Children's Home run by Wessex College Limited in Wiltshire

Inspection report children’s home: SC037596 1 SC037596 Registered provider: Wessex College

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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 can provide care for up to four children aged 11 years and over who may have experienced trauma, abuse and/or attachment difficulties. The home is one of six homes operated by a private organisation. The organisation also owns a school which children from this home may attend. The registered manager has been registered with Ofsted since 2007.

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

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inadequate

Overall judgement at last inspection: declined effectiveness

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inadequate

Enforcement action since last inspection: none Inspection report children’s home: SC037596 2

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

03/01/2018 Interim Declined effectiveness 11/05/2017 Full Good 22/09/2016 Interim Sustained effectiveness 25/05/2016 Full Good Inspection report children’s home: SC037596 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

10: The health and well-being standard The health and well-being standard is that— the health and well-being needs of children are met; children are helped to lead healthy lifestyles. (Regulation 10(1)(a) and (c)) In particular, ensure that children are provided with a healthy diet and regular mealtimes. Ensure that staff do not facilitate children smoking. 27/08/2018

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Requirement Due date

11: The positive relationships standard* The positive relationships standard is that children are helped to develop, and to benefit from, relationships based on— mutual respect and trust; an understanding about acceptable behaviour; and positive responses to other children and adults. In particular, the standard in paragraph (1) requires the registered person to ensure— that staff— meet each child’s behavioural and emotional needs, as set out in the child’s relevant plans; help each child to develop socially aware behaviour; encourage each child to take responsibility for the child’s behaviour, in accordance with the child’s age and understanding; help each child to develop and practise skills to resolve conflicts positively and without harm to anyone; communicate to each child expectations about the child’s behaviour and ensure that the child understands those expectations in accordance with the child’s age and

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Requirement Due date

understanding; 18/09/2018 Inspection report children’s home: SC037596 4 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; strive to gain each child’s respect and trust; 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; that each child is encouraged to build and maintain positive relationships with others. (Regulation 11(1)(a)(b)(c)(2(a)(i)(ii)(iii)(iv)(v)(vi)(vii)(ix)(b)) 12: The protection of children standard 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—

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Requirement Due date

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; have the skills to identify and act upon signs that a child is at risk of harm; understand the roles and responsibilities in relation to protecting children that are assigned to them by the registered person; take effective action whenever there is a serious concern about a child’s welfare; and are familiar with, and act in accordance with, the home’s child protection policies; 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)(a)(i)(ii)(iii)(v)(vi)(vii)(b)) 18/09/2018

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Requirement Due date

13: The leadership and management standard* The leadership and management standard is that the registered person enables, inspires and leads a culture in relation to the children’s home that— helps children aspire to fulfil their potential; and promotes their welfare. 18/09/2018 Inspection report children’s home: SC037596 5 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; ensure that staff work as a team where appropriate; ensure that staff have the experience, qualifications and skills to meet the needs of each child; ensure that the home has sufficient staff to provide care for each child; ensure that the home’s workforce provides continuity of care to each child; understand the impact that the quality of care provided in the

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Requirement Due date

home is having on the progress and experiences of each child and use this understanding to inform the development of the quality of care provided in the home; use monitoring and review systems to make continuous improvements in the quality of care provided in the home. (Regulation 13(1)(a)(b)(2)(a)(b)(c)(d)(e)(f)(h)) 14: The care planning standard In particular, the standard in paragraph (1) requires the registered person to ensure— that children are admitted to the home only if their needs are within the range of needs of children for whom it is intended that the home is to provide care and accommodation, as set out in the home’s statement of purpose; that arrangements are in place to— ensure the effective induction of each child into the home; plan for, and help, each child to prepare to leave the home or to move into adult care in a way that is consistent with arrangements agreed with the child’s placing authority;

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Requirement Due date

(Regulation 14(2)(b)(i)(iii)) 18/09/2018

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Requirement Due date

33: Employment of staff The registered person must ensure that all employees— receive practice-related supervision by a person with appropriate experience; (Regulation 33(4)(b)) 18/09/2018

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Requirement Due date

* These requirements are subject to a compliance notice. Inspection report children’s home: SC037596 6

