Children's Home run by Archways Care Limited in Worcestershire

Inspection report children’s home: SC383941 1 SC383941 Registered provider: Archways 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

The home is one of three homes run by a private organisation. The home is registered to provide care and accommodation for up to four young people who have emotional and/or behavioural difficulties.

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Information about this children’s home

Inspection dates: 26 to 27 September 2017

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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: 8 November 2016

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good

Overall judgement at last inspection: Sustained effectiveness

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Enforcement action since last inspection:

None Inspection report children’s home: SC383941 2

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Key findings from this inspection

 Young people make good progress in respect of their social and emotional development.  Young people do well educationally.  Staff develop positive relationships with young people, which are based on mutual trust and respect.  Staff use key-work sessions and daily conversations to help young people to learn how to keep safe.  Young people are able to identify staff who they feel understand them and care about them.  Staff receive good support through regular supervision.  Staff work hand in hand with key professionals, including schools and the child and adolescent mental health services.  Staff understand young people’s vulnerabilities and manage risks effectively.  Staff promote contact between young people and their family.

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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

 Not all staff have received training to understand the risks of radicalisation.  Staff will sometimes record more than one physical restraint record in a single log.  Staff do not always keep a record of young people’s use of the internet.  The manager’s internal monitoring fails to pick up gaps in staff training.  The manager has not consistently followed safer recruitment procedures.  The manager has not reviewed the locality risk assessment to reflect the needs of the young people.

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

08/11/2016 Interim Sustained effectiveness 27/04/2016 Full Good 03/03/2016 Interim Improved effectiveness 10/09/2015 Full Good Inspection report children’s home: SC383941 3

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Statutory requirements

This section sets out the actions that the registered person 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 must comply within the given timescales.

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must ensure that full and satisfactory information is available in relation to the individual in respect of each of the matters in Schedule 2. (Regulation 32 (3)(d)) 26/10/2017

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must ensure that all employees undertake appropriate professional development. (Regulation 33(4)(a))

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Requirement Due date

In particular, this includes anti-radicalisation training. 26/10/2017

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must ensure that within 24 hours of the use of a measure of control, discipline or restraint in relation to a child in the home, a record is made. (Regulation 35(3))

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Requirement Due date

This is in particular reference to ensuring that a record is made for each physical restraint. 26/10/2017

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must review the appropriateness and suitability of the location of the premises used for the purposes of the children’s home at least once in each calendar year taking into account the requirement in regulation 12(2)(c) (the protection of children standard). (Regulation 46(1)) 26/10/2017

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff make sure that new admissions are well planned. A social worker told the inspector, ‘In terms of transition into the home, I had a meeting with the staff and deputy manager prior to my young person moving in and they ensured I was made aware of every detail and the plan for the smooth transition into placement. This worked exceptionally well and my young person has grown immensely since being at [name of the home].’ Inspection report children’s home: SC383941 4 Staff work hard to develop good relationships with young people and show that they care. For example, staff take an interest in the things that are important to young people. Staff spend time supporting young people to attend gaming conventions and sporting events. One young person told the inspector, ‘Staff support me to feel at home. They ask what I like and I don’t like and what things are important to me.’ This shows that young people are surrounded by adults who they recognise care about them, which

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

helps to provide them with a sense of belonging and security.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff demonstrate a good understanding of young people’s physical and emotional health needs. When appropriate, staff work closely with specialist health agencies. For example, staff have worked with a young person’s epilepsy nurse to make sure that they have all the necessary guidance about how to monitor the young person’s seizures and the action to be taken in a medical emergency.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff encourage young people to talk about what is causing them to be anxious or upset. This is often done through key-worker sessions and everyday conversations. Through key-work sessions, one young person has become more confident to talk about his feelings. A social worker told the inspector, ‘The home has been entirely responsive to my young person’s presenting needs.’

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff successfully encourage young people to attend school. Staff work hard to make sure that young people receive the right support so that barriers to learning are quickly overcome.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff provide young people with lots of opportunities to share their views and, whenever possible, staff respond quickly to requests. For example, staff, together with the local authority, have been responding to a young person’s requests to change their family contact arrangements.

