Children's home run by Sherico Care Services Limited in Westminster

Inspection report children‘s home: SC022880 1 SC022880 Registered provider: Sherico Care Services Limited Full inspection Inspected under the social care common inspection framework

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Information about this children’s home

This is a privately owned home for six children who have emotional and/or behavioural needs. The provider has five children‘s homes registered with Ofsted.

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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 widespread failures that mean the care and experiences of children and young people are poor and they are not making progress.

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inadequate

Overall judgement at last inspection: inadequate

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Enforcement action since last inspection:

A monitoring visit was conducted on 4 September 2017. As a result of the visit, Ofsted imposed a notice restricting accommodation at the home. Inspection report children‘s home: SC022880 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

 Leaders and managers of the service have poor oversight of the service, and so efforts to improve the quality of the service are not effective.  The provider‘s internal and external monitoring systems are poor.  Children‘s experiences are not positive and they do not make good progress.  Care practices do not always promote the welfare of children or help to keep them safe.  Managers do not notify Ofsted of all significant events. There is delay in informing Ofsted of key incidents.  The vetting of new staff is not robust.  Staff do not receive supervision from appropriately experienced senior staff.

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Key findings from this inspection

 Children now receive regular key work and one-to-one sessions.  The recording of information by staff has improved.  Newly recruited staff now receive an induction.  Managers‘ communication with external professionals is more consistent.

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

25/07/2017 Full Inadequate 21/03/2017 Interim Sustained effectiveness 13/09/2016 Full Requires improvement 18/02/2016 Interim Sustained effectiveness Inspection report children‘s home: SC022880 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 leadership and management standard, the registered provider must:

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Requirement Due date

use monitoring and review systems to make continuous improvements in the quality of care provided in the home. (Regulation 13(2)(h)) 01/01/2018

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Requirement Due date

The independent person must produce a report about a visit (―the independent person‘s report‖) which sets out, in particular, the independent person‘s opinion as to whether—

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Requirement Due date

(a) children are effectively safeguarded; and (b) the conduct of the home promotes children‘s well-being. (Regulation 44(4)(a)(b)) 01/01/2018

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Requirement Due date

After completing a quality of care review, the registered person must produce a written report about the quality of care review and the actions which the registered person intends to take as a result of the quality of care review (―the quality of care review report‖). (Regulation 45(3)) 01/01/2018

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Requirement Due date

The quality and purpose of care standard

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Requirement Due date

In order to meet the quality and purpose of care standard, the registered provider must ensure;

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Requirement Due date

protect and promote each child‘s welfare. (Regulation 6(2)(ii)) 01/01/2018

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Requirement Due date

Full and satisfactory information is available in relation to the individual 01/01/2018 Inspection report children‘s home: SC022880 4 in respect of each of the matters in Schedule 2. (Regulation 32(3)(d)) Employment of staff

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must ensure that all employees—

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Requirement Due date

receive practice-related supervision by a person with appropriate experience. (Regulation 33(4)(b)) 01/01/2018

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must notify HMCI and each other relevant person without delay if—

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Requirement Due date

an incident requiring police involvement occurs in relation to a child which the registered person considers to be serious;

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Requirement Due date

there is any other incident relating to a child which the registered person considers to be serious. (Regulation 40(4)(b)(e)) 01/12/2017

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Requirement Due date

The quality and purpose of care standard

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Requirement Due date

In order to meet the quality and purpose of care standard, the registered provider must ensure;

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Requirement Due date

provide to children living in the home the physical necessities they need in order to live there comfortably. (Regulation 6(2)(b)(vii)) 01/01/2018

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Recommendations

Staff should continually and actively assess the risks to each child and the arrangements in place to protect them. (‗Guide to the children‘s homes regulations including the quality standards‘, page 42, paragraph 9.5). In particular, that bathroom locks are changed to allow staff access if bathroom doors are locked from the inside.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: inadequate

