Children's home run by Hertfordshire County Council in Dacorum

Inspection report children’s home: SC382138 1 SC382138 Registered provider: Hertfordshire County 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 local authority children’s home accommodates 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: 29 December 2016

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requires improvement to be good

Overall judgement at last inspection: Improved effectiveness

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requires improvement to be good

Enforcement action since last inspection: none

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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

 Despite efforts made by the provider to recruit an interim manager, there is currently no manager in place. The registered manager is on maternity leave and changes to the staff team and new appointments mean that children and Inspection report children’s home: SC382138 2 staff feel that there is a lack of consistency.  The relationship between two of the children is affecting the other children at the home.  The manager has not completed a review of the quality of care at least every six months.  Monitoring of practice at the home has failed to identify the shortfalls that were picked up at this inspection.  The staff are failing to help the children to recognise when they are placing themselves or others at risk.  The staff are not fully recording when they conduct the weekly fire system checks.  The staff are not fully completing the children’s case records. In addition, central logs, such as the bullying log, do not match the individual records.

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Key findings from this inspection

 The staff are able to build positive relationships with the children and use these relationships to work with the children to address issues such as self-harmful behaviour.  The staff are effective in supporting the children to maintain daily routines that centre on their education. This has led to an increase in the children’s attendance.  There has been a reduction in the number of bullying incidents. The staff work closely with the children to recognise the negative effect that bullying can have on other children.  The staff are working with the children, their families and other professionals to ensure that the children receive a consistent approach to their care.  The staff help the children to recognise their own abilities and develop their aspirations in areas such as seeking employment and further education.

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

29/12/2016 Interim Improved effectiveness 25/05/2016 Full Good 19/01/2016 Interim Improved effectiveness 18/08/2015 Full Requires improvement Inspection report children’s home: SC382138 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

The protection of children standard is that children are protected from harm and enabled to keep themselves safe. In particular, the standard in paragraph (1) requires the registered person to ensure that 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. (Regulation 12 (1)(2)(b)) This is with particular regard to ensuring that relationships between children are carefully monitored and that action is taken to minimise risks to those children and reduce the impact on other children living at the home. 31/07/2017

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must complete a review of the quality of care provided for children (‘a quality of care review’) at least every 6 months. The registered person must supply to HMCI a copy of the quality of care review report within 28 days of the date on which the quality of care review is completed. (Regulation 45 (1)(4)(a))) 15/09/2017

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Recommendations

 Ensure that the staff support the children to be aware of and manage their own safety, both inside and outside the home, to the extent that any good parent would. Staff should help children to understand how to protect themselves, feel protected, and be protected from significant harm. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 43, paragraph 9.9)  Ensure that all staff consistently follow the home’s policies and procedures. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 54, paragraph 10.20) This is in particular reference to conducting and recording the weekly fire alarm system checks.  Ensure that case records are kept up to date and signed and dated by the author of each entry. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality Inspection report children’s home: SC382138 4 standards’, page 62, paragraph 14.3)

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Recommendations

In particular, ensure that the staff fully complete entries in records and that the central logs, such as the bullying log, match the individual records.

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improvement to be good

Although there are some good outcomes for children, instability in management arrangements, and relationships between some of the children, mean that the children’s experiences are not consistently good. The children appear relaxed in the company of staff, but at times they are not as relaxed with each other. There have been difficulties with the interactions between some of the children, some of which have been of a bullying nature. The staff address negative behaviours by working with the children on an individual and group basis to address the issues. Since the last inspection, two children have moved on from the home and three have moved in. The staff have managed the children’s moves into and out of the home effectively. The manager, when considering new admissions, completes a compatibility assessment. These assess the needs and behaviours of the child being referred alongside those of the children who live at the home. This enables the team to predict and plan for difficulties

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improvement to be good

that may arise. To help new children to feel more familiar with their surroundings, they often have the opportunity to visit the home for a meal and to meet the other children and the staff prior to moving in. The staff quickly build positive relationships with the children. The staff use these relationships to help the children to develop the skills to self-regulate and to reflect on their behaviours. This is evident with the children who have lived at the home for a longer period. Some of the newer children are still developing these skills. A parent said, ‘She is getting on well. She’s calmed down and is a lot more relaxed. She has more good days than bad. She is learning to control her moods.’ The relationship and rapport between the staff and the children is warm and nurturing. The children spoken with during the inspection were positive about the care that they receive and were able to identify someone with whom they would speak if they had a

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improvement to be good

concern. The home is working well with the virtual school and local provisions to provide the children with bespoke education packages. The children’s attendance and participation is increasing because the staff continually encourage and support the children to establish and maintain a routine of education attendance. This has included supporting children in school to enable them to take their exams. One child has successfully sought and Inspection report children’s home: SC382138 5 secured an apprenticeship and is working towards living independently. The children attend an array of activities. These include local activities and short breaks away. The activities encourage the children to try new experiences and to build their friendships, both at the home and in the community. The children attend their health appointments. The staff are successfully helping children to reduce their self-harmful behaviours; they have link sessions with the children to

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improvement to be good

identify alternative strategies. The staff also access specialist services to offer the children additional emotional support as required. The looked after children’s nurse described having an open invite to the children’s meetings and spoke about how she has worked with the children on specific issues, such as their weight. She said, ‘The staff involve the children in making healthy meals and lovely things. It feels positive and they [the staff] know the children. They care for, and are looking after, the children with the best intentions.’ The staff encourage and support the children to take age-appropriate responsibility for themselves. This includes building on their free time and safe use of their phones and the internet. When there have been concerns, the staff have worked with the child, their families and the relevant professionals to reach an agreed approach to reduce these.

