Children's home run by Keys Nhcc Ltd in Rossendale

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:

 Staff to do not provide enough opportunity to enable a young person to learn about how to keep safe after significant safeguarding incidents, due to a lack of focused key-working sessions.  Staff do not have enough knowledge about the actions that they need to take in line with safeguarding procedures. This has the potential to compromise a young person’s safety and well-being.  Advocacy support is not always offered.  Irregular communication with the local authority virtual headteacher means that education needs are not sufficiently co-ordinated.  Physical health needs are not always promoted.  Opportunities for a young person to talk about physical interventions is not encouraged by staff.  Staff do not have the input they need in order to be able to meet the complex needs of a young person placed in their care.  The previous registered manager recently left the home, which has resulted in a period of management instability. A new manager has been appointed.

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The children's home strengths

 Staff are deeply committed to the young person in their care.  The staff team and young person have experienced the traumatic loss of a highly valued member of staff. Despite this difficult time, the staff have continued to provide care for their young person, and there has been limited staff sickness.  A placing authority has said that this is the longest placement that their young person has managed to sustain in the last twelve months.  Staff and the young person have good-quality relationships.

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Statutory requirements

This section sets out the actions that must be taken so that the registered person/s meet(s) 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

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 that staff (2)(a)(i) ascertain and consider each child's views, wishes and feelings, and balance these against what they judge to be in the child's best interests when making decisions about the child's care and welfare (b)(iii) ensure that each child is given appropriate advocacy support. 28/10/2016

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Requirement Due date

8: The education standard In order to meet the education standard, the registered person must ensure that staff (2)(a)(vi) 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. 28/10/2016

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Requirement Due date

10: The health and well-being standard In order to meet the health and well-being standard, the registered person must ensure that (1)(b) children receive advice, services and support in relation to their health and well-being. 28/10/2016

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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 (2)(a)(vi) help each child to understand, in a way that is appropriate according to the child's age and understanding, personal, sexual and social relationships, and how those 28/10/2016 relationships can be supportive or harmful.

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Requirement Due date

12: The protection of children standard In order to meet the protection of children standard, the registered person must ensure that staff (2)(a)(ii) help each child to understand how to keep safe (v) understand the roles and responsibilities in relation to protecting children that are assigned to them by the registered person. 28/10/2016

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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 (2)(c) ensure that staff have the experience, qualifications and skills to meet the needs of each child (g)(ii) 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. 28/10/2016

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must ensure that within five days of the use of a measure of control, discipline or restraint in relation to a child in the home, the registered person or the authorised person adds to the record confirmation that they have spoken to the child about the measure. (Regulation 35(3)(c)) 28/10/2016

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Information about this children's home

This is a privately owned children’s home, registered to provide care and accommodation for one young person.

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Recent inspection history

Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

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Recent inspection history

23/03/2016 Interim Improved effectiveness

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Requires improvement

The staff make sure that a young person has personalised plans in place, which offers staff guidance. The staff teams focus is on supporting a young person to settle and to reduce incidents in the home. Consequently, progress across all areas of development are slow. As staff increase their knowledge of a young person’s needs, they have been able to manage their emotional needs much better. For example, staff have started to offer cuddles at times of distress, to try to prevent situations from escalating and, consequently, the frequency of physical interventions has reduced. Staff have worked tenaciously to enable trust to grow. One young person said ‘I get on well with staff. They talk and talk and talk to me, and this is what they are good at doing. And they entertain me as they are funny.’ Staff do not always manage to get a young person to attend an education placement. This can mean having a tutor coming into the home to provide

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Requires improvement

education. While the registered provider has recently escalated their concerns about the lack of education placement, this situation has been ongoing for six months. There has been a lack of evidence as to how the registered provider has used the role of the virtual head teacher to secure an education placement. Staff do not always promote physical health. This means that despite requesting looked-after medicals staff fail to ensure that these take place. Health plans do not fully reflect a young person’s current health needs or situation. More positively, links with child and adolescent mental health services (CAMHS) enables a young person to receive support to enhance their emotional well-being. Frequent key-working sessions enable a young person to make some progress in addressing feelings and emotions. Staff recognise the importance of talking openly and honestly with any young person in their care about all sorts of issues, such as

