Children's home run by Royal Mencap Society

Inspection report children’s home: SC020682 1 SC020682 Registered provider: Royal Mencap Society

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Inspected under the social care common inspection framework

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Information about this children’s home

The home provides short breaks care for up to seven children who have learning disabilities and/or physical disabilities and complex needs.

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Information about this children’s home

The service is provided by a national charity that has a contract with the local authority; 68 children currently use the short-break service.

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Information about this children’s home

Inspection dates: 12 to 13 September 2018

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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/or widespread failures that mean children and young people are not protected or their welfare is not promoted or safeguarded and they are not making progress.

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inadequate

Overall judgement at last inspection: requires improvement to be good

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inadequate

Enforcement action since last inspection: none Inspection report children’s home: SC020682 2

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

31/07/2017 Full Requires improvement to be good 02/02/2017 Interim Declined in effectiveness 22/08/2016 Full Good 08/03/2016 Interim Improved effectiveness Inspection report children’s home: SC020682 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 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 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

manage relationships between children to prevent them from harming each other;

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Requirement Due date

take effective action whenever there is a serious concern about a child’s welfare; and

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Requirement Due date

are familiar with, and act in accordance with, the home’s child protection policies;

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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 (a)(i)(iv)(vi)(vii)(b)) 31/10/2018

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

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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 staff have the experience, qualifications and skills to meet the needs of each child;

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Requirement Due date

ensure that the home has sufficient staff to provide care for each child; 31/10/2018 Inspection report children’s home: SC020682 4 ensure that the home’s workforce provides continuity of care to each child;

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Requirement Due date

understand the impact that the quality of care provided in the home is having on the progress and experiences of each child and use this understanding to inform the development of the quality of care provided in the home. (Regulation 13 (1)(a)(b)(2)(c)(d)(f)) The care planning standard is that children—

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Requirement Due date

receive effectively planned care in or through the children’s home.

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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 each child’s relevant plans are followed. (Regulation 14 (1)(a)(2)(c)) 31/10/2018

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Requirement Due date

within 48 hours of the use of the measure, the registered person, or a person who is authorised by the registered person to do so (‘the authorised person’)—

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Requirement Due date

has spoken to the user about the measure; and

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Requirement Due date

has signed the record to confirm it is accurate; and

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Requirement Due date

within 5 days of the use of the measure, the registered person or the authorised person adds to the record confirmation that they have spoken to the child about the measure. (Regulation 35 (3)(b)(i)(ii)(c)) 31/10/2018

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must ensure that all employees receive practice-related supervision by a person with appropriate experience. (Regulation 33 (4)(b))* 31/10/2018

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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)) 31/10/2018

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Requirement Due date

The independent person must provide a copy of the independent person’s report to HMCI. (Regulation 44 (7)(a)) 31/10/2018

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Requirement Due date

* These requirements are subject to a compliance notice. Inspection report children’s home: SC020682 5

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: inadequate

Children’s short-break experiences have been compromised because of weaknesses in staff practice, concerns over the continuity of care and a lack of managerial oversight.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: inadequate

Children do not receive well-planned care. This is because the care plans that staff are required to follow are missing important information, such as children’s educational plans, safeguarding information and children’s health plans.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: inadequate

Children have experienced a period of instability in their care because of a high staff turnover. Children have seen staff they have grown to trust leave and new staff arrive that they do not know. New staff are unable to discuss children’s development or identify the impact that the service is having on improving children’s lives.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: inadequate

Staff make sure that children receive their prescribed medication. However, sometimes this can mean that the more experienced staff are involved in administering medication and the less experienced staff are left in charge of children’s care.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: inadequate

All children regularly attend school. Staff use a daily diary to maintain good communication between the home and school. This means that teachers and staff are able to share important information about children’s care.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: inadequate

Children’s admissions are well arranged. Introductory visits to the home take place to allow both the child and their parents to feel at ease. This also allows staff to make any necessary assessments of how the child’s needs can be met.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: inadequate

Children are benefiting from a recent refurbishment of the kitchen. This has resulted in improved cooking facilities, which now enable children to develop their independence skills. However, children’s safety is compromised because of a tree being allowed to overgrow, which means that one area of the playground cannot be safely used.

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

Children’s risk assessments do not give staff clear guidance on how to respond to risk. This does not support children’s safety and does not protect individuals from harm.

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

Staff do not always provide sufficient supervision. This has resulted in one child being able to gain access to another child’s bedroom, which resulted in a child being hurt.

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

Staff do not follow the home’s child protection procedures and fail to take sufficient action when they witness poor practice. For example, staff witnessed an incident when a child was subject to an inappropriate restraint that resulted in an injury. Despite, staff witnessing this poor practice, none of the records made by staff showed that contact was made with the child’s social worker or their teacher, the child’s parents or the Inspection report children’s home: SC020682 6 designated officer. It was also not reported to the transport company involved in the incident. Consequently, staff failed in their corporate parenting role to protect vulnerable children in their care.

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

The registered manager does not have sufficient oversight of behaviour management records. For example, records show that staff and children are not consulted after being involved in a physical restraint. This denies children and staff the opportunity to reflect on the incident, including exploring alternative methods to respond to children’s behaviour.

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

Health and safety checks are undertaken on a regular basis. A fire drill during the inspection showed that staff were able to respond well so that children are safely evacuated.

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

Recruitment procedures are thorough and new staff highlight their positive experiences of being interviewed.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

Since the last inspection, the staff team has changed significantly; 40% of the staff are new and inexperienced and are currently in their induction and shadowing phase of their employment. To cover staff shortfalls agency staff are used. As a result, experienced staff who know the children well are overstretched at times.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

Staff handovers do not consider which staff will work with each child. Consequently, children receive fragmented care.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

Staff do not receive regular supervision, and long-standing staff have not received annual appraisals. These omissions deny staff the opportunity to reflect on practice and to formally review their performance.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

The manager has failed to ensure that the independent visitor’s reports are sent into Ofsted consistently every month as required by regulation.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

The manager has a level 5 diploma in residential childcare. She has managed the home since January 2018. Professionals are positive about the care provided in the home, although they have been concerned about the staffing situation and the home’s ability to provide a full service.

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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 Inspection report children’s home: SC020682 7 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: SC020682 8

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Children’s home details

Registered provider: Royal Mencap Society

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: Concordia House, 123 Golden Lane, London EC1Y 0RT

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Children’s home details

Responsible individual: Janine Tregelles

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Inspector

Andrew Hewston, social care inspector Inspection report children’s home: SC020682 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

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