Children's home run by 4 Pure Heart Limited

Inspection report children‟s home: 1265092 1 Registered provider: 4pureheart 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

This home is operated by a private company. It is registered to provide care and accommodation for up to seven children irrespective of gender. The home specialises in caring for children who have been, or who are, experiencing emotional and behavioural difficulties.

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Information about this children’s home

There is a registered manager at this 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 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

Date of last inspection: first inspection

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inadequate

Overall judgement at last inspection: not applicable

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inadequate

Enforcement action since last inspection: none Inspection report children‟s home: 1265092 2

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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—

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Requirement Due date

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;

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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;

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Requirement Due date

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)(iii)(v)(vi)(b))

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Requirement Due date

Specifically, that the staff receive additional training to ensure that they understand the home‟s policies and procedures for protecting children and how to implement them in day-to-day care. Staff must understand their role in taking immediate action to keep children safe, their roles and responsibilities in respect of decision-making and missing children. Staff should know how to support children who may be using illegal drugs and medicines. Risk management must consider all factors relating to risk and put in adequate measures to mitigate these risks. 17/09/2018

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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 their full potential; and 17/09/2018 Inspection report children‟s home: 1265092 3 promotes their welfare.

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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

ensure that staff have the experience, qualifications and skills to meet the needs of each child. (Regulation 13 (1)(a)(b) and (2)(c))

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Requirement Due date

Specifically, the registered provider should review the staffing structure, including the experience and qualifications of those staff working within the team at the home. This review should be recorded, detailing how the staff team‟s skills and knowledge will provide high-quality care to children in line with the home‟s statement of purpose. Further training and development opportunities, for those staff who are identified as requiring it from the review, should be provided. 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— that staff—

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Requirement Due date

meet each child‟s behavioural and emotional needs, as set out in the child‟s relevant plans;

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Requirement Due date

help each child to develop socially aware behaviour;

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Requirement Due date

encourage each child to take responsibility for the child‟s behaviour, in accordance with the child‟s age and understanding. (Regulation 11 (1)(a)(b)(c)(2)(a)(i)(ii)(iii)) 17/09/2018

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must compile in relation to the children‟s home a statement (“the statement of purpose”) which covers the matters listed in Schedule 1. (Regulation 16 (1)) 17/09/2018

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Requirement Due date

The independent person must provide a copy of the independent person‟s report to—

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Requirement Due date

HMCI (Regulation 44 (7)(a)) 17/09/2018 Inspection report children‟s home: 1265092 4 The registered person must maintain records (“case records”) for each child which—

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Requirement Due date

include the information and documents listed in Schedule 3 in relation to each child. (Regulation 36 (1)(a)) 17/09/2018

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: inadequate

The judgement about how well young people are helped and protected is a limiting judgement. The inspector has judged this area to be inadequate. This means that the overall experience and progress judgement is inadequate.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: inadequate

A lack of management oversight and guidance for the staff has resulted in unsafe decision-making and poor care practice. The decisions made by the staff have placed a young person at risk of harm. Furthermore, they did not involve the placing authority in decision-making or act as a good parent to help protect the young person.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: inadequate

Risk management plans are ineffective at reducing damaging behaviours, including alcohol and substance misuse, going missing from care, violence and inappropriate sexual relationships. A young person has not been protected from harm or risk of further harm. This is detrimental to all areas of their development.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: inadequate

Young people spend long periods of time away from the home, therefore they are not investing in the home or the staff. The staff team‟s ability to help these young people to remain safe and improve their aspirations and outcomes is limited.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: inadequate

The unsettled environment is impacting upon other young people living in the home. Young people have said that they „don‟t feel safe at times‟.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: inadequate

That said, two of the four young people enjoy school and their attendance is very good. They also take part in a range of activities, including gymnastics, swimming and horse riding.

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

A young person remains at risk of harm. Risk management is ineffective. Plans are not successful at reducing missing from care episodes, alcohol and substance misuse, violence in the home and criminal activity. Individual risk assessments lack sufficient detail in identifying and mitigating risks.

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

The staff have demonstrated a lack of understanding in relation to their responsibilities in protecting a young person. They have made serious errors in decision-making that have placed a young person at risk of significant harm. They have also failed to pass on a serious safeguarding concern to the local authority. Inspection report children‟s home: 1265092 5 The staff are ineffective at building positive relationships with young people to enable them to manage behaviour. Young people spend significant time away from the home and do not engage fully with the staff. Furthermore, the staff did not collect a young person from an unsafe situation, despite police requests. This is contradictory to the behaviour management policy of treating each young person with respect and value.

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

Staff are all trained in Team-Teach, which is the model that they are expected to use to manage challenging behaviour. Staff try to de-escalate situations, but this is not always effective. As a result, on several occasions staff have requested police assistance in managing young people‟s behaviour.

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

Consequences for inappropriate or dangerous actions of the young people are not clear or consistently applied. Moreover, direct work through key-working sessions with them is limited. Young people cannot, therefore, develop an understanding of appropriate or safe behaviour, for example on accessing social media safely.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

The management arrangements have been ineffective. A period of unavoidable absence by the registered manager has left the staff without clear direction and guidance. The responsible individual has not fully supported the staff team during the managers absence.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

The majority of staff are inexperienced and not appropriately qualified. They lack the necessary skills and confidence to meet the high level of need to manage the young people in placement. Moreover, some staff told the inspector that they did not feel supported and did not have regular supervision. This does not ensure that the staff are competent in their role.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

Recordings of young people‟s information is unclear. For example, a physical intervention record did not have the duration of the restraint measure used with the young person; therefore, the appropriateness of this cannot be determined. Also, incident reports, daily logs and missing from care records are incomplete.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

Despite processes in place, serious incidents requiring police involvement have not been notified to the relevant bodies. Also, the independent person‟s monthly reports have not all been sent to Ofsted.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

The statement of purpose does not reflect the staff team accurately; their skills, experience and qualifications are not listed. Consequently, parents, commissioners and the regulatory bodies cannot be assured that young people are being cared for by a staff team that has the skills, knowledge and qualifications to care for young people well.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

The staff team remains stable and its members express their commitment in caring for young people. A new and experienced manager has very recently started in post. Positive steps have been taken by the senior management team to recruit further experienced staff and to improve the service to the young people. Inspection report children‟s home: 1265092 6

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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: 1265092 7

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: Atlantic Business Centre, Altrincham, Cheshire WA14 5NQ

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Inspector

Caroline Jones, social care inspector Inspection report children‟s home: 1265092 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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Inspector

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Inspector

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Inspector

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