Children's home run by Wessex College Limited in Dorset

Inspection report children’s home: SC043245 1 SC043245 Registered provider: Wessex College

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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 children’s home is registered to provide care and accommodation for four young people who have emotional and behavioural difficulties. It is one of six children’s homes operated by a private organisation. The organisation also provides an independent school, which young people from this home can attend.

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Overall experiences and progress of

children and young people, taking into account

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good

How well children and young people are helped and protected good

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good

The effectiveness of leaders and managers requires improvement to be good

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good

The children’s home provides effective services that meet the requirements for good.

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good

Date of last inspection: 2 February 2017

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good

Overall judgement at last inspection: sustained effectiveness Inspection report children’s home: SC043245 2 Enforcement action since last inspection: none

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Key findings from this inspection

 Young people have significantly reduced their previous high-risk behaviours since their admission to the home  Young people are protected. Safeguarding procedures are robust, and are clearly understood and followed by staff.  Young people are doing well at school. Those who have now left school are working, or looking to go to college.  The staff team is good at communicating with parents and social workers. The staff team keeps parents and social workers up to date about what is happening in young people’s lives.  Staff provide young people with a comfortable, nurturing home in which to live.

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Key findings from this inspection

The children’s homes areas for development:

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Key findings from this inspection

 Monitoring of the quality of care that is completed by the registered manager is not always effective. This is not always used to improve practice in the home.  The registered manager fails to advocate on behalf of the young person when other professionals are not fulfilling actions set for them at young people’s statutory reviews. This includes arranging for looked after children’s medicals to be completed.  New staff do not receive supervision in line with the organisation’s supervision policy. Supervision records do not evidence the discussions well, nor do they show that actions are consistently set for staff.  Currently, staff involved in incidents also carry out the follow-up discussion with young people. This arrangement does not enable young people to talk independently about their experiences.

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

02/02/2017 Interim Sustained effectiveness 10/08/2016 Full Good 21/03/2016 Interim Improved effectiveness Inspection report children’s home: SC043245 3 09/12/2015 Full Good Inspection report children’s home: SC043245 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

5: Engaging with the wider system to ensure children’s needs are met

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Requirement Due date

In meeting the quality standard, the registered person must, and must ensure that staff seek to involve each child’s placing authority effectively in the child’s care, in accordance with the child’s relevant plans; seek to secure the input and services required to meet each child’s needs; if the registered person considers, or staff consider, a placing authority’s or a relevant person’s performance or response to be inadequate in relation to their role, challenge the placing authority or the relevant person to seek to ensure that each child’s needs are met in accordance with the child’s relevant plans. This includes ensuring that all actions set at a young person’s review are completed by the individuals they are allocated to. (Regulation 5(a, b, c)) 04/09/2017

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Requirement Due date

The health and well-being standard is that the health and well- being needs of children are met. In particular, leaders and managers need to ensure that looked after young people receive an annual looked after child medical. (Regulation 10(1)(a)) 29/09/2017

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Requirement Due date

13: The leadership and management standard

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Requirement Due date

The leadership and management standard is that the registered person enables, inspires and leads a culture in relation to the children’s home that helps children aspire to fulfil their potential; and promotes their welfare. In particular, the standard in paragraph (1) requires the registered person to use monitoring and review systems to make continuous improvements in the quality of care provided in the home. (Regulation 13(1)(a, b)(2)(h)) 04/09/2017 Inspection report children’s home: SC043245 5 33: Employment of staff

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must ensure that all employees receive practice-related supervision by a person with appropriate experience. In particular, supervision needs to be of a consistently good quality to assist in the development of staff, and new staff need to receive supervision at the frequency stated in the organisation’s supervision policy. (Regulation 33(4)(b)) 04/09/2017

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Recommendations

 Any child who has been restrained should be given the opportunity express their feelings about their experience of the restraint as soon as is practicable, ideally within 24 hours of the restraint incident, taking the age of the child and the circumstances of the restraint into account. In some cases children may need longer to work through their feelings, so a record that the child has talked about their feelings should be made no longer than 5 days after the incident of restraint (regulation 35(3)(c)). 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)). In particular, this debrief should be carried out by a member of staff not involved in the restraint. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, paragraph 9.60, page 49)

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

The quality of the care young people receive is good. Staff have developed good relationships with the young people. Interactions between staff and young people are warm, caring and nurturing. Lots of humour and laughter was observed during the inspection. When asked about the staff who care for them, young people said that they really liked the staff and they knew that they wanted the best for them. One young person said ‘I don’t like being told no, but sometimes I need it.’

