Children's Home run by PCT Care Services 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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The children's home provision requires improvement because:

 There has been no registered manager at the home for over a year. The manager, who had applied to register, left at the end of August 2016. The responsible individual, who was overseeing the home, left without notice the week before this inspection.  The new responsible individual and deputy manager are not fully aware of the work that the previous responsible individual had been doing. For example, they did not know the location or content of the home’s development plan.  The changes in management have had a negative impact on some areas of monitoring of the service. Some plans had been identified as out of date by the previous responsible individual, but this has not been followed through and the plans remain out of date.  Records of physical intervention do not include all essential information, such as the duration of the intervention. The quality of discussions with staff after incidents of physical intervention varies. Some do not show a thorough

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The children's home provision requires improvement because:

debrief to help learn lessons.  Not all sanctions are recorded.  Children’s plans do not include details of how staff will help the children to work on areas of development to meet their educational needs.  Staff do not have the knowledge to identify all of the children’s changing mental health needs.  Staff supervision records are very brief. They do not show that supervisors are encouraging staff to reflect on their practice to help them develop and provide higher standards of care for children.

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The children's home strengths

 There are good relationships between staff and children.  Staff take an interest in children’s lives and are involved in a range of everyday and special activities with them.  All of the children are in education which is appropriate to their individual needs.  There have been improvements to the home which have been commented on by children, staff and other professionals.  There have not been any incidents of children going missing from care since the previous inspection. Incidents of physical intervention have reduced significantly.

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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 each child’s needs are met

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Requirement Due date

(a) In meeting the quality standards, the registered person must, and must ensure that staff seek to involve each child’s placing authority effectively in the child’s care, in accordance with the child’s relevant plans. This relates to jointly reviewing the risks and plans for children. 23/12/2016

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Requirement Due date

In order to meet the education standard, with particular reference to knowing children’s educational targets and areas of development and supporting them to make progress in these areas, the registered person should: 2(i) help each child to achieve the child’s education and training targets, as recorded in the child’s relevant plans; (ii) support each child’s learning and development, including helping the child to develop independent study skills and, where appropriate, helping the child to complete independent study; (iii) understand the barriers to learning that each child may face and take appropriate action to help the child to overcome any such barriers. 23/12/2016

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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, with particular reference to the monitoring of the service, the registered person should: (2)(h) use monitoring and review systems to make continuous improvements in the quality of care provided in the home. 23/12/2016

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Requirement Due date

In order to meet the care planning standard, with particular reference to plans including the ways children’s education will be supported and their daily routines, the registered person should 23/12/2016 ensure that children: 1(a) receive effectively planned care in or through the children’s home. The registered provider must appoint a person to manage the children's home. (Regulation 27(1)) 23/12/2016

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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 of the information required under this regulation. This relates in particular to the duration of restraints and ensuring that all sanctions are recorded. Further, that within 48 hours of the use of the measure the registered person, or a person who is authorised by the registered person to do so, has spoken to the user about the measure. (Regulation 35(3)(a)(iv)(b)(i)) 23/12/2016

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Recommendations

To improve the quality and standards of care further, the service should take account of the following recommendations:  Support staff to gain skills and experience that enable them to actively support each child to achieve their potential. This relates to ensuring that staff have the knowledge to meet children's developing needs. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 52, paragraph 10.5)  Ensure that there are systems in place so that all staff, including the manager, receive supervision of their practice from an appropriately qualified and experienced professional, which allows them to reflect on their practice and the needs of the children assigned to their care. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 61, paragraph 13.2)

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Information about this children's home

This children’s home provides care and accommodation for up to six children who have emotional and/or behavioural difficulties and learning disabilities. The home is owned by a private company.

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Recent inspection history

Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement 23/08/2016 Full Inadequate 08/06/2016 Full Inadequate 18/03/2016 Interim Declined in effectiveness 29/06/2015 Full Requires improvement

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Requires improvement

Children have good relationships with staff. They enjoy spending time with staff both in and out of the home. Staff do special activities with the children, such as trips to attractions, pumpkin carving and trick or treating. They also play games with them, take an interest in what they have been doing at school and go with them to the shops. Staff use car journeys to spend individual time speaking with the children. Staff know children as individuals, and this helps them to provide individualised care. The records and plans for the children do not always reflect this, as some are out of date. These are the plans that new staff read, so this has the potential for new staff to misunderstand children’s needs and how to meet them.

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Requires improvement

All three children are in appropriate education settings. Two are in full-time education and one is in further education. Staff speak to and meet with education providers to help support children to address any barriers or concerns. However, not all staff know what children’s educational targets are and understand what support children need in their education. Further, the children’s plans do not clearly set out how staff can help children to progress in their education, as a good parent would. For example, one child is receiving additional support in English and with grammar. This is good, but there is no consideration as to how staff can also support the child through activities such as reading with them, or encouraging them in writing projects.

