Children's home run by West Sussex County Council

Inspection report children’s home: SC037452 1 SC037452 Registered provider: West Sussex 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 operated by the local authority. It is registered to provide care and accommodation for up to six children. Its statement of purpose says that the home provides care to children in a group living environment that aims to support children who have had difficult experiences, many of whom have experienced significant trauma and attachment difficulties. The home adopts a multi-agency approach towards supporting children to overcome difficult issues and enable them to thrive and reach their full potential.

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Information about this children’s home

There is no registered manager at this home. The post has been vacant since 30 April 2018.

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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 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

Date of last inspection: 1 February 2018

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inadequate

Overall judgement at last inspection: sustained effectiveness

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inadequate

Enforcement action since last inspection: none Inspection report children’s home: SC037452 2

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

01/02/2018 Interim Sustained effectiveness 11/07/2017 Full Good 23/11/2016 Full Requires improvement 21/09/2016 Full Inadequate Inspection report children’s home: SC037452 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 health and well-being standard is that—

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Requirement Due date

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. (Regulation 10 (1)(a) and (b))

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Requirement Due date

Specifically, ensure that all options are explored to meet children’s health needs in a timely way. 03/08/2018

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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—

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Requirement Due date

that staff— 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

have the skills to identify and act upon signs that a child is at risk of harm;

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Requirement Due date

take effective action whenever there is a serious concern about a child’s welfare; and

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Requirement Due date

are familiar with, and act in accordance with, the home’s child protection policies;

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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 (2)(a)(i)(iii)(vi)(vii)* and (d))

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Requirement Due date

Specifically, the registered provider must ensure that children’s 03/08/2018 Inspection report children’s home: SC037452 4 individual risks are assessed and managed effectively, that staff can identify and act upon safeguarding concerns and that all staff practice is in accordance with the relevant child protection policies. Electrical appliances in children’s bedrooms must only be used when it is safe to do so.

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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 their full potential; and

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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 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

use monitoring and review systems to make continuous improvements in the quality of care provided in the home. (Regulation 13(2)(a)(c)* and (d)(e) and (h))

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Requirement Due date

Specifically, the admissions process, as described in the statement of purpose, must ensure that impact risk assessments are completed before a child is admitted to the home, that staff are competent to meet the needs of all children, that there are sufficient staff to ensure consistent care for all children and that effective monitoring systems identify areas for improvement in a timely way. 03/08/2018

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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— 03/08/2018 Inspection report children’s home: SC037452 5 medicine which is prescribed for a child is administered as prescribed to the child for whom it is prescribed and to no other child. (Regulation 23 (2)(b))

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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

there is an allegation of abuse against the home or a person working there. (Regulation 40 (4)(c))

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Requirement Due date

Specifically, ensure that the designated person in the local authority is notified when a child makes an allegation that they have been harmed by a member of staff. 03/08/2018

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Requirement Due date

* These requirements are subject to a compliance notice.

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Recommendations

 Statutory guidance on children who run away or go missing from home or care sets out the steps local authorities and their partners should take to prevent children from going missing and to protect them when they do go missing. Children’s homes should have regard to the relevant aspects of this guidance. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 45, paragraph 9.25)

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Recommendations

Specifically, managers and staff should have regard to paragraph 28 of this guidance, which refers to professionals taking a supportive approach when a missing child is found.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: inadequate

Significant concerns relating to the protection of children and the effectiveness of leaders and managers were identified at this inspection. Due to the serious nature of these concerns, Ofsted will issue a restriction of accommodation notice and two compliance notices.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: inadequate

The admissions process does not effectively evaluate the likely impact a new admission will have on the other children living at the home. In recent months the admission of one child has had a highly negative effect on the other children, and their progress has suffered as a result. Staff have not been able to ensure that positive relationships are maintained in the group of children and, as a result, some have had a negative experience of day-to-day life in the home. Inspection report children’s home: SC037452 6 Care planning processes are weak. Decisive action is not always taken in a timely way when it has become apparent that the needs of a child cannot be met at the home. The care plans for two children recently admitted to the home did not contain clear strategies for how these children’s complex needs and behaviours will be managed. The plans do not indicate that thought had been given to referring these children to specialist support

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: inadequate

Insufficient priority is given to meeting the children’s health needs. No arrangements had been made for ensuring that a child has access to prescribed medication when he is away from the home, and consultation has not taken place with healthcare professionals regarding the implications of the child not taking the medication as prescribed. Staff do not take a proactive approach to ensuring that children can access prompt professional advice regarding their health needs.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: inadequate

Managers and staff do liaise with education professionals and some children have made steady progress in terms of their engagement with education. However, others have seen a significant downturn in attendance and are not motivated to do well in school.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: inadequate

Staff were seen to interact positively with children during this inspection. Overall, the children spoken with during the inspection were positive about the staff, although some negative comments were made regarding how effectively the staff communicate with each other. On one occasion, a member of staff did not respond positively to a child who made contact after being reported missing. The approach taken by the member of staff was unlikely to have encouraged this vulnerable child to return to the home, particularly as he had only recently been admitted against his wishes.

