Children's home run by North East Lincolnshire Council

Inspection report children’s home: SC069618 1 SC069618 Registered provider: North East Lincolnshire 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

A local authority operates and runs this home. It provides care for one young person. The manager is suitably qualified and has been in post since April 2017. She is registered with Ofsted and also manages another children’s home.

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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: 31 October 2017

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requires improvement to be good

Overall judgement at last inspection: good

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requires improvement to be good

Enforcement action since last inspection: none Inspection report children’s home: SC069618 2

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

31/10/2017 Full Good 07/02/2017 Interim Sustained effectiveness 11/07/2016 Full Outstanding 30/03/2016 Interim Sustained effectiveness Inspection report children’s home: SC069618 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 must comply within the given timescales.

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Requirement Due date

The quality and purpose of care standard is that children receive care from staff who deliver care that meets children’s needs and supports them to fulfil their potential. In particular, the standard in paragraph (1) requires the registered person to ensure that staff– 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. (Regulation 6(1) and (2)(b)(vi))

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Requirement Due date

In particular, assess the young person’s resilience and skills about moving to independent living. Use this assessment to inform the young person’s care plan and to promote her independent living skills. 30/11/2018

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Requirement Due date

The education standard is that children make measurable progress towards achieving their educational potential and are helped to do so. In particular, the standard in paragraph (1) requires the registered person to ensure that staff– maintain regular contact with each child’s education and training provider, including engaging with the provider and the placing authority to support the child’s education and training and to maximise the child’s achievement. (Regulation 8(1) and (2)(a) (vi))

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Requirement Due date

In particular, maintain regular contact with the virtual school head about the young person’s timetable, progress and achievements, in order to provide the best education possible. 30/11/2018

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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. In particular, the standard in paragraph (1) requires the registered person to ensure— 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. (Regulation 12(1) and (2)(a)(i)) 30/11/2018 Inspection report children’s home: SC069618 4 In particular, assess the risks to the young person of using Facebook and meeting Facebook ‘friends’, assess the risk of the young person’s friends coming into the home, and assess the risks to the young person of unauthorised absences. The protection of children standard is that children are protected from harm and enabled to keep themselves safe. In particular, the standard in paragraph (1) requires the registered person to ensure—

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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(1) and (2)(b))

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Requirement Due date

In particular, staff must attempt to complete regular face-to- face welfare checks on the young person when the young person is absent from the home in order to ascertain the young person’s safety. The intervals between welfare checks to be set out in the young person’s risk assessment. Ensure that the alarms on the external doors function and contribute to alerting staff when the young person and anyone else enters or leaves the home. 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.

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Requirement Due date

In particular, the standard in paragraph (1) requires the registered person to— promote the child’s welfare. (Regulation 13 (1)(b))

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Requirement Due date

In particular, ensure that regulation 44 reports rigorously assess the effectiveness of how well the young person is safeguarded. 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.

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Requirement Due date

In particular, the standard in paragraph (1) requires the registered person to— 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) and (2) (f))

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Requirement Due date

In particular, ensure that the gender balance of staff employed in the home meets the needs of the young person. 30/11/2018 Inspection report children’s home: SC069618 5 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— use monitoring and review systems to make continuous improvements in the quality of care provided in the home. (Regulation 13 (1) and (2)(h))

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Requirement Due date

In particular, evaluate the missing from home incidents, and analyse the data for trends or patterns. Take any necessary action to reduce the number of times and duration the young person is missing. Regularly review and evaluate risk assessments and risk management strategies to ensure the best possible care. Complete regular checks on the physical environment of the home and take prompt action to address repairs and provide a safe and homely environment. 30/11/2018

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Requirement Due date

The system referred to in paragraph (2) must provide for ascertaining and considering the opinions of children, their parents, placing authorities and staff. (Regulation 45 (2)(c)(5)) 30/11/2018

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Recommendations

 Children should be in full-time education whilst they are of compulsory school age, unless their personal education plan contained within the care plan or other relevant plan states otherwise. The home must aim to support full time attendance at school unless the child’s relevant plan indicates this is not in their best interests. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 28, paragraph 5.14)  The registered provider should ensure that the independent person they appoint has the skills and understanding necessary to:  relate to children in a home’s care;  assess all relevant information; and  form an impartial judgement about the quality of the home’s care. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 65, paragraph 15.8) Inspection report children’s home: SC069618 6

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improvement to be good

This placement was a planned move to support the young person to make the transition to independent living. There is no detailed assessment of the young person’s skills and experiences to successfully move on to independence. Staff encourage the young person to do household chores and develop budgeting skills. Without a sufficient assessment though, the support is not adequately targeted to meet the young person’s needs.

