Children's home run by Sherico Care Services Limited in Westminster

Inspection report children’s home: SC010700 1 SC010700 Registered provider: Sherico Care Services 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 one of several homes owned by a private organisation. The home is registered to provide care and accommodation for up to three children as specified within the home’s statement of purpose.

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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 and they are not making progress.

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inadequate

Date of last inspection: 6 December 2017

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inadequate

Overall judgement at last inspection: requires improvement to be good

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Enforcement action since last inspection:

A compliance notice was issued on 28 February 2018. This was in relation to the condition of the premises. Although the improvements specified were completed, further concerns about the condition of the premises were found at this inspection. Inspection report children’s home: SC010700 2

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

06/12/2017 Full Requires improvement to be good 23/05/2017 Full Good 06/03/2017 Interim Declined in effectiveness 29/11/2016 Full Requires improvement Inspection report children’s home: SC010700 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

In particular, the standard in paragraph (1) requires the registered person to ensure ─

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Requirement Due date

that staff promote opportunities for each child to learn informally.

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Requirement Due date

Specifically, in ensuring proper routines and structure to children’s time. 31/08/2018

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Requirement Due date

In particular, the standard in paragraph (1) requires the registered person to ensure ─

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Requirement Due date

help each child to understand how to keep safe;

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Requirement Due date

understand the roles and responsibilities in relation to protecting children that are assigned to them by the registered person.

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Requirement Due date

Specifically, in relation to supervision of children where their care plan determines this to keep them safe. 31/08/2018

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Requirement Due date

In particular, the standard in paragraph (1) requires the registered person to ensure ─

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Requirement Due date

that the premises used for the purposes of the home are designed, furnished and maintained so as to protect each child 31/08/2018 Inspection report children’s home: SC010700 4 from avoidable hazards to the child’s health.

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Requirement Due date

In particular, to ensure the home is continuously maintained and repaired instead of only when the regulator enforces action.

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must recruit staff using recruitment procedures that are designed to ensure children’s safety.

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Requirement Due date

the individual has the appropriate experience, qualifications and skills for the work that the individual is to perform;

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Requirement Due date

full and satisfactory information is available in relation to the individual in respect of each of the matters in Schedule 2.

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Requirement Due date

A person may only manage a children’s home if ─

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Requirement Due date

For the purposes of paragraph (1)(b)(i), a person has the appropriate experience and qualification if the person has ─

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Requirement Due date

within the last 5 years, worked for at least 2 years in a position relevant to the residential care of children

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Requirement Due date

ensure that each employee completes an appropriate induction

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must ensure that all employees ─

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Requirement Due date

receive practice-related supervision by a person with appropriate experience.

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Requirement Due date

(Regulation 33(1)(a)(4)(b)) 31/08/2018 Inspection report children’s home: SC010700 5 Other records

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Requirement Due date

maintain in the home the records in Schedule 4;

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Requirement Due date

ensure that the records are kept up to date.

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Requirement Due date

In particular, a register of children’s admission and discharge and a copy of the staff duty roster of persons working at the home, and a record of the actual rosters worked. 31/08/2018

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Recommendations

 Ensure that staff understand that, as well as longer-term support for children to move on from the home effectively (regulation 6(2)(b)(vi)), the home has an important role in supporting each child leaving the home in the period immediately before their departure. The registered person should work with the placing authority to ensure that each child’s transition is planned and help each child to prepare for leaving, both practically and emotionally. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 57, paragraph 11.9) This is specifically in relation to supporting children to develop independent living skills in preparation for them leaving the home.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: inadequate

The quality of individualised care is poor. Care plans are not specific to children and are not measurable, achievable, realistic or timely. Care plans are reviewed during children’s placements at the home. However, the basic care plan is cut and pasted from previous residents’ plans and is not always well edited, which is poor practice.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: inadequate

Children’s behaviour within the home is not well managed. Despite some good relationships between staff and children, the team struggles to manage children’s complex needs and challenging behaviours. Most children move to the home in an emergency and stay temporarily while placing authorities seek alternative placements.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: inadequate

The last two children admitted to the home lived there as sole placements for most of their stay. This has helped these children to be more settled and to exhibit less challenging behaviour than they may have done if other children had been in placement with them. However, this has not helped their inclusion and socialisation.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: inadequate

Most staff come from a background of working in health and adult services and have limited experience of working with children. Although some skills are transferrable, most Inspection report children’s home: SC010700 6 staff lack understanding of the relevant regulations, quality standards and legislation that guide their work.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: inadequate

Children gave mixed feedback to inspectors about staff. One child, who had recently moved on from the home, told the inspectors that he did not feel that staff cared about him. Another child felt that the staff did care about him and that he felt safe in the home, but not in the local community. One parent gave positive feedback, feeling that staff were helpful and accepted her son without judging him.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: inadequate