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

Managers and staff have failed to ensure that children are protected from harm. They do not take all relevant information regarding children’s vulnerabilities into account when completing risk assessments. For example, the risk assessments for children with a history of harmful behaviours do not consistently identify this behaviour as a concern. Consequently, strategies for keeping children safe are weak and ineffectual.

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

Some managers and staff are not sufficiently skilled at identifying when a child could be at risk of harm. A deputy manager expressed the view that it could not have been anticipated that two children had the potential to harm one another, despite there being significant background information to suggest otherwise. This lack of safeguarding knowledge has resulted in a failure to implement basic safety measures. For example, insufficient consideration has been given to the appropriate allocation of bedrooms.

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

When child protection concerns have arisen, managers and staff have failed to take prompt and effective action to ensure that all children are kept safe. This is particularly the case when children have made allegations against their peers. Arrangements for supervising children overnight are weak. Despite there being a known risk, managers did not take steps to ensure that the waking night member of staff could consistently observe children leaving their bedrooms at night, until a month after there was an Inspection report children’s home: SC037452 7 alleged incident.

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

Managers and staff do not consistently follow agreed child protection protocols and policies, which are designed to protect children from harm and ensure that appropriate action is taken when a safeguarding incident does occur. This has resulted in children being questioned about alleged abuse prior to this being agreed with their allocated social worker. Written evidence pertaining to child protection matters could not be produced during this inspection, and a deputy manager indicated that this may have been destroyed. This is indicative of an overall failure to maintain good safeguarding practice in the home.

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

There has been a failure to consult with other professionals regarding safeguarding matters. On one occasion, the designated officer in the local authority was not notified that a child had made an allegation that a member of staff had hurt her and caused a physical injury.

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

Insufficient care has been taken to ensure that children live in a safe environment. Staff had taken no action to ensure that a significant number of electrical appliances in one child’s bedroom were being used safely. Consequently, the child occupying the bedroom was at significant risk of accidental injury. The deputy managers gave assurances that this issue was being addressed while this inspection was taking place.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

The manager was appointed on 1 May 2018. She has not applied to Ofsted for registration in the six-week period given in guidance. The manager was not present during this inspection, but the two deputy managers were, and the local authority service manager for residential childcare was present on the second day of the inspection.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

Leadership and management of the home is weak. The admission process, as described in the home’s statement of purpose, is not effectively implemented in practice. Pre- admission assessments do not convey the rationale for accepting a child, or how the home will meet the child’s needs. There is not always a clear audit trail to demonstrate the decision-making process. Consequently, children who have complex needs have been admitted to the home without there being a clear plan for how their needs will be met.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

Managers do not ensure that the staff team has the knowledge and skills needed to support and care for children effectively. The needs of children who demonstrate sexually harmful behaviour are unlikely to be met, because no staff at the home have completed the authority’s training course on caring for children with these behaviours. In one case, a new and relatively inexperienced member of staff was assigned to be the key worker for a child who has complex behavioural difficulties. This left the member of staff feeling ‘overwhelmed’. Leaders and managers have failed to demonstrate a commitment to meeting children’s needs and maximising the potential for them to have improved outcomes. Inspection report children’s home: SC037452 8 There has been a high turnover of staff since the last full inspection in July 2017. During this period, eight members of staff have left and five have joined. At the time of this

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

inspection there were seven staff vacancies, although there is now a comprehensive recruitment plan in place. Agency and bank staff are frequently used to cover staff shortages. The inconsistency in staffing has had a destabilising effect on some children.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

Systems for monitoring the quality of care being provided have failed to identify serious shortfalls in the standard of care. The service manager had not seen the most recent quality of care report that was submitted to Ofsted. The service manager acknowledged that the poor practice identified at this inspection was serious and they demonstrated a strong commitment to addressing immediate safeguarding concerns and raising standards in the short term.

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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: SC037452 9

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Children’s home details

Registered provider: West Sussex County Council

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: Director of Social Services, County Hall, Tower Street, Chichester, West Sussex PO19 1QT

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Inspector

Stephen Collett, social care inspector Inspection report children’s home: SC037452 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

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Inspector

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Inspector

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