home to achieve better outcomes for young people. While this remains the case young people will not receive a level of service they require.

p.14

Inadequate

Shortfalls in management are having a detrimental impact on the care provided to young people. For example, the home fails to engage and appropriately challenge partner agencies to ensure the wellbeing of young people. This meant that a young person was allowed by their placing authority to visit unknown adults without a proper assessment being completed. Staff were uncertain how to appropriately challenge the decisions made by the placing authority which meant the young person was at risk of harm.

p.14

Inadequate

Staff do their best to provide good care but do so of their own accord rather than through guidance and strong leadership. They describe the continual change in the management of the service as having a demoralising effect on both the young people and themselves. A staff member said: ‘Each interim manager implements new paperwork and ways of working, then they leave and we do not know what to do and how to do it. Staff also say they, ‘work hard on keeping team spirit strong and a positive home for the young people. However the lack of positive direction is making each day difficult’.

p.14

Inadequate

Staff say they do not receive appropriate supervision to support young people’s individual needs. It is difficult to confirm the level at which formal supervision takes place due to poor record keeping.

p.14

Inadequate

The home employs a sufficient number of staff, and the service is adequately resourced to meet the need of young people. However, the workforce development plan is inadequate, failing to set out strategies to monitor the functions and operation of the service.

p.14

Inadequate

Monitoring of the home is weak. The independent visitor’s report fails to provide analysis and insight into the strengths and weaknesses of the home. Internal quality of care reports lack evidence of the views and opinions of young people, parents and relevant professionals. Copies of monitoring reports are not sent in as required. This means that Ofsted is unable to monitor the safeguarding of young people, whether their well-being is promoted, or evaluate the way the home is being run.

p.15

Inadequate

The home’s statement of purpose requires revision so that it reflects accurately the services provided. Details of the staff team does not reflect the home’s current workforce. The children’s guide is a positive, age-appropriate document. It sets out a good summary of the services provided by the home, together with information on how to reach relevant agencies should they wish to make a complaint.

p.15

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’.

p.16

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

p.16

What the inspection judgements mean

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

p.16

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

p.17

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:. If you would like Ofsted to send you a copy of the guidance, please telephone 0300123 4234, or email enquiries@ofsted.gov.uk .

p.17

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 children looked after 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,

p.18

Information about this inspection

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

p.18

Information about this inspection

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

p.18

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

p.18