Tundra House

Inspection report children’s home: SC043814 1 SC043814 Registered provider: Educare Adolescent Services 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 children’s home is owned by a limited company. It is registered to provide care and accommodation for up to three young people. The statement of purpose says that young people ‘who have complex needs and challenging behaviour, who cannot cope in other types of provision, will be cared for using therapeutically informed parenting practices in a setting that cares for them in a non-institutional way and provides them with a sense of safety and security’.

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Information about this children’s home

A qualified manager has been registered for two and a half years. She is currently absent from the home. During this absence, the management of the home is being covered by another experienced manager.

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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 widespread failures that mean children and young people have not been protected and their welfare promoted or safeguarded. 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: 11 January 2017

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inadequate

Overall judgement at last inspection: sustained effectiveness

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inadequate

Enforcement action since last inspection: none Inspection report children’s home: SC043814 2

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

11/01/2017 Interim Sustained effectiveness 23/08/2016 Full Good 27/01/2016 Interim Sustained effectiveness 06/10/2015 Full Good Inspection report children’s home: SC043814 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 understand the children’s home’s overall aims and the outcomes it seeks to achieve for children; 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 (1) requires the registered person to—

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Requirement Due date

understand and apply the home’s statement of purpose; ensure that staff—

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Requirement Due date

understand and apply the home’s statement of purpose;

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Requirement Due date

provide personalised care that meets each child’s needs, as recorded in the child’s relevant plans, taking account of the child’s background;

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Requirement Due date

Specifically, embed the therapeutic care practice that underpins the ethos described in the statement of purpose. 24/09/2018

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Requirement Due date

The education standard is that children make measurable progress towards achieving their educational potential and are helped to do so.

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Requirement Due date

In particular, the standard in paragraph (1) requires the registered person to ensure that staff help a child who is excluded from school, or who is of compulsory school age but not attending school, to access educational and training support throughout the period of exclusion or non-attendance and to return to school as soon as possible (Regulation 8 (1)(2)(a)(viii))

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Requirement Due date

Specifically, identify those professionals who can help find young people an appropriate school place and work more 24/09/2018 Inspection report children’s home: SC043814 4 proactively with them and with young people to enable young people to take part in regular education. The care planning standard is that children receive effectively planned care in or through the children’s home; and have a positive experience of arriving at or moving on from the home.

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Requirement Due date

In particular, the standard in paragraph (1) requires the registered person to ensure that arrangements are in place to 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. (Regulation 14 (1)(a)(b)(2)(b)(iii))

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Requirement Due date

Specifically, plan and communicate more effectively with social workers and young people, so that young people understand what help they need and should be consistently receiving. This will enable them to make progress towards successful outcomes. 24/09/2018

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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 mutual respect and trust; an understanding about acceptable behaviour; and 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

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

Specifically, make sure that supervision and support provide all staff and managers with regular and consistent advice about how to make more positive relationships with young people and practise therapeutically in all their interactions with them. 24/09/2018

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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.

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Requirement Due date

In particular, the standard in paragraph (1) requires the 24/09/2018 Inspection report children’s home: SC043814 5 registered person to ensure 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)(b))

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Requirement Due date

Specifically, improve staff’s behaviour management practice so that institutional and restrictive responses do not escalate and create situations unnecessarily. In addition, work with young people more proactively about their risk-taking behaviour, so that they learn safer ways of behaving and can work towards more freedom. 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.

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Requirement Due date

In particular, the standard in paragraph (1) requires the registered person to 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 (1)(a)(b)(2)(g)(ii))

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Requirement Due date

Specifically, talk directly to young people about what it is like being cared for. Ensure that young people’s questions, complaints and issues are promptly and properly addressed. 24/09/2018

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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 helps children aspire to fulfil their potential; and promotes their welfare.

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Requirement Due date

In particular, the standard in paragraph (1) requires the registered person to use monitoring and review systems to make continuous improvements in the quality of care provided in the home. (Regulation 13 (1)(a)(b)(2)(h))

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Requirement Due date

Specifically, when monitoring records of behaviour management, key work, complaints and allegations, identify when staff practice, care planning, and consistency of care need to improve. 24/09/2018

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must prepare and implement a policy which is intended to safeguard children accommodated in the children’s home from abuse or neglect; and sets out the procedure to be followed in the event of an allegation of abuse or neglect.

