Children's home run by Sefton Metropolitan Borough Council in Sefton

Inspection report children’s home: SC036298 1 SC036298 Registered provider: Sefton Metropolitan Borough Council

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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 local authority home provides short-break care to children and young people who may have a learning disability, physical disability, and complex health needs. It is registered to provide short breaks for up to five children at a time.

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Information about this children’s home

The registered manager registered with Ofsted in March 2007.

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Information about this children’s home

Inspection dates: 11 to 12 September 2018

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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

Date of last inspection: 19 September 2017

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good

Overall judgement at last inspection: good

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good

Enforcement action since last inspection: none Inspection report children’s home: SC036298 2

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

19/09/2017 Full Good 20/02/2017 Interim Sustained effectiveness 14/09/2016 Full Good 30/03/2016 Interim Sustained effectiveness Inspection report children’s home: SC036298 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 leadership and management standard 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 (2)(h)) 02/11/2018

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must ensure that all employees have their performance and fitness to perform their roles appraised at least once every year. (Regulation 33 (4)(c)) 02/11/2018

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must ensure that within 48 hours of the use of the measure of control, discipline or restraint, the registered person, or a person who is authorised by the registered person to do so (‘the authorised person’) has spoken to the user about the measure; and, has signed the record to confirm it is accurate. (Regulation 35 (3)(b)(i)(ii)) 02/11/2018

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Recommendations

 Ensure that Ofsted is provided with the revised copy of the home’s statement of purpose within 28 days of the revision. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 14, paragraph 3.5)

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Recommendations

 Ensure that all children’s medication records clearly detail the exact time that the medication was administered. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 35, paragraph 7.15)

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Recommendations

 Ensure that staff’s training is clearly recorded in the home’s workforce plan. The plan should be updated to include any new training and qualifications completed by staff while working at the home and used to record the continuing professional development needs of staff - including the manager. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 53, paragraph 10.8) Inspection report children’s home: SC036298 4  Ensure that staff can access appropriate facilities and resources to support their training needs. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 53, paragraph 10.11)

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Recommendations

In particular, training should cover autistic spectrum disorder and promoting children’s culture and identity.

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Recommendations

 Ensure that the suitability of the location and premises of the home is reviewed at least once a year. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 64, paragraph 15.1)

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Recommendations

 Ensure that any person appointed to carry out visits to the home as an independent person makes a rigorous assessment of the home’s arrangements for safeguarding and promoting children’s welfare and includes the views of parents and other stakeholders. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 65 paragraph 15.5)

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

The service provides short-break care to 31 children who have learning and physical disabilities. Some children have complex health needs also.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children thoroughly enjoy their short-break visits. Observations of their positive and warm interactions with staff confirmed this. Children feel welcomed and valued by the team. This is reflected in a parent’s comments about her son’s visits to the service: ‘He absolutely loves it; he is so happy to go. They [the team] make sure that he can do what he likes doing. It’s fantastic.’

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children enjoy visiting a well-resourced service. They benefit from the home’s range of resources, such as the sensory room and the large garden. Additionally, children are encouraged to bring their own games from home. Consequently, children feel happy and content during their visits.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff develop and maintain excellent working relationships with parents. As a result, parents feel included and they are confident that their children are well cared for by a competent and caring team.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff have an in-depth understanding of each child’s specific needs, interests and individuality. As a result, children’s short-break plans are highly personalised and reflect in detail each child’s interests, character and needs.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children make continued progress because of their visits to this home. The staff make sure that children have consistent routines that mirror the care provided by their parents. Furthermore, children’s social skills improve through attending local activities such as swimming, bowling and trips to the park. Inspection report children’s home: SC036298 5 Staff carefully plan each child’s stay, taking into consideration the possible influences that children may have on each other. Whenever possible, they make sure that children visit at the same time as other children whom they are familiar with and with whom they have shared interests. This approach to planning the stays promotes a happy and peaceful environment where children feel safe.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Strong partnership working with other professionals and agencies is helping staff to provide bespoke care to the children. The team has developed valuable working relationships with specialist services, for example behaviour support services, schools and children’s social workers.

