Children's home run by Carbrey Care Ltd in Gloucester

Requires improvement

The children's home is not yet delivering good help and care for children and young people. However, there are no serious or widespread failures that result in their welfare not being safeguarded or promoted.

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The children's home provision requires improvement because:

 The manager is taking on a number of roles to improve the quality of care for young people. Part of this includes role modelling good and effective care, so a large proportion of their time is spent with young people. This is impacting on their ability to drive forward the home at the speed they would like. The manager identifies the weaknesses but is not always able to act on them swiftly.   Records to detail the needs of children and young people, such as placement plans, behaviour support plans and risk assessments, are not up to date. Information in these documents is not consistent and they do not evidence progress well.  Staff do not all yet have sufficient skills and experience.. Specialist training required to meet young people’s needs has not been completed by all staff or is not yet included in the training programme. Some gaps in the rota mean that care is not always consistent.  Young people who go missing do not always receive an independent return

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The children's home provision requires improvement because:

home interview. Records are not clear about what staff have done about this and they do not detail the support that staff offer to young people when they return. 

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The children's home strengths

 The manager has a clear understanding of the weaknesses of the home and what needs to happen to improve.   Agencies provide exceptional feedback about the manner in which staff safeguard children and young people, one describing them as ‘phenomenal’.  Young people are making progress in their education and employment. Staff support them to understand risk associated with their choices.

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Statutory requirements

This section sets out the actions that must be taken so that the registered persons meet 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 persons 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 and purpose of care standard, the registered person must ensure that children receive care from staff who:

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Requirement Due date

2(b)(iv) provide personalised care that meets each child's needs, as recorded in the child's relevant plans, taking account of the child's background.

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Requirement Due date

In particular, they should ensure that care plans and relevant documents detail the needs of children and young people and are updated to recognise change and progress. 08/09/2016

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Requirement Due date

In order to meet the protection of children standard, the registered person must ensure that staff:

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Requirement Due date

2(a)(i) assess whether each child is at risk of harm, taking into account information in the child's relevant plans, and, if necessary, make arrangements to reduce the risk of any harm to the child;

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Requirement Due date

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

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Requirement Due date

In particular, they should ensure that behaviour support plans clearly detail behaviours and the strategies to minimise them and that lone working risk assessments measure risks relating to young people’s needs. Staff should also ensure that children and young people have a return home interview independent of the home when they have been missing. 08/09/2016 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:

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Requirement Due date

2(c) ensure that staff have the experience, qualifications and skills to meet the needs of each child;

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Requirement Due date

(d) ensure that the home has sufficient staff to provide care for each child;

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Requirement Due date

(e) ensure that the home's workforce provides continuity of care to each child;

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Requirement Due date

(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;

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Requirement Due date

(h) use monitoring and review systems to make continuous improvements in the quality of care provided in the home.

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Requirement Due date

In particular, they must ensure that children and young people are cared for by a consistent staff team that has the relevant skills and experience to meet their needs, and that the manager continues to improve monitoring systems and consistently records the impact that this has on the quality of care provided. 08/09/2016

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Recommendations

To improve the quality and standards of care further, the service should take account of the following recommendation:  Ensure that the same rigour to safer recruitment checks for staff recruited through an agency is applied to each appointment made (‘Guide to the children's home's regulations including the quality standards’, page 61, paragraph 13.1)

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Information about this children's home

This home is newly registered with Ofsted. It is run by an established private company that provides services to vulnerable people. The home is registered to provide care for up to three children and young people with emotional and/or behavioural difficulties.

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Recent inspection history

Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

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Requires improvement

Leaders and managers prioritise the care of young people to improve their experiences. There has been a change of young people since the last inspection, and the manager’s focus is on settling them into the home and building relationships. Permanent staff are starting to build good relationships with young people. Some staff shortages impact on the consistency of care and availability of suitably experienced and skilled staff. Placement plans are not up to date to include the most recent information about young people. This misses the opportunity to recognise progress, and does not give staff, including those used on a casual basis, the most current information about young people. Placement plans are not linking with other relevant documents, such as referral paperwork and local authority placement plans. The manager identifies this shortfall in the action plan. Staff make good links with health services and encourage young people to attend

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Requires improvement

appointments. There are local links with the relevant health professionals, such as medical centres, dentists and specialist nurses. Records kept by the home relating to the health and medication for one young person are not clear. Young people are making good progress, and staff explore opportunities that will increase their chances to achieve. Encouraging young people into education or employment has been a success. Staff engage local businesses and services to support young people with this. Staff ensure that young people have opportunities to relax and have fun. Young people make decisions about what they do in their spare time, and staff help to facilitate these. Some options include horse riding, swimming, going to the cinema, shopping, listening to music and watching DVDs. Young people do not raise any concerns about living in this home. They provide positive feedback about the staff caring for them, the facilities and the