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Requirement Due date

The procedure to be followed in the event of an allegation of abuse or neglect must, in particular, provide for records to be 24/09/2018 Inspection report children’s home: SC043814 6 kept of an allegation of abuse or neglect, and the action taken in response. (Regulation 34 (1)(a)(b)(2)(d))

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Requirement Due date

In particular, keep safeguarding records accessible and comprehensive. Ensure that timely and effective action is taken. The registered person must ensure that a record is made of any complaint, the action taken in response, and the outcome of any investigation. (Regulation 39 (3))

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Requirement Due date

In particular, keep complaints records accessible and comprehensive. 24/09/2018

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Requirement Due date

The independent person must provide a copy of the independent person’s report to the placing authorities of children. (Regulation 44 (7)(c))

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Requirement Due date

Specifically, make sure that young people’s social workers see these reports in a timely way. 24/09/2018

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Recommendations

 Ofsted, as the regulator of children’s homes, can at any time scrutinise the fitness of a responsible individual, either through inspection or as a stand-alone event. Regulation 26(7)(b) requires the responsible individual to have the capacity, experience and skills to supervise the management of each children’s home that they are Responsible Individual for. This includes being able to demonstrate that they have the essential skills needed to develop the leadership and management of homes within their remit such that the homes have the capacity and capability to meet the Quality Standards. There is no limit to the number of homes that a person can be appointed as responsible individual for, but they must be able to demonstrate that they can effectively supervise the management of each home individually, as well as all of the homes overall. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 60, paragraph 12.4)

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: inadequate

In July 2018, serious concerns about the safety and welfare of young people were raised by the organisation’s independent monthly visitor. Young people’s vulnerabilities have not been safeguarded and staff have failed to work as a team. As a result, young people’s individual needs have not been met and their safety has been compromised.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: inadequate

The lack of a therapeutic approach, and inconsistencies in staff practice, have resulted in young people feeling unsafe and feeling powerless and confused about their futures. Inspection report children’s home: SC043814 7 Staff do not use young people’s therapeutic plans to help young people to make emotional and social progress. For example, one young person’s plan says that staff will use: ‘Acceptance, even of negative behaviour; curiosity around her feelings, and empathy about her big feelings about contact’. Staff have not done the ‘sensitive, non- shaming key work about exercise and healthy eating’ that the plan sets out.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: inadequate

In the last 12 months, seven young people have been admitted to the home and five of these young people have been discharged. All placements ended because young people had not experienced care that had made a lasting difference to their outcomes. The responsible individual said that one young person’s emergency discharge ‘was to nowhere permanent and it was a sad ending for her’.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: inadequate

Three young people have not been in school for an extended period. Staff and managers have not shown a sense of urgency about this lack of appropriate schooling for young people or worked with professionals to escalate their concern about delays in securing a school placement. These delays in taking action mean that young people’s education and life chances have been adversely impacted.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: inadequate

Staff fail to undertake good-quality key work with young people about things that are of concern to each young person. This includes concerns about young people’s low self- esteem, family contact, the use of social media, and thoughts about self-harm. Consequently, significant concerns are not being addressed in a planned or skilled way, leaving young people at risk.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: inadequate

Staff do not develop positive relationships with young people. This means that there is no secure base from which to give help and support. For example, staff and young people do not sit or play in the garden, collect and collate memorabilia and talk about things. They do not discuss written and online information, plans and agreements. Young people are therefore bored and disengaged.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: inadequate

Young people do not benefit from care that is well planned by staff in the home or by their placing local authority social workers. As a result, some young people are not receiving life-story work and therapy from staff in the home, or from other professional sources. Young people’s family contact visits are not always successful.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: inadequate

One young person’s social worker is not sure if staff and the manager are really committed to her young person. While she can see an improvement over the last few weeks, she is not kept up to date with incidents of concerning behaviour in a timely way. She said, ‘I am still not sure whether they can see past the presenting problems.’

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

Young people have not experienced high-quality therapeutic care that helps and protects them. Many young people misuse drugs, go missing from the home, approach people that they do not know, and get involved in exploitative situations. Young people bully and assault one another. This leads to young people feeling scared and unsafe inside and outside the home. Inspection report children’s home: SC043814 8 Staff challenge behaviour instead of using the therapeutic techniques that they are trained in. Their response starts and escalates many incidents when young people cause damage and go missing from the home. Young people are annoyed by the way that they are spoken to and by the defensive and restrictive practices that staff use. For example, staff sometimes deny young people free access to communal rooms, food, telephones, the television and their own clothes. The reasons for these practices are vague, are not

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

well considered and are contrary to young people’s relevant plans.

