Children's Home run by Keys Direct Care Limited in Norfolk

Requires improvement

The children’s home is not yet delivering good help and care for children and young people. However, there are no serious or widespread failures that result in their welfare not being safeguarded or promoted.

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because:

 Risk assessments are not good enough. Lone-working risk assessments are inaccurate, imprecise and not followed by staff. Actions identified as necessary in the home’s risk assessment have not been completed. The fire risk assessment does not include known risks. Impact risk assessments do not fully consider the impact that new children may have on existing children.  Internal monitoring arrangements are not strong enough and do not contribute to identifying areas for improvement.

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because:

 The home does not follow its own medication policy. Staff supervision is not consistently as frequent as the home’s own policy requires. When staff transfer from other homes run by the organisation, plans of support are not sufficiently clear.

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because:

 The quality of records throughout the home need to be better. Some key records contain inaccuracies, while others are lengthy and difficult to follow. The quality of information shared with safeguarding professionals is not consistently of a sufficient standard.

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The children’s home strengths

 There are good relationships with police specialists around the issues of child sexual exploitation and missing children.  The staff are committed to the children, and there have been no placement breakdowns.

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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

In order to meet the protection of children standard, the registered provider must ensure— (2)(a) that staff— (i) 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.

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Requirement Due date

This is with particular regard to impact risk assessments and lone working risk assessments. 21/10/2016

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Requirement Due date

In order to meet the protection of children standard, the registered provider must ensure— (2)(b) that the home’s day-to-day care is arranged and delivered so as to keep each child safe and to protect each child effectively from harm.

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Requirement Due date

This is with particular regard to ensuring that the risk assessment relating to the location is comprehensive, understood and followed. 21/10/2016

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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 provider must— (2)(h) use monitoring and review systems to make continuous improvements in the quality of care provided in the home. 04/11/2016

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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)) 04/11/2016 This is with particular regard to ensuring that the home’s own policies regarding medication administration are followed.

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must ensure that the requirements of the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 and any regulations made under it, except for article 23 (duties of employers), are complied with in respect of the home. (Regulation 25(2)(b))

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Requirement Due date

This is with particular reference to making a suitable and sufficient assessment of the risks for the purpose of identifying the general fire precautions that he needs to take to comply with the requirements. 21/10/2016

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must ensure that an individual who works in the home in a care role has the appropriate qualification, the level 3 diploma in residential childcare (England) (‘the level 3 diploma’), or a qualification which the registered person considers to be equivalent to the level 3 diploma by the relevant date which, in the case of an individual who was working in a care role in a home on 1st April 2014, is 1st April 2016. (Regulation 32(3)(b)(4)(a)(b)(5)(b)) 03/02/2017

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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))

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Requirement Due date

This is with particular regard to ensuring that staff receive supervision at the frequency set out in the home’s policy. 04/11/2016

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Requirement Due date

Ensure that the registered person maintains records (‘case records’) for each child which include the information and documents listed in Schedule 3 in relation to each child; are kept up to date; and are signed and dated by the author of each entry. (Regulation 36(1)(a)(b)(c))

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Requirement Due date

This is with particular regard to ensuring that the information recorded is accurate and of a sufficient quality. 04/11/2016

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must ensure that any notification made 21/10/2016 under this regulation includes details of the matter.

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Requirement Due date

This is with particular regard to ensuring that notifications are of a sufficient quality to enable regulators and safeguarding professionals to monitor the service effectively. (Regulation 40(5)(i))

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Recommendations

To improve the quality and standards of care further, the service should take account of the following recommendation(s):  Ensure that all incidents of control, discipline and restraint are subject to systems of regular scrutiny to review their effectiveness. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 46, paragraph 9.36)  Ensure that when staff transfer to the home from another home, supervision and performance management of staff safeguards children and minimises potential risks to them. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 61, paragraph 13.1)

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Information about this children’s home

Owned by an independent provider, the home is registered for four children with emotional and/or behavioural difficulties

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Recent inspection history

Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement 28/04/2016 Interim Sustained effectiveness 17/11/2015 Full Good 23/07/2015 Interim Improved effectiveness 06/01/2015 Full Adequate

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Requires improvement

The home requires improvement. While there are some areas of strength within the service, the inspection has identified a number of weaknesses in practice concerning safeguarding, leadership and management. The management team needs to address these to support children fully and to mitigate risk.

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Requires improvement

The staff support children to attend medical appointments. However, the arrangements for the staff to administer medication at the home are not in line with the home’s own policy. There are occasions when staff administer controlled medication on their own. The home’s policy states that two staff ‘must’ administer controlled medication. The manager was unaware of this procedural requirement.

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Requires improvement

The children get on well with the staff. The staff and manager are aware of the children’s histories. They invest time in the children. There are regular one-to-one sessions between staff and children. The staff work hard to support children to maintain a sense of belonging. They are committed to them. A social worker stated, ‘They do the best that they can for her, they advocate for her and they are unfaltering in their support for her.’ The strength of relationships makes a significant contribution to the absence of placement breakdowns.

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Requires improvement

The children make some progress in relation to their health and education. For example, one child is beginning to engage with wider therapeutic services for the first time and another child is now accessing education for the first time in two years.

