Children's Home run by Esland North Limited in Derby

Inspection report children’s home: SC478986 1 SC478986 Registered provider: Esland North 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 privately owned. It provides long-term care and accommodation for up to five young people, aged between 11 and 17, who have complex social, emotional and/or behavioural difficulties. The home operates across two sites, the main house and the lodge. The main house can accommodate up to four young people and the lodge can accommodate one young person.

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Information about this children’s home

The manager has been registered with Ofsted since June 2017.

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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 young people are not protected or their welfare is not promoted or safeguarded and the care and experiences of young people are poor and they are not making progress.

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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: SC478986 2

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

22/08/2017 Full Good 12/12/2016 Interim Improved effectiveness 31/05/2016 Full Good 22/12/2015 Interim Sustained effectiveness Inspection report children’s home: SC478986 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 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

understand and apply the home’s statement of purpose;

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Requirement Due date

(Regulation 6 (1)(a)(b)(2)(a)) 31/08/2018

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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

(Regulation 6 (1)(2)(c)(i)) 31/08/2018 Inspection report children’s home: SC478986 4 In particular, that young people’s bedrooms are clean and nurturing, and that the garden is in a suitable condition for young people to use it safely.

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Requirement Due date

The children’s views, wishes and feelings standard is that children receive care from staff who—

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Requirement Due date

take their views, wishes and feelings into account in relation to matters affecting the children’s care and welfare and their lives.

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Requirement Due date

In particular, the standard in paragraph (1) requires the registered person to— ensure that staff—

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Requirement Due date

ascertain and consider each child’s views, wishes and feelings, and balance these against what they judge to be in the child’s best interests when making decisions about the child’s care and welfare;

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Requirement Due date

In particular, young people’s views should be sought and considered on a regular basis. Feedback should be given to young people about any requests that they make, and the reasons why such requests can or cannot be actioned. 31/08/2018

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Requirement Due date

The positive relationships standard is that children are helped to develop, and to benefit from, relationships based on—

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Requirement Due date

positive responses to other children and adults.

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Requirement Due date

In particular, the standard in paragraph (1) requires the registered person to ensure that staff—

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Requirement Due date

help each child to understand, in a way that is appropriate according to the child’s age and understanding, personal, sexual and social relationships, and how those relationships can be supportive or harmful;

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Requirement Due date

help each child to develop the understanding and skills to recognise or withdraw from a damaging, exploitative or harmful relationship;

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Requirement Due date

(Regulation 11(1)(c)(2)(a)(vi)(vii)) 31/08/2018 Inspection report children’s home: SC478986 5 In particular, direct work should be carried out with young people to help them understand about healthy and unhealthy relationships.

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Requirement Due date

The positive relationships standard is that children are helped to develop, and to benefit from, relationships based on—

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Requirement Due date

An understanding about acceptable behaviour; and

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Requirement Due date

Positive responses to other children and adults.

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Requirement Due date

In particular, the standard in paragraph (1) requires the registered person to ensure that staff—

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Requirement Due date

understand how children’s previous experiences and present emotions can be communicated through behaviour and have the competence and skills to interpret these and develop positive relationships with children;

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Requirement Due date

(Regulation 11(1)(2)(a)(ix) and (xii)) 31/08/2018

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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 the home’s day-to-day care is arranged and delivered so as to keep each child safe and to protect each child effectively from harm. (Regulation 12 (1)(2)(b)) 10/08/2018

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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 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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use monitoring and review systems to make continuous improvements in the quality of care provided in the home. 31/08/2018 Inspection report children’s home: SC478986 6 (Regulation 13 (1)(2)(h))

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Requirement Due date

In particular, the registered manager should review systems within the home to ensure that they are effective and are safeguarding young people.

