Children's home run by Keys Educational Services Limited in Rossendale

Inadequate

There are serious and widespread failures that mean young people’s welfare is not promoted and their care and experiences are poor.

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The children's home provision is inadequate because:

 Leaders and managers make poor admission decisions which do not take into account the staffing numbers required to provide continuity of staff and consistent care for young people. The provider relies too much on agency staff and staff from other homes to work regularly in this home. As a result, young people are not always looked after by familiar staff.

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The children's home provision is inadequate because:

 Staff do not comprehensively tackle and prevent bullying between the young people. As a result, one young person says that he does not feel safe and all young people state that they do not currently like living at the home.

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The children's home provision is inadequate because:

 The manager does not routinely obtain local authority care plans and pathway plans for young people.

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The children's home provision is inadequate because:

 Staff do not effectively support young people’s health and dietary needs.

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The children's home provision is inadequate because:

 The manager does not ensure that the home’s own placement plans and behaviour management plans are accurate and that young people understand and agree the content.

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The children's home provision is inadequate because:

 The manager does not always discuss young people’s and staff’s views following restraints.

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The children's home provision is inadequate because:

 Staff do not provide a homely, welcoming environment for young people to live in.

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The children's home provision is inadequate because:

 The manager does not investigate and record complaints.

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The children's home provision is inadequate because:

 Insufficient numbers of staff are qualified up to the required level 3 Diploma for Residential Childcare within the required time. In addition, staff do not have the necessary training to support young people’s specific needs.

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The children's home strengths

 Young people regularly attend school or they are in regular employment.  Young people have not gone missing from care since the previous inspection.  The manager ensures that staff are safely recruited before they commence work at the home.

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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

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

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Requirement Due date

In order to meet the engaging with the wider system standard, the registered person must: (a) seek to involve each child’s placing authority in the child’s care effectively, in accordance with the child’s relevant plans. 1 September

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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: (1) (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— (b) ensure that staff— (ii) protect and promote each’s welfare; (iv) provide personalised care that meets each child’s needs, as recorded in the child’s relevant plans, taking into account of the child’s background; and (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. 1 September

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Requirement Due date

In order to meet the health and well-being standard, the registered person must ensure that: 1 September (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.

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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 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.

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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— (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; (xiii) understand and communicate to children that bullying is unacceptable; and (b) that each child is encouraged to build and maintain positive relationships with others. 8 August 2016

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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— 8 August 2016 (iv) manage relationships between children to prevent them from harming each other; (v) understand the roles and responsibilities in relation to protecting children that are assigned to them by the registered person; (vi) take effective action whenever there is a serious concern about a child’s welfare; and (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.

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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— (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; and (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. 8 August 2016

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Requirement Due date

In order to meet the care planning standard, children must: (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. (2) In particular, the standard in paragraph (1) requires the registered person to ensure— (b) that arrangements are in place to— (ii) manage and review the placement of each child in the home; 1 September (iii) plan for, and help, each child to prepare to leave the home or to move into adult care in a way that is consistent with arrangements agreed with the child’s placing authority; and (f) that staff help each child to access and contribute to the records kept by the registered person in relation to the child.

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Requirement Due date

(4) For the purposes of paragraph (3) (b), an individual who works in the home in a care role has the appropriate qualification if, by the relevant date, the individual has attained: (a) the level 3 diploma for residential childcare (England) (‘the level 3 diploma’); (b) a qualification which the registered person considers to be equivalent to the level 3 diploma.

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Requirement Due date

(5) The relevant date is: (a) in the case of an individual who starts working in a care role in a home after 1 April 2014, the date which falls two years after the date on which the individual started working in a care role in a home; or (b) in the case of an individual who was working in a care role in a home on 1 April 2014, 1 April 2016. 31 December

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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 (c) within five 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. 1 September

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Requirement Due date

(3) the registered person must ensure that a record is made of any complaint, the action taken in response, and the outcome of any investigation. 1 September

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Requirement Due date

47: Financial position 31 July 2016 (1) The registered person must carry on the children’s home in such manner as is likely to ensure that the home will be financially viable for the purpose of achieving the aims and objectives set out in the statement of purpose. (2) The registered person must— (b) supply a copy of the financial records and most recent accounts to HMCI at HMCI’s request; for the home.

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Requirement Due date

* These requirements are subject to statutory requirement notice.

