Children's home run by Leicester City Council

Inspection report children’s home: SC038961 1 SC038961 Registered provider: Leicester City 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 run by a local authority. It is registered to provide care and accommodation for up to 10 young people, although the home’s statement of purpose currently states that it will accommodate up to seven young people. The broad purpose of the home is to care for young people who are unable to live with their family and who are therefore ‘looked after’ by the local authority.

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Information about this children’s home

The home helps young people to address and resolve behavioural and emotional difficulties and manage the impact of any abuse or neglect as identified in their overall care plans.

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Information about this children’s home

The registered manager has been in post since 2011, and has extensive experience of working in residential settings. He is appropriately qualified.

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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: declined in effectiveness Inspection report children’s home: SC038961 2 Enforcement action since last inspection: none

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

16/03/2018 Interim Declined in effectiveness 03/10/2017 Full Good 15/03/2017 Interim Improved effectiveness 29/06/2016 Full Requires improvement Inspection report children’s home: SC038961 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

Engaging with the wider system to ensure that children’s needs are met. The registered person must, and must ensure that staff— 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 relevant person to seek to ensure that each child’s needs are met in accordance with the child’s relevant plans. (Regulation 5(c)) 31/08/2018

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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;

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Requirement Due date

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

understand the child’s health and well-being needs and the options that are available in relation to the child’s health and well-being, in a way that is appropriate to the child’s age and understanding;

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Requirement Due date

that each child is registered as a patient with a general medical practitioner and a registered dental practitioner; and

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Requirement Due date

that each child has access to such dental, medical, nursing, psychiatric and psychological advice, treatment and other services as the child may require. 31/08/2018 Inspection report children’s home: SC038961 4 (Regulation 10 (1)(a)(b)(c)(2)(a)(ii)(b)(c))

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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;

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Requirement Due date

take effective action whenever there is a serious concern about a child’s welfare (Regulation 12(2)(a)(i)(ii)(vi)) This includes ensuring that the compatibility assessments completed are robust in identifying the risks and behaviours of all young people living in the home. Additionally, information contained in young people’s risk assessments must be a clear reflection of current risks, take into account wider care planning and that the young person is educated on risks and keeping safe. 31/08/2018

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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. 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; use monitoring and review systems to make continuous improvements in the quality of care provided in the home. This is with particular reference to ensuring that monitoring systems, including the monthly visits carried out by the independent visitor, are effective in identifying shortfalls and addressing these shortfalls. (Regulation 13 (2)(a)(h)) 31/08/2018

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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; and 31/08/2018 Inspection report children’s home: SC038961 5 have a positive experience of arriving at or moving on from the home. In particular, the standard in paragraph (1) requires the registered person to ensure— that arrangements are in place to— manage and review the placement of each child in the home. (Regulation 14 (1)(a)(b)(2)(b)(ii)) 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 revised statement within 28 days of the revision. (Regulation 16 (3)(a)(b)) 10/09/2018

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must ensure the home maintains records (case records) for each child which include the information and documents listed in Schedule 3 in relation to each child; ensure records are kept up to date and are signed and dated by the author of each entry. (Regulation 36 (1)(a)(b)(c)) 10/09/2018

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must notify HMCI and each other relevant person without delay if there is any other incident relating to a child which the registered person considers to be serious. (Regulation 40 (4)(e)) 31/08/2018

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Requirement Due date

The independent person must provide a copy of the independent person’s report to HMCI in a timely manner. (Regulation 44 (7)(a)) 10/09/2018

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Recommendations

 When a child returns to the home after being missing from care or away from the home without permission, the responsible local authority must provide an opportunity for the child to have an independent return home interview. Homes should take account of information provided by such interviews when assessing risks and putting arrangements in place to protect each child. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 45, paragraph 9.30)  Any decisions to limit a child’s access to any area of the home and any modifications to the environment of the home, must only be made where this is intended to safeguard the child’s welfare. All decisions should be informed by a rigorous assessment of that individual child’s needs, be properly recorded and be kept under regular review. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 15, paragraph 3.10)

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Recommendations

Inspection report children’s home: SC038961 6

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improvement to be good

Not all young people are making progress. Some young people are making very little progress despite the best efforts of staff.