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Requires improvement

bullying, family relationships, loss and bereavement. This helps a young person to be able to identify their feelings and behaviours. However, staff do not always document that they are completing key-working sessions after significant incidents, and they lack the knowledge and training to be able to offer a young person strategies to manage their anger. While a young person is able to tell staff their views, staff do not always balance this with what is in their best interests. For example, when a young person has unlimited access to their mobile phone despite having used it inappropriately. Boundaries are not always consistently applied. Staff identify cultural needs and attempt to ensure that each young person has access to specific services, such as hairdressers. However, a young person can still feel different from other young people in the area. Consequently, and despite staff’s best attempts, sometimes a young person will not engage in clubs in the

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Requires improvement

local area. Staff support family contact. For example, they take a young person back to their home area to see family and friends. This means the young person is able to sustain important relationships. Advocacy support is not always secured. This leaves a young person without an independent listener.

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Requires improvement

Placing authority social workers said that they are confident in the staff team’s ability to keep young people safe. Staff ensure that risk management plans are in place, although they lack detail and personalisation based on the young person’s risks and behaviours, such as child sexual exploitation or fire setting. The home’s fire-risk assessment has not been updated to ensure that it is a robust response to fire-setting behaviours. Staff do not robustly address risk-taking behaviours, such as inappropriate mobile phone use. There have been occasions when staff have not followed safeguarding protocols and have deleted vital information from a young person’s mobile phone. This potentially compromises any future interventions from a police or safeguarding perspective. Due to the relationships between staff and the young person, and staff becoming more aware of how to effectively intervene and manage the young person’s

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Requires improvement

complex needs, incidents in the home have reduced. The young person does not go missing. When they do leave the home, staff follow them and support them through talking. While physical interventions have occurred in the home, these have reduced in frequency due to staff finding alternative strategies to de-escalate situations. After physical interventions, the young person does not always have an opportunity to talk about their feelings about the restraint. On occasion, when the young person stated that they had been unhappy about a particular method of restraint, the staff team and managers failed to ensure that they have reviewed the restraint and learnt from it. Judgement grade

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Requires improvement

The home is currently without a registered manager. The previous long-standing registered manager recently left the home and the deputy manager took over in the role of acting manager. A new manager has been appointed to the home and she is qualified to national vocational qualification (NVQ) level 5 in leadership and management. Of the 14 members of staff, eight are qualified to NVQ level 3 in residential childcare. Other staff members are enrolled and completing their qualification. Despite a period of instability in the management of the home, staff said that they feel well supported. The staff team has been through a traumatic and difficult period, following the tragic and sudden loss of a highly valued staff member. This has affected the whole staff group as well as the young person. However, they have all supported one another. A member of staff said, ‘I have always had support from the managers. The previous registered manager always gave me so much

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Requires improvement

support as has the deputy manager, who has taught me lots. The biggest impact for me since the last inspection has been from the death of our colleague as he was the glue of the team. Everyone has got together to support one another and we have worked overtime to try to keep things going.’ The manager supervision of staff has remained consistent and of good quality. Staff have opportunities to reflect on their practice and the needs of the young person. Managers are committed to any young person in their care. The registered provider is aware of the strengths and areas for development within the staff team and the home. They are aware that the focus needs to be on enabling the young person to make more progress and have plans in place in order to achieve this. However, this is in its early stages due to the very recent appointment of the new manager. The registered provider has effective working relationships with a range of

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Requires improvement

professionals, such as the police. The registered provider and staff team are child focused. However, staff have lacked robust management direction on occasions. For example, after safeguarding incidents, the registered provider has not reviewed incidents and learnt from them and they have not ensured that the staff team has all of the skills and expertise they need to be able to support a young person’s progress.

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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

The National Archives, Kew, London TW9 4DU, or email: psi@nationalarchives.gsi.gov.uk .

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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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