Children's home run by Headway House Limited

Inspection report children’s home: 1214688 1 Registered provider: Headway House Limited

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Full inspection Inspected under the social care common inspection framework

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Information about this children’s home

The home is registered to provide care and accommodation for up to five children who have emotional and/or behavioural difficulties and/or learning disabilities. The home is privately owned.

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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 requires improvement to be good

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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: 20 December 2016

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requires improvement to be good

Overall judgement at last inspection: Sustained effectiveness

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Enforcement action since last inspection

None Inspection report children’s home: 1214688 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

 There have been a high number of reports of children going missing. No action has been taken by staff when there is no contact from children, which is contrary to their local authority care plan.  Ineffective monitoring means that the manager is not aware of the weak areas that are in need of development, as identified in this inspection. The information gathered has not been well used to improve the experiences for children.  Care planning, risk assessments and behaviour management plans do not contain all up-to-date information, or give staff sufficient information so that they can care for the children safely and appropriately.  Documentation when restraint has taken place is not comprehensive and does not detail all the necessary information. In addition, sanctions do not detail which staff are involved or give detail of the length of the sanction.  Recruitment procedures have not been sufficiently thorough and, for one

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Key findings from this inspection

externally recruited post, no checks were retained in the home.  There are still areas in the home which give rise to health and safety concerns, and some areas lead to an institutionalised feel. The system to address health and safety matters requires review.  Staff have yet to complete training in attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and attachment disorders.

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Key findings from this inspection

 There is more of a focus on rewarding positive behaviours. This is now being embedded into practice.  Real progress for children currently in placement is being made in relation to their starting points on arrival at the home. This is seen in the reduction of aggressive behaviours and in the children being able to form attachments.  The management has worked hard to build confidence in the new staff team and to promote a child-centred approach in the home, and this has now started to be evident in practice.  The manager leads by example and staff are fully involved in all decisions: this has led to good staff morale.  Relationships between the staff group and children are one of the strengths of the service, with the relationships based on trust and respect.  The manager took action during the inspection to start to address some of the shortfalls identified. She is determined to ensure that children have positive

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Key findings from this inspection

outcomes. Inspection report children’s home: 1214688 3

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

20/12/2016 Interim Sustained effectiveness 20/04/2016 Full Requires improvement Inspection report children’s home: 1214688 4

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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 In order to meet the quality and purpose of care standard, the registered person must ensure that staff: (2)(b)(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. In particular, care plans, risk assessments and behaviour management plans are detailed to enable staff to support children. (Regulation 6(2)(b)(ii)(iv)) 09/06/2017

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Requirement Due date

12: The protection of children standard (2) In order to meet the protection of children standard, the registered person must 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 to make arrangements to reduce the risk. In particular, ensure that staff are working to up-to-date individual risk assessments and care planning; (ii) help each child to understand how to keep safe; (iii) have the skills to identify and act on signs that a child is at risk of harm; (vi) take effective action whenever there is a concern about a child’s welfare; (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. In particular, that all maintenance plans are reviewed and reflect the areas requiring attention. (Regulation 12 (2)(a)(i)(ii)(iii)(vi)(d))

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Requirement Due date

13: The leadership and management standard In order to meet the leadership and management standard, the 09/06/2017 Inspection report children’s home: 1214688 5 registered person must: (2)(c) ensure that staff have the experience, qualifications and skills to provide care for each child. In particular, training in attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and attachment disorders. (h) use monitoring and review systems to make continuous improvements in the quality of care provided in the home. (Regulation 13 (2)(c)(h)) 16: Statement of purpose 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. The registered person must ensure that this is kept under review and any revisions are sent to HMCI within 28 days of the revision. (Regulation 16 (1)(3)(a)(b)) 09/06/2017

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Requirement Due date

26: Fitness of registered provider Ensure that the organisation notifies HMCI of the name, address and position in the organisation of the responsible individual. (Regulation 26(4)(ii)) This specifically refers to ensuring that all relevant information is provided when the responsible individual changes. 09/06/2017

