Children's home run by Phoenix Child Care Limited in North Devon

Inspection report children’s home: SC038167 1 SC038167 Registered provider: Phoenix Child Care 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

The home is operated by a private provider of education and social care. It provides care and accommodation for up to four children who have emotional and/or behavioural difficulties.

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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: 10 January 2018

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requires improvement to be good

Overall judgement at last inspection: declined in effectiveness

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requires improvement to be good

Enforcement action since last inspection: none

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

10/01/2018 Interim Declined in effectiveness 30/05/2017 Full Requires improvement to be good 15/02/2017 Interim Declined in effectiveness 29/11/2016 Full Requires improvement Inspection report children’s home: SC038167 2

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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

6: The quality and purpose of care standard

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Requirement Due date

The quality and purpose of care standard is to ensure 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; and use this understanding to deliver care that meets children’s needs and supports them to achieve their potential.

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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

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

(Regulation 6 (1)(a)(b)(2)(b)(vi)(ix)(c)(i)(ii))

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Requirement Due date

In particular, ensure that each young person has an up-to-date pathway plan and care plan in place that details the aims and objectives of the placement, sets targets and monitors the progress of the young person. 19/11/2018

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Requirement Due date

The health and well-being standard is that–

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Requirement Due date

The health and well-being needs of children are met.

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Requirement Due date

In particular, ensure that each young person has an up-to-date healthcare plan that details how all healthcare needs are to be met by the staff and that healthcare plans detail what action 19/11/2018 Inspection report children’s home: SC038167 3 staff must take in order to meet these needs. 35: Behaviour management policies and records

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must ensure that within 24 hours of a measure of control, discipline or restraint in relation to a child in the home, a record is made which includes–

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Requirement Due date

Details of the child’s behaviour leading to the restraint and within 48 hours of the use of the measure, the registered person has spoken to the user about the measure; and has signed the measure to confirm it is accurate and within 5 days of the use of the measure, the registered person adds to the record confirmation that they have spoken to the child about the measure.

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Requirement Due date

13: The leadership and management standard

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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–

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Requirement Due date

Helps children aspire to their potential; and promotes their welfare.

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Requirement Due date

In particular, the manager is responsible for leading a team which provides high-quality care for all children living in the home. The registered person should seek to establish a diverse staff team with a range of interests, skills and experiences. They should lead staff to share those interests, skills and experiences with children to enrich the children’s lives.

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Requirement Due date

('Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 52, paragraph 10.5) 19/11/2018

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Requirement Due date

Children can access all appropriate areas of the children’s home’s premises.

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Requirement Due date

In particular, ensure that children have access at all times to the bedroom that is now the arts and crafts room. 19/11/2018 Inspection report children’s home: SC038167 4

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Recommendations

 Ensure that all children have access to appropriate advocacy support, and where possible this should be provided by a person that the child chooses. Looked-after children are entitled to an independent advocate to advise them and ensure they have the support needed to express their views, wishes and feelings about their care and lives. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 23, paragraph 4.16).

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improvement to be good

Young people have experienced a lack of continuity of care due to a recent high turnover of staff. One young person said: ‘We have no staff sometimes. When there is no staff, they bring in new people and that doesn’t help my anxiety.’ Communication between staff is not consistent or effective, due to the constant change of staff. The young people receive mixed messages and unclear boundaries from the staff, who in turn lack clear direction from the manager. The negative impact of this situation on the young people has recently been addressed by senior leaders. They have established a temporary staff team made up of staff from other homes in the group, until the core staff team is recruited. The mix of young people in the home has not been successful. This resulted in one young person attacking another young person, who was then promptly moved from the home. An impact risk assessment had been undertaken prior to the young person being

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improvement to be good

admitted to the home, but the extent of their complex care needs was not fully realised until they arrived at the home, due to a lack of information from the placing authority. Another young person has successfully made a move from the home to foster care. This transition was well planned and the young person was well supported by staff. The healthcare needs of the young people are not fully documented in healthcare plans. The staff do not always receive the guidance and information they need from the plans. This omission has led to staff being unclear about what action to take should prompt medical action need to be taken for one young person. One young person will be moving from the home when they reach 18 years old in the near future. This young person does not have a pathway plan from the placing authority detailing how this move will happen. The manager has not challenged the local authority effectively to provide the plan. Little work is being undertaken by the staff to assess the

