Children's home run by Castle Homes Limited in North Northamptonshire

Inspection report children’s home: SC413106 1 SC413106 Registered provider: Castle Homes 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

This home is run by a private provider. It offers care and accommodation for up to six children who have emotional and/or behavioural needs.

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Information about this children’s home

Inspection dates: 15 to 16 November 2017

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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 and 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: Requires improvement

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inadequate

Enforcement action since last inspection: None Inspection report children’s home: SC413106 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

 Weak leadership and management arrangements fail to lead and inspire a culture in the home to ensure that the young people’s welfare is promoted and that they make best possible progress.  Leaders and managers have failed to make the necessary arrangements to keep the young people safe.  Referrals to the home are poorly managed. Predictable negative consequences for the young people are overlooked or insufficiently considered.  Planning for the young people’s care and progress is ineffective and fails to address key areas of need and concern. Young people engage in behaviours that place their safety and welfare at risk of continuing harm.  Leaders and managers have failed to provide the young people with consistent and appropriate care and have not sufficiently sought to understand and address the reasons for this.

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Key findings from this inspection

 Despite such challenging times, care staff demonstrate resilience and a strong desire to improve the quality of care and experiences for the young people.  There have been some significant improvements with regards to the decoration and refurbishment of the home.

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

24/01/2017 Full Requires improvement 15/11/2016 Full Inadequate 08/03/2016 Interim Sustained effectiveness 21/12/2015 Full Good Inspection report children’s home: SC413106 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

*13: 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 aspire to fulfil their potential and promotes their welfare. In particular, the standard in paragraph (1) requires the registered person to ensure that the home’s workforce provides continuity of care for each child and also understands 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 quality of care provided in the home. (Regulation 13(2)(e)(f)) In particular, to ensure that all staff are able to formulate and follow clear and effective plans for the progress of each child; and also, effectively use available monitoring sources to inform improvement in the quality of care provided. 29/01/18

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Requirement Due date

*12: The protection of children standard is that children are protected from harm and enabled to keep themselves safe. 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. (Regulation 12 (2)(a)(i)) In particular, to ensure that all staff are able to formulate and follow clear and effective plans to manage and reduce the risks and self-defeating behaviours for each child. 29/01/18

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Requirement Due date

*14. The care planning standard is that children receive effectively planned care in or through the children’s home. In particular, the standard in paragraph (1) requires the registered person to manage and review the placement of each child in the home. (Regulation 14(2)(b)(ii)) In particular, to ensure that effective mechanisms are used to understand the needs and risks of children before they move 29/01/18 Inspection report children’s home: SC413106 4 into the home and understand how these might be managed; and also, to consider how these might affect children already in the home.

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Requirement Due date

* These requirements are subject to a compliance notice.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: inadequate

The safety of young people living in this home has seriously deteriorated since the last inspection. Young people frequently go missing and have assaulted each other and staff. On a number of occasions, staff have lost control and have needed to call the police as a result. Weak admission practice has failed to inform reliable decisions. Consequently, young people have moved into the home when their needs could not be met. As a result, they have had to be quickly moved on. Young people are not provided with the safety and security that they need. Late-night incidents have disrupted normal routines and undermined young people’s engagement in learning, programmes for independence and positive leisure activities. Conflicts in and around the home have resulted in strained relationships between the young people and between the young people and staff. This has undermined the homely atmosphere and sense of belonging for the young people in the home.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: inadequate

Staff have been unable to consistently enforce reasonable boundaries, or to effectively manage the dynamics between the young people. This has contributed to feelings of insecurity for the young people and, at times, has exacerbated feelings of resentment and jealousy between them. The capacity of staff to effectively manage the challenging and harmful behaviours of the young people has been significantly weakened by care and management plans that are unclear and ineffectual. A core team of dedicated staff has, however, managed to provide basic levels of stability and care in the home despite weak and ineffectual leadership.

