Children's home run by Physis Quantum Limited in Shropshire

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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because:

 An allegation against a member of staff following a restraint was not referred to local authority safeguarding services.  Staff used physical intervention that was not compatible with young people’s emotional and psychological circumstances.  Staff turnover has been considerable. Some staff were scared of young people and were unable to consistently provide help and protection for them.  Young people were not well matched. They copied each other’s negative behaviours and could not make good progress. Two placements came to an early end.  Young people that have left have not had all their possessions returned to them.  Staff and managers are struggling to help the remaining young person to make emotional or psychological progress.  The recording documents that they use do not inspire young people to participate.  Young people have no access to the downstairs toilet facilities, which undermines the otherwise homely environment.

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because:

 Managers have not always notified Ofsted when required, or kept useable, accessible records of the actions taken about complaints.  Managers have not kept useable records of their own supervisions or ensured that all staff receive timely annual appraisals.  Managers are slow and unspecific in reviewing the quality of care. They do not consult effectively with young people and stakeholders, or focus enough on key areas of concern.

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The children's home strengths

 The current staff group and the organisation’s therapist are working hard to upskill themselves to the high level required to address the remaining young person’s severe emotional and psychological difficulties.  The young person in placement is achieving independence, including seeking employment and taking driving lessons.  She feels listened to because she has had the period of time on her own that she requested from the organisation’s managing director.  Young people enjoy nurture and attention from staff and experienced a residential adventure holiday with other young people in the organisation.  Social workers, reviewing officers and independence workers from the local authority are impressed by the work of staff and the progress and experiences of young people.  The manager who has been in post since January 2016 is experienced, empathic and inclusive of young people and staff alike. Staff feel confident

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The children's home strengths

and well supported by her.  The manager has the capacity to make robust matching decisions.  The manager and senior managers in the organisation identified their mistake in not referring an allegation to safeguarding services. They are resolved to comply with their safeguarding policy in every case.  Leaders and managers take notice of recommendations from their monthly visitor and have improved their management cover arrangements, so that the home runs properly when the manager is away.

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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

11: The positive relationships standard In order to meet the positive relationships standard, the registered person must ensure that staff 11(2)(a)(ix) understand how children’s previous experiences and present emotions can be communicated through behaviour and have the competence and skills to interpret these and develop positive relationships with children. 11/10/2016

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Requirement Due date

12: The protection of children standard In order to meet the child protection standard, the registered person must ensure, with particular respect to recognising and referring allegations to the local authority safeguarding services, that staff 12(2)(a)(vii) are familiar with, and act in accordance with, the home’s child protection policies. 11//2016

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Requirement Due date

Ensure that the registered person notifies HMCI and each other relevant person without delay if there is an allegation of abuse against the home or a person working there. (Regulation 40(4)(c)) 11//2016

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Requirement Due date

Ensure that a record is made of any complaint, the action taken in response, and the outcome of any investigation. (Regulation 39(3)) 11//2016

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Requirement Due date

Ensure that all employees have their performance and fitness to perform their roles appraised at least once every year. (Regulation 33(4)(c)) 11//2016 Ensure that the system for reviewing the quality of care provides for ascertaining and considering the opinions of children, their parents, placing authorities and staff. (Regulation 45(5)) 11//2016

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Recommendations

To improve the quality and standards of care further, the service should take account of the following recommendations:  Ensure that the registered person only accepts placements for children when they are satisfied that the home can respond effectively to the child's assessed needs as recorded in the child's relevant plans and when they have fully considered the impact that the placement will have on the existing group of children. (‘Guide to the children's homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 56, paragraph 11.4)  Ensure that children are encouraged by staff to see the home's records as 'living documents', supporting them to view and contribute to the record in a way that reflects their voice on a regular basis. (‘Guide to the children's homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 58, paragraph 11.19)  Ensure that, just as in a family home, children should be able to access all

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Recommendations

shared areas of their home unless there are specific reasons why this would not meet a child's needs. Limits on privacy and access may only be put in place to safeguard each child in the home (regulation 21(c)(i)). Any decisions to limit a child's access to any area of the home and any modifications to the environment of the home must only be made when this is intended to safeguard the child's welfare. All decisions should be informed by a rigorous assessment of that individual child's needs, be properly recorded and be kept under regular review. (’Guide to the children's homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 15, paragraph 3.10)  Ensure that the registered person works with the placing authority, to ensure that each child's transition is planned, and helps each child to prepare for leaving both practically and emotionally. (‘Guide to the children's homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 57, paragraph 11.9)

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Recommendations

 Ensure that approaches to restraint recognise that children are continuing to develop, both physically and emotionally. Any use of restraint should be suitable for the needs of the individual child. The context in which restraint is used should also recognise that, as a result of past experiences, children have a unique understanding of their circumstances, which will affect their responses to restraint by adults responsible for their care. (‘Guide to the children's homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 48, paragraph 9.54)  Ensure that the registered person monitors and reviews the patterns and trends of turnover of staff, whether agency or directly employed, and is able to understand and, when possible, address any negative trends. (‘Guide to the children's homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 56, paragraph 11.4)  Ensure that a record of supervision is kept for staff, including the manager. The

