Children's home run by Potensial Limited

Inspection report children’s home: SC489820 1 SC489820 Registered provider: Potensial Ltd Full inspection Inspected under the social care common inspection framework

p.1

Information about this children’s home

 The children’s home is independently owned by a national company which operates a range of services for vulnerable adults and children.  The home is registered for up to four children and young people who may have learning disabilities.  The home has not had a registered manager in post since 17 April 2017.

p.1

Overall experiences and progress of

children and young people, taking into account

p.1

requires improvement to be good

How well children and young people are helped and protected requires improvement to be good

p.1

requires improvement to be good

The effectiveness of leaders and managers inadequate

p.1

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.

p.1

requires improvement to be good

Date of last inspection: 17 January 2018

p.1

requires improvement to be good

Overall judgement at last inspection: declined in effectiveness

p.1

requires improvement to be good

Enforcement action since last inspection: none Inspection report children’s home: SC489820 2

p.1

Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

17/01/2018 Interim Declined in effectiveness 04/11/2016 Interim Improved effectiveness 28/04/2016 Full Requires improvement Inspection report children’s home: SC489820 3

p.2

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.

p.3

Requirement Due date

The registered provider must appoint a person to manage the children’s home if there is no registered manager in respect of the home; and the registered provider is an organisation or a partnership; does not satisfy regulation 28; or is not, or does not intend to be, in day-to-day charge of the home. (Regulation 27(1)(a)(b)(i)(ii)(iii))

p.3

Requirement Due date

In particular, ensure that a permanent manager is appointed to manage the children’s home without further delay and that this person makes an application to Ofsted to be registered. 15/09/2018

p.3

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, or allow that individual to work at the home, if the individual satisfies the requirements in paragraph (3). The requirements are that the individual has the appropriate experience, qualification and skills for the work that the individual is to perform; full and satisfactory information is available in relation to the individual in respect of each of the matters in Schedule 2. (Regulation 32(1), (2), (3)(b)(d), schedule 2).

p.3

Requirement Due date

This is with particular reference to ensuring that all staff who come to work at the children’s home have a fully documented employment history on file, with any gaps accounted for and recorded. Also, ensure that all staff training is monitored and up to date. 31/08/2018

p.3

Requirement Due date

* These requirements are subject to a compliance notice. Inspection report children’s home: SC489820 4

p.3

Recommendations

 Ensure that staff are familiar with the home’s policies on record keeping and understand the importance of careful, objective, and clear recording. Staff should record information on individual children in a non-stigmatising way that distinguishes between fact, opinion and third-party information. Information about the child must always be recorded in a way that will be helpful to the child. In particular, ensure that incidents are recorded clearly so that there is an audit trail for management monitoring purposes. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 62, paragraph 14.4) Inspection report children’s home: SC489820 5

p.4

improvement to be good

The home is rated requires improvement to be good because leadership and management have been rated inadequate for the second successive inspection. This is because there has been no registered manager for 64 weeks. Although the lack of a registered manager has been detrimental to the home’s overall progress and development, it has not led to any serious shortfalls in safeguarding or in the outcomes for children and young adults.

p.5

improvement to be good

The child and young adult in this home receive good-quality, individually tailored care. They spend quality time with the staff and enjoy fun days out with them. This helps children and young adults to develop appropriate, warm and supportive relationships with the staff.

p.5

improvement to be good

Parents are very happy with the quality of care. They find the staff approachable and positive. A parent commented that the staff have been extremely helpful in facilitating their son’s move to another provision, which is an important step towards his independence.

p.5

improvement to be good

Both the child and the young adult have made progress since the full inspection. The child attends school regularly. He is achieving well and is increasing in confidence.

p.5

improvement to be good

Children’s healthcare and medication needs are met well. They also receive emotional support, including specialised therapy if required. They enjoy visits to members of their extended families. This helps to keep them in touch with life at home and sustain important relationships for the future.

p.5

improvement to be good

There are continuing shortfalls in staff recruitment records, including substantial gaps in employment history. This lack of attention to detail indicates insufficient management monitoring. There is no evidence that this has had a detrimental effect on children and young adults, but it has the potential to do so.

