Children's home run by Marlowe Child & Family Services Limited in Tewkesbury

This monitoring visit

Registration of this children’s home was suspended following an inspection on 8 November 2016. This means that the home is currently not operational. This visit established that the owner has no immediate plans to reopen the home. There is currently no manager or staff team at the home. The broken and boarded-up windows have been replaced. Internally, the renovation work is ongoing. Ofsted remains in consultation with the proprietor and responsible individual regarding the future of this service. A condition is made that the responsible individual must inform Ofsted of his intention to admit children and young people 28 days before a child or young person’s placement commences.

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Information about this children’s home

This children’s home is registered to provide accommodation for a maximum of four young people who have emotional and/or behavioural difficulties. The home is run by a private provider that also operates other children’s homes and a registered school in the local area.

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Statutory requirements

This section sets out the actions that 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: The quality and purpose of care standard

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Requirement Due date

The quality and purpose of care standard is that children receive care from staff who understand the children’s home’s overall aims and the outcomes it seeks to achieve for children, use this understanding to deliver care that meets children’s needs and supports them to fulfil their potential.

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Requirement Due date

In particular, the standard in paragraph (1) requires the registered person to understand and apply the home’s statement of purpose, ensure that staff understand and apply the home’s statement of purpose, protect and promote each child’s welfare, treat each child with dignity and respect, provide personalised care that meets each child’s needs, as recorded in the child’s relevant plans, taking account of the child’s background, help each child to understand and manage the impact of any experience of abuse or neglect, provide to children living in the home the physical necessities they need in order to live there comfortably, provide to children personal items that are appropriate for their age and understanding, and make decisions about the day-to-day arrangements for each child, in accordance with the child’s relevant plans, which give the child an appropriate degree of freedom and choice, ensure that the

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Requirement Due date

premises used for the purposes of the home are designed and furnished so as to meet the needs of each child, and ensure that any care that is arranged or provided for a child that relates to the child’s development (within the meaning of section 17(11) of the Children Act 1989) or health, and is not arranged or provided 06/06/2017 as part of the health service continued under section 1(1) of the National Health Service Act 2006(a), satisfies the conditions in paragraph (3). (Regulation 6 (1)(a)(b)(2)(a)(b)(i)(ii)(iii)(iv)(v)(vii)(viii)(ix)(c)(i) (d)(i)(ii))

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Requirement Due date

The positive relationships standard is that children are helped to develop, and to benefit from, relationships based on mutual respect and trust, an understanding about acceptable behaviour, and positive responses to other children and adults.

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Requirement Due date

In particular, the standard in paragraph (1) requires the registered person to ensure that staff meet each child’s behavioural and emotional needs, as set out in the child’s relevant plans, help each child to develop socially aware behaviour, encourage each child to take responsibility for the child’s behaviour, in accordance with the child’s age and understanding, help each child to develop and practise skills to resolve conflicts positively and without harm to anyone, understand how children’s previous experiences and present emotions can be communicated through behaviour and have the competence and skills to interpret these and develop positive relationships with children, are provided with supervision and support to enable them to understand and manage their own feelings and responses to the behaviour and emotions of children, and to help children to do the same, de-escalate confrontations with or between children, or potentially violent

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Requirement Due date

behaviour by children, understand and communicate to children that bullying is unacceptable, and have the skills to recognise incidents or indications of bullying and how to deal with them. (Regulation 11 (1)(a)(b)(c)(2)(a)(i)(ii)(iii)(iv)(ix)(x)(xi)(xii)(xiii)) 06/06/2017

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Requirement Due date

The protection of children standard is that children are protected from harm and enabled to keep themselves safe. In particular, the standard in paragraph (1) requires the registered person to ensure that staff 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, help each child to understand how to keep safe, have the skills to identify and act upon signs that a child is at risk 06/06/2017 of harm, manage relationships between children to prevent them from harming each other, take effective action whenever there is a serious concern about a child’s welfare, and 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, that the premises used for the purposes of the home are located so that children are safeguarded effectively, that the premises used

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Requirement Due date

for the purposes of the home are designed, furnished and maintained so as to protect each child from avoidable hazards to the child’s health. (Regulation 12 (1)(2)(a)(i)(ii)(iii)(iv)(vi)(b)(c)(d))

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Requirement Due date

13: The leadership and management standard

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Requirement Due date

The leadership and management standard is that the registered person enables, inspires and leads a culture in relation to the children’s home that helps children aspire to fulfil their potential, and promotes their welfare.

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Requirement Due date

In particular, the standard in paragraph (1) requires the registered person to lead and manage the home in a way that is consistent with the approach and ethos, and delivers the outcomes, set out in the home’s statement of purpose, ensure that staff work as a team where appropriate, ensure that staff have the experience, qualifications and skills to meet the needs of each child, ensure that the home has sufficient staff to provide care for each child, ensure that the home’s workforce provides continuity of care to each child, understand the impact that the quality of care provided in the home is having on the progress and experiences of each child and use this understanding to inform the development of the quality of care provided in the home, use monitoring and review systems to make continuous improvements in the quality of care provided in the home. (Regulation 13 (1)(a)(b)(2)(a)(b)(c)(d)(e)(f)(h)) 06/06/2017

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must compile in relation to the children’s home a statement (‘the statement of purpose’) which covers the matters listed in Schedule 1. Subject to paragraph (6), the registered person must ensure that the home is at all times conducted in a manner which is consistent with its statement of purpose. (Regulation 16 (1)(5)) 06/06/2017 20: Restraint and deprivation of liberty

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Requirement Due date

Restraint in relation to a child is only permitted for the purpose of preventing injury to any person (including the child), serious damage to the property of any person (including the child). Restraint in relation to a child must be necessary and proportionate. (Regulation 20 (1)(a)(b)(2)) 06/06/2017

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Requirement Due date

A person may only manage a children’s home if the person is of integrity and good character, having regard to the size of the home, its statement of purpose, and the number and needs (including any needs arising from any disability) of the children, the person has the appropriate experience, qualification and skills to manage the home effectively and lead the care of children, and the person is physically and mentally fit to manage the home, and full and satisfactory information is available in relation to the person in respect of each of the matters in Schedule 2.

