Children's home run by Sheffield City Council in Sheffield

Inspection report children’s home: SC035998 1 SC035998 Registered provider: Sheffield City Council

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Full inspection Inspected under the social care common inspection framework

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Information about this children’s home

The home provides residential care and support to children and young people who often display complex behaviours, such as issues with physical and verbal aggression, and self-harm. Individualised care packages will support their continued development and progress.

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Information about this children’s home

The current manager is registered with Ofsted.

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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 widespread failures that mean children and young people are not protected or safeguarded. The care and experiences of children are poor and they are not making progress.

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inadequate

Date of last inspection: 15 January 2018

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inadequate

Overall judgement at last inspection: sustained effectiveness

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inadequate

Enforcement action since last inspection: none Inspection report children’s home: SC035998 2

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

15/01/2018 Interim Sustained effectiveness 20/06/2017 Full Requires improvement to be good 12/12/2016 Interim Not judged 31/08/2016 Interim Not judged Inspection report children’s home: SC035998 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

within 24 hours of the use of a measure of control, discipline or restraint in relation to a child in the home, a record is made which includes—

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Requirement Due date

details of the child’s behaviour leading to the use of the measure;

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Requirement Due date

a description of the measure and its duration;

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Requirement Due date

details of any methods used or steps taken to avoid the need to use the measure;

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Requirement Due date

within 48 hours of the use of the measure, the registered person, or a person who is authorised by the registered person to do so (‘the authorised person’)—

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Requirement Due date

has spoken to the user about the measure; and

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Requirement Due date

has signed the record to confirm it is accurate. (Regulation 35 (3)(a)(ii)(iv)(v)(b)(i)(ii)) 28/06/2018

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Requirement Due date

In order to complete a quality of care review the registered person must establish and maintain a system for monitoring, reviewing and evaluating—

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Requirement Due date

the quality of care provided for children;

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Requirement Due date

the feedback and opinions of children about the children’s home, its facilities and the quality of care they receive in it; and

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Requirement Due date

any actions that the registered person considers necessary in order to improve or maintain the quality of care provided for children.

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Requirement Due date

The system referred to in paragraph (2) must provide for 28/06/2018 Inspection report children’s home: SC035998 4 ascertaining and considering the opinions of children, their parents, placing authorities and staff. (Regulation 45 (2)(a)(b)(c)(5)) * 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—

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Requirement Due date

that the home’s day-to-day care is arranged and delivered so as to keep each child safe and to protect each child effectively from harm. (Regulation 12 (2)(b))

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Requirement Due date

In particular, ensure that each young person’s needs can be met individually, and as a group living together.

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Requirement Due date

Take prompt action to find suitable placements for the young people whose identified needs cannot be met within the home.

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Requirement Due date

Ensure that the home has a full staff complement, including a management team, in line with the home’s statement of purpose. 27/05/2018

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Requirement Due date

* The education standard is that children make measurable progress towards achieving their educational potential and are helped to do so.

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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

help each child to achieve the child’s education and training targets, as recorded in the child’s relevant plans;

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Requirement Due date

understand the barriers to learning that each child may face and take appropriate action to help the child to overcome any such barriers. (Regulation 8 (1)(2)(i)(iii))

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Requirement Due date

In particular, ensure that all the children and young people have education placements and that their attendance improves to assist their opportunity to learn. 27/05/2018

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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 person to ensure— 27/05/2018 Inspection report children’s home: SC035998 5 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;

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Requirement Due date

understand the roles and responsibilities in relation to protecting children that are assigned to them by the registered person;

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Requirement Due date

take effective action whenever there is a serious concern about a child’s welfare; and

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Requirement Due date

that the home’s day-to-day care is arranged and delivered so as to keep each child safe and to protect each child effectively from harm. (Regulation 12 (1)(a)(i)(ii)(v)(vi)(b))

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Requirement Due date

all staff working in the home are suitably trained;

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Requirement Due date

safeguarding policies and procedures are implemented and understood by all staff to keep each young person safe and protect them from harm;

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Requirement Due date

all staff working at the home receive training and instruction in the individual missing from care protocols for each young person;

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Requirement Due date

immediate action is taken to stop, minimise and/or eliminate bullying, harassing and intimidating behaviour presented by the young people; and

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Requirement Due date

all staffing working at the home implement consistent routines and boundaries for the young people in their care. The registered person must ensure that all employees—

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Requirement Due date

receive practice-related supervision by a person with appropriate experience; and

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Requirement Due date

have their performance and fitness to perform their roles appraised at least once every year. (Regulation 33 (1)(4)(b)) 28/06/2018

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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 28/06/2018 Inspection report children’s home: SC035998 6 promotes their welfare.

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Requirement Due date

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

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ensure that staff work as a team where appropriate;

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

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ensure that the home’s workforce provides continuity of care to each child. (Regulation 13 (1)(a)(b)(2)(b)(d)(e))

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Requirement Due date

In particular, ensure that all staff are working consistently, attend regular staff meetings and that appropriate training is provided to all the agency staff. The training should include behaviour management and physical intervention. The quality and purpose of care standard is that children receive care from staff who—

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Requirement Due date

understand the children’s home’s overall aims and the outcomes it seeks to achieve for children;

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use this understanding to deliver care that meets children’s needs and supports them to fulfil their potential.

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

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ensure that the premises used for the purposes of the home are designed and furnished so as to—

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enable each child to participate in the daily life of the home. (Regulation 6 (2)(c)(i)(ii))

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In particular, ensure that the home is in good repair and well furnished throughout. 28/06/2018

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Requirement Due date

* These requirements are subject to a compliance notice.