The home‘s overall inspection judgement is inadequate. This is due to the poor experiences and lack of progress made by children, and the significant weaknesses identified in the leadership and management of the home. The protection of children remains poor, despite noted improvement in safeguarding practice since the last inspection. Inspection report children‘s home: SC022880 5 The last inspection of the home took place in July 2017. At that time, one child was living at the home. His placement ended on 28 September 2017 and currently there are no children on roll. The child previously living at the home made very little progress and had minimal engagement with staff. This was due to him going missing from the home very frequently. Staff were ineffective in tackling this behaviour and, as a result, the opportunity for him to engage with staff was extremely limited. A local authority team manager said of the staff, ‗I did not get the impression that they were innovative in

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: inadequate

responding to the young person‘s needs.‘

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: inadequate

Learning outcomes for this child remained poor. Staff added his name to a waiting list at a local school. However, while waiting for a place, they made little provision to support his education. As a result, his learning outcomes remained poor. This was also the case with his healthcare outcomes. Staff were unable to engage consistently with the child, and his health needs remained unmet.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: inadequate

Children have opportunities to participate in planned activities. However, the child in placement rarely chose to take part, preferring to socialise with his friends. He was often absent from the home in order to do so. The child‘s social worker stated that he had told her that he was often absent from the home because he was bored. The local authority team manager stated, ‗Although there were special circumstances in that X was missing more than he was in placement, the feedback from X is that there were a number of reasons why he did not want to be in placement. The TV was not working in the communal area, the speakers attached to the computer were not working. There were very limited forms of entertainment for X.‘

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: inadequate

Children know how to complain, as they receive clear information about the home‘s complaints procedure. Since the last inspection, there have been no new complaints and senior staff have resolved existing complaints. Staff encourage children to share their views. Key-work sessions and residents‘ meetings explore general placement issues, and staff try to obtain children‘s views and opinions about a range of issues. Typically, these sessions include discussions about meal and leisure activity choices.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: inadequate

Staff help children to maintain close contact with their friends and family members.

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

Care practices in the home show some improvement since the last inspection, but remain a cause for concern. The action taken by staff does not always help to keep children safe. For example, despite known concerns about the behaviour of one child towards other children, staff encouraged the child‘s friend to spend time with him unsupervised in his bedroom. This does not promote safe care and is contrary to the home‘s policies regarding visitors.

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

Supervision of children is not sufficiently vigilant. On one occasion, staff discovered that a person known to the child had stayed overnight in the child‘s room unbeknown to the staff on shift. This lack of supervision and awareness does not promote the protection of children. Inspection report children‘s home: SC022880 6 The frequency of children going missing or being absent from the home without permission is extremely high. Attempts to curb this behaviour have been ineffective. The team manager for the child previously living at the home said, ‗ The home has not been able to influence the outcomes of X, as they were unable to engage him in such a way that would reduce his missing episodes.‘ In response to the child‘s persistent absence, managers seek multi-agency strategy meetings to explore issues and devise strategies. Staff speak with children upon their return home to try to establish where they have

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

been, with whom and whether any new risks are emerging. However, these actions were unsuccessful with the child living at the home.

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

Staff actions do not support the safe care of children. For example, on one occasion, the child returned to the home after being missing. He collected his pocket money from staff and immediately left to go missing again.

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

Attempts to promote positive behaviour are largely ineffective. Since the last inspection, there have been two incidents when the child has caused significant criminal damage to the home‘s property. Records indicate that staff do not impose sanctions and do not promote restorative justice as an approach to address poor behaviour. Children do not therefore learn to take responsibility for their actions and behaviour. This does not prepare them to manage conflicts and difficulties.

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

Since the last inspection, staff have not restrained any child. Staff devise behaviour management plans to support their practice. Staff review and update these plans regularly.

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

Children and staff benefit from the service‘s training, policies and procedures about the management of allegations. Since the last inspection, there have been no allegations made against any staff member. Senior staff now appropriately seek advice and information from the local authority designated officer if there are concerns. This was not the case at the last inspection.

