Children's Home, Residential special school run by The Sheiling Special Education Trust in Dorset

Inspection report children's home: SC472485 1 SC472485 Registered provider: The Sheiling Special Education Trust

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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 part of an independent residential special school which is registered as a children’s home. The school is run according to principles inspired by Rudolf Steiner.  The home provides accommodation and personal care for up to 31 children and young people who have learning disabilities. Some may also have a physical disability.  The registered manager was registered with Ofsted on 10 September 2015.

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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: 29 November 2017

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requires improvement to be good

Overall judgement at last inspection: Good

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Enforcement action since last inspection:

None. Inspection report children's home: SC472485 2

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

29/11/2017 Full Good 15/02/2017 Interim Sustained effectiveness 23/11/2016 Full Good 15/03/2016 Interim Sustained effectiveness Inspection report children's home: SC472485 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

6: The quality and purpose of care standard

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Requirement Due date

The quality and purpose of care standard is that children receive care from staff who understand the children's home's overall aims and the outcomes it seeks to achieve for children and use this understanding to deliver care that meets children's needs and supports them to fulfil their potential.

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Requirement Due date

In particular, the standard in paragraph (1) requires the registered person to ensure that the premises used for the purposes of the home are designed and furnished so as to meet the needs of each child.

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Requirement Due date

This is with particular reference to ensuring that children's bedrooms are suitably equipped to enable staff to keep them clean and free from odours. (Quality Standard 6 (1) & (2)(c)(i)). 31/07/2018

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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. In particular, the standard in paragraph (1) requires the registered person to ensure that staff 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

This is with particular reference to the need to prepare and update rigorous risk assessments on individual children, their compatibility with other children and on the premises. Fridge and freezer temperatures should be recorded in line with Environmental Health Department guidance. (Quality Standard 12 (1) (2)(a) (I)). 30/06/2018

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Requirement Due date

13: The leadership and management standard

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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 31/07/2018 Inspection report children's home: SC472485 4 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 lead and manage the home in a way that is consistent with the approach and ethos, and delivers the outcomes, set out in the home's statement of purpose; ensure that staff work as a team where appropriate; ensure that staff have the experience, qualifications and skills to meet the needs of each child; ensure that the home's workforce provides continuity of care to each child and 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 with particular reference to ensuring that the home reduces the use of agency staff. Managers should make good use of their existing monitoring systems, including regulation 44 and 45 reports. Managers should also ensure that these reports are submitted to Ofsted, along with any updated statement of purpose, at the intervals prescribed in the relevant regulations. (Quality standard 13 (1)(2). 35: Behaviour management policies and records

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must ensure that 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 a description of any injury to the child or any other person, and any medical treatment administered, as a result of the measure; 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 has spoken to the user about the measure; and has signed the record to confirm it is accurate; and within 5 days of the use of the measure, the registered person or the authorised person adds to the record confirmation that they have spoken to the child about the measure. (Regulation 35 (a)(viii)(b) and (c)). 30/06/2018

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Recommendations

 Ensure that the registered person supports staff to be ambitious for every child in the home and to gain skills and experience that enable them to actively support each child to achieve their potential. ('Guide to the Children's Homes Regulations including the quality standards', April 2015, page 52, paragraph 10.5.).

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Recommendations

 Ensure that, as set out in regulations 31-33, the registered person is responsible for maintaining good employment practice. They must ensure that recruitment, Inspection report children's home: SC472485 5 supervision and performance management of staff safeguards children and minimises potential risks to them. In particular, ensure that recruitment checks on all staff, including those from overseas, are consistently rigorous. ('Guide to the Children's Homes Regulations including the quality standards', April 2015, page 61, paragraph 13.1.).

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Recommendations

 Ensure that the registered person has systems in place so that all staff, including the manager, receive supervision of their practice from an appropriately qualified and experienced professional, which allows them to reflect on their practice and the needs of the children assigned to their care. Professionally qualified staff employed by the home, e.g. teachers or social workers, should be provided with relevant professional or clinical supervision by an appropriately qualified and experienced professional. In particular, ensure that registered nurses employed in the home receive regular clinical supervision from a registered general nurse. ('Guide to the Children's Homes Regulations including the quality standards', April 2015, page 61, paragraph 13.2.).

