Children's home run by Young Foundations Limited in Wirral

home are

Children and young people are not protected and their welfare is not promoted or safeguarded, and their care and experiences are poor.

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The children's home provision is inadequate because:

 Children and young people are not consistently safeguarded. Some staff have not taken prompt action to safeguard children and young people. Not all staff feel comfortable to report safeguarding issues immediately to management.  Managers do not always recognise that safeguarding procedures have not been followed. Consequently, they do not always address issues robustly.  Management oversight of staff training is poor. This results in delays for staff in receiving essential training such as on safeguarding, behaviour management, self-harm and autism.  Medication administration systems are unsafe and administration records are inaccurate.  Children and young people experience inconsistent care from a continually changing staff team.  Staff are not supported by regular and reflective supervision. As a result, it is not clear whether they have a sound understanding of their roles and have the confidence to follow procedures.

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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 ‘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

13: The leadership and management standard In order to meet the leadership and management standard, with particular reference to ensuring all staff have completed safeguarding and behaviour management training, the registered person must— ensure that staff have the experience, qualifications and skills to meet the needs of each child. (Regulation 13(2)(c)) 22/09/2016

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Requirement Due date

13: The leadership and management standard In order to meet the leadership and management standard, the registered person must— ensure that the home’s workforce provides continuity of care to each child. (Regulation 13(2)(e)) 22/09/2016

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Requirement Due date

13: The leadership and management standard In order to meet the leadership and management standard, with particular reference to maintaining effective oversight and monitoring of the home, the registered person must— understand the impact that the quality of care provided in the home is having on the progress and experience of each child and use this understanding to inform the development of the quality of care provided in the home. (Regulation 13(2)(f)) 22/09/2016

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Requirement Due date

13: The leadership and management standard In order to meet the leadership and management standard, the registered person must— use monitoring and review systems to make continuous improvements in the quality of care provided in the home. (Regulation 13(2)(h)) 22/09/2016

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Requirement Due date

12: The protection of children standard In order to meet the protection of children standard, with particular reference to ensuring that staff understand their responsibilities in preventing and reporting inappropriate behaviour towards children, the registered person must ensure— 22/09/2016 that staff have the skills to identify and act upon signs that a child is at risk of harm, that staff take effective action whenever there is a serious concern about a child’s welfare and that staff are familiar with, and act in accordance with, the home’s child protection policies. (Regulation 12(a)(iii)(vi)(vii) 6: The quality and purpose of care standard In order to meet the quality and purpose of care standard, the registered person must ensure— That staff understand and apply the home’s statement of purpose. (Regulation 6(2)(b)(i)) 22/09/2016

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Requirement Due date

6: The quality and purpose of care standard In order to meet the quality and purpose of care standard, with particular reference to ensuring that children have individualised communication systems which are used consistently between home and school— The registered person must ensure— that staff provide personalised care that meets each child’s needs, as recorded in the child’s relevant plans, taking account of the child’s background. (Regulation 6(2)(b)(iv)) 22/09/2016

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Requirement Due date

7: The children’s views, wishes and feelings standard In order to meet the children’s views, wishes and feelings standard, the registered person must ensure—

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Requirement Due date

that staff help each child to express views, wishes and feelings. (Regulation 7(2)(a)(ii)) 22/09/2016

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must make arrangements for the handling, recording, safekeeping, safe administration and disposal of medicines received into the children’s home. (Regulation 23(1)) 22/09/2016

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must ensure that all employees receive practice- related supervision by a person with appropriate experience. (Regulation 33(4)(b)) 22/09/2016

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must recruit staff using recruitment procedures that are designed to ensure children’s safety. (Regulation 32(1)) In particular, ensure that interview records demonstrate the decision- making process in appointing staff. 22/09/2016

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must notify HMCI and each other relevant person without delay if a child protection enquiry involving a child is instigated or concludes (in which case, the notification must include the outcome of the child protection enquiry); or there is any other 22/09/2016 incident relating to a child which the registered person considered to be serious. (Regulation 40(3)(d)(i)(ii)(e)) In particular, ensure that any notification contains enough detail to keep the regulator fully informed, and that detailed updates are provided without delay in regards to any further developments. The registered must ensure that each employee completes an appropriate induction. (Regulation 33 (1)(a)) 22/09/2016

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Information about this children’s home

This home is run by a private provider. It provides care for children and young people who have autism, severe and complex learning difficulties and who exhibit challenging behaviour. This home can accommodate up to 12 children and young people.

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people living in the home are

The experiences of children and young people are inadequate, because there are failings in safeguarding practice. Responses by staff have not always been timely in order to protect children and young people’s welfare. Serious failures in safeguarding practice and poor management oversight mean that children and young people are not fully protected. Children and young people have mixed views about their experience of living in the home.

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people living in the home are

There is a high turnover of staff. As a result, young people find it hard to build relationships with staff. Since the home opened in 2015, 22 members of staff have left and there have been 53 new members of staff joining the team. The frequent changes in staff mean that young people do not receive a consistent approach to their care. Varying staff practice has an additional impact, leaving some young people feeling that they are treat differently.

