Children's home run by Blue Mountain Homes Ltd in Ealing

Inspection report children’s home: SC059998 1 SC059998 Registered provider: Blue Mountain Homes Limited

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Inspected under the social care common inspection framework

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Information about this children’s home

This is a privately owned children’s home, providing care and accommodation for up to four young people who have emotional, behavioural and social difficulties.

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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, 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: 17 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: SC059998 2

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

17/01/2018 Interim Declined in effectiveness 16/05/2017 Full Good 02/02/2017 Interim Improved effectiveness 23/08/2016 Full Requires improvement Inspection report children’s home: SC059998 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 ensure that the premises used for the purposes of the home are designed and furnished so as to meet the needs of each child. (Regulation 6 (c)(i)) 12/10/2018

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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 registered person to ensure—

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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 (2)(b)) 12/10/2018

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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.

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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. (Regulation 13 (2)(a)) 12/10/2018

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must recruit staff using recruitment procedures that are designed to ensure children’s safety. The requirements are that—

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Requirement Due date

full and satisfactory information is available in relation to the individual in respect of each of the matters in Schedule 2. (Regulation 32 (1)(3)(d)) 12/10/2018 Inspection report children’s home: SC059998 4 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)) 12/10/2018

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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

there is any other incident relating to a child which the registered considers to be serious. (Regulation 40 (4)(e)) 12/10/2018

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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 and—

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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 (‘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)(3)(4)(a)) 12/10/2018

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Requirement Due date

* These requirements are subject to a compliance notice.

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Recommendations

 Regulation 11(2) sets out the expectations on staff in building a positive relationship with each child and helping the child develop skills to have positive relationships with others. ‘Others’ includes individuals both inside and outside the home such as other children in the home, staff, family members, siblings, previous carers and friends (in accordance with their relevant plans). (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 38, paragraph 3.8) Inspection report children’s home: SC059998 5

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: inadequate

Young people do not have positive experiences living at this home. Relationships between young people have, at times, been very poor, with incidents of physical violence. Relationships between young people have deteriorated to the extent that staff have not been able to hold young people’s meetings. This is because young people cannot sit in the same room together. The manager and staff have not addressed this significant problem and relationships between young people have continued to deteriorate.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: inadequate

The physical condition of the home is unacceptable in parts and is not meeting young people’s needs. Staff removed one young person’s belongings and furniture from his bedroom in an attempt to manage his behaviour. This punitive approach to behaviour management left the young person with a bare room, devoid of personal belongings or basic furnishings and with reduced privacy. This is damaging to the young person’s self- esteem and their confidence, and amounts to inadequate staff practice.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: inadequate

Young people do not have confidence that the registered manager will address their complaints or concerns adequately. Since the last inspection, the manager has received one complaint from a young person. The actions taken by the manager in relation to this complaint were poor. He failed to speak directly to the young person about the complaint. Additionally, following the manager’s investigation, the manager did not provide feedback to the young person or ensure that the young person was satisfied with the outcome. In fact, despite the young person’s concerns being of a safeguarding nature, he received no response to his concerns whatsoever.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: inadequate

Young people’s progress in education is variable. One young person attends a school owned and operated by the organisation. His attendance and participation at school has been good and he has started to settle. Other young people do not yet have identified school placements. The manager and respective local authorities have made applications for schools locally, but places have not yet been secured.

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

Inadequate staff supervision of young people has led to the physical assault of one young person by another young person in the home. At the point of this inspection, senior managers were conducting an internal investigation into this physical assault, which had resulted in injuries to a young person. This young person should have been subject to close supervision by staff to keep him safe. Staff were not providing the level of supervision outlined in the young person’s care plan and as agreed with the placing authority. Consequently, four staff were suspended and the registered manager was asked to work at another location while the investigation was undertaken.

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

Young people’s individual risk assessments are of poor quality. Assessments fail to provide staff with direction regarding the actions that they should take to keep young Inspection report children’s home: SC059998 6 people safe. Additionally, there is not a system in place to ascertain whether staff have seen, read or understood the assessments. For example, one young person has placed himself at risk of harm and has expressed to staff that he has suicidal thoughts, but his risk assessment fails to detail what action is to be taken to keep him safe. The manager has not provided any oversight or direction to staff with regard to the expectations on them and their safeguarding practice. There is a lack of analysis by managers with regard to the effectiveness of plans.

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

Young people frequently go missing from the home. At times, while young people have been missing from the home they have placed themselves at risk through the use of illegal substances and engaging in criminal behaviour. Staff have tried to undertake individual key-work sessions with young people. However, young people have not engaged or have been challenging towards staff. As a result, this work has been largely ineffective in addressing risk-taking behaviour.

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

The manager has not always followed safe recruitment procedures when employing new staff. The previous work history and gaps in employment for some employees are not adequately accounted for at the point of employment. This is crucial in ensuring that there are no concerns regarding a prospective employee’s integrity and suitability to work with vulnerable young people.

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

Leaders of the home have failed to provide Ofsted with important information, as a follow-up to a safeguarding notification, following a significant event. This has prevented Ofsted from evaluating the actions of leaders in response to the incident and the effectiveness of actions taken to keep young people safe.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

The manager was registered with Ofsted in March 2016. At this inspection, a senior manager was found to be in day-to-day charge of the home, as the registered manager was required to work at an alternative location. Interim management arrangements are in place while an internal investigation into the registered manager takes place. However, the registered manager was in a position to assist with this inspection. The current situation has created a sense of instability in the leadership and management of this home, for staff and young people.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

At this inspection, widespread and serious failings have been identified in relation to how the home is being managed. In particular, this relates to the manager’s oversight of safeguarding and in failing to ensure that staff employ safe and appropriate behaviour management strategies. This has led to young people being harmed and being at continuing risk of harm. This is unacceptable and immediate action is required to address this situation.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

The registered manager has not undertaken regular reviews into the quality of care provided to young people. These reviews should be undertaken on a six-monthly basis, with copies provided to Ofsted. The failure to carry out these reviews significantly impedes the manager’s ability to understand the strengths and weaknesses of the home Inspection report children’s home: SC059998 7 and the subsequent impact on young people.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

The registered manager and leaders of the organisation have failed to act robustly following concerning incidents at the home. An independent visitor provides the home with monthly regulation 44 reports. These reports indicated to managers that there were concerns. Managers and leaders did not use this information to take decisive and immediate action to put these matters right.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

Staff acknowledge that they have had to manage some very difficult and challenging situations over recent months. This has led to staff experiencing low morale. There have been tensions in the staff team. Some staff have expressed their concerns regarding the robustness of management at the home. Staff are experiencing instability and this has affected the quality of care and protection provided for young people.

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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: SC059998 8

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Children’s home details

Registered provider: Blue Mountain Homes Limited

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: Flat 17, Leeland Mansions, Leeland Road, London W13 9HE

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Children’s home details

Responsible individual: Pradeep Manaktala

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Inspector:

Phillip Morris, social care regulatory inspector Inspection report children’s home: SC059998 9 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:

T: 0300 123 1231 Textphone: 0161 618 8524 E: enquiries@ofsted.gov.uk W: http://www.gov.uk/ofsted

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