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Recommendations

 Regulations 35-39 detail the records that must be kept in children’s homes. All children’s case records (regulation 36) must be kept up to date and stored securely whilst they remain in the home. (‘Guide to the children’s homes Inspection report children’s home: SC035998 7 regulations including the quality standards’, page 62, paragraph 14.3) In particular, ensure that direct-work sessions take place that reflect each child’s care plan, risk assessment and behaviour management plan.  No more than half the staff on duty at any one time, by day or night at the home should be from an external agency. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 54, paragraph 10.17)  Sufficient staff means a home having enough suitably trained staff (including someone in a management role) on duty to meet the assessed needs of all children in the home, and that those staff are able to respond to emergency

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Recommendations

placements, where accepted. The registered person must demonstrate every effort to achieve continuity of staff so that children’s attachments are not overly disrupted, including ensuring that the employment of any temporary staff will not prevent children from receiving the continuity of care that they need (regulation 31(1)). (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 51, paragraph 10.1)  The registered manager is responsible for ensuring that all staff consistently follow the home’s policies and procedures for the benefit of the children in the home’s care. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 54, paragraph 10.20) In particular, this refers to following agreed daily routines and boundaries, missing from care protocols, and regular attendance at staff meetings.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: inadequate

The daily life experience for the children and young people living in the home has significantly deteriorated. The children and young people present extremely challenging behaviour, as they are not emotionally settled and do not feel safe in their home. A young person said that he spent as much time away from the home as possible and it was not a good place to be.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: inadequate

The children and young people have not made progress. The children and young people have negatively influenced each other and this has brought about a deterioration in their ability to settle into positive daily routines. The individual needs of each child or young person cannot be met with the current group residing in the home.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: inadequate

The children and young people have not responded to the direction given by staff and the implemented care strategies. For example, the children and young people have been up all night for several weeks. This has had a considerable negative effect on the children’s and young people’s ability to attend education. This has brought about a decline in educational progress. In addition, not all the children and young people have an education placement.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: inadequate

The children and young people benefit from the support from staff to attend routine health check-ups and emotional well-being appointments. Inspection report children’s home: SC035998 8 The children and young people said that they have built positive relationships with some of the staff. Consultation takes place with the children and young people about aspects of their care. These include activities, personalising their own bedrooms and menus.

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

The children and young people have not been kept safe and protected from harm. There has been a failure to follow individual children’s and young people’s missing from care protocols. Three children and young people were not reported missing in line with these protocols.

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

The children’s and young people’s behaviour has been out of control. The staff have not consistently applied rules and boundaries. This has required the police to attend the home regularly. Police assistance has been required due to serious damage to the property, assaults taking place and to support the staff in managing threatening and challenging behaviour. There is a deficit in the regular recording of direct work with the children and young people. This does not assist the children and young people to receive guidance, the time to reflect on risk-taking behaviour and to address the areas set out in their risk assessments, care plans and behaviour plans.

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

The children and young people said they do not always feel safe. There has been significant and increased bullying behaviour. The staff have implemented strategies to protect the children and young people but this has not stopped all the intimidation and harassment for particular children and young people. Some children and young people have been fearful, not wanting to spend time around the home and have not wished to return home, due to not feeling safe.

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

The number of sanctions and physical interventions are low. When they have occurred, these have been appropriate. The recording of physical interventions continues to fall short for the regulations. The records do not include details showing the lead-up to the event.

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

The home is showing signs of wear and tear, with some damage evident to a bedroom wall, the lounge door and televisions. The staff have immediately reported the required repair work to return the environment to a suitable standard. However, these deficiencies give a poor impression, affecting negatively the day-to-day experience for the children.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

The manager is experienced and holds appropriate qualifications. The reopening of the home in 2017 started well, with the establishing of a new staff team. However, there have been a number of staff vacancies and long-term sickness. In addition, the home has had children and young people admitted in quick succession who are very vulnerable and have complex and diverse needs. Consequently, these factors have Inspection report children’s home: SC035998 9 significantly contributed to the poor care outcomes for the children and young people.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

The committed core team of staff is experienced in working with children and young people. However, the use of agency staff has increased significantly, initially to cover vacancies and sickness. Subsequently, agency staff have been used to increase the staffing levels further to try to support and manage the deteriorating behaviour of the children and young people. This has meant that the staffing levels at night have exceeded more than 50% use of external agency workers. Attempts have been made to assist the children and young people to settle but without success. There have been missed opportunities by the local authority to act swiftly to find placements for some children and young people whose needs cannot be met fully at the home.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

The staff team has not routinely received formal supervision, and a number of staff meetings have not taken place. This has been detrimental to the support of staff development, the enhancement of good communication and the provision of continuity of care. This has contributed to the deterioration of the children’s and young people’s care, safety and well-being.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

The permanent staff hold the level 3 diploma in caring for children and young people and they receive mandatory training in such areas as safeguarding, first aid and behaviour management. However, not all the agency staff working at the home have received behaviour management and physical intervention training. This has not assisted the staff to positively manage and safely support the children’s and young people’s behaviour.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

Suitable monitoring systems exist. Nevertheless, the lack of immediate action to address all the shortfalls identified has negatively affected the quality of care. The manager’s six-monthly monitoring report still requires evidence of the consultation with children, staff and professionals. There has been a failure to implement the majority of requirements and recommendations made at the last inspection. The manager has promptly sent in notifications of serious events to Ofsted.

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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, 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 Inspection report children’s home: SC035998 10 to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’. Inspection report children’s home: SC035998 11

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Children’s home details

Registered provider: Sheffield City Council

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: Town Hall, Pinstone Street, Sheffield S1 2HH

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Inspector(s)

Debbie Foster, social care inspector Ian Young, her majesty’s inspector Inspection report children’s home: SC035998 12 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(s)

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Inspector(s)

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Inspector(s)

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