Children's Home run by Care Afloat Ltd in Lancashire

Inspection report children’s home: SC006013 1 SC006013 Registered provider: Care Afloat Ltd Full inspection Inspected under the social care common inspection framework

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Information about this children’s home

This children’s home provides accommodation for one young person. The home provides services for children and young people with emotional/behavioural difficulties.

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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 judged

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Enforcement action since last inspection:

None. Inspection report children’s home: SC006013 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

 Young people are not consistently supported to understand their risk-taking behaviour and how they can make decisions that will keep them safer.  Transition planning for young people is poor, as the procedure for admitting young people to the home has not always been followed.  Allegations made by young people have not been investigated in line with the home’s safeguarding procedures and good practice.  The home has not had a registered manager for over 12 months. At times, there has not been a manager in full-time day-to-day management of this home, which has meant that shortfalls in practice have not been responded to.  Ineffective monitoring and auditing by management means that the general deterioration in standards of record keeping has not been identified or addressed.  The admission and discharge register is not managed in line with regulation.

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Key findings from this inspection

 Some young people have made progress in line with their care plans.  The new manager of this home is suitably qualified and experienced.  The staff have access to a wide range of training and have learned from this training.  Young people engage well with education.  Staff receive specialised training to ensure that they can meet the particular communication needs of young people.

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

01/03/2017 Interim Not judged 23/08/2016 Full Good 09/03/2016 Interim Declined in effectiveness 30/11/2015 Full Outstanding Inspection report children’s home: SC006013 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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date

The quality and purpose of care standard is that children receive care from staff who understand the children’s home’s overall aims and the outcomes it seeks to achieve for children and that they use this understanding to deliver care that meets children’s needs and supports them to fulfil their potential.

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date

In particular, the standard in paragraph (1) requires the registered person to ensure that children receive care from staff who—

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date

understand the children’s home’s overall aims and the outcomes it seeks to achieve for children; and use this understanding to deliver care that meets children’s needs and supports them to fulfil their potential. (Regulation 6(1)(a)(b))

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date

This refers particularly to ensuring the quality of key-work sessions address the specific individual needs of each young person and the record of the sessions reflect these discussions. 07/12/17

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date

The care planning standard is that children receive effectively planned care in or through the children’s home, and have a positive experience of arriving at or moving on from the home. (Regulation 14 (1)(a)(b))

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date

In particular, ensure that there are effective plans in place for young people’s transition into and when leaving the home. 07/12/17

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date

The registered person must maintain in the home the records in Schedule 4. (Regulation 37(1)(2)(a)(b)) In particular, maintain an accurate record of the admissions and discharge register. 07/12/17

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date

The registered person must notify HMCI and each other relevant person without delay when an incident requiring police involvement occurs in relation to a child which the registered person considers to be serious. (Regulation 40(4)(b)) 07/12/17

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Recommendations

 Children should be encouraged by staff to see the home’s records as ‘living documents’ supporting them to view and contribute to the record in a way that reflects their voice on a regular basis. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations Inspection report children’s home: SC006013 4 including the quality standards’, page 58, paragraph 11.19)

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improvement to be good

Although this inspection has shown progress for some young people, this has not been the case for all the young people who have lived at this home since the last full inspection. The experiences and outcomes for young people have been variable. For example, one young person benefited from a gradual transition from the service to semi- independent living and another young person moved to a children’s home nearer to her family. These transitions were in line with the young people’s agreed care plans. However, another young person was moved to other accommodation, about which the independent visitor commented: ‘I am of the view this young person is not safeguarded and, even with the best efforts of staff to promote his well-being, the level of disengagement makes this almost impossible.’ Another young person was admitted to the home while they were missing from care.

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improvement to be good

Transitions for young people in and out of the home are not planned, managed effectively or in line with the home’s procedures. Consequently, young people, their families and the professionals involved in their care are not always able to contribute to their care planning. When a young person’s placement ended in an emergency, the subsequent planning for them to return to the home had not taken account of the risks to them in the community before they returned to the home and received accommodation there. This means that the young person was put at risk.

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improvement to be good

The education of young people is provided by the same organisation. Consequently, staff are able to support the young people in education, which provides them with consistency. However, incidents in school involving young people and care staff from the home are not reflected on by the home’s manager. There is a lack of consideration of how an incident at school may affect the relationships between young people and staff at the home. Neither does it allow any opportunity for staff to reflect on any incidents with their line manager. This means that opportunities for learning from these incidents are missed.

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improvement to be good

Young people and staff have good relationships. Staff speak positively of the young people, and staff demonstrate a commitment to supporting young people to progress. One young person said, ‘Staff have been supportive of me and tried their best to help me improve.’ A social worker said that ‘communication has been excellent’. The home also communicates with young people about their educational progress, where appropriate.

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improvement to be good

The staff have all received specialised training to ensure that they can meet the communication needs of one young person. This allows her to communicate in her first choice language, British Sign Language, at the home. Inspection report children’s home: SC006013 5 Risk assessments and behaviour management plans for young people are clear and routinely updated, containing specific guidance on individual methods of managing behaviours. Despite this, staff have not consistently followed the guidance. As a result, young people have displayed very challenging behaviours, and staff members and young people are exposed to unnecessary risks. For example, two members of staff did not follow the risk assessment for one young person who went missing from the home. Although a worker did look for her, this was a male member of staff. The young person had asked to work predominantly with female staff, and had a history of targeting male

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improvement to be good

staff. This left the both the young person and the male member of staff vulnerable.

