Children's home in Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole

Inadequate

There are serious and/or widespread failures that mean children and young people’s welfare is not promoted and that their care and experiences are poor and they are not making progress.

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The children’s home provision is inadequate because:

 The home is not effectively led and managed. Leaders and managers do not demonstrate a clear understanding of the areas of weakness of the service and have been ineffective in prioritising, challenging and making improvements.  There is a lack of robust monitoring, evaluation and review of the work undertaken at the home. The home does not have a stable management team and there is no registered manager in post.  Leaders and managers have failed to ensure that there are sufficient suitably qualified, skilled and experienced staff to meet the needs of the young people. There have been significant changes in the staff teams, which has not provided the stability or the consistency of care young people require.  Five young people have recently moved between houses with one young person undergoing another moved during the summer holidays. The movement of young people to different houses within the service is poorly managed.

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The children’s home provision is inadequate because:

Compatibility risk assessments have not taken into account the impact of the residents in the house on the new young person. In addition, the staff have not ensured that young people’s records have been reviewed and updated in the light of their move.  Accommodation on the school site needs to improve to provide young people with a comfortable home to live in.  Staff do not receive regular supervision which allows them opportunities to reflect on their practice and the needs of the young people. This includes education staff who are undertaking regular overtime shifts in the residential houses.  Risk assessments for children and young people at risk of absconding are not in place for all of the young people for whom this has been identified as a concern. All risk assessments are in need of review.  A young person who has a red graded specific support plans regarding fire evacuations and drills has not had their personal evacuation plan reviewed in

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The children’s home provision is inadequate because:

light of his house move or taken part in a fire drill in his new house.  Leaders and managers do not use the independent visitor’s report to improve practice.

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The children’s homes strengths

 Safeguarding procedures are well known to staff and adhered to in practice. This procedure is supported by clear records.  Recruitment systems are robust and protect the young people.  The staff team are committed to the young people who they work with. They demonstrate enthusiasm and are keen to improve the service.  Young people take part in a good range of activities both on- and off-site. This enables them to try new activities and have new experiences.  Young people’s attendance at school is good.  There are good records about what is important to the young people, their likes, dislikes and how staff should communicate with them. These include photographs and evidence of their input.

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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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6: The quality and purpose of care standard

The quality and purpose of care standard is that children receive care from staff who understand the children’s homes overall aims and the outcomes it seeks to achieve for children; use this understanding to deliver care that meets children’s needs and supports them to fulfil their potential.

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6: The quality and purpose of care standard

In particular, the standard in paragraph (1) requires the registered person to 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; provide to children living in the home the physical necessities they need in order to live there comfortably; provide to children personal items that are appropriate for their age and understanding (Regulation 6(1)(a, b), (2)(b)(iv, vii, viii)). 31 August

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8: The education standard

The education standard is that children make measurable progress towards achieving their educational potential and are helped to do so.

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8: The education standard

In particular, the standard in paragraph (1) requires the registered person to ensure that staff help each child to achieve the child’s education and training targets, as recorded in the child’s relevant plans; maintain regular contact with each child’s education and training provider, including engaging with the provider and the placing authority to support the child’s education and training and to maximise the child’s achievement (Regulation 8(1) (2)(a)(iv)). 31 August

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12: The protection of children standard

The protection of children standard is that children are protected from harm and enabled to keep themselves safe. In particular, the standard in paragraph (1) requires the registered person to ensure that staff 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; [and] manage relationships between children to prevent them from harming each other. In addition these documents need to be reviewed and amended when a child moves between homes on the children’s home site (Regulation 12(1), (2) (a)(i, iv)). 31 August

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13: The leadership and management standard

The leadership and management standard is that the registered person enables, inspires and leads a culture in relation to the children’s home that helps children aspire to fulfil their potential; and promotes their welfare.

