Children's Home run by Lioncare Ltd Operating as The Lioncare Group in Brighton and Hove

Inspection report children‟s home: SC482548 1 SC482548 Registered provider: Lioncare Ltd Operating As The Lioncare Group

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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 children‟s home is privately owned. It is registered to provide care and accommodation for up to five children who have social, emotional and mental health difficulties.

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Information about this children’s home

The manager was registered with Ofsted on 5 September 2014.

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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: 21 February 2018

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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: SC482548 2

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

21/02/2018 Full Requires improvement to be good 27/09/2016 Interim Sustained effectiveness 18/05/2016 Full Good 15/12/2015 Interim Sustained effectiveness Inspection report children‟s home: SC482548 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 the registered person provides to children living in the home the physical necessities they need in order to live there comfortably. (Regulation 6 (2)(b)(vii)) 30/09/2018

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Requirement Due date

The children‟s views, wishes and feelings standard is that children receive care from staff who take their views, wishes and feelings into account in relation to matters affecting the children‟s care and welfare and their lives. In particular, the standard requires the registered person to ensure that staff 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. (Regulation 7 (1)(c)(2)(a)(i)) 30/09/2018

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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. In particular, the standard 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. (Regulation 12 (2)(a)(i)) 30/09/2018

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Requirement Due date

The leadership and management standard 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; demonstrate that practice in the home is informed and improved by taking into account and acting on feedback on the experiences of children, including complaints received. (Regulation 13 (2)(a)(g)(ii)) 30/09/2018

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must ensure that all employees receive practice-related supervision by a person with appropriate experience. (Regulation 33 (4)(b)) 30/09/2018 Inspection report children‟s home: SC482548 4 The registered person must ensure that 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 a description of the measure and its duration; 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”) has spoken to the user about the measure. (Regulation 35 (3)(a)(iv)(b)(i)) 30/09/2018

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improvement to be good

The home is spacious, and each young person is encouraged to personalise their own room. However, the quality of the internal decoration of the home has declined. This has consistently been identified as needing improvement through the monthly independent monitoring of the home. The hallway carpets remain to be re-fitted some months on and this will have impacted negatively on the day-to-day experiences of the young people. The registered manager and responsible individual recognise this and there is a plan of remedial works now in place.

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improvement to be good

Staff provide consistency in their care of the young people. This is underpinned by the therapeutic model of care shown in the interactions between staff, children and young people. The staff team is committed to understanding the individual needs of the children and young people and work well with other agencies to ensure that the right support is provided. Staff support young people to experience trips away. This has included planning a sponsored hike, for young people and staff, to raise funds for a local children‟s charity. This also gives children an opportunity to contribute to the wider community.

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improvement to be good

Children and young people are encouraged to express their feelings, and staff understand their behaviour as a form of communication. Staff have, at times, needed to physically intervene to prevent a child or young person‟s behaviour from becoming unsafe. The recording of this is in most cases effective. There have, however, been recording errors, on occasions. The views of children and young people have also not been gained by staff after all incidents. The impact of the incident, on the child or young person, is not always understood and this has not informed the ongoing care provided by staff.

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improvement to be good

Staff encourage children and young people‟s individual interests, which promotes their sense of identity. Children and young people are supported to engage in education at the level that reflects their individual learning needs. Staff have supported children and young people to attend school where needed. Children and young people‟s individual physical, emotional and psychological health needs are well understood. The staff team has worked hard to develop its knowledge in order to meet these. Inspection report children‟s home: SC482548 5

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improvement to be good

Recruitment checks including references are completed to ensure that all relevant information is obtained prior to staff being employed. This complies with safer recruitment practice. If negative information has become known once staff are in employment, the responsible individual has ensured effective monitoring and scrutiny of the impact of these on practice. Staff have an induction programme to support them to undertake their role.

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improvement to be good

Staff undertake safeguarding training and are assessed for their competency in this. The young people‟s needs and identified risks are understood in most cases. However, the potential risks in relation to one young person were not understood by staff and not reflected in their plans. Staff had not therefore identified strategies to safeguard the young person. The concerns had been known for some time. However, the potential risks were identified as a result of the inspection, and plans updated in response to this.

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improvement to be good

Some young people were able to see how they have been helped by the staff caring for them. The management team has responded to a limited number of complaints raised regarding staff. This has, in most cases, reflected the views of the child or young person involved. However, this has not been the experience for all young people. This has then negatively impacted on the day-to-day relationships with the relevant staff in the home.

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

The registered manager is focused on the care provided to the children and young people. She leads a management team of senior staff enthusiastically and skilfully through her empowering approach. The responsible individual provides effective support and supervision to the registered manager. The registered manager has recently completed the Level 5 diploma. She has developed a clear induction programme for all new staff. This was a requirement from the last inspection and has been met together with all other requirements set.

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

The registered manager has a good understanding of the children and young people‟s needs. She has developed positive relationships with each child and young person in their care. The registered manager has a good understanding of the strengths and areas for development within the staff team. This guides the planning for the home and the support needed to help the staff in their roles. Training and development opportunities are provided to staff. The responsible individual has developed specific training for staff to support them to develop supervision skills.

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

Staff have not received regular individual supervision and in some cases there had been a period of several months between supervision sessions. The responsible individual had identified this through an audit of supervision undertaken shortly before the inspection. Although there is an action plan in place to ensure staff are provided with regular supervision, this hiatus in support will have impacted on practice and the capacity of Inspection report children‟s home: SC482548 6 staff to reflect upon it. The registered manager has also had diminished oversight of the practice and the quality of care provided to the young people because of this.

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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: SC482548 7

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Children’s home details

Registered provider: Lioncare Ltd operating as The Lioncare Group

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: 58a Livingstone Road, Hove, Sussex BN3 3WL

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Inspectors

Maria Lonergan, social care inspector Inspection report children‟s home: SC482548 8 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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