Children's home run by Educare Adolescent Services Limited in Cannock Chase

Inspection report children’s home: SC063285 1 SC063285 Registered provider: Educare Adolescent Services 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 owned by a private company. It is registered to provide care and accommodation for up to four young people. The home’s statement of purpose states that ‘staff use a therapeutic parenting framework to emotionally connect with young people through playfulness, acceptance, curiosity and empathy.’ The manager was registered with Ofsted in 2014 and is suitably qualified.

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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 requires improvement to be good

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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: Inadequate

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Enforcement action since last inspection:

A restriction of accommodation notice was issued on 2 August 2018 until 25 October 2018. Four compliance notices were issued, listing steps that the home must take to meet regulations. All four compliance notices were reissued following a monitoring visit Inspection report children’s home: SC063285 2 on 21 September 2018.

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

30/07/2018 Full Inadequate 24/10/2017 Full Good 29/03/2017 Interim Improved effectiveness 09/08/2016 Full Good Inspection report children’s home: SC063285 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 develop positive relationships with them; engage with them; and take their views, wishes and feelings into account in relation to matters affecting the children’s care and welfare and their lives. In particular, the standard in paragraph (1) requires the registered person to— ensure that staff ascertain and consider each child’s views, wishes and feelings, and balance these against what they judge to be in the child’s best interests when making decisions about the child’s care and welfare; 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)(a)(b)(c)(2)(a)(i)(iii)) 30/11/2018

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Requirement Due date

The health and well-being standard is that the health and well- being needs of children are met; children receive advice, services and support in relation to their health and well-being; and children are helped to lead healthy lifestyles. In particular, the standard in paragraph (1) requires the registered person to ensure that staff help each child to understand and develop skills to promote the child’s well-being. (Regulation 10 (1)(a)(b)(c)(2)(a)(iv)) 30/11/2018

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Requirement Due date

The positive relationships standard is that children are helped to develop, and to benefit from, relationships based on mutual respect and trust; an understanding about acceptable behaviour; and positive responses to other children and adults. In particular, the standard in paragraph (1) requires the registered person to— help each child to understand, in a way that is appropriate according to the child’s age and understanding, personal, sexual and social relationships, and how those relationships can be 30/11/2018 Inspection report children’s home: SC063285 4 supportive or harmful; ensure that staff are provided with supervision and support to enable them to understand and manage their own feelings and responses to the behaviour and emotions of children, and to help children to do the same. (Regulation 11(1)(a)(b)(c)(2)(a)(vi)(x)) 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 help each child to understand how to keep safe and have the skills to identify and act upon signs that a child is at risk of harm. (Regulation 12 (1)(2)(a)(ii)(iii)) 30/11/2018

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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 helps children aspire to fulfil their potential; and promotes their welfare. In particular, the standard in paragraph (1) requires the registered person to lead and manage the home in a way that is consistent with the approach and ethos, and delivers the outcomes, set out in the home’s statement of purpose. (Regulation 13 (1)(a)(b)(2)(a)) 30/11/2018

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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 helps children aspire to fulfil their potential; and promotes their welfare. In particular, the standard in paragraph (1) 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 (1)(a)(b)(2)(h)) 30/11/2018

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Recommendations

 Staff should be familiar with the home’s policies on record keeping and understand the importance of careful, objective, and clear recording. Staff should record information on individual children in a non-stigmatising way that distinguishes between fact, opinion and third-party information. Information about the child must always be recorded in a way that will be helpful to the child. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations, including the quality standards’, page 62, paragraph 14.4) Inspection report children’s home: SC063285 5

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improvement to be good

One young person has lived at the home since the last inspection in August 2018. He is reasonably settled and enjoys the company of staff. He takes good care of his personal space and takes pride in his appearance. However, staff do not make opportunities for meaningful and helpful conversations with the young person about his feelings and difficulties. For example, staff have not talked to him about a recent relationship that ended. As a result, this young person’s relationships with many staff mean little to him. Staff and the manager liaise well with the young person’s social worker, who is happy with his placement. They have all worked together to identify, and provide, home tutoring for the young person. The young person is engaging well with his tutor. The young person is not making progress in relation to his social well-being and his emotional health. He yearns to spend time with young people who relate to his culture.