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Requirement Due date

32: Fitness of workers (1) The registered person must recruit staff using recruitment procedures that are designed to ensure children’s safety. (2) The registered person may only (a) employ an individual to work at the children’s home; or (b) 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). (3) The requirements are that (a) the individual is of integrity and good character; (b) the individual has the appropriate experience, qualification and skills for the work that the individual is to perform; (c) the individual is mentally and physically fit for the purposes of the work that the individual is to perform; and (d) full and satisfactory information is available in relation to the

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Requirement Due date

individual in respect of each of the matters in Schedule 2. 09/06/2017 Inspection report children’s home: 1214688 6 ((Regulation 32(1)(2)(a)(b)(3)(a)(b)(c)(d)) 35: Behaviour management policies and records The registered person must ensure that: (a) 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. (Regulation 35 (3)(a)) 09/06/2017

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Requirement Due date

36: Children’s case records: The registered person must maintain records for each child in Schedule 3 and ensure that they are kept up to date. (Regulation 36(1)(a)(b)) 09/06/2017

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Recommendations

 Ensure that staff understand and help children to understand what makes healthy and nurturing relationships. This specifically relates to ensuring that key-work sessions that are carried out offer guidance, advice and support. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 39, paragraph 8.10).  Ensure that good recruitment practice is maintained. This specifically relates to ensuring that all staff involved in recruiting staff complete training in safer recruitment. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 61, paragraph 13.1).  Ensure that there is a plan in place to enable children to resume full-time education. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 28, paragraph 5.14).

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improvement to be good

Shortfalls were found during the inspection in how well children are helped and protected, and therefore in the effectiveness of the monitoring in the home and the management oversight. This has an impact on this judgement. Although the judgement is ‘requires improvement to be good’, the service has a number of strengths. Children who are currently in placement are beginning to settle, progress and reflect on their challenging starting points. Consequently, children are developing a positive view of themselves and are proud of their achievements. Relationships between the staff group and children are one of the strengths of the service. This relationship is based on trust and respect and children talk positively about the staff team and report that staff are ‘lovely’, and ‘put them first’. Each child is valued as an individual and staff members’ positive ways of working enable strong attachments, Inspection report children’s home: 1214688 7

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improvement to be good

thus creating the foundation to both develop and sustain appropriate relationships with peers and family. Individualised care is seen and, through the support offered, children are beginning to deal with the issues that affect their emotional well-being. Key-work times are used to offer support; however, some sessions could be more supportive and offer direction and advice. This is, at times, limited and it is not clear what impact these sessions are currently having. Since the last inspection, the group dynamics in the home have changed following a new admission, with one child moving back home and another placement being ended. It is too early to assess the outcomes for children new into placement, as these children are just beginning to settle into their new environment and engage with staff. For others, there have been improvements seen in a reduction in challenging behaviours and becoming able to accept boundaries. Incidents of missing

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improvement to be good

from care, influence from peers and substance misuse have been significant concerns since the last inspection. Support from external specialist agencies ensures that children are able to understand these behaviours and, sometimes, to reduce them. Care planning documentation is not consistently informative, nor does it give clear enough direction to staff on how to support individual children. In addition, local authority paperwork is not available on children’s files – this includes reviews of the placing authority’s plan for the care of the child, sexual exploitation risk assessment tools, and education healthcare plans. This means that the home’s care planning does not reflect the most recent multi-agency view on individual vulnerabilities. All children are registered with a local education provision, or have a tutor that attends the home if they do not have full-time provision in place. Education attendance has

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improvement to be good

improved significantly for all the young people, including those previously not attending or engaging in education for a significant period. One child has a limited amount of education provided and the home and placing authority have yet to devise a satisfactory long-term plan to meet this need. This means the child’s potential for learning and achieving is not being fully recognised. The tutor reports achievement by children to be positive in the limited hours currently provided. Children are involved in consultation and service development through the house meetings and individual work. Children know that any issues or concerns will be dealt with appropriately by staff and receive clear information about making complaints, but state that they do not feel the need to do so. Various activities are available and children are keen to be involved in the local community. For example, they go to the cinema, trampolining and may visit friends’

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improvement to be good

houses. This helps children to build positive peer relationships and develop their social networks. This needs to be more closely monitored for some children given their individual vulnerabilities. Staff work in partnership with parents and all the necessary professionals to ensure that a uniform approach is achieved. This includes very close working relationships with the schools and with local police officers. Professionals spoken to speak very positively about the service being offered here.