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

Young people said that they feel safe. Similarly, social workers reported that young people are safe.

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

Young people who have previously self-harmed, gone missing from care or had a pattern of aggressive behaviour learn how to reduce these risks by engaging in effective key- work sessions. A social worker told the inspector, ‘My young person came from a difficult place and it has been a pleasure to see her develop over time; something which I do not feel would have happened if she hadn’t moved into [name of home].’

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

Staff understand young people’s individual vulnerabilities and behavioural triggers. Staff respond well to safeguarding concerns and take swift action to keep young people safe. Staff will seek the support of partner agencies so that safeguarding concerns are appropriately investigated. Close working with the police and placing local authorities helps to ensure that young people stay safe. Although members of staff stay close to Inspection report children’s home: SC383941 5 young people when the internet is used, staff do not keep an up-to-date record of the level of usage. This means that the manager’s monitoring does not go far enough to assess online safety.

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

On occasions, when restraint is necessary to prevent serious harm, there is careful debriefing with young people and staff. This ensures that the use of restraint is proportionate and that staff and young people are receiving the opportunity to reflect on incidents. However, the recording of these incidents is not consistently clear. For example, one incident report recorded two separate interventions within the same record.

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

Staff carry out regular health and safety checks to ensure that the home is safe. These include following fire safety procedures and encouraging young people to take part in fire evacuation drills. As a result, staff and young people know how to leave the home safely in an emergency.

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

The new manager has been in post since February 2017. She has submitted her application to Ofsted to be the next registered manager. The manager is enrolled on the level 5 diploma in leadership and management.

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

There are 11 members of staff. Nine staff are qualified to a level 3 diploma in residential childcare or have a suitably equivalent qualification. All remaining staff are within the regulatory timeframe for completing the award.

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

Records made by the manager show that staff receive frequent supervision. The manager and staff discuss young people’s progress in supervision sessions and team meetings. This helps staff to prioritise the needs of the young people within their day-to- day care.

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

An independent visitor completes monthly visits and produces an informed report. A recent report noted the following: ‘Young people are well supported by a staff team that have a good knowledge of their individual needs. They are encouraged to engage in a range of activities, their health needs are promoted and contact arrangement facilitated where appropriate. I do not have any concerns regarding young people’s well-being being promoted. It was a pleasure to observe such relaxed and positive relationships between the staff and young people. Well done.’

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

The manager has not followed safer recruitment procedures. For example, the manager has not verified the reasons why a person’s employment(s) ended when they had previously worked with children or vulnerable adults. This shortfall in practice weakens safeguarding practice and could potentially place young people at risk.

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

Staff communicate well with partner agencies, including local authorities, police and education. A social worker told the inspector, ‘The staff are a credit to the home and Inspection report children’s home: SC383941 6 ensure I am kept up to date with everything going on with the young person. They go above and beyond to ensure she reaches her full potential.’

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

The manager’s internal monitoring has failed to pick up gaps in staff training. This has resulted in some staff not staying up to date with their physical restraint training. However, when staff have needed to use physical restraint, this has only been carried out by staff members who are up to date with their training.

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

Not all staff are offered training to understand the risks of radicalisation. This leaves staff with limited insight into the risks that exist within the wider society for young people.

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

There is an assessment of the suitability of the location of the premises. However, the manager has failed to ensure that the assessment is reviewed to reflect the needs of young people who are living at this home. This leaves staff ill prepared in managing risk within the wider community.

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

The manager confidently challenges others when they do not fulfil their responsibilities. For example, the manager has successfully held one local authority to account for not providing the home with one young person’s care plan. This challenge helps staff to deliver consistent care and to support young people to make meaningful progress.

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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 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: SC383941 7

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Children’s home details

Registered provider: Archways Care Limited

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: Muras Baker Jones, Regent House, Bath Avenue, Wolverhampton WV1 4EG

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Children’s home details

Responsible individual: Christopher Aristidou

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Inspector

Lisa Walsh, social care inspector Inspection report children’s home: SC383941 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 looked after children, safeguarding and child protection.

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Inspector

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Inspector

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Inspector

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