Children's Home run by Tees-Valley Care Limited in Redcar and Cleveland

Inspection report children's home: 1272220 1 Registered provider: Tees-Valley 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 was registered in May 2018 to provide care and accommodation for up to four children and young people, irrespective of gender. The registered manager has now left the home and an acting manager is in place.

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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: 13 September 2018

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requires improvement to be good

Overall judgement at last inspection: inadequate

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requires improvement to be good

Enforcement action since last inspection: The home was issued with a notice of restriction of accommodation until 5 December 2018 and three compliance notices. These notices were monitored at this inspection. Inspection report children's home: 1272220 2

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

13/09/2018 Full Inadequate Inspection report children's home: 1272220 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, the 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

In meeting the quality standards, the registered person must, and must ensure that staff— seek to secure the input and services required to meet each child’s needs. (Regulation 5(b)) 16/11/2018

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Requirement Due date

The quality and purpose of care standard is that children receive care from staff who— understand the children’s home’s overall aims and the outcomes it seeks to achieve for children; use this understanding to 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— protect and promote each child’s welfare; provide personalised care that meets each child’s needs, as recorded in the child’s relevant plans, taking account of the child’s background; and help each child to understand and manage the impact of any experience of abuse or neglect. (Regulation 6 (1)(2)(b)(ii)(iv)(v)) 16/11/2018

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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— 02/12/2018 Inspection report children's home: 1272220 4 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)(2)(a)(iii)) 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— help each child to achieve the child’s education and training

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Requirement Due date

targets, as recorded in the child’s relevant plans; understand the barriers to learning that each child may face and take appropriate action to help the child to overcome any such barriers; and help each child to understand the importance and value of education, learning, training and employment. (Regulation 8(2)(a)(i)(iii)(iv)) 16/11/2018

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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 ensure— that staff— meet each child’s behavioural and emotional needs, as set out in the child’s relevant plans; help each child to develop socially aware behaviour; help each child to develop and practise skills to resolve conflicts positively and without harm to anyone; communicate to each child expectations about the child’s behaviour and ensure that the child understands those expectations in accordance with the child’s age and understanding; strive to gain each child’s respect and trust; understand how children’s previous experiences and present emotions can be communicated through behaviour and have the

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Requirement Due date

competence and skills to interpret these and develop positive relationships with children; 16/11/2018 Inspection report children's home: 1272220 5 de-escalate confrontations with or between children, or potentially violent behaviour by children; understand and communicate to children that bullying is unacceptable; have the skills to recognise incidents or indications of bullying and how to deal with them; and that each child is encouraged to build and maintain positive relationships with others. (Regulation 11(1)(2)(a)(i)(ii)(iv)(v)(viii)(ix)(xii)(xiii)(b)) 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;

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Requirement Due date

have the skills to identify and act upon signs that a child is at risk of harm; manage relationships between children to prevent them from harming each other; understand the roles and responsibilities in relation to protecting children that are assigned to them by the registered person; take effective action whenever there is a serious concern about a child’s welfare; and 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)(2)(a)(i)(iii)(iv)(b)) 16/11/2018

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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; ensure that staff work as a team where appropriate; ensure that staff have the experience, qualifications and skills to 02/12/2018 Inspection report children's home: 1272220 6 meet the needs of each child; 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; demonstrate that practice in the home is informed and improved

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Requirement Due date

by taking into account and acting on— research and developments in relation to the ways in which the needs of children are best met; feedback on the experiences of children, including complaints received; and use monitoring and review systems to make continuous improvements in the quality of care provided in the home. (Regulation 13(1)(2)(a)(b)(c)(f)(g)(h)) The care planning standard is that children— receive effectively planned care in or through the children’s home; and have a positive experience of arriving at or moving on from the home. In particular, the standard in paragraph (1) requires the registered person to ensure— that children are admitted to the home only if their needs are within the range of needs of children for whom it is intended that the home is to provide care and accommodation, as set out in the home’s statement of purpose. (Regulation 14(2)(a)) 16/11/2018

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must compile in relation to the children’s home a statement (‘the statement of purpose’) which covers the matters listed in Schedule 1. The registered person must— keep the statement of purpose under review and, where appropriate, revise it; and notify HMCI of any revisions and send HMCI a copy of the revised statement within 28 days of the revision. (Regulation 16(3)) 16/11/2018

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must recruit staff using recruitment procedures that are designed to ensure children’s safety. The registered person may only— employ an individual to work at the children’s home; or if an individual is employed by a person other than the registered person to work at the home in a position in which the 16/11/2018 Inspection report children's home: 1272220 7 individual may have regular contact with children, allow that individual to work at the home, if the individual satisfies the requirements in paragraph (3). The requirements are that— the individual has the appropriate experience, qualification and skills for the work that the individual is to perform; full and satisfactory information is available in relation to the individual in respect of each of the matters in Schedule 2. (Regulation 32(1)(2)(3)(b)) Inspection report children's home: 1272220 8 The registered person must maintain records (‘case records’) for

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Requirement Due date

each child which— include the information and documents listed in Schedule 3 in relation to each child; are kept up to date; and are signed and dated by the author of each entry. (Regulation 36(1)) 16/11/2018

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Requirement Due date

* These requirements are subject to a compliance notice.

