Children's home run by Educare Adolescent Services Limited in Cannock Chase

Inspection report children’s home: SC050418 1 SC050418 Registered provider: Educare Adolescent Services 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 privately owned children’s home is registered for three young people who have emotional and/or behavioural difficulties. This home is currently offering long-term care for young people, aged nine to 17, who have complex needs and display challenging behaviour.

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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 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: improved effectiveness

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requires improvement to be good

Enforcement action since last inspection: none Inspection report children’s home: SC050418 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

 Since the last inspection, there have been significant and rapid changes in the home, including increasing the number of residents to three young people and a period of unstable management, prior to the new registered manager starting in post.  There has been a significant loss of core staff, leading to a very unsettled period.  Young people have experienced inconsistent care due to a high use of agency staff.  The admission of a third young person led to a deterioration in the behaviour of another previously settled young person, who was then moved in an emergency.  Staff failed to support one young person to recognise and address the loss he felt when his peer moved out suddenly.  Bedroom door alarms have been used and the kitchen door locked in the evenings, without sufficient review of risk assessments to demonstrate why this is necessary.  Staff do not provide young people with young people’s meetings.

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Key findings from this inspection

 The home, which was previously furnished and decorated to a very high standard, is now in need of redecoration.  The registered manager also manages another home and struggles to ensure that the needs of the young people are met at all times.  Staff supervision is not up to date.  The registered manager has not been proactive in challenging the placing authority and escalating concerns when the needs of young people are not being met.  Key-work sessions do not sufficiently address drug misuse.  Not all staff training is up to date with regard to physical intervention and health and safety.

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Key findings from this inspection

 Young people have warm and trusting relationships with the core staff.  New staff have been recruited to the core team, and the use of agency staff has now stopped.  Young people enjoy a comfortable home in which they have personalised their Inspection report children’s home: SC050418 3 rooms.  Young people thoroughly enjoyed a seaside holiday in the summer.  Staff engage young people in fun and stimulating activities, including ice skating and football.  The current young people get on well together now. They are benefiting from the recent admission of a much younger young person and are having fun.  One young person is making significant and sustained progress in his education and independence.  Staff keep young people safe, and young people said that they feel safe.  Other professionals and family members gave positive feedback about many aspects of the service.

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

22/03/2017 Interim Improved effectiveness 05/12/2016 Full Outstanding 09/02/2016 Interim Sustained effectiveness 14/05/2015 Full Outstanding 27/03/2015 Interim Sustained effectiveness Inspection report children’s home: SC050418 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

In meeting the quality standards, the registered person must, and must ensure that staff, seek to involve each child’s placing authority effectively in the child’s care, in accordance with the child’s relevant plans; seek to secure the input and services required to meet each child’s needs; if the registered person considers, or staff consider, a placing authority’s or a relevant person’s performance or response to be inadequate in relation to their role, challenge the placing authority or the relevant person to seek to ensure that each child’s needs are met in accordance with the child’s relevant plans. (Regulation 5 (a)(b)(c)) 09/03/2018

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Requirement Due date

The children’s views, wishes and feelings standard is that children receive care from staff who develop positive relationships with them; engage with them; and take their views, wishes and feelings into account in relation to matters affecting the children’s care and welfare and their lives.

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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

help each child to express views, wishes and feelings

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Requirement Due date

help each child to understand how the child’s views, wishes and feelings have been taken into account and give the child reasons for decisions in relation to the child

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Requirement Due date

regularly consult children, and seek their feedback, about the quality of the home’s care. (Regulation 7 (1)(a)(b)(c) and (2)(a)(ii)(iii)(iv)).