p.5

improvement to be good

In addition, there are shortfalls in staff training. One member of staff has not completed their health and safety, fire awareness and manual handling training. This means that the staff member does not have up-to-date skills in these important areas of practice.

p.5

improvement to be good

The interim manager is currently working with the staff on an improved system for recording incidents. A recommendation has been made to support this development.

p.5

improvement to be good

The manager is thinking ahead to a time when a second child might be admitted. To this end, the manager has designed a compatibility risk assessment document. This will help Inspection report children’s home: SC489820 6 to evaluate the positives and risk factors in relation to any new children referred to the home. Individual risk assessments for the child are clear and contain positive strategies to help the staff to keep the child safe.

p.5

improvement to be good

The staff manage behaviour well. To further enhance practice, the manager has improved behaviour management practice. For example, the staff now have a better understanding of the triggers which cause the child distress. This has helped to reduce the overall number of incidents. As a result, there have been no restraints since the last inspection. There have been no child protection concerns or incidents where children have gone missing.

p.6

improvement to be good

Health and safety in the home is effective. All fire safety and other checks have been completed at appropriate intervals.

p.6

The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

The lack of a registered manager for 64 weeks has seriously challenged management continuity and effectiveness. This has made it difficult to monitor the home. The lack of management oversight has also had an impact on leaders’ and managers’ capacity to meet previous inspection requirements. Although six interim inspection requirements have been met, two requirements are repeated. The shortfalls are set out below.

p.6

The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

The home was required to appoint a registered manager. Over the past 15 months, the company has appointed several persons in succession to take on this role. To date, none of these prospective managers have been successfully registered.

p.6

The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

The present manager has been appointed as an interim measure to oversee the recruitment and registration of a permanent manager. He holds a degree in advanced care management and has over 22 years’ experience in health and social care, including 10 years at management level. The manager has recently submitted an application to Ofsted.

p.6

The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

The second repeated requirement relates to the fitness of staff, as described above.

p.6

The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

Six previous inspection requirements in relation to the following areas are now all met:

p.6

The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

 There are now sufficient staff to manage the home safely.  The fire risk assessment has been updated.  The home’s statement of purpose has been updated and sent to Ofsted.  The independent visitor’s reports and regulation 45 reports are now sent to Ofsted regularly.

p.6

The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

A further requirement was made due to a lack of clarity about whether the home was for adults or children. The provider is now clear that it is to remain as a children’s home, but there was a delay of 19 weeks before the placing authority was able to find appropriate accommodation for the young adult. Inspection report children’s home: SC489820 7 The interim manager is aware of the home’s strengths and areas for development. He is impressed with the quality of the relationships between the staff and the child. The staff feel well supported and supervised. He has introduced reflective practice diaries for all the staff so that they can reflect on their work with the child and discuss this in supervision. One member of staff described the new manager as ‘a breath of fresh air’, who has provided welcome leadership within the home.

p.6

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 difference 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.

p.7

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: SC489820 8

p.7

Children’s home details

Registered provider address: Potens, 68 Grange Road West, Birkenhead, CH41 4DB

p.8

Inspector(s)

Heather Chaplin, social care inspector Inspection report children’s home: SC489820 9 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.

p.8

Inspector(s)

If you would like a copy of this document in a different format, such as large print or Braille, please telephone 0300 123 1231, or email enquiries@ofsted.gov.uk . You may reuse this information (not including logos) free of charge in any format or medium, under the terms of the Open Government Licence. To view this licence, visit www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/doc/open-government-licence , write to the Information Policy Team, The National Archives, Kew, London TW9 4DU, or email: psi@nationalarchives.gsi.gov.uk .

p.9

Inspector(s)

Interested in our work? You can subscribe to our monthly newsletter for more information and updates: http://eepurl.com/iTrDn .

p.9

Inspector(s)

T: 0300 123 1231 Textphone: 0161 618 8524 E: enquiries@ofsted.gov.uk W: www.gov.uk/ofsted

p.9