Children's Home run by Cove Care – Residential Limited in Worcestershire

Inspection report children’s home: SC403789 1 SC403789 Registered provider: Cove Care – Residential 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 privately-owned children’s home offers care for up to four young people who may have a combination of mental health, psychological, emotional or complex care needs.

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Information about this children’s home

The registered manager started working for the company in May 2016. She is currently undertaking her level 5 qualification in leadership and management and has 17 years’ experience of working in residential care.

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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

Date of last inspection: 24 January 2018

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requires improvement to be good

Overall judgement at last inspection: improved effectiveness

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requires improvement to be good

Enforcement action since last inspection: none Inspection report children’s home: SC403789 2

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

24/01/2018 Interim Improved effectiveness 08/08/2017 Full Requires improvement to be good 12/10/2016 Interim Declined in effectiveness 24/05/2016 Full Requires improvement Inspection report children’s home: SC403789 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 children’s views, wishes and feelings standard is that children receive care from staff who take their views, wishes and feelings into account in relation to matters affecting the children’s care and welfare in 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

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. (Regulation 7 (1)(c)(2)(a)(iii)) 27/11/2018

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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

that staff 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

that the premises used for the purposes of the home are designed, furnished and maintained so as to protect each child from avoidable hazards to the child’s health. (Regulation 12 (1)(2)(a)(i)(d)) 27/11/2018

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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 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 the home has sufficient staff to provide care for each child; 27/11/2018 Inspection report children’s home: SC403789 4 use monitoring and review systems to make continuous improvements in the quality of care provided to the home. (Regulation 13(1)(b)(2)(d)(h)) The care planning standard is that children have a positive experience of arriving at or moving on from the home.

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Requirement Due date

In particular, the standard in paragraph (1) requires the registered person to ensure that arrangements are in place to plan for, and help, each child to prepare to leave the home or to move into adult care in a way that is consistent with arrangements agreed with the child’s placing authority. (Regulation 14(1)(b)(2)(b)(iii)) 27/11/2018

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must ensure that children can access all appropriate areas of the children’s home’s premises; and any limitation place on a child’s privacy or access to any area of the home’s premises is intended to safeguard each child accommodated in the home and is necessary and proportionate. (Regulation 21(b)(c)(i)(ii)) 27/11/2018

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Requirement Due date

The registered person may only use devices for the monitoring or surveillance of children if—

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Requirement Due date

the monitoring or surveillance is for the purpose of safeguarding and promoting the welfare of the child concerned or other children;

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Requirement Due date

the child’s placing authority consents in writing to the monitoring or surveillance;

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Requirement Due date

so far as reasonably practicable in the light of the child’s age and understanding, the child is informed in advance of the intention to do the monitoring or surveillance; and

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Requirement Due date

the monitoring or surveillance is no more intrusive than necessary, having regard to the child’s need for privacy.

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Requirement Due date

This regulation is subject to any monitoring or surveillance requirements imposed by a court. (Regulation 24(1)(a)(b)(c)(d)(2)) * 17/09/2018

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Requirement Due date

An individual may only carry on a children’s home if the individual satisfies the requirements in paragraph (5).

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Requirement Due date

The requirements are that the individual is of integrity and good character. (Regulation 26(1)(5)(a)) 27/11/2018

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must recruit staff using recruitment procedures that are designed to ensure children’s safety. 27/11/2018 Inspection report children’s home: SC403789 5 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(1)(3)(d)) 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)) 27/11/2018

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must ensure that a record is made of any complaint, the action taken in response, and the outcome of any investigation. (Regulation 39(3)) 27/11/2018

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Requirement Due date

* These requirements are subject to a compliance notice.

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Recommendations

The registered manager should ensure that staff can access appropriate facilities and resources to support their training needs and should understand the key role they play in the training and development of staff in the home. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 53, paragraph 10.9)

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Recommendations

In particular, that the registered manager ensures that all staff undertake required training and staff files contain training certificates.

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improvement to be good

Repairs and general maintenance are not carried out to a good standard. As a result, the presentation of the home is poor. For example, the inspector found ill-fitting and worn carpets, ripped furniture, a lack of cleanliness in parts of the home and overgrown and poorly maintained gardens. A poorly maintained environment does not help young people to invest in their home or help them to feel valued.

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improvement to be good

Young people know how to complain. However, not all young people’s complaints are dealt with in line with the home’s policy. For example, young people’s complaints are not always addressed in a timely manner or recorded appropriately. This means that on occasions there is no clear audit trail to record how complaints are handled, what the outcomes are and how and when young people are provided with feedback.

