Children's Home run by Phoenix Children’s Homes Limited in Devon

Inspection report children's home: SC403234 1 SC403234 Registered provider: Phoenix Child Care 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

This home is operated by a private provider of education and social care for children and young people. It provides care and accommodation for up to three young people who have emotional and/or behavioural difficulties. The home is situated on the edge of town near the coast. Young people may attend education in the company’s school.

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Overall experiences and progress of

children and young people, taking into account

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requires improvement

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

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requires improvement

The effectiveness of leaders and managers good

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requires improvement

Date of last inspection: 20 February 2017

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requires improvement

Overall judgement at last inspection: Declined in effectiveness

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Enforcement action since last inspection

A compliance notice was issued after the interim inspection undertaken on 20 February 2017. During this inspection the inspector identified widespread failings predominantly in respect of safeguarding. These led to a judgement of declined effectiveness.

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Enforcement action since last inspection

A monitoring inspection was completed on 4 April 2017. Overall, a number of improvements were seen during this inspection. However, ongoing development and consolidation was required.

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Key findings from this inspection

Inspection report children's home: SC403234 2 This children’s home is good because:

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Key findings from this inspection

 The registered manager has successfully addressed the majority of the shortfalls identified on 4 April 2017. Most importantly, safeguarding standards have been raised.  Young people are provided with a good standard of care. They have good relationships with staff and convey that they are happy living in the home.

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Key findings from this inspection

The children’s home’s areas for development:

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Key findings from this inspection

 Young people’s bedrooms lack a homely feel. They are not welcoming, homely environments.  The registered manager has not strongly advocated on behalf of young people. There is a lack of challenge to other professionals and agencies, in respect of the educational provision.

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

20/02/2017 Interim Declined in effectiveness 23/08/2016 Full Good 02/03/2016 Interim Improved effectiveness 24/09/2015 Full Good Inspection report children's home: SC403234 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

8.—(1) The education standard is that children make measurable progress towards achieving their educational potential and are helped to do so. (2) In particular, the standard in paragraph (1) requires the registered person to ensure— (a) that staff—

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Requirement Due date

(i) help each child to achieve the child’s education and training targets, as recorded in the child’s relevant plans; (ii) support each child’s learning and development, including helping the child to develop independent study skills and, where appropriate, helping the child to complete independent study; (iii) understand the barriers to learning that each child may face and take appropriate action to help the child to overcome any such barriers; (iv) help each child to understand the importance and value of education, learning, training and employment; (v) promote opportunities for each child to learn informally; (vi) maintain regular contact with each child’s education and training provider, including engaging with the provider and the placing authority to support the child’s education and training and to maximise the child’s achievement; (vii) raise any need for further assessment or specialist provision in relation to a child with the child’s education or

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Requirement Due date

training provider and the child’s placing authority; (viii) help a child who is excluded from school, or who is of compulsory school age but not attending school, to access educational and training support throughout the period of exclusion or non-attendance and to return to school as soon as possible; (ix) help each child who is above compulsory school age to 06/09/2017 Inspection report children's home: SC403234 4 participate in further education, training or employment and to prepare for future care, education or employment; (x) help each child to attend education or training in accordance with the expectations in the child’s relevant plans; and (b) that each child has access to appropriate equipment, facilities and resources to support the child’s learning.

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Requirement Due date

Specifically, the registered person and their staff team must ensure that young people are provided with, and supported to fully engage in full-time education provision which maximises their full potential.

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Recommendations

 Ensure the children’s home is a nurturing and supportive environment that meets the needs of their children, they will in, most cases, be homely, domestic environments. This particularly relates to ensuring that young people have sufficient storage space for their belongings and that attention is given to maintenance, repairs and decoration of the home in proving a clean, hygienic environment. (The Guide to the Quality Standards, page 15, paragraph 3.9).  13.2 The registered person must have systems in place so that all staff, including the manager, receive supervision of their practice from an appropriately qualified and experienced professional, which allows them to reflect on their practice and the needs of the children assigned to their care. (The Guide to the Quality Standards, page 61).

