Children's home run by Rushcliffe Specialist Schools (Mickleover) Ltd in Nottingham

Inspection report children‟s home: SC463386 1 SC463386 Registered provider: Rushcliffe Specialist Schools (Mickleover) 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

The home provides care and accommodation for children and young people who have autism spectrum disorder and associated communication and behavioural difficulties. It is registered for 24 children. The purpose-built building is split into a number of lodges. It is owned and operated by a private company. There is a school on site, which the majority of children attend.

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Information about this children’s home

A new acting manager was very recently appointed in post and is preparing her application to register with Ofsted.

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Overall experiences and progress of

children and young people, taking into account

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requires improvement to be good

How well children and young people are helped and protected requires improvement to be good

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requires improvement to be good

The effectiveness of leaders and managers inadequate

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requires improvement to be good

The children‟s home is not yet delivering good help and care for children and young people. However, there are no serious or widespread failures that result in their welfare not being safeguarded or promoted.

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requires improvement to be good

Overall judgement at last inspection: inadequate

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requires improvement to be good

Enforcement action since last inspection: Ofsted completed a monitoring visit on 10 July 2018. Progress had been made in addressing leadership and management shortfalls. However, some improvements were still needed in relation to the help and protection of children. Inspection report children‟s home: SC463386 2

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

15/05/2018 Full Inadequate 08/03/2017 Interim Sustained effectiveness 21/06/2016 Full Good 15/10/2015 Interim Improved effectiveness Inspection report children‟s home: SC463386 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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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;

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understand and apply the home‟s statement of purpose;

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Requirement Due date

protect and promote each child‟s welfare;

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treat each child with dignity and respect;

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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

help each child to understand and manage the impact of any experience of abuse or neglect;

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help each child to develop resilience and skills that prepare the child to return home, to live in a new placement or to live independently as an adult;

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Requirement Due date

make decisions about the day-to-day arrangements for each child, in accordance with the child‟s relevant plans, which give the child an appropriate degree of freedom and choice. 10/12/2018 Inspection report children‟s home: SC463386 4 (Regulation 6 (1)(a)(b)(2)(a)(b)(i)(ii)(iii)(iv)(v)(vi) and (ix)) The children‟s views, wishes and feelings standard is that children receive care from staff who—

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Requirement Due date

develop positive relationships with them;

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Requirement Due date

take their views, wishes and feelings into account in relation to matters affecting the children‟s care and welfare and their lives.

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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

ascertain and consider each child‟s views, wishes and feelings, and balance these against what they judge to be in the child‟s best interests when making decisions about the child‟s care and welfare;

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Requirement Due date

help each child to express views, wishes and feelings;

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Requirement Due date

help each child to understand how the child‟s views, wishes and feelings have been taken into account and give the child reasons for decisions in relation to the child;

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Requirement Due date

regularly consult children, and seek their feedback, about the quality of the home‟s care;

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Requirement Due date

help each child to understand how the child‟s privacy will be respected and the circumstances when it may have to be limited;

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Requirement Due date

help each child to prepare for any review of the child‟s relevant plans and to make the child‟s views, wishes and feelings known for the purposes of that review; and

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Requirement Due date

is enabled to provide feedback to, and raise issues with, a relevant person about the support and services that the child receives;

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Requirement Due date

(Regulation 7 (1)(a)(b)(c)(2)(a)(i)(ii)(iii)(iv)(v)and (b)(i)) 10/12/2018

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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. 10/12/2018 Inspection report children‟s home: SC463386 5 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

help each child to understand how to keep safe;

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Requirement Due date

This relates to the quality and accuracy of children‟s risk assessments. 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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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.

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Requirement Due date

This relates to the home‟s systems for the safe use of the internet. 10/12/2018

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

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In particular, the standard in paragraph (1) requires the registered person to—

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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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ensure that staff work as a team where appropriate;

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ensure that staff have the experience, qualifications and skills to meet the needs of each child; 10/12/2018 Inspection report children‟s home: SC463386 6 ensure that the home has sufficient staff to provide care for each child;

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ensure that the home‟s workforce provides continuity of care to each child.

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Requirement Due date

(Regulation 13 (1)(a)(b)(2)(a)(b)(c)(d) and (e)) 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.

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Requirement Due date

ensure that each employee completes an appropriate induction;

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The registered person must ensure that all employees—

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undertake appropriate continuing professional development;

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receive practice-related supervision by a person with appropriate experience; and

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have their performance and fitness to perform their roles appraised at least once every year.

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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

In order to complete a quality of care review the registered person must establish and maintain a system for monitoring, reviewing and evaluating—

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the quality of care provided for children;

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the feedback and opinions of children about the children‟s home, its facilities and the quality of care they receive in it; and any actions that the registered person considers necessary in order to improve or maintain the quality of care provided for children.

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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 10/12/2018 Inspection report children‟s home: SC463386 7 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; and

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Requirement Due date

make a copy of the quality of care review report available on request to a placing authority, if the placing authority is not the parent of a child accommodated in the home.

