Children's home run by Herman Allen

Inspection report children’s home: SC067810 1 SC067810 Registered provider: Lily House

p.1

Full inspection Inspected under the social care common inspection framework

p.1

Information about this children’s home

This privately run home provides care and accommodation for up to seven young people who have emotional and/or behavioural difficulties. In addition to having two other children’s homes, the company is a registered education provider.

p.1

Overall experiences and progress of

children and young people, taking into account

p.1

requires improvement to be good

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

p.1

requires improvement to be good

The effectiveness of leaders and managers requires improvement to be good

p.1

requires improvement to be good

Overall judgement at last inspection: Good

p.1

Key findings from this inspection

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

p.1

Key findings from this inspection

 Young people with significant needs are admitted without proper assessment of their risks. This reduces the home’s capacity to manage the needs of young people, resulting in poor placement outcomes. Inspection report children’s home: SC067810 2  Young people fail to make good progress in relation to their behaviour, emotional and/or social well-being.

p.1

Key findings from this inspection

 A number of incidents have occurred involving young people assaulting staff that have led to police involvement. In addition, there is a high incidence of young people going missing from the home and other serious events.

p.2

Key findings from this inspection

 Sanction and restraint records lack clarity. Furthermore, the views of young people are not consistently included.

p.2

Key findings from this inspection

 There are gaps in the number of formal supervision sessions that managers should undertake with staff.

p.2

Key findings from this inspection

 Managers fail to adequately monitor and review the quality of care.

p.2

Key findings from this inspection

 The acting manager has identified gaps in staff practice. They have put plans in place to address the issues that impact staff and, indeed, the care provided to the young people.

p.2

Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

30/08/2016 Full Good 15/03/2016 Interim Sustained effectiveness 09/09/2015 Full Good 30/03/2015 Full Good Inspection report children’s home: SC067810 3

p.2

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.

p.3

Requirement Due date

The protection of children standard In order to meet the protection of children standard, the registered person must 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; 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.

p.3

Requirement Due date

The care planning standard In order to meet the care planning standard, the registered person must ensure that children: receive effectively planned care in or through the children’s home; and have a positive experience of arriving at or moving on from the home; that children are admitted to the home only if their needs are within the range of needs of children for whom it is intended that the home is to provide care and accommodation, as set out in the home’s statement of purpose.

p.3

Requirement Due date

The positive relationships standard In order to meet the positive relationship standard, the registered person must ensure that children are helped to develop, and to benefit from, relationships based on: an understanding about acceptable behaviour; and that staff: help each child to develop and practise skills to resolve conflicts positively and without harm to anyone; 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 30/09/2017 Inspection report children’s home: SC067810 4 the same; de-escalate confrontations with or between children, or potentially violent behaviour by children.

p.3

Requirement Due date

(Regulation 11 (b)(2)(a)(iv)(x)(xi)) The quality and purpose of care standard In order to meet the quality and purpose of care standard, the registered person must ensure that children receive care from staff who: understand the children’s home’s overall aims and the outcomes it seems to achieve for children; use this understanding to deliver care that meets children’s needs and supports them to fulfil their potential; and ensure that staff: protect and promote each child’s welfare; help each child to understand and manage the impact of any experience of abuse or neglect; help each child to develop resilience and skills that prepare the child to return home, to live in a new placement or to live independently as an adult.

p.4

Requirement Due date

(Regulation 6 (1)(a)(b)(2)(b)(ii)(v)(vi)) 30/09/2017

p.4

Requirement Due date

Behaviour management policies and records The registered person must prepare and implement a behaviour management policy which sets out: the measures of control, discipline and restraint which may be used in relation to children in the home; the registered person must keep the behaviour management policy under review and, where appropriate, revise it; the registered person must ensure that: 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.

p.4

Recommendations

 Children should be encouraged to add their views and comments to the record of restraint. Children should be offered the opportunity to access an advocacy support to help them with this (regulation 7(2)(b)(iii)). (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 49, paragraph 9.60)

p.4

Recommendations

 Ensure that the home takes account of information provided by independent return home interviews when assessing risks and putting arrangements in place Inspection report children’s home: SC067810 5 to protect each child. Evaluation of missing incidents should be undertaken to identify any gaps in training, skills or knowledge for staff or to record and retain evidence of what worked well. This evaluation should inform the review of the quality of care. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, pages 45, paragraphs 9.30 and 9.31)

p.4

Recommendations

 Ensure that sanctions used to address poor behaviour are restorative in nature, to help children recognise the impact of their behaviour on themselves, other children, staff caring for them and the wider community. In some cases, it will be important for children to make reparation in some form to anyone hurt by their behaviour, and the staff in the home should be skilled to support the child to understand this and carry it out. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 46, paragraph 9.38)

p.5

Recommendations

 The registered person has a key role in seeking to develop the home’s effective relationships with each child’s placing authority and with other relevant persons. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 52, paragraph 10.3)

p.5

Recommendations

 The registered person should have a system in place so that all serious events are notified, within 24 hours, to the appropriate people. Notification must include details of the action taken by the home’s staff in response to the event. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 63, paragraph 14.13)

