Children's home run by Advising Health And Social-Care Limited

Inspection report children’s home: 1254109 1 Registered provider: Advising Health And Social-Care 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 home is operated by a private company. It provides care for up to 12 children aged between six and 14 who have social and emotional difficulties. All children have complex needs, which may include mental health needs. There is no registered manager at this home.

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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 are not protected or their welfare is not promoted or safeguarded. The care and experiences of children are poor and they are not making progress.

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inadequate

Date of last inspection: 5 December 2017

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inadequate

Overall judgement at last inspection: good

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inadequate

Enforcement action since last inspection: none

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

05/12/2017 Full Good Inspection report children’s home: 1254109 2

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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

Engaging with the wider system to ensure children’s needs are met.

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Requirement Due date

In meeting the quality standards, the registered person must, and must ensure that staff— seek to involve each child’s placing authority effectively in the child’s care, in accordance with the child’s relevant plans. (Regulation 5 (a)) 08/08/2018

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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; use this understanding to deliver care that meets children’s needs and supports them to fulfil their potential.

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Requirement Due date

In particular, the standard in paragraph (1) requires the registered person to— ensure that staff— provide personalised care that meets each child’s needs, as recorded in the child’s relevant plans, taking account of the child’s background; make decisions about the day-to-day arrangements for each child, in accordance with the child’s relevant plans, which give the child an appropriate degree of freedom and choice. (Regulation 6 (1)(a)(b) (2)(b)(iv)(ix)) 08/08/2018

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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— that staff help each child to understand how to keep safe; 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

This is with specific reference to fire safety. 08/08/2018 Inspection report children’s home: 1254109 3 (Regulation 12 1(2) (a)(ii)(d)) *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— take effective action whenever there is a serious concern about a child’s welfare. (Regulation 12 (1)(2)(a)(vi)) 29/07/2018

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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.

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Requirement Due date

In particular, the standard in paragraph (1) requires the registered person to— ensure that staff have the experience, qualifications and skills to meet the needs of each child. (Regulation 13 (1)(a)(b)(2)(c)) 29/07/2018

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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.

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Requirement Due date

In particular, the standard in paragraph (1) requires the registered person to— use monitoring and review systems to make continuous improvements in the quality of care provided in the home. (Regulation 13 (1)(a)(b) and (2)(h)) 29/07/2018

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Requirement Due date

The care planning standard is that children— receive effectively planned care in or through the children’s home. (Regulation 14(1)(a)) 08/08/2018

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Requirement Due date

*Restraint in relation to a child must be necessary and proportionate. (Regulation 20 (2)) 29/07/2018

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must recruit staff using recruitment procedures that are designed to ensure children’s safety. (Regulation 32(1)) 08/08/2018

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Requirement Due date

*The registered person must ensure that all employees receive practice-related supervision by a person with appropriate experience. (Regulation 33 (4)(b)) 29/07/2018

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Requirement Due date

* These requirements are subject to a compliance notice. Inspection report children’s home: 1254109 4

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: inadequate

Children are not protected from potential harm. Managers do not act on disclosures and complaints. This failure leaves children in a potentially unsafe environment.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: inadequate

The provider has failed to meet a requirement made at the last inspection. This was about communication with social workers. Staff failed to notify a social worker of the outcomes of a child’s visit home. This is vital information because the social worker is assessing the child’s proposed return home.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: inadequate

Staff routinely lock internal and external doors. This restricts children’s movement around their home and limits access to outside areas. One child continues to have his movement restricted for considerable periods of time. This is despite a previous Deprivation of Liberty order being lifted.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: inadequate

The environment is poorly maintained. It fails to promote a therapeutic or homely environment. Many rooms and corridors have extensive damage and one bedroom has a leak in the ceiling. Bedrooms are not nurturing. One child had all his possessions and items removed from his bedroom due to an incident and fear of him self-harming. This is not linked to any previous self-harm incident, and there is no reference to self-harm in his care plan. There were also several items, such as screws, left in his bedroom that he could have used to self-harm.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: inadequate

Care planning is poor. Care plans provide very little information for staff about how to care for children. Information in care plans conflicts with risk assessments. Direct work with children does not take place often enough. This means that they are not helped to understand their vulnerabilities, needs or progress.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: inadequate

Children have also become better able to engage in programmes of therapy because staff support them to cope with the emotional impact of their therapy sessions.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: inadequate

The provider has worked well with one local authority to undertake a thorough assessment of a child’s needs. This has ensured a good move into the home and some improvement in his relationships with staff and other children.

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

Inspectors found several examples of potential safeguarding concerns, allegations and disclosures. There has been insufficient action taken by staff to alert managers to these concerns. There has also been a failure of managers to respond. This places children at risk of significant harm.

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

The provider has not fully investigated an allegation made by a child after a restraint. The provider has failed to take appropriate action in response to the allegation. Inspection report children’s home: 1254109 5 The provider’s recruitment practice is inadequate. Weak vetting of potential staff members places children at risk of harm.

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

Children and staff are not protected from the risks of fire. Fire doors and fire escape routes are routinely locked, and not all staff have keys. The leadership team has not addressed shortfalls identified in the fire risk assessment. Control measures to reduce risk are not listed. Fire drills are not held regularly. Shortfalls identified during regular equipment testing are not addressed.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

The leadership team is ineffective. There has been no registered manager in post for over four months. The current manager has not yet applied to Ofsted to be registered.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

The leadership team has failed to carry out regular monitoring of the home. It has also failed to follow safeguarding procedures and neglected to monitor incidents of restraint.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

There has been a high turnover of staff since the last inspection. There are still a large number of staff vacancies, and the leadership team relies on agency staff. This does not provide consistency of care for children. The majority of staff are inexperienced and not appropriately qualified. They lack the necessary skills and confidence to meet the very complex and challenging needs of children accommodated in this home. There is insufficient training to rectify this weakness.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

The leadership team has failed to support the staff. At the last inspection, the home was required to improve the standard of staff supervision. However, supervision continues to be irregular and of poor quality. Staff appointed to senior roles are sometimes inexperienced, or unqualified to take on these roles. They also have not been supported by the leadership team. New and very inexperienced staff have been placed in charge of children with very complex needs. This puts staff and children at risk.

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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 Inspection report children’s home: 1254109 6 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: 1254109 7

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Children’s home details

Registered provider: Advising Health And Social-Care Limited

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: 231 Vauxhall Bridge Road, London SW1V 1AD

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Inspector(s)

Judith Longden, social care inspector Joanne Vyas, social care inspector Inspection report children’s home: 1254109 8 achieve excellence in the care of children and young people, and in education and skills for learners of all ages. It regulates and inspects childcare and children’s social care, and inspects the Children and Family Court Advisory and Support Service (Cafcass), schools, colleges, initial teacher training, further education and skills, adult and community learning, and education and training in prisons and other secure establishments. It assesses council children’s services, and inspects services for looked after children, safeguarding and child protection.

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Inspector(s)

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Inspector(s)

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Inspector(s)

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