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people living in the home are

Medication practice is unsafe and recording is inaccurate. Documents do not capture a true and accurate record of what has been administered. Auditing practice is not robust to ensure that medication systems remain safe and effective. Stock control is poor. There are excessive amounts of prescribed medication within the home which are not accounted for. Some dosage systems for tablets which are designed to assist staff members are not given in line with the designated days. This has not been identified as a shortfall by senior staff. The current system has the potential for administration errors. Overall, current medication administration practice is not safe or effective in ensuring that children’s and young people’s medical needs are fully met.

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people living in the home are

Children and young people benefit from attending routine and specialist health appointments. As a result, some young people’s health has significantly improved.

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people living in the home are

Children and young people attend education at the on-site school. They have the opportunity to access school facilities during the holidays. This helps to maintain their routines. Some individual communication strategies are in place. The consistency of applying these approaches at home and school is not clear. Staff members’ understanding of how to use individual communication systems is variable. This limits the effectiveness of such systems and does not maximise opportunities for children and young people to develop and improve their personal communication skills.

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people living in the home are

Children and young people enjoy a range of activities such as camping, the cinema and walking. As a result, they are broadening their life experience. Children and young people develop skills such as self-care, shopping and cleaning. This helps prepare them to be as independent as possible in later life.

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people living in the home are

Staff successfully promote regular contact with families. Some children and young people now enjoy positive contact with their parents for the first time. This helps to promote young people’s sense of identity and belonging.

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people are helped and protected

Safeguarding practice is poor. Delay in reporting safeguarding incidents has left children and young people vulnerable to further inappropriate care. Children and young people do not always receive the immediate support that they need in distressing situations and their receipt of medical attention is delayed. Lack of staff action to protect children and young people is not always recognised and adequately addressed by management.

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people are helped and protected

Safeguarding training is available to all staff. However, six out of 17 staff have not completed it. The registered manager has not identified that some staff have not undertaken this formal child protection course.

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people are helped and protected

Not all staff access behaviour management training during their induction. Some staff commence duties, yet wait between one and three months for training. This limits their effectiveness while on shift, as they are unable to take part in any physical intervention without training. Interim training delivered to some staff by managers while they wait for the official course is not evidenced, and risks an inconsistent approach to managing behaviours. New systems to monitor and analyse restraint practice have been recently implemented. It is too early to evaluate the impact and effectiveness of this new approach to supporting children and young people with challenging behaviour.

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people are helped and protected

Children and young people all have detailed individualised behaviour support plans and risk assessments. Due to the lack of staff consistency and training, it is not clear that these are always followed and that staff understand how to follow them correctly to meet individual needs.

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people are helped and protected

Recruitment procedures are not robust. There is no evidence of management follow up any issues identified on staff application forms, such as criminal convictions or issues relating to previous employment. Consequently, it is not clear that children and young people are always receiving care from appropriate adults.

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people are helped and protected

Wider staff training around risks that could affect children and young people, such as child sexual exploitation, is limited. Four out of 17 staff have undertaken this training. Staff have not received training around self-harm and radicalisation, therefore it is not clear they are skilled to deal with issues that children and young people may face.

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leaders and managers

This is the first inspection of this new service. The registered manager has been in post since November 2015. He has the qualifications and experience to undertake this role. He does not have a sound understanding of the strengths and weakness of this service. Consequently, weaknesses have not been identified and acted upon. This has had a significant negative impact on the safety, quality of care and experiences of children and young people.

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leaders and managers

External monitoring visits to the home have identified a number of recommendations and action points to improve practice. These have not all been actioned by the registered manager. Some of these shortfalls have also been highlighted during this inspection. The registered manager fails to use all opportunities effectively to reflect on and improve the service provided.

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leaders and managers

Staff do not receive regular reflective supervision. As a result, it is not clear that they understand their role. This has led to inadequate protection of children and young people. Inappropriate care by staff is not always addressed. Lack of support and poor modelling of professional practice by managers has left some staff hesitant to approach them to share their worries. This further increases the risk that staff may copy poor practice and may feel unable to share information to relevant parties about children’s and young people’s welfare.

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leaders and managers

Notifications to Ofsted contain insufficient information. Updates to notifications are not provided without prompts from the regulatory body. This does not allow the regulator to gain a sufficient account of incidents, and hinders external monitoring and oversight.

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leaders and managers

Relationships with other professionals vary. One social worker commented, ‘Communication is not always good. Any issues take a long time to come through. They are getting better at it, but it could improve.’ Records fail to demonstrate if health professionals, such as doctors, have been consulted with regard to individual young people’s medication and health needs. Currently, systems in place to share information with external professionals are not wholly effective.

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leaders and managers

The service is not currently operating within its statement of purpose. It is not yet offering an environment which always provides ‘warmth, security, consistency and understanding’.

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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’. 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 looked after children is safeguarded and promoted. Minimum requirements

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What the inspection judgements mean

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 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 ‘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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