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

Inspection report children’s home: SC419330 1 SC419330 Registered provider: Castle Homes Limited

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Full inspection Inspected under the social care common inspection framework

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Information about this children’s home

This children’s home is registered to accommodate a maximum of three children who have complex difficulties. It is owned by a large private organisation. There is a manager in post who is not yet registered.

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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 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

Date of last inspection: 13 December 2017

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requires improvement to be good

Overall judgement at last inspection: inadequate

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requires improvement to be good

Enforcement action since last inspection: none

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

13/12/2017 Full Inadequate 13/09/2016 Full Good Inspection report children’s home: SC419330 2 28/01/2016 Interim Improved effectiveness 07/10/2015 Full Requires improvement Inspection report children’s home: SC419330 3

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Statutory requirements

This section sets out the actions that the registered person(s) must take to meet the Care Standards Act 2000, Children’s Homes (England) Regulations 2015 and the ‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’. The registered person(s) must comply within the given timescales.

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Requirement Due date

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

(2) In particular, the standard in paragraph (1) requires the registered person to ensure— (a) that staff— (i) 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

In particular, ensure that risk assessments inform staff of the strategies to use to minimise risk, and that they are updated in response to changes in circumstances.

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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— (2)(c) ensure that staff have the experience, qualifications and skills to meet the needs of each child; (h) use monitoring and review systems to make continuous improvements in the quality of care provided in the home.

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Requirement Due date

This is in particular to ensure that essential paperwork is completed and regularly reviewed.

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Recommendations

 When a child needs additional health or well-being support, staff should work Inspection report children’s home: SC419330 4 with the child’s placing authority to enable proper and immediate access to any specialist medical and psychological or psychiatric support required, and challenge them through regulation 5 – engaging with the wider system to ensure children’s needs are met, if this doesn’t happen. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 34, paragraph 7.10)

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improvement to be good

At this inspection there were no young people living in the home.

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improvement to be good

This home had a full inspection on 13 December 2017; the judgment was inadequate. At the monitoring inspection on 9 March 2017, the manager and staff had met some requirements; some needed further testing to ensure that they become embedded. Some requirements remained unmet.

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improvement to be good

Leaders and managers have devised an action plan and a workforce plan to address the failings at the last full inspection. Managers have reviewed the moving-in processes and the recording systems. The manager has devised an admission risk assessment to complete with the placing authority to ensure that information is accurate. In addition, a matching needs assessment is in place, which considers the impact of young people moving in upon those who already live there.

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improvement to be good

The manager identified a number of mental health services which can potentially offer support for young people. However, these options would need further exploration prior to a referral and agreement made with the placing authority. There is a risk of delay in young people accessing these services.

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improvement to be good

The education coordinator has established links with the education authority and local schools and colleges. Her role is to assess each young person when they move into the home, and work with the young person, the placing authority and staff to identify suitable educational provision. Young people are able to access education support soon after they move into the home.

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improvement to be good

Staff use the ‘ASPIRE’ model for supporting young people to achieve identified outcomes. The stages include assessment, planning, intervention, review and evaluation. Staff implemented this model effectively to help a young person to gain independence and prepare for living on her own.

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improvement to be good

Leaders and managers have reviewed and revised young people’s care plans and management plans to ensure that staff have the necessary information to look after the young people. Staff undertake key-work sessions and ‘get-togethers’ with young people to enable them to contribute to their care plans and the running of the home. Staff use these forums to educate young people in to how to keep themselves safe. Inspection report children’s home: SC419330 5

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improvement to be good

Managers and staff have undertaken training in safeguarding practices. However, this has been in the form of online training. Managers have scheduled face-to-face safeguarding training for the end of May 2018; this does not demonstrate a sufficiently quick response to concerns raised.

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improvement to be good

The majority of staff members are trained in the organisation’s method of physical intervention. They are experienced in responding to challenging behaviour. However, not all new staff are trained in de-escalation and physical intervention methods. The manager confirmed that these staff have training arranged and will not care for young people on their own prior to completing the course.

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improvement to be good

Staff have undertaken medication training, including in recording, administering and storage and how to respond to medication errors. The manager has devised a handover sheet to ensure that social workers and previous carers record and share medical information with staff. This will improve medication processes and ensure that medical information is accurate.

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improvement to be good

An individualised risk assessment and management plan has been devised with the intention of ensuring that staff have the right information to care for young people consistently and safely. However, this was a previous requirement which has yet to be fulfilled in practice, so it is repeated and will be reviewed at the next inspection.

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improvement to be good

The local risk assessment was reviewed and updated during the inspection, in response to the inspector highlighting that this was necessary. Leaders and managers advised that an environmental safety check is planned.

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

The previous registered manager resigned on 1 April 2018. The current manager has been in post from this date. She has applied to register with Ofsted. The manager was previously a deputy manager at the home, and has worked in the home for 14 years. The previous responsible individual is no longer in post and a new responsible individual has been appointed.

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

The manager reports that the previous registered manager supervises and mentors her. This helps to ensure a consistent approach. The manager is applying to undertake the level 5 award in leadership and management in care.

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

The manager demonstrated scrutiny of referral information and challenge to the placing authority during the inspection. She stated that no young person would move into the home unless the staff group has the knowledge and experience to care for them safely. Inspection report children’s home: SC419330 6 Monitoring of the home has improved. However, administration tasks are time consuming for the manager. The manager reports that the organisation plans to appoint an administrator to undertake these roles.

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

The manager is appointing new staff in preparation for young people moving in. One member of staff is completing her probation and four new staff have successfully passed the interview stage. All new staff and agency staff will have the level 3 diploma for residential childcare. The manager has met with employment agencies to ensure that they comply with these expectations.

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

Managers have implemented training for all staff in using the electronic recording system. Social workers can access incident records immediately if necessary, prior to quality assurance. This means that they can respond to safeguarding issues in a timelier manner.

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

The manager has addressed the failures at the full inspection with staff during team meetings. The manager also discussed lessons learned and how to improve the service in supervision sessions. Staff morale has improved; staff speak positively about the support they receive from the manager and their colleagues.

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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: SC419330 7

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Children’s home details

Registered provider: Castle Homes Limited

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Children’s home details

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

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Children’s home details

Responsible individual: Christopher Wells

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Inspector

Suzy Lemmy: social care inspector Inspection report children’s home: SC419330 8 achieve excellence in the care of children and young people, and in education and skills for learners of all ages. It regulates and inspects childcare and children’s social care, and inspects the Children and Family Court Advisory and Support Service (Cafcass), schools, colleges, initial teacher training, further education and skills, adult and community learning, and education and training in prisons and other secure establishments. It assesses council children’s services, and inspects services for children looked after, safeguarding and child protection.

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Inspector

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Inspector

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Inspector

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