It is hard to determine progress for children as they are often placed only on a temporary basis. Some progress was seen for one young person during his placement. He attended home tuition and managed to complete his youth offending order.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: inadequate

Staff fail to provide children with consistent routines, guidance or boundaries to help encourage their participation in the life of the home and to make them feel safe and cared for. Anti-social and unwanted behaviours often go without challenge, allowing children to choose their own lifestyle while living at the home. Furthermore, frequent changes to management and staff create a sense of instability within the home.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: inadequate

Children’s day-to-day experiences are not structured or in keeping with any routine which could promote educational activity. Examples of this are children not getting up until late in the day, and telling inspectors that they are bored at the home. Well- intentioned educational visits are often thwarted by staff’s inability to engage children’s cooperation.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: inadequate

There is limited evidence of children undertaking any specific semi-independence tasks such as cooking, budgeting or looking after themselves. Children’s objectives for developing self-care skills were not being met, despite plans stating otherwise. One social worker told the inspectors that she felt that the staff undermined the care planning process, creating a situation where trust was lost and joint working with the staff was made more difficult.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: inadequate

When children in the home are placed a long way from their families and are not familiar with London, not enough thought or planning goes into helping them to keep safe. Vulnerabilities have not been recognised quickly enough to keep children safe or to understand the significant impact of the changes to location and culture.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: inadequate

Children are consulted, and their views are considered. Children have been involved in interviews for new staff members and have attended regular residents’ meetings.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: inadequate

Staff have welcomed parents to the home and have worked well in engaging and building a relationship with them.

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

Risks for children are not identified quickly and are not always well understood or managed effectively to reduce risk. Children appear to be in control of this home and do Inspection report children’s home: SC010700 7 what they like. Inspectors found examples of children sleeping downstairs in the lounge, smoking cigarettes and electronic cigarettes in the home, having inappropriate friends in the home and taking the home’s television when moving to another placement. Staff appeared powerless to prevent these activities.

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

One child had no risk assessment completed by the home despite high-level concerns about their vulnerability to exploitation within the community. There is no routine risk assessment completed by staff on the impact of admitting a new child into the home or what additional support is needed for their health, well-being and safety.

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

Two placing authorities told the inspectors that they felt that the staff had been unable to work with the agreed care plans. This has led to a lack of trust and placing authorities feeling that their work and planning are undermined by the actions of the home. One vulnerable child was placed at high risk by staff allowing him to go out alone, despite the placing authority expressly requesting that this did not happen.

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

Episodes of children going missing have decreased. However, this appears to be largely to do with one specific young person leaving the home, who was regularly going missing. There is limited understanding of the vulnerability of children and some work is undertaken to improve their safety, through discussions and key-work sessions. However, there is a lack of proper planning to establish routines and to involve children in activities that would help them to develop respectful relationships and encourage their health, safety and welfare.

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

There is a recent history of regular anti-social behaviours outside the home. This has been improved through partnership work with the neighbourhood police, the local council and the placing authorities. However, this had led to incidents of staff being unable to manage behaviours and calling the police to support and manage children from outside of the home who were congregating in the vicinity.

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

A social worker told the inspectors that staff did try to control access to the home as it had become a hub for children. Signage to the front of the property threatening police action if children continue to congregate in this area has had a positive impact. However, this fails to create a homely environment.

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

The current child placed at the home says that he does not feel safe within the local community; staff are requested by his placing authority to support him by going with him whenever he goes out. Despite staff knowing the risks in the locality, which are demonstrated in detail within the locality risk assessments, they still allow him to go out unaccompanied. This shows that although risks are known, staff have a poor understanding of risk and vulnerability and do not help to keep children safe.

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

The response by staff to concerns and allegations is inconsistent. Although some allegations are appropriately referred to the designated officer, others are not, and the rationale for these decisions is not clearly recorded.

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

Staff are aware of the whistle-blowing policy and know how to respond and to report Inspection report children’s home: SC010700 8 child protection issues. However, their understanding of the urgency of making such referrals is weak. Staff are in the process of undertaking safeguarding training, which covers whistle-blowing issues. They are also due to have training on gang association/exploitation.

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

Staff demonstrate a lack of commitment to creating and maintaining a homely environment. Although the provider has made improvements to specific areas when requirements and compliance notices have been made, other issues of concern have arisen. There are improvements to decoration on the ground floor and the front wall has been rebuilt. There is a new carpet on the stairs and landing. However, the kitchen was closed for one day during the week prior to this inspection, following a routine inspection by the council’s environmental health team.