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Requires improvement

environment. Young people talk to staff about any concerns and engage in discussions about their experiences and futures. Young people are encouraged to keep in touch with their friends and families. Staff help to facilitate this through supplying mobile phone top ups and transporting young people to and from visits. Judgement grade

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Requires improvement

Leaders and managers have made progress that has a positive impact on the safety of young people. Systems in place and the development of staff members’ skills are not yet effective, and the manager needs time to embed the new ethos. The quality of risk assessments and behaviour support plans requires improvement. Risk assessments have the basic information that staff need to care for young people. However, they are not up to date to include progress that young people make or new risks that are identified. Behaviour support plans are of a similar quality and do not detail specific strategies that young people respond to. These documents do not link well to each other or to the placement plan. The response from staff when young people go missing is more robust. Staff collate information about known contacts and hot spot areas and use this when conducting searches for young people. The police describe the multi-agency

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Requires improvement

approach to managing missing episodes and exploitation as ‘phenomenal’. The manager has not yet transferred this intelligence to the location assessment. It is not clear from records what support young people receive from staff when they return home from being missing. Young people are not consistently having the opportunity to discuss the missing incident with a professional independent from the home, as required. Staff follow the child protection policy and report concerns that they identify to the manager. The manager deals with these effectively and liaises with the relevant professionals. Safeguarding records do not always provide a clear outcome to the concern that staff have raised. Staff have used physical intervention on two occasions since the last inspection, both low level guides to minimise risk. Staff members’ responses to young people’s behaviour when it becomes challenging have improved. The manager’s monitoring

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Requires improvement

of incidents is not yet good. On one occasion, the police were called to the home in response to behaviour management. The record did not show the manager’s analysis of this. There is no written guidance on police involvement with the home in relation to behaviour management with which to provide staff. Leaders and managers communicate effectively with other agencies to safeguard young people. Young people feel comfortable to disclose information about exploitation and risks in the local community. This level of intelligence sharing is assisting local agencies to gather information about the local profile in relation to exploitation. A social worker describes how she has ‘clear and regular communication’ from staff in the home associated to risk. Young people start to make safer choices with the support of staff. One-to-one sessions show discussions about risk. Staff help young people to reduce offending

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Requires improvement

and missing behaviour and understand the risk associated with those. Young people engage with agencies, such as youth offending and substance misuse workers. There are some inconsistencies in the quality of safer recruitment checks conducted on staff recruited through an agency. Leaders and managers have not ensured that the agency provides the manager with evidence that all required vetting checks have been completed.

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Requires improvement

A new manager has been recruited since the last inspection, following the resignation of the previous manager. They are suitably qualified for the role and an application to become registered with Ofsted is in progress. The manager is identifying the areas in need of development in the home. There is a clear plan that prioritises weaknesses, such as placement plans, records and development of staff. The manager receives their supervision and support from the responsible individual and clinical psychologist. Pressures on the manager to provide good-quality care often take them away from their managerial tasks that would develop the home at a quicker pace. While significant progress has been made, there is still much to do, and the manager is open and honest about the shortfalls detailed in this report. Changes to the rota system aim to create a consistent staff team around young people. Currently, staff vacancies impact on consistency, and the manager is

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Requires improvement

attempting to recruit staff. The experience of staff does not always meet the individual needs of the young people they are caring for. Gaps in skills and experience of staff are a risk factor to young people. Not all staff receive training in specialist areas that are significant to the young people they care for. This includes training to meet a specific health need, substance misuse, self-harm or behaviour management. These staff lone work with young people. However, there are no clear strategies in place to acknowledge this shortfall. Leaders and managers have a weak lone-working risk assessment in place. The risk assessment is not specific to the needs of young people or the skills required by staff to provide care in isolation. Team meetings take place regularly, with an agenda that focuses on communication and developing the staff. Staff attend workshops to increase their skills in areas such as child sexual exploitation, autism and record-keeping. An

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Requires improvement

exemplary therapy skills session included one young person contributing and sharing their experiences with staff. Leaders and managers build good-quality relationships with families and other agencies supporting young people. A professional said, ‘They are excellent communicators. Information is shared all the time.’ The manager challenges other agencies when the service they are providing young people is not up to standard. The manager’s time does not always allow for this critique to be followed up with rigour in relation to return-home interviews.

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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 that 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 whom 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

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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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