Children's Home run by Lancashire County Council in Lancashire

Inspection report children‟s home: SC039248 1 SC039248 Registered provider: Lancashire County Council

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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 one of several operated by a local authority. The home has increased its number of registered beds from four to six children since the last inspection. The home offers accommodation for children and young people who may have emotional and/or behavioural difficulties. The home has a mixture of bedrooms and two flats to give young people an experience of independence.

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Information about this children’s home

The current manager has been in post since 2014.

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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/or widespread failures that mean children and young people are not protected or 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

Overall judgement at last inspection: good

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Enforcement action since last inspection:

Following this inspection, a notice of urgent suspension was served. Inspection report children‟s home: SC039248 2

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

26/07/2017 Full Good 31/01/2017 Interim Sustained effectiveness 24/10/2016 Full Good 23/03/2016 Interim Sustained effectiveness Inspection report children‟s home: SC039248 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 children's views, wishes and feelings standard is that children receive care from staff who—

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Requirement Due date

take their views, wishes and feelings into account in relation to matters affecting the children's care and welfare and their lives.

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Requirement Due date

The health and well-being standard is that— the health and well-being needs of children are met;

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Requirement Due date

children receive advice, services and support in relation to their health and well-being.

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Requirement Due date

In particular, ensure that for all children there is support to address their mental health, emotional and well-being needs, and any needs in respect of drug misuse. 30/07/2018

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Requirement Due date

The positive relationships standard is that children are helped to develop, and to benefit from, relationships based on—

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Requirement Due date

an understanding about acceptable behaviour; and

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Requirement Due date

positive responses to other children and adults.

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Requirement Due date

In particular, the standard in paragraph (1) requires the registered person to ensure— that staff— help each child to develop the understanding and skills to recognise or withdraw from a damaging, exploitative or harmful relationship; 30/07/2018 Inspection report children‟s home: SC039248 4 de-escalate confrontations with or between children, or potentially violent behaviour by children.

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Requirement Due date

(Regulation 11 (1)(a)(b)(c)(2)(a)(vii)(xi)) The protection of children standard is that children are protected from harm and enabled to keep themselves safe.

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Requirement Due date

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

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Requirement Due date

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

manage relationships between children to prevent them from harming each other;

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Requirement Due date

take effective action whenever there is a serious concern about a child‟s welfare.

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Requirement Due date

In particular, ensure that risk assessments are updated when needed, that they contain all current information, and have appropriate actions to reduce the risk of harm and prevent further occurrences. Where assessments and plans are in place, the registered person must ensure that these are followed by staff. 30/07/2018

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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.

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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 from avoidable hazards to the child‟s health.

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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—

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Requirement Due date

helps children aspire to fulfil their potential and promotes their 30/07/2018 Inspection report children‟s home: SC039248 5 welfare.

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Requirement Due date

In particular, the standard requires the registered person to— understand the impact that the quality of care provided in the home is having on the progress and experiences of each child and use this understanding to inform the development of the quality of care provided in the home.

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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.

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Requirement Due date

In particular, the standard requires the registered person to—

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Requirement Due date

ensure 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.

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Requirement Due date

In particular, ensure that impact risk assessments are completed before admission, with collated information of the needs of the young people and their associated risks, and that this is considered against the needs of other children resident in the home and how this will be managed. 30/07/2018

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must make arrangements for the handling, recording, safekeeping, safe administration and disposal of medicines received into the children‟s home.

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Requirement Due date

In particular, the registered person must ensure that—

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Requirement Due date

medicines kept in the home are stored in a secure place so as to prevent any child from having unsupervised access to them.

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Requirement Due date

After consultation with the fire and rescue authority, the registered person must—

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Requirement Due date

take adequate precautions against the risk of fire, including the provision of suitable fire equipment in the children‟s home.

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Requirement Due date

(Regulation 25 (1)(a)) 30/07/2018 Inspection report children‟s home: SC039248 6 In addition, ensure that risk assessments for fire safety are kept under review, staff are trained in fire safety and, where evacuations take place, records clearly state who has taken part.

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must maintain records (“case records”) for each child which—

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Requirement Due date

include the information and documents listed in Schedule 3 in relation to each child;

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Requirement Due date

This refers to the admissions and discharge register being an accurate, up-to-date record. 30/07/2018

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must notify HMCI and each other relevant person without delay if—

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Requirement Due date

a child is involved in or subject to, or is suspected of being involved in or subject to sexual exploitation; an incident requiring police involvement occurs in relation to a child which the registered person considers to be serious; there is an allegation of abuse against the home or a person working there; a child protection enquiry involving a child is instigated; or concludes; or there is any other incident relating to a child which the registered person considers to be serious.

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Requirement Due date

A notification made under this regulation must include details of the matter; the other persons, bodies or organisations (if any) who or which have been notified and any actions taken by the registered person as a result of the matter.

