Children's home run by Park Lane Residential Home Limited in Brent

Inspection report children‟s home: SC050124 1 SC050124 Registered provider: Park Lane Residential Home 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 privately owned children‟s home provides care and accommodation for up to five young people. The statement of purpose notes that this is a short to long-term residential home providing care for children aged 11-16 (extended to 17 if required) who have multifaceted needs. The home has not had a registered manager since 28 June 2017. On 1 March 2018, the provider appointed a new manager. Ofsted has not received an application to register a manager.

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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 inadequate

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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

Date of last inspection: 14 September 2017

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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: SC050124 2

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

14/09/2017 Full Good 23/01/2017 Interim Declined in effectiveness 19/07/2016 Full Good 02/03/2016 Interim Declined in effectiveness Inspection report children‟s home: SC050124 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. In particular, the standard in paragraph (1) requires the registered person to ensure— 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; help each child to understand how to keep safe. (Regulation 12 (1)(2)(a)(i)(ii)) In particular, the registered person must ensure that clear and comprehensive risk assessments and risk management plans are in place for each young person. 01/09/2018

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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. 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)(2)(h)) 01/10/2018

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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)) 01/10/2018

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must— keep the statement of purpose under review and, where appropriate, revise it; and notify HMCI of any revisions and send HMCI a copy of the 01/10/2018 Inspection report children‟s home: SC050124 4 revised statement within 28 days of the revision. (Regulation 16 (3)(a)(b)) The registered person may only use devices for the monitoring or surveillance of children if— the monitoring or surveillance is for the purpose of safeguarding and promoting the welfare of the child concerned, or other children; the child‟s placing authority consents in writing to the monitoring or surveillance; so far as reasonably practicable in the light of the child‟s age and understanding, the child is informed in advance of the intention to do the monitoring or surveillance; and the monitoring or surveillance is no more intrusive than necessary, having regard to the child‟s need for privacy. (Regulation 24 (1)(a)(b)(c)(d))

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must recruit staff using recruitment procedures that are designed to ensure children‟s safety. The registered person may only— employ an individual to work at the children‟s home; or if an individual is employed by a person other than the registered person to work at the home in a position in which the individual may have regular contact with children, allow that individual to work at the home, if the individual satisfies the requirements in paragraph (3). The requirements are that— the individual is of integrity and good character; the individual has the appropriate experience, qualification and skills for the work that the individual is to perform; the individual is mentally and physically fit for the purposes of the work that the individual is to perform; and full and satisfactory information is available in relation to the individual in respect of each of the matters in Schedule 2.

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Requirement Due date

(Regulation 32 (1)(2)(a)(b)(3)(a)(b)(c)(d)) 01/10/2018

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must— ensure that each employee completes an appropriate induction. (Regulation 33 (1)(a)) 01/10/2018

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must ensure that all employees— undertake appropriate continuing professional development; 01/10/2018 Inspection report children‟s home: SC050124 5 receive practice-related supervision by a person with appropriate experience; and have their performance and fitness to perform their roles appraised at least once every year. (Regulation 33 (4)(a)(b)(c)) Schedule 4 sets out the other information that the registered person must keep in relation to a children‟s home. The registered person must— maintain in the home the records in Schedule 4; ensure that the records are kept up to date; and retain the records for at least 15 years from the date of the last entry. (Regulation 37 (1)(2)(a)(b)(c)) In particular, the registered person must keep a copy of the staff duty roster of persons working at the home, and a record of the actual rosters worked. 01/09/2018

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must complete a review of the quality of care provided for children (“a quality of care review”) at least once every 6 months. In order to complete a quality of care review the registered person must establish and maintain a system for monitoring, reviewing and evaluating— the quality of care provided for children; the feedback and opinions of children about the children‟s home, its facilities and the quality of care they receive in it; and any actions that the registered person considers necessary in order to improve or maintain the quality of care provided for children. After completing a quality of care review, the registered person must produce a written report about the quality of care review and the actions which the registered person intends to take as a result of the quality of care review (“the quality of care review report”). The registered person must— supply to HMCI a copy of the quality of care review report

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Requirement Due date

within 28 days of the date on which the quality of care review is completed; and make a copy of the quality of care review report available on request to a placing authority, if the placing authority is not the parent of a child accommodated in the home. The system referred to in paragraph (2) must provide for ascertaining and considering the opinions of children, their 01/10/2018 Inspection report children‟s home: SC050124 6 parents, placing authorities and staff. (Regulation 45 (1)(2)(a)(b)(c)(3)(4)(a)(b)(5)) The registered person must review the appropriateness and suitability of the location of the premises used for the purposes of the children‟s home at least once in each calendar year taking into account the requirement in regulation 12(2)(c) (the protection of children standard). When conducting the review, the registered person must consult, and take into account the views of, each relevant person. (Regulation 46 (1)(2))