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How well children and young people are helped and protected: requires

Inspection report children’s home: 1214688 8

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improvement to be good

The home provides an environment in which children start to feel safe. Staff use external agencies appropriately to reiterate the messages provided by staff to support children to be successful in keeping themselves safe. There is generally a responsive action from staff that reduces the risk of harm children may be exposed to in the community. Staff act promptly on concerns and report them to the necessary professionals. The relationships that children are developing with the staff mean that they feel able to talk to staff should they feel worried or upset. Children reported that they felt safe and comfortable in the home. There have been a high number of reports of children going missing, in total 22 since the last interim inspection in late December 2017. In recent weeks, this appears to have decreased. Children who are and have been in placement have been assessed as being at risk in areas such as substance misuse, offending

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improvement to be good

behaviours, missing and child sexual exploitation. The home has worked with the necessary professionals to try and reduce these risk-taking behaviours. One placement was ended due to managers making the decision that they were unable to keep all the children safe in the light of that placement. Risk assessments and care planning do not currently take into account risks identified when incidents have taken place. This is with particular reference to vulnerabilities around peer relationships and behaviours. They do not give staff information or strategies to enable the staff to care for the children safely and appropriately. Children who are categorised at high risk of going missing are expected to have regular contact with the home when on free time, as outlined in their local authority care plan. However, staff do not take action when no contact has been made. For example, one missing protocol states that contact is to be made every two

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improvement to be good

hours; however, in one case there was no contact with the child for over nine hours, and, in other cases, it ranged from between four hours and six hours with no contact. Children may have been at risk with no action having been taken. The manager updated the protocol during the inspection to give staff guidance on strategies to take; however, this needs to now be implemented in practice. The management team is planning more effectively for new admissions, and it now requests additional information in order to determine whether the placement will be suitable. Managers and staff visit the child prior to placement whenever possible to assess if they have the necessary skills to support the child, and also to enable children to meet the staff who will be caring for them. There is effective liaison with professionals to anticipate known vulnerabilities of young people new to the home. Impact risk assessments prior to placement take into account the other children in placement to

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improvement to be good

enable a detailed evaluation, and to determine if they can meet the collective needs. Staff receive training in the use of physical intervention. There is an emphasis on de- escalation and distraction. Staff demonstrate a sound understanding of these principles. However, there has been a high number of physical interventions and records do not accurately indicate the precise number due to some incidents, which have involved more than one intervention. Records are not clear when and how physical interventions have taken place, or how the child has been kept safe. Comprehensive records have not been kept. Behaviour management plans have not been updated following physical interventions being used. In addition, sanctions do not detail the staff that were involved and they are not clear on how long the sanction was for. This does not give children Inspection report children’s home: 1214688 9 clear direction or allow managers to identify trends. However, there is a good focus on

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improvement to be good

positive behaviour, with more rewards seen than consequences in the last month. This recording and approach of rewarding is now becoming embedded into practice. Staff are using more restorative practices to enable children to learn from their behaviours and develop relationships with the staff team and each other. Children are beginning to start to learn to take ownership and responsibility for their behaviour. Recruitment processes do not, in all cases, evidence whether satisfactory exploration of information has taken place prior to staff commencing work. On one recruitment file, there was only one professional reference available. In addition, there was no detail of what had been explored when the verbal verification took place. The independent visitor who undertakes monthly visits to the home has not been subject to any formal checks by the organisation. The manager took action during the inspection to put in place a risk