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improvement to be good

Young people take part in house meetings and have the opportunity to express their wishes and feelings about the day-to-day running of the home. However, the manager and staff do not always respond to young people’s requests in a timely way. For example, young people have been asking for access to the internet on the home’s computer for four months, but this matter has yet to be resolved. This is frustrating for young people and results in them not always feeling listened to. Inspection report children’s home: SC403789 6 Young people receive some support to develop practical life skills such as budgeting, cooking and doing laundry. However, one young person’s pathway plan is not up to date. Managers and staff have not sufficiently challenged the placing authority about this. As a result, efforts to prepare young people for their next steps are not as well co- ordinated as they could be.

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improvement to be good

Staff encourage young people to maintain a healthy and active lifestyle. They support young people to attend health appointments. Young people have access to therapeutic support which promotes their emotional well-being. A social worker said about one young person, ‘He seems and looks happier, is more relaxed and not on edge’.

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improvement to be good

Young people access resources in the local community. For example, one young person is attending the local gym and another young person regularly visits the local park. This provides young people with positive experiences, helps them to develop socially and promotes their physical health.

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improvement to be good

Some young people make very good progress with their learning. For example, a college tutor said, ‘[Name of young person] is working very hard at college … as hoped he is making accelerated progress in some areas.’ Some young people are not accessing full- time education and have individualised support to help them make progress that is relative to their starting points.

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improvement to be good

Young people know how to access advocacy services for independent support and report being happy at the home. Staff support young people well to maintain positive and safe contact with their families. As a result of this good support, young people’s relationships with family members have improved.

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improvement to be good

The quality of risk assessments and the effectiveness of risk management is variable. For example, impact risk assessments set out how new young people’s needs can be met. However, a recent incident involving a young person misusing drugs was not fully reflected upon to inform staff how best to manage the potential impact of this behaviour on other young people. One risk assessment does not contain relevant information relating to missing from home episodes. Furthermore, the location risk assessment was not made available during the inspection for review. As a result, the inspector was unable to evaluate how well the registered manager identifies risks within the local area and what steps are taken to reduce the impact of these risks on young people.

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improvement to be good

Staff provide some good support to help young people manage their behaviour. For example, when one young person experienced difficulties a multi-agency meeting was held to work out how best to help the young person. A plan was discussed with the young person and measures put in place to support them. Staff also use a rewards system to promote positive behaviour, which young people respond well to. Restraint is used rarely, with just one incident since 2016. However, the record of this incident does Inspection report children’s home: SC403789 7 not contain debriefs for staff and young people and lacks management oversight.

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improvement to be good

Staff lock the kitchen door at night. This restrictive measure has been imposed despite waking night staff being available to support young people. This restriction has been imposed without being risk assessed and without any discussion taking place with young people’s placing authorities. Furthermore, no work has been undertaken with young people to help reduce risk.

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improvement to be good

Managers have failed to put in place a policy or procedure regarding the use of recording equipment in the home. At the time of the inspection, no consent had been obtained from the placing authorities in using surveillance in the home. Furthermore, it is unclear if young people have been told that surveillance is in place. This practice does not promote a homely environment and respect young people’s right to privacy without the appropriate consent of their placing authority. Furthermore, the privacy of staff, professionals and other visitors is not respected, and their consent is not sought in all cases.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

The integrity of the responsible individual is brought into question because they have used a surveillance camera in the home without providing clear reasons for its use and without acquiring the consent of all relevant parties. This has the potential to undermine trusted relationships and is an invasion of people’s privacy.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

The registered manager receives regular supervision providing her with the opportunity to reflect on her practice. However, she has not received an annual appraisal. This means that the registered manager is not having her development and performance formally reviewed in line with regulation.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

Managers have failed to ensure that suitable recruitment checks for agency members of staff are completed in line with regulation. This means that there is the potential for unsuitable adults to be allowed to work with young people.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

Records show that most staff receive training to equip them with the skills and knowledge to meet young people’s needs, for example, mental health first aid training. However, not all training certificates are kept on staff files. One staff member, employed for over a year, has not undertaken physical intervention training and training in first- aid.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

The registered manager is counted in the staffing numbers and is required to undertake shifts. This means that the registered manager’s ability to effectively monitor and review the care provided to young people and drive improvement is compromised. Inspection report children’s home: SC403789 8

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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: SC403789 9

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Children’s home details

Registered provider: Cove Care - Residential Limited

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: 16 Waterloo Road, Wolverhampton, West Midlands WV1 4BL

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Inspector

Sarah Junor-Fitzpatrick, social care inspector Inspection report children’s home: SC403789 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 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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