Children's Home run by Keys Direct Care Limited in Norfolk

Inspection report children’s home: SC450994 1 SC450994 Registered provider: Direct Care Ltd

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Full inspection Inspected under the social care common inspection framework

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Information about this children’s home

A private company runs this four-bedded home. The home looks after young people who display challenging behaviour, or who may have been subjected to abuse.

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Information about this children’s home

The manager has been in post for five and a half years. She is qualified, and registered with Ofsted.

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Overall experiences and progress of

children and young people, taking into account

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good

How well children and young people are helped and protected good

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good

The effectiveness of leaders and managers requires improvement to be good

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good

The children’s home provides effective services that meet the requirements for good.

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good

Overall judgement at last inspection: sustained effectiveness

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good

Enforcement action since last inspection: none

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

08/03/2018 Interim Sustained effectiveness 03/07/2017 Full Requires improvement to be good Inspection report children’s home: SC450994 2 28/09/2016 Full Requires improvement 28/04/2016 Interim Sustained effectiveness Inspection report children’s home: SC450994 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 (1) requires the registered person to—

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Requirement Due date

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

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Requirement Due date

meet the needs of each child. (Regulation 6 (1)(a)(b)(2)(c)(i)) 10/09/2018

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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 registered person to ensure—

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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. (Regulation 12 (1)(2)(a)(i))

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Requirement Due date

This is with particular regard to ensuring that children’s profiles are accurate and up to date. 10/09/2018

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must recruit staff using recruitment procedures that are designed to ensure children’s safety. 10/09/2018 Inspection report children’s home: SC450994 4 The registered person may only—

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Requirement Due date

employ an individual to work at the children’s home, or if an individual is employed by a person other than the registered person to work at the home in a position in which the individual may have regular contact with children, allow that individual to work at the home, if the individual satisfies the requirements in paragraph (3).

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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)(2)(a)(b)(3)(d))

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Recommendations

 Take account of information provided by return home interviews when assessing risks and putting arrangements in place to protect each child. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 54, paragraph 9.30)  Staffing structures should promote continuity of care from the child’s perspective. If children complain, or give a view on how the staffing structure could be improved to promote the best care for them, appropriate action should be taken. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 54, paragraph 10.15)  The registered person should make best use of information from internal monitoring. They should be skilled in anticipating difficulties and reviewing incidents. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 54, paragraph 10.24) This is with particular regard to ensuring that records are monitored for

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Recommendations

inaccuracies, omissions and anomalies.  Under regulation 46, the registered person should review the appropriateness and suitability of the location and premises of the home at least once a year. The review should include the identification of any risks and opportunities presented by the home’s location and strategies for managing these. Providers should refer to the non-statutory advice about the location assessment process: Children’s homes regulation amendments 2014: Advice for children’s homes providers on new duties under regulations that came in to effect in January and April. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 64, paragraph 15.1) This is with particular regard to ensuring that the review is rigorous and includes feedback from each relevant person. Inspection report children’s home: SC450994 5

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Overall, the young people receive a good service from this home. However, there are some shortfalls that the management team needs to promptly address for this quality of service to be sustained.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

External professionals spoke highly of the manager and the effect that the service has on young people. Professionals’ comments included:

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

 ‘They [the staff] are very competent and committed.’  ‘I find them [the staff] a pleasure to work with.’  ‘They [the staff] have a real insight. They communicate clearly with [young person].’  ‘The home has been really good and proactive.’  ‘They [the staff] have worked really well with the local authority.’  ‘[The manager] genuinely cares for the girls in her care. I feel that the [staff] do all that they can to keep the girls safe.’

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Some young people have begun to engage with education having been out of school for some time. Other young people have achieved qualifications in recent examinations. Some young people are not happy with the education that they are currently receiving. The home is supporting these young people to challenge and work with their local authorities to address this.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Some young people have made good progress with managing their behaviour. A young person said, ‘I can see how I have changed. I have always been a little hot-headed, and I have always been destructive when I am angry. I have not been like that for months now. They [the staff] always tell me how well I am doing, which is nice.’

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Other young people are making progress with their mental health and well-being. A professional said of one young person, ‘I am seeing a very relaxed young woman today. She is not hyper-vigilant. Her face has changed. The tension is gone.’

