Norwich Road (15)

Inspection report children’s home: SC034480 1 SC034480 Registered provider: Norfolk County Council Children’s Services

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Full inspection Inspected under the social care common inspection framework

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Information about this children’s home

A local authority children’s services department owns and operates this home, which provides emergency and short-term placements for up to four young people who have emotional and behavioural difficulties.

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Overall experiences and progress of

children and young people, taking into account

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inadequate

How well children and young people are helped and protected inadequate

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inadequate

The effectiveness of leaders and managers inadequate

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inadequate

There are serious and widespread failures that mean children and young people are not protected or their welfare is not promoted or safeguarded.

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inadequate

Date of last inspection: 24 January 2017

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inadequate

Overall judgement at last inspection: Sustained effectiveness

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Enforcement action since last inspection

None Inspection report children’s home: SC034480 2

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Key findings from this inspection

This children’s home is inadequate because

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Key findings from this inspection

 The manager and staff have failed to identify and take action regarding a serious safeguarding matter. Appropriate steps to protect a child were not taken.  The manager has not notified Ofsted of a serious safeguarding matter. Consequently, Ofsted has been unable to monitor whether the manager and staff have followed suitable safeguarding processes.  Routine audits completed by the manager have failed to identify obvious shortfalls in safeguarding practice. Risk assessments and care plans for specific children have not been updated regularly enough.  Not all eligible staff employed to work at the home have completed the required level 3 diploma in residential childcare.  The manager has not ensured that the service is meeting required standards in line with the statement of purpose.  Children have not received information and/or direct work that supports them to gain knowledge and skills to safely manage their use of the internet.

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Key findings from this inspection

 The home does not provide a homely environment for children.  The manager has not effectively managed the matching of children’s needs before their admission.

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Key findings from this inspection

 The manager and staff quickly establish relationships with the children, their families and other professionals and work together towards suitably planned outcomes.  The manager has worked with children, families and professionals to reduce the risks to some of the children who go missing from care.  Communication with families is good. As a result, children establish contact which promotes ongoing relationships with the important people in their lives. Inspection report children’s home: SC034480 3

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

24/01/2017 Interim Sustained effectiveness 03/05/2016 Full Good 19/01/2016 Interim Sustained effectiveness 09/09/2015 Full Good Inspection report children’s home: SC034480 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

The quality and purpose of care standard is that children receive care from staff who understand the children’s home’s overall aims and the outcomes it seeks to achieve for children and use this understanding to deliver care that meets children’s needs and supports them to fulfil their potential.

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Requirement Due date

In particular, the standard in paragraph (1) requires the registered person to ensure that the premises used for the purposes of the home are designed and furnished to meet the needs of each child. (Regulation 6(1)(a)(b)(2)(c)(i)) 06/10/2017

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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.

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Requirement Due date

In particular, the standard in paragraph (1) requires the registered person to 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 and help each child to understand how to keep safe. (Regulation 12(1)(2)(a)(i)(ii))

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Requirement Due date

In particular, ensure that the safeguarding children’s policy is followed by staff in that safeguarding concerns that are referred are appropriately reviewed and any necessary action taken by multi-agency partners. 06/10/2017

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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 to aspire to their full potential and promotes their welfare.

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Requirement Due date

In particular, the standard in paragraph (1) requires the registered person to lead and manage the home in a way that is consistent with the approach and ethos, and delivers the outcomes, set out in the home’s statement of purpose; and understand the impact that the quality of care provided in the home is having on the progress and experiences of each child and use this understanding to inform the development of the 06/10/2017 Inspection report children’s home: SC034480 5 quality of the care provided in the home. (Regulation 13(1)(a)(b)(2)(a)) The care planning standard is 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.

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Requirement Due date

In particular, the standard in paragraph (1) requires the registered person to ensure that arrangements are in place to manage and review the placement of each child in the home. (Regulation 14(1)(a)(b)(2)(b)(ii)) 06/10/2017

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must ensure that an individual who works in the home in a care role has the appropriate qualification, the level 3 diploma for residential childcare (England) (‘the level 3 diploma’), or a qualification which the registered person considers to be equivalent to the level 3 diploma, by the relevant date. (Regulation 32(4)(a)(b)(5)(a)(b)) 31/01/2018

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must notify HMCI and each other relevant person without delay if a child is involved in, or subject to, or is suspected of being involved in or subject to, sexual exploitation. (Regulation 40(4)(a)) 06/10/2017

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Recommendations

 Ensure that staff help children to understand how to protect themselves, feel protected, and be protected from significant harm in relation to e-safety. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 43, paragraph 9.9)  The registered person should only accept placements for children when they are satisfied that the home can respond effectively to the child’s assessed needs as recorded in the child’s relevant plans and when they have fully considered the impact that the placement will have on the existing group of children. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 56, paragraph 11.4)

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: inadequate

The manager and the staff have failed to identify and take suitable action with regard to a serious safeguarding concern. They have not followed their procedure to ensure that the appropriate steps are taken when disclosures are made by children. As a result, some children have not been protected from the likelihood of significant harm while they live at this home. The manager failed to notify Ofsted of this situation, which means that Inspection report children’s home: SC034480 6 Ofsted could not fulfil its role of monitoring the service to ensure that children’s safe care is promoted.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: inadequate

Some of the children have made progress since they have been at this home. One child has reduced the number of behavioural incidents described as antisocial through a reward system. The placing social worker said, ‘The staff are doing their best to keep [child] safe. Since she has been here, her behaviour has improved, and staff have tried to work with her.’ Other children have had fewer instances of missing from care, which means that the risks have reduced in this aspect of their care.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: inadequate

This home has received 33 emergency placements to the service since the last inspection in January 2017. Currently, the three children who live at the home are waiting for suitable long-term permanent placements, either to return to live with their families or to go to alternative provisions. The home has been through an unsettled time due to the nature of these emergency placements. This has resulted in some damage to the building. As a result, the home is not welcoming. One child commented, ‘I do not think that the house is very homely, but I am not vexed by this at this time, as I am planning to move on soon. I feel that the home has been calmer of late as the children in the home are not playing up at the staff as much.’

