Children's home run by Keys Educational Services Limited in Rossendale

Inspection report children‟s home: SC363393 1 SC363393 Registered provider: Broadwood Education 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

The home is operated by a large national private provider of care and education for children. It is registered to provide care and accommodation for three children who may have emotional and/or behavioural difficulties.

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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 requires improvement to be good

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good

The effectiveness of leaders and managers 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: 18 January 2017

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good

Overall judgement at last inspection: Declined in effectiveness

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Key findings from this inspection

 Children have lived at this home for a long period of time. They have benefited from the stability it has provided for them and from good staff support. Children Inspection report children‟s home: SC363393 2 have been prepared well by staff to move on to the next phase of their lives.  Leaders and managers have started to provide good leadership to this home. They oversee the quality of care effectively. Suitable arrangements have been made to cover the registered manager‟s current planned period of absence. As a result, the home continues to be managed effectively.  The home is well kept and provides children with a homely place to live. Improvements have been made to the home‟s decoration and furnishings.

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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

 Safeguarding arrangements require improvement to be good. Shortfalls identified as part of this inspection were addressed immediately by the interim manager without having impacted negatively on the children‟s welfare.  One staff member, who has been employed for over two years, does not have the necessary residential childcare qualification.  Staff do not always record the actual detail of sanctions used.

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

18/01/2017 Interim Declined in effectiveness 18/10/2016 Full Requires improvement 12/07/2016 Full Inadequate 10/02/2016 Interim Sustained effectiveness Inspection report children‟s home: SC363393 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

12: The protection of children standard (1) The protection of children standard is that children are protected from harm and enabled to keep themselves safe. (2) In particular, the standard in paragraph (1) requires the registered person to ensure— (a) that staff— (i) 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 (b) that the home‟s day-to-day care is arranged and delivered so as to keep each child safe and to protect each child effectively from harm. (Regulation 12(2)(a)(i) and (b)) 31/12/2017

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Requirement Due date

32: Fitness of workers (4) For the purposes of paragraph (3)(b), an individual who works in the home in a care role has the appropriate qualification if, by the relevant date, the individual has attained: (a) the level 3 diploma for residential childcare (England) („the level 3 diploma‟) (b) a qualification which the registered person considers to be equivalent to the level 3 diploma. (5) The relevant date is: (a) in the case of an individual who starts working in a care role in a home after 1st April 2014, the date which falls two years after the date on which the individual started working in a care role in a home, or (b) in the case of an individual who was working in a care role in a home on 1st April 2014, 1st April 2016. (Regulation 32(4)(a)(b)) 31/03/2018 Inspection report children‟s home: SC363393 4 35: Behaviour management policies and records (1) The registered person must prepare and implement a policy

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Requirement Due date

(“the behaviour management policy”) which sets out— (a) how appropriate behaviour is to be promoted in the children‟s home; and (b) the measures of control, discipline and restraint which may be used in relation to children in the home. (2) The registered person must keep the behaviour management policy under review and, where appropriate, revise it. (3) The registered person must ensure that— (a) 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 which includes— (iv) a description of the measure and its duration. (Regulation 35(3)(iv)) 31/12/2017

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff provide children with good support and individualised care. As such, children‟s experiences and progress are good. Both children are leaving this home soon as part of planned moves. They are ready and happy to move; staff and children have successfully worked together to achieve this goal. Staff and children have good relationships together. Despite the fact that the home has had five managers in the past 18 months, children have formed and sustained good relationships with key staff members. Staff know and understand the children well and respond to them appropriately. A parent of one child stated that, „Staff are amazing.‟ Children make very good progress in relation to their health, education and emotional well-being. One child‟s attendance at school was above 90% in Year 11 and he recently completed exams for the first time. Both children are in good health; they do not drink alcohol or smoke tobacco, and they exercise regularly. One child enjoys sailing,

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

mountain biking and trampolining, while the other child regularly exercises with the aid of gym equipment in his room. Managers and staff ensure that children‟s views are understood and taken into account in the running of the home and their individual care planning. Both children are helped and prepared well to attend their local authority review meetings and, as a result, they can contribute their views. Children understand that they can speak with an independent visitor and an advocate. Children are able to raise concerns about the care that they receive. Staff listen to them and take action to deal with their concerns. Children know Inspection report children‟s home: SC363393 5 how to make complaints. Children have good-quality day-to-day experiences. Relationships between the children are much improved and the home‟s atmosphere is very calm. The home is decorated and maintained to a good standard. Children have large bedrooms that are decorated

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

and furnished in line with their individual choices. Children are very well prepared for their move from this home. One child has successfully achieved the aim of this placement and is now moving back to live closer to his family. Another child is managing independence tasks well. He completely self manages his laundry, cleaning, menu planning, and shopping, and cooks his own food. He now has a more positive sleeping routine, eats a balanced diet, shops properly and has stopped smoking. Staff help the children to gain further education and employment opportunities. One child has been provided with a mentor service to help him to integrate into a mainstream college. Another child has had some paid employment. Staff are now helping him to pursue career ideas and look for other work opportunities. Staff ensure that children have good opportunities to stay in touch with their families. Both children have benefited from this help and now spend more enjoyable time with

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

their families. Staff provide transport for children whose families are far from this home, and ensure that children have enough money for their activities while they are visiting with their family. Staff have also successfully supported children on their family holidays.

