Children's home run by Archways Care Limited in Wolverhampton

Inspection report children’s home: SC429918 1 SC429918 Registered provider: Archways Care Limited Full inspection Inspected under the social care common inspection framework

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Information about this children’s home

The home is registered to provide care for up to four young people who have emotional and/or behavioural difficulties. A private company operates this home.

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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 good

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good

The effectiveness of leaders and managers requires improvement to be good

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good

The children’s home provides effective services that meet the requirements for good.

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good

Overall judgement at last inspection: improved effectiveness Inspection report children’s home: SC429918 2 Enforcement action since last inspection: none

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Key findings from this inspection

 Young people are supported to make progress and to achieve important milestones in their lives.  Young people take part in a range of leisure activities that reflect their individual interests.  Staff ensure that young people’s health needs are met.  Staff help young people to develop essential life skills.  Young people rarely go missing from home.  Staff receive good inductions and training opportunities.  Good relationships with the police have helped to prevent criminalisation of young people.  Communication with social workers is good.

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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

 Staff have not ensured that the physical standards in the home have been maintained so that young people continuously live in a homely environment.  The registered manager has not ensured that staff receive regular practice supervision to support their development.  The registered manager has not made sure that the staff’s performance is appraised annually.  Staff have implemented behaviour management strategies that do not promote young people’s rights to access all parts of their home.  The registered manager does not have sufficient oversight of the monitoring and review systems within the home, including medication records.  Not all staff have completed the level 3 diploma in residential childcare within the regulatory timescale.  The registered manager has not ensured that staff are safely recruited.  The registered manager did not inform Ofsted of an allegation made by a young person against a member of staff.

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

Inspection report children’s home: SC429918 3 29/03/2017 Interim Improved effectiveness 27/04/2016 Full Good 26/02/2016 Interim Sustained effectiveness 16/06/2015 Full Good Inspection report children’s home: SC429918 4

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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

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.

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Requirement Due date

In particular, the standard in paragraph (1) requires the registered person to ensure that the premises used for the purposes of the home are designed and furnished so as to meet the needs of each child. (Regulation 6(1)(2)(c)) 31/03/2018

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Requirement Due date

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.

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Requirement Due date

In particular, the standard in paragraph (1) requires the registered person to use monitoring and review systems to make continuous improvements in the quality of care provided in the home. (Regulation 13(1)(2)(h)) 31/03/2018

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Requirement Due date

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.

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Requirement Due date

In particular, the standard in paragraph (1) requires the registered person to ensure that staff have the experience, qualifications and skills to meet the needs of each child (Regulation 13(1)(2)(c)) 31/03/2018

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must ensure that children can access all appropriate areas of the children’s home’s premises and any limitation placed on a child’s privacy or access to any area of the home’s premises is intended to safeguard each child accommodated at the home, is necessary and proportionate, is kept under review and, if necessary, revised and allows children as much freedom as is possible when balanced against the need 28/02/2018 Inspection report children’s home: SC429918 5 to protect them and keep them safe. (Regulation 21(a)(b)(c))

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must recruit staff using recruitment procedures that are designed to ensure children’s safety. The registered person may only employ an individual to work at the children’s home if the individual satisfies the requirements in paragraph (3). The requirements are that full and satisfactory information is available in relation to the individual in respect of each of the matters in Schedule 2. (Regulation 35(3)(b)(c)) 28/02/2018

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must ensure that all employees have their performance and fitness to perform their roles appraised at least once every year (Regulation 33(4)(c)) 31/03/2018

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must notify HMCI and each other relevant person without delay if there is an allegation of abuse against the home or a person working there. (Regulation 40(4)(c)) 28/02/2018

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Recommendations

To improve the quality and standards of care further, the service should take account of the following recommendations:

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Recommendations

 Ensure that medicines are administered in line with a medically approved protocol. Records must be kept for the administration of all medication, which includes occasions when prescribed medication is refused. Regulation 23 requires the registered person to ensure that they make suitable arrangements to manage, administer and dispose of any medication. These are fundamentally the same sorts of arrangements as a good parent would make, but are subject to additional safeguards. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 35, paragraph 7.15)  Ensure that there are systems in place so that all staff, including the manager, receive supervision of their practice from an appropriately qualified and experienced professional, which allows them to reflect on their practice and the needs of the children assigned to their care. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 61, paragraph 13.2)

