Children's Home run by Blue Mountain Homes Ltd in Derbyshire

Inspection report children’s home: 1244161 1 Registered provider: Blue Mountain Homes Ltd

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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 is privately owned, and registered to provide care and accommodation for one young person with complex social and emotional needs.

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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: good

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good

Enforcement action since last inspection: none

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

08/08/2017 Full Good 07/03/2017 Full Good Inspection report children’s home: 1244161 2

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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 preparing or reviewing the placement plan the registered person must— so far as reasonably practicable, having regard to the child’s age and understanding, seek and take account of the child’s views, wishes and feelings. (Regulation 18 (8)(a)) 14/06/2018

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must make arrangements for the handling, recording, safekeeping, safe administration and disposal of medicines received into the children’s home. (Regulation 23 (1)) This is with particular reference to incorrect administration of medication. 14/06/2018

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Requirement Due date

When conducting the review, the registered person must consult, and take into account the views of, each relevant person. (Regulation 46 (2)) This is with particular reference to a lack of consultation with relevant professional agencies with regard to possible risk factors that could jeopardise young people’s safety. 14/06/2018

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Recommendations

 The registered person should ensure that, in line with their individual health plans and the ethos of the home, children are offered advice, support and guidance on health and well-being to enhance and supplement that provided by their school through personal, social and health education (PSHE). Staff should have relevant skills and knowledge to be able to help children understand, and where necessary work to change negative behaviours in key areas of health and well-being such as, but not limited to, nutrition and healthy diet, exercise, mental health, sexual relationships, sexual health, contraception and use of legal highs, drugs, alcohol and tobacco. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 35, paragraph 07.18)  The registered person should have a workforce development plan which can fulfil the workforce related requirements of regulation 16, schedule 1 (paragraphs 19

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Recommendations

and 20). The plan should: — detail the necessary management and staffing structure (including any staff Inspection report children’s home: 1244161 3 commissioned to provide health and education), the experience and qualifications of staff currently working within the staffing structure and any further training required for those staff, to enable the delivery of the home’s statement of purpose; — detail the processes and agreed timescales for staff to achieve induction, probation and any core training (such as safeguarding, health and safety and mandatory qualification); — detail the process for managing and improving poor performance; — detail the process and timescales for supervision of practice. The plan should be updated to include any new training and qualifications completed by staff while working at the home, and used to record the ongoing training and continuing professional development needs of staff, including the

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Recommendations

home’s manager. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 53, paragraph 10.08)  As outlined in 10.1, the registered person should plan staffing levels to ensure that they meet the needs of children and can respond flexibly to unexpected events or opportunities. Staffing structures should promote continuity of care from the child’s perspective. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 54, paragraph 10.15)  Whenever possible, staff in day-to-day contact with children should include staff from different gender groups. Where the home’s statement of purpose makes it explicit that the home uses staff of one sex only, clear guidance will need to be in place and followed as to how children are enabled to maintain relationships with people of a different gender. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 54, paragraph 10.22)

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

With good support from staff, the young person has made progress in education. He is becoming increasingly confident in his learning. The manager and staff ensure that the young person sees his family regularly and that family visits are enjoyable for the young person and family members alike. The young person is developing good relationships with staff. Staff understand how early life experiences manifest themselves in behaviour and they remain empathetic, nurturing and calm when faced with challenging behaviour. The manager and staff have worked hard to improve the young person’s general health. However, the young person continues to smoke tobacco, remains overweight and uses cannabis. More creative strategies should be developed to ensure that the young person leads a healthy lifestyle. The manager has not sought the views of the young person when completing or reviewing his placement plan. This weakens placement planning.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Inspection report children’s home: 1244161 4

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

The young person has experienced multiple placement breakdowns. He struggles to trust adults, which has led to staff managing high levels of challenging behaviour. Over time, this has improved and there are now fewer incidents and the young person is increasingly safe. The manager and staff understand the indicators of deteriorating behaviour and take action quickly and effectively. The staff, on some occasions, have had to use physical intervention to ensure the safety of the young person and themselves. These interventions have taken place in line with approved methods of physical intervention. The manager and staff will talk to the young person to identify strategies to avoid future incidents. When the young person leaves the home without authorisation, staff make extensive efforts to return him safely. Staff follow the correct procedures, including informing the police and local authority. When the young person returns home, the manager insists

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

that the local authority completes a return interview. Additionally, staff complete key- work sessions with the young person to learn any lessons. When completing the location risk assessment, the manager did not take into account the views of partner agencies. These views are crucial because agencies may hold valuable information that could help keep the young person safe in the community. At the last full inspection, a requirement was made in relation to the safe administration of medicines. The manager and staff have not met this requirement because a further medication error has occurred. Although the young person was not at risk, this indicates systems for medication administration still require strengthening.

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

An experienced and committed registered manager leads this home. He has extensive experience and has a recognised management qualification. He receives good support from a number of senior care staff. The young person is male, and positive male role models are important for his development. However, the staff team is overwhelmingly female. The staff have not received formal appraisals and there is no workforce development plan. This hampers the manager in the strategic planning of his workforce. Staff report that the manager is always available to offer them support and guidance. Staff receive regular professional supervision and their welfare is a high priority for the manager. A strength of this service has been the cohesiveness of the staff team. The team meets daily for staff handovers, and team meetings remain well attended and positive. Staff support each other, and they respect and value each other’s views and opinions.

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

However, three members of staff are about to leave the home. This is a significant number in a small staff team. There is a lack of forward planning in relation to staffing levels and the implications of such staff turnover. Inspection report children’s home: 1244161 5

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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: 1244161 6

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Children’s home details

Registered provider: Blue Mountain Homes Ltd

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: Flat 17, Leeland Mansions, Leeland Road, London W13 9HE

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Children’s home details

Responsible individual: Pradeep Manaktala

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Inspector

Phillip Morris, social care inspector Inspection report children’s home: 1244161 7 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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