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Requirement Due date

For the purposes of paragraph (1)(b)(i), a person has the appropriate experience and qualification if the person has within the last five years, worked for at least two years in a position relevant to the residential care of children, worked for at least one year in a role requiring the supervision and management of staff working in a care role, and by the relevant date, attained the level 5 diploma in leadership and management for residential childcare (England) (‘the level 5 diploma’), or a qualification which the registered provider considers to be equivalent to the level 5 diploma. (Regulation 28 (1)(a)(b)(i)(ii)(c)(2)(a)(b)(c)(i)(ii)) 06/06/2017

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must ensure that the employment of any person on a temporary basis at the children’s home does not prevent children from receiving such continuity of care as is reasonable to meet their needs. (Regulation 31 (1)) 06/01/2017

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Requirement Due date

32: Fitness of workers 06/01/2017 The registered person must recruit staff using recruitment procedures that are designed to ensure children’s safety. The registered person may only employ an individual to work at the children’s home, or if an individual is employed by a person other than the registered person to work at the home in a position in which the individual may have regular contact with children, allow that individual to work at the home, if the individual satisfies the requirements in paragraph (3). The requirements are that the individual is of integrity and good character, the individual has the appropriate experience, qualification and skills for the work that the individual is to perform, the individual is mentally and physically fit for the purposes of the work that the individual is to perform, and full and satisfactory information is available in relation to the individual in respect of each of the matters in

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Requirement Due date

For the purposes of paragraph (3)(b), an individual who works in the home in a care role has the appropriate qualification if, by the relevant date, the individual has attained the level 3 diploma for residential childcare (England) (‘the level 3 diploma’), or a qualification which the registered person considers to be equivalent to the level 3 diploma. (Regulation 32 (1)(2)(a)(b)(3)(a)(b)(c)(d)(4)(a)(b))

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must ensure that each employee completes an appropriate induction, ensure that each permanent appointment of an employee is subject to the satisfactory completion of a period of probation, and provide each employee with a job description outlining the employee’s responsibilities.

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must ensure that all employees undertake appropriate continuing professional development, receive practice-related supervision by a person with appropriate experience, and have their performance and fitness to perform their roles appraised at least once every year. (Regulation 33 (1)(a)(b)(c)(4)(a)(b)(c)) 06/01/2017

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Requirement Due date

34: Policies for the protection of children

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must prepare and implement a policy which is intended to safeguard children accommodated in the children’s home from abuse or neglect, and sets out the 06/01/2017 procedure to be followed in the event of an allegation of abuse or neglect. The procedure to be followed in the event of an allegation of abuse or neglect must, in particular, provide for liaison and cooperation with any local authority which are, or may be, making a child protection enquiry in relation to a child accommodated in the home, provide for the prompt referral of an allegation about current or ongoing abuse or neglect in relation to a child to the placing authority and, if different, the local authority in whose area the home is located, provide for the prompt referral of an allegation about past abuse or neglect in relation to a child to the placing authority and, if different, the local authority in whose area the alleged abuse or neglect

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Requirement Due date

occurred, provide for records to be kept of an allegation of abuse or neglect, and the action taken in response, describe the measures which may be necessary to protect children following an allegation of abuse or neglect, and describe how and to whom staff are to report, without delay, any concern about abuse or neglect of a child. The registered person must keep under review and, as necessary, revise the home’s child protection policies. (Regulation 34 (1)(a)(b)(2)(a)(b)(c)(d)(e)(f)(6))

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Requirement Due date

35: Behaviour management policies and records

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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 the effectiveness and any consequences of the use of the measure, and 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 (‘the authorised person’) has spoken to the user about the measure, and has signed the record to confirm it is accurate, within five days of the use of the measure, 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)(a)(vii)(b)(i)(ii)(c)) 06/01/2017

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must maintain records (‘case records’) for each child which include the information and documents listed in Schedule 3 in relation to each child, records are kept up to date, and are signed and dated by the author of each entry. (Regulation 36 (1)(a)(b)(c)) 06/01/2017

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Recommendations

To improve the quality and standards of care further, the service should take account of the following recommendation:  As set out in regulations 31–33, the registered person is responsible for maintaining good employment practice.

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Recommendations

In particular, the record of staff interviews should include an explanation of the scoring system used to decide whether to employ or not. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 61, paragraph 13.1)

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Information about this inspection

The purpose of this visit was to monitor the action taken and the progress made by the children’s home since its last Ofsted inspection. This inspection was carried out under the Care Standards Act 2000. out in 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 this guidance, please telephone 0300 123 4234 or email enquiries@ofsted.gov.uk .

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Information about this inspection

to 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 children looked after 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

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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