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13: The leadership and management standard

In particular, the standard in paragraph (1) requires the registered person to lead and manage the home in a way that is consistent with the approach and ethos, and delivers the outcomes, set out in the home’s statement of purpose; ensure that staff have the experience, qualifications and skills to meet the needs of each child; ensure that the home has sufficient staff to provide care for each child; ensure that the home’s workforce provides continuity of care to each child; 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; demonstrate that practice in the home is informed and improved by taking into account and acting on feedback on the experiences of children, including complaints received; and use monitoring and review systems to make

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13: The leadership and management standard

continuous improvements in the quality of care provided in the home. This monitoring includes the action points raised within the independent visitor’s report to improve practice (Regulation 13(1) (a, b), (2) (a, c, d, e, f, g (ii), h)). 31 August

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14: The care planning standard

The care planning standard is that children receive effectively 31 August planned care in or through the children’s home; and have a positive experience of arriving at or moving on from the home. In particular, the standard in paragraph (1) requires the registered person to ensure that arrangements are in place to ensure the effective induction of each child into the home; manage and review the placement of each child in the home; and 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; that each child’s relevant plans are followed; [and] that staff help each child to access and contribute to the records kept by the registered person in relation to the child. In addition, the records need to demonstrate the progress children are making against their individual goals. This standard needs to be applied not only to new children being

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14: The care planning standard

admitted to the service but to those who move between the homes on the site (Regulation 14(1) (a, b), (2) (b, c, f)).

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21: Privacy and access

The registered person must ensure that the privacy of children is appropriately protected; children can access all appropriate areas of the children’s home’s premises; and any limitation placed on a child’s privacy or access to any area of the home’s premises is intended to safeguard each child accommodated in the home; is necessary and proportionate; is kept under review and, if necessary, revised; and allows children as much freedom as is possible when balanced against the need to protect them and keep them safe. This applies to the use of observation holes in children’s bedroom doors and key pads on external and internal doors (Regulation 21(1) (a, b, c (i, ii, iv)). 31 August

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25: Fire precautions

After consultation with the fire and rescue authority, the registered person must take adequate precautions against the risk of fire, including the provision of suitable fire equipment in the children’s home; ensure, by means of fire drills and practices at suitable intervals, that persons working at the home and, so far as reasonably practicable, children are aware of the procedure to be followed in case of fire. This includes where children have personal evacuation plans. These plans need to be reviewed when a child moves house and a fire drill in their new house needs to be held (Regulation 25(1) (a, d)). 31 August

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27: Appointment of manager

The registered provider must appoint a person to manage the children’s home if there is no registered manager in respect of the home (Regulation 27(1(a)). 31August

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33: Employment of staff

The registered person must ensure that all employees undertake appropriate continuing professional development; and receive practice-related supervision by a person with appropriate experience (Regulation 33(4(a, b)). 31August

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36: Children’s case records

The registered person must maintain records (‘case records’) for each child which include the information and documents listed in Schedule 3 in relation to each child and are kept up to date (Requirement 36(1)(a, b)). 31 August

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Recommendations

To improve the quality and standards of care further, the service should take account of the following recommendation:  Records of restraint must be kept and should enable the registered person and staff to review the use of control, discipline and restraint to identify effective practice and respond promptly where any issues or trends of concern emerge. The review should provide the opportunity for amending practice to ensure it meets the needs of each child (quality standard 9.59, page 49).

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Information about this children’s home

The home is registered to provide care and accommodation for up to 36 young people who have autistic spectrum disorders and associated learning difficulties. The accommodation comprises six houses. Five are located on the main school site, with a sixth house located in the local town. One of the houses on the main site is used as a short breaks service. The house located in the local town is used for older young people in order to promote their independence. At the time of this inspection, one of the houses on the school site had been closed. In addition the short breaks service was not open on the days of the inspection and so was not inspected.

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Recent inspection history

Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

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Recent inspection history

03 February 2016 Full Requires improvement

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Recent inspection history

19 November 2014 Interim Sustained effectiveness

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Recent inspection history

13 February 2014 Interim Satisfactory progress

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Inadequate

There have been significant staffing changes since the previous inspection. The manager left in March 2016 and since then there has been no-one effectively monitoring and overseeing care practice within the homes. All of the individual house managers have changed since the last inspection and one of the houses has closed. Since the last inspection 38 care staff have left the organisation. These changes have created instability in the senior leadership team and the overall workforce which has resulted in widespread failures in the experiences and progress of the young people living in the home.