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improvement to be good

assessment until this information is gained. The lack of information does not ensure that there are adequate safeguards for the protection of vulnerable children. The staff responsible for overseeing recruitment procedures have not undertaken any safer recruitment training. Staff are trained and know how to respond to any safeguarding concerns. Any allegations are managed well and appropriate action has been taken. The manager has established links with the person responsible for allegations against staff in the local authority and other professionals; this enables advice to be gained and ensures that all involved are aware of any risks. Routine testing of equipment and detailed risk assessments are regularly undertaken to ensure that a safe environment is maintained; this is ongoing given the age of the building. However, some areas identified during the inspection have not been highlighted in the maintenance plan, such as the kitchen flooring, the area near the boiler room and

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improvement to be good

a broken windowsill outside the back door. Also, some areas have an institutionalised feel, such as numbers on bedroom doors and the hand plates on the doors. Within the fire risk assessment, it is not clear which actions are still to be completed. The systems to address health and safety matters are required to be reviewed to ensure all areas are considered.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: requires improvement to be good

The registered manager obtained her registration with Ofsted when the home opened in November 2015. She is currently completing a level 5 qualification in leadership and management. She has the experience to provide effective leadership. However, the shortfalls identified within the safeguarding judgement did not have sufficient management oversight. The responsible individual who is now in post reports that they have had difficulty submitting the required paperwork into Ofsted; this has still not been completed, although the responsible individual has been in post for over a year. This needs to be actioned. The manager and staff team clearly prioritise the children’s needs and act on any concerns. Equality is central to the home’s aims and children are able to be fully involved in all decisions. The manager has high expectations for all the children and is child centred in how she leads and operates. The manager recognises that there is the need

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: requires improvement to be good

Inspection report children’s home: 1214688 10 to continue to review practices in the home and to be more aware of the strengths and weaknesses. The manager took action immediately to start to address some of the weaknesses found during this inspection. However, a number of requirements have been made and some repeated and this questions the effectiveness of the internal monitoring. The managers fully involve the staff team in all decisions made. They have a good understanding of the progress children have made and were keen to give examples. Children benefit from being cared for by an evolving and enthusiastic staff team. Staff are positive about their roles and enjoy their work. Staff report that morale is good amongst the team and they are empowered and supported to make decisions; they have clear direction and leadership. Staff’s enthusiasm to get it right and raise the quality of care for children is evident in how they use the opportunities for supervision, team

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: requires improvement to be good

meetings and daily handovers. There are training plans in operation for the staff team and there has been a range of training opportunities available to staff. The home offers placements for children with a range of needs and diagnoses, as outlined in its statement of purpose; however, staff have yet to complete training in attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and attachment disorders. This has resulted in training requirements, as outlined in the home’s statement of purpose, not being met. The home’s statement of purpose reflects the aims and objectives of the children’s home. It doesn’t contain all the necessary information required in regulations. This has been reviewed a number of times since registration and has not been sent into Ofsted. The lack of specific information means that placing authorities are not clear about what the home sets out to provide, or if staff have the necessary skills.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: requires improvement to be good

Although it is clear that internal monitoring by the management team takes place, monitoring has not identified the shortfalls identified during this inspection. The manager’s review systems are not effective enough. Monthly monitoring reports are undertaken by an independent visitor. This level of monitoring is used by the staff team, ensuring that action is taken to address any shortfalls. Children benefit from collaborative working relationships between staff, parents and professionals from other agencies. These include social workers, the virtual school, and a number of specialist workers. Information is then cascaded down to staff to ensure that they have the appropriate knowledge to support the children’s needs effectively. Staff are also given a responsibility in building relationships and working with professionals, and this enables them to develop a shared sense of ownership of practice.

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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 Inspection report children’s home: 1214688 11 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: 1214688 12

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Children’s home details

Registered provider: Headway House Limited

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Inspector

Emeline Evans, social care inspector Inspection report children’s home: 1214688 13 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 children looked after, safeguarding and child protection.

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Inspector

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Inspector

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Inspector

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