Children's home run by Broadwood Education Services in Rossendale

Inspection report children’s home: SC363391 1 SC363391 Registered provider: Broadwood Education Services

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Full inspection Inspected under the social care common inspection framework

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Information about this children’s home

The home is registered to provide care and accommodation for up to four children. It is owned by a national provider of education and care services.

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Information about this children’s home

There has been no registered manager of this home since 30 November 2017. The current manager has not submitted their application to register with Ofsted.

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

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inadequate

Overall judgement at last inspection: not judged

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inadequate

Enforcement action since last inspection: none Inspection report children’s home: SC363391 2

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

05/03/2018 Interim Not judged 31/08/2017 Interim Not judged 19/01/2017 Interim Sustained effectiveness 22/06/2016 Full Requires improvement to be good Inspection report children’s home: SC363391 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

6: The quality and purpose of care standard*

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Requirement Due date

The quality and purpose of care standard is that children receive care from staff who—

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understand the children’s home’s overall aims and the outcomes it seeks to achieve for children;

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

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

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understand and apply the home’s statement of purpose;

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understand and apply the home’s statement of purpose;

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protect and promote each child’s welfare; and

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provide to children living in the home the physical necessities they need in order to live there comfortably.

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Requirement Due date

(Regulation 6 (1)(a)(b)(2)(a)(b)(i)(ii)and (vii)) 3 Aug 2018

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Requirement Due date

The education standard is that children make measurable progress towards achieving their educational potential and are helped to do so.

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Requirement Due date

In particular, the standard in paragraph (1) requires the registered person to ensure— that staff— 1 Sep 2018 Inspection report children’s home: SC363391 4 help each child to achieve the child’s education and training targets, as recorded in the child’s relevant plans;

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Requirement Due date

support each child’s learning and development, including helping the child to develop independent study skills and, where appropriate, helping the child to complete independent study;

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Requirement Due date

understand the barriers to learning that each child may face and take appropriate action to help the child to overcome any such barriers;

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Requirement Due date

help each child to understand the importance and value of education, learning, training and employment;

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promote opportunities for each child to learn informally;

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help each child to attend education or training in accordance with the expectations in the child’s relevant plans.

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(Regulation 8(1)(2)(a)(i)(ii)(iii)(iv)(v)(x))

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

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an understanding about acceptable behaviour; and

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positive responses to other children and adults.

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In particular, the standard in paragraph (1) requires the registered person to ensure— that staff— meet each child’s behavioural and emotional needs, as set out in the child’s relevant plans;

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help each child to develop socially aware behaviour;

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encourage each child to take responsibility for the child’s behaviour, in accordance with the child’s age and understanding;

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help each child to develop and practise skills to resolve conflicts positively and without harm to anyone; 3 Aug 2018 Inspection report children’s home: SC363391 5 communicate to each child expectations about the child’s behaviour and ensure that the child understands those expectations in accordance with the child’s age and understanding;

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Requirement Due date

strive to gain each child’s respect and trust;

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Requirement Due date

understand how children’s previous experiences and present emotions can be communicated through behaviour and have the competence and skills to interpret these and develop positive relationships with children;

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de-escalate confrontations with or between children, or potentially violent behaviour by children;

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understand and communicate to children that bullying is unacceptable; and

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have the skills to recognise incidents or indications of bullying and how to deal with them.

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(Regulation 11(1)(a)(b)(c)(2)(a)(i)(ii)(iii)(iv)(v)(viii)(ix)(xi) (xii) and (xiii))

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12: The protection of children standard*

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The protection of children standard is that children are protected from harm and enabled to keep themselves safe.

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

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that the home’s day-to-day care is arranged and delivered so as to keep each child safe and to protect each child effectively from harm. (Regulation 12 (1)(2)(b)) 3 Aug 2018

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13: The leadership and management standard*

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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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helps children aspire to fulfil their potential; and

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In particular, the standard in paragraph (1) requires the 1 Sep 2018 Inspection report children’s home: SC363391 6 registered person to—

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Requirement Due date

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; and

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use monitoring and review systems to make continuous improvements in the quality of care provided in the home.

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Requirement Due date

In particular, careful and considered continual assessment and decision making must take place in respect of the compatibility of children.