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improvement to be good

The quality of the admission process is variable. This is particularly evident in the assessment of whether this home is the right placement for a young person. Compatibility risk assessments are not robust as they lack detail of the needs, behaviours and risks of all young people. Placement planning meetings do not always take place. This has resulted in delays in implementing young people’s care plans. Consequently, young people’s physical and emotional health needs are not met and safeguarding risks are not appropriately assessed and reviewed by all agencies involved.

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improvement to be good

Health outcomes for young people require improvement. Staff support young people to attend routine and specialist health appointments. However, managers have failed to act on health recommendations for some young people. This is not good care practice.

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improvement to be good

Young people are happy and they benefit from trusting relationships with staff. Without exception, all of the young people see the placement as their home, with most young people wanting to live at the home until they are 18 years old. Young people believe that staff genuinely care about them.

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improvement to be good

Young people are provided with good support to maintain contact with their families and with people who are important to them, where appropriate.

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improvement to be good

Staff have struggled to keep some young people safe. The quality of young people’s risk assessments is variable. Some risk assessments are very detailed and accurately reflect the risks. However, some risk assessments are inaccurate as they contain conflicting information and/or have not been updated after an incident. This means that the risk assessments do not provide staff with sufficient clarity about risk and how best to work with the young person. Risk assessments have not been signed, dated or reviewed by managers. This does not demonstrate that there is good management oversight.

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improvement to be good

Managers have failed to be proactive in making arrangements with professionals to convene meetings to discuss and agree safeguarding strategies, in particular for those young people at risk of sexual exploitation. This does not help to protect young people from the risk of harm and abuse. However, young people told the inspectors that they feel safe at the home. Staff work closely on a day-to-day basis with a range of professionals to try and ensure that young people are adequately safeguarded. One social worker said: ‘I cannot fault the effort and commitment [of staff].’ Inspection report children’s home: SC038961 7 For a small number of young people, the number of incidents of being missing from the home remains high. However, a reduction in the number of missing incidents is evident for the majority of young people. Improvements have been made to the recording of missing incidents, which has addressed the requirement from the last inspection.

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improvement to be good

Independent return home interviews do not take place in all instances. When they do take place, staff do not use the information gathered to inform the young person’s risk assessment. This is a missed opportunity to learn from the incident and formulate plans to address the risks.

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improvement to be good

Some behaviour management practices in the home are not well considered. An example of this is cutting the electricity supply to the electrical sockets in some young people’s bedrooms. The registered manager stated that this practice is now not used very often. However, the use of this particular behaviour management strategy is not monitored by managers. This means that the frequency, appropriateness and effectiveness of this measure cannot be assessed.

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

A number of shortfalls have been identified which are mainly due to ineffective management monitoring systems. Internal monitoring systems fail to report on the issues, risks and challenges at the home. The quality assurance visits carried out by the independent visitor are also ineffective. Additionally, there are significant delays in these reports being sent to Ofsted.

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

The registered manager does not always notify Ofsted of serious incidents. This does not help the regulator to monitor whether young people are being appropriately cared for and safeguarded.

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

There is a real commitment to partnership working. However, the registered manager does not challenge agencies and professionals when young people are not getting the services that they need. This hinders progress and has the potential to place young people at risk.

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

Young people’s care records are not always signed and dated by the author. This affects the manager’s capacity to review young people’s progress.

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

The home’s statement of purpose contains all the required details and is revised when necessary. However, revised copies of the statement of purpose are not always sent to Ofsted.

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

Staff are experienced and well trained. They clearly enjoy their work and try their best to support young people well. They are led by the registered manager and two assistant managers. Staff say that they feel listened to, valued and are well supported by the management team. Staff now receive regular supervision from managers. This addresses a requirement made at the previous inspection. Inspection report children’s home: SC038961 8

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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: SC038961 9

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: City Hall, 3rd Floor, Rutland Wing, 115 Charles Street, Leicester LE1 1FZ

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Inspectors

Katarina Djordjevic, social care regulatory inspector Amanda Ellis, social care regulatory inspector Inspection report children’s home: SC038961 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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Inspectors

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Inspectors

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Inspectors

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