Children's home run by NH Care Limited in Birmingham

Inspection report children’s home: SC477796 1 SC477796 Registered provider: NH Care 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 for seven young people. The home provides care and accommodation for young people who have learning disabilities. The home is privately owned.

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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

Overall judgement at last inspection: requires improvement to be good

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requires improvement to be good

Enforcement action since last inspection: none Inspection report children’s home: SC477796 2

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

09/01/2018 Full Requires improvement to be good 01/02/2017 Interim Sustained effectiveness 27/06/2016 Full Good 17/02/2016 Interim Sustained effectiveness Inspection report children’s home: SC477796 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.

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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 understand how to keep safe. (Regulation 12 (1)(2)(a)(ii)) 05/10/2018

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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 that staff have the skills to identify and act upon signs that a child is at risk of harm. (Regulation 12 (1)(2)(a)(iii)) 05/10/2018

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Requirement Due date

The protection of children standard is that the registered person must ensure that the premises used for the purpose of the home are designed, furnished and maintained so as to protect each child from avoidable hazards to the child’s health. (Regulation 12 (2)(d)) 05/10/2018

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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; and 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 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)) 05/10/2018

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Requirement Due date

If the registered provider is an organisation, the organisation must ensure that the responsible individual undertakes such continuing professional development as is necessary to ensure that the responsible individual has the skills needed for supervising the management of the home. (Regulation 29 (2)) 05/10/2018

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Requirement Due date

The registered person may only employ an individual to work at the children’s home if full and satisfactory information is available in relation to the individual in respect of each of the matters in Schedule 2. (Regulation 32(3)(d)) 05/10/2018 Inspection report children’s home: SC477796 4 The registered person must ensure that any individual who works in the home in a care role has achieved the appropriate qualification by the relevant date. The relevant date is, in the case of an individual who starts working in a care role in a home after 1st April 2014, the date which falls 2 years after the date on which the individual started working in a care role in a home. (Regulation 32 (5)(a)) 05/10/2018

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must ensure that all employees have their performance and fitness to perform their roles appraised at least once every year. (Regulation 33 (4)(c)) 05/10/2018

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must maintain in the home the records in Schedule 4. (Regulation 37 (1)(2)(a))

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Requirement Due date

This is with specific reference to keeping the required records about people working in the home. 05/10/2018

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must notify, without delay, the local authority for the area in which the children’s home is located of every admission of a child into the home and every discharge of a child from the home. (Regulation 41 (1)) 05/10/2018

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must complete a quality of care review by establishing and maintaining a system for monitoring, reviewing and evaluating the feedback and opinions of children about the children’s home, its facilities and the quality of care they receive in it.

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Requirement Due date

In particular, the system referred to in paragraph (2) must provide for ascertaining and considering the opinions of children, their parents, placing authorities and staff. (Regulation 45 (2)(b)(5)) 05/10/2018

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Recommendations

 The home’s Statement of Purpose should be child-focused, indicating how the home provides individualised care to meet the Quality Standards for the children in their care. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 10, paragraph 3.5)  Children should have access to a computer and the internet to support their education and learning, unless there are specific safeguarding reasons why this would be inappropriate. In such cases, the home should consider whether and how it can support the child to access a computer and the internet safely. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 29, paragraph 5.19)  The registered person must ensure that staff have the relevant skills and knowledge to be able to respond to the health needs of children (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 34, paragraph

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Recommendations

Inspection report children’s home: SC477796 5 7.12). This is with specific reference to ensuring that staff are competent in administering medication.  The registered person should plan staffing levels to ensure that they meet the needs of children and can respond flexibly to unexpected events or opportunities. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 54, paragraph 10.15)  The registered person is responsible for maintaining good employment practice. They must ensure that recruitment, supervision and performance management of staff safeguard children and minimise potential risks to them (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 61, paragraph 13.1). This is with particular reference to ensuring that staff in probation receive supervision at the frequency set out in the home’s workforce development plan.  It is good practice for a note of the content and/or outcomes of supervision

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Recommendations

sessions to be kept and to ensure that both the person giving the supervision and staff member have a copy of the record. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 61, paragraph 13.4)

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improvement to be good

Since the last inspection, there have been some changes in the young people living at the home. One young person has moved in and three young people have moved out. Good planning by staff has helped two young people to experience positive moves out of the home. However, managers have not made sufficient enquiries when admitting new young people. For example, managers made the decision to admit a young person without fully understanding the extent of her learning disability. This meant that staff did not have access to the full range of information to help plan her care.

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improvement to be good

Staff have tried hard to support one young person who has complex behaviour. However, weaknesses in internal decision-making have meant that staff have been unable to provide the young person with the right support. This has affected the experiences and progress of the other young people living at the home. It took the intervention of partner agencies before the young person’s placement was fully reviewed. This resulted in the young person leaving the home.

