Children's Home run by Knossington Grange School Limited in Lincolnshire

Inspection report children’s home: SC436386 1 SC436386 Registered provider: Knossington Grange School 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

The home is registered to provide care and accommodation for up to four young people. It is owned and run by an independent provider. The home provides care and accommodation for young people who have emotional and/or behavioural difficulties.

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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

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: SC436386 2

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

26/07/2017 Full Good 04/01/2017 Interim Improved effectiveness 23/08/2016 Full Good 19/01/2016 Interim Improved effectiveness Inspection report children’s home: SC436386 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 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. (Regulation 12 (1)(2)(d))

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Requirement Due date

This is in relation to completion of fire safety checks, and is a requirement repeated from the previous full inspection. 03/09/2018

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Requirement Due date

In meeting the quality standards, the registered person must, and must ensure that staff—

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Requirement Due date

Seek to involve each child’s placing authority effectively in the child’s care, in accordance with the child’s relevant plans;

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Requirement Due date

Seek to secure the input and services required to meet each child’s needs.

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Requirement Due date

If the registered person considers, or staff consider, a placing authority’s or a relevant person’s performance or response to be inadequate in relation to their role, challenge the placing authority or the relevant person to seek to ensure that each child’s needs are met in accordance with the child’s relevant plans. (Regulation 5 (a)(b)(c))

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Requirement Due date

This is in relation to securing timely education provision for children. 03/09/2018

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Requirement Due date

The health and well-being standard is that—

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Requirement Due date

the health and well-being needs of children are met; 03/09/2018 Inspection report children’s home: SC436386 4 children receive advice, services and support in relation to their health and well-being; and

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Requirement Due date

children are helped to lead healthy lifestyles.

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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—

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Requirement Due date

achieve the health and well-being outcomes that are recorded in the child’s relevant plans. (Regulation 10 (2)(a)(i)) 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 welfare.

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Requirement Due date

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

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Requirement Due date

lead and manage the home in a way that is consistent with the approach and ethos, and delivers the outcomes, set out in the home’s statement of purpose;

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Requirement Due date

ensure that staff work as a team where appropriate;

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Requirement Due date

ensure that staff have the experience, qualifications and skills to meet the needs of each child;

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Requirement Due date

ensure that the home has sufficient staff to provide care for each child;

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Requirement Due date

ensure that the home’s workforce provides continuity of care to each child;

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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. (Regulation 13 (1)(a)(b)(2)(a)(b)(c)(d)(e)(f))

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Requirement Due date

This is in relation to leadership and management oversight of the home. 03/09/2018

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must ensure that all employees— 03/09/2018 Inspection report children’s home: SC436386 5 undertake appropriate continuing professional development;

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Requirement Due date

receive practice-related supervision by a person with appropriate experience; and

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Requirement Due date

have their performance and fitness to perform their roles appraised at least once every year. (Regulation 33 (4)(a)(b)) The quality and purpose of care standard is that children receive care from staff who—

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Requirement Due date

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

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Requirement Due date

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—

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Requirement Due date

provide personalised care that meets each child’s needs, as recorded in the child’s relevant plans, taking account of the child’s background;

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Requirement Due date

provide to children living in the home the physical necessities they need in order to live there comfortably. (Regulation 6 (2)(a)(b(iv)(vii))

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Requirement Due date

This is in relation to providing nutritionally balanced meals that meet individual needs, and offering nurturing care. 03/09/2018

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Recommendations

 Records of restraint must be kept and should enable the registered person and staff to review the use of control, discipline and restraint to identify effective practice and respond promptly where any issues or trends of concern emerge. The review should provide the opportunity for amending practice to ensure it meets the needs of each child. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 49, paragraph 9.59)

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Recommendations

 Any child who has been restrained should be given the opportunity to express their feelings about their experience of the restraint as soon as is practicable, ideally within 24 hours of the restraint incident, taking the age of the child and the circumstances of the restraint into account. In some cases children may need longer to work through their feelings, so a record that the child has talked about Inspection report children’s home: SC436386 6 their feelings should be made no longer than 5 days after the incident of restraint (regulation 35(3)(c)). Children should be encouraged to add their views and comments to the record of restraint. Children should be offered the opportunity to access an advocacy support to help them with this (regulation 7(2)(b)(iii)). (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 50, paragraph 9.60)

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improvement to be good

Young people are making some progress from their starting points, but their experiences are varied. Young people have experienced inconsistency in staff practice over recent months, although there are positive relationships between young people and staff.