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Requirement Due date

* These requirements are subject to a compliance notice

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Recommendations

 When a child returns to the home after being missing from care or away from the home without permission, the responsible local authority must provide an opportunity for the child to have an independent return home interview. Homes should take account of information provided by such interviews when assessing risks and putting arrangements in place to protect each child. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 45, paragraph 9.30)

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Recommendations

 As set out in regulations 31–33, the registered person is responsible for maintaining good employment practice. They must ensure that recruitment, supervision and performance management of staff safeguards children and minimises potential risks to them. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 61, paragraph 13.1)

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Recommendations

This relates specifically to ensuring that staff members with a conviction or caution on their disclosure and barring service (DBS) certificate are suitably risk assessed to work alongside children.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: inadequate

The team has failed to protect the children in their care because staff are unable to protect children from the behaviour of others. As a result, one child has been physically assaulted by another child on several occasions while in the care of the staff. This has left the child fearful for their personal safety. Inspection report children’s home: SC363391 7 There are prolonged incidents that staff are not able to manage safely without calling the police for assistance. The incidents involve children engaging in high-risk behaviours. As such, the children are not kept safe.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: inadequate

Children have experienced poor outcomes in a short space of time since moving in. One child was detained by the police overnight, and two children have been arrested and have received referrals to the youth offending team. As a result of dangerous, escalating incidents, one child’s placement at this home has been ended abruptly. As a consequence, they will not be moving on in a well-planned manner.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: inadequate

One child does not have a suitable education plan. They are not consistently engaging with the home tutoring provision arranged by the local authority or participating in educational activities with staff. There is no long-term plan to help them to re-integrate into school.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: inadequate

There is significant damage to the home. Areas of the home were identified as unsafe when the inspector arrived on site. The staff are not providing care to children in line with the home’s statement or purpose. As a result of the damage, the home is not decorated and furnished to a high quality throughout.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: inadequate

Staff do not have impactful relationships with children. Despite regular discussions and direct work with children, this is having little impact on the choices they make. Children continue to ignore staff by damaging the environment and putting themselves at risk.

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

Children are not safe in this home and one child told the inspector that they did not feel safe. Children are putting themselves at serious risk by climbing out of first-floor windows and using tools to damage property and intimidate others. Staff have not prevented these incidents from happening.

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

Staff do not always keep children safe. At times, they cannot enter one child’s bedroom and they do not feel able to remove potentially harmful objects from the children. This has resulted in the police being called to attend the home on a number of occasions because staff are not able to manage the situation safely.

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

The manager does not maintain written records of child protection referrals made to the local authority or written records of children’s safeguarding disclosures. Therefore, there is no chronology of the reported events or factual accounts of what the children said.

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

The provider does not always complete suitable risk assessments for staff who have a conviction on their disclosure and barring service certificate. This means that not all the necessary measures have been taken to ensure that staff are suitable to work with children.

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

Children rarely go missing from the home and staff respond appropriately when this happens. However, the manager does not obtain information from the independent Inspection report children’s home: SC363391 8 return to home interviews. Consequently, there is no management oversight to ensure that lessons are learned or amendments made to children’s plans.

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

Staff rarely use restraint. The three occasions since the previous inspection, when a child has been held by staff, appear proportionate and were followed up appropriately. There were no injuries, complaints or concerns resulting from the restraints.

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

The manager and staff focus on rewarding positive behaviour, rather than sanctioning undesirable behaviour. Reward charts, incentives, instant rewards and planned activities are part of staff’s approach to develop children’s positive actions. The success of these measures has so far been limited.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

There has been no registered manager of this home since 30 November 2017. The current manager has not submitted their application to register with Ofsted.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

Leaders and managers’ monitoring is ineffective. It fails to recognise the seriousness of the incidents that have taken place since one child moved in. This lack of action does not give due consideration to the children’s feelings and take account of their experiences of living in the home.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

The manager has not continued to assess the compatibility of the children at the home as an ongoing process. Decisions in response to changes in children’s compatibility have been too slow and a lack of decisive action has negatively impacted on their welfare.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

Although the manager has made improvements to the regularity and quality of staff’s supervision and team meetings, this has not yet had a discernible impact on the quality of the care provided to children.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

The manager conveys kindness to children and is nurturing towards them. She has the ability to engage the children individually, but managing them together has resulted in an unsafe situation. However, other professionals recognise the skills and abilities that she brings to the home.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

The quality of documents, such as children’s care plans, is good. This means that sufficient information is being provided to inform staff about how to care for the children. However, the strategies employed, although well thought out, have had very little impact on the team’s ability to manage behaviour in a safe and acceptable way. As a result of this inspection, three compliance notices and a restriction of accommodation are issued.

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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 Inspection report children’s home: SC363391 9 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: SC363391 10

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Children’s home details

Registered provider: Broadwood Education Services

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: Maybrook House, 2nd Floor, Queensway, Halesowen, Worcestershire B63 4AH

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Inspector

Guy Mammatt, social care inspector Inspection report children’s home: SC363391 11 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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