Children's home run by Arc-HD Services Ltd in Eastleigh

Inspection report children‟s home: SC420410 1 SC420410 Registered provider: Arc HD Services Limited Full inspection Inspected under the social care common inspection framework

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Information about this children’s home

This children‟s home is registered to accommodate three young people who have complex emotional and behavioural difficulties and mental disorders. This home is owned by a private organisation that operates another children‟s home in the locality.

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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/or 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: 24 October 2017

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inadequate

Overall judgement at last inspection: good

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inadequate

Enforcement action since last inspection: none Inspection report children‟s home: SC420410 2

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

24/10/2017 21/02/2017 Full Interim Good Sustained effectiveness 22/11/2016 Full Outstanding 10/03/2016 Interim Improved effectiveness Inspection report children‟s home: SC420410 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 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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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

ensure that the premises used for the purposes of the home are designed and furnished so as to—

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Requirement Due date

This specifically relates to the sinks and toilets in the bathrooms that the children use. 14/09/2018

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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

assess whether each child is at risk of harm, taking into account information in the child‟s relevant plans, and, if necessary, make 17/08/2018 Inspection report children‟s home: SC420410 4 arrangements to reduce the risk of any harm to the child;

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Requirement Due date

help each child to understand how to keep safe;

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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

that the premises used for the purposes of the home are located so that children are effectively safeguarded; and

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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

(Regulation 12 (1)(2)(a)(i)(ii)(iii)(c)(d))

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Requirement Due date

This particularly refers to children being kept safe from accessing roads, staff following up-to-date and accurate risk assessments, preventing children from accessing age- appropriate films, the fire alarm not being disabled and a bathroom window being made secure while still allowing ventilation.

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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

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; and

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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.

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Requirement Due date

(Regulation 13 (1)(b)(2)(a)(c)) 17/08/2018

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Requirement Due date

The care planning standard 17/08/2018 Inspection report children‟s home: SC420410 5 The care planning standard is that children—

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Requirement Due date

have a positive experience of arriving at or moving on from the home.

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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 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 children are compatible and staff support children who move from the home.

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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; and

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Recommendations

 Regulation 19(2) details sanctions that are prohibited in behaviour management. Any sanctions used to address poor behaviour should be restorative in nature, to help children recognise the impact of their behaviour on themselves, other children, the staff caring for them and the wider community. In some cases it will be important for children to make reparation in some form to anyone hurt by their behaviour and the staff in the home should be skilled to support the child to understand this and carry it out. („Guide to the children‟s homes regulations including the quality standards‟, page 46, paragraph 9.38) Inspection report children‟s home: SC420410 6

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: inadequate

Leaders have not ensured that all children are effectively safeguarded, and some young people have not been sufficiently protected from the risk of harm. Support to help two young people with mental health problems to reduce their anxieties has not been effective. As a result, both young people have placed themselves at significant risk by self-harming and/or by going missing.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: inadequate

Compatibility risk assessments are completed prior to young people moving into the home. However, some young people are not sufficiently prepared through visits to move in or out of the home. As a result of the speed that some young people move into the home, information about their needs has been missed. Consequently, this has impacted negatively on the compatibility of some of the young people. Despite the registered manager recognising a correlation in an increase in one young person‟s risk taking behaviours following a disclosure, this young person‟s placement ended because the staff could not meet their complex needs and keep them safe.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: inadequate

Arrangements to support one young person moving on to a secure placement failed to consider the emotional trauma and upset that the young person experienced.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: inadequate

Some other young people have made good progress from their starting points. Caring and dedicated staff support young people to attend college and work placements, and to develop independence skills. One young person is working well in the hospitality trade and planning her move towards independence. Furthermore, two young people who have since left the home have done so successfully, benefiting from outreach support by the staff team.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: inadequate

Two young people have had their education and learning opportunities interrupted by multiple admissions to hospital and their placement ending. As a result, their educational and health outcomes are poor.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: inadequate

The home is well decorated and, mostly, homely. It provides young people with space to socialise and areas that they can personalise. Further improvements are required in relation to the bathroom fixtures and fixings to fully reflect the needs of the young people living in the home.

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

Monitoring of the quality of care is not effective. Leaders and managers have failed to recognise a number of concerns and as a result some young people have been at risk of significant harm. Staff have not been able to prevent some young people from going missing and placing themselves, staff and members of the public at risk. Serious incidents when young people have attempted to harm themselves by walking into traffic and jumping out of a moving car have not been prevented. Leaders and managers have not devised an effective plan to stop these incidents from happening again. Inspection report children‟s home: SC420410 7 Risk assessments and behaviour management plans devised to mitigate risk conflict with one another, leaving staff confused and unclear about what is expected of them. For example, one young person assessed as at risk of using a ligature has unlimited access within her bedroom to items that could be used to self-harm. The registered manager

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

and staff team have failed to identify these items as a risk.

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

Although sanctions are rarely used, when they are, they are not always appropriate and fail to help the young person to recognise the impact of their behaviours.

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

The lack of clear direction has ensured that staff are confused and unclear about what is expected of them. For example, the fire alarm being disabled on one occasion, visitors to the home not being recorded, no parental controls are in place on children‟s televisions and a bathroom window being unsafe. In addition, on two occasions, one young person was supported by male staff despite her risk assessment clearly stating that she was to be cared for by female staff only.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

Monitoring has lacked rigour and has failed to identify significant weaknesses. Evidence of this was found during the course of the inspection: incomplete records and risk assessments not accurately reflecting the complex needs of two young people. This has a negative effect on the quality of care provided to the children, as well as a negative effect on their behaviour.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

The registered manager has not ensured that staff have sufficient information in behaviour management and care plans to meet the needs of all young people. As a result, these plans have not been effective or had a positive impact on their care and progress.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

Although staff receive regular supervision and have access to a range of training, support for staff following serious incidents has not consistently taken place. On too many occasions, staff do not feel fully supported or given sufficient time to reflect on their practice following serious incidents.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

External monitoring of the home lacks rigour. Although it takes place regularly and provides the registered manager with a detailed report, monitoring is not wholly effective as the independent visitor has failed to detect a number of the shortfalls identified by this inspection.

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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 Inspection report children‟s home: SC420410 8 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: SC420410 9

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Children’s home details

Registered provider: Arc HD Services Limited

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: Arc HD Services, Wessex House, Upper Market Street, Eastleigh SO50 9FD

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Inspector

Linda Bond: social care inspector Inspection report children‟s home: SC420410 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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