Children's home run by ARRONBETH LTD

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:

 The leadership and management of the home continue to have difficulties. There is a lack of forward planning and development. The numbers of children placed at the home have been low. This has meant that staff hours have been cut and this is unsettling for the staff. Some developments, such as training, have been delayed because of the financial position. The home now requires a clear commitment and a clear development plan from the leadership and management in order to move forward positively.  The morale of the staff team is low. The lack of clear direction from the leadership and management team together with the cost-cutting measures are having an impact on the enthusiasm of the staff.  The staff team has also found it hard to engage well with the young people who have been living at the home recently. Some of the young people who have lived at the home this year have not wanted to be there as they

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The children's home provision requires improvement because:

wanted to live with their families. This has made the care task difficult but staff strive to develop positive relationships.  Individual work with young people has been taking place but has not been in much depth. There is room for improvement in key working and life story work. Increasing the quality of this work would be likely to improve outcomes and to improve the progress that the young people make.  Most of the children and young people living at this home in the period since the last inspection have not done well in their education or training. One young person who is of compulsory school age has not been able to start their full-time education placement despite being at the home for some time. Another young person who was a school leaver was not able to settle in any further education or training placement and has made little progress in this area.  The staff have not been able to engage the young people in meaningful

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The children's home provision requires improvement because:

leisure activities. This means that the young people have not had the opportunity to expand and develop their interests and experiences, missing valuable opportunities for staff to share activities with young people. The home’s statement of purpose says that the home uses outdoor activities to engage the young people but there is almost no evidence of this taking place.

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The children's home strengths

 The staff team is stable and experienced. It has the skills to improve and develop the service and is keen to do this. All the staff team members are appropriately qualified except one newly recruited worker who is progressing well with their qualification.  Two of the young people who have lived at the home in the period since the last inspection have returned to live with their families. This was what both young people wanted. One of these moves was clearly planned and has been clearly successful. The other move was not so clearly planned but the young person concerned and their family have insisted on this move and it is positive to some extent. The staff have worked well to support families and have supported both of these young people to return home.  One young person has made very good progress in their education and was able to exceed expectations when it came to taking and passing examinations.

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The children's home strengths

 The staff are able and do make good relationships with the young people living at the home. They use these relationships to try and enhance the experience and progress of the young people.

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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

6. In order to meet the quality and purpose of care standard, with particular reference to individualised work with children, the registered person must ensure that staff: (2)(b)(iv) provide personalised care that meets each child's needs, as recorded in the child's relevant plans, taking account of the child's background. 20/12/2016

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Requirement Due date

8. In order to meet the education standard, with particular reference to ensuring that children attend school or training placements, the registered person must ensure that staff: (2)(a)(i) help each child to achieve the child's education and training targets, as recorded in the child's relevant plans. 20/12/2016

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Requirement Due date

9. In order to meet the enjoyment and achievement standard, with particular reference to ensuring that the children participate in a variety of activities and hobbies, the registered person must ensure that staff help each child to: (2)(a)(ii) participate in activities that the child enjoys and which meet and expand the child's interests and preferences. 20/12/2016

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Requirement Due date

13. In order to meet the leadership and management standard, with particular reference to planning and developing the care services, the registered person must: (2)(h) use monitoring and review systems to make continuous improvements in the quality of care provided in the home. 20/12/2016

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must ensure that all employees: (c) have their performance and fitness to perform their roles appraised at least once every year. (Regulation 33 (4)) 20/12/2016

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Information about this children's home

The home is run by a private organisation and is registered for the care and accommodation of up to four children with emotional and/or behavioural difficulties.

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Recent inspection history

Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement 23/02/2016 Interim Sustained effectiveness 07/07/2015 Full Requires improvement 22/12/2014 Interim Sustained effectiveness 08/05/2014 Full Adequate

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Requires improvement

The quality of care that the young people receive at this home requires improvements. While some progress has been made in some areas by some of the young people, this is not consistent enough to be considered good. There have only been two young people in residence at this home for most of the period since the last inspection. The registered manager says that he has kept the numbers low to improve the chance of good outcomes for these young people. Two of these young people have since moved on. One young person remains living at the home now. The consequences of having low numbers of young people in placements has meant that staff hours have been reduced on a number of occasions and this has had a negative effect on staff morale. If this situation continues, the low staff morale may adversely affect the quality of care being offered to the young people. The staff do make good relationships with the young people and this is the basis of

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Requires improvement

the good progress that has been made by some of the young people some of the time. Two young people have returned to live with their parents or with other family members. One of these moves was well planned and has been successful. The other move was less planned and happened at the insistence of the young person concerned and their family members. This move was successful in that the arrangement is continuing well but staff at the home feel that the young person would have benefited from a longer placement and from more independence work, especially around education and training. In relation to education, one young person has done very well. In their GCSE year they worked hard, with staff support, and achieved better than predicted examination results. This is really positive and will have helped with confidence building as well as career prospects. This young person has now moved home and is reported to have settled in an appropriate college placement. One other young

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Requires improvement

person who was a school leaver has had mixed experiences with training placements but did not achieve any significant progress in this area. Another young person who is of school age has not yet started their full-time education placement despite them arriving at the home some months ago. The placement is planned to start very shortly. This young person did attend well for some tutoring sessions when they were arranged prior to the summer holiday. Their education placement has been held up by the school not being sufficiently prepared to start but more could have been done by staff to speed this process up. The health needs of the young people are taken care of well and appropriate appointments are made and kept. The staff do refer young people to outside specialist workers when the need arises. One young person has benefited significantly from the input of support services from a worker dealing with issues

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Requires improvement

around child sexual exploitation and this has contributed well to their safeguarding. Other young people have been offered services but have declined to take them up. The staff do support the young people with key work sessions although these are not particularly in depth. The young people would benefit from more active personalised care including life story work and more in-depth work around their issues and difficulties and a requirement has been made to address these issues. The staff have found it difficult to engage the young people in interests and activities outside the home. More work needs to be done to promote hobbies, interests and active leisure time activities. This would not only provide opportunities for confidence building and raising self-esteem but would also broaden young people’s outlooks and experience. These opportunities would also enhance the building of good-quality relationships between staff and young people.