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Inadequate

Due to the closure of one house young people have moved houses. These moves have been poorly managed. No compatibility risk assessments have been carried out and there is no information in care files of the transition process or the work undertaken. Care staff said that they had not been involved in the decisions to move children and young people to different houses. Education staff had developed social stories with the young people but one example seen included a photograph of the incorrect house, and not the house where the young person was moving to. Young people’s files have not been updated with information relating to the young person’s move and in one case, no information has been updated in the care file since the move from an on-site house to the house in the community which took place a month before this inspection. This is significant because the young person requires a support plan regarding fire evacuation for his safety which

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Inadequate

had not been updated since the move and could place this young person at risk of harm.

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Inadequate

Care plans lack evidence of the work being undertaken by staff to enable young people to meet their goals. For example, a goal for one young person is to prepare an evening meal with staff once a week. Within the young person’s records there was evidence of this happening only once between February 2016 and this inspection. Care plans lack evaluation, review and strategies for improving outcomes. Although the house manager’s monthly monitoring systems include reviewing the goals of young people, the majority of these records state that there has been no progress. In discussion with a house manager and staff, they said that this meant young people had not achieved their goal. Currently, they do not record in the managers monitoring reports what achievements have been made toward the completion of the goal. Progress or any delays in achieving goals is not evaluated and used to develop and improve care practices. This shortfall means it

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Inadequate

is not possible to evidence or evaluate the progress that young people have made. There is a lack of coordination and information sharing between the education and care staff. Within the monitoring carried out by the house managers there is evidence of information being requested from the school staff which is not been provided. House managers are not challenging this effectively enough to ensure better communication between the school staff and care staff is achieved.

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Inadequate

The off-site home provides young people with a homely, personalised environment in which to live.

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Inadequate

Houses on the main site are less homely. In addition, there is no information in young people’s plans on what work staff will carry out with young people to support and help them to cope better with living in a more homely environment including visual stimulus or for one young person to be able to tolerate a bottom sheet on his bed.

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Inadequate

Two out of the four houses in use on the main site have observation holes in five bedroom doors. In one house these did not have covers. Within young people’s risk assessments, care or health plans it does identify that these are being used but the explanations of the reasons lack detail. These shortfalls mean that the dignity and privacy of young people living in the home is compromised.

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Inadequate

Despite all the changes, the care staff have positive relationships with the young people. Staff interactions with young people are warm, caring and supportive and staff respond sensitively to the young people’s needs.

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Inadequate

Young people are able to take part in a range of activities both on- and off-site. They are involved in the choice of activities they wish to take part in. On-site, there is a swimming pool and several play areas. Young people are able to ride their bicycles safety around the site and use local facilities such as the leisure centre.

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Inadequate

On the rare occasion where medication errors have occurred these are swiftly addressed with robust action taken such as staff retraining.

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Inadequate

Safeguarding procedures are ineffective. Some staff, including senior managers, were unsure of who the lead safeguarding officer is for the residential provision. Staff did demonstrate an understanding of safeguarding procedure but as some staff could not identify the safeguarding lead does not promote confidence that safeguarding issued would be reported to the appropriate individual.

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Inadequate

Behaviour management systems are not effective. There has been a reduction in the total number of physical interventions since the last inspection but some young people are still experiencing too many interventions with as many as 16 physical interventions in one month. Some staff are receiving injuries. There is no effective analysis of incidents. House managers monitor the records but they do not use this data to identify trends, patterns or themes emerging. They do not take effective action to improve practice or review young people’s plans. There is no-one at a senior level currently monitoring all the incidents within the residential houses.

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Inadequate

One young person for whom there has been a sharp increase in the number of incidents in May and June 2016 has not had his behaviour support plan reviewed since February 2016. Staff are not using the information they gather to effectively improve or change their practice to address young people’s behavioural needs.

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Inadequate

Some young people have a detailed reduction plan in place for physical interventions but this is not evidenced in all the young people’s files where there have been a significant number of physical interventions used. This shortfall means staff are not consistently addressing behavioural incidents with the aim of reducing the number of physical interventions.