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Requirement Due date

(Regulation 40 (4)(a)(b)(c)(d)(i)(ii)(e)(5)(a)(i)(ii)(iii)) 30/07/2018

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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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Recommendations

Inspection report children‟s home: SC039248 7  The registered person should ensure that, in line with their individual health plans and the ethos of the home, children are offered advice, support and guidance on health and well-being to enhance, and supplement that provided by their school through personal, social and health education (PSHE). Staff should have the relevant skills and knowledge to be able to help children understand, and where necessary work to change, negative behaviours in key areas of health and well- being such as, but not limited to, nutrition and healthy diet, exercise, mental health, sexual relationships, sexual health, contraception and use of legal highs, drugs, alcohol and tobacco. („Guide to the children‟s homes regulations including the quality standards‟, page 35, paragraph 7.18)  Staff must help each child to prepare for any moves from the home, whether they are returning home, moving to another placement or adult care, or to live

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Recommendations

independently. This includes supporting the child to develop emotional and mental resilience to cope without the home‟s support and, where the child is moving to live independently, practical skills such as cooking, housework, budgeting and personal self-care. („Guide to the children‟s homes regulations including the quality standards‟, page 17, paragraph 3.27)  Where children placed in a home are not participating in education because they have been excluded or are not on a school roll for some other reason, the registered person and staff must work closely with the placing authority so that the child is supported and enabled to resume full-time education as soon as possible. In the interim, the child should be supported to sustain or regain their confidence in education and be engaged in suitable structured activities. If no education place is identified by the placing authority, the registered person must

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Recommendations

challenge them to meet the child‟s needs under regulation 5 (engaging with the wider system to ensure children‟s needs are met). („Guide to the children‟s homes regulations including the quality standards‟, page 28, paragraph 5.15)  As part of the policies for protection of children, the registered person should include information about whistleblowing, with clear procedures for how a staff member should report to an appropriate authority any concern they have about a child within the home being either at risk of, or already experiencing significant harm. („Guide to the children‟s homes regulations including the quality standards‟, page 43, paragraph 9.15)

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: inadequate

Young people living at this home are not sufficiently protected from the risk of harm. Direct work to support young people who are at risk or who are engaging in risk-taking behaviour is inadequate. One young person told inspectors that they take drugs daily. Staff have found cannabis in the home, and yet direct work has not been undertaken with the young people to address the dangers associated with drug misuse or to liaise and engage external professional support. Inspectors also found evidence of illegal substances in the independence flat at the time of the inspection. The failure to tackle Inspection report children‟s home: SC039248 8 drug misuse is detrimental to young people‟s health and welfare.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: inadequate

Young people who have emotional and mental health needs are not receiving the support that they require. Following a serious incident of self-harm that resulted in hospitalisation, a young person returned to the home but is yet to receive any specialist support. In addition, the staff at the home have not undertaken any direct work with the young person to understand their emotional well-being and to offer support at such a difficult time.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: inadequate

Since the last inspection, the home has increased the number of registered beds at the home from four to six. An independent visitor for the home reported that this change was going to be discussed with the young people already living at the home as part of a young person‟s meeting. This meeting did not take place, nor is there a record that young people‟s views, wishes and feelings were taken into account when making this change.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: inadequate

Young people come to live at this home without adequate consideration of their needs. Risks that young people may pose to themselves and other young people in the home are not assessed and, as a result, young people have been admitted to the home inappropriately. Consequently, placements have ended because the home could not meet the complex needs of some young people or keep them safe.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: inadequate

One young person has lived at the home for three years and over this time, due to the staff‟s commitment, he has made progress. However, since the last inspection, there has been a noticeable decline. One member of staff told inspectors that the young person has „regressed‟ following recent admissions to the home, due to the impact and influence that other young people have had on his behaviour.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: inadequate

Not all young people have engaged in education or training. However, one young person has engaged with a tutor and sat his GCSE exams. Another young person has been encouraged to participate in his hobby of playing ice hockey and staff have ensured that he is transported and supported to attend training and matches.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: inadequate

The home is in a poor state of repair. The grounds are overgrown and neglected. Inspectors found evidence of fire setting, illegal substances, drug paraphernalia and general disorder in and around the home. Young people have damaged the home extensively, including damage to other young people‟s bedrooms and property, sometimes without staff knowledge. Investigations into these incidents have not taken place. Examples of damage include broken furniture, slash marks made with a knife to settees, a burn in a settee, holes to a door made with a screwdriver, and paint was thrown on the floor, walls and a bed in one bedroom. Additionally, repairs have not been actioned for an extended period, meaning that young people are living in an unsafe and unsuitable environment. For example, one young person‟s flat was badly damaged by other young people on 4 June 2018, and no action had been taken to rectify this

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: inadequate

damage by the time of this inspection, yet staff continued to allow the young person to live in this environment. Inspection report children‟s home: SC039248 9

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

Young people remain at risk of significant harm. Incidents in the home include young people threatening one another and staff with knives, drug taking, and assaulting staff and other young people. The ability of staff to help young people to stay safe and implement strategies to reduce risk is extremely limited. The staff are unable to manage the complex and increasingly aggressive behaviour of young people. Staff do not have the skills to support the young people to manage the risks that they are placing themselves at.