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improvement to be good

Young people live in a home where the management and monitoring are poor. Staff have not been vetted robustly and do not receive appropriate induction, training, supervision and review of their performance. Weaknesses in care planning and risk management practices undermine further the effectiveness of the support that young people receive and impede their progress in developing safer behaviours. Social workers from placing authorities said that their experience of this home was positive. However, one social worker was not confident that the manager and staff always saw one particular young person‟s potential or gave her the best chance to experience positive regard and stability in her life. A mother of a different young person voiced her concern about her child „feeling pushed out of the home‟ by the manager. Care planning in the home is weak. Some individual care plans are not completed in a timely manner. Completed care plans do not always demonstrate that young people

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improvement to be good

receive comprehensively planned care. Young people talked about their overall experience of the home in positive terms. They described it as a nice place to live in. One young person said: „Nowhere is like a home, but the staff have made us feel that this is like a home.‟ Young people have formed positive relationships with their key workers and other staff members who work in the home They said that the staff were kind, helpful and friendly. A young person said that it was nice to know that there is always somebody to talk to. Young people‟s educational attainment and learning is promoted in this home. One young person said that going back to school every day and taking exams are the best things that he has achieved since being in care. Another young person said that he loved going to school. Preparing food and dining together plays a significant part in the life of the home. However, one young person said that she was bothered about eating in front of the

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improvement to be good

camera and being watched. Placing authorities have not consented to the extensive Inspection report children‟s home: SC050124 7 visual surveillance in the communal areas of the home. Young people receive good support to develop their life skills and prepare for their futures. One young person was looking forward to studying a creative subject at college. Another young person said that living in this home has given her the opportunity to begin her journey to find herself.

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improvement to be good

Staff recruitment is not robust. Some staff started work in the home without having all checks completed. Poor staff recruitment practices do not protect young people from staff who might not be appropriate for their role and might not be safe. The management of risks to young people is weak. This undermines the effectiveness of the help that young people receive to develop safer behaviours and stay safe. Risk management planning is limited and not individually tailored. Staff do not always complete young people‟s risk assessments in a timely manner. When high risks are identified, staff do not record enough detail about the safeguarding strategies that they plan to use to help young people to be safer. For example, the risk assessments state „direct work‟ or „key working sessions‟ without explaining what this work involves. When young people go missing from the home, staff always inform the police and

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improvement to be good

relevant authorities. Sharing information increases the chances of the young people‟s safe return to care. However, the lack of recorded individual risk assessments compromises consistency and reduces the clarity of thresholds for each young person to be considered as missing from care. All young people said that they felt safe at the home. Young people also said that they felt safe in the area in which the home is situated. However, the manager has not completed the annual review of the home‟s locality risk assessment. The manager and staff are concerned about the risks to young people from gangs, drugs and exploitation. The manager and staff worked closely with the youth offending service to address these risks. However, the manager was not aware of the concept of the child criminal exploitation and nobody in the home has had relevant training on this subject.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

The leadership and management standard is not met. The home has been without a registered manager for one year. This has had a negative impact on the home‟s compliance with legislation. The home is under-resourced in terms of leadership and management capacity. In addition to not having a registered manager, the manager who is in post has not been given any protected time to focus on managing the home. The time that the manager and the responsible individual spend in the home counts towards the minimum staff cover of two staff on duty for four young people. The records Inspection report children‟s home: SC050124 8 of staff duty rosters do not always show clearly who is on duty at particular times. The leaders and managers have failed to resolve the shortfalls identified at the last inspection and have failed to improve the service. The requirements relating to the statement of purpose, the use of surveillance, employment practices and the internal

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

quality assurance processes are repeated in this report. It is of particular concern that the registered provider does not have a clear and efficient system for keeping records. The lack of consistently completing records of significant events on the individual young people‟s files and on the central logs provides a confusing picture of the service and undermines any monitoring. In addition, when young people, social workers and a parent clearly expressed their dissatisfaction but did not raise a complaint formally, this information was not used in a way that would support reflection and learning. The home is not monitored internally in line with legislation. The registered provider‟s last report of the six-monthly review of the quality of care in this children‟s home was for the period that ended in January 2017. The register provider has failed to complete a further two reports due since then. An independent visitor provides good external monitoring of the home. His monthly

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

reports identify clearly the areas that need to be improved. However, the leaders and managers have been slow to act on these recommendations. The leaders and managers have also failed to improve the home in line with the recommendations given in the last inspection report. Due to the lack of a registered manager for one year, the service has significantly declined since its last inspection in September 2017.

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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: SC050124 9

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Children’s home details

Registered provider: Park Lane Residential Home Limited

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: 15 Brook Avenue, Wembley, Middlesex HA9 8PH

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Inspector

Seka Graovac, social care inspector Inspection report children‟s home: SC050124 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 children looked after, safeguarding and child protection.

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Inspector

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Inspector

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Inspector

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