Children's home run by Silverlining Childcare Limited

Inspection report children’s home: 1254780 1 Registered provider: Silverlining Childcare

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Inspected under the social care common inspection framework

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Information about this children’s home

This privately owned children’s home provides care and accommodation for up to four young people who have emotional and/or behavioural difficulties. The home was first registered in July 2017.

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Information about this children’s home

Inspection dates: 20 to 21 February 2018

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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 and widespread failures that mean children and young people are not protected, their welfare is not promoted or safeguarded and the care and experiences of children and young people are poor.

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inadequate

Overall judgement at last inspection: not applicable

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inadequate

Enforcement action since last inspection: none Inspection report children’s home: 1254780 2

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Key findings from this inspection

This children’s home is inadequate because:

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Key findings from this inspection

 Risk assessments are poor.  Staff do not receive guidance about how to keep young people safe.  Not all staff are sufficiently skilled in identifying when young people are at risk of harm.  Staff do not always respond appropriately when young people are missing.  Impact assessments are inadequate.  The registered manager does not review risk assessments and behaviour management records effectively.  Staff fail to engage young people in positive, structured activities.  Monitoring and review systems are not effective.  The registered manager does not always respond to complaints made by young people.  Recruitment processes are poor.  In the manager’s absence, key documents are not accessible to staff and other managers.

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Key findings from this inspection

 Young people develop positive relationships with some staff.  Young people make progress in some areas. Inspection report children’s home: 1254780 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 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. (Regulation 6(1)(a)(b)) 20/04/2018

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Requirement Due date

The enjoyment and achievement standard is that children take part in and benefit from a variety of activities that meet their needs and develop and reflect their creative, cultural, intellectual, physical and social interests and skills. In particular, the standard in paragraph (1) requires the registered person to ensure that staff help each child to develop the child’s interests and hobbies. (Regulation 9(1)(2)(a)(ii)) 20/04/2018

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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; help each child to understand how to keep safe; and have the skills to identify and act upon signs that a child is at risk of harm. (Regulation 12(1)(2)(a)(i)(ii)(iii)) 20/04/2018

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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 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)(2)(b)) 20/04/2018

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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 promotes their welfare. 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; and use monitoring and review systems to make continuous improvements in the quality of care provided in 20/04/2018 Inspection report children’s home: 1254780 4 the home. (Regulation 13(1)(a)(b)(2)(a)(h)) The registered person must recruit staff using recruitment procedures that are designed to ensure children’s safety. (Regulation 32(1)) 20/04/2018

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must supply to HMCI a copy of the quality of care review report within 28 days of the date on which the quality of care review is completed. (Regulation 45(4)) 20/04/2018

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Recommendations

 The registered person 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. Everyone working at the home must understand their roles and responsibilities and what they are authorised to decide on their own initiative. There should be clear lines of accountability. Each home must have clear arrangements in place to maintain effective management when the manager is absent, off duty or on leave. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 54, paragraph 10.20) In particular, ensure that the relevant staff retain easy access to the written information they need to meet young people’s needs.

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Recommendations

 Staff should be 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. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 62, paragraph 14.4)

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: inadequate

Staff and managers do not keep young people safe. Shortfalls in safeguarding and risk assessment processes are significant and have an impact on the day-to-day experiences and safety of young people.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: inadequate

Staff do not meet all of the young people’s care and developmental needs effectively. Staff do not positively engage young people in positive, structured activities at key times. They do not plan activities for young people to help them to develop their interests and hobbies. Over the half-term holiday, young people’s weekly activity planners included playing computer games and going to the park. Staff made no arrangements for days out or trips to stimulating and interesting places that teenagers would enjoy. Consequently, Inspection report children’s home: 1254780 5 opportunities to strengthen relationships between staff and young people are missed. As a result of this lack of engagement, one young person became bored and set fire to a tree in the front garden. The neighbour threatened to report him to the police and the fire service had to attend the home to put out the fire. Staff failed to identify that this young

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: inadequate

person needed encouragement and guidance to engage in structured activity. As a result, he engaged in behaviour that posed a risk to himself and others.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: inadequate

Despite the shortfalls, professionals, young people and family members provide some positive feedback and young people are making some progress in different areas, such as improving relationships with family members and developing their independence skills.