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

Young people’s placements have been ended because staff and managers have failed to engage young people or keep them safe. Staff described young people as having gone into ‘downward spirals’. Staff and managers do not reflect on their practice or identify when their practice has inflamed unsafe behaviour. Staff and managers do not assess the risks of working alone with young people or ensure that they take proper account of young people’s individual needs and their own capabilities.

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

Young people make complaints and allegations about staff, but investigations take too long and young people do not know what the outcomes are. Allegations and complaints arise following unsafe behaviour that is intensified by staff’s poor practice. In some instances, young people’s placements have ended without resolution of their complaints.

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

Staff have not worked skilfully or consistently with young people about their identified vulnerabilities. They do not show young people acceptance and empathy or show curiosity about the issues behind young people’s unsafe behaviour. They fail to see any link between young people’s ‘turmoil’ about their future plans and angry losses of control that damage property or hurt others.

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

Staff do not coordinate work that teaches young people about positive, safe relationships. Staff continue to use negative and restrictive practices that are based on past behaviour. They do not aspire to help young people progress away from unsafe responses and behaviour towards maturity and increased freedom. Occasional pieces of work are started, but staff do not share these with other staff or take their work forward. Staff therefore make no measurable impact on young people’s behaviour.

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

Staff do not find out about and discourage friendships and contacts that are harmful. They do not help young people understand and overcome risk-taking behaviour. For example, young people cannot access social media and the internet in the home. Instead, without help and advice, staff allow young people unsupervised time at local fast food restaurants to access wi-fi. Here, they have formed unsafe associations and started to behave in a less safe manner.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

The experienced and qualified registered manager has struggled to cope and is currently absent from the home. She has had only two supervision sessions in 12 months and has not received an annual appraisal. She has been managed by three different responsible individuals during this time. The manager has not been provided with advice or support Inspection report children’s home: SC043814 9 that helps to develop her skills in modelling therapeutic care to staff. She has not regularly consulted with young people or ensured that they receive good-quality care.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

The registered manager has not effectively reviewed serious incidents or consulted with young people. She has not notified Ofsted about serious incidents and has misunderstood recent guidance about this. She has not kept records of complaints and allegations or ensured that timely action is taken. She has not identified serious shortfalls in staff practice and recording. This means that young people have received inadequate and unsafe care.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

The organisation’s leadership and management have not maintained a stable or effective staff team. Only two long-standing senior staff continue to work at the home. Staffing has often been covered by temporary staff from other homes in the organisation. Experienced staff said that some staff have not ‘pulled their weight’ and that ‘two staff to three young people, with no deputy manager, is not enough’. One member of staff said, ‘It seems that staff are scared of the kids and don’t work effectively.’

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

Staff do not receive regular supervision and do not meet regularly enough as a team. Their occasional meetings have no focus on the home’s therapeutic practice. They said that this is because everyone is too busy looking after young people who are not in school. Despite this, a few long-standing staff and a few new staff are enthusiastic about caring for young people and said that they still strive to make a difference.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

In July 2018, serious concerns about the safety and welfare of young people were raised by the organisation’s independent monthly visitor. One social worker said that she has not seen the visitor’s report and was not made aware of the home’s shortfalls. The visitor did not see much evidence of improvement in staff’s direct work with young people at her August visit. This is despite action planning from the new responsible individual, including the allocation of a manager to cover the registered manager’s absence.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

The new responsible individual said, ‘The therapeutic approach seems to have gone back to a behavioural approach and some of the practices I am uncomfortable with. There does appear to be a lack of consistency between staff and this is contributing to young people not feeling safe.’ Despite this, managers have prioritised redecorating the house and sorting out records over addressing the quality of practice.

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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 Inspection report children’s home: SC043814 10 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: SC043814 11

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Children’s home details

Registered provider: Educare Adolescent Services Limited

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: Venture House, 12 Prospect Business Park, Longford Road, Cannock, Staffordshire WS11 0LG

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Inspector

Rachel Britten, social care inspector Inspection report children’s home: SC043814 12 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.

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Inspector

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Inspector

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Inspector

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