Children's home run by Pine Forest Homes Limited in Cannock Chase

Inspection report children‟s home: SC057688 1 SC057688 Registered provider: Pine Forest Homes 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 owned and operated by a private company. It is registered to provide care and accommodation for up to four children aged eight to 17. The home provides placements for children who may have faced adverse childhood experiences, trauma, and placement and family breakdown.

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Information about this children’s home

The home has been without a registered manager since June 2017. A new manager was appointed in October 2017 but has yet 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: declined in effectiveness

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Enforcement action since last inspection:

Ofsted inspected this service in March 2018. At that time, the home was judged to have declined in effectiveness. Inspectors found significant shortfalls relating to children‟s Inspection report children‟s home: SC057688 2 overall experience and progress, the protection of children and the leadership and management of the service. Following this inspection, Ofsted issued three compliance notices. These concerned the provider‟s failure to take effective action to address serious concerns about bullying and its failure to use monitoring and review systems to make continuous improvements in the quality of care provided in the home. Ofsted also issued a notice to restrict further admissions to the home. These notices were subject to a monitoring visit on 24 April 2018 and deemed to be met.

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

12/03/2018 Interim Declined in effectiveness 31/07/2017 Full Requires improvement to be good 13/02/2017 Interim Improved effectiveness 16/05/2016 Full Requires improvement Inspection report children‟s home: SC057688 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 health and well-being standard is that—

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Requirement Due date

children receive advice, services and support in relation to their health and well-being; and

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Requirement Due date

children are helped to lead healthy lifestyles. (Regulation 10 (1)(b)(c))

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Requirement Due date

This is with particular reference to taking sufficient action to prevent children from smoking. 24/09/2018

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Requirement Due date

The care planning standard is that children receive effectively planned care in and through the children‟s home. (Regulation 14 (1)(a))

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Requirement Due date

Ensure that the manager completes thorough impact risk assessments which take account of the needs of children living in the home. 24/09/2018

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Requirement Due date

The registered person may only employ an individual to work at the children‟s home if the individual satisfies the requirements in paragraph (3). The requirements are that full and satisfactory information is available in relation to the individual in respect of each of the matters in Schedule 2. (Regulation 32 (2)(a)(3)(d)) 24/09/2018

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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. In order to complete a quality of care review the registered person must establish and maintain a system for monitoring, reviewing and evaluating the quality of care provided for children; 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. 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 review (“the quality of care review report”). (Regulation 45 24/09/2018 Inspection report children‟s home: SC057688 4

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Requirement Due date

(1)(2)(a)(b)(c)(3)) The registered person must review the appropriateness and suitability of the location of the premises used for the purposes of the children‟s home at least once in each calendar year taking into account the requirement in regulation 12(2)(c) (the protection of children standard). When conducting the review, the registered person must consult, and take into account the views of, each relevant person. (Regulation 46 (1)(2)) 24/09/2018

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Recommendations

 Staff should continually and actively assess the risks to each child and the arrangements in place to protect them. („Guide to the children‟s homes regulations including the quality standards‟, page 42, paragraph 9.5) This is with particular reference to considering any known fire safety risks that children may present when completing the home‟s fire risk assessment.

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improvement to be good

Children receive care that reflects their needs. The manager makes sure that internal support plans are kept up to date and mirror the aims and objectives of the placing authorities. This means that children benefit from integrated care and support.

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improvement to be good

Relationships between children and staff are generally positive. Staff use one-to-one key-work sessions to support the internal care planning process. Children‟s support plans incorporate their views, wishes and feelings and help children to recognise their own progress.

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improvement to be good

For most of this reporting period, only one child has lived in the home. The home recently admitted a second child. To date, staff are adjusting to accommodating two children in the home. This includes starting to address the behavioural changes and challenges this brings to the dynamics of the home; and how each child may influence the behaviour of the other.

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improvement to be good

Staff make sure that children can access primary health services such as dentists, opticians and doctors. However, they do not consistently encourage children to lead healthy lifestyles. For example, staff are aware that one child uses their pocket money to purchase cigarettes. Nevertheless, they do not take any action to address this. As a result, this child continues to smoke when they are not of a legal age to do so.

