Children's home run by Paddock House Limited

Inspection report children’s home: 1252120 1 Registered provider: Paddock House Limited Full inspection Inspected under the social care common inspection framework

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Information about this children’s home

The home is privately owned and provides care and accommodation for up to six children or young people. The home looks after children and young people who 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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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

Overall judgement at last inspection: not applicable

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requires improvement to be good

Enforcement action since last inspection: none Inspection report children’s home: 1252120 2

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Key findings from this inspection

This children’s home requires improvement to be good because:

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Key findings from this inspection

 The risk assessments give a score for likelihood and severity but do not evaluate the risks to the young people and therefore the strategies cannot be judged effective.  Risk assessments carried out prior to admission do not evaluate the risks that the young people pose to each other.  The locality risk assessment requires additional information based on consultation with other professionals to give a clear indication of the risks posed by the location of the home to young people.  The safeguarding policy uses historical, judgemental language when detailing actions in response to concerns of sexual exploitation.  Internet safety does not form part of the safeguarding policy.  Incidents of bullying are not separately identified and addressed using recognised strategies.  The care plans do not include all the identified needs of the young people.  The young people are not yet actively taking part in the planning of their care

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Key findings from this inspection

 Multi-agency working is strong and is promoted by the management team. Work takes place with a wide range of external professionals to identify concerns and actions. Feedback from other professionals and families is positive.  There is a concerted drive by the manager and the staff team to make positive changes and improve the experiences of the young people.  The young people benefit from good relationships with the staff team.

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

Not applicable Inspection report children’s home: 1252120 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, The 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 positive relationships standard is that children are helped to develop, and to benefit from, relationships based on—

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Requirement Due date

an understanding about acceptable behaviour; and

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Requirement Due date

positive responses to other children and adults.

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Requirement Due date

In particular, the standard in paragraph (1) requires the registered person to ensure that staff—

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Requirement Due date

understand and communicate to children that bullying is unacceptable;

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Requirement Due date

have the skills to recognise incidents or indications of bullying and how to deal with them; and

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Requirement Due date

that each child is encouraged to build and maintain positive relationships with others. (Regulation 11 (1)(2)(a)(xiii)(b)) 15/12/2017

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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—

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Requirement Due date

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

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Requirement Due date

that the premises used for the purposes of the home are designed, furnished and maintained so as to protect each child from avoidable hazards to the child’s health. (Regulation 12 (1)(2)(a)(i)) This is with particular regard to ensuring that the fire doors are 15/12/2017 Inspection report children’s home: 1252120 4 repaired and in good working order. The leadership and management standard is that the registered person enables, inspires and leads a culture in relation to the children’s home that—

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Requirement Due date

helps children aspire to fulfil their potential; and

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Requirement Due date

In particular, the standard in paragraph (1) requires the registered person to—

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Requirement Due date

ensure that staff work as a team where appropriate. (Regulation 13 (1)(2)(b)) 15/12/2017

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Requirement Due date

The care planning standard is that children receive effectively planned care in or through the children’s home.

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Requirement Due date

In particular, the standard in paragraph (1) requires the registered person to ensure—

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Requirement Due date

that staff help each child to access and contribute to the records kept by the registered person in relation to the child. (Regulation 14 (1)(2)(f)) 15/12/2017

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must prepare and implement a policy which is intended to safeguard children accommodated in the children’s home from abuse or neglect.

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must keep under review and, as necessary, revise the home’s child protection policies. (Regulation 34 (1)(a)(6))

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Requirement Due date

This is with particular regard to adding internet and online safety to the policy. 15/12/2017

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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).