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improvement to be good

He therefore spends as much time as he is allowed away from staff and the home. He seldom eats meals with staff or undertakes activities with them. Staff do not show enough interest in who his friends are, what he does when he is away from the home, and how he feels about his life and prospects. The young person does not experience therapeutic parenting approaches from staff. For example, staff do not discuss and negotiate in a curious, accepting, empathic way when the young person says that he needs to collect items that he has left behind when out with friends. They say ‘no’ to his request for a lift to go and get items, without reflecting on what might be the best response. The young person is unsure about whether he wants to stay at the home or not. He told the inspector that, ‘I need to be in a place that is more suited to me. I find here depressing.’ His written plans say that he wants to stay here until he is ready for

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improvement to be good

independent living. He has no copies of his plans or of any discussions and advice from staff. Recordings on his file are not written in a way that is helpful and meaningful to him.

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improvement to be good

Staff do not talk with the young person about matters relating to his safety. For example, they do not ask the young person about his views, feelings and sense of identity. Staff have not talked with the young person about gang culture and the risks of being involved in gangs. Staff are not helping the young person to understand risk, and how to keep himself safe. The young person has gone missing three times in the last three weeks. Staff do not know where he is or who he is with. However, when he is missing staff do take the right actions. They go out and look for him and they inform the police and his social worker. They also telephone the young person and they ask him to keep in touch. They always Inspection report children’s home: SC063285 6 go and pick him up when he asks them to and they offer him food and drink. However, staff do not show enough concern and curiosity about where he has been.

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improvement to be good

Staff have not followed clear professional advice from the organisation’s clinicians on how to manage the young person’s behaviour. Staff say that the young person’s behaviour is becoming aggressive towards them and they are now asking if he should be at the home. Staff are not questioning their own practice and what they can do to help the young person. The young person regularly has unsupervised free time. Staff do not have enough information about how the young person spends this time to know about the risks. They have found knives in his room and he has returned home with money. Staff have taken effective action to safeguard the young person. They have removed the knives and involved the police and placing authority, but have not been curious about who his friends are and where he is spending his time. Staff accept what the young person tells them even when his answers are unclear. Staff are not talking to the young person

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improvement to be good

about why they are concerned and what he needs to do to reduce their concerns.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

The leadership and management of the home is still not good enough. The four compliance notices, and the majority of regulatory shortfalls from the monitoring visit of September 2018, have been met. For example, the recruitment and vetting of agency staff is now safely conducted. Staff have now completed up-to-date training in relevant aspects of caring for vulnerable young people. However, some regulatory shortfalls are repeated because staff continue to miss opportunities to engage with the young person and help him develop the skills that he needs. This demonstrates a continuing lack of effective monitoring and review by the registered manager and provider. However, the manager shows some desire to improve outcomes for young people. He said, ‘I know that staff are struggling to keep up the positive care and demonstrations of care.’ Over the last two months, the manager has spent considerable time training,

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

supporting and reviewing the skills and development of staff. However, he has not focused enough on helping staff develop and embed therapeutic ways of engaging with the young person. The manager is not ensuring that the stated aims in the home’s statement of purpose, specifically the provision of therapeutic care, are being delivered to young people. The home is now better staffed and there is much less reliance on agency staff. New members of staff bring some skills, and enthusiasm, for helping young people. The manager is holding regular team meetings and attends daily shift handovers. This creates more opportunities to reflect on strategies that help the young person to engage. However, the manager still does not provide staff with good advice about using curiosity and creativity in their relationships with the young person. For example, he advised that female staff communicate decisions to the young person because he is less

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

likely to attack them. Some male staff have become wary of the young person and have withdrawn from spending too much time with him. This practice by the manager demonstrates a poor response to managing the behaviours of young people. The manager actively challenges other professionals when the responses from other Inspection report children’s home: SC063285 7 services are slow. He was influential in securing short-term education for the young person. However, the manager is not contributing ideas and strategies about the young person’s care plan. For example, he has not consulted with the young person and staff to form appropriate ideas about the young person’s free time. This means that the young person and staff do not understand or agree with the social worker’s decisions about free time, and they fail to provide the young person with good help and protection. The manager now receives regular support and guidance from the responsible individual.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

They have reflected on, and addressed, the unsafe practices and poor management that gave rise to previous compliance action by Ofsted. The manager said, ‘We were defensive. We were justifying things that we would not do for our own children.’ However, shortfalls remain in the management of the home. The manager has assessed how the current young person’s needs would be affected by another young person coming into the home. He said, ‘I’m not happy to move a second young person in at present. I don’t have enough staff yet and we are not getting it right with [young person] at the moment.’

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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: SC063285 8

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Children’s home details

Registered provider: Educare Adolescent Services Limited

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: Venture House, 12 Prospect Business Park, Longford Road, Cannock, Staffordshire WS11 0LG

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Inspectors

Rachel Britten, social care inspector Karen Gillingwater, social care inspector Inspection report children’s home: SC063285 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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Inspectors

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Inspectors

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Inspectors

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