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must ensure that all employees—

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Requirement Due date

receive practice-related supervision by a person with appropriate experience; and

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Requirement Due date

have their performance and fitness to perform their roles appraised at least once every year. (Regulation 33 (4)(b)(c)) 31/08/2018

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Requirement Due date

within 24 hours of the use of a measure of control, discipline or restraint in relation to a child in the home, a record is made which includes—

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Requirement Due date

a description of the measure and its duration;

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details of any methods used or steps taken to avoid the need to use the measure;

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the effectiveness and any consequences of the use of the measure; and

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a description of any injury to the child or any other person, and any medical treatment administered, as a result of the measure;

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Requirement Due date

within 48 hours of the use of the measure, the registered person, or a person who is authorised by the registered person to do so ("the authorised person")—

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has spoken to the user about the measure; and

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Requirement Due date

has signed the record to confirm it is accurate; and

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Requirement Due date

within 5 days of the use of the measure, the registered person or the authorised person adds to the record confirmation that they have spoken to the child about the measure. (Regulation 35 (3)(a)(iv)(v)(vii)(viii)(b)(i)(ii) and (c)) 10/08/2018 Inspection report children’s home: SC478986 7

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: inadequate

The staff’s relationships with young people are poor. Staff do not fully recognise or understand the early childhood trauma that contributes to young people’s challenging behaviours. This is a significant barrier to young people’s progress.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: inadequate

Young people do not feel valued or respected. They do not feel that staff care about them. A young person said, ‘Some of them only come in for the pay. They are not supportive and they definitely do not care about any of us.’ The lack of trusting relationships with staff increases the vulnerability of young people.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: inadequate

The quality of direct work with young people is poor. When direct work is carried out, it often does not address young people’s specific needs. As a result, young people’s vulnerabilities to exploitation and abuse have not reduced.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: inadequate

Consultation and information sharing with young people is poor. Young people do not feel listened to. One young person said, ‘It’s a dictatorship. They just decide something is going to happen and then it happens. Staff make decisions behind your back and don’t even tell you why.’ Because young people do not participate in decision making, they feel disengaged. One young person in particular has chosen to withdraw from the daily routines of the home.

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

Safeguarding shortfalls mean that young people are not always protected from harm. Whistleblowing systems are not effective because staff have not always passed on information about poor practice. This has left young people, who are already extremely vulnerable, at risk of harm.

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

Staff and managers do not consistently work in accordance with the home’s child protection policies. Physical intervention is inappropriately used. During a restraint, a young person banged his head. He also claimed that he had been physically assaulted by staff. However, no medical attention was sought and the allegation was not referred to the appropriate agencies.

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

Risk assessments are inadequate. They are descriptive and fail to outline what action staff should take in order to safeguard young people.

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

Staff do not demonstrate the level of care and compassion that is necessary to enable young people to build strong and trusting relationships. Because staff do not have the necessary skills to de-escalate challenging behaviour, young people become very distressed.

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

Young people’s behaviours are poorly managed. Practice is insensitive. Staff do not Inspection report children’s home: SC478986 8 recognise when young people have reached crisis. Some incidents have lasted for several hours without a member of staff being able to calm young people down. The emotional impact of this on young people who are already traumatised is severe.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

A number of staffing changes have resulted in an unstable staff team. Young people have not experienced consistency of care. This does not support the development of strong, trusting relationships between staff and young people.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

Management has failed to address the poor performance of some staff. Systems in place to review staff performance, such as annual appraisals, have not been used. As a result, staff have not been set improvement objectives. Supervision is not taking place regularly. When supervision does take place, it is of a poor quality because practice issues are not reviewed in detail.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

Management oversight of restraint practice is weak. Management reviews of these incidents do not take place in a timely way. Staff debriefs do not identify potential improvements in practice. Management oversight of restraint is hindered because written records do not accurately describe the incidents.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

Internal and external scrutiny of the home has not been effective. Key shortfalls have not been recognised or highlighted. Robust improvement strategies have not been developed.

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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: SC478986 9

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Children’s home details

Registered provider: Esland North Limited

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: Esland Ltd, Suite 1, Riverside Business Centre, Foundry Lane, Milford, Belper, Derbyshire DE56 0RN

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Inspector(s)

Davinia Lawton, social care inspector Inspection report children’s home: SC478986 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(s)

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Inspector(s)

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Inspector(s)

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