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Recommendations

 Ensure that staff are familiar with the home's policies on record keeping and understand the importance of careful, objective, and clear recording. Staff should record information on individual children in a non-stigmatising way that distinguishes between fact, opinion and third-party information. Information about the child must always be recorded in a way that will be helpful to the child. In particular, ensure that children are given specific, measureable and achievable targets and that all staff are aware of these. ('Guide to the Children's Homes Regulations including the quality standards', April 2015, page 62, paragraph 14.4.).

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improvement to be good

The home requires improvement because of inconsistencies in the quality of the environment and in record keeping. These shortfalls have affected every outcome area.

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improvement to be good

The exceptionally good opportunities for children offered by the beautiful, peaceful 47- acre forested site are not matched by the internal condition of some of the houses. Some children have complex health needs, which require staff to undertake high levels of cleaning to maintain good hygiene. In spite of rigorous disinfection, one bedroom has an odour. The floor covering is lifting because it is not designed to meet the child’s needs. This does not provide a pleasant or dignified environment.

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improvement to be good

Children receive a healthy, well balanced diet, which they help to choose. Each house has a cook who prepares the lunchtime meal. The care staff prepare meals in the evenings and weekends. These meals are not always recorded consistently. This makes it difficult for the staff to monitor children’s food intake. Inspection report children's home: SC472485 6 There are missed opportunities to help children make the most of their experiences and reach their potential. For example, staff who were helping a child who was able to eat with a knife and fork did not encourage him to cut up his own food. The limited number of permanent staff may have affected the time and effort put into teaching children skills for daily living.

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improvement to be good

There have been a number of historical medication errors. The home’s leaders and managers have put rigorous measures in place to monitor medication and reduce these instances. The relatively minor errors that still occur are detected at an early stage, which enables managers to take action quickly.

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improvement to be good

The staff have very positive relationships with the children. They are responsive and sensitive to their needs. Staff quickly defuse potentially difficult situations and support the children to behave in socially acceptable ways.

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improvement to be good

The children make good progress. One teenager with complex health needs was unable to walk on arrival. Over the past year, she has learned to walk and to run. She can now enjoy activities and live a stimulating and rewarding life.

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improvement to be good

The children are encouraged to take part in a range of activities around the site. At weekends, the children may also be taken to other locations to engage with the local community and to broaden their experiences.

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improvement to be good

A number of parents emailed the inspection team with very positive comments about the home. One social worker commented, ‘I am very impressed by the care given to X…I have always been welcomed by the staff there and found them warm, approachable and friendly…I find it to be a very nurtured and nourished environment for the children there.’

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improvement to be good

Leaders and managers have a good understanding of safeguarding. They have positive working relationships with the local authority designated officer for child protection. He is always consulted if there is a concern about a child. This helps to ensure that children and young people are kept safe.

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improvement to be good

When staff have to restrain children, they do so proportionately. There are shortfalls with regard to how restraints and incidents are recorded. For example, the locations of any minor injuries to children are recorded on body maps, as well as in accident records. However, body maps sometimes lack descriptions of marks, so this limits their usefulness.

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improvement to be good

Some children’s behaviour support plans do not separate out individual behaviours, but list them in a cluster. This is not specific, measurable or achievable.

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improvement to be good

The registered person does not always sign the behaviour support plans, nor ensure that Inspection report children's home: SC472485 7 they are signed by parents whenever a change is made. This reduces the value of these documents in supporting and protecting children.

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improvement to be good

Risk assessments are sometimes incomplete. Specifically,

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improvement to be good

 The risk assessment of the premises has no action points. This implies that there are no risks  Individual children’s risk assessments and behaviour support plans lack basic information. Some known risks have been omitted  Leaders and managers do assess the children’s compatibility before they are admitted, but this decision-making process is not recorded on the children’s risk assessments.

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improvement to be good

These significant gaps in information expose staff and children to unquantified risks.

