Children's home in Gateshead

This monitoring visit

Ofsted conducted an inspection of this children’s home on 17 May 2016, which resulted in a judgement of inadequate. The inspection resulted in 24 requirements, eight recommendations and compliance action. Ofsted issued a notice of proposal to suspend the service on 7 June 2016. On 13 July 2016, Ofsted conducted a full inspection of the home following the judgement of inadequate at the inspection of 17 May 2016. At this inspection, Ofsted judged the home to be inadequate with serious failings in how well children and young people are protected, the impact and effectiveness of leaders and managers and in the overall experiences and progress of children and young people living in the home. The inspection resulted in 14 requirements, six recommendations and compliance action. Ofsted issued a notice of decision to suspend the registration on 22 July 2016. Ofsted conducted this monitoring inspection on 11 August 2016 to check progress following the

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judgement of inadequate at the full inspection commenced on 13 July 2016. At this monitoring inspection, the responsible individual was present throughout and received feedback during the inspection and at its conclusion. The acting manager received feedback during the inspection but did not attend the feedback at the conclusion of the inspection due to prior commitments. The responsible individual discussed the issues listed in the notice of decision to suspend the registration, in particular, the section listing the six reasons why the decision was necessary and proportionate. She agreed that, despite a lot of activity by the management team, all of the six points are correct and the management team has not yet successfully addressed them. The management team accepted that in previously taking in some emergency admissions they failed to risk assess the impact that these admissions would have on the other children, the staff team and the neighbours. They have created a risk

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assessment tool to structure future admissions and say that there will be a management discussion on all admissions, looking at the risks that these young people present. The proposal is that the acting manager will make the final decision on new admissions. However, the risk assessment format only allows for a risk assessment of the incoming young person and not the young people in residence. It does not facilitate the assessment of the new admission on the group or the group’s impact on them. The management team accepted that this is a shortfall, which could undermine successful assessment of the impact that these new admissions could have on the other young people. The management team has not yet used the form, as there have been no admissions to the home since the last inspection. The acting manager has completed health assessments on the young people but has not yet completed health plans from these. An audit of files revealed health

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issues but no recording of the plan of action to address them. The lack of completed plans undermines the provision of adequate care for young people and the tracking of improvements to their health. At the previous inspection, young people had behaviour management plans in place. However, these plans were incomplete and identified behaviours that young people may present but with no guidance on how to address these. During this inspection, there were no behaviour plans on any young person’s files: merely a note saying that they were with the responsible individual for completion. There are no risk reduction strategies in place and no behaviour targets set. These shortfalls mean that staff have no effective guidelines on managing challenging behaviour, leaving them and young people at continued risk. Young people continue to have high levels of absence and episodes of missing from the home. The young people interviewed during the inspection were clear

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that they ran to friends not away from threats in the home. They stressed that this setting is a safe place, which they regard as their home. They were also clear that, although they respected staff and listened to their warnings of dangers in the community, they would continue to leave without permission whenever they wished. Staff have no formal strategies in place to reduce absences. The acting manager could explain her approach and plan of action but had not created guidelines for staff on this. The lack of formal strategies hinders monitoring of the effectiveness of these initiatives and a coordinated approach from all staff. The acting manager submitted an application to register as manager of this setting on 3 July 2016. Ofsted returned the application to her, as it was incomplete. She notified Ofsted on 4 August 2016 that she was in the process of correcting these omissions. Ofsted has not yet received a complete application. The children’s home

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has been without a registered manager since October 2014. The provider has not supplied Ofsted with evidence of the suitability of the responsible individual or with financial information, as required at the last two inspections. Management arrangements are still not firm. During the inspection, both the responsible individual and the acting manager commented on the difficulties that this presents in managing the home, in particular in making areas of responsibility clear, for example the lack of clarity on who is responsible for the completion of behaviour management plans and control of admissions. The lack of permanency and clear lines of delegated responsibility in the management team have contributed to a lack of focus in addressing the requirements and recommendations set at the last inspection. Monitoring of practice continues to be poor. For example, the records for attendance at education show two of the young people attending sessions

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following the last inspection. However, the logbook records a number of days when they refused to attend, which the acting manager confirmed. This inaccurate recording results in misleading information about their education engagement. The responsible individual and acting manager have not corrected the inadequate monitoring report viewed at the last inspection and showed no evidence of a structured approach to addressing the many requirements from the last inspection. The lack of targets and monitoring of young people’s activity meant that managers could not supply any evidence of staff interventions improving outcomes for young people. The acting manager and responsible individual have no health and safety risk assessment for the building. There is a fire risk assessment, which is a professionally completed document containing detailed actions to keep the home safe. However, the management team has still not followed the actions. Managers

