Children's home run by Sherico Care Services Limited in Westminster

Inadequate

There are widespread failures that mean that children and young people are not protected, their care and experiences are poor and they are not making progress.

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The children's home provision is inadequate because:

 Managers and staff do not demonstrate an ability to meet children’s needs well.  Children’s experiences are not consistently positive, and some fail to make significant progress while living at the home.  The home has had no permanent manager for nine months and no registered manager for 11 months.  Staff’s efforts to promote children’s positive behaviour are ineffective.  Staff do not consistently adhere to policies and procedures when children are missing.  Recording of children being absent without permission or missing is poor and inaccurate.  The management of complaints is poor.  Management oversight of the home’s quality of care is ineffective.

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The children's home strengths

 The service has recently appointed a permanent manager.  Children have positive relationships with staff.  The home’s premises have recently been subject to refurbishment and re- decoration.  Children feel listened to. They have influence on day-to-day decision- making, and staff encourage them to make choices.  Staff receive regular supervision and feel well supported by managers.

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Statutory requirements

This section sets out the actions which 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

6: The quality and purpose of care standard In order to meet the quality and purpose of care standard, the registered provider must: 6(1)(b) ensure that children receive care from staff who deliver care that meets children’s needs and supports them to fulfil their potential. In particular, they must ensure that care planning for potential placements at the home is appropriate and meets children’s needs, including those that are therapeutic in nature. 2/01/2017

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Requirement Due date

8: The education standard In order to meet the education standard, the registered provider must: 8(1) ensure that children make measurable progress towards achieving their educational potential and are helped to do so. 2/01/2017

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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 provider must: 10(1)(a) ensure that the health and well-being needs of children are met. 2/01/2017

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Requirement Due date

12: The protection of children standard In order to meet the protection of children standard, the registered provider must: 12(2)(a)(v) ensure that staff understand the roles and responsibilities in relation to protecting children that are assigned to them by the registered person. In particular, they must ensure that staff strictly adhere to the home’s policies and procedures when children are missing. This includes contacting other professionals in a timely manner, searching the local community for children who are missing and ensuring the accurate, detailed 9/02/2017* recording of each missing episode.

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Requirement Due date

13: The leadership and management standard In order to meet the leadership and management standard, the registered provider must: 13(2)(c) ensure that staff have the experience, qualifications and skills to meet the needs of each child. In particular, they must ensure that staff receive training that enhances their understanding of separation, loss, attachment and trauma to assist them to understand and manage children’s behaviour. 1/03/2017

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Requirement Due date

40: Notification of a serious event The registered person must notify HMCI and each other relevant person without delay if there is any incident relating to a child which the registered person considers to be serious. (Regulation 40(4)(e)) 2/01/2017

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Requirement Due date

13: The leadership and management standard In order to meet the leadership and management standard, the registered provider must: 13(2)(h) use monitoring and review systems to make continuous improvements in the quality of care provided in the home. In particular, they must ensure that staff’s recording of information is accurate, comprehensive and clear. 9/01/2017 *

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Requirement Due date

*These requirements are subject to statutory requirement notices.

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Recommendations

To improve the quality and standards of care further, the service should take account of the following recommendations:

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Recommendations

 Take reasonable precautions when conducting room searches. In particular, ensure that in every instance two members of staff are present. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 42, paragraph 9.7)  Ensure that staff understand and apply the behaviour management strategy at all times. This must be kept under review and revised where appropriate. Staff should consider the more consistent use of incentives to promote positive behaviour and restorative justice to address behaviour resulting in criminal damage. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 46, paragraph 9.34)  Ensure that staff help each child to prepare for any move from the home. This is to include structured support and supervision to develop practical skills such as cooking, housework, budgeting and personal self-care skills. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 17, paragraph

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Recommendations

3.27)  Ensure that staff are familiar with the home’s policies on recording and understand the importance of careful, objective and clear recording. This is particularly in relation to complaints, critical incidents, key work sessions and 1:1 sessions. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 62, paragraph 14.4)  Ensure that the registered person promptly seeks to involve the local authority and other relevant persons whenever there is a serious concern about a child’s welfare. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 42, paragraph 9.4)

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Information about this children's home

This children’s home is one of a number of homes owned by a private organisation. The home is registered to provide care and accommodation for no more than three children who have emotional and/or behavioural difficulties.

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Recent inspection history

Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

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Recent inspection history

23/02/2016 Interim Sustained effectiveness

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Inadequate

Children do not make significant progress as a result of their placement at this home. Staff do not consistently and effectively meet the needs of children. Direct work with children does not result in positive change to their sometimes challenging and risk-taking behaviour. Some children new to the home have poor histories of attending school or attending to their healthcare needs. This trend is replicated at the home. Staff are unable to motivate children to participate in educational activities to help to meet their learning needs, and so children do not progress academically. Equally, children do not respond positively to encouragement to address their healthcare needs. Children do not consistently attend primary healthcare appointments, and staff’s efforts to curb their substance misuse and use of alcohol are ineffective. Key work and one-to-one discussions, as outlined in risk assessments and behavioural management plans, do not sufficiently address these

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Inadequate

issues to effect change. Older children have the opportunity to develop independent living skills to help to prepare them for adulthood. However, this is not well structured, and they largely do not pursue these opportunities. This means that they do not develop useful practical life skills, such as budgeting, completing laundry and meal preparation. Children new to the home are welcomed sensitively. However, there have been a number of unplanned endings at the home. There is little sense of the home offering children permanency. The service accepts placements for children who clearly require more therapeutic input than the home is able to provide, and so children do not thrive. This is a cause for concern. Children enjoy positive relationships with staff. One child commented, ‘The staff here are really nice. I don’t think I have a key worker, but they are all nice. The manager took me skating, because I really wanted to go.’ Staff enjoy working with