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Information about this children's home

The home is one of a large number of services operated and managed by a national provider of care and education for young people. The home is registered to provide care and accommodation for up to three young people who have emotional or behavioural difficulties.

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Recent inspection history

Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

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Recent inspection history

10 February 2016 Interim Sustained effectiveness

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Recent inspection history

5 January 2016 Full Requires improvement

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Inadequate

Young people are not happy living at this home. They report that it is the worst home they have lived in. One young person is the victim of bullying. The current care experiences for all young people are poor. A young person told the inspector that the ‘environment is all wrong since a third young person moved in’ and another commented that ‘all the core staff team have left and no-one wants to work here anymore’. These concerns are as a direct result of poor admission decisions made by leaders and managers.

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Inadequate

The home is not well resourced or maintained to a good standard. Three young people share one bike, which causes jealousy and conflict. The large garden lacks enough amenities to help young people to play or release their energy. Damages to walls and windows have not been repaired. Signs on display in one of the toilets contain disrespectful text which is derogatory to young people. The majority of the food is kept in a fridge in the staff office and young people have to ask staff for their food. As a result, young people do not live in a homely and respectful environment.

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Inadequate

Young people’s care plans are inadequate as they do not provide specific detail about their important needs. Two young people are in personal relationships with other young people who do not live at the home. Their care plans and one-to-one discussions in key work sessions do not provide them with guidance on their sexual health needs or relationship advice. Staff are not aware what help they are required to give the young people to support healthy, respectful and safe relationships. One member of staff replied that ‘it’s okay because his girlfriend is a good influence on him’. This response does not support the young person to learn how to develop safe and healthy relationships.

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Inadequate

Young people’s care plans do not provide staff with sufficient guidance to manage the young people’s dietary needs. A young person stated that he has always drunk a lot of energy and sports drinks, including before living at this home. However, his mother says that he is not allowed these drinks. There is no mention of how staff are to manage this concern and conflict of views in his care plan. As a result, staff are unsure whether he can or cannot drink them. During the inspection, the young person was allowed to drink two sports drinks within two hours. Staff did not challenge this behaviour or speak with the young person about good dietary health. This is not good care as staff do not consider the negative impact that regular consumption of these drinks can have on the young person. Support from staff for young people who misuse cannabis is inadequate. Young people are not engaged with substance misuse services and staff are not following the directions

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Inadequate

in care plans and risk assessments. Staff do not use key work sessions effectively with young people to provide guidance in this area. As a result, young people do not receive good quality advice about the criminal and health implications of misusing illegal substances and legal highs.

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Inadequate

The manager’s engagement with the young people’s local authorities requires improvement. A young person was admitted to the home without an up-to-date local authority care plan. The home’s own placement plan still refers to his previous placement, seven weeks after he moved in. As a result, the manager states that ‘staff are not clear what they are trying to do’ with the young person and ‘we are just containing him’.

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Inadequate

The mapping of young people’s independence training and their moving on plans are inadequate. One young person who is approaching adulthood does not have a local authority independence support plan (pathway plan) in place as required. The manager has not taken effective action to ensure the plan is in place. Consequently, a young person who is 18 in three months’ time does not know where he will be living when he moves out of the home. Therefore, the support that staff are able to give him in the meantime cannot adequately prepare him for the move.

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Inadequate

Young people have been very successful in their education and employment. One young person, who has struggled previously with his school attendance, completed his GCSE examinations this summer. Staff and the school worked well together to devise a timetable that was realistic for him and provided support in the key areas. Another young person attends school every day and the third young person is in employment. Young people take part in activities; they go mountain biking and attend the gym with staff. One young person loves sailing and the manager has arranged for him to have regular sailing lessons as he benefits both emotionally and physically from the experience.

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Inadequate

Staff responses to bullying are ineffective. One young person regularly makes threatening remarks to another young person. This behaviour is not always challenged by staff. As a result, one young person is scared and has reported his concerns to his mother, social worker and Ofsted. Strategies by staff to combat bullying do not tackle the reasons for the behaviour. Staff rely on separating the young people with daily activities; this practice does not resolve the underlying concerns or encourage a resolution to their differences. A restorative meeting between the three young people was planned eight days before the inspection, but this has not taken place. Consequently, bullying continues and one young person does not feel safe.