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: inadequate

The staff have supported the children to attend children looked after medicals and to keep in touch relevant health professionals. The children are supported with regard to their cultural identity. The staff help to locate the cultural products that the children need regarding this aspect of their care.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: inadequate

Children who are not being educated at school are encouraged to complete education at the on-site ‘barn’. In this provision, there are online resources that help to maintain the children’s learning opportunities. The staff help them to look at options that are available and direct them towards achievements that they can attain through education.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: inadequate

The staff help to maintain the children’s ongoing relationships with their families and friends. This ensures that the contact with the important people in the children’s life is safe and well managed. Family members are supportive of the work completed by staff. One parent commented, ‘Staff kept me updated about my child’s progress. They were very supportive in helping them to keep appointments and the staff [organised] the return home well.’ Observations of staff interactions with the children throughout the inspection showed that the staff calmly and appropriately engage with the children.

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

The manager and staff have failed to identify and take suitable action on a serious safeguarding issue. This is with regard to managing a disclosure made by a child about inappropriate use of online social media. The manager and staff did not follow guidelines for such disclosures to be considered by multi-agency partners to protect children from such activities. As a result, children are not protected from the potential harm.

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

Most children have care plans which include an up-to-date risk analysis to support the Inspection report children’s home: SC034480 7 staff in working safely. However, the manager has not ensured that the risk assessments or care plan with regard to the safeguarding concern were updated. As a result, the staff have not been able to ensure that this child is not at risk of significant harm.

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

The staff meet daily at handover meetings to discuss the care plans. These meetings set out the tasks for the staff to complete, and important information is shared, which helps the staff to build and develop relationships with the children.

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

Children go missing from this home. Some work completed by the staff has identified families and friends that children go to when they are away from the home. This means that background checks and assessments can be made to ensure that, if children leave the home and visit one of these addresses in the community, staff are reassured that the children are safe. This work has reduced the risks for these children in the community. Staff have had recent training on managing the risks of sexual exploitation for children who are looked after. Despite this training, they failed to act on a disclosure, which placed a child at risk of significant harm.

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

Trained staff physically intervene if children are likely to harm themselves or others. Since the last inspection, there have been 105 occasions when staff used these intervention techniques. The manager and senior staff have completed their review of these events and the written records to assure themselves that the actions taken by the staff were reasonable and proportionate. Children have been spoken to following these instances, and staff have had the opportunity to review the occurrences to see what alternative steps could be taken in managing the children.

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

There are no reported concerns about bullying at the home. The staff try to manage children’s behaviour through restorative work. For example, several windows were broken and the child was asked to pay a small amount towards the repair. Although this helped the child to begin to understand the consequences of the action, it did not prevent further instances when damage was caused. Other children have been supported, through direct work, to reconsider risk-taking behaviours, such as the inappropriate use of aerosols. The staff took action to store these items out of the reach of children, to reduce the risk of future incidents.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

The manager is experienced and qualified. However, he has failed to identify a significant safeguarding incident, which has left children at risk of significant harm. The lack of action, to notify Ofsted of these concerns, means that other agencies could not ensure that the correct processes were in place to promote safe care. The manager monitors the records and practice in the home, but this is not consistently effective. Care plans and risk assessments for the child have not been updated. In particular, this relates to the disclosure regarding the inappropriate use of online social media. As a result, staff are not alert to the risks for this child. Inspection report children’s home: SC034480 8 The independent visitor’s reports are of a suitable quality and raise issues for the manager to consider. The independent visitor has raised concerns about the suitability of matching for children placed in the home. However, the manager has not put in place an

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

appropriate method to ensure that the staff can meet the complex needs of the group of children living in this home at any one time. Consequently, the care provided at the home is not in line with the statement of purpose and, as a result, children are not always receiving the safe care they need.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

A number of bank and part-time staff are used to cover shifts when core members of staff are on sick leave. Some of these bank staff are eligible staff, employed to work at the home. However, they have not completed the required level 3 diploma in residential childcare. This means that they may not have the required skills and knowledge to meet the needs of the children. During these times when the core staff group has been depleted, the manager has been required to work on shift, to transport children, or to be involved in discussions with alternative placements. This has resulted in a lack of management oversight and limits his ability to identify areas of improvement for staff.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

The staff receive regular one-to-one meetings. Staff conduct is monitored, and advice and guidance are provided through these meetings. The manager has completed appraisals, which help to identify specific training needs for the staff. The provider has provided induction training to help the staff to gain skills and knowledge to meet the children’s needs. Further, more specific training is available to staff.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

Staff have access to in-house psychology support. This support helps them to develop a better understanding of the issues that may be affecting the children. This understanding helps the staff to build relationships and look at alternative methods to engage with the children.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

Staff continue to feel supported by the manager. He identifies the commitment of the staff to provide a good service. However, there have been times when the manager has not been able to provide the oversight and support to staff to ensure that children are effectively safeguarded.

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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 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 Inspection report children’s home: SC034480 9 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: SC034480 10

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: Norfolk County Council, Chief Executives, County Hall, Martineau Lane, Norwich NR1 2DH

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Inspector

Michael Mulvaney, social care inspector Inspection report children’s home: SC034480 11 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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