Children's home 1220818

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:

 This children’s home, registered in January 2016, has experienced a period of crisis. Ofsted made two monitoring visits in July in response to concerns, and had already identified weakness in environmental safety, staffing sufficiency and competence. Staff and restraint records were not accurate.  Staffing shortages in the permanent team led to low staffing. Inconsistent, inexperienced teamwork had not given children the consistency and continuity they needed. Internal investigations into concerns about staff care practice have been upheld in part. Staff have not had effective supervision and direction from experienced, skilled seniors. They have not been able to put their training into practice.  Staff have not been able to manage children’s behaviour confidently. A high level of anti-social behaviour has resulted in children being criminalised. Anti-bullying work has not been successful in reducing children’s distress.

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The children’s home provision requires improvement because:

Challenging behaviour among the growing group of children has resulted in placements that have ended early after an emergency.  Care planning is not good enough. Some children do not have local authority placement, education or health plans. Care planning has not resulted in direct work of a consistent quality. Some children have been waiting too long for the external therapeutic help they need.  Leaders and managers had, prior to this inspection, begun to identify, and have now audited and made plans for improvement. Additional, experienced staff have been drafted in. Additional staff are being recruited. Children whose needs cannot be met have moved on. The organisation has committed to rebuilding the staff team before any new children move in.

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The children’s home strengths

 Placing authorities really appreciate the support for children’s education. Police describe strenuous efforts to protect children.  The large provider organisation is well able to mobilise additional support and resources. The service learns from complaints and has changed care practice as a result.  Friendly, respectful work with families helps children to maintain positive relationships.

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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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Requirement Due date

5. Engaging with the wider system to ensure children’s needs are met.

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Requirement Due date

In order to meet the engaging with the wider system standard, in respect of therapeutic help, the registered person must ensure that staff— (b) seek to secure the input and services required to meet each child’s needs. 30/11/2016

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Requirement Due date

6. The quality and purpose of care standard In order to meet the quality of care standard, in respect of professional conduct, the registered person must ensure that staff— (2)(b)(ii) protect and promote each child’s welfare; (iii) treat each child with dignity and respect. 30/11/2016 11. The positive relationships standard

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Requirement Due date

In order to meet the positive relationships standard, the registered person must ensure that staff— (2)(a)(i) meet each child’s behavioural and emotional needs, as set out in the child’s relevant plans; (ii) help each child to develop socially aware behaviour; (iii) encourage each child to take responsibility for the child’s behaviour, in accordance with the child’s age and understanding; (iv) help each child to develop and practise skills to resolve conflicts positively and without harm to anyone; (v) communicate to each child expectations about the child’s behaviour and ensure that the child understands those expectations in accordance with the child’s age and understanding; (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; (x) are provided with supervision and support to enable them to

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Requirement Due date

understand and manage their own feelings and responses to the behaviour and emotions of children, and to help children to do the same; (xi) de-escalate confrontations with or between children, or potentially violent behaviour by children; (xii) understand and communicate to children that bullying is unacceptable; and (xiii) have the skills to recognise incidents or indications of bullying and how to deal with them; and (b) ensure that each child is encouraged to build and maintain positive relationships with others. 30/11/2016

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Requirement Due date

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)(b) ensure that staff work as a team where appropriate; (c) ensure that staff have the experience, qualifications and skills to meet the needs of each child; (d) ensure that the home has sufficient staff to provide care for each child; (e) ensure that the home’s workforce provides continuity of care to each child; (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 12/12/2016 of care provided in the home; (g) demonstrate that practice in the home is informed and improved by taking into account and acting on— (i) research and developments in relation to the ways in which the needs of children are best met; and (ii) feedback on the experiences of children, including complaints received; and (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 order to meet the care planning standard, the registered person must ensure— (2)(b) that arrangements are in place to— (i) ensure the effective induction of each child into the home; (ii) manage and review the placement of each child in the home; and (iii) plan for, and help, each child to prepare to leave the home in a way that is consistent with arrangements agreed with the child’s placing authority; (c) that each child’s relevant plans are followed; (e) that the child’s placing authority is contacted, and a review of that child’s relevant plans is requested, if— (i) the registered person considers that the child is at risk of harm or has concerns that the care provided for the child is inadequate to meet the child’s needs. 30/11/2016

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must ensure that all employees receive practice-based supervision by a person with appropriate experience. (Regulation 33(4)(b)) 30/11/2016

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must ensure that within 24 hours of the use of a measure of control, discipline or restraint in relation to a child in the home, a record is made which includes all required information. (Regulation 35(3)(a)(i)–(viii)) 30/11/2016

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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 contingency plans are prepared in the event of a shortfall in staffing levels. If it is likely that there might only be one member of staff on duty at any time, the manager should make a formal assessment of the implications for children’s care, including any likely risks. This assessment should be recorded and available for inspection by Ofsted and placing authorities. This specifically relates to ensuring that there are clear plans in place for managing times when there is insufficient staff working in the home. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 54, paragraph 10.18)  Ensure compliance with relevant health and safety legislations (food hygiene and so on) (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality

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Information about this children’s home

This privately owned children’s home is operated by a large national provider. It is registered to provide care for five children with emotional and behavioural difficulties. The statement of purpose states the service will maintain no more than a four-year gap between the oldest and youngest child.