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Inadequate

Some young people’s behaviour support plans are not coordinated with the behaviour support team. They are the responsibility of the house managers. These plans are not developed or shared with staff in the school, or vice versa, so as to provide a consistent, effective approach to behaviour management across the whole school.

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Inadequate

The fire evacuation plan for one young person has not been updated after his move to a new house, despite this being an area of concern regarding his safety. In addition, there has not been a fire drill involving this young person since he moved to his new house on 20 June 2016. This shortfall indicates that staff have not taken into account the importance of this young person’s personal evacuation plan in safeguarding the young person. This failure could place the young person at risk of significant harm. Impact risk assessments carried out for the young people who have moved house are inadequate. They do not contain sufficient consideration of the impact the young person will have on the other young people living in the house. There is nothing recorded about the impact that the other house residents may have on them. This failure means children and young people are placed together with little consideration being given to their individual needs.

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Inadequate

Young people’s individual risk assessments are not reviewed when required. In particular, when young people move between houses. Risk assessments regarding what measures staff must take if a young person is likely to abscond have not been completed for all young people This is inadequate and places children and young people at risk of significant harm.

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Inadequate

Recruitment processes are robust and protect young people from adults who may wish to harm them. These are adhered to in practice.

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Inadequate

There has been no registered manager in post since 31 March 2015. The last manager was in post from 21 August 2015 to 9 March 2016. His application to register with Ofsted was under consideration during this time. A new manager has been recruited and will take up the post on 15 August 2016.

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Inadequate

Since the previous inspection, all of the house managers have changed. One has moved to the off-site house and the other two house managers, who were pervious house deputies, are new in post. One house does not have an appointed manager. This house is being managed by two senior care staff.

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Inadequate

Although senior managers have a plan in place this is not sufficiently detailed and does not provide details of what improvement actions are required, how these will be met, by whom and within what timescales.

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Inadequate

Since the previous inspection, 38 members of the care staff have left the organisation. Vacancies and staff shortages are being covered by moving staff between houses and the use of both education staff and Autism Wessex relief staff. Rotas inspected demonstrated a reliance on these staff to cover shifts and care staff doing additional hours, which managers are not monitoring. This approach does not provide young people with consistent staff teams which impacts on the quality and consistency of the care they receive. A member of staff said ‘we are not caring but coping, and in some cases only just’.

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Inadequate

Formal supervision of staff is inconsistent. Some staff have not received supervision from their managers since February 2016. When staff have been subject to disciplinary processes with an outcome for them to receive fortnightly supervision, there is no evidence that these meetings had taken place. Education staff who regularly work overtime shifts in residential provision do not receive supervision for this work. This shortfall means care practice relating to the young people is not reviewed with them on a regular basis as part of their development.

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Inadequate

The staff training matrix shows that staff have received safeguarding and ‘Team Teach’ training, supported with regular refresher training. There are courses available for communication skills, picture exchange communication systems and autism awareness. Training is now mandatory for all staff.

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Inadequate

The quality of records is varied. There are good records about what is important to the young people, their likes, dislikes and how to communicate with them. These include photos and evidence of their input. Other records such as care plans, specific support plans, house care reviews and risk assessments are not up to date. These documents identify the date they were developed and a review date which has not been adhered too. Managers have failed to address this shortfall.

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Inadequate

The independent visitor visits once a month and provides a report on each of the houses. There have been a number of recommendations from these reports which have not been actioned. For example, there have been issues with the independent visitor being able to look at young people’s files, as the homes have not obtained permission from all parents, despite this being a repeated recommendation over several months. This reduces the effectiveness of these visits. Managers are not using the action points from the independent visitor’s report to drive improvement and develop the service.

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Inadequate

Leaders and managers do not effectively monitor, evaluate or review the work undertaken in the home. House managers collect data but they do not evaluate it, use it to identify trends or patterns or to improve practice. There has been no senior manager monitoring the care practice or records since March 2016.

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Inadequate

Leaders and managers have not demonstrated sufficient knowledge or understanding of strengths and weaknesses of the homes. They have been ineffective in prioritising, challenging and making improvements.

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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 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 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

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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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