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

Following serious incidents, risk assessments and behaviour management plans are not always updated. One young person‟s risk assessment has not been updated since he came to live at the home. Although another young person‟s risk assessment had been updated, his behaviour management plan has not and does not contain the strategies that have been previously agreed to guide staff and minimise risk.

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

Consequences for inappropriate or dangerous behaviour by young people are unclear or not consistently applied. Young people cannot, therefore, develop an understanding of appropriate or safe behaviour. Furthermore, not all incidents are recorded or investigated. As a result, there are no consequences or learning from these events. One young person had their room damaged extensively, including their own belongings being damaged, by other young people. The staff were unaware that this had taken place until the young person came home that evening.

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

The police informed inspectors that there had been 41 calls from staff requesting police support between January and April of this year. On some days there had been several calls, which is reflective of the level of chaos observed at the home. Incidents include staff being barricaded in rooms by young people, young people jumping on cars, threats of violence, including the use of weapons, and assaults. Staff have been unable to manage the escalated behaviour of young people. They have also at times been in fear, which has necessitated them having to call the police to help manage serious incidents at the home. Despite this, staff have only notified the regulator of three serious incidents since the last inspection. Furthermore, data provided as part of the inspection recorded that there had only been five police call-outs to the home, which is significantly at odds with the actual police involvement at the home.

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

Young people have been involved in fire setting in the grounds of the home, and there is evidence of young people burning furniture in the home. One incident that staff reported to the police shows that staff had to barricade themselves in a room for their own safety and that they feared the young people would set fire to liquid poured under the door of the room in which they were locked. Another incident reported to inspectors by staff involved one young person trying to burn the mobile phone of another young person in the home. The behaviour management plan for one young person refers to fire-starting as being a risk. Despite this, fire risk assessments have not been updated and information in the risk assessments is inaccurate. In addition, a member of staff did not know where fire extinguishers were located and told inspectors that they had not had fire safety training. This serves to further compound the poor management of risk

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

Inspection report children‟s home: SC039248 10 associated with fire setting and continues to leave young people and staff vulnerable.

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

Prescribed medication is not always stored appropriately or securely. For example, the prescribed medication for one young person was left on a desk in an office.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

The registered manager has had a lengthy period of sickness absence, as has one of the home‟s deputy managers. In their absence, the responsibility for day-to-day management of the home has been coordinated by senior residential managers, and other children‟s homes‟ registered managers from within the local authority.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

During the manager‟s absence, four young people were admitted over a period of five weeks. Impact risk assessments to assess the suitability of the placements were either inadequate or, for some young people, not completed at all. One impact risk assessment contained sensitive information about another young person. Furthermore, this practice did not allow young people to have positive and settled transitions into the home or for other young people already living in the home to adjust to the changing group dynamics.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

One member of casual staff sent an email raising concerns about the home to senior managers in the local authority. Following this whistleblowing report, a meeting was held with all staff that was chaired by a senior manager, and actions were agreed. This included an agreement to end one young person‟s placement at the home due to safeguarding concerns. However, a more suitable placement for this young person has still not been identified three months after this meeting took place, so the young person was still living at the home at the time of the inspection.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

Internal monitoring of the home was not undertaken during the absence of the registered manager. However, external monitoring by independent visitors did take place. Independent visitors raised concerns about safeguarding practice, poor conditions in the home and the lack of strategies to manage the challenging behaviour of young people. One independent visitor raised actions in their report to address these concerns, including the importance of matching young people when placing them at the home. The independent visitor raised their concerns to a senior manager and was informed that an interim manager would be put in place. Despite this, an interim manager was not identified to take responsibility for the home during the absence of the registered manager.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

The leadership team is ineffective. It has failed to address concerns when raised or to address the lack of progress made by young people. Inappropriate placements have continued without consideration of how the young people‟s needs are being met, the negative impact of this on the young person themselves, or the potential to have an effect on the other young people living in the home. This poor management and lack of action have resulted in poor, unsafe outcomes for young people.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

Due to the level of concern identified by inspectors at this inspection about the condition of the premises, risks to young people and poor management, the registration of this Inspection report children‟s home: SC039248 11 home was urgently suspended.

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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: SC039248 12

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: PO Box 78, Lancashire County Council, Preston, Lancashire PR1 8XJ

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Inspectors

Jessica Forshaw, social care inspector Elaine Clare, social care inspector Inspection report children‟s home: SC039248 13 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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Inspectors

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Inspectors

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Inspectors

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