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: inadequate

Insufficient action has been taken by leaders, managers and staff to ensure that children make good progress. The risks for the child that currently lives in the home have increased since moving in. Leaders and managers make poor admission decisions and do not plan children’s moves into and from the home effectively. Since the previous inspection, managers have placed children in this home whose needs and behaviours have adversely affected one another. Staff were unable to manage these behaviours, resulting in three children being moved on from the home in an unplanned way. Staff do not provide the current child with a good routine and sufficient structure to promote her health and well-being. Lack of boundaries and support about sleep and diet result in poor outcomes for the child. The child has started to smoke since living here. Despite this child receiving one-to-one support at all times, she has obtained tobacco

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: inadequate

and a lighter. Leaders and managers have not taken action to remove these items or identify how the child has obtained them. Relationships between the permanent staff team and the child are weak. Few staff challenge poor behaviour. The child has the balance of control in the home and not the staff. Some temporary staff have established a more positive relationship with the child. However, there is little evidence to show how these relationships are enabling the child to progress. Staff do not successfully support children with their social and emotional development. An example of this is the lack of guidance and boundaries provided to the current child about her choice of clothing and social presentation. The organisation provides staff and children with support from a clinical team. Currently, the child is not engaging with this support. Although staff meet regularly with the clinical team, it is not evident how this support informs the staff’s work with the child.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: inadequate

Children have caused damage to the home during behavioural incidents. Leaders and managers take frequent action to repair the home and bring it up to a good standard. Despite this, the cleanliness in parts of the home during the inspection was poor.

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

Staff do not always follow the home’s child protection procedures to identify and report concerns about staff practice. This shortfall means that some child protection concerns have not been referred to the designated officer. When staff do follow the child protection procedure, leaders and managers take appropriate action to protect the child concerned. Child protection records kept in the home are not well maintained. Leaders and managers do not have a system to succinctly record low level safeguarding concerns in Inspection report children’s home: SC037596 7 order to monitor them for trends and patterns. Leaders, managers and staff do not use the information that they know about the current child’s past experiences to fully assess the present risks posed to her. Strategies to minimise the risks are insufficient. For example, staff are not helping the child to use a smartphone and the internet safely, as staff do not have enough oversight of who the

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

child is communicating with or what social media platforms she is using. Significant behavioural incidents have put children, staff and visitors at risk. Leaders and managers do not monitor these incidents effectively to learn from them and identify strategies to prevent them. On too many occasions, similar incidents continue to happen. Leaders and managers have not taken sufficient action to reduce the need for formal police involvement in children’s lives. On some occasions, staff have been unable to manage children’s behaviour effectively and have called for help from the police. Consequently, children have spent time in police custody and had charges made against them. Leaders and managers do not identity areas of learning from these incidents to protect children from unnecessary involvement in the criminal justice system. Positive behaviour support plans and risk assessments do not provide staff with sufficient

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

information to support children. An example of this is the lack of details about the support a child needs with relation to self-harm.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

The chief executive officer of the company identified some shortfalls in this setting prior to this inspection. Actions taken to address these shortfalls include:  a restructure of the senior leadership team  the chief executive officer taking responsibility as the responsible individual  weekly action and development plans to improve  a review of the company’s ethos and model of care. These actions are in the early stages of implementation and have not yet had a discernible impact on improving the home. Leaders and managers do not have a sufficient team of core staff. The retention of staff is low. More than 30 different staff have worked in the home since the previous inspection. This impacts negatively on the consistency of care provided to children. At times, staff work alone with the child; this includes out in the community and sleeping in the home overnight. The majority of these occasions take place with agency staff.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

Leaders and managers assess the risk of this and deem it suitable. However, these risk assessments insufficiently address the current risks posed to the child and staff. Currently, the registered manager is unable to work in the home due to targeted significant behaviour incidents towards her. While the deputy manager is taking responsibility for the day-to-day management of the home in collaboration with the registered manager, who is working remotely, the registered manager’s absence depletes the core team even further. Inspection report children’s home: SC037596 8 Leaders’ and managers’ monitoring of the quality of care is not effective. Leaders and managers do not consistently demonstrate learning from their monitoring activities or identify ways that practice can be improved. The registered manager recognises that the supervision of staff is not yet up to a standard that she would expect. The quality of staff supervision varies. Although action

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

to improve staff supervisions and team meetings is included in the development plan, it is too soon to assess whether the quality has improved.

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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: SC037596 9

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: Wessex College Limited, 4 Cedar Park, Cobham Road, Ferndown Industrial Estate, Wimborne BH21 7SF

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Inspector

Nicola Lownds, social care inspector Inspection report children’s home: SC037596 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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