Children's Home run by Aspris Children’s Services Limited in Hampshire

Inspection report children’s home: SC408655 1 SC408655 Registered provider: Priory Education Services Limited

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Inspected under the social care common inspection framework

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Information about this children’s home

This children’s home is registered to care for seven young people. The home is run by a private organisation, providing care and accommodation for young people who have learning disabilities. Young people who are currently resident at the home are educated at the provider’s school, which is approximately 10 miles away.

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Information about this children’s home

The registered manager resigned from the post in March 2018. There is currently no manager in post managing the day-to-day operations of the home.

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

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inadequate

Date of last inspection: 10 January 2018

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inadequate

Overall judgement at last inspection: declined in effectiveness

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inadequate

Enforcement action since last inspection: none Inspection report children’s home: SC408655 2

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

10/01/2018 Interim Declined in effectiveness 23/05/2017 Full Good 04/01/2017 Interim Declined effectiveness 31/08/2016 Full Good Inspection report children’s home: SC408655 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 (2) requires the registered person to—

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Requirement Due date

ensure that the premises used for the purpose of the home are designed and furnished so as to—

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Requirement Due date

enable each child to participate in the daily life of the home. *(Regulation 6 (2)(c)(i) and (ii)) 08/10/2018

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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

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—

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Requirement Due date

meet each child’s behavioural and emotional needs, as set out in the child’s relevant plans; 08/10/2018 Inspection report children’s home: SC408655 4 encourage each child to take responsibility for the child’s behaviour, in accordance with the child’s age and understanding;

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Requirement Due date

help each child to develop and practise skills to resolve conflicts positively and without harm to anyone;

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Requirement Due date

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 understanding;

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Requirement Due date

strive to gain each child’s respect and trust;

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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

are provided with supervision and support to enable them to understand and manage their own feelings and responses to the behaviour and emotions of children, and to help children to do the same;

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Requirement Due date

de-escalate confrontations with or between children, or potentially violent behaviour by children;

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Requirement Due date

understand and communicate to children that bullying is unacceptable; and

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Requirement Due date

have the skills to recognise incidents or indications of bullying and how to deal with them. (Regulation 11 (1)(a)(b)(c)(2)(a)(i)(iii)(viii)(ix)(x)(xi)(xii)(xiii))

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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

assess whether each child is at risk of harm, considering information in the child’s relevant plans, and, if necessary, make arrangements to reduce the risk of any harm to the child;

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Requirement Due date

help each child to understand how to keep safe;

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Requirement Due date

have the skills to identify and act upon signs that a child is at risk of 08/10/2018 Inspection report children’s home: SC408655 5 harm;

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Requirement Due date

manage relationships between children to prevent them from harming each other;

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Requirement Due date

understand the roles and responsibilities in relation to protecting children that are assigned to them by the registered person;

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Requirement Due date

take effective action whenever there is a serious concern about a child’s welfare. *(Regulation 12 (1)(2)(a)(i)(ii)(iii)(iv)(v)(vi))

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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 premises used for the purposes of the home are designed, furnished and maintained so as to protect each child from avoidable hazards to the child’s health. *(Regulation 12 (1)(2)(d)) 08/10/2018

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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 fulfil their 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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Requirement Due date

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;

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Requirement Due date

ensure that staff work as a team where appropriate;

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Requirement Due date

ensure that staff have the experience, qualifications and skills to meet the needs of each child;

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Requirement Due date

ensure that the home has sufficient staff to provide care for each child;

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Requirement Due date

ensure that the home’s workforce provides continuity of care to each 08/10/2018 Inspection report children’s home: SC408655 6 child. (Regulation 13 (1)(a)(b)(2)(a)(b)(c)(d)(e))

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Requirement Due date

Restraint in relation to a child must be necessary and proportionate. *(Regulation 20 (2)) 08/10/2018

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must notify HMCI and each other relevant person without delay if—

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Requirement Due date

a child is involved in or subject to, or is suspected of being involved in or subject to, sexual exploitation;

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Requirement Due date

an incident requiring police involvement occurs in relation to a child which the registered person considers to be serious;

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Requirement Due date

there is an allegation of abuse against the home or a person working there;

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Requirement Due date

a child protection enquiry involving a child—

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Requirement Due date

or concludes (in which case, the notification must include the outcome of the child protection enquiry); or

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Requirement Due date

there is any other incident relating to a child which the registered person considers to be serious. (Regulation 40 (4)(c)(d)(i)(ii)(e)) 08/10/2018

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must complete a review of the quality of care provided for children (‘a quality of care review’) at least once every 6 months.

