Children's Home run by Sheffield City Council in Sheffield

Inspection report children’s home: SC066747 1 SC066747 Registered provider: Sheffield City Council

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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 is a local authority children’s home. It is registered to provide care and accommodation for up to five children who have emotional and/or behavioural difficulties.

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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: 17 January 2017

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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: SC066747 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

 Young people are not consistently helped to stay safe.  When young people are missing from home, the staff are not routinely completing thorough searches of the local area and known addresses.  The manager does not have clear oversight and monitoring of staff practices.  Illegal drugs misuse, smoking and offending behaviour are increasing.  Young people’s risk assessments do not include all of the pertinent concerns.  Staff have not routinely adhered to one young person’s risk assessment.  Supervision for staff is not regularly provided. This limits the monitoring and reflection of practice. The children’s home’s strengths

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Key findings from this inspection

 Young people do not go missing from the home as often as they used to.  There are times when the staff have taken immediate action to keep young people safe.  Young people’s experience of moving into the home is well planned and their needs are fully understood.  There is strong partnership working with professionals.  Young people experience a good ending to their placement and their time at the home is celebrated.  Young people live in a home that is very well decorated and maintained.

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

17/01/2017 Interim Sustained effectiveness 05/04/2016 Full Requires improvement 09/02/2016 Interim Declined in effectiveness 29/07/2015 Full Requires improvement Inspection report children’s home: SC066747 3

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Statutory requirements

This section sets out the actions that the registered person 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 must comply within the given timescales.

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Requirement Due date

16: Statement of purpose (3) The registered person must– (b) notify HMCI of any revisions and send HMCI a copy of the revised statement within 28 days of the revision. (Regulation 16 (3)(b)) 23/06/2017

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Requirement Due date

33: Employment of staff (4) The registered person must ensure that all employees– (b) receive practice-related supervision by a person with appropriate experience; and (c) have their performance and fitness to perform their roles appraised at least once every year. (Regulation 33 (4)(b)(c)) 30/06/2017

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Requirement Due date

35: Behaviour management policies and records (3) the registered person must ensure that– (b) 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")– (i) has spoken to the user about the measure; and (ii) has signed the record to confirm it is accurate; and (c) within 5 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)(b)(i)(ii)(c)) 23/06/2017

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Requirement Due date

12: The protection of children standard (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– (iii) have the skills to identify and act upon signs that a child is at risk of harm; (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; 23/06/2017 Inspection report children’s home: SC066747 4

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Recommendations

 For children’s homes to be nurturing and supportive environments that meet the needs of their children, they will, in most cases be homely, domestic environments. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 15, paragraph 3.9) This is with particular reference to personalising the home to meet the needs of the current group of young people.  No more than half the staff on duty at any one time, by day or night at the home should be from an external agency. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 54, paragraph 10.17)  A child’s bedroom should not generally be entered without their permission, though it may be necessary to establish routines to allow for rooms to be cleaned regularly. Usually, rooms should only be searched if the child has been informed or asked for their permission. Immediate searching may be necessary where there are reasonable grounds for believing that there is a

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Recommendations

risk to the child’s or another person’s safety or well-being. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 62, paragraph 14.4) This is with particular reference to ensuring that there are clear records supporting the practice of room searches.  Staff should be familiar with the home’s policies on record keeping and understand the importance of careful, objective, and clear recording. Staff should record information on individual children in a non-stigmatising way that distinguishes between fact, opinion and third party information. Information about the child must always be recorded in a way that will be helpful to the child. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 62, paragraph 14.4)  Children must be consulted regularly on their views about the home’s care, to inform and support continued improvement in the quality of care provided.

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Recommendations

Due consideration should be given to the child’s cognitive ability in the development and implementation of any consultation processes. Children should be able to see the results of their views being listened to and acted upon. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 22, paragraph 4.11)  Staff must help each child to prepare for any moves from the home. This includes supporting the child to develop emotional and mental resilience to cope without the home’s support and, where the child is moving to live independently, practical skills such as cooking, housework, budgeting and personal self-care (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 17, paragraph 3.27). This is with particular reference to ensuring that the young people’s independence plans are reviewed in a timely manner and represent their individual needs, targets and abilities.

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Recommendations

 The registered person should actively seek independent scrutiny of the home Inspection report children’s home: SC066747 5 and make best use of information from independent and internal monitoring (including under regulations 44 and 45) to ensure continuous improvement. They should be skilled in anticipating difficulties and reviewing incidents, such as learning from disruptions and placement breakdowns. They are responsible for proactively implementing lessons learned and sustaining good practice. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 55, paragraph 10.24) This is with particular reference to the registered manager having a clear oversight of the records in the home and quickly addressing any shortfalls.