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

The children who visit the short-breaks service require a high level of support and supervision. A sufficiently resourced, consistent and experienced team makes sure that children are safe when they visit the home.

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

The staff have received safeguarding training, so that they know how to respond when a child’s welfare and safety are compromised. The effective partnership working between the home and the children’s social workers enhances children’s safety.

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

Children benefit from having opportunities to try new experiences and learn new skills in a supportive and safe environment. Staff teach, encourage and support children to become more independent with their personal care. Children’s increased independence further enhances their safety.

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

Detailed risk assessments and behaviour management plans enable children to take part in age-appropriate activities, including swimming and attending local clubs. Furthermore, children’s risk assessments provide staff with clear guidance on how to recognise triggers for unsafe behaviour and strategies for de-escalating harmful situations.

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

Physical restraints are only used when necessary to safeguard children, staff and others. Although there have been some improvements in how restraints are recorded, debriefs with the staff involved in the restraint are not being consistently recorded. This weakens the monitoring of restraint practice. Additionally, opportunities are missed for evaluating restraint practice and amending it if necessary.

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

Routine health and safety checks are making sure that the home is a safe place for children to visit. However, the local area assessment is not being updated at least annually as required. Consequently, the team does not have updated information about the potential risks in the community.

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

High-risk behaviour, such as going missing from home, exploitation and radicalisation, is not an issue for the children visiting this home. Staff have received training on such matters, so should these concerns ever arise, staff know how to respond. Inspection report children’s home: SC036298 6 Medication is safely stored, and staff are trained to administer medication to children competently. However, medication records can improve. The records do not consistently detail the actual time the medication was given to the child, which hinders the evaluation of staff’s practice to ensure that all medicines are administered as prescribed.

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

The registered manager is suitably qualified and highly experienced in managing children’s residential care. Since the last inspection, the deputy manager has resigned. An internal candidate was appointed to the deputy manager’s position. However, he has not yet taken up post. Consequently, the service has been without a deputy manager since October 2017. This has had a significant impact on the leadership of the service.

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

The registered manager is a capable leader and extremely child-focused. Staff feel supported and team working is strong.

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

The shortfalls in leadership and management are largely related to weaknesses in the manager’s monitoring of the service. Consequently, the home’s improvement journey has been hindered. So far, the quality of care and protection provided to children has not deteriorated, which is down to the team’s commitment to putting children first.

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

Although there have been improvements in the frequency of staff’s professional supervision, these improvements have not extended to staff appraisals. Many staff have not had their performance and development needs reviewed for over 12 months.

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

Additionally, the system for monitoring and planning the team’s training and development is weak. Staff’s training and development needs are not being routinely appraised or planned for. Staff would benefit from attending further training on autistic spectrum disorder and promoting children’s cultural identity. This training would help the team to understand and support the holistic needs of the children that they care for.

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

Although the home’s statement of purpose has been updated twice since the last inspection, the revised documents were not provided to Ofsted within the required timescale.

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

The monitoring carried out by the independent visitor can improve by increasing consultation with parents and a range of professionals involved in the children’s lives. This consultation would enable the registered manager and team to evaluate their practice and include important people’s views on the development of the service.

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

Two requirements set at the last inspection under regulations 33 and 35 have not been satisfactorily addressed. Ineffective monitoring is undermining the continuous development of the service and the team. Inspection report children’s home: SC036298 7

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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: SC036298 8

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Children’s home details

Registered provider: Sefton Metropolitan Borough Council

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: Town Hall, Oriel Road, Bootle, Merseyside L20 7AE

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Inspector

Marina Tully, social care inspector Inspection report children’s home: SC036298 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

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Inspector

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Inspector

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