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improvement to be good

The care staff vary in their adherence to basic food hygiene. When the cooks are off duty, fridge and freezer temperatures are not always recorded. This has the potential to affect the quality and safety of the children’s food. The independent visitor has reported on this, but it has not been actioned.

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improvement to be good

Restraint records do not support children’s progress, or encourage staff to reflect on their practice. There is little evidence of staff being debriefed or the children’s views being sought. Management monitoring has failed to identify these shortfalls, which were the subject of a requirement at the last inspection.

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improvement to be good

Leaders and managers ensure that there are appropriate and detailed safer recruitment checks in place. However, the home does not always follow good safer-recruitment practice consistently. For example, one member of staff started work four days before their Disclosure and Barring Service check was received. There is no risk assessment to assess the risk of starting this person in post, or any indication that they were supervised on site. Leaders and managers say that this situation was managed safely. There are other examples of a lack of attention to detail. This has the potential to place children and young people at risk.

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improvement to be good

Since the last inspection, there have been no incidents of children and young people going missing.

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

Three of the requirements made during this inspection have been repeated. This shows that leaders and managers have not taken action in a timely manner to meet the previous inspection requirements.

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

In spite of the leaders’ and managers’ considerable efforts to recruit more substantive staff, this has only been partially successful. Although nine new staff have been appointed since the last inspection, five have left, so there is a net gain of only four Inspection report children's home: SC472485 8 employees. This has left the home with no choice but to employ 98 agency staff since November 2017.

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

Leaders and managers have deployed agency staff within the same houses to achieve some degree of consistency for the children. However, the children will not experience true stability until they have more substantive staff.

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

Leaders and managers have not given sufficient attention to management monitoring. Although monitoring does take place, recording across a range of important documents is inconsistent.

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

Children’s records do not always provide clear direction for the children and young people, or the staff. One child’s bedroom reflects their current sensory needs, which are for a low-stimulation environment. There is a plan to introduce additional homely features, but the process for this is not recorded. This means that staff are unlikely to be aware of the plan, so it is unclear how and when it may be implemented.

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

Pressures on the home’s leaders and managers have meant that they are not always able to produce clear evidence of their work. They do not make the best use of their existing monitoring systems, including the independent visitor’s reports, which did identify some of the shortfalls found on this inspection. Managers immediately supplied the reports and the statement of purpose to inspectors on request, but had not realised that they should submit them to Ofsted as prescribed in the relevant regulations.

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

Leaders and managers are well supported by a board of trustees, who take a keen interest in the conduct of the home. Some trustees visit the houses and meet the children. They do have a quality assurance role, which could be further strengthened.

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

The home has a registered general nurse who oversees the children and young people’s health care. As a registered nurse, she should receive regular clinical supervision from a similarly-qualified professional. She does not currently receive clinical supervision.

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

The staff team is highly diverse, which provides children and young people with valuable contact with adults from many different cultures. This is one of the home’s greatest strengths, but it also presents a challenge. It is more difficult to convey the importance of consistent recording when many staff do not have a common first language.

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

Leaders and managers have been meticulous in the investigation of complaints. A clear complaints protocol helps to ensure that children and their parents have a voice. Investigations are well recorded, with clear outcomes.

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

Parents and children are consulted about the quality of care and their views are taken into account. Parents are generally very pleased the way in which the school responds to any concerns. One parent commented, ‘There is open, generous communication between the house day care staff teams, and parents. Parental concerns are generally addressed well.’ Inspection report children's home: SC472485 9

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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: SC472485 10

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Children's home details

Provision sub-type: Residential special school

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Children's home details

Registered provider: The Sheiling Special Education Trust

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Children's home details

Registered provider address: Horton Road, Ashley, Ringwood, Hampshire, BH24 2EB

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Children's home details

Responsible individual: Corine Van Barneveld

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Inspector(s)

Heather Chaplin, social care inspector Sharron Escott, social care inspector Wendy Anderson, social care inspector Inspection report children's home: SC472485 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(s)

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Inspector(s)

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Inspector(s)

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