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

The staff team keeps young people’s parents and social workers up to date with what is happening in the young people’s lives. A social worker spoke positively about this communication and said that they liked that staff contacted them about positive events and not just the negative ones. They felt this gave them a more holistic view of the young person’s life at the home.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Overall health arrangements for young people are appropriate. This includes input from specialist health providers, therapists and substance misuse services where needed. Inspection report children’s home: SC043245 6 However, a significant delay in one young person having their looked after child medical has not been moved forward by the registered manager.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Young people make good progress from their individual starting points, in relation to their educational development. Young people who have left school are either employed or intending to go to college. Some young people access the organisation’s farm. The young people benefit from the opportunity to care for animals, and said they really enjoy the experience.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff support young people well to take part in a range of activities. These activities are tailored to each individual young person, giving them the opportunity to continue with current hobbies as well as trying new ones. As a result of these opportunities, young people are developing their social skills, making friends outside of the home, building their self-esteem and self-confidence and having fun. Currently, the young people are excitedly planning their summer holidays. One young person is visiting their family overseas, while other young people are having holidays on the coast.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff support young people well to maintain relationships with their family and friends. Visitors to the home are welcomed. Staff manage visits well so that they do not upset or impact negatively on the young people.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Young people are developing their skills for adult life. Independence work is undertaken with young people at levels that are appropriate to their age and individual ability.

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

Young people feel safe living at this home and the help that staff give to them is good. As a result, high-risk behaviours, including going missing from the home, substance misuse and inappropriate use of the internet, have dramatically reduced. Staff help young people to develop an understanding of the risks of these behaviours and the negative impact these risks were have on their well-being, safety and future experiences. Young people are developing the skills to help to keep themselves safer.

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

When young people have been missing from the home, staff and managers have reviewed the incidents to identify trends, patterns and antecedence. They undertake preventative work with the young people. This approach has been very effective.

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

Each young person has a bespoke behaviour management plan. These plans are regularly reviewed and amended following changes in the young people’s behaviours to ensure that the plans remain current. Staff use positive reinforcement and reflective discussions when supporting young people with their behaviour. Sanctions are no longer punitive and a restorative approach is now used. Staff help young people to develop the skills to resolve any conflicts that they may have with others. Young people are at different stages in this work. One young person said that they are now, on most occasions, able to stop and think and remove themselves from situations before ‘things go too far’. Inspection report children’s home: SC043245 7 Restraint is only used as a last resort. When used, it is of the lowest level and for the minimum amount of time. Records pertaining to the use of restraints are clear. Staff do not always ensure that young people have the opportunity to talk about their feelings

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

when restraint is used. When discussions do happen they are sometimes completed by the member of staff who carried out the restraint. This approach is not appropriate and could potentially prevent a young person from raising concerns.

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

Safeguarding systems are good and are closely adhered to in practice. Staff demonstrate a good understanding of the safeguarding policy and their duty of care to protect the young people. The safeguarding lead has developed efficient working relationships with external safeguarding professionals.

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

New staff are recruited in line with safer recruitment policies.

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

The registered manager has not ensured that all of the requirements from the previous inspection have been met. In addition, practices at the home are not effectively monitored and actions are not routinely taken to address weaknesses. This shortfall was raised at the full inspection in August 2016 and was met at the interim inspection in February 2017, but the registered manager has failed to sustain this progress.

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

The registered manager is not routinely advocating on the young person’s behalf by chasing up placing authorities, or other relevant professionals, in a timely manner when they fail to respond to actions set at a young person’s statutory review. This weaknesses was also raised at the last inspection. Insufficient action has been taken to remedy it.

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

New staff are not receiving supervision at the frequency set out in the organisation’s supervision policy. This does not assist them in developing their knowledge and working practices. Other staff are receiving supervision regularly, but the quality of the supervision records varies. Some records lack details of the discussions held, and do not show that staff are given the opportunity to reflect on their practice to help them to develop their skills.

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

An appropriately qualified registered manager leads the home and a full staff team is now in place. As a result, the use of temporary staff from an external agency has reduced significantly. Staff spoken with demonstrated a good understanding of the young people, their needs and how these are to be met. Social workers, independent reviewing officers and parents are very positive about the staff team. They praised the staff for their commitment to the young people.

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

Staff ensure that the home they provide for young people is welcoming, comfortable and well-furnished. Currently, large areas of the home are being redecorated and refurbished. The young people have been involved in choosing the decor and furniture. Inspection report children’s home: SC043245 8 The quality of records maintained by staff has improved and no longer contains vague statements or emotive language. Overall, records do demonstrate the progress young people are making, but do not always evidence all of the work staff do with the young people. Complaints are dealt with swiftly. Comprehensive records are kept, and show that complaints are taken seriously, and that information gathered during the course of an investigation is used to develop 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 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: SC043245 9

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: Ward Goodman, 4 Cedar Park, Cobham Road, Ferndown Industrial Estate, Wimborne BH21 7SF

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Inspector

Wendy Anderson: social care inspector Inspection report children’s home: SC043245 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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