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Requirement Due date

After completing a quality of care review, the registered person must produce a written report about the quality of care review and the actions which the registered person intends to take as a result of the quality of care review (‘the quality of care review report’).

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Requirement Due date

supply to HMCI a copy of the quality of care review report within 28 days of the date on which the quality of care review is completed. (Regulation 45 (1)(4)(a)) 08/10/2018

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Requirement Due date

* These requirements are subject to a compliance notice. Inspection report children’s home: SC408655 7

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: inadequate

Three compliance notices have been issued based upon the inspection judgement.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: inadequate

Children living in this home do not have their care, safety and well-being prioritised.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: inadequate

Children’s experiences and progress are adversely affected by poor management, weak safeguarding practices and inappropriate staff engagement with them.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: inadequate

Since the interim inspection in January 2018, three children have moved from the home because the staff could no longer manage their care safely. This is evidence of poor matching. Some children requested to leave the home and others moved on without being told or properly prepared. In these instances, there was no consideration of the impact on the children emotionally or long-term.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: inadequate

The quality of relationships developed by children with staff and each other is of concern. Children were not taught or helped to engage well with each other, resulting in numerous conflicts. Some staff did not role model good relationships, and on occasions failed to treat children with dignity.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: inadequate

The home needs to be redecorated. The home currently is unappealing to the children because it lacks a homely and welcoming atmosphere. Damage to the home by children has not been repaired promptly, nor have broken items been replaced. Some areas contain hazards that pose a risk to children.

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

Significant shortfalls in safeguarding procedures and staff practice mean that children are not kept safe when living in the home. Managers fail to take decisive action to protect children. Staff do not challenge each other’s practice, therefore increasing risk to children.

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

Staff are not competent and lack significant insight into their roles and responsibility in relation to keeping children safe. On several occasions, staff failed to report safeguarding incidents in line with the home’s safeguarding policy and procedures. When these incidents occurred, managers did not robustly address the concern with staff involved.

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

A major concern is staff unnecessarily using physical intervention on children. Some staff are unable to manage children’s escalating behaviours, opting to use physical intervention unnecessarily. When reviewing these incidents, it was evident that staff were not sufficiently trained. Some staff continued working with children despite improperly restraining them on numerous occasions and contrary to the behaviour management procedures of the home. This malpractice was not reported to the Inspection report children’s home: SC408655 8 designated officer or Ofsted in a timely way.

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

Many staff, do not have the necessary skills to help children understand or improve their negative behaviour. This has resulted in situations being mishandled and serious incidents occurring, such as the police being called to intervene in situations that a more skilled staff group would manage themselves.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

There has been inconsistent, and often poor-quality, leadership in the home since the last inspection. The previous registered manager left the post in March 2018. A new manager was appointed but left the post after four months because he lacked the ability to lead effectively or accurately prioritise the needs of the children.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

Staff lack the essential qualifications and skills to work with children. Supervision is not meaningful or purposeful, often failing to robustly address practice-related issues. Many staff have not achieved the qualification that they need to work in a children’s home.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

The managers have failed to notify Ofsted about significant events occurring in the home. This has led to a lack of transparency with the regulatory body.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

The monitoring of the home has included some regulation 44 reports, which have picked up issues well, including questioning the safety of children. However, managers have not used these to promptly drive improvement, and in many instances the independent visitor was raising issues that the manager in the home should have already known about and rectified. The manager’s (regulation 45) reports lack evaluation and action points to address shortcomings, and they have been submitted to Ofsted extremely late.

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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: SC408655 9 Inspection report children’s home: SC408655 10

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Children’s home details

Registered provider: Priory Education Services Limited

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: Priory Group, 80 Hammersmith Road, London, Middlesex W14 8UD

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Inspector

James Harmon, social care inspector Inspection report children’s home: SC408655 11 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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