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

The environmental health officer who inspected the home in May 2018 described irregular and unclear temperature checks on fridges and fresh mouse droppings under large appliances such as the fridge, washing machine and cooker. He also found dirty hand contacts on fridge handles, switches, plugs and cupboards. He described a build-up of food debris behind appliances and on kitchen walls. All of this, he felt, was indicative of poor hand hygiene and food handling. He closed the kitchen until pest control had attended and the kitchen had had a thorough clean. Further requirements were made for a wash hand basin to be fitted and a regular cleaning rota to be put into place. Despite the kitchen having subsequently had a deep clean, flooring, paintwork and cupboards still appeared grubby at the time of this inspection. There are damp patches on the ceiling and walls in the dining room. Overall, the home needs refurbishment and

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

Recruitment practice is generally in line with regulation. However, the interview process does not prompt managers to identify gaps in employment. Any gaps are not routinely being explored at interview and there is no evidence that staff are being questioned about employment gaps.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

Leadership and management continue to be inconsistent, resulting in a lack of direction, vision and ambition for children. There has not been a registered manager at the home since April 2017. During that time, there have been several managers in post, three since the last full inspection in December 2017. Two managers have made applications to be registered with Ofsted but have either left the home or withdrawn their application before the application was completed. This continues to raise questions about the overall leadership and management of the organisation. It is failing to provide a good service for children.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

Leaders and managers do not have an effective understanding of the impact that continuous changes of management have on young people. They do not recognise that, until they offer staff a more supportive environment, they will not be able to retain or easily employ appropriate staff. Staff say that they regularly move to other services to ensure that they have work, as they have no guaranteed hours and are expected to Inspection report children’s home: SC010700 9 attend supervision, training and team meetings in their own time. This does not provide consistency of care or encourage staff to commit to the provider.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

Leaders and managers do not provide consistent support to staff, which makes it difficult for staff to commit to or invest in their posts. Staff described receiving some support and supervision under the last manager but felt uncertain about current and future arrangements. There have been some improvements in the provision of training for staff and there is a staff training plan for the year 2018/2019 which includes relevant training.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

Staff supervision records and rosters show that staff have not always been at the home on days when supervisions are said to have happened. Staff rosters are not reflective of the actual hours worked by staff and there are significant discrepancies between rotas, dates of supervision and training. This means that inspectors cannot have confidence in the accuracy of records and raises serious concerns about the management of the home.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

Staff are inexperienced in working with children and are not given adequate induction for the challenging roles that they are expected to undertake. Staff described going straight onto waking night shifts, without opportunities to learn from shadowing or being mentored by more senior staff. This increases risk to children and to themselves.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

The most recent appointed manager has been in post for less than one month; she is not yet familiar enough with the systems or the provider to understand the strengths and areas for development. The provider has recently commissioned an independent person to carry out monthly visits to the home and to submit a report to the provider and the regulator. This is an improvement, after a period of not providing these reports, which are required by regulation. Such monitoring is unlikely to be fully effective until a permanent manager is in place to implement recommendations and review progress.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

The home’s statement of purpose, although current, has not been sent to Ofsted. The home does not provide the good care as described within its statement of purpose.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

The admissions and discharge record does not contain all of the details as required by regulation. The address of children prior to coming to the home is not recorded, while the legal status of each child is inconsistently recorded. The discharge address of each child is not recorded accurately and for one young person the placing authority is incorrectly recorded.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

Good working relationships do exist with the neighbourhood community team, the designated officer and the council, mainly because of tackling anti-social behaviour in and outside of the home. Some attempts are being made to build further working relationships with other agencies such as the local drug and alcohol team, for the benefit of young people, but this is inconsistent due to the regular changes of managers at the home.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

There is some evidence of challenge to one child’s placing authority to request a placement planning meeting. However, the child was in placement for two weeks before this meeting happened, so although there was challenge, it was not fully effective. Inspection report children’s home: SC010700 10 Leaders and managers have promoted tolerance, equality and diversity for children. The staff have supported children’s religious needs by encouraging attendance at children’s chosen places of worship and have ensured that children’s dietary needs are met.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

Children’s views are sought via feedback questionnaires and through a monthly residents’ meeting. There is evidence that some recent events and feedback have had a positive influence on staff practice. Children are encouraged to express their views at residents’ meetings and the staff are in the process of setting up a ‘grumbles’ book.

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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: SC010700 11

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Children’s home details

Registered provider: Sherico Care Services Limited

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: Sherico Care Homes Ltd, 2–4 Balmoral Road, London E10 5ND

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Inspectors

Christine Kennet, social care inspector Patrick Sullivan, regulatory inspection manager Inspection report children’s home: SC010700 12 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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Inspectors

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Inspectors

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Inspectors

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