Children's home run by What's Out There Limited

Inspection report children's home: SC465120 1 SC465120 Registered provider: What’s Out There 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

The home is registered to care for up to three children and young people who may have emotional and/or behavioural difficulties. The home is owned by a small company. This is its only children’s home.

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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: 2 November 2016

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requires improvement to be good

Overall judgement at last inspection: Requires improvement

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Key findings from this inspection

This children’s home requires improvement to be good because: Inspection report children's home: SC465120 2  On occasions, staff have called the police to help them to manage young people’s behaviour. This has resulted in young people having a negative experience in the home.

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Key findings from this inspection

 Leaders and managers do not consistently record actions to take that further safeguard young people. The outcomes of child protection referrals are not clear on all child protection records.

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Key findings from this inspection

 Leaders and managers failed to ensure good planning and preparation for one young person’s move into, and from, the home. Leaders and managers did not obtain sufficient information about one young person’s care needs before they moved in, to enable them to develop the initial care plan.

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Key findings from this inspection

 Systems to monitor and review the quality of care require improvement. Monitoring does not yet provide sufficient detail to demonstrate an in-depth level of scrutiny and learning.

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Key findings from this inspection

 Care plans for those young people who have lived in the home for some time provide detailed information about young people, their needs and identity. Young people’s personalities, their likes and dislikes come through strongly. This gives staff a sense of who they are as people and how best to support them.

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Key findings from this inspection

 Staff and young people develop positive relationships. Young people have their own core staff to support them.

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Key findings from this inspection

 Young people have the opportunity to experience new fun activities. The team helps children and young people to create memories through memory books filled with photographs and by collecting keepsakes.

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

02/11/2016 Full Requires improvement 18/07/2016 Full Inadequate 27/01/2016 Full Requires improvement 03/11/2015 Full Inadequate Inspection report children's home: SC465120 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

In order to meet the protection of children standard, the registered persons must ensure that staff—

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Requirement Due date

2(a)(v) understand the roles and responsibilities in relation to protecting children that are assigned to them by the registered person.

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Requirement Due date

In particular they should ensure that the final outcome and actions of child protection concerns are clearly recorded and communicated to the staff team. In addition, they should establish alternative strategies that staff can use to support children with their behaviour to minimise the police being called unnecessarily. 20/09/2017

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Requirement Due date

13: The leadership and management standard

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Requirement Due date

In order to meet the leadership and management standard, the registered persons must enable, inspire and lead a culture in relation to the children’s home that—

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Requirement Due date

2 (g) demonstrates that practice in the home is informed and improved by taking into account and acting on (ii) feedback on the experiences of children, including complaints received;

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Requirement Due date

(h) uses monitoring and review systems to make continuous improvements in the quality of care provided in the home.

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Requirement Due date

In particular, they should ensure that children receive a response to their complaints and record the outcomes and ensure that leaders and managers continue to improve their monitoring and review systems. 20/09/2017

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Requirement Due date

The care planning standard is that children— 20/09/2017 Inspection report children's home: SC465120 4 1 (a) receive effectively planned care in or through the children’s home; and (b) have a positive experience of arriving at or moving on from the home.

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Requirement Due date

In particular, the registered persons should ensure that leaders and managers have the child’s local authority care plan and other relevant documentation prior to the child moving in to the home.

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improvement to be good

Leaders and managers failed to make suitable arrangements for one young person when they moved in to the home. There was a lack of consideration of the young person’s needs at the outset of the placement. Insufficient information was obtained before the young person moved in, to inform the team about how to provide care for the young person. In particular, the local authority care plan was not obtained. On occasions, staff have used the services of the police to support them to manage young people’s behaviour, including self-harming behaviour. This has resulted in some children being handcuffed and also experiencing restraint from police officers. A young person said, ‘I don’t like it when they call the police. It makes things worse.’ The staff team supports young people to attend school, look for employment and to access opportunities to learn new skills. Young people make progress in education, improving their attendance and interest in learning. Staff advocate on young people’s

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improvement to be good

behalf, to ensure that they have access to the services they need that will help them achieve their aspirations. Young people are making good progress in comparison to when they first arrived at the home. One young person said, ‘I have achieved so much more here than I could have done anywhere else.’ Young people develop trusting and supportive relationships with the staff team. The staff are stable, and young people and staff get to know each other and develop positive relationships. Young people feel confident in expressing their views; they identify staff members to whom they can talk. Young people talk positively about the care they receive. One young person said, ‘This is the best place I have lived. It’s amazing here.’ Care plans for young people who have been living here for longer periods of time are continuing to improve. They provide detailed information about young people, why they are living here and what they aim to achieve. Young people are described with warmth

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improvement to be good

in their care plans. These include important details about young people’s identities. Young people have good access to activities outside the home and are encouraged to keep active. Staff and young people plan a variety of activities that widen young people’s experiences. Memory books are filled with memories of these activities. Young people are able to keep these. Inspection report children's home: SC465120 5

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improvement to be good

Child protections records are not well maintained. Leaders and managers do not consistently record on child protection records the outcome to the child protection concern or any actions staff need to take to safeguard young people. Staff, leaders and managers use the child protection policy effectively to report concerns to external professionals and designated people. Social workers say that leaders and managers report child protection concerns swiftly. Staff receive regular child protection training. Risk assessments are individual to each young person. The staff team understands and identifies risks posed to the young people. The staff have strategies to manage and minimise these risks. Some of these strategies are not conducive to providing a nurturing environment, such as using the police to manage behaviour. When young people go missing, staff quickly instigate the missing from home protocol. They search the local area and inform all relevant professionals swiftly. Staff work in

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improvement to be good

collaboration and appropriately with the police to find young people as quickly as possible. Contact is maintained with one young person who frequently goes missing for long periods of time. In addition to requesting an independent return home interview, leaders and managers complete their own return home debrief with young people. Staff implement an incentive and reward system to promote positive behaviour. Young people respond well to this strategy. Physical restraint is not used as a strategy to manage the current young people living in the home. However, physical restraint has been used with one young person since the last inspection. On these occasions, restraint was used appropriately to protect the young person from harm.

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

The registered manager demonstrates the ability to improve the quality of care the home provides to young people, by addressing shortfalls identified at previous inspections. Leaders and managers have become more reflective of their practice and identify areas for development to help move the home forward. Leaders and managers’ monitoring and review systems do not always identify poor practice that impacts negatively on young people’s experiences. Monitoring of records when the police have been called does not challenge this practice. Monitoring and review systems do not always identify learning or assess the impact of the care given to the young people. One young person has made a complaint about the home. Leaders and managers listened to this but failed to provide a response to the young person. Leaders and managers failed to record the outcome of the complaint. Inspection report children's home: SC465120 6

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

The development plan identifies a number of weaknesses that leaders and managers wish to address. One area is the quality of the accommodation. In places, this is poor, and refurbishment is required to bring it up to a good standard. Leaders and managers monitor the progress being made on the development plan effectively. Leaders and managers provide staff with the support they need to develop, through supervision, appraisal and team meetings. This support enables the staff to reflect on their practice and the support they provide to young people. There is a suitable induction and training programme in place that provides staff with the skills they require to meet the needs of 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 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. Whenever 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 and 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: SC465120 7

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Children’s home details

Registered provider: What’s Out There Limited

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Inspector

Nicola Lownds, social care inspector Inspection report children's home: SC465120 8 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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