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have planned training for staff but have not implemented actions in relation to guidance about procedures or serious hazards. This includes actions such as the locking of the front door overnight which potentially hampers a swift exit from the building. In addition the continued use of extension leads connected to other leads increases the risk of fire. The home also fails to provide advice to visitors on fire procedures, or record staff understanding and practice of emergency procedures and the creation of a grab pack of vital information for the fire service. This failure to act upon their own fire risk assessment is a serious hazard to the safety of all people in the building and further evidence of poor management. The management team has arranged a number of training courses to cover some of the gaps in staff knowledge and competency, highlighted in the last inspection. This includes safeguarding of children, self-harm awareness, risk assessment and

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equality and diversity. However, the first course in safeguarding of children had five attendees, including the responsible individual, the acting manager and her deputies, out of a team of 16 staff. The staff team continues to lack the training necessary to provide safe care to the young people in the home. Managers have planned for the training to occur regularly over the next month. The planned training will aid in addressing some of these shortfalls. However, it will not be effective if managers do not ensure that all team members attend. The acting manager did not supply a copy of the revised statement of purpose or the children’s guide to HMCI following the last inspection. The acting manager provided the revised statement of purpose during the inspection. This included the missing information identified at the last inspection but still had a misleading description of when restraint could be used. In addition, the index did not match

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the contents. The acting manager corrected these errors during the inspection. The children’s guide now includes information on independent advocates but not the contact details for the Children’s Commissioner as required. The acting manager has an overview of supervision to aid her tracking of its frequency for all staff. However, the provider has not yet arranged for her to receive practice-related supervision from a person with appropriate experience. The management team has organised a training programme to address gaps in staff knowledge and training identified in previous inspections. However, the acting manager supplied a completed request for information, Annex A, which shows no staff having a relevant level 3 qualification or valid first aid certificate. It is imperative that staff have the skills, knowledge and qualification necessary for them to care for these young people with complex needs.

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The acting manager provided two independent visitor’s reports during the inspection. The reports are for visits on 26 May and 30 June 2016. The provider had only forwarded the first report to HMCI. The reports lament the lack of progress and agree with the points raised in the inspection of May 2016. In particular, the reports note that this lack of progress undermines the good work that staff do with young people. It is essential that the registered provider forward these reports to HMCI in a timely manner to aid the safeguarding of young people accommodated in the home. The acting manager has been completing the gaps in the admissions and discharge register. She has corrected most uses of initials although two remain incomplete. The record still does not show all discharge addresses. This does not provide an accurate permanent record as required by regulation. The young people’s files are confusing, contain misleading information and do not

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meet regulations. For example, cross referencing with the logbook on attendance at school shows that young people had not attended when the education section of their files shows that they had. Staff comments are often poorly constructed and confusing, for example, ‘Young person was in a good mood today and was very hostile and polite to all members of staff.’ When there is an identified serious health issue, there is no evidence of staff following this up. Staff do not regularly update risk assessments and these lack targets or risk reduction strategies. Behaviour management plans and healthcare plans have no targets or actions for staff to follow. Local authority placement plans are either confusing and not appropriate for this setting, or are not in place. The young people’s files do not provide helpful guidance to staff on how to work with young people. Consequently, staff do not address serious concerns about young people, such as self-harming

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behaviour, unprotected sex, drug taking and possible gang affiliation, in a structured manner. Staff are unable to evidence progress in young people due to this poor recording, lack of accurate information, and there being no behaviour or health targets. The management team has completed an assessment of the location of the home. The assessment identifies some strengths in its location and some hazards. However, it does not adequately describe risk management strategies or evidence that the registered person has consulted with, or taken into account the views of, each relevant person. Two young people provided views on the children’s home during the inspection. They said they both like living in the home and like the staff, particularly the acting manager. They also said they feel safe there and think that they have made progress. When questioned about poor attendance, they both said that they feel that, compared to their previous non-attendance, any attendance is an

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improvement. One young person has improved from no attendance at school or in training to 40% attendance. The other has low attendance at home tuition. Both young people are anxious to stay in this setting and said that they respected the staff there.

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Information about this children's home

This is a privately run children's home providing care and accommodation for six young people with emotional and/or behavioural difficulties.

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Information about this inspection

The purpose of this visit was to monitor the action taken and the progress made by the children's home since its last Ofsted inspection. This inspection was carried out under the Care Standards Act 2000. in 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 this 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 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,

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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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