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Requirement Due date

When conducting the review, the registered person must consult, and take into account the views of, each relevant person. (Regulation 46 (1)(2)) 29/12/2017 Inspection report children’s home: 1252120 5

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Recommendations

 A child’s bedroom should not generally be entered without their permission, though it may be necessary to establish routines to allow for rooms to be cleaned regularly. Usually, rooms should only be searched if the child has been informed or asked for their permission. Immediate searching may be necessary where there are reasonable grounds for believing that there is a risk to the child’s or another person’s safety or well-being. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 16, paragraph 3.20)

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Recommendations

 Where children placed in a home are not participating in education because they have been excluded or are not on a school roll for some other reason, the registered person and staff must work closely with the placing authority so that the child is supported and enabled to resume full-time education as soon as possible. In the interim, the child should be supported to sustain or regain their confidence in education and be engaged in suitable structured activities. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 28, paragraph 5.15)

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Recommendations

 Staff supervision must enable staff to reflect and act upon how their own feelings and behaviour may be affected by the behaviour of the children they care for. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 39, paragraph 8.15)

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Recommendations

 Supervision of staff practice should ensure that individual adults in the home are engaged in the safeguarding culture of the home so they understand what they would need to do if they found other staff misusing or abusing their position to the detriment of the safety of a child. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 43, paragraph 9.14)

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Recommendations

 Records must be kept detailing all individual incidents when children go missing from the home (regulation 36 (schedule 3(14)). This information should be shared with the placing authority and, where appropriate, with the child’s parents. Evaluation of missing incidents should be undertaken to identify any gaps in training, skills or knowledge for staff or to record and retain evidence of what worked well. This evaluation should inform the review of the quality of care. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 46, paragraph 9.31)

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Recommendations

 Regulation 19(2) details sanctions that are prohibited in behaviour management. Any sanctions used to address poor behaviour should be restorative in nature, to help children recognise the impact of their behaviour on themselves, other children, the staff caring for them and the wider community. In some cases it will be important for children to make reparation in some form to anyone hurt by their behaviour and the staff in the home should be skilled to support the child to understand this and carry it out. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 46, paragraph 9.38)  Staff should be familiar with the home’s policies on record keeping and Inspection report children’s home: 1252120 6 understand the importance of careful, objective, and clear recording. Staff should record information on individual children in a non-stigmatising way that distinguishes between fact, opinion and third-party information. Information

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Recommendations

about the child must always be recorded in a way that will be helpful to the child. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 62, paragraph 14.4)

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improvement to be good

The home is newly registered as of May 2017 and the young people are benefiting from developing positive relationships with the staff team. The atmosphere of the home is calm and welcoming and the young people have settled well. The home is well decorated with input from the young people. However, it would benefit from further ‘homely’ touches. In addition, the downstairs fire door requires repair to ensure the safety of the young people, staff and visitors.

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improvement to be good

Some of the young people are making good progress in all aspects of their lives. Each young person has a dedicated key worker to help them to reflect on their history and their future plans. The young people could identify an adult within the home whom they felt close to and could share their concerns or worries with. An independent reviewing officer said: ‘[Name] is safe here and staff are reducing the risk around her.’

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improvement to be good

The staff team is aware of the previous circumstances of all young people and, where appropriate, it encourages and supports contact with family and friends. This enables family relationships to repair and grow. A parent, when discussing the staff team, said, ‘They are really welcoming. [Name] does lots of activities and they have helped her to get back into school full-time.’

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improvement to be good

Education is valued in the home and the staff advocate well on behalf of young people who have school placements. However, not all young people are currently engaged in education. The staff team is addressing this issue but there are no proactive plans in place for the young people on a daily basis while they wait for appropriate placements to begin. The result is that the routine that school placements offer young people is lost. This may make it more difficult to fully engage quickly once placements are identified. The attendance rates for those young people who have a school placement are varied but strong efforts are made by the staff team to address any identified issues.

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improvement to be good

The young people are in good health. They participate in a range of activities, including trips to theme parks, involvement in a scream house at Halloween, playing table tennis and horse riding. The majority of young people identify that the food and the range of activities on offer are some of the best things about the home. The result is that young people are able to improve their social skills and presentation, as well as their health. There are health plans in place for most of the young people together with identified actions to monitor such health aspects as diet and skin care. These actions are not Inspection report children’s home: 1252120 7 always transferred to the placement care plans. This means that opportunities to monitor and improve the health of young people are missed.

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improvement to be good

The young people are supported to express their wishes and feelings on a regular basis. This is achieved in formal settings such as the young people’s meetings and in their key- work sessions. However, there is no evidence of young people actively participating in the planning of their care within the home and their contribution to records is not evident. Practice observed during the inspection indicated that the manager is seen by the young people and staff as the decision-maker when issues are raised. The manager is actively trying to address this issue to ensure that the young people are responded to in a timely manner by all staff.

