Children's home run by Northern Life Care Limited, trading as UBU in North Yorkshire

Inspection report children’s home: SC038802 1 SC038802 Registered provider: Northern Life Care Limited, trading as UBU

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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 home is privately operated. The home is registered for up to four children or young people who have been assessed as having emotional and/or behavioural difficulties and mild to moderate learning disabilities. Preferably, all placements will be planned, but the home will consider emergency placements. Acceptance of emergency placements is dependent on availability and compatibility with the existing children and young people. The home offers placements on a short-term, medium-term and long-term basis. The home is without a registered manager and interim arrangements are in place.

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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: 15 November 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: SC038802 2

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

15/11/2017 Full Good 23/02/2017 Interim Sustained effectiveness 11/10/2016 Full Good 02/02/2016 Interim Improved effectiveness Inspection report children’s home: SC038802 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, the 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 care planning standard is that children—

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Requirement Due date

receive effectively planned care in or through the children’s home; and

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Requirement Due date

have a positive experience of arriving at or moving on from the home.

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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 children are admitted to the home only if their needs are within the range of needs of children for whom it is intended that the home is to provide care and accommodation, as set out in the home’s statement of purpose. (Regulation 14 (1)(a)(b) and (2)(a)) 27/07/2018

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must complete a review of the quality of care provided for children (‘a quality of care review’) at least once every 6 months.

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Requirement Due date

In order to complete a quality of care review the registered person must establish and maintain a system for monitoring, reviewing and evaluating—

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Requirement Due date

the quality of care provided for children;

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Requirement Due date

the feedback and opinions of children about the children’s home, its facilities and the quality of care they receive in it; and

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Requirement Due date

any actions that the registered person considers necessary in order to improve or maintain the quality of care provided for children.

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Requirement Due date

After completing a quality of care review, the registered person must produce a written report about the quality of care review 26/10/2018 Inspection report children’s home: SC038802 4 and the actions which the registered person intends to take as a result of the quality of care review (‘the quality of care review report’).

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Requirement Due date

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; and

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Requirement Due date

make a copy of the quality of care review report available on request to a placing authority, if the placing authority is not the parent of a child accommodated in the home.

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Requirement Due date

The system referred to in paragraph (2) must provide for ascertaining and considering the opinions of children, their parents, placing authorities and staff. (Regulation 45 (1)(2)(a)(b)(c)(3)(4)(a)(b) and (5))

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Recommendations

 The processes the registered person puts in place to enable such a review to take place should allow for a report to be generated at least once every six months. The generated report should be sent to Ofsted and the placing authority of all children in the home who are looked-after children. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 65, paragraph 15.3)  The registered person should actively seek independent scrutiny of the home and make best use of information from independent and internal monitoring (including under regulations 44 and 45) to ensure that there is continuous improvement. They should be skilled in anticipating difficulties and review incidents, such as learning from disruptions and placement breakdowns. They are responsible for proactively implementing lessons learned and sustaining good practice. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 55, paragraph 10.24)

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Recommendations

 Children should be encouraged by staff to see the home’s records as ‘living documents’ supporting them to view and contribute to the record in a way that reflects their voice on a regular basis. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 58, paragraph 11.19)  The home’s records on each child represent a significant contribution to their life history. Children and their parents should be supported to understand the nature of records kept by the home and how to access them. Staff should understand their important role in encouraging the children to reflect on and understand their history, according to their age and understanding. Staff should keep and encourage children to keep appropriate memorabilia of the time spent living at the home and help them record significant life events. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 62, paragraph 14.5)

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Recommendations

Inspection report children’s home: SC038802 5  Children should be actively encouraged to read their records and to add further information to them. They should be regularly reminded of their rights to see information kept about them and be given information about how they might be supported to access their records in later life. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 62, paragraph 14.6)  The registered person should only accept placements for children where they are satisfied that the home can respond effectively to the child’s assessed needs as recorded in the child’s relevant plans and where they have fully considered the impact that the placement will have on the existing group of children. The statement of purpose is an important document in the process of care planning as it sets out the needs of children the home is set up and equipped to care for. (‘Guide to the

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Recommendations

children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 58, paragraph 11.19)

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improvement to be good

Outcomes for the young people are varied, with some making significant progress in all aspects of their lives relative to their time in placement. This is due to the support and guidance from the staff team. In contrast, other young people continue to make poor choices, despite efforts by staff to engage and encourage them in more positive behaviours.

