Children's home run by South West Childcare Services

Inspection report children’s home: 1248071 1 Registered provider: South West Childcare Services

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Full inspection Inspected under the social care common inspection framework

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Information about this children’s home

This children’s home was registered in January 2017 and this is the first inspection since registration.

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Information about this children’s home

The children’s home is part of a small but expanding organisation based in south-west England. This home is registered to care for up to two children who may have emotional and behavioural issues.

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Overall experiences and progress of

children and young people, taking into account

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requires improvement to be good

How well children and young people are helped and protected requires improvement to be good

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requires improvement to be good

The effectiveness of leaders and managers inadequate

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requires improvement to be good

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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requires improvement to be good

Date of last inspection: This is the first inspection

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requires improvement to be good

Overall judgement at last inspection: Not applicable

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Enforcement action since last inspection

Not applicable Inspection report children’s home: 1248071 2

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Key findings from this inspection

This children’s home requires improvement to be good because:

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Key findings from this inspection

 While there is some evidence of progress for young people, there are shortfalls with the leadership and management of this home.  There is a failure to identify and act upon incidents of concern, in order to follow policy and procedures. This has compromised the well-being of one young person.

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Key findings from this inspection

 Young people living in this home have settled in well and like living here. Young people attend and engage in full-time education and are making progress. Risks for young people have reduced since coming to live at this home.  The registered individual is committed to ensuring that the ethos in this home is child-focused. Good-quality, relevant training is provided to staff. The use of a psychology team within the organisation supports staff to ensure their approach to care is tailored to the young person. Inspection report children’s home: 1248071 3

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Statutory requirements

This section sets out the actions that the registered person(s) must take to meet 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

6. (1) The quality and purpose of care standard is that children receive care from staff who— (a) understand the children’s home’s overall aims and the outcomes it seeks to achieve for children; (b) use this understanding to deliver care that meets children’s needs and supports them to fulfil their potential. (2) In particular, the standard in paragraph (1) requires the registered person to— (a) understand and apply the home’s statement of purpose; (b) ensure that staff— (i) understand and apply the home’s statement of purpose; (ii) protect and promote each child’s welfare; (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. 01/07/2017

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Requirement Due date

12. (1) The protection of children standard is that children are protected from harm and enabled to keep themselves safe. (2) In particular, the standard in paragraph (1) requires the registered person to ensure— (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; (ii) help each child to understand how to keep safe; (iii) have the skills to identify and act upon signs that a child is at risk of harm; (iv) manage relationships between children to prevent them from harming each other; (v) understand the roles and responsibilities in relation to protecting children that are assigned to them by the registered person. 01/07/2017 Inspection report children’s home: 1248071 4 (vi) take effective action whenever there is a serious concern about a child’s welfare; and

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Requirement Due date

(vii) are familiar with, and act in accordance with, the home’s child protection policies; (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; (c) that the premises used for the purposes of the home are located so that children are safeguarded effectively; (d) that the premises used 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; and (e) that the effectiveness of the home’s child protection policies is monitored regularly. 13. The leadership and management standard

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Requirement Due date

13. (1) The leadership and management standard is that the registered person enables, inspires and leads a culture in relation to the children’s home that— (a) helps children aspire to fulfil their potential; and (b) promotes their welfare. (2) In particular, the standard in paragraph (1) requires the registered person to— (a) 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; (b) ensure that staff work as a team where appropriate; (c) ensure that staff have the experience, qualifications and skills to meet the needs of each child; (d) ensure that the home has sufficient staff to provide care for each child; (e) ensure that the home’s workforce provides continuity of care to each child; (f) understand the impact that the quality of care provided in the home is having on the progress and experiences of each

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Requirement Due date

child and use this understanding to inform the development of the quality of care provided in the home; (g) demonstrate that practice in the home is informed and improved by taking into account and acting on— (i) research and developments in relation to the ways in which the needs of children are best met; and (ii) feedback on the experiences of children, including complaints received; and (h) use monitoring and review systems to make continuous improvements in the quality of care provided in the home. 01/07/2017

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Requirement Due date

14. The care planning standard 01/07/2017 Inspection report children’s home: 1248071 5 14. (1) The care planning standard is that children— (a) receive effectively planned care in or through the children’s home. 33. Employment of staff

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Requirement Due date

(4) The registered person must ensure that all employees— (b) receive practice-related supervision by a person with appropriate experience; (c) have their performance and fitness to perform their roles appraised at least once every year. 01/07/2017

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improvement to be good

Young people who live in this home say that they like living here. They have made progress in a number of areas of their lives. In particular, they attend and engage in full- time education. This is remarkable progress for one young person who had been out of education for a prolonged period of time before moving to live here.