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improvement to be good

Complaints raised by young people are dealt with in a speedy manner, and young people’s responses to the outcomes are recorded. Room searches are at times necessary and are recorded on young people’s individual files. However, there is no central record held by the home and the fact that young people are offered the opportunity to be present is not recorded. This will enhance levels of trust between young people and the adults caring for them.

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improvement to be good

Comprehensive risk assessments identify young people’s individual vulnerabilities. Although criteria for the measurement of risks are available, the evaluations that lead to the completion of the assessment are not recorded. The young people and relevant family members state that they are unaware of the content of the risk assessments and do not contribute to them. This was evidenced during the inspection by incomplete records which identified that such documents and critical incidents should be shared with relevant others, but they were not. In addition, there is no individual evaluation of risk to each young person in a holistic way at the point of admission. The result is that information is dealt with in isolation and records do not demonstrate that mutual risks have been explored.

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improvement to be good

There have been incidents of bullying in the home, particularly through the use of social media. Such incidents were not identified as bullying by staff and were reported within the overall critical incident process. Such incidents were not shared appropriately with family members. A parent stated that they felt that such incidents were ‘played down’. There is a relevant policy in place, but neither this nor the safeguarding policy addresses the issues of online safety in all its forms. This lack of a strategic approach leaves the young people at risk.

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improvement to be good

The episodes of going missing from the home have fluctuated over recent months and currently such occurrences are relatively low. Staff are aware of the procedures to follow if episodes do occur. However, there is no overall evaluation of such episodes that would identify required learning or strategies to help minimise future episodes.

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improvement to be good

Behaviour in the home is managed well and the need for physical intervention is low. If Inspection report children’s home: 1252120 8 there are occasions when such intervention is necessary to prevent injury to other young people and staff, all of the staff are appropriately trained in de-escalating and intervention techniques. This ensures that the young people are protected in the home, from themselves and others.

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improvement to be good

Sanctions are used effectively but minimally to address behaviours, with a restorative approach developing. However, some sanctions do not address the behaviour identified and are therefore punitive in nature. The manager has highlighted this in his monitoring but further work is needed with the staff team to ensure that it develops a greater understanding of behaviour management. Rewards are used to good effect, empowering young people to develop a sense of empathy and improving social skills, which benefit them now and in their future lives.

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

The registered manager is appropriately qualified and experienced. He has been managing this home since it opened in May 2017. He is supported by an experienced and motivated senior management team. The young people, staff, parents and other professionals all report very positively about his management style. A member of staff described the manager as ‘relaxed and firm’. A young person said: ‘He is a good manager. He gets involved and is hands-on.’

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

The manager has a clear sense of the strengths and weaknesses of the home, and has produced a workforce development plan. All staff hold the requisite level 3 qualification, apart from those who have recently joined the team, who remain within the timescales for qualification. Wider training is taking place and this will be further enhanced by the addition of training by the in-house psychologist.

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

Recruitment practice is robust, ensuring that the young people are not cared for by people who may pose a risk to them. Formal supervision is regular, but records indicate that sessions do not routinely include discussion around safeguarding or reflective practice. This does not allow the staff to continue to develop their practice. Team meetings are regular and effective at reviewing the needs of the young people.

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

The manager conducts an annual locality risk assessment. However, this does not include the full range of issues identified in current guidance and does not take account of the views of the professionals involved in the care of the young people. This limits the manager’s ability to assess the safety of the young people continually, specifically in this location.

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

The reports produced by the independent visitor do not provide adequate information to enable the manager to evaluate practice effectively. The manager has addressed this and has recruited another visitor to deliver the service.

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

The manager has a monitoring system in place, which is, on occasion, delegated to his senior staff to complete. This, along with the direct work and decision-making he undertakes, means that he is unable to fully monitor, evaluate and develop practice and Inspection report children’s home: 1252120 9 this need to be addressed.

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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: 1252120 10

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Children’s home details

Registered provider: Paddock House Limited

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: A1, Marquis Court, Team Valley Trading Estate, Gateshead NE11 0RU

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Inspector:

Susan Atkinson-Millmoor, social care inspector Inspection report children’s home: 1252120 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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