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Requirement Due date

The system referred to in paragraph (2) must provide for ascertaining and considering the opinions of children, their parents, placing authorities and staff.

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Requirement Due date

(Regulation 45 (1)(2)(a)(b)(c)(3)(4)(a)(b) and (5))

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Recommendations

 Staff should be familiar with the home‟s policies on record keeping and understand the importance of careful, objective, and clear recording. Staff should record information on individual children in a non-stigmatising way that distinguishes between fact, opinion and third-party information. Information about the child must always be recorded in a way that will be helpful to the child. („Guide to the children‟s homes regulations including the quality standards‟, page 62, paragraph 14.4)

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: requires

Progress for children is mixed. Some children are doing well in all areas but other children‟s progress is not as good. Some children benefit from positive experiences but weak and inconsistent management has created instability for others.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: requires

Staff have made steps to improve opportunities for children to share their views. However, some decisions are still implemented without any consultation. This results in children sometimes feeling unheard.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: requires

Despite instability in the home, children generally have positive relationships with staff. One child said: „The staff are lovely.‟ Staff say that they have worked hard to make improvements. However, they have faced challenges with inconsistent management Inspection report children‟s home: SC463386 8 arrangements.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: requires

Children are making progress in education. For some children, this progress is good. Communication between the on-site school and care staff is one of the strengths of the home.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: requires

Clear and detailed plans are not in place to support individual children to make strong progress. Staff strive to make young people as independent as possible. However, there are no written plans in place to support this work.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: requires

Staff make sure that children have access to a wide range of support. For one child, the school‟s occupational therapist had been involved. Another child has a strong relationship with the school principal who is supporting him through a difficult period.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: requires

Children‟s transitions are not planned and supported well. A decision to end one young person‟s placement was not based on a sound assessment of the child‟s needs.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: requires

Children are well supported with family contact. For example, the newly appointed manager carefully planned a child‟s return to the home after the summer holidays.

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improvement to be good

Staff and managers have recently undertaken safeguarding training, training about whistle-blowing procedures and physical intervention training. There has been a clear drive by senior managers to address previous shortfalls in relation to safeguarding processes. For example, safeguarding is now a regular agenda item at team meetings.

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improvement to be good

Children say that they feel safe. Children can identify a trusted adult. One child said, „Staff are my family now.‟

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improvement to be good

Staff do their best to keep children safe. Other agencies are notified about safeguarding issues when appropriate. Some social workers and a designated officer report good levels of communication. For another child, communication with safeguarding professionals has been weak.

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improvement to be good

Risk assessments are not always fully adhered to. A number of examples have been raised by staff, parents and children in which staffing ratios are not implemented as per risk assessments. The recently appointed acting manager has identified that risk assessments require an overhaul.

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improvement to be good

There is not a clear strategy to protect children online. There are inconsistencies in relation to how internet access is managed.

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improvement to be good

Case records are of a poor quality, inconsistent and do not give an oversight of children‟s circumstances. Staff sometimes have to record issues in multiple records. This makes it challenging to retrieve accurate details. Records of physical interventions require more Inspection report children‟s home: SC463386 9 detail and consistent management oversight.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

The home does not have a registered manager in post. However, an acting manager has been appointed and is applying for registration. The new manager has significant experience of managing similar services and has a positive record of achieving good outcomes.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

A number of leadership and management concerns were highlighted throughout the inspection. Staff and young people have not experienced consistently confident and strong leadership. This has contributed to some staff lacking confidence in the quality of their own work with children.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

Staff supervisions are now taking place, but regular formal supervision had not been offered for some time previously. One staff member reported having only one supervision in 10 months. Some staff members say that there is now a more obvious safeguarding ethos within the home and that they are made very aware of their safeguarding duties of care during supervision.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

Staff appraisals have also now commenced. However, the content of appraisals does not yet clearly outline areas of potential development for staff.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

Leaders and managers are not actively and regularly monitoring the quality of care. In addition, they do not always learn lessons from feedback. Some staff and parents have reported that the issues they have raised have not been addressed constructively.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

There is a lack of management focus on person-centred planning. For example, an activity that was enjoyed by one young person has been stopped by the organisation‟s finance department without prior consultation. In addition, children are unnecessarily made aware of the financial arrangements underpinning their placements; children looked after do not need to know about the home‟s financial implications of meeting their care needs.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

The very recently appointed acting manager has had an immediate impact on the management of medication within the home and has robustly consulted with relevant people within the organisation. There is no indication that health needs are not being met.

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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. Inspection report children‟s home: SC463386 10 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

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Information about this inspection

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: SC463386 11

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Children’s home details

Provision sub-type: Residential special school

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Children’s home details

Registered provider: Rushcliffe Specialist Schools (Mickleover) Ltd

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: 3rd Floor Butt Dyke House, 33 Park Row, Nottingham, Nottinghamshire NG1 6EE

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Inspectors

Bev Allison, social care inspector Julie Knight, social care inspector Inspection report children‟s home: SC463386 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 children looked after, safeguarding and child protection.

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Inspectors

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Inspectors

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Inspectors

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