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Requires improvement

The staff routinely seek the views of the children. For example, the children receive support to enable them to contribute to their statutory reviews. The children are also involved in the recruitment of staff. This inclusive approach supports the positive relationships between staff and children.

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Requires improvement

The staff work to promote contact with children’s families. The staff provide transport and supervision to enable contact to take place. This supports children to maintain family relationships, despite living in a placement some distance from their family homes.

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Requires improvement

All of the children have educational placements. For some children, these are in their infancy, as they have arrived in the home only recently. For another, her educational placement links to a new residential placement that she is moving to. It is, therefore, too early to measure progress. The manager and staff are aware of the educational arrangements for the children. They link with providers in order to ensure that courses are appropriate.

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Requires improvement

The practice in relation to helping and protecting children needs to improve. This inspection has found failings. While there is nothing to show that these have led to children suffering harm, unchecked they have the potential to do so.

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Requires improvement

The staff often work alone with the children. Lone-working risk assessments are in place, but are not good enough. They are inaccurate, lack clarity, and staff and managers do not follow them in practice. This safeguards neither children nor staff.

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Requires improvement

The manager ensures that there are regular fire drills and tests. A fire risk assessment is in place. However, this does not consider the fact that, while not permitted to do so, the children smoke in their rooms, on occasion, and have set fire to paper. This means that the risk assessment does not consider known and predictable risks.

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Requires improvement

The staff manage behaviour without routine recourse to physical interventions. There has only been one since the last inspection. The staff use sanctions. These are primarily in the form of the loss of paid activities. The staff record the details of these and make a record of their effectiveness. However, the review of the effectiveness is not, in itself, effective; it is more a statement of the intended impact. This limits the service’s understanding of the impact that the sanctions have on children’s behaviour.

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Requires improvement

Where there are notifiable incidents, such as concerns about staff practice in relation to children, the manager shares these with safeguarding professionals and Ofsted. However, professionals report that the information is not always of a sufficient standard.

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Requires improvement

The manager has updated the home’s previous risk assessment. There is now a gate on the garden, but this is not routinely shut during the day, despite this being a home where children go missing, and have gone missing from the garden. In addition, the risk assessment states that staff will discuss the location risks with children. However, while this has happened for children who were resident at the time of the last inspection, it has not for those who have arrived since. This does not safeguard children from environmental risks.

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Requires improvement

The home works with children who go missing. The children have ‘missing from care’ protocols in place. These are clear and comprehensive. The home works with the police, placing authorities and external agencies to manage the risks. The police child sexual exploitation coordinator is very positive about the work done by the staff at the home to manage the risks when children go missing, stating, ‘The home is very good at minimising the risk.’ When children go missing, the staff look for them. This includes looking in the immediate vicinity, as well as travelling to the areas where the children may have run to. The police missing coordinator stated: ‘They are very proactive in terms of chasing up social workers and making sure that the police are doing their bit.’ The home is proactive in ensuring that the children have the opportunity to speak to an independent person. The staff discuss ‘missing’ incidents with the children on their return. However, the records of such

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Requires improvement

The staff work with children to manage any conflicts that take place as they live together. There has been specific work regarding racist behaviours and one-to-one work with children to address this through the completion of booklets. In one case, a child has written an apology.

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Requires improvement

The impact and effectiveness of leaders and managers require improvement. The inspection identified a large number of shortfalls. The management team was not fully aware of these. Internal monitoring systems have not been strong enough to identify them. As a result, they do not contribute to improving the quality of care that children receive. The manager has not fully addressed the issues identified at the last inspection. While the staff have now had self-harm training, there remain issues with the assessment of risk associated with the location of the home.

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Requires improvement

The staff have access to a range of training opportunities. Managers and staff receive supervision. However, this is not always as frequent as the home’s own policy requires. When staff transfer from other homes run by the organisation, plans of support are not sufficiently clear. One member of staff has not attained his level 3 qualification, despite working in a children’s home two years ago. Since joining this home, he has enrolled on the course and is working towards the qualification.

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Requires improvement

The manager has been in post for almost four years. She has an appropriate qualification and undertakes continuing professional development. The management team has recently updated the statement of purpose. This now includes greater emphasis on therapeutic support. The organisation has appointed a new therapist to support the children and the staff. However, it is too early to make judgements on the effectiveness of these arrangements, as they have been in place for less than a month. The children’s case files include information regarding their achievements. The staff talk positively about the children and value their successes. It is evident that the staff have good relationships with the children. These positive relationships enable the children to talk freely with the manager and the staff.

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Requires improvement

The children make some progress as a result of the support that they receive. This includes some children increasing their education attendance and others reducing the number of times that they have been missing. In addition, the staff ensure that mediation is in place for the children. This assists the children to develop their ability to manage conflict and relationships.

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Requires improvement

Relationships with external professionals are generally good. There are particularly strong relationships with child sexual exploitation and missing person’s specialists within the police. The manager has challenged services when they have fallen short of what, she feels, they should be offering children. For example, she has challenged the police force in the children’s home areas to provide a more effective response when children go missing.

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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 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

T: 0300 123 1231 Textphone: 0161 618 8524 E: enquiries@ofsted.gov.uk W: www.gov.uk/government/organisations/ofsted

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