Children's home run by T-Junction Children’s Services

Inspection report children’s home: 1252023 1 Registered provider: T-Junction Children’s Services 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 three children who have emotional and/or behavioural difficulties. It is operated by a small private provider.

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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

Date of last inspection: 18 October 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

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

18/10/2017 Full Good Inspection report children’s home: 1252023 2

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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 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— 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; ensure that staff have the experience, qualifications and skills to meet the needs of each child; (Regulation 13 (1)(a)(b)(2)(a)(c)) 31/08/2018

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Recommendations

 The registered person should only accept placements for children where they are satisfied that the home can respond effectively to the child’s assessed needs as recorded in the child’s relevant plans and where they have fully considered the impact that the placement will have on the existing group of children. The Statement of Purpose is an important document in the process of care planning as it sets out the needs of children the home is set up and equipped to care for. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 56, paragraph 11.4)  At least one person on duty at any given time in a children’s home must have a suitable first aid qualification (regulation 31(2)(a)). (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 35, paragraph 7.13)  The registered person should ensure that all incidents of control, discipline and restraint are subject to systems of regular scrutiny to ensure that their use is fair

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Recommendations

and the above principles as set out in 9.35 are respected. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 46, paragraph 9.36) Inspection report children’s home: 1252023 3  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 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)).

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Recommendations

(‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 49, paragraph 9.60)  Effective care planning is essential to the success of placements. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 56, paragraph 11.2)  The registered person must have systems in place so that all staff, including the manager, receive supervision of their practice from an appropriately qualified and experienced professional, which allows them to reflect on their practice and the needs of the children assigned to their care. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 61, paragraph 13.2)

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improvement to be good

Poor decisions have been made about which children are admitted to this home. The impact for children has been that:

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improvement to be good

 four children have moved on within a short space of time because, for most of them, the placement has failed to adequately meet their needs  one child has been placed at risk of sexual exploitation because of a poor placement decision  one child’s behaviour has deteriorated, partly due to the new admission of a child who has a similar background and needs. Children do make progress, especially in their education. Staff strongly advocate on behalf of children to ensure that they get a suitable education placement. A social worker said: ‘The school they found for her has set a benchmark for me. It meets her needs amazingly.’ Children make friends in the local area. Friends call at the house, asking for the children to come out and play. Children go on holiday and can take their friends with them. This gives children a sense of belonging, as well as normalising their situation. Children are very active. They attend clubs and activities in the local area. This helps

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improvement to be good

children to build resilience, confidence and self-esteem. Inspection report children’s home: 1252023 4

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improvement to be good

Behaviour management plans are poor because they do not provide good information for staff. They are vague and brief. Some strategies would potentially put children in danger if they were implemented. However, staff know the children quite well and implement appropriate strategies to help children to calm when they are agitated or angry. Physical intervention, including restraint, is used frequently. The frequency of restraint was reducing for one child until another child with similar needs was admitted. Children are not always given an opportunity to express their feelings about a restraint. Records are not completed well and descriptions of incidents lead the reader to believe that the restraint was not necessary. Management oversight of these records has been poor because managers have not identified poor record-keeping or challenged staff about the necessity of a restraint. However, staff are clear that restraint is only used as

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improvement to be good

a last resort and only if the child or others are at risk of harm. Staff are very good at building warm and nurturing relationships with children. This helps children to feel safe and secure. Good, multi-agency work has been completed with children who have gone missing from the home. This means that incidents in which children go missing have now reduced significantly. Staff have a good understanding of child protection and whistleblowing procedures. Staff work well with safeguarding agencies to help keep children safe.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: requires improvement to be good

Children with very specialist needs have been admitted to this home. Staff have not been given the skills and knowledge that they need to be able to provide high-quality care for these children. Staff are starting to receive specialist guidance and training from a qualified and experienced psychotherapist, which they are finding helpful. This guidance is starting to give staff a better understanding. Nearly half the members of the staff team are new to the home since the last inspection. Most staff do not hold an appropriate qualification and some staff are not enrolled on a qualification because they are still completing their probation period. Managers were unable to say whether all shifts are now covered by a qualified first aider, or whether staff who have taken a child on holiday are trained in first aid. This was a recommendation at the previous inspection. First aid training is planned, but a

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: requires improvement to be good

date has not been confirmed. Formal staff supervision has not been taking place on a regular basis. Some staff have not had any supervision for more than three months and some new staff have had supervision infrequently. A supervision matrix has been drawn up to ensure that managers have a good oversight of staff supervision. Allocation of staff to children does not take into account the staff’s experience. For example, two staff members who are new to the home were working with a child who Inspection report children’s home: 1252023 5 has complex needs and who is also new to the home. This does not ensure that the child receives the best possible standard of care. The registered manager is qualified and very experienced. She understands what has gone wrong in the home and has started to implement strategies to improve the quality of the service. She has not been fully focused on the home because she has been

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: requires improvement to be good

engaged in opening a new home. She now intends to spend more time in the home.

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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: 1252023 6

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Children’s home details

Registered provider: T-Junction Children’s Services Limited

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: 3 Field Leys Way, Birstall, Leicester LE4 3EL

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Inspector

Joanne Vyas, social care regulatory inspector Inspection report children’s home: 1252023 7 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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