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Requires improvement

A requirement has been made to improve the service by developing these issues. The young people are consulted about their care planning and about the day-to- day running of the home. Because of the low numbers, house meetings have not been frequently held. Young people are consulted on an individual basis and there is clear evidence of things being changed or provided when young people have asked. The staff have worked hard to support young people to maintain and develop contact with their families. This has proved positive and has improved outcomes. One social worker spoken to complimented the staff team on their good work with families and the positive impact that this was having on the young person who they had placed. The young people are supported to practice life skills and build their experiences by preparing for independence. However, this aspect of their care can be improved further. In summary, the quality of care should be improved in a number of ways as

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Requires improvement

demonstrated by the requirements raised. However, the experience of the young people in the home is clearly good in parts. One young person spoken to by the inspector said that he would give staff ‘ten out of ten’ for the work that they did. The house is homely and well kept and the young people are able to personalise their bedrooms.

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Good

The managers and staff have improved their safeguarding practices and the young people living at this home have been kept safer. The staff do understand risks and do assess them well. They have involved outside specialist services in the assessment of the risks of child sexual exploitation to one young person and this has had a positive impact. The staff have also put appropriate measures in place to minimise risks. Some young people have gone missing at times. While most of these incidents have been fairly brief, one young person did go missing for an extended period. The staff have worked hard to locate and return young people when they have gone missing and did work appropriately to keep in touch with the young person who was missing for an extended period. They involved and updated the police regularly and appropriately and were able to speak to this young person frequently. The young person was known to be in their home area and known to be with

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Good

family members much of the time. The young person has now been returned to the home and staff have worked well to address the young person’s incidents of going missing from the home by building in an increased level of family contact, which has been important for the young person. This may reduce further unauthorised absences and is a good piece of safeguarding work. One young person was identified as being at risk of child sexual exploitation. Staff took appropriate action to increase levels of supervision and also completed regular work with the young person to offer advice, guidance and discussion. The young person was also referred to a specialist worker with who they developed a good relationship and important preventative work was carried out. These important actions kept this young person safer than they might otherwise have been. One incident occurred when this young person left the home without permission and

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Good

staff reacted by quickly reporting them as missing. The police and staff made good efforts to locate and return this young person to the home quickly. When the young person left the home to move back with a parent in another part of the country, staff ensured that workers and services in that area were fully informed about risks and other information relevant to their care. This is good proactive safeguarding work. The staff are able to put firm, clear boundaries in place for the young people that they look after. The consistency of this work has in part been responsible for the improvements in challenging behaviour of several of the young people. These improvements for one young person have led directly to them being able to return to live with their extended family. The staff rarely use physical interventions and on the only occasion that this has been used in the period since the previous full inspection, it was only used for a

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Good

very short space of time and was appropriate. The staff do use a range of incentives for the young people to achieve rewards and these have been effective at times.

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Requires improvement

The registered manager has been in post for many years and has a good deal of experience. He is also appropriately qualified. The home is meeting the aims and objectives of the statement of purpose. The leadership and management of the home have been stable. However, there is a lack of clear development planning and issues tend to drift. A requirement has been made under the leadership and management standard to improve the quality of care. This needs to be undertaken by both the registered manager and the responsible individual and must be based on a thorough review of the service. Following this review, clear development plans need to be implemented and the leadership and managers need a fresh commitment towards improvement. The registered manager does have an understanding of the strengths and weaknesses of the service and the staff team. However, while there are some improvements, planning is not dealing with shortfalls effectively.

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Requires improvement

To meet the requirements, managers must ensure that there is an effective structure in place and changes made to practice. This should include additional training and supervision and may require additional resources being made available. The registered manager and senior staff do supervise the staff regularly and some of this support is good. Some staff have said that supervision is not good enough. There are also continuing staff dissatisfactions with the running of the home that need to be addressed. These are concerns about having reduced hours and reduced staffing levels due to the low occupancy situation. Yearly staff appraisals have not been carried out within the required timescale and a requirement has been made to complete these by 20 December 2016. The staff team members are all qualified appropriately except for one newly recruited worker who is in the process of completing their qualification. The staff

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Requires improvement

team does have a great deal of experience but staff morale is low at present and this may have a detrimental effect on the quality of care if it continues. The registered manager does give priority to the care of the children and young people and care planning is generally good. He maintains regular contact with other professionals and with families and this improves the service and improves outcomes for children and young people. The registered manager has improved the level of challenge to other workers and services but this can be improved further. The registered manager has met the requirements and recommendations from the previous inspection. He has put better arrangements in place for the independent visitor and the quality of the internal review of the quality of care. However, further work is now needed with both the arrangements. The new independent visitor now needs to effectively monitor the service which needs to be thorough and

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Requires improvement

constructive to aid the registered manager’s work. The registered manager is monitoring the quality of care but his report now needs to contain more detail about how developments are going to be achieved.

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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 looked after children 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 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

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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