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

Risk assessments are poor. They do not adequately assess levels of risk or provide staff with the information and guidance that they need to protect young people. For example, one young person’s risk assessment lacks specific guidance about how to support his emotional needs in order to reduce significant, associated risks and keep him safe.

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

Risk assessments are not reviewed in a timely way. For example, the registered manager failed to review one young person’s risk management plan weekly, despite having been instructed to do so by the young person’s social worker. This shows that managers do not deliver care in line with placing authority expectations and in a way that promotes young people’s safety and welfare. Staff do not always follow the guidance recorded in young people’s plans and risk assessments. There is no evidence that staff read young people’s risk assessments.

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

Admissions processes are weak. Impact assessments, completed when young people move into the home, lack detail and analysis. Consequently, managers do not consider the impact that new young people may have on those already living at the home.

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

Staff’s skills and experience in safeguarding and child protection are variable. Staff lack guidance from the registered manager and have made inappropriate decisions with regard to safeguarding young people. For example, one young person went missing and was found in another town in the early hours of the morning. Staff sent a taxi to collect him, without a member of staff. Staff did not consider the appropriateness of this decision or the emotional impact on the young person of being collected by a stranger. Despite knowing that the young person was missing, and that additional support may be needed, the registered manager failed to ensure that there were sufficient staff on duty to collect the young person when he was found.

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

Recruitment checks are undertaken for all new staff. However, the registered manager does not always review the information contained in these checks or take action when necessary. This lack of scrutiny fails to prevent potentially unsuitable people from working in the home, placing young people at risk.

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

The home is generally well maintained. However, a bolt on a fire door had to be removed during the inspection after a young person complained that it could prevent the door Inspection report children’s home: 1254780 6 being opened in the event of a fire. Managers and staff had failed to identify this hazard, which had the potential to put young people, staff and visitors at risk.

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

Staff undertake some key-work sessions with young people and talk to young people about the effects of bullying and how to keep themselves safe online. However, other sessions are inadequate. For example, follow-up discussions are not always held with young people after serious incidents occur. This reduces the support that young people receive at critical times and limits their ability to understand how to keep themselves safe.

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

Incidents when young people go missing, display challenging behaviour and require physical interventions have reduced in the home since the autumn. However, significant shortfalls remain, which leave young people at risk of harm.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

The registered manager is suitably experienced in residential childcare. He holds a level 5 qualification in leadership and management.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

The registered manager does not provide consistent, effective leadership. Although staff receive regular supervision, attend team meetings and report that they undertake some training courses, they do not benefit from clear guidance with regard to keeping young people safe and understanding risk. The registered manager has written very poor risk assessments, demonstrating a lack of awareness of key issues.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

In October 2017, the registered manager took a period of leave. Although alternative cover was arranged, the responsible individual failed to properly brief the interim manager. Consequently, established processes and systems were not followed and staff felt confused and frustrated.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

At the time of this inspection the registered manager was away from the home and the registered manager from another home and the responsible individual were supporting the staff. However, managers were unable to access various documents, including staff training records and the complaints file, reporting that they were locked in the registered manager’s filing cabinet. The registered manager had not logged or passed on details of a young person’s complaint so that this could be responded to in the registered manager’s absence. This lack of planning has a negative impact on the quality of care provided to young people.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

The standard of recording in young people’s case files is variable. Some records contain good levels of detail and analysis, others are poorly written and unclear. Staff have identified the need for more training in record-keeping but this has not been provided.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

The registered manager and interim managers do not monitor practice adequately. For example, they do not routinely review sanctions that staff have imposed on young people. As a result, they do not establish whether these are fair, proportionate and effective. The responsible individual has not provided Ofsted with a six-monthly quality of care review as required by regulation. As a result of these shortfalls, managers do not understand the Inspection report children’s home: 1254780 7 strengths and weaknesses of the home, nor do they have sufficient plans to develop the service.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

Staff say that they enjoy working in the home and that they can talk to the registered manager about any concerns. They also say that they can raise new ideas and that he listens to them. Staff work with some other professionals effectively. This includes teachers, police officers and youth offending workers, and staff have developed some positive relationships with them, as well as with young people’s families.

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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: 1254780 8

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Children’s home details

Registered provider: Silverlining Childcare

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: 59a, Lichfield Street, Walsall, West Midlands WS4 2BX

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Children’s home details

Responsible individual: Lakhvinder Khera

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Inspector

Louise Whittle, social care inspector Inspection report children’s home: 1254780 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 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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