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Young people develop trusting relationships with staff and feel supported by them. Staff have positive views of the young people and want them to make progress. A social worker told the inspector, ‘They advocate for the young people and are keen to see Inspection report children’s home: SC429918 6 young people achieve and succeed.’ Young people’s confidence in these relationships enables them to make progress.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff ensure that young people’s placement plans stay up to date and set out how they will meet young people’s individual needs. This means that every member of staff understands the objectives of the placement for each young person. As a result, young people receive consistent support that enables them to achieve important milestones.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff support young people’s education. A nominated member of staff oversees all aspects of young people’s education. This includes building strong working relationships with schools and colleges. This helps young people to make progress in their learning. A teacher told the inspector that the member of staff was ‘extremely knowledgeable about the young people’, and went on to say, ‘[Name of staff member] always goes above and beyond her job role. She regularly updates me regarding the young people and we work closely together to ensure that the young people are holistically supported.’ Because of this support, young people’s educational outcomes considerably improve.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff make sure that all young people have health plans in place and can access local health services. Young people are supported to attend all necessary appointments, including therapy. This means that young people’s physical and emotional needs are met.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff ensure that young people have opportunities to take part in a range of activities. These include trips to the cinema, pamper activities, ice skating and table tennis. These experiences promote young people’s confidence and self-esteem.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff support young people to develop essential life skills that they will require during adulthood. This includes young people completing a formal independence skills programme that enables them to gain a range of skills, such as cooking and budgeting.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff regularly consult young people about the running of the home, and about issues that affect them, through key-work sessions, monthly consultation forms and young people’s meetings. A young person told the inspector that they feel listened to by staff. As a result, young people recognise that their views are important.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Young people receive practical support from staff so that they can visit friends and family. Staff understand the strong links that young people have with their families, and the positive impact these can have. For example, staff have supported one young person to have flexible visiting arrangements with their family. This has resulted in a significant reduction in their missing-from-home incidents.

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

Young people told the inspector that they feel safe living in the home. This was also reflected in their written monthly feedback forms. Inspection report children’s home: SC429918 7 The registered manager ensures that all staff complete regular safeguarding training. This includes training regarding missing from home, and awareness of child sexual exploitation and radicalisation. This means that staff are equipped with skills that enable them to protect the young people in their care.

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

Young people can sometimes demonstrate challenging behaviours. Staff recognise these behaviours as symptoms of young people’s individual experiences rather than adopting a blame culture. Staff complete detailed risk assessments that are updated to reflect any changes in circumstances. These support clear behaviour management strategies that young people are encouraged to set. As a result, young people are clear about the actions that staff will take to safeguard them. However, on one occasion, staff implemented strategies that infringed young people’s rights to access different parts of the house. This included staff locking doors to prevent young people from accessing certain areas of their home. The registered manager has taken action to address this shortfall in practice.

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

Young people rarely go missing from home. Consequently, there has only been one incident of a young person going missing from home in the past four months. On this occasion, the staff followed the local missing-from-care protocol to ensure that the young person was safely returned. All young people are given the opportunity to speak to an independent person on their return home. This enables staff to understand why young people may decide to go missing from home.

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

Staff have not ensured that general maintenance of the home is completed in a timely manner. Consequently, the home environment does not support nurturing care.

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

The registered manager has not maintained sufficient oversight of staff recruitment. As a result, recruitment records do not reflect that all necessary checks have been completed to make sure that staff recruitment helps to keep young people safe.

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

The registered manager has been in post for a year. He is currently working towards his level 5 diploma in leadership and management. The registered manager also has responsibility for another home that is operated by the organisation.

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

Staff receive a clear induction and complete regular training. This supports them to develop the skills required to care for young people. However, the registered manager has not ensured that all staff have completed the level 3 diploma in residential childcare within the regulatory timescale. This leaves staff with ongoing gaps in their knowledge.

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

The registered manager has not ensured that staff receive regular supervision. As a result, staff do not have consistent access to this vital support. In addition, the registered manager has not ensured that staff receive annual performance appraisals. As a result, staff do not understand what they need to do to progress their careers. Inspection report children’s home: SC429918 8 Staff have developed working relationships with other professionals. For example, staff have links with the local police. This has resulted in police officers working with young people to address their behaviours and to prevent potential criminalisation. As a result of the success of this initiative, it is now being used to support a young person’s behaviour in school. Communication with placing authorities is equally good. For example, one social worker told the inspector, ‘I was sent weekly updates from them. If there were

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

any concerns, the manager would often contact me himself and discuss any concerns.’ This partnership approach means that young people receive multi-agency support to help them to make positive progress in their lives.

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

The registered manager makes sure that the home operates within the statement of purpose and this document is regularly updated. This means that social workers and parents receive clear information about what the service provides.

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

An independent person visits monthly and reports their findings to the registered manager. However, the registered manager does not demonstrate oversight of the recording and monitoring systems in the home. As a result, there have been failings in the systems for monitoring medication. In addition, the registered manager did not notify the regulator of an allegation made by a young person against a staff member. This lack of understanding prevents the registered manager from completing the ongoing review that is required to support regulatory compliance and continued service development.

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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: SC429918 9

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Children’s home details

Registered provider: Archways Care Limited

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: Muras Baker Jones, Regent House, Bath Avenue, Wolverhampton WV1 4EG

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Children’s home details

Responsible individual: Christopher Aristidou

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Inspector

Tracey Coglan Greig: social care inspector Inspection report children’s home: SC429918 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 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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