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Recent inspection history

Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

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Requires improvement

Care has not delivered progress or a good experience for all children. Four children have lived here since the home opened. The registered person has ended the placements of two children early. Emergency placement endings have been difficult. In the organisation’s pre-admission assessment, the group dynamics of children in the home looked manageable and relatively low-risk. In practice, and in conjunction with an inexperienced, reduced staff team, the group was unhappy and unmanageable. The format to decide admissions does not take account of individual children’s needs or other factors, such as a reduced or inexperienced staff team. Placements were predominantly made in an emergency. A placing authority is very dissatisfied with the manner of one ending and is pursuing a complaint on behalf of a child. The manager is clear that in ending the placement she was protecting other children. The responsible individual has put a hold on any

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Requires improvement

new admissions until there is a competent and consistent permanent staff team.

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Requires improvement

Staff do not always have the local authority placement plan on which to base their plan for care. This means that they cannot be sure of the purpose or detailed aims of the child’s placement at the outset. Children’s files do not always contain personal education plans, so staff do not know the level that children are at. Health assessments are missing too. Staff do not use their in-house placement tool to measure the progress of individual children against their placement objectives and starting points, nor do they use this to plan direct work for key-working sessions. Timescales are vague. The manager has not yet taken the challenge to a local authority after a delay of two months in their delivery of agreed talking therapy for one child assessed by a psychologist as ‘clearly distressed’.

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Requires improvement

Children do not currently have a safe telephone line to use without asking staff. While some children have restrictions on free telephone use for their own safety, others are not able to make or receive calls. In the event of a serious incident, children would be unable to use the landline to call out of the home.

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Requires improvement

Children have told the registered person that some staff do not always talk to them with respect, or treat them fairly. The registered manager investigates their complaints and gives them a good response, as well as taking action to improve care practice. Children make good suggestions and have identified some key areas for improvement, such as respect, safe use of the internet, and fairness.

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Requires improvement

There are positives in the home. Children speak very positively about some staff. The house, despite damage, is being repaired and renovated. It is still a large, comfortable home. Children’s rooms are carefully furnished and children play an active role in decorating.

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Requires improvement

Children have enjoyed some good relationships and experienced activities and opportunities for holidays that they would not have otherwise had. Plans for horse riding are under way again; other children enjoy fishing, ice skating and trampolining. They go to the organisation’s cabin in the wilds of Wales for adventure breaks. Local police said of staff, ‘They always have the young person’s best interests at heart – and are willing to go the extra mile in trying to work with their issues.’ Creative work to bring health professionals into the home to talk to children has helped to promote access to, and understanding of, sexual health.

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Requires improvement

Help for children to keep in positive contact with their families is good. Sensitive support minimises children’s upset about family contact. Parents are positive about the impact on their children. Some parents say that their children have benefited from time at the home: ‘He’s changed a lot since he’s been there, he’s got manners.’ Another recognised the challenges faced by inexperienced, ‘lovely’ staff in dealing with children’s behaviour.

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Requires improvement

Staff have worked well to help children return to full-time school education or stay engaged in their alternative educational arrangements. They have helped children return after exclusions and have negotiated support from the virtual school head and tuition during the summer holidays so that children can keep up with their peers. One social worker described the efforts to maintain one child in education, against the odds, as a strength: ‘supporting education – a massive thing’. She said the manager had ‘really fought for that’.

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Requires improvement

Children are helped to develop the skills they will need for independence in a natural, low-key way: taking care of belongings, cooking for the household, and helping with laundry. A placing authority said the team ‘went above and beyond to work with the young person and his family before his move there’. ‘The staff are informative and I was pleased with what they had to offer for this child, which made me feel this was the correct placement for this challenging young person.’

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Requires improvement

Behaviour management by staff has been ineffective. Staff have not been able to apply their behavioural training, either because children have been too challenging or because staff have felt unconfident. Children have been out of control and some have now got criminal records because of their extreme damage to the home. Bullying has been a significant and increasing issue with each new child admitted. Despite a range of creative input about this, nothing changed until placements ended. The responsible individual has identified this as an area for improvement.

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Requires improvement

Staff have not been successful in helping children to manage their own conflicts and difficult feelings. The manager had begun to track patterns in incidents on particular shifts, but her routine oversight of behavioural incidents had been superseded by the pace of allegations about staff practice and several serious incidents. High levels of anti-social behaviour and staff inability to manage this has fed neighbourhood concerns about this home. The registered person has begun to strengthen staff skills in behaviour management, but this is still in the early stages.