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improvement to be good

During the inspection, there were ongoing discussions between the staff about the interactions between two of the children, who have advised the staff that they are in a relationship. Staff members and a child separately spoke about being uncomfortable about the relationship and the effect it is having on the children involved and the other children living at the home. During the inspection, an incident occurred which placed both of the children who are in a relationship at risk. The staff on duty failed to identify this risk. One of the children was reported to the police as missing, despite the fact that she was actually at the home; her whereabouts were unknown to the staff. The deputy and senior managers have called a professionals’ meeting to reach a consensus on whether the home can continue to keep both children safe. A child spoke of her feelings about other children misbehaving. She said, ‘Staff are being

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improvement to be good

verbally abused and they [the other children] have done it to me.’ When asked whether she feels safe at her home, the child said, ‘It [the children’s behaviour] makes feeling safe here debatable.’ This response was made at the same time that a child was upset and displaying volatile behaviours. Throughout the inspection, all of the children were interacting positively with the staff. However, it is concerning that a child has this perception. The children’s risk assessments address known and potential risks and detail the strategies that the staff use to minimise these. The staff are actively advocating for one child, who currently has one-to-one staffing for the majority of the day, to have a small amount of free time. The home is keen to work with the child in a way that is not risk- averse to enable her to start to prove that she can be trusted and, over time, Inspection report children’s home: SC382138 6

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improvement to be good

demonstrate that she can make positive, safe choices. There has been an increase in the number of incidents of children going missing from the home. This has reduced more recently because one of the children has moved out. Some of the records of these incidents are incomplete. The records do not provide clarity about when the child or children returned to the home. The children’s individual records do not match the central list of missing from home records. This presents a differing view of the frequency of these occurrences and prevents the accurate identification of patterns and triggers. Records of incidents of bullying show that these occur sporadically and have reduced in frequency. However, the records held on the children’s files do not tally with the central log. This can give an incomplete picture of the extent of bullying that may be occurring in the home. The location and fire risk assessments review and address all aspects of risks, but the

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improvement to be good

records of weekly fire checkpoints are incomplete. This makes it unclear whether or not these important safety checks have occurred. There have been two allegations made against a staff member. The child quickly retracted these on each occasion. The managers and the staff took the appropriate actions each time to ensure that the child was listened to and that the staff member was treated fairly. The staff have conducted link sessions with the child to discuss the danger of making false allegations. Staff successfully use de-escalation techniques such as humour and mirroring with the children. The use of physical intervention is low; when any holds are used, these are very brief in duration. There is no central physical intervention log, which makes the identification of the overall number of physical interventions more difficult.

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

There have been some changes to the core staff team. Two staff, including the manager, are on maternity leave, one staff member is on long-term sickness leave and one has left. An interim manager was due to commence work but had to withdraw due to personal reasons. The manager’s maternity leave then commenced earlier than planned. This meant that the deputy manager, who started recently, did not receive the planned handover from the manager. The senior managers and other managers from across the homes in the organisation are spending increased periods of time at this home to offer the deputy manager and the team additional support. There has been one new starter since the last inspection. The core staff are covering a number of additional shifts to minimise the need for the use of agency staff. The changes and lack of a constant manager have had an effect on the staff and the children. One child said, ‘The

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

home has changed a lot. I struggle with what is going on. Sometimes the management and other managers in the home mean no consistent boundaries for the children.’ Managers complete a monthly summary of incidents, which gives an overview of the types and number of incidents. This also details other aspects of progress, such as the children’s attendance at school. The charts enable the children to have a visual representation of their progress. However, the manager has not completed the required Inspection report children’s home: SC382138 7 six-monthly review of care. Failure to complete this review means that opportunities to identify strengths and weaknesses in order to drive improvement are missed. In addition, the monthly monitoring has failed to identify shortfalls such as the gaps in records and the lack of recording of fire checks. The managers use the monthly reports provided by the independent visitor to address

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

areas for improvement at the home. Managers are encouraging the staff to take on specific areas of responsibility to enhance the team’s understanding of how gaps in the recording of information can impede the overall quality of the children’s records. The staff receive regular supervision. The staff say that the sessions provide them with a space to reflect on their practice. Despite the changes in personnel, the sessions are largely occurring at the expected intervals. The staff undertake a range of core training in areas such as identifying children who are at risk of child sexual exploitation, physical intervention and first aid, at the required intervals. This enables them to work with up-to-date knowledge and methods. Parents and professionals are happy with the service that the home is providing, and they feel that the children are doing well. Their comments included:

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

 ‘I really enjoy it [visiting the home]. I like coming here as there is always something going on.’  ‘It is going really well. They are doing a bang up job. Thought he would go into himself there, but he is still the same person. He has gelled with the other children. Staff keep me informed, they will call or text. No concerns at all about his safety. All positive.’  ‘I feel that he is safe there. There have been a lot of difficulties, but they [staff] are managing the dynamics of the home. They do a good job with the difficult dynamics of the children. The child who had an [negative] impact on [child’s] emotions moved on. They have worked really well to promote friendships among the children. They took [child] away on a group holiday and this helped him build relationships.’  ‘I have no concerns about anyone and I am impressed with their 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 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 Inspection report children’s home: SC382138 8 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: SC382138 9

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: Hertfordshire County Council, Apsley One, Brindley Way, Hemel Hempstead, Hertfordshire HP3 9BF

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Inspector

Sonia Hay, social care inspector Inspection report children’s home: SC382138 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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