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Requirement Due date

This is with particular reference to providing and encouraging young people to attend and engage in regular young people’s meetings. 09/03/2018

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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 09/03/2018 Inspection report children’s home: SC050418 5 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

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Requirement Due date

help each child to understand how to keep safe. (Regulation 12 (1) and (2)(a)(ii))

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Requirement Due date

This is with particular reference to addressing the risks of drug misuse with young people. 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—

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Requirement Due date

staff have the experience, qualifications and skills to meet the needs of each child

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Requirement Due date

the home has sufficient staff to provide care for each child

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Requirement Due date

the home’s workforce provides continuity of care to each child. (Regulation 13 (1)(a)(b) and (2)(b)(c)(d)(e)) 09/03/2018

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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 and have a positive experience of arriving at or moving on from the home. (Regulation 14 (1)(a)(b))

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Requirement Due date

This is with particular reference to helping young people who leave the home in an emergency to have as positive an experience of leaving as possible. Also, that the young people remaining in the home are supported with the loss of the young person who has moved. 09/03/2018

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Recommendations

 Staff should provide a nurturing environment that is welcoming, supportive, and which provides appropriate boundaries in relation to their behaviour. Homes must also meet children’s basic day-to-day needs and physical necessities. Staff should seek to meet the child’s basic needs in the way that a good parent would, Inspection report children’s home: SC050418 6 recognising that many children in residential care have experienced environments where these needs have not been consistently met – doing so is an important aspect of demonstrating that the staff care for the child and value them as an individual. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 15, paragraph 3.7) This is with particular reference to maintaining the previous high standard of decoration and furnishing in the home.

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Recommendations

 Just as in a family home, children should be able to access all shared areas of their home unless there are specific reasons why this would not meet a child’s needs. Limits on privacy and access may only be put in place to safeguard each child in the home (regulation 21(c)(i)). Any decisions to limit a child’s access to any area of the home and any modifications to the environment of the home, must only be made where this is intended to safeguard the child’s welfare. All decisions should be informed by a rigorous assessment of that individual child’s needs, be properly recorded and be kept under regular review. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 15, paragraph 3.10) This is with particular reference to locking the kitchen in the evenings and to the door alarms on young people’s bedrooms.

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improvement to be good

Since the last inspection, young people have experienced a very unsettled period, which has impacted negatively on each of them. The admission of a third young person created significant anxiety for one young person, who had been settled and making excellent progress. His behaviour deteriorated and he became very challenging to staff and disruptive to the other young people. He then experienced an emergency move to another placement. Staff did not recognise and address the impact of this loss on one of his peers who had lived with him for two years. He said, ‘He walked out of the door and didn’t come back. I lived with him for two years and never got to say goodbye.’

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improvement to be good

The previous registered manager left his post a number of weeks before the new registered manager came into post in July 2017, creating a period of unstable management of the home. Young people have been upset by these changes, which are in contrast to this previously settled and outstanding home.

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improvement to be good

One young person, who is fully engaged in college and is making excellent progress with his independence, has seen his home environment deteriorate and has had his study and sleep disrupted by the behaviours of the other young people. The kitchen has been locked in the evenings and the home is in need of redecoration. Young people’s meetings have not been held for some months. Inspection report children’s home: SC050418 7 There has been a high use of agency staff, who do not know young people well. However, young people have warm and trusting relationships with core staff. They also enjoy a range of fun and stimulating activities with staff, including holidays, trips to the local air museum, playing football and pool, ice skating and going to the park. The recent admission of a nine-year-old has benefited the other young people, who enjoy playing with him and behaving like older brothers. One young person said that he is happy here. He feels that he

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improvement to be good

has made progress. He also thinks that staff care about him and confirmed that he can talk to staff. He is enjoying his independence plan and has made progress in his family relationships. Another young person said that he likes it here, as he is treated like an adult. He said that he is asked about things and his opinion matters. Staff provide young people with weekly, relevant key-work sessions and with independent advocates. When young people are out of education, staff offer them a range of activities to support their educational needs and encourage them to engage in education.

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improvement to be good

One young person said of his key worker, ‘She is helping me to think about my future and moving back home; she is looking at colleges for me. We just clicked.’

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

Highly trained staff keep young people safe, and young people said that they feel safe. Staff react quickly and appropriately when young people go missing. They search for them and work closely with the police, placing authorities and family members to ensure that young people are found and returned safely. Core staff know the young people well and form trusting relationships with them. This trust enables staff to work with young people to keep them safe. One young person, who is on a curfew and who had stopped engaging with staff, has now re-engaged and is keeping to his curfew.

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

Staff are trained to recognise and respond to signs of child sexual exploitation. They are very skilled at allowing young people the freedom to develop their independence, while remaining vigilant and monitoring their safety. Staff ensure that young people have mobile phones to keep in contact with staff.