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improvement to be good

Young people are showing an escalation in poor behaviours and this is having a negative impact on them. For example, smoking has increased, there are significant changes in illegal drug use and incidents of fire setting. Staff continue to provide advice and guidance and gain support for the young people from outside agencies. Young people are routinely educated about the impact of these behaviours but do not always accept the advice given. Young people’s views are not always heard, and it is not evident how their opinions are captured. This means that the manager is not aware of how they would like to help develop the home or the care provided for them. In addition, when staff conduct a room search, it is not consistently recorded whether the young people have been consulted. Young people are enjoying new experiences. These are captured within ‘journey’ books, such as achieving a job interview and receiving a card from staff to say ‘well

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improvement to be good

done for not going missing’. However, the creation of these books is inconsistent and the staff are missing the opportunity to capture the fun, enjoyment and progress of the young people. Young people are helped to maintain their health and their medical conditions are understood by staff. Staff encourage the young people to live a healthy lifestyle and make positive choices, including getting medical treatment when needed. However, one young person is not yet registered with health agencies and young people continue to smoke cigarettes and take illegal drugs, which is having a negative impact on their health. Young people have difficulties attending formal education and training. However, young people do enjoy some success: one young person is engaging in home tuition, while others are sitting exams and attending job interviews. Staff have taken steps to try and support the young people to gain some attainment outcomes.

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improvement to be good

Young people have a positive experience when they are admitted to the home. The new admissions are discussed with the staff team and with the young people currently resident in the home. This process helps to promote a united warm Inspection report children’s home: SC066747 6 welcome. As part of the admission process, one young person’s needs were fully explored and extra resources and training relating to the use of ligatures were put in place. This ensured his safety and reduces the risk associated with self-harm. Young people are helped to have a smooth transition from the home. For example, staff supported one young person to visit their new placement. The staff provided the young person with a celebration for a positive ending to their time at the home. Young people are building their relationships with the staff team. Staff are spending time with the young people and support them through very difficult periods. Two

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improvement to be good

young people enjoyed a holiday to the east coast, despite the challenges that occurred during the break. One young person said: ‘I have a good relationship with my key worker and she is someone who I can talk to.’ Staff are supporting one young person to progress her skills in preparation for adulthood with some success. However, her independence plan does not reflect her current individual needs and the risks associated with managing money.

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improvement to be good

Young people are not consistently kept safe. Staff have not adequately followed a young person’s plan, which resulted in the young person going missing from the home. Young people’s risk of exploitation is regularly reviewed and appropriate support is implemented to keep young people safe. The staff understand young people’s vulnerabilities and take action to prevent further episodes of exploitation. However, opportunities have been missed to discuss concerns about items that were found after a room search of one young person’s bedroom. Young people have been supported through some difficult periods, and the number of episodes of going missing has reduced. One young person confirmed: ‘When I am out, the staff phone me all the time.’ Risk assessments provide staff with the crucial information they need to locate young people when they go missing and keep them safe. However, the staff are not routinely searching for young people when they go

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improvement to be good

missing further than the immediate local area. Young people are provided with appropriate boundaries. On the occasions when restraint is used, it is clear that this is to ensure the safety of the young person or others. Restraint is only used after a variety of de-escalation techniques are implemented but found to be ineffective. However, the manager does not exercise proper oversight of the measures used. Individual risk assessments do not reflect the current picture of risk. For example, one young person’s illegal drugs misuse was not recorded and there was no specific detail or timescale linked to enable this concern to be reviewed. The current process does not provide a clear picture of risk to enable a full evaluation and review of increasing or decreasing episodes of potential harm. Inspection report children’s home: SC066747 7 Staff do demonstrate, within specific situations, the ability to take immediate action

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improvement to be good

when responding to risk. For example, when two young people were putting themselves in risky situations by arranging to meet unknown males, the staff acted with confidence to prevent them from experiencing harm. One specialist worker reported: ‘The home has certainly gone beyond the limits of normal duties, and as a result the home are keeping the girls safe.’ Staff are aware of the safeguarding concerns in respect of the young people and work in line with the local authorities’ plan to prevent further harm. Staff help the young people to understand the concerns and educate them on pertinent issues, for example, what constitutes a healthy relationship. A professional said: ‘There are strengths within the placement that keep young people safe.’

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good

The registered manager has been in this post since 2006. She is appropriately qualified and experienced to undertake this role. There have been significant issues with staff sickness and this has affected the running of the home. To try and keep consistency for the young people, the manager has worked on shift. However, this has removed her from her role and affected her oversight and monitoring of the home. Because of the staff sickness, and the need for additional staff to meet the needs of the young people, the manager has used agency workers. This has had an impact on the safety of the young people, as agency staff have not demonstrated the skills, or practised in a way that shows that they understand young people’s needs. Staff are not receiving regular supervision or annual reviews in line with organisational policy. This is a further gap in the manager’s oversight and a missed opportunity to analyse the staff’s strengths and areas of development within care

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good

practices. Young people benefit from effective partnership working. The staff communicate well with professionals and attend all meetings in respect of young people. This ensures that current needs are shared and that plans are implemented to create improved outcomes. A professional reported: ‘We are good at working together; we have a long and established relationship and they contact us regularly for advice.’ The manager has updated the home’s statement of purpose and this reflects the current staffing structure at the home. However, this has not yet been sent to the regulator.

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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 Inspection report children’s home: SC066747 8 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 whom 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: SC066747 9

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: Sheffield City Council, Town Hall, Pinstone Street, Sheffield S1 2HH

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Inspector

Jennifer Fenlon, social care inspector Inspection report children’s home: SC066747 10 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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