p.5

Recommendations

 Staff should be familiar with the home’s policies on record keeping and understand the importance of careful, objective and clear recording. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 62, paragraph 14.4)

p.5

Recommendations

 Ensure that staff skills in safeguarding are gained, refreshed and recorded in the home’s workforce plan. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 43, paragraph 9.12)

p.5

Recommendations

 Ensure that the individual appointed to carry out visits to the home as an independent person makes a rigorous and impartial assessment of the home’s arrangements for safeguarding and promoting the welfare of the children in the home’s care. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 65, paragraph 15.5)

p.5

Recommendations

 Ensure that a review of quality of care, under Regulations 45, focuses on the quality of the care provided by the home, the impact the care is having on outcomes and improvements for the children. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including quality standards’, pages 64, paragraph 15.2) Inspection report children’s home: SC067810 6

p.5

improvement to be good

Young people do not receive good help or care. This means that they fail to benefit from positive experiences or make good progress. Since the last full inspection, there has been a number of incidents involving young people requiring police intervention: young people have been involved in physical assaults against staff, high incidences of going missing from the home, substance misuse, property damage and alleged child on child sexual activity in the home. Some incidents have led to the young people being charged with common assault and criminal damage. A number of young people were admitted to the home without proper assessments and only stayed for a relatively short duration. This has had an adverse impact on the home as a whole, and has made it difficult for the young people to have positive experiences and receive the consistent and therapeutic support they require.

p.6

improvement to be good

Individual care plans include the young person’s needs and strengths, as well as desired outcomes. Behavioural management plans include de-escalation strategies to help staff meet the challenging behaviours of young people. However, staff have not adhered to these on a consistent basis. This results in a lack of effective support and, consequently, lack of progress by the young people.

p.6

improvement to be good

Key-working sessions take place regularly. Monthly progress reports reflect the content of the discussions with the young people. However, there is no analysis of the impact of certain events on the young people, such as their contact with family members, which is a key area of their lives. This makes it difficult to assess the actual impact of the key- working sessions on promoting positive outcomes for the young people.

p.6

improvement to be good

The two young people currently placed at the home receive education through the alternative provision provided by the home. One of the young person’s school attendance is poor and staff acknowledge the young person is hard to engage in learning. His virtual school teacher indicated that they have identified a provision that offers functional skills and extended work placement, which may assist the young person prepare for his future better. The virtual school headteacher stated that the young person is supported by the staff. The other young person’s tutor stated that he has improved in his writing and is more comfortable with reading. He is more willing to engage this term. The young person’s attainment in mathematics and English is in the beginners’ level. The young person continues to require a high level of supervision. However, it is encouraging that the young person has found enjoyment in the skills

p.6

improvement to be good

shop, where he gets to work with his hands on projects such as woodworking. Inspection report children’s home: SC067810 7 One parent stated that the staff are ‘good’ but that her son struggles with education and is not being challenged enough.

p.6

improvement to be good

One social worker shared concerns around partnership working with the home as the staff have not been quick to respond to situations and to contact him promptly. However, the social worker feels the young person on the whole has been kept safe and that the home has swiftly notified the placing authority and the police on a recent serious incident.

p.7

improvement to be good

One young person with multi-agency involvement due to his significant needs has experienced a reduction of missing episodes. This is since the young person was encouraged to enter into a ‘keeping safe’ agreement that the acting manager implemented.

p.7

improvement to be good

A social work professional stated that there were previous concerns around the behaviour of the young people placed in the home, including missing episodes and substance misuse. One of the young people left the home and ‘immediately did well’, while the other young person has remained at the home and ‘is now doing much better’.

p.7

improvement to be good

A young person currently living in the home stated that the staff are ‘good’ and he can speak to his key worker. The young person stated he felt ‘safe’ in the home and that there was nothing he wanted to see changed about the home except for a bigger back garden.

p.7

improvement to be good

Young people do not receive good enough help and protection. However, slight progress has very recently been made.

p.7

improvement to be good

Since the last full inspection, there have been eight admissions and 10 discharges. Only one of the young people admitted since the last full inspection is still living at the home. A lack of robust impact risk assessments has led to inappropriate placements of young people whose significant needs were not well managed. This resulted in a number of placement disruptions.

p.7

improvement to be good

One young person, who was discharged a month after he was admitted, was not properly assessed for his inappropriate sexualised behaviour. There is no evidence of how the home would be able to meet the young person’s needs. This is particularly concerning, given that the placement referral requested a solo placement. Another young person was admitted despite the referral indicating a preference for an ‘out of London’ placement. The young person was moved just four days after moving into the home. It is not clear from the assessment how the location risks were mitigated for the young person to be placed in the home. Inspection report children’s home: SC067810 8 Some of the young people experienced planned moves, while others did not. There is room for improvement in partnership working with the placing authorities to better support the placement needs of the young people.

p.7

improvement to be good

Although staff follow the home’s procedures when young people go missing, there has been a lack of effective action taken to mitigate the persistent pattern of high-risk behaviour of the identified young people in the home until very recently. Young people who go missing have experienced increased levels of risks and poor outcomes overall.