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

Staff use de-escalation techniques and the Playfulness, Acceptance, Curiosity and Empathy (PACE) model to engage young people and help them to manage their own emotions and reduce harmful behaviours. Staff have debriefing sessions after incidents to look at how they could have managed incidents differently and to share effective methods of working with young people. They manage conflict between young people, and there have been no physical interventions since the last inspection. However, some of the staff need to update their training in health and safety and physical intervention.

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

Staff worked effectively with other agencies, including the police, to prevent one young person being supplied with drugs. Staff undertake detailed key-work sessions with young people to help them to understand how to keep themselves safe. This work includes addressing drug misuse and making referrals to drug support services. Key-work sessions could be further improved by returning to the issue of drug misuse on a regular basis with Inspection report children’s home: SC050418 8 young people. Key-work sessions also address a wide range of relevant issues, including behaviour, appropriate relationships and sexual health. Staff have access to an up-to-date locality risk assessment. Young people have detailed and valuable risk assessments and behaviour support plans.

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

The registered manager recognised the negative impact that one young person was having on the safety of the other young people and staff and worked effectively with the young person’s placing authority, acknowledging that this placement could no longer meet his needs. The young person has now left the home. This has led to a calmer home and a reduction in safeguarding incidents.

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

The registered manager has been in post since July 2017. She has several years of experience working with and managing children and young people’s residential care. She holds a level 5 qualification in leadership and management. The provider increased the number of young people in the home to three at the same time as the previous, long- standing manager left (before his post was filled). The pace and significance of this change was not well managed. Managerial cover for the home before the new registered manager came into post did not provide consistency and stability for the young people and staff. In addition, a number of core staff left the team and were not replaced, leaving the home dependent on agency staff.

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

The child-focused registered manager also manages another home and has worked hard to try to maintain high standards in both. However, managing two homes reduces her oversight. Young people and staff have struggled to adapt to the increase to three young people. The registered manager reduced the level of staff supervision, young people’s meetings stopped, and she reduced the level of monitoring of the quality of care that young people received.

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

The registered manager and senior managers need to make a number of improvements in order for the home to become good. The registered manager is shortly to leave this post and will be replaced by a registered manager who is solely for this home. Senior managers are aware of the need to ensure that the home is not left without a registered manager during the transition. The registered manager will remain in post until she is able to hand over to a new manager.

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

Young people’s meetings need to be reinstated, and staff need to encourage young people to engage in the meetings and express their views, wishes and feelings.

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

Care planning needs to improve. When one young person had to move in an emergency, his social worker considers that his move was poorly managed, with him leaving while missing from the home, and not saying goodbye to his peers and the staff.

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

While the registered manager is a strong advocate for young people, she has not sufficiently challenged the placing authority for one young person or escalated her concerns Inspection report children’s home: SC050418 9 about his needs not being met. He is an exceptionally talented ice skater, and, a year ago, he asked his placing authority to pay for him to trial in an ice hockey team. His placing authority has still not approved this, despite it being recognised by the home and in-house clinical team that this could be fundamental to his self-esteem and motivation.

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

A number of positive changes have already occurred. While the initial admission of a third young person proved not to be a good match, the registered manager has now successfully matched another young person, who is settling in and forming positive relationships with staff. The registered manager has now recruited a number of new staff to the core team and has stopped using agency staff. There is now a full staff team. She has supervised all staff and is now strongly focused on providing consistent staffing in order to meet young people’s needs. Staff have had training in topics such as PACE and trauma. Staff encourage young people to attend their reviews and support them to express themselves. Young people have been closely involved in the recruitment of new staff, meeting them before they were appointed and being consulted about their suitability.

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

Professionals and family members provided positive feedback about interagency work and cooperation with staff. The social worker for one young person commented that the registered manager was ‘excellent’, advocated on behalf of the young person and worked well with other agencies such as the police. She also commented that the deputy manager was a consistent, positive figure for the young person and cared about him.

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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: SC050418 10

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Children’s home details

Registered provider: Educare Adolescent Services Limited

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: Venture House, 12 Prospect Business Park, Longford Road, Cannock, Staffordshire WS11 0LG

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Inspector

Louise Whittle, social care inspector Inspection report children’s home: SC050418 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 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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