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improvement to be good

Managers and staff do not always identify and manage risks well. The interim manager did not complete a risk assessment for an event a child was attending. The event was authorised by the social worker and discussed with the child. The child did not come to any harm from the lack of risk assessment; however, the process for such events needs tightening to consider all risks and control measures. The number of times children have gone missing from home has decreased since they have lived here. One child has only gone missing once from this home since the previous inspection. Staff followed up this incident appropriately to keep the child safe and to give him the strategies to decrease the need to go missing again. Separately, a child‟s missing from home protocol did not provide staff with the necessary information to respond to him safely. The interim manager addressed this as part of the inspection.

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improvement to be good

This did not had a negative impact on the child‟s welfare. Staff provide clear and consistent boundaries for children. Children have responded well to this approach and incidents of behaviour that challenge staff have significantly decreased. Staff have shared their approaches with school staff. As a result, a child‟s school experiences and his behaviour in school have improved. Children‟s behaviour management plans give staff comprehensive detail on how to help children in their times of need. Staff do not use sanctions regularly. When they are used, sanctions are generally fair and only in response to children‟s less serious behaviour. On two occasions, staff have Inspection report children‟s home: SC363393 6 used financial reparations without recording the detail in sanction records of how much the child is expected to pay. In other areas, managers and staff have called the police twice as part of a behaviour management response requested by the child‟s parent. The

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improvement to be good

child has been charged once with assault and, on another occasion, has agreed to enter into restorative work with staff and the police. The safeguarding arrangements to protect children require improvement. As part of this inspection, the interim manager updated an „allegations management‟ flowchart to ensure that witnesses to an allegation are not questioned before the concern has been reported to the designated officer. Also, new senior managers had identified that a previous allegation made about a member of staff employed by an agency had not been managed in line with correct processes. The manager at that time had informed the social worker, but not the designated officer. Senior managers pursued this error and found that the employment agency had dealt with the allegation. However, records about this action and the subsequent outcome are not recorded in the home as they should be. A more recent allegation made by a child has been referred properly to the designated

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improvement to be good

officer and investigated by the registered manager. The child was involved in the outcome of the investigation. Work has taken place to repair the relationship between the member of staff and the child.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Leaders and managers have good expectations for what the children can achieve and ensure good standards of care. They also have a good understanding of the progress children are making. Placing authorities are pleased with the outcomes for both children. A social worker commented that, „There has been a massive improvement in (name)‟ and, „Staff have done a brilliant job.‟ Leaders and managers provide staff and children with a good, supportive environment. Staff report that they receive regular supervision, which is used to provide helpful feedback on their work. Staff are happy in their role, they are supported by their team members and comfortable that there is sufficient, familiar staff on shift with them each day. Staff receive good training opportunities and have recently refreshed their knowledge of childhood attachment. They demonstrate a good understanding of how to respond to children who have autistic spectrum disorder. One staff member, who has been

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

employed for over two years, does not yet have the required residential childcare qualification. The manager is closely monitoring this deficit in supervision and is supporting the member of staff to achieve the qualification. The interim manager ensures that the home‟s statement of purpose is kept up to date with staff changes. He runs the home in line with its stated aims and ethos. As such, children are prepared well for the next stage of their lives. Leaders and managers are aware of the strengths and weaknesses of the home. Senior leaders are reviewing the quality of the service regularly to ensure that it meets the company‟s new higher performance expectations. Senior leaders are providing an Inspection report children‟s home: SC363393 7 increased level of support to the home‟s manager during this time. All three requirements made at the previous inspection have been addressed. As such, restraint is no longer used to enforce children to comply with staff‟s instructions. Staff

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

are debriefed following the use of any restraint. There has also been a registered manager in post since October 2017. He is currently on a long-term planned absence. Therefore, an interim manager with suitable experience has been appointed and is successfully managing the home. The interim manager collaborates well with the placing authorities to ensure that the plans for children to move from the home do not drift. Leaders and managers have worked effectively with the police and other safeguarding agencies. Leaders and managers ensure that notifications of all significant events that relate to the welfare and protection of children are made to Ofsted as required. Independent monitoring of the home takes place at the required monthly intervals. The manager completes a quarterly internal audit of the quality of care, which is also forwarded to Ofsted. These systems help leaders and managers to understand what is happening in

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

the home so that they can take action as a result.

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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: SC363393 8

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Children’s home details

Registered provider: Broadwood Education Services

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: New Hall Hey Road, Rossendale BB4 6HR

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Inspector

Guy Mammatt, social care inspector Inspection report children‟s home: SC363393 9 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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