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improvement to be good

The young person’s education programme is limited to two hours a day and there has been a lack of communication about this with the virtual school head. This impacts negatively on planning her future education. Attendance has been poor until just recently. Despite this, the young person has made some progress and achievements at school. The young person has developed ambitions for the future which are taken account of in vocational studies.

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improvement to be good

The young person likes her space and is afforded this by the nature of the home being for one person. Staff respect her space but at the same time encourage the young person to stick to positive routines and boundaries. However, outside of school time there is not enough engagement to help prepare the young person for a successful transition to independence.

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improvement to be good

Staff are building relationships with the young person, who trusts them and is starting to be open about where she goes and what she does. This is helping to inform how risks are managed.

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improvement to be good

The young person has regular contact with important family members. This is beneficial for her identity and for future support when she leaves care.

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improvement to be good

The staff appropriately share concerns about her safety with the placing authority and links with partner agencies are helping to provide all-round support. The police have helped the young person to recently start equine therapy to improve her well-being.

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improvement to be good

The risk management processes require improvement. Risk assessments for the young person do not sufficiently cover all known risks, such as contacting people on Facebook, and friends of the young person coming into the home. There are times when the young person has stayed overnight at her friends’ homes. These stays have not been approved by the placing authority and there is no assessment of how safe it is for the young person to be there.

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improvement to be good

Records evidence that one of the addresses the young person goes to is deemed unsafe by the police. Staff are not clear what the reasons are for this. Inspection report children’s home: SC069618 7 The young person is absent from the home for long periods of time during the day. Staff do not implement her missing person action plan until late at night. The lack of welfare checks earlier in the day is not consistent with the risk rating and could leave the young person at risk of harm. On one of these occasions, the young person did need urgent medical care and went to hospital.

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improvement to be good

On one night that a friend of the young person stayed in the home, staff were unaware of this until the next day. The external door alarm was not working at the time and there has been a serious delay in repairing this alarm. This potentially puts the young person and staff at risk.

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improvement to be good

The frequency of missing from home incidents has been fairly constant over the last three months. The length of time for each missing episode is reducing and often the young person is late home or comes back in the early hours of the morning. There has been no analysis of these incidents for trends or patterns in order to promote the young person’s safety.

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improvement to be good

The young person’s risk-taking behaviour linked to alcohol, substance misuse and offending has reduced. Behaviour in the home is good and there are some positive relationships with the staff. The young person feels safe in the home.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

Although the manager is experienced, the current level of leadership is poor. Tasks are delegated to other staff and there is not a sufficient level of checking in place to ensure that these are completed. Consequently, care practice, risk management and record- keeping all require improvement.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

The manager does not know the home’s weaknesses as the level of oversight and monitoring is inadequate. For example, risks to the young person are not all sufficiently assessed, staff responses to missing from home incidents and subsequent record- keeping are not evaluated and the external door alarms are not functional. This jeopardises how well staff are able to keep the young person safe.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

Communication within the home is poor. Staff are not clear what the current risks are to the young person or to themselves.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

The manager has not sufficiently challenged the local children’s services to support a suitable risk assessment process and develop effective care strategies. The young person stays at known addresses that are categorised as unauthorised absences, but it is not clear if this is safe to do so.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

Although strategy meetings take place, it is nearly a month since the last one. Despite the overall risk to the young person being rated as high by the local authority, there has been no subsequent review to determine if there has been any impact of existing care practices. Inspection report children’s home: SC069618 8 The last three monitoring visits and reports completed by an independent visitor are not adequately challenging of current practice. They lack evaluation of the arrangements to protect the young person.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

There is an excess of male staff on shift, despite the young person asking for female staff. Male staff work about 80% of the time. Although the manager has taken some action to improve this, it is not sufficient to meet the needs of the young person.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

The virtual school head was not aware of the young person’s limited current education timetable. This compromises his role and ability to provide any additional support to promote educational outcomes for the young person.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

The last internal six-monthly review completed by the manager was submitted to Ofsted late. This review did not adequately consider the views of the young person and children’s services about the quality of care. This undermines the purpose of the review and prevents Ofsted from fulfilling its regulatory role.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

The manager has started to work more closely with the police authority to reduce the number of times the young person is missing from the home. A joint missing person action plan has very recently been developed.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

The quality of daily diary records has been improved, as recommended at the last inspection. These are now in a style that will be helpful to the young person to read .

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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: SC069618 9

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: Child Care Management Team, Civic Offices, Knoll Street, Cleethorpes, North East Lincolnshire DN35 8LN

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Inspectors

Simon Morley, social care inspector Neil Penswick, HMI social care Inspection report children’s home: SC069618 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 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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