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improvement to be good

The matching and compatibility of the young people living at the home have not always been robust and behaviours have been problematic. This has resulted in early placement breakdowns for two of the young people, of whom one had been living at the home for over two years.

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improvement to be good

Staff respond well in meeting the physical and mental health needs of the young people. When there is a need for specialist advice and support, staff actively seek this out and promote young people’s engagement in this process. For one young person, this has seen a significant decrease in self-harm. An independent reviewing officer spoke very highly of the home and said: ‘Staff have done really well with [name of young person]; everyone had doubts at the beginning. [Name of young person] is really stable now, and has plans for her future.’

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improvement to be good

All the young people have participated in some form of education. For some, attendance, engagement and attainment have been erratic, despite staff promoting the importance of education.

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improvement to be good

Staff turnover has impacted on the ability of some of the young people to build nurturing and trusting relationships which help them to understand the importance of learning new skills in preparation for adult life. Other young people are motivated to pursue further education and training and have been supported to do this. Inspection report children’s home: SC038802 6 Young people have opportunities to participate and share their views on their day-to-day care, in deciding how their home should be decorated and furnished, and in choosing what activities they want to do. One young person said: ‘We are all deciding where we are going on holiday this year and planning activities over the summer.’ This has helped the young people feel a sense of belonging.

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improvement to be good

Very recent improvements in the quality of impact risk assessments have ensured that there is a more optimistic compatibility between the young people living at the home. The environment and atmosphere are recovering from a turbulent period and there is a sense of equilibrium. Young people are more settled, and there is a commitment to improve the quality of care and experiences for the young people.

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improvement to be good

Staff encourage visits to the home from family and friends. These visits are underpinned by well-documented risk assessments that ensure the safety and well-being of all the young people. For all the young people, this has promoted a more typical family atmosphere.

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improvement to be good

The risks and vulnerabilities of the young people are well documented, child-centred and clearly understood by the staff. It is not clear whether all the young people have contributed to their risk assessments and care plans, and understand the consequences and risks associated with their behaviour. This does not ensure that the young people are equipped to keep themselves safe.

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improvement to be good

The way in which staff respond to safeguarding concerns is timely and well coordinated. Members of staff work alongside other professionals, agencies and parents in reviewing strategies to try and reduce risk-taking behaviours. Despite this, members of staff have not always been able to prevent illegal substances and weapons being brought into the home, which has compromised young people’s safety and well-being.

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improvement to be good

Safe recruitment processes are adhered to, which ensures that individuals are thoroughly vetted prior to taking up their employment.

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

The home is being covered by an acting manager whose time is spent managing two homes while awaiting the permanent appointment of a registered manager. This is a difficult task for one person, given the extent of the complex needs of the young people past and present. In the absence of the acting manager, there is a competent and able deputy manager who has worked at the home for several years.

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

The acting manager demonstrates her knowledge, skills and experience in leading and managing the home. She understands the home’s strengths and shortfalls. In a relatively short period of time, she has embarked on a journey of improvement. Inspection report children’s home: SC038802 7 The sudden departure of the registered manager did have an impact on staff morale and some staff do continue to remain unclear as to the future management arrangements. This has resulted in some staff finding alternative employment.

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

Core members of staff have remained committed to the young people; however, members of staff from other homes have covered shifts and this has affected the quality of care and engagement with the young people. There has been a focused attempt at recruiting permanent staff and this is beginning to deliver stability of care to the young people.

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

Supervisions are of good quality, reflective and well recorded. This demonstrates that staff do feel supported and their welfare and professional development given equal priority. However, regularity of supervisions is not always consistent. A recommendation has been made to address this at this inspection.

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

Equally, regular team meetings have addressed issues raised in the independent monitoring reports, such as the regularity and recording of health and safety checks.

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

The acting manager has facilitated improvements in the environment of the home. The home has a warm, homely feel, evidencing that the young people have a say in how their home is decorated and furnished.

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

The quality of the manager’s internal monitoring report needs to be improved on; it lacks evaluation and review and the voice of the child is absent. The manager needs to be able to use the information in this report to improve service delivery and quality of care and submit the report to Ofsted within the required timescale.

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

Requirements and recommendations made at the last inspection have been met.

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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: SC038802 8

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Children’s home details

Registered provider: Northern Life Care Limited, trading as UBU

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: 9 Haywra Street, Harrogate, North Yorkshire HG1 5BJ

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Children’s home details

Responsible individual: Linda Bilsborrow

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Inspector

Cath Sikakana: social care inspector Inspection report children’s home: SC038802 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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