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improvement to be good

Staff support children‟s school attendance and attainment. For example, for one child, Inspection report children‟s home: SC057688 5 staff complete long journeys to and from school to ensure that the child can continue with their education placement. This enables the child to retain friendships and benefit from a stable learning provision.

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improvement to be good

Since the last inspection, staff have ensured that children have access to a range of activities. These help children to develop new hobbies and leisure interests, and to expand their social circles and friendship groups. This helps children to build their self- esteem and grow in confidence.

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improvement to be good

The manager has taken steps to ensure that children live in a comfortable home. The recent redecoration of some communal areas means that the environment is now less institutional and more welcoming and homely.

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improvement to be good

The manager now reviews children‟s risk assessments. Staff use a system of incentives and sanctions to help children to understand how to keep themselves safe and to make positive choices. This approach to managing children‟s behaviours means that the use of physical restraint remains rare.

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improvement to be good

Staff now prioritise the prevention of bullying. Children complete regular one-to-one sessions with staff. These help them to understand the many forms of bullying and the impact bullying has on others. Furthermore, staff undertake training relating to this area of practice. This ensures that they have the skills to support children who are victims of bullying or bully others.

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improvement to be good

Children said that they know how to make a complaint. They are confident that the manager will listen to and address any concern that they may have.

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improvement to be good

There are occasions when children go missing from the home. However, these incidents continue to reduce. Staff work with local police teams to quickly report children as missing and search local areas to locate them. When children return to the home, they have access to an independent person to speak to. This provides information that may prevent them from going missing in the future.

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improvement to be good

The manager does not fully record the compatibility of children to live together in the home. Risk assessments that managers complete prior to admission do not include all known or relevant risks that children present. This means that the manager is unable to fully determine the impact new admissions may have on the safety and behaviour of children already living in the home.

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improvement to be good

The recruitment of temporary agency staff is not always safe. This is because responsible managers do not make sure that they have relevant employment references for these staff. Responsible managers do not recomplete disclosure and barring service checks for permanent staff in line with good practice. Furthermore, they do not complete risk assessments when disclosure checks highlight possible areas of concern. Inspection report children‟s home: SC057688 6 Subsequently, not all staff files provide a comprehensive overview of an employee‟s background to verify their suitability to work with children.

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improvement to be good

The manager does not appropriately review the suitability of the location of the home. This risk assessment does not include risks in the local vicinity, such as busy roads, that may impact children‟s safety and well-being. Furthermore, internal environmental risk assessments do not include all possible risks that children may present, such as fire safety considerations. This shortfall potentially compromises children‟s safety.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

The home has been without a registered manager since June 2017. A manager came into post in October 2017 but did not complete the registration process within the required timescales. As a result, leadership and management is inadequate. However, under the leadership of the new manager, the service has met five of the six requirements made at the last inspection, and the one recommendation.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

The manager now monitors the quality of children‟s case file records. Nevertheless, the review of the quality of care provided by the home does not meet requirements. This review does not identify any patterns or trends that may impact on children‟s safety and progress. The subsequent report does not highlight any practice shortfalls or areas for improvement. Furthermore, this review does not include the views, opinions or feedback of children or others. This limits the provider‟s capacity to demonstrate that the service can continue to improve.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

The manager and staff work well with families and professionals. This approach is central to practice in the home and ensures that the service can meet the aims and objectives of the statement of purpose. This collaboration is a strength of the service. One professional said, „Communication with the home is really good. We are updated on [name of child‟s] progress and kept in the loop.‟

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

Staff receive regular supervision. The manager recognises the importance of providing staff with good support and relevant training and development opportunities. All eligible staff hold suitable qualifications for their role or are currently working towards achieving these. This ensures that staff can gain the skills and knowledge that they need to work with and support children.

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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 Inspection report children‟s home: SC057688 7 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: SC057688 8

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Children’s home details

Registered provider: Pine Forest Homes Limited

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: Ballance & Lowbridge Accountants, 65 Market Street, Hednesford, Cannock, Staffordshire WS12 1AD

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Inspector(s)

Jo Stephenson, social care inspector Lisa O‟Donovan, social care inspector Inspection report children‟s home: SC057688 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 looked after children, safeguarding and child protection.

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Inspector(s)

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Inspector(s)

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Inspector(s)

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