p.8

improvement to be good

The systems in place for recording restraints and sanctions are appropriate. However, the staff and managers are not recording the incidents accurately. Descriptions of restraint holds are unclear and confusing, and staff have used some restraints that do not comply with the appropriate training provided to them. The views of young people who have been restrained are not consistently recorded. Hence, it is not clear whether young people have been encouraged to talk about their feelings about the restraint incident, or offered access to advocacy support.

p.8

improvement to be good

Eighteen sanctions were recorded since the last interim inspection. Many of the entries are ambiguous in terms of what type and duration of sanction is applied. Additionally, there is a lack of evidence of learning derived from the incidents being applied to better support the young people. Opportunities to implement restorative justice have been limited.

p.8

improvement to be good

There is very limited evidence of young people having input into their care and behavioural management plans. It is not clear if young people have been encouraged to see the home’s records as ‘living documents’, supporting them to view and contribute to the record in a way that reflects their voice on a regular basis.

p.8

improvement to be good

The home’s location risk assessment covers most relevant areas. However, it is limited in detail and lacks the potential risks posed to young people from gangs. This means risks have not been properly assessed, which led to insufficient safety planning of the young people who may be impacted by the home’s location.

p.8

improvement to be good

Young people say they understand how to complain. Complaints made since the last inspection have been appropriately handled by the acting manager in partnership with the designated officer. The acting manager has also ensured clear recordings of the incidents and how the complaints have been dealt with.

p.8

improvement to be good

The home has notified Ofsted without delay of some of the serious incidents that have taken place. However, other notifications, although submitted, were sent after a considerable time lapse. While some notifications contain a good level of detail of the incident, others have gaps, such as the actions that the staff have taken as a result of the matter.

p.8

improvement to be good

A rewards system is in place to reinforce positive behaviour, which has had a positive impact on the young people currently placed at the home. Inspection report children’s home: SC067810 9

p.8

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

The characteristics of good leadership and management have not been in place until very recently with the arrival of the acting manager. Monitoring of the quality of care has not been robust. Furthermore, the learning from placement breakdowns and other serious events has not been imbedded until the acting manager recently took effective steps to address the issues. Staff have not received formal supervision on a regular basis. This results in lost opportunities to review the impact on the service delivery and take effective action where necessary.

p.9

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

Few staff need to complete the safeguarding and child protection training and/or the child sexual exploitation training. All staff members have completed the restraint training except for two support staff, who will complete it next month. A training plan is in place that highlights how staff will receive the necessary training and refresh their skills to better support the young people. The acting manager aims to work closely with the clinical consultant. This will ensure sound therapeutic support and care and the delivery of positive outcomes for the young people.

p.9

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

The independent visitor’s reports are comprehensive. However, they lack a rigorous assessment of the home’s arrangement for safeguarding and promoting the welfare of the young people. Also, the reports contain factual errors in relation to young people’s placing authorities and dates of admission. The acting manager recognises the importance of the independent visitor’s reports and their function of informing the quality review of the service.

p.9

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

The home has been without a registered manager since January 2017. An interim manager has been overseeing the home until very recently when the provider appointed a new acting manager.

p.9

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

The acting manager has identified areas for improvement and has implemented short- term and long-term plans. For example, the acting manager has decided to temporarily halt new admissions until monitoring and practice improvements have been made. Consequently, the current residents are more contained and stabilised and staff are supported to develop their practice.

p.9

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

One support worker stated that he feels good about the changes being made by the new acting manager. The support worker stated, ‘We have a strong team’ and talked about how he can improve his own practice. This shows that an improving culture of learning and development is starting to emerge.

p.9

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

Safe recruitment is in place. The recruitment and vetting process in the service, which is managed through the central office, is robust and thorough.

p.9

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

Staff members say that they receive good support from the team. They are aware of the Inspection report children’s home: SC067810 10 training expectations. One staff member stated that he knows he is making a difference in the young people’s lives by seeing the progress they make.

p.9

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

The acting manager has made significant improvements to the home. There is more evidence of boundaries and structure in the home, with greater oversight of staff practice and monitoring of young people’s day-to-day experiences. One social worker indicated that things have improved since the appointment of the new manager. Communication has improved. Her young person is making steady but sure progress.

p.10

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.

p.10

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: SC067810 11

p.10

Inspector

Linda Kim-Newby, social care inspector Inspection report children’s home: SC067810 12 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.

p.11

Inspector

If you would like a copy of this document in a different format, such as large print or Braille, please telephone 0300 123 1231, 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 http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/doc/open-government-licence , write to the Information Policy Team, The National Archives, Kew, London TW9 4DU, or email: psi@nationalarchives.gsi.gov.uk .

p.12

Inspector

Interested in our work? You can subscribe to our monthly newsletter for more information and updates: http://eepurl.com/iTrDn .

p.12

Inspector

T: 0300 123 1231 Textphone: 0161 618 8524 E: enquiries@ofsted.gov.uk W: http://www.gov.uk/ofsted

p.12