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improvement to be good

young person’s independent living skills, what they need to learn and how this will be achieved before they move on. Leaders and managers fail to ensure that there is a placement plan in place that contains clear aims and objectives for the young person and how these will be achieved and how best the staff can support the young person. Young people do not have access to an independent advocate. This is important as one young person is placed a long way from their home town. Inspection report children’s home: SC038167 5 One social worker reports that their young person has lived in 17 different placements in recent years. Their stay at this home is the longest the young person has achieved. The placing social worker reports that the young person is ‘noticeably more relaxed and calm’. When the young person arrived at the home, they refused to go out of the house. They are now feeling confident enough to attend their work placement, and visit the

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improvement to be good

library and cinema with the support of staff. One young person is engaging well in a work placement at a local farm, where they are learning vocational skills and socialising with other young people. The number of days they attend is gradually being increased. The house is homely and well maintained. The young people report that they like the house and their bedrooms. The staff involve the young people in choosing colours and furnishings for the house.

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improvement to be good

One young person, who has now moved from the home, was subject to a number of restraints before they left. The record of restraints does not always clearly document what method of restraint was used and whether the young person benefitted from debriefing following the incidents of restraint. The manager has not monitored incidents of restraint for any trends or patterns. One unused bedroom has been turned into an arts and crafts room. This door is locked and the young people do not have access to this part of the home without asking staff to unlock the door. There is no reason why the young people are unable to use this room. The young person currently living at the home reports that they feel safe living at the home and could name a member of staff they would speak to if they are worried or feel unsafe. Since living at the home, the young person now feels safe enough to disclose previous safeguarding concerns to the staff. Safeguarding incidents are promptly

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improvement to be good

reported to the appropriate professionals and follow the home’s comprehensive safeguarding policy and procedures. Young people are encouraged and supported by the staff to participate in writing their behaviour management plan. The young people can choose to buy a reward chart and write on it what particular behaviour they think they need to improve on and if this has been achieved. This participation supports them effectively to be motivated to improve their behaviour. Prior to moving into the home, the young person currently living at the home was regularly going missing and engaging in risky behaviour. Since arriving at the home, there have been no incidents of missing. Risk-taking behaviours have decreased. The young person said: ‘I can now communicate better; they help with my temper.’ This improvement has been achieved through the young person forming very positive relationships with two members of the core staff team.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

The reasons for the high turnover of staff in the home have been investigated and Inspection report children’s home: SC038167 6 analysed by senior managers. In the last six months, eight members of staff from a core team of 11 have left the home for various personal and professional reasons. The manager has had to cover care shifts, which has negatively impacted on his management time in the home. A recruitment plan to replace the staff who have left has been put in place. Four members of staff have been recruited and are currently working through their induction plan. There is currently only one young person living in the home. To give the new staff team time to become established and create a settled environment, no new admissions of young people are planned. During this recent turbulent time in the home, the manager has failed to provide strong leadership and direction to the staff. It is not clear that he understands the strengths

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

and weaknesses of the home. The manager fails to provide debriefs and support to staff following stressful incidents and restraints with the young people, resulting in staff reporting that they feel unsupported and wish to leave the home. Managers failed to intervene promptly when it was apparent that the two young people living in the home were not compatible. This relationship then broke down to the extent that one young person physically attacked the much younger resident. Records such as the record of restraint have not been monitored by the manager to establish any potentially concerning trends and patterns. Not all the requirements made at the previous inspection are met. An action plan has been implemented by senior managers so that the increasing concerns being raised by the independent visitor to the home could be addressed. The home is currently being overseen by senior managers. They continue to provide support

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

and guidance to the registered manager, who is struggling to provide aspirational and clear leadership and direction to the staff. The action plan is nearing completion and is now having an impact. The home is becoming more settled and the young person is now making progress. Staff report that supervision has not been regularly provided to them by the manager, but this has improved recently in regularity and quality. The staff report that the training programme offered by the company is good, and state that they are equipped with the skills they need to undertake their roles.

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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: SC038167 7 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: SC038167 8

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Children’s home details

Registered provider: Phoenix Child Care Limited

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: Phoenix Learning and Care Ltd, First Floor, Rolle Quay House, Rolle Quay, Barnstaple, Devon EX31 1JE

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Inspector(s)

Tina Maddison, social care inspector Inspection report children’s home: SC038167 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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