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

The organisation‘s staff recruitment and vetting practices are not sufficiently robust. Staff personnel records indicate that the managers do not consistently obtain information that confirms the formal qualifications of new staff. Similarly, managers do not routinely ask applicants about gaps in their employment histories. Managers do not explore with applicants the circumstances of past criminal convictions. These are deficits, as the managers cannot confirm that new staff are suitable to work with vulnerable children.

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

The home‘s premises are physically safe and appropriately secure. Staff routinely conduct health and safety checks and there are appropriate fire precautions in place. However, staff are unable to open locked bathroom doors from the outside. This poses risks in the event of children locking themselves in the bathroom. Inspection report children‘s home: SC022880 7

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

There are significant weaknesses in the management and leadership of the home. These have a negative impact on the home‘s ability to improve its services and the quality of care that staff provide to children.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

Since the last inspection, the registered manager has left the service. The organisation has recruited an interim manager and a deputy manager. There has also been an increase in the organisation‘s quality assurance team. However, despite an increase in the home‘s management team, the home‘s monitoring systems remain weak. These do not inform leaders and managers of shortfalls or help to inform action planning to resolve weaknesses.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

The organisation has recently appointed a new independent person to conduct the home‘s monthly regulation 44 monitoring visits. Subsequent reports review key areas of the home‘s function and operation. However, these monitoring reports do not provide adequate analysis or highlight remedial action to improve the quality of care at the home. Neither do reports comment on the ability of staff to promote children‘s well- being and safety, as required by the regulations.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

Case files and key logs evidence file audits. These are to assist in monitoring of the service and to improve the quality of care. However, internal audits do not identify weaknesses in the practice of some staff, and so are largely ineffective.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

Managers‘ support and supervision of the staff team are sufficient to help staff to explore the needs of children. Newly appointed staff undergo an induction, which they find useful. However, management responsibilities are unclear and confused. For example, staff personnel records indicate that the home‘s new deputy manager is providing formal supervision to her line manager, the home‘s interim manager. It is also unclear whether the deputy has appropriate qualifications and experience to offer supervision to any member of the staff team.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

Staff training is adequate, and shows improvement since the last inspection. Recent staff training includes safeguarding workshops, and in accurate recording and de-escalation techniques. However, it is unclear whether all staff attend assigned training sessions. For example, one staff member‘s file contained a certificate for training in de-escalation techniques. However, in supervision, his supervisor queried why he had failed to attend this same training. The staff member confirmed that he was absent from work at the time that the training was provided. Senior managers cannot account for this discrepancy and it means that the training records cannot be relied upon for accuracy.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

The previous inspection highlighted weaknesses in the home‘s general environment. The home‘s appearance was not consistent with homely, comfortable accommodation. There have been some noted improvements to the home‘s premises. However, the decor of some areas of the home still requires attention. For example, some bedroom doors require repainting and the wall in the lounge has exposed plaster and graffiti that need to be removed. Inspection report children‘s home: SC022880 8 The home‘s statement of purpose is a detailed document that outlines well the aims and objectives of the service and the nature of the care provided. This is to ensure that stakeholders are aware of the services available. The children‘s guide is a user-friendly document for children.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

The quality of professional relationships between staff, key external partners and families has improved since the last inspection. Staff communicate more consistently with professionals. This is particularly the case for the police, education and youth offending team workers. This ensures that professionals are aware of placement developments and are involved in the coordination of children‘s care.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

The leadership and management of the home are a cause for concern. Weaknesses in the leadership of the home do not enable improvement or promote positive outcomes for children.

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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 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: SC022880 9

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Children’s home details

Registered provider: Sherico Care Services Limited

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: Sherico Care Homes Ltd, 2–4 Balmoral Road, London E10 5ND

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Inspector

Sandra Jacobs-Walls, social care inspector Inspection report children‘s home: SC022880 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 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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