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Inadequate

children. One staff member told the inspector, ‘The best thing about my job is the residents. I feel like a big brother, and they make it all worthwhile. There’s a purpose to what I’m doing.’ Children receive clear information about making complaints and know whom to approach if they are unhappy. Since the last inspection, the service has received no complaints from children in placement. Children feel listened to and have good opportunities to share their views and opinions through regular residents’ meetings and the service’s feedback questionnaire. Children have influence on their day-to- day routines and regularly have a choice of meals, clothing purchases and their bedroom decor. Children have access to good recreational and leisure pursuits. Recent activities include bowling, ice-skating and a trip to the Olympic Park. Staff encourage children to join the library and local gym. Children enjoy good access to family members and friends when it is safe for them

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Inadequate

to do so. Staff support family contact and encourage friends and family members to visit the home. During the week of the inspection, one child’s family members were visiting, to explore the local community and to share a meal with him.

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Inadequate

Children feel safe with staff and know whom to speak with if they have concerns. However, staff are not consistently proactive in ensuring that they safeguard children well and reduce the risk of harm. This is particularly the case for the management of children who are missing or absent without permission. Staff have access to the organisation’s comprehensive child protection policies and procedures. These are a feature of staff induction, and all staff receive ongoing safeguarding training. Despite clear, written guidance about missing person’s protocols, staff do not strictly adhere to this guidance, and so children are not safe. For example, on occasion, staff do not report a missing episode involving a very vulnerable child to the police and others until a significant length of time after the child is due home. Staff do not routinely search the local area for children who are missing. This does not help to keep children safe.

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Inadequate

Staff’s recording of missing episodes is often incomplete, inaccurate and inconsistent. Recording logs do not tally with each other when cross-referenced. Staff are, therefore, unable to supply the police or the local authority with accurate information, and attempts to monitor trends are unreliable. Although risk assessments and behaviour management plans highlight known risks and detail strategies to reduce risks and poor behaviour, inconsistent staff practices do not support documented strategies. For example, key work sessions appear brief and do not sufficiently explore with young people the concerns that staff have about their risk-taking behaviour. Sessions do not offer creative methods to help to curb risky or challenging behaviour. Staff do not have sufficient training to meet the needs of very vulnerable children effectively. Staff make use of incentives and rewards to promote positive behaviour. Staff do

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Inadequate

not impose sanctions and they do not promote restorative justice as an approach by which to address, for example, criminal damage. Children, therefore, do not learn to take responsibility for their behaviour, and the unsafe behaviour of some is on the increase. Staff do not restrain children, and there have been no such instances since the last inspection. Management of room searches was a cause for concern at the last inspection. This inspection notes that, while regular bedroom searches are justified, records still do not confirm that two members of staff are present, and they fail to indicate what, if anything, staff discover. Therefore, this recommendation is repeated. Staff understand the risks posed by internet use and are vigilant in their supervision of children accessing social media and the internet more generally. There have been no allegations made against staff since the last inspection. Staff

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Inadequate

receive training and guidance about the management of allegations. Managers are aware of the roles and responsibilities of the Local Safeguarding Children Board and the designated officer in helping to keep children safe. The service ensures that staff are subject to safe and robust recruitment and vetting procedures. These ensure that staff working at the home are suitable to work with vulnerable children. The home’s premises have recently undergone a programme of refurbishment, repair and re-decoration of communal areas and of some children’s bedrooms. At the time of the inspection, maintenance staff were repainting bedroom doors. Children are happy with their surroundings, and there are no health and safety concerns.

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Inadequate

This inspection found significant weaknesses in the leadership and management of the home. Since the last inspection, the service has appointed a manager, who has been in post for two months. The inconsistent leadership of the home hampers efforts to improve outcomes for children. The home has been without a registered manager for 11 months. In line with Ofsted guidance, the absence of a registered manager in excess of 26 weeks results in a judgement of inadequate for the leadership and management outcome area. Monitoring systems are insufficiently robust and, as a result, managers and leaders have little insight into the weaknesses of the service. A consultant conducts monthly regulation 44 monitoring visits, and managers conduct periodic reviews of the home’s quality of care. However, despite this, monitoring efforts do not highlight significant shortfalls in key staff recording on files. These include poor

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Inadequate

records of critical incidents, incomplete documentation of room searches, insufficient action taken when children are missing and the brevity of key work records. Managers have not carried out a systematic review and audit of case files and other key recording logs to ensure that these are of a satisfactory standard and accurately reflect the work that staff complete with children. The service does not manage complaints appropriately. Since the last inspection, the home has received one complaint from a local authority social worker. A member of the home’s staff team provided an initial response to the complainant. This appears to have been unbeknown to senior staff of the organisation, who later offered another response. The home’s complaints log has no record of any complaint since the last inspection. This system is not operating in the best interests of children. Partnership working with external partners requires improvement. A feature of the

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Inadequate

complaint received focused on poor communication between staff of the home and social workers, particularly in relation to critical events. The service’s statement of purpose is a detailed document that outlines the aims and objectives of the service. Children receive the residents’ handbook, which provides them with information about the service and the nature of care that they can expect. The service is financially viable, and there is an adequate development plan in place. Staff receive regular supervision. This is to ensure that staff have a formal opportunity to discuss their work regarding children and other pertinent issues. Managers complete staff appraisals annually, and general staff training opportunities are adequate. Staff have not had sufficient training to provide them with a good understanding of the impact of children’s life experiences and trauma, to better equip them with skills to manage the behaviours of some children

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Inadequate

present. The lack of stable, consistent leadership has significantly contributed to the poor outcomes for children and ineffective care practices that do not keep children safe.

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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

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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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