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improvement to be good

Young people are supported to have regular and meaningful contact with their families. During this inspection a parent visiting was preparing a meal in the kitchen. Staff were observed to engage with the family in a warm, welcoming and supportive way. The parent stated, ‘The staff here are brilliant; they support me and I can talk to them about anything.’

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improvement to be good

Family members spoken with as part of this inspection were very positive about the care their child received while living in this home. One stated, ‘He is doing really well here. It is brilliant; I have no issues, it is great.’ It is evident that parents and carers have confidence in the staff and look to them for advice and support.

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improvement to be good

Care-planning documents that staff work from are poor quality. They fail to offer clear guidance and expectations for staff. They do not identify and address all the known risks for young people. The documents are updated but not always in a meaningful way. This means that some basic information, such as the age of young people, is wrong. This lack of clarity has resulted in some poor care being provided for young people.

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improvement to be good

Not all staff working at this home have a good understanding of the needs of the young people. One member of staff told the inspector that she had not read the care documents for one young person. As a result, they were unable to demonstrate they had the knowledge required to care for the young person safely. Inspection report children’s home: 1248071 6

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improvement to be good

Incidents of going missing from home for one young person have significantly reduced since living at this home. However, when there have been incidents these have not been managed well or recorded. On one occasion staff waited over five hours before making contact with the police. Staff failed to take any steps to actively search for the young person or check known addresses. This resulted in them being missing for much longer than was necessary.

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improvement to be good

Young people are not provided with a return from missing interview. This means that they are not afforded an independent person to talk to should they have any particular worries or concerns about the care that they receive.

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improvement to be good

During a room search, drugs prescribed to someone else were found. Drugs prescribed to the young person and cannabis paraphernalia were also found. This was not recognised as a significant event by the registered manager or the staff. No action was taken to reduce the risks of this happening again in the future.

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improvement to be good

One young person spoken with during this inspection stated that they felt safe living at this home. It was evident that they had made progress in terms of their emotional well- being since coming to live here. Incidents of distress have reduced significantly. This has resulted in them being calmer and better managing their emotions.

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improvement to be good

Young people living at this home are provided with a calm and nurturing approach to their care. This has meant that they have built relationships with staff based on mutual trust and respect. This has resulted in the risks to the young people being reduced as some of the previous dangerous behaviours have reduced significantly.

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improvement to be good

Staff work tirelessly to ensure that this home is safe in terms of health and safety. The complex needs of one young person could impact on the health of others, but due to the meticulous approach to ensuring the home is clean, any potential risk has been eliminated.

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improvement to be good

The registered individual takes any allegations made against staff very seriously and follows policy and procedure to ensure the safety of the young people. A recent incident highlighted the possibility of allegations being made as a response to distress. The registered individual has escalated this issue and put strategies in place to protect the young person and the staff working in this home.

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improvement to be good

The organisation has structures in place to ensure that staff coming to work for the organisation are suitably vetted. This ensures that all steps that could be taken to employ safe and appropriate staff are in place. Inspection report children’s home: 1248071 7

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

The registered manager has failed to fully identify or formally address a number of practice shortfalls. An example of this is when staff fail to manage missing from home incidents in line with procedures. The registered manager fails to demonstrate a good understanding of what should happen when young people go missing. This meant that consideration had not been given to incidents in the context of the young person being assessed as at high risk of exploitation.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

The registered manager has failed to demonstrate that she has taken reasonable steps to ensure that young people are safe when they stay out overnight. One young person regularly stays with a boyfriend. The registered manager has failed to ensure that there is any agreement in place with the adults in that home in respect of boundaries and expectations during this time. There has been no consideration of the known risks for this young person.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

The registered manager had failed to ensure that staff receive regular and meaningful supervision. Supervision provided to staff can vary in detail. One supervision session reviewed by the inspector failed to mention the young people living in this home. This results in a lack of appropriate challenge and practice reflection.

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Information about this inspection

Inspectors have looked closely at the experiences and progress of children and young people. Inspectors considered the quality of work and the difference made to the lives of children and young people. They watched how professional staff work with children and young people and each other and discussed the effectiveness of help and care provided. Wherever possible, they talked to children and 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.

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Information about this inspection

Using the ‘Social care common inspection framework’, this inspection was carried out under the Care Standards Act 2000 to assess the effectiveness of the service, how it meets the core functions of the service as set out in legislation, and to consider how well it complies with the Children’s Homes (England) Regulations 2015 and the ‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’. Inspection report children’s home: 1248071 8

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Children’s home details

Registered provider: South West Childcare Services

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: First Floor Flat, 46 Durnford Street, Plymouth PL1 3QN

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Inspector(s)

Tracey Ledder, social care inspector Inspection report children’s home: 1248071 9 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, further education and skills, adult and community learning, and education and training in prisons and other secure establishments. It assesses council children’s services, and inspects services for looked after children, safeguarding and child protection.

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Inspector(s)

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Inspector(s)

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Inspector(s)

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