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Recommendations

record should provide evidence that supervision is being delivered in line with regulation 33(4)(b). It is good practice for a note of the content and/or outcomes of supervision sessions to be kept and to ensure that both the person giving the supervision and staff member have a copy of the record. (‘Guide to the children's homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 61, paragraph 13.3)  Ensure that the registered person takes responsibility for deciding what each review should focus on, based on the specific circumstances of the home at that particular time and any areas of high risk to the children that the home is designed to care for. They will also consider what information or data recorded in the home will form part of the evidence base for their analysis and conclusions. There is no expectation that the registered person will review the home against every part of the quality standards every six months; registered

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Recommendations

persons should use their professional judgement to decide which factors to focus on. The review should enable the registered person to identify areas of strength and possible weakness in the home's care, which will be captured in the written report. The report should clearly identify any actions required for the next six months of delivery in the home and how those actions will be addressed. The whole review process and the resulting report should be used as a tool for continuous improvement in the home. (‘Guide to the children's homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 65, paragraph 15.4)

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Information about this children's home

This home is run by a privately owned limited company. It offers care for up to three children and young people. There is a specialism to care for children and young people who are victims of child sexual exploitation.

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Recent inspection history

Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

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Recent inspection history

10 April 2015 Registration Not applicable

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Requires improvement

Three young people have lived here since the last inspection in November 2015. Their overall experiences and progress during this period are not good. One young person stayed only a few weeks before Christmas and was unable to make any progress. Staff and managers say that this young person’s presentation was much more severe than initially presented. This caused the existing two young people to decline into their earlier traumatised states. Another young person’s placement lasted until June 2016. This placement was also brought to an earlier end than originally planned. The placing authority and the organisation both decided that this young person was not making sufficient progress. Her obsession with a male teacher was ‘all consuming’. This meant that the young person could not engage with the therapist or with staff, even though she said herself that she wanted to stay here and ‘do the work’ that she needed to do.

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Requires improvement

Staff are committed to providing young people with good-quality, individualised care. However, staff have not had a good impact on young people’s progress and experiences. Young people’s emotional and psychological difficulties meant that they picked on staff and successfully manipulated situations. For example, young people established control over who accompanied them in school, who took them in the car and whom they would talk to. Young people established too much power over staff, and staff felt scared to challenge them. Staff remained sympathetic to the reasons for young people’s difficulties, but staff morale and effectiveness declined. They could not maintain positive, helpful relationships with young people. Many staff could not cope and left. Since being on her own in placement, the remaining young person has settled significantly, and the present staff group feels more confident that the adult/young

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Requires improvement

person relationships are better balanced. The young person’s independent reviewing officer said, ‘She is very challenging, and they are very nurturing and clear with her. My impression is that they are doing a good job.’ Although the young person is no longer engaging directly with the organisation’s therapist, she is receiving direct support from community mental health services. Prescribed medication, combined with help from staff, is beginning to make a difference to the young person’s self-perception, anxieties, fear and mistrust of others. Staff are all trained and experienced in residential childcare, but the home’s therapist recently said, ‘The team seem[s] to be unable to step back from the young person’s traumatic dance and focus on the bigger picture of developing a particular skill to use empathy in de-escalating situations.’ The therapist and the staff started weekly training sessions in August to address this.

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Requires improvement

Young people’s views are understood adequately and their rights and entitlements are met. The young person is glad that the managing director agreed to her request that she be the only young person in the home for at least six weeks. She is happy that, at age 17, she no longer has to fill in a weekly planner of her activities. Staff have also helped her to maturely put forward her wishes about family contact and independent living during her last review meeting. However, young people remain suspicious about what staff write down about them in records. Young people rarely read or complete records for themselves. They do not complete feedback forms or keep copies of what they have learnt in significant conversations in order to remind themselves. Staff and managers have not been creative in designing and using recording tools that really work for young people. Young people are adequately prepared for their futures, and transitions out of the

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Requires improvement

home are planned. For example, young people receive help to apply for work and are given help and support to stay in routines that will allow them to sustain jobs and their education. Young people have help to budget, and incentives enable them to afford to take driving lessons. They stretch themselves and try new outdoor adventures at an activity holiday. They are given a good send off when they leave the home, including a memory book in which staff have entered photos, achievements and praise on a daily basis. Staff are kind and attentive when young people phone the home after they have left. However, staff and managers have not prioritised visits to see how young people are getting on, or ensured that young people receive all their belongings. Young people live in a homely and well-maintained environment. Staff have helped them to take pride in their home, for example through learning to wallpaper their

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Requires improvement

bedrooms. Staff help young people to learn how to sustain healthy diets and personalise their space on a realistic budget. However, the downstairs toilet and shower facility is kept locked and is used by staff only. This gives an institutional feel to the downstairs of the home. Differing reasons for this are given by different adults, but those reasons are not kept under regular enough review.