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Requires improvement

Children’s health needs are met. The children are registered with health services and appointments are made with these services for regular checks and in response to specific health issues. However, other agencies have questioned whether staff are able to fully understand the developing mental health needs of one child. While this child has good relationships with staff and has lived at the home for some time, failure to fully understand her changing needs through training and work with other professionals, leave her with these needs unmet. However, there are other elements of children’s health needs, such as managing enuresis, which are recorded and which staff do understand and meet.

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Requires improvement

Staff support children to develop the knowledge and skills that they will need for their individual future plans for independence. The children say that they are involved in cooking, cleaning and laundry. One child is beginning to look at an apprenticeship. She is also to be involved in the recruitment of the new manager, which she is excited about. This will be a good example of children’s involvement. It will also help this child to develop some skills and understanding in relation to interviews, which will help her in her future employment. The children feel that they are listened to. They have regular children’s meetings which are recorded and reviewed. At a recent meeting, children said that they like the home now, it feels more relaxed and they feel listened to.

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Requires improvement

There are safety checks and fire drills to help make sure that the home is a safe place for children to live. There has been a significant improvement in the use of risk assessments to help identify and reduce risks to children. The compliance notice relating to risk assessment has been met. Some children do put themselves at risk due to their behaviour. The previous responsible individual and the placing social worker had jointly looked at issues including how risks could be reduced. However, since the responsible individual has left new risks have come to light. The ongoing liaison between the home and placing authority is important to help identify and manage risks. Changes in management within the home have the potential to reduce this liaison.

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Requires improvement

Children have good relationships with staff. They feel listened to and know how to make a complaint. Allegations are taken seriously and acted upon. This provides some important safeguards for children. There have not been any incidents of children going missing from care since the previous inspection. Staff have had training to help them identify signs of child sexual exploitation. This helps them to keep children safe from abuse. The number of physical interventions has reduced significantly since a child left the home, just after the previous inspection. Despite the number reducing, the recording of these incidents is variable. Some of the records do not include the duration of the intervention, and the quality of the discussions with staff after the events varies. Some do not show that there has been in-depth consideration of how the incident was managed and whether any other actions may have avoided or reduced the length of the physical intervention.

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Requires improvement

Further, the central log of physical interventions has recently been removed. They are now only recorded as loose records on children’s files. This makes it difficult to identify whether any records have been lost or not been printed from the computer. Physical intervention is a significant incident. Failing to have clear and accurate records prevents managers from having good oversight and removes a safeguard for children.

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Requires improvement

There has been a significant reduction in the number of sanctions that have been used. However, one sanction recorded in a child’s file is not recorded in the sanctions records. This makes monitoring difficult.

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Requires improvement

The previous responsible individual introduced a new rewards system for the children. One child has successfully met her targets, and her reward, which she chose, was a trip to Cadbury World with a member of staff.

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Requires improvement

All the children have recently completed a survey for the home. They all said that they felt that the sanctions used are fair. They also said that physical intervention is used appropriately and that staff help them to keep safe. A particularly good piece of work was done with one child to help her understand the risks of using the internet and what she could do to avoid those risks. This was a timely piece of work before she was given a laptop to support her education.

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Inadequate

There has not been a registered manager at the home for over a year. A manager was in place and had applied for registration. This manager left at the end of August 2016. The responsible individual took over the management of the home while a replacement manager was recruited. The responsible individual left at short notice the week before this inspection and a new responsible individual has been identified. Recruitment for a permanent manager continues. The management arrangements for this home have been inconsistent. Staff say that recent changes under the previous responsible individual have been positive and that they feel confident that they can continue to improve. However, the pace and efficacy of any future improvements will depend upon the appointment of a suitable manager who can provide leadership and clear expectations. There has been better stability in the staff team, with the previous high turnover of staff reducing significantly.

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Inadequate

The recent departure at short notice of the person who was overseeing the home means that there has been a break in the oversight of the functioning of the home. The deputy manager is being supported by the new responsible individual and other people from the organisation. He has a reasonable overall awareness of the strengths and weaknesses of the home and of the needs of the children. Neither he nor the new responsible individual were aware of the location or content of the home’s development plan.

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Inadequate

Some children are making progress in some areas, but as referred to above, one child’s mental health needs are changing and another child is taking part in some risky behaviour. A new independent visitor has been doing monthly visits to the home and providing detailed and insightful reports on the strengths and weaknesses. There are plans for the internal monitoring of the home, but these are new (in the absence of a manager) and so far untested. There have been improving relationships with other agencies, such as placing social workers, but the recent changes have left some people feeling uncertain about how this will continue. Some children’s plans are out of date. The previous responsible individual identified this but no action has been taken to review them.

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Inadequate

Staff receive regular supervision which lasts for a reasonable period. However, the records of these supervisions are very brief and do not show that staff are encouraged to reflect on their practice to help them develop and provide higher standards of care for children. There are induction records for new staff. New staff say that they have been helped to understand their roles and to work with the children.

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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 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

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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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