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improvement to be good

The home, overall, is well maintained and decorated. The registered manager has plans to ensure that the house is redecorated and made more inviting and homely before any young person is admitted. Requirements at the last inspection have been met to ensure that the house is habitable. In an effort to satisfy neighbours’ complaints, the young person’s bedroom has had significant work carried out to ensure that the noise from the home is minimised. However, the young person’s bedroom still has a hole in the wall as a result of damage from a previous resident. Other young people have also stayed in this room without this being rectified.

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improvement to be good

The young people accommodated at the home tend to transition from the provider’s mobile service, where they have received some intensive crisis intervention. The manager of the home also manages this service, and the staff work across both services. This enables the young people to experience a consistency in staffing and an understanding and management of risk and behaviours. Additionally, it ensures the continuity of attachments and relationships with staff, where these have been positive, as part of the young person’s care.

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improvement to be good

The plans in place concerning young people’s behaviour and risks are clear and robust. They evidence that key-work sessions with young people should be undertaken to address concerns and to support young people to keep themselves safe. Key-work sessions are undertaken on a regular basis. However, they do not always address concerns about young people to help them to recognise and reduce risk. For example, one young person’s care plan evidences concerns about alcohol and cannabis misuse, yet no work was undertaken with the young person to address this during their stay at this placement. The young person also had issues with eating. Despite the registered manager promoting the need for therapy to the young person’s commissioning authority and indicating that it was extremely important for the young person, no key-work sessions were undertaken to address these behaviours. The young person was referred

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improvement to be good

to the child and adolescent mental health service and, despite an initial assessment at which she refused to engage, no further support was sought for this young person. This meant that the young person was not given the help or support required to meet her needs and reduce risks. Inspection report children’s home: SC006013 6 There have been occasions when the staff and concerned neighbours have had to call the police to deal with the behaviour of young people. On one occasion, a young person left the home to ‘jump off a bridge’. The record at the home also states that the young person was ‘shouting at neighbours and scaring little children on the street’. The police attended to deal with the behaviour of the young person. Work undertaken by staff afterwards consisted of the staff showing the young person the ‘inside of a police cell’. This does not help or support young people to manage their feelings or allow staff to seek to understand the triggers for

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improvement to be good

their behaviour. The home also failed to notify Ofsted, in accordance with regulation, that the police had been called to the home. This means that the regulatory body cannot review the actions taken by the home to maintain the ongoing safety of the young people placed there.

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improvement to be good

Debriefings of young people and staff have not always taken place after restrictive physical intervention, and this does not allow for the review and monitoring of incidents to reduce incidents and improve practice.

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improvement to be good

On one occasion when a disclosure has been reported to the home with regard to staff conduct, the management of the home did not discuss the concerns with the designated officer or undertake a thorough investigation, despite making adjustments to the rota to ensure that the young person and staff member no longer came into contact. Discussion with the member of staff to support them to understand this decision was limited. The discussion with the young person in a key-work session was entitled ‘Telling the truth, telling lies and fabricating stories’. This does not allow either the young person or the staff member to be adequately supported or protected.

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

The previous registered manager for this home left in June 2016. A new manager was appointed in December 2016, but did not complete their registration with Ofsted. A service reshuffle led to the current manager being appointed in July 2017. As a requirement of the interim inspection, the independent visitor reports that were carried out for February, March and April were submitted to Ofsted, but only in June, while those for May and June have not been submitted at all. This means that the regulator has not been able to assess any identified issues in a timely way. Moreover, at times, since the last inspection it has not been clear who has had day-to-day charge of the home.

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

Young people have on at least two occasions received care and accommodation at the home without being admitted to the home in line with regulation. The admission and discharge register has not been completed and it is not clear from the records held at the home that admissions have taken place.

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

Complaints to the home from the neighbours have not always been accurately recorded, and the records at the home do not evidence how all complaints have been responded to. This is of particular significance, given the threats made to one young person by a neighbour. This means that the managers at the home are not able to evidence what action has been taken to reduce any future risk to young people, staff and the local community. Inspection report children’s home: SC006013 7 Supervision records do not demonstrate that new staff receive supervision in line with the procedures set by the provider. As a result, new members of staff may not have the skills or experience to respond to young people in the most appropriate manner. However, on the occasions when supervision has taken place, it is clear that there is managerial challenge of poor practice.

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

Staff benefit from regular training. Each member of staff has their own specialist area of knowledge and is keen to expand their knowledge through wider reading. Staff members report that there is an opportunity for them to develop and progress under the current leaders and managers.

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

The current development plan for the home needs updating. The registered manager is aware of this, and has a clear vision for the service and the developments that she wants to implement at the home. The manager and the staff are child focused and are ambitious for the future of the service and the support that they want to provide for young people. The registered manager is highly thought of by her staff team and is supported by her deputy manager. When speaking about the managers, one member of staff said: ‘brilliant, very supportive managers’. Staff members reported being happy in the team: ‘I absolutely love it.’ They have a clear understanding of the managers’ plans for the future direction of the service.

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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: SC006013 8

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: 158 Birkrig, Skelmersdale, Lancashire WN8 9HP

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Children’s home details

Responsible individual: Michael Fletcher

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Inspector

Jessica Forshaw, social care inspector Inspection report children’s home: SC006013 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 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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