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

Weak safeguarding practice, ineffectual risk and management plans and staffing inadequacies have meant that young people’s harmful behaviours have not been effectively managed or reduced during this inspection period. The young people have engaged in widespread and serious risk-taking behaviours. There are strong indications that some of the young people have been sexually exploited while missing from the home. Examples include young people being involved in sexually exploitative exchanges on social media on a number of occasions, and meeting with Inspection report children’s home: SC413106 5 strangers off-site following these exchanges. At times, staff have been unable to prevent the young people from assaulting each other and there has been actual physical harm to young people as well as to staff. On two occasions, young people have spent nights away from the home with staff in order for staff to separate them from others for their own safety.

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

Plans to address risky and harmful behaviours are vague and sometimes confusing. They do not clearly guide and direct staff in how to keep the young people safe. There are no plans to address clearly identified key areas of risk for some of the young people. For one young person, there is no specific plan in place to help her to make safe and appropriate use of social media, despite her being regarded as highly vulnerable to exploitation through this activity. There is little evidence to show that staff understand the possible underlying causes of young people’s concerning behaviours or how these can be effectively addressed. Staff display a lack of understanding, and expertise, in identifying risk and formulating clear and effective plans to manage and reduce the vulnerability of the young people. Risk management plans are not meaningfully reviewed or reformulated following serious incidents, even when strategies in place are clearly not working.

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

These identified failings in safeguarding practice leave the young people at high levels of vulnerability and result in them repeating specific high-risk behaviours. A lack of improvement in staff expertise to manage risk also contributes to continued high levels of risk for the young people.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

The safety, well-being, progress and positive life experiences of the young people have been significantly undermined during this inspection period by a range of failures by leaders and managers. There is currently no registered manager for the home. Interim management arrangements, since the previous registered manager gave notice in July 2017, have been insufficient and have contributed to a decline in the standards of care and protection for the young people. A plan, implemented on 27 October 2017, fails to identify the impact of temporary acting management posts on the remaining staff team. The responsible individual’s description of future support to management and staff is not clear. Although the plan sets out that additional support will be provided by a quality assurance team, this has not occurred and there is no timeline set for this to occur. The highly unsettled period from mid-September to the end of October, during which the

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

young people engaged in a range of very concerning behaviours, coincides with the loss of two key members of staff, high levels of staff annual leave, and followed a two-week period when the registered manager and deputy manager both took annual leave at the same time. Leaders and managers failed to proactively consider the impact of such arrangements on the continuity of care for the young people. A lack of clear and decisive leadership in the home has resulted in staff merely reacting to crises and changing circumstances. Monitoring systems, such as regulation 44 and 45 processes, have not been used to inform strategic planning to address emerging issues Inspection report children’s home: SC413106 6 or to ensure sufficient staffing capacity during anticipated periods of challenge. This has resulted in staff becoming demoralised and fatigued and having reduced capacity to respond effectively to the needs of the young people.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

Leaders and managers have failed to improve the quality of care for the young people following the identification of failings during the last two full inspections. This is particularly in regard to safeguarding practice. Improvement plans have been unsuccessful in embedding a strong safeguarding culture in the home. During this inspection, significant deficiencies have been found in staff’s capacity to understand and plan effectively for the management and reduction of risk. Staff say that they find current documentation and templates to be excessive and generally unhelpful in supporting clear and consistent practice, and even distracting at times when trying to respond to what they perceive to be the priority needs of the young people. Leaders and managers have, however, failed to address these issues and to make sure that plans enable staff to effectively meet the needs of the young people. Leaders and managers have repeatedly failed to address previously identified

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

deficiencies in referral procedures and have failed to follow the standards and processes for new admissions, as set out in the home’s statement of purpose. This has left young people exposed to preventable risks, disruption and placement breakdown. It has also resulted in staff being poorly prepared and equipped to meet the needs of the young people. The identified deficiencies in leadership and management, admission practice, risk management and care planning make further admissions unsafe until these significant failings have been effectively 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: SC413106 7

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Children’s home details

Registered provider: Castle Homes Limited

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: Fifth Floor, 80 Hammersmith Road, London W14 8UD

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Children’s home details

Responsible individual: Christopher Wells

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Inspectors

John Pledger, social care inspector Sophie Wood, regulatory inspector manager Inspection report children’s home: SC413106 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 children looked after, safeguarding and child protection.

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Inspectors

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Inspectors

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Inspectors

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