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Requires improvement

Young people are safe here and are no longer exposed to the child sexual exploitation that they experienced prior to coming here. They do not go missing and they are not being exploited through social media. However, the help that they receive from staff to address their difficulties with social and sexual relationships requires further improvement. Staff have not been able to successfully de-escalate young people’s violent, destructive and aggressive behaviour. Staff have been caught up in young people’s distorted views of individual members of staff. Staff have restrained young people in ways that caused them to complain that they felt verbally and physically attacked. Staff have not been able to moderate many instances of violent, damaging and self-harming, copycat behaviours of young people. Some male care and teaching staff working alone with young people became the subject of a young person’s obsessions. A few staff talked or behaved in potentially abusive ways.

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Requires improvement

Some staff resigned, feeling deskilled and overwhelmed. Others have moved to work in other homes within the organisation. This in turn has reinforced young people’s negative self-views. Leaders and managers have used sound safeguarding practices to address concerns in every instance except one. They failed to refer to safeguarding services an allegation that a member of staff had hurt a young person during a restraint. The incident occurred during the absence of the manager. Other leaders within the organisation failed to ensure transparency to the local authority in which the home is situated and failed to inform Ofsted. This provides potential for staff to continue to work with children without independent scrutiny of their suitability. Nevertheless, leaders and managers informed the social worker for the young person concerned, conducted a robust internal investigation and took appropriate action that was to the satisfaction of the young person.

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Requires improvement

In recent months, the young person in placement has felt more safe and secure. Staff provide clearer and more consistent boundaries. The number of incidents and physical interventions has reduced at school and at home. Incidents of self-harm have stopped. The home’s monthly visitor said in July, ‘Being in placement on her own has made a difference. She is enjoying the attention and feeling safe. She has previously had 11 placement moves, and it is a credit to the staff that she is now more stable and secure.’

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Requires improvement

A new manager has been working here since January 2016. Her registration with Ofsted was completed at the time of this inspection. She has a wealth of children’s home management experience over many years. She is capable, enthusiastic, hardworking and child centred. Young people benefit from the confidence and example that she gives to staff and their practice. However, on occasions when she has been away, staff have not coped well with young people’s behaviour and emotional and psychological difficulties. The number of incidents has risen at these times. Staff and cover managers have been poorly organised and slow to respond to complaints and allegations. They have not kept track of records of allegations or recorded the action that is being taken in response to them. They have not referred them in a timely way to all the parties that need to know. Furthermore, tensions in relationships between individual staff and young people have not been

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Requires improvement

addressed quickly enough to prevent further incidents. Managers in the organisation have learnt from these mistakes. The managing director wrote to his management team, ‘In future all referrals will be made directly to the Initial Contact Team/LADO [local authority designated officer] as appropriate and complaints will be closely considered for any safeguarding issues and where there is doubt a referral will be made to err on the side of caution.’ Since coming into post, the manager has been slow to establish well-organised ways of working and to make improvements. As a result, some of the weaknesses in management and practice raised at the last inspection persist. Manager reviews of the quality of care do not focus on recent matters that are of the most significance. The manager has not methodically obtained messages from young person and stakeholder consultation. She has good ideas for improving the

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Requires improvement

experience and progress of young people, but has not yet implemented many of them. She has addressed staff morale and supported staff well. Staff are clearer now about what responsibilities and decision-making are delegated to them. However, the manager is still not up to date with some staff’s annual appraisals. Her own supervision notes have not been completed since February, leaving her with no clear priorities or timescales for action that can be reviewed with her line manager. The staff team members are all trained and experienced. Many of them have training in therapeutic childcare. Most of them are female, and this is assessed as being helpful to young people. A young person’s independence worker describes the staff team as ‘encouraging, supportive and able to meet my young person’s complex needs. Deep down, she likes them.’ Staff require high levels of support and training to sustain the work that they do. One member of staff said that young

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Requires improvement

people, ‘take all your wit to deal with their behaviours’. However, there is only one member of staff remaining from the team that was here at the last inspection nine months ago. The manager has not prioritised a review of the patterns and trends of staff turnover and its impact on young people. This is despite a comment from a young person in January, saying, ‘People are coming and going all the time and the new person does not even know us.’ The manager demonstrates a good understanding of the strengths and weaknesses of the home. She is confident that she and her staff understand and can achieve the aims and objectives that are set out in the home’s statement of purpose. She knows how hard it is to make a workable match with the young person that is currently in the home. She is skilfully reviewing new referrals and seeks full and frank information and consultation with all relevant parties before

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Requires improvement

making any matching decision. This includes consulting with the referred young person and their current carers.

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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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