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Requires improvement

External professional and children have raised concerns about staff practice in restraint, and children’s safe and fair use of the internet. The manager is currently investigating this issue. The organisation takes swift action when such concerns are raised. Three allegations about staff practice have been partially upheld, in respect of professional boundaries and language with children. Two internal investigations are as yet incomplete. The local authority safeguarding designated officer reports effective implementation of interagency safeguarding procedures and any concerns are shared with the host and placing authority to ensure an agreed response.

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Requires improvement

The staff have cared for some very vulnerable children at risk of self-harm, going missing from care and sexual exploitation. The police are very positive about the manager and staff’s efforts to keep children safe. Risks in this area have reduced for all children. Staff have been very active in searching, locating and bringing children home. They have made good use of information gathered from the local authority and their own interviews after children have returned home. The manager is keen to involve children in improvements. She encourages them to think of their own incentive schemes and is developing clearer behavioural support plans and risk assessments.

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Requires improvement

Police are clear that the staff work well with them. The local officer said: ‘I am convinced that if it wasn’t for their strong robust managing of the situations, we would have had far more incidents.’

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Requires improvement

This service is led by an experienced, qualified manager, in post prior to registration in late January 2016. A new responsible individual was appointed in spring and she is taking a more active monitoring role. Two monitoring visits were prompted by increasing concern about the quality of care. The registered person has taken some action to meet four regulatory shortfalls found at these two visits in July 2016.

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Requires improvement

Full and accurate rotas are now in place and are planned sufficiently far ahead to allow for extra staff to be deployed when gaps appear.

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Requires improvement

A full, competent, experienced staff team is not yet in place. Staff suspensions and resignations have reduced the team further. The registered provider has begun to take action to support the diminished team. They have planned to recruit more staff and also create a relief team of occasional workers to support absence. Additional staff from other homes in the organisation currently provide relief cover. Despite this, there may be times when no member of the permanent staff team is on duty. Children say they want their own staff team.

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Requires improvement

The police have expressed concern about the organisation’s minimal staffing model of two staff to five children, especially in such a large house. They have said that this low ratio leaves them all ‘very vulnerable’. The organisation writes in the statement of purpose that they ‘endeavour’ to deploy three staff when the home is full, but assert the sufficiency of their core, low-staffing model. Recently, the manager has ensured levels of three staff, even with only two children, in order to secure their welfare.

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Requires improvement

Restraint log books now contain all records of physical intervention. Missing records of restraint have been completed, as required by the last monitoring inspection. However, the last ‘added’ record does not show the date on which it was finally written up. It is still not an accurate record.

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Requires improvement

The registered person has now taken action to ensure that children are safe from avoidable hazards in unsafe electrical wiring on two occasions, following flooding from burst pipes. Food hygiene still requires improvement. A recent inspection by the Food Standards Agency found that storage of refrigerated foods was unhygienic. On the day of the inspection, raw meat was still being stored on top of other foods in a small fridge, risking contamination.

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Requires improvement

The statement of purpose presents inaccurate information about the correct name of the company that operates this children’s home.

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Requires improvement

Good childcare is not yet guaranteed. Staff competence has been inconsistent, despite the full range of safe recruitment checks, induction, training and performance review. The number of additional staff brought in to fill gaps in the rota caused by resignations or suspensions compromises the development of skills as a familiar team. Children have complained of a lack of consistency.

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Requires improvement

Staff do not have good enough supervision. Some senior staff have failed to make or share records of supervision. The manager has drawn up a new supervision regime in which she and the deputy will take control of this aspect of staff support.

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Requires improvement

Analysis of placement success and breakdown is not yet complete. The six-monthly published report of the quality of care, including consultation with children, parents and placing authorities, is expected at the end of August.

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Requires improvement

Recent internal and external monitoring has been effective. Children have raised their issues about unfairness through an effective formal complaints procedure. External monthly monitoring is accurately identifying areas of weakness. The manager has flagged her concerns about staff competence and teamwork with the responsible individual. The responsible individual has carried out a very recent, thorough audit of the quality of provision against Ofsted’s evaluation schedule. The registered person now has a full analysis of the current situation at the home. This provides a clear benchmark for improvement.

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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 0300 123 4234, or email enquiries@ofsted.gov.uk .

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Information about this inspection

achieve excellence in the care of children and young people, and in education and skills for learners of all ages. It regulates and inspects childcare and children’s social care, and inspects the Children and Family Court Advisory and Support Service (Cafcass), schools, colleges, initial teacher training, work- based learning and skills training, adult and community learning, and education and training in prisons and other secure establishments. It inspects services for 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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