Children's Home run by Amicus Residential Care Ltd in Reading

Inspection report children’s home: SC059221 1 SC059221 Registered provider: Causeway Care Homes Limited Full inspection Inspected under the social care common inspection framework

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Information about this children’s home

The home is privately run and provides emergency as well as long-term placements for up to three children. The manager has been registered since March 2007.

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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: 11 January 2017

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requires improvement to be good

Overall judgement at last inspection: good

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requires improvement to be good

Enforcement action since last inspection: none Inspection report children’s home: SC059221 2

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

28/06/2017 11/01/2017 19/07/2016 07/01/2016 Full Interim Full Interim Good Declined effectiveness Good Improved effectiveness Inspection report children’s home: SC059221 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

10. The health and well-being standard In order to meet the health and well-being standard the registered person is required to ensure that— (b) children receive advice, services and support in relation to their health and well-being. (Regulation 10 (1)(b)) 08/08/2018

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Requirement Due date

11. The positive relationships standard (1) In order to meet the positive relationships standard in relation to staff relationships with young people the registered person must ensure that children are helped to develop, and to benefit from, relationships based on— (a) mutual respect and trust; (b) an understanding about acceptable behaviour; and (c) positive responses to other children and adults. (Regulation 11 (1)(a)(b)(c)) 08/08/2018

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Requirement Due date

12. The protection of children standard In order to meet the protection of children standard, the registered person must ensure that staff— (2)(a)(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. (Regulation 12 (2)(a)(i)) 08/08/2018

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Requirement Due date

In order to meet the protection of children standard, the registered person must ensure that staff— (2)(a)(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. 08/08/2018 Inspection report children’s home: SC059221 4 (Regulation 12 (2)(a)(i)) If the registered provider is a partnership, the partnership must ensure that one of the partners undertakes such continuing professional development as is necessary to ensure that the partner has the skills needed for carrying on the home. (Regulation 29 (3)) 08/08/2018

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Recommendations

 Staff should be skilled in understanding the range of influences that friendships can have and should encourage those with a positive impact and discourage those with a negative impact. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 36, paragraph 8.8)  Registered persons must ensure there are procedures in place for welcoming and introducing each child into the home, and they are sensitive to the needs of the child at the time of arrival. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 57, paragraph 11.7)  Any individual appointed to carry out visits to the home as an independent person must make a rigorous and impartial assessment of the home’s arrangements for safeguarding and promoting the welfare of the children in the home’s care. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 65, paragraph 15.5)

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improvement to be good

Prior to children moving into the home, staff fail to plan for how children’s needs will be met. This reactive practice has led to children being slow to settle and engage and delays their progress.

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improvement to be good

The staff do not organise or create a structured environment for the children. Some children were observed to spend idle time in and out of the home without staff throughout the day.

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improvement to be good

The children and staff do not appear invested in each other. Engagement was observed by the inspector to be superficial, with children only approaching staff when they needed something. Some children have lived in the home for almost a year and are still consistently testing boundaries while being very disrespectful towards the staff.

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improvement to be good

The requirement pertaining to staff addressing the children’s smoking has not been met. Inspection report children’s home: SC059221 5 The children have not been referred to any services. The staff have created designated places for smoking rather than addressing the issue.

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improvement to be good

All the children attend alternative education provisions. The staff support these arrangements through quality engagement with headteachers. A headteacher said that the staff go out of their way to ensure that children have some form of education in place.

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improvement to be good

The children have a good understanding of how to make a complaint. The children have effectively used the process to express their concerns. The staff encourage and provide guidance whether the issue is external or internal.

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improvement to be good

The staff have good communication with parents. The staff keep parents informed of any concerns or accomplishments when supporting contact. This effective practice has allowed some children to improve their relationships with their parents.

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improvement to be good

Poor recording by staff of responses to safeguarding incidents does not ensure that actions and outcomes are clear. Staff are able to talk through scenarios, but records do not confirm their knowledge is applied in practice.

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improvement to be good

The risk assessments for children are weak and lack clarity around how risks are assessed and managed. In addition, some risk assessments have not been updated for a considerable amount of time and offer no guidance for the staff.

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improvement to be good

Some children continue to engage in relationships that are detrimental to their welfare. This was subject to a requirement at a previous inspection. The friendships that children make are not explored by the staff. Former residents frequently visit the home and befriend the current residents. The staff show no insight into the detrimental effect that this has on the children. There have been two significant events arising from these visits. One involved a child going missing and the other resulted in an assault that the child refused to report to the police.

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improvement to be good

The staff have a good response to incidents of children going missing and work collaboratively with the police. The number of children going missing has decreased. Some children with a history of absconding prior to being placed no longer go missing.

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improvement to be good

There are good professional links established in the community to deter children from criminal behaviour. Some children have successfully engaged with the local youth offending service. Police community support officers have visited the home to introduce themselves and engage informally with the children.

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improvement to be good

The notifying of significant events has improved. The manager now sends notifications as required to Ofsted and provides email updates. Inspection report children’s home: SC059221 6

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

The registered manager lacks insight into the care that children receive in the home. The oversight that she provides lacks a critical analysis of the quality of care provided.

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

The supervision arrangements in place for the registered manager are not suitable. Identified at the last inspection, this recommendation remains unmet. The current supervision provided to the manager does not challenge her practice nor scrutinise her ability to consistently meet the regulations.

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

The quality of care reviews conducted by the manager rarely explore negative trends and patterns. For example, the reasons for several consecutive unplanned endings for children over the past year have not been considered.

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

Monitoring is ineffective. There is no input internally or externally that actively challenges the quality of care that children receive outside of inspections. Many of the shortcomings found during this inspection had not been identified by the independent visitor. The independent visitor’s reports failed to provide an accurate picture of the home, mostly focusing on positives.

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

The process of referring and admitting children lacks structure. This fails to provide insight into why children’s placements were considered to be appropriate. The manager does not maintain a written record to evidence that she analysed and considered all information prior to making a decision.

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

The staff have worked together for a considerable period of time. This provides stability but due to a lack of formal challenge by the manager they have not developed their practice. The manager has unsuccessfully attempted to recruit new male staff to the home to address the lack of male role models for the children.

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

There is good engagement with professionals. Social workers say that the staff work well with the children. Monthly reports produced by the staff are viewed as informative and helpful. Inspection report children’s home: SC059221 7

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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: SC059221 8

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Children’s home details

Registered provider: Causeway Care Homes Limited

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: 118B Oxford Road, Reading RG1 7NQ

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Children’s home details

Responsible individual: Angela MacDonald

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Inspector

James Harmon: social care inspector Inspection report children’s home: SC059221 9 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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