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Recommendations

 A child’s bedroom should not generally be entered without their permission, though it may be necessary to establish routines to allow for rooms to be cleaned regularly. Usually, rooms should only be searched if the child has been informed or asked for their permission. Immediate searching may be necessary where there are reasonable grounds for believing that there is a risk to the child’s or another person’s safety or well-being. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 16, paragraph 3.20)  When a child returns to the home after being missing from care or away from the home without permission, the responsible local authority must provide an opportunity for the child to have an independent return home interview. Homes should take account of information provided by such interviews when assessing risks and putting arrangements in place to protect each child. (‘Guide to the

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Recommendations

children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 45, paragraph 9.30)

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improvement to be good

The overall experiences and progress of children in the home have improved since the last inspection. Their individual needs are now identified and are being addressed by the staff team. However, currently there is only one young person living at the home. It is therefore difficult to assess the level of support that they receive to build positive relationships with other children and/or young people in the home. The quality of records and recording has improved. Plans and assessments now offer consistent strategies for staff to follow when managing risk and behaviour. However, the response from staff in following these strategies remains inconsistent. Admissions have not been managed effectively since the home opened in May 2018. Transitions to and from the home have been in quick succession. As a restriction of accommodation remains in place, how staff respond to new admissions and manage the Inspection report children's home: 1272220 9

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improvement to be good

conflicting needs of more than one child or young person cannot be evaluated. The arrangements to enable the young person to attend and sustain his placement at college are clear and effective. Support is offered by staff during the relevant days to help maintain the placement. There continues to be damage to the fixtures and fittings of the home caused by the young person; however, there is evidence of staff proactively managing this behaviour promptly. Care plans outline strategies to manage behaviour. Day-to-day care is outlined in addition to the therapeutic elements of the work undertaken, making the documents large and not easily accessed or understood by staff or the young person. The staff team’s ability to help children and young people to remain safe and improve their aspirations and outcomes is limited because there continues to be insufficient clear guidance from the management team. The staff team’s consistency in the

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improvement to be good

implementation of boundaries and routines to keep children and young people safe has improved, but has not yet been tested fully due to the lack of admissions because of the restriction in place.

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improvement to be good

Arrangements to ensure that children and young people are adequately safeguarded have improved slightly. Within individual assessments risks are outlined, and children and young people are supported effectively to keep themselves safe. However, staff continue to need to develop knowledge and skills to support children and young people to manage the wide range of risks that they face. Risk assessments have improved and include all the known risks of the young person who lives in the home and the strategies in place to manage these. Staff continue to struggle to engage the young person in external services to address his individual needs and there is a lack of strategy to address this following the refusal. The response by staff when children and young people go missing has improved, although it has not yet reduced the pattern of missing from home episodes.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

The leadership team has changed since the last inspection with the registered manager leaving. A senior member of staff has stepped up to act as manager in the last few weeks and she has made good efforts to put in place the improvements seen. Staff are supportive of the changes she has made, and the clear direction given. However, progress is slow, and staff need strong leadership to further develop and maintain the team. The position of manager is pivotal to the success of achieving good outcomes for children and young people and offering stability to the staff team. Therefore, the appointment of a permanent, suitable manager will be important in driving improvements forward. There has been some turnover of staff since registration and an increase in the numbers of staff. The majority of current staff are not appropriately qualified, and some shifts are Inspection report children's home: 1272220 10

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

covered with relatively newly appointed staff alongside inexperienced staff. This leaves children and young people at risk. Team meetings take place regularly, and recording has improved to show a holistic picture of each child or young person and identifies actions that individuals or groups of staff must take. The consistency of supervision for staff remains poor and there has been very little change in the quality of these records. Records do not demonstrate that staff are sufficiently supported to meet the individual needs of children. Safeguarding is recorded as an agenda item, but the records contain very little information about the level of discussion and do not link to the risks seen in individual records of children. Because of the concerns highlighted at this inspection, the restriction notice has remained in place. Once the compliance notice has been re-issued, Ofsted will monitor the home’s compliance within six weeks.

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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: 1272220 11

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Children’s home details

Registered provider: Tees-Valley Care Limited

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: Bhive, Skelton Industrial Estate, Skelton In Cleveland, Saltburn by the Sea TS12 2LQ

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Inspector

Susan Atkinson-Millmoor: social care inspector Inspection report children's home: 1272220 12 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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