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Inadequate

The follow up to physical restraints is inadequate. Staff do not always discuss with young people what happened and how they feel. In addition, staff are not routinely engaged in reflective discussions with managers following an incident. This lack of opportunity does not help them to consider their work practice and ensure that the restraint used or action taken was appropriate. The manager identified concerns about how a young person was restrained by his previous home’s staff team while they visited him at this home. The manager was slow to pass on his concerns to the social worker and the senior leaders of the staff involved.

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Inadequate

The behaviour management plans for young people are poor. One plan is written using the young person’s voice and states ‘You may need to hold my legs’, even though the young person has not read this plan or had it explained to him. This plan does not accurately reflect his views and the strategies to manage behaviour may not be necessary or appropriate.

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Inadequate

Young people are often rude and disrespectful to staff. Staff do not always challenge or effectively manage this behaviour. As a result, young people are not developing good social skills and learning respect for others. Many of the staff team working at the home are unfamiliar to the young people and the young people find this unsettling, as a result. It does not allow them to build trusting relationships with the adults who are supporting and caring for them.

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Inadequate

There have been no incidents of young people being reported missing since the previous inspection. Young people have overnight stays at their friends’ houses.

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Inadequate

The manager ensures that new staff are safely vetted and recruited before they start work in the home.

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Inadequate

The effectiveness of leaders and managers is inadequate. The manager has resigned and his last day of work was 14 July 2016. Therefore, there is no longer a registered manager in post.

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Inadequate

The recent decision made by the provider to admit a third young person into the home was poor. Before the young person moved in, the registered manager told the responsible individual that the home did not have enough staff to provide safe care to meet this young person’s needs alongside the current residents. Nonetheless, a decision was taken by leaders to admit the third resident with insufficient permanent staff in place. The responsible individual instructed the manager to get agency staff to work in the home without considering the impact of this decision as part of the young person’s risk assessment. As a result, a young person moved into the home without the necessary staffing resources in place. The increased workload on staff has severely compromised the quality of the work that they can do with each young person.

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Inadequate

Young people already living in the home were consulted about a new young person moving in, but not emotionally prepared for their impact in the home. As a result, the new resident is being bullied by the others.

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Inadequate

Agency staff are used regularly. It is poor that their use was always part of the plan to accommodate a third young person. Since the third young person moved in on 28 May 2016, a quarter of staff used have been from an agency. This equates to 16 different agency staff who have worked with the young people. During a recent house meeting, a young person said to the deputy manager that ’there are loads of staff here, sometimes four and I don’t know half of them, it’s weird having them all in the house’. Also, during the inspection, an agency member of staff was sent to support a young person at school whom he had never met before. The strategy to use agency staff does not provide effective support or continuity of care for young people.

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Inadequate

Staff training opportunities and development of skills are poor. This had been raised as a concern by the manager to the responsible individual before the third young person moved in. A member of staff who has been employed prior to 1 April 2014 has not completed the required professional qualification. Only three out of seven staff on the core team are qualified to the NVQ level 3 or equivalent standard for residential child care. Also, the staff team is supporting a young person who is described as having autism and attention deficit disorder without having been trained to meet these needs. The lack of suitable training does not ensure that young people are supported by a competent staff team that understands their specific needs.

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Inadequate

The manager does not respond well to complaints made by young people. The young people said that they have made many complaints about theft to the manager that have not been resolved. The manager has instructed the young people to take their concerns about theft to the police. A young person and their parent raised a concern to the manager about a member of staff’s work practice. The member of staff was questioned about this in front of the young person and their parent. These concerns raised by young people have not been investigated and resolved appropriately. They are not recorded in the complaints log book and there is no evidence of the action taken. The independent visitor’s monthly monitoring identifies actions that require improvement. The operation’s manager had put together an improvement plan in response to the weaknesses prior to this inspection. This plan has been ineffective to secure improvement. The plan lacks detail and strategic decisions about how

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Inadequate

staff will improve young people's care and development. The operation’s manager has failed to define how staff are going to maintain the safety of the young people in the short- and long-term.

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Inadequate

Concerns have been raised to Ofsted about the financial viability of the home. Staff are bringing in their own bikes for young people to use and the manager put his own money into the petty cash budget to ensure that a young person could attend their planned activity. As such, the registered person is required to supply a copy of the financial records and most recent accounts of the home to Ofsted.

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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 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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