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improvement to be good

Most young people are making progress in education and their attendance is good. For one young person there has been a significant delay in getting education in place. Staff do not always challenge the placing authority when they have concerns about the lack of educational provision for young people. This has had a significant impact on one young person’s educational attainment.

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improvement to be good

Staff promote appropriate family contact. One young person is supported with an increased contact plan as part of a planned return home. A parent said, ‘They have helped us with contact and even let us bring our dog to see them.’

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improvement to be good

Most young people live at this home long term, and this has continued despite recent difficulties. Staff understand young people’s histories and their journeys through care well.

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improvement to be good

The mental health needs of some young people remain unmet. For some time, one young person was not receiving the appropriate therapeutic intervention as identified in their care plan. Staff are not challenging or accessing appropriate support services in a timely manner.

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improvement to be good

The systems in place to ensure that the home is nurturing and homely have declined in recent months. This has affected day-to-day care, including the provision of nutritionally balanced meals.

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improvement to be good

The response of staff to recent incidents has not been robust or proactive. Staff have lost their confidence in managing situations. In the main, this is due to instability in the Inspection report children’s home: SC436386 7 management of the home and a lack of management overview.

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improvement to be good

The staff team has experienced a period of instability since the registered manager recently left. The result of this is a new and relatively inexperienced staff team. Despite this, remaining staff have maintained a commitment to the home and the young people they care for.

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improvement to be good

The newly appointed temporary manager, who was previously a registered manager at this home, has quickly got a grasp of the issues at the home and has immediately focused on help and protection. A social worker told the inspector, ‘On my last visit the [young person’s] bedroom was a tip.’ The new manager immediately addressed this, and by the time of the inspection there were no concerns about the presentation of young people’s bedrooms. The manager recognises the need for young people to feel that they are experiencing nurturing care.

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improvement to be good

Young people say that they feel safe at the home. One young person said, ‘A lot is alright and a lot needs changing.’

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improvement to be good

Physical intervention is used to keep young people safe, but is only used as a last resort. One incident of restraint had not been recorded. In addition, debriefing with young people was not always evident, and evidence of communication with placing social workers could not always be located.

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improvement to be good

Gaps were identified in relation to staff training, including safeguarding training. The training matrix for the team is out of date and there is a lack of overview of the team’s training needs. First aid training is a key priority for the team.

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improvement to be good

A requirement from the previous inspection remains in place in relation to fire safety testing. Fire tests continue not to be recorded, in contravention of the organisation’s fire safety procedures.

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good

The team has lacked a strong, confident and experienced manager recently. This has clearly led to a decline in management systems and overview of the service. The home has recently appointed a strong, experienced manager. This has immediately had a positive impact on the service, staff and young people.

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good

The deputy manager has an excellent understanding of attachment theories and behaviour management models. She endeavours to cascade this knowledge to improve staff practice. She demonstrated care and compassion in developing her relationships with the young people in the home, and has a passion to improve the service.

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good

Supervision sessions have not taken place regularly, which has had an impact on the functioning of the team. Inspection report children’s home: SC436386 8 The home has been short staffed, with staff working long and additional hours for a period of time. There was also evidence of unsafe lone working arrangements, with a lack of on-call back-up facilities. Although working long hours demonstrated that the staff team is resilient and committed, it has also led to the team feeling tired, unsafe and demoralised. The staff team is now more stable and clearly relieved to have robust management arrangements in place.

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good

External monitoring has been carried out by the independent visitor, and internal monitoring has been carried out through the organisation’s management arrangements. However, action should have been taken earlier to ensure that staff were appropriately supported in the day-to-day functioning of the home. Some staff are not suitably qualified, and a number of staff are undertaking the appropriate qualification. Two staff have exceeded the timescales for completing the qualification, and a clear action plan needs to be in place to address this.

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good

Staff ensure that placing authorities and young people’s families receive regular updates on the young people. Communication and collaborative work with families are positive.

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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: SC436386 9

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Children’s home details

Registered provider: Pathway Care Solutions

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: 1 Merchants Place, River Street, Bolton BL2 1BX

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Inspector(s)

Bev Allison, social care regulatory inspector Inspection report children’s home: SC436386 10 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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