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

The home environment has improved overall; communal areas are nicely decorated and well maintained. However, young people’s bedrooms are not currently homely spaces. For example, one young person has limited storage space, broken drawers, no sheet on their mattress and unclean carpets. This does not provide a welcoming space for the young person.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

There are currently two young people living in this home. Both young people conveyed to the inspector that they feel safe, and are happy living in their home. Very positive interactions were also observed between the young people and their staff team.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Both young people are fairly new to the home they are settling in well. The registered manager and staff are providing a good standard of nurturing care. This is supporting the settling-in process. Positive relationships could be seen during the inspection. A number of records of support sessions demonstrate how staff are supporting the young people. Inspection report children's home: SC403234 5 The registered manager encourages both young people to socialise with their peers within the community. This includes supporting their attendance at youth club and at tennis club. Young people are involved in a summer club that includes a variety of activities such as paintballing, a fun run, a trip to a fun park and a visit to Exmoor zoo. The registered manager has also booked a summer holiday for the young people, and other smaller trips such as camping are also planned.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Since the last inspection a young person who previously lived at the home has moved on. Records seen demonstrate that this move was carefully planned and a positive outcome for the young person was promoted by the registered manager and the staff team. This young person remains in contact with staff from the home. This gives an indication of good relationships between the young person and the staff.

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

There has been one significant safeguarding incident since the last inspection. This was well managed and the young person was supported to learn from their behaviour.

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

The use of physical interventions have been minimal since the last inspection, and the use of these has been proportionate. De-escalation techniques are attempted to avoid the need for the use of physical intervention. These work well.

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

Behaviour management is underpinned by a praise and reward systems. There have been six consequences for poor behaviour since the last inspection. The registered manager scrutinises all incidents and ensures that her views are communicated to all staff, in order to make changes to the way that staff manage young people’s behaviour.

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

There is a practice of turning off the power source at 10.30pm, so that young people are unable to watch television. This practices lacks creativity and fails to engage the young person in addressing and resolving the matter.

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

One young person is awaiting the start of their formal education provision. This has taken many weeks. The registered manager has been chasing the relevant professionals in order to speed up the process, but this has taken too long. Informal education opportunities have been provided for the young person.

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

The other young person’s school attendance has dropped to 50% from 100% since they moved into the placement, which is very concerning. Therefore a requirement has been made to reflect this area of concern.

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

Safeguarding knowledge for all staff has been promoted by the provision of further formal and informal training within team meetings. Staff spoken to conveyed confidence in respect of how to meet young people’s welfare needs.

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

Young people’s health needs are met and monitored to ensure that ongoing health treatment is provided. For example, young people who are new to the home are quickly Inspection report children's home: SC403234 6 registered with local health services and any check-up appointments are promptly booked.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The registered manager has developed care planning and risk assessment systems to a good standard. Risk assessment is now proactive and effective. This supports risk reduction and good safeguarding practice. Specifically, pre-admission matching assessments are now of a good standard.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The registered manager has developed a new admission process in order to ensure that all of the important information is collected and considered, prior to young people moving in to the home. The registered manager has similarly developed a new process to ensure that when young people move on from the home, this is handled carefully. This has proven to promote positive transitions for young people.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

There is a stable staff team at the home, and agency staff are no longer used. This has reduced the staffing turnover. The registered manager ensures that safer recruitment practice is of a good standard. Specifically, all recruitment paperwork is audited directly by the manager, including the verification of references.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

All staff are provided with a good standard of training. This enables them to meet the needs of young people. Any training needs are also monitored directly by the registered manager, which ensures that staff training is kept up to date.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The registered manager is providing regular supervision to the staff team. However, the supervision process lacks reflective practice, which seeks to identify areas for development.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

In summary, the registered manager has effectively raised standards and put robust safeguards in place in order to protect young people.

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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 differences 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 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 Inspection report children's home: SC403234 7 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: SC403234 8

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Children’s home details

Registered provider: Phoenix Child Care Limited

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: Phoenix Learning And Care Ltd, First Floor, Rolle Quay House, Rolle Quay, BARNSTAPLE, Devon EX31 1JE

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Children’s home details

Registered manager: Deborah Lovering-Roddis

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Inspector

Polly Soper, social care inspector Inspection report children's home: SC403234 9 achieve excellence in the care of children and young people, and in education and skills for learners of all ages. It regulates and inspects childcare and children’s social care, and inspects the Children and Family Court Advisory and Support Service (Cafcass), schools, colleges, initial teacher training, further education and skills, adult and community learning, and education and training in prisons and other secure establishments. It assesses council children’s services, and inspects services for 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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