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

The young people have access to a psychologist. One young person has made significant early progress in engaging with the psychologist.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

The management team has a thorough understanding of the young people’s views and opinions. Managers engage well with young people and listen to them.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

The staff support young people to develop their own identities and encourage their skills and interests. Inspection report children’s home: SC450994 6 The staff work with placing authorities to support young people to develop their independence. In one instance, the necessary level of staff supervision is affecting the degree of independence a young person can have. The management team is proactively working with the local authority to address this.

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

Detailed behaviour plans identify risks and actions to reduce them.

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

One young person has moved into the home since the last inspection. A good-quality impact assessment was undertaken.

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

When young people go missing from the home, the response is thorough and child focused. However, the manager does not currently request the records of return-from- missing interviews. This limits the information that staff may have about these incidents and has the potential to affect the home’s subsequent response.

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

Feedback from the police is strong. A police officer stated, ‘The staff have done more than other care homes when the girls have caused issues, [the staff] take ownership and have actively looked for the girls. They have collected the girls rather than rely on other agencies, and they have assisted police in these investigations.’ Another police officer, speaking about a child with whom she has worked with for many years, said, ‘I cannot fault them [the staff] with their helpfulness, how much they want to assist, how much they want to know. For me, it is a relief she [the child] is here. She is safe.’

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

On occasion, the staff use physical interventions to keep young people safe. These interventions are proportionate and necessary.

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

One young person’s working profile does not contain significant information about risks and behaviour. These profiles are important documents. They are used by agency staff, of whom there have been many over recent weeks, to provide an overview of the young person. The absence of this information means that staff are not consistently provided with the clear information that they need.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: requires improvement to be good

The manager has high expectations of the young people. She knows them extremely well. The manager understands young people’s needs and presenting risks. However, there are a number of shortfalls in relation to management activities.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: requires improvement to be good

The last inspection report stated, ‘The identified smoking area for the children is littered with cigarette ends.’ This inspection has again found cigarettes littering the gravel and lining the side of the house. The management team has failed to address this issue. This does not provide a suitable living environment for the young people. Inspection report children’s home: SC450994 7 The manager does not ensure that agency staff recruitment records provide sufficient safe-recruitment assurance. The records do not provide assurance that the checks required by regulations have been completed.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: requires improvement to be good

The location risk assessment contains inaccuracies. There has been no consultation with agencies as part of the updates and review.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: requires improvement to be good

Independent monitoring reports offer challenge and are submitted promptly to Ofsted. However, internal monitoring arrangements have not been strong enough. They have not identified errors in important paperwork.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: requires improvement to be good

Since the last inspection, half of the staff team has left. This has contributed to an increased use of agency staff and a lack of qualified staff. As a result, there are many shifts when there are no qualified staff working.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: requires improvement to be good

 7 of the 10 staff outside of the management team are unqualified.  3 of the 7 unqualified staff are working towards the qualification.  4 of the 7 unqualified staff are in their probationary periods.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: requires improvement to be good

While the management team is working to support staff to become qualified, the young people voiced dissatisfaction with the turnover of staff, the perceived lack of staff experience and the number of new faces looking after them.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: requires improvement to be good

The staff receive supervisions. When additional support is identified as necessary, the level of supervision is increased. Most appraisals have taken place within expected timescales. The staff have access to a range of relevant training courses.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: requires improvement to be good

The management team has a good understanding of the progress that young people make. Professionals consistently spoke positively about the manager and her ability to work directly with the young people. Senior managers are known to the young people. This increases the likelihood that young people will communicate with them and share concerns should they arise.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: requires improvement to be good

The management team advocates on behalf of young people when it feels that agencies are not providing a good enough service. In doing this, the home manages to maintain a good working relationship with frontline practitioners while advocating for young people. A professional said, ‘[The manager] backs the children first and everyone else second.’

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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 Inspection report children’s home: SC450994 8 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: SC450994 9

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: Goldwyns, Rutland House 90-92, Southend-on-Sea SS2 6HZ

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Children’s home details

Responsible individual: Rebecca Ouellani

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Inspector

Ashley Hinson: social care inspector Inspection report children’s home: SC450994 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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