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improvement to be good

Good communication with teachers has helped one young person to successfully move to a new school. For another young person, keeping a school placement has been a real challenge. Despite this difficulty, staff have worked hard to overcome the barriers that impact on his ability to learn. This has included carefully listening to the young person’s views and then writing an individualised plan, which will help him to start school in September. One teacher told the inspector, ‘They are on the ball and know him so well.’ However, young people do not have access to a computer in the home that helps to support their learning. Inspection report children’s home: SC477796 6 Staff are attentive to young people’s needs and relationships are positive. Mealtimes are shared events when young people enjoy the company of each other and their carers. Young people benefit from opportunities to develop their independence skills and are

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improvement to be good

encouraged to help prepare food and drinks and be responsible for cleaning and doing their own laundry.

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improvement to be good

Staff work closely with the child and adolescent mental health service to ensure that young people’s emotional health needs are reviewed. Young people are encouraged to be healthy and lead an active lifestyle. Hobbies such as swimming and walking help the young people to stay healthy.

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improvement to be good

The home is a large property and needs ongoing maintenance. Since the last inspection, progress to improve the conditions of the property has been slow. The lounge has been re-decorated, and a new table and blinds are now in place in the dining area. Work has started to create a second lounge for young people, to give added space for them to enjoy hobbies. However, the conditions of the house continue to need attention to ensure that young people can enjoy a safe and comfortable environment in which to live. For example, no action has been taken to address unsafe paving slabs to the rear patio or the previous deficits found with the conditions of the young people’s bathrooms. In one young person’s bedroom, the curtains do not cover the windows. Nettles in the border of the back garden pose a hazard to young people. Plans to replace the kitchen with domestic-style units have stalled. Since the last inspection, there has been a further

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improvement to be good

decline in conditions. The home has suffered two water leaks, which have caused damage to the ceilings. Significant damage has been caused to a young person’s bathroom, which means it can no longer be used. In addition, the lack of a safety lock means there is no safe way for staff to access a young person’s toilet that can be locked from inside. This shortfall compromises the young people’s safety.

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improvement to be good

The manager has improved the quality of young people’s risk assessments. This improvement has helped the staff to be clearer about young people’s risks.

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improvement to be good

Staff encourage positive behaviour through praise and rewards. As a result, consequences are rarely used.

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improvement to be good

Young people can make suggestions for day trips and holidays. Because of this consultation and with the agreement of one young person’s local authority, a trip to Disneyland Paris was arranged. However, poor pre-holiday planning resulted in the young person being left vulnerable.

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improvement to be good

The organisation has recently reviewed its safeguarding policies, including sharing them with the local authority. The manager works well with the local authority designated officer, and concerns about staff conduct are appropriately reported. Staff have access to online safeguarding training to equip them with essential knowledge Inspection report children’s home: SC477796 7 for their roles. However, in practice, staff are unable to give adequate explanation in areas of safeguarding practice including how to report allegations of abuse, child sexual exploitation and radicalisation. Shortfalls in staff knowledge mean that safeguarding issues may go undetected and unreported.

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improvement to be good

Arrangements are in place for the safe receipt, storage and administration of medication, which includes staff training. However, not all staff have had their competency in the safe handling of medicines assessed.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

The home has been without a registered manager since June 2017. After a period of interim management arrangements, an experienced manager started employment in September 2017 and is now in the process of applying to be registered with Ofsted.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

Eleven members of staff hold the level 3 diploma in residential childcare or an equivalent award. One member of staff is enrolled on the award. The progress of the remaining three staff in achieving the award is too slow. Consequently, they have failed to complete their training within the timeframe required by regulation. Furthermore, the responsible individual is not able to demonstrate their own ongoing professional development. This compromises the responsible individual’s ability to effectively oversee the welfare of young people and leadership and management of the home.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

Staff speak positively about the managers and the support they receive from them. The frequency of supervision for permanent staff has improved since the last inspection. However, staff who are in their probationary period do not have supervision in line with the home’s workforce development plan. In addition, not all staff have received an annual appraisal.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

Shortfalls in safe recruitment continue. Both permanent and agency staff can start work without managers undertaking all suitability checks. For example, managers have failed to secure verification of the reasons why a person’s employment ended when they have worked with children or vulnerable adults. Managers have also failed to explore gaps in staff members’ employment history. Copies of staff members’ relevant qualifications are not added to staff recruitment files. These shortfalls demonstrate a continued failure by managers to improve practice so that recruitment is safe, and that children and young people are not subject to unnecessary risks.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

Managers are also unable to show that staff records hold all the information required by regulation. This means that necessary information about who has worked in the home is not available should it be needed.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

Young people’s case records now hold all the information necessary to support good care planning. However, the manager is not ensuring that the hosting local authority is informed when young people are discharged. This means that the hosting local authority does not have necessary information about the numbers of young people looked after Inspection report children’s home: SC477796 8 living in the area that requires the support of local services.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

There is no system in place to ensure that the views of stakeholders are formally secured. Furthermore, the statement of purpose does not reflect the operation of the home. For example, photographs and detail about the service and the accommodation are out of date.

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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: SC477796 9

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: 3 Shetland Close, Birmingham, Warwickshire B16 0RF

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Inspector

Alison Cooper, social care inspector Inspection report children’s home: SC477796 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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