Children's home run by Blackpool Borough Council in Blackpool

Inspection report children’s home: SC033411 1 SC033411 Registered provider: Blackpool Borough Council

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Inspected under the social care common inspection framework

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Information about this children’s home

A local authority operates this children’s home. It provides a short-break service for up to four children and young people to stay at the home at any one time. It is an ‘edge of care’ service designed to offer short-term intensive support to young people and their parents/carers. At the time of the inspection the service was working with 17 young people.

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Information about this children’s home

The registered manager is suitably qualified and experienced. He was registered by Ofsted in January 2017 and has managed the service since it opened in its current format.

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Overall experiences and progress of

children and young people, taking into account

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good

How well children and young people are helped and protected requires improvement to be good

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good

The effectiveness of leaders and managers good

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good

The children’s home provides effective services that meet the requirements for good.

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good

Overall judgement at last inspection: good

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good

Enforcement action since last inspection: not applicable Inspection report children’s home: SC033411 2

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

06/10/2017 Full Good 16/01/2017 Interim Not judged 27/04/2016 Full Good 02/02/2016 Interim Sustained effectiveness Inspection report children’s home: SC033411 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 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; and that the home’s day-to-day care is arranged and delivered so as to keep each child safe and protect each child effectively from harm. (Regulation 12(1)(2)(a)(i)(b)) Specifically, that children’s risk assessments give due consideration to all known risks; that these are shared with children’s social workers; and all staff working with children are familiar with them. 07/12/2018

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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 take effective action whenever there is a serious concern about a child’s welfare. (Regulation 12(1)(2)(a)(vi)) 07/12/2018

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must notify HMCI and each other relevant person without delay if— (a) a child is involved in or subject to, or is suspected of being involved in or subject to, sexual exploitation; (b) an incident requiring police involvement occurs in relation to a child which the registered person considers to be serious; (c) there is an allegation of abuse against the home or a person working there; (d) a child protection enquiry involving a child— (i) is instigated; or (ii) concludes (in which case, the notification must include the outcome of the child protection enquiry); or (e) there is any other incident relating to a child which the registered person considers to be serious. (Regulation 40(4)) 07/12/2018 Inspection report children’s home: SC033411 4

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Recommendations

 The registered person 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 10.11) In particular, ensure that casual staff have access to training opportunities.

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Recommendations

 Ensure that the registered person maintains good employment practice. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 61, paragraph 13.1) In particular, ensure that employment references are verified.

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Recommendations

 Ensure that the registered person has systems in place so that all staff receive supervision of their practice from an appropriately qualified and experienced professional, which allows them to reflect on their practice and the needs of the children assigned to their care. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 61, paragraph 13.2) In particular, that casual staff receive an appropriate level of formal supervision.

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Recommendations

 Ensure that all staff have their performance and fitness to carry out their role formally appraised at least once annually. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 61, paragraph 13.5)

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

This is an ‘edge of care’ service that is designed to offer short-term intensive support to young people and their parents or carers. The main aim of the service is to prevent young people from entering the care system. Staff work initially with families for a fixed period of 12 weeks. However, this period can be extended following a review of the family’s involvement with the service. Most young people attend for an overnight stay for one night, at the weekend. However, staff also offer an outreach service to families. Many successful support packages become outreach support only, as families learn to manage on their own again.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

The service also provides a mid-week emergency placement for a maximum of 72 hours. This service has been utilised on nine occasions since the last inspection. It has allowed social workers time to make the right decision for children. Although some of these children have subsequently entered the care system, others have been able to return to their families after their stay. Inspection report children’s home: SC033411 5 Permanent staff receive training in resilience therapy. Staff are developing confidence in this approach and they are now able to link tasks and activities to this spontaneously. Staff target specific areas of need for young people, such as improving family relationships or helping children to keep themselves safe. Staff undertake individual work with young people, as well as group work, particularly when young people are staying overnight in the home. Records show the progress that young people are making.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Young people enjoy the time that they spend here. They engage in activities with staff and enjoy the positive relationships that they have developed with staff. Feedback gathered by the home and shared with the inspector supports this. Examples of their comments include:  ‘I am treated like an adult here.’  ‘The staff are great.’  ‘I like coming here. I like the activities that we do together.’  ‘Staff are respectful.’

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Similarly, feedback from parents and social workers is positive. One parent commented, ‘It has been really helpful and supportive.’ A social worker also commented, ‘I feel the support from the service has been valuable and prevented breakdown for this family.’

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff ensure that the home is warm and welcoming. A maximum of four young people can sleep overnight at the service at any time. Staff welcome young people at the start of their stay and they enjoy a home-cooked meal together. Staff then engage young people in activities or group-work in the home, combined with trips out, such as ice- skating or trips to a theme park. These are new experiences for some young people, providing them with happy memories and increasing their confidence and self-esteem.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

In addition to overnight stays, staff undertake outreach work with young people and their families. They engage them in resilience work with a view to improving family relationships. They also hold several groups for young people during the week. These may have a fun element, such as an art or walking club. However, regular groups are also held on topics such as sexual relationships and contraception. These events also include a buffet and also provide a social element. They are usually well attended, ensuring that young people receive accurate information and an opportunity to openly discuss important issues.

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improvement to be good

Staff receive training about behaviour management. They engage young people skilfully in a positive manner. Most young people enjoy their time here and consequently incidents requiring behaviour management are rare. Staff de-escalate the majority of incidents quickly.

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improvement to be good

Since the last inspection, the registered manager has introduced a matching document. This ensures that consideration is given to any potential issues should two specific young people stay at the service on the same night. This assesses the perceived gains and Inspection report children’s home: SC033411 6 costs of placing the young people together. While staff discuss the matching of the wider group of young people at staff meetings, this is not currently documented elsewhere. Young people’s behaviours have escalated on occasions, such as young people going missing together. When this has happened, the relationships between young people have been reviewed to prevent further occurrences.

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improvement to be good

Staff complete risk assessments on each young person prior to them staying overnight. However, they provide limited information and do not include some known high-risk behaviours. Furthermore, the documents do not provide any context when some incidents of concern have occurred. This fails to fully inform staff about whether this is a current behaviour requiring additional vigilance by them. Also, while these documents are updated, they do not indicate whether an area of concern has increased or diminished. In addition, risk assessments are not shared with young people’s social workers or casual staff for agreement. These people need to be familiar with the issues to keep young people safe.

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improvement to be good

Permanent staff receive training in safeguarding. This is pertinent to this service, as many young people continue to live in chaotic situations. While there is evidence of positive relationships with other safeguarding bodies and preventative services, on one occasion concerns expressed to a staff member were not acted on promptly, potentially putting the young person at further risk.

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improvement to be good

Similarly, on one occasion there was a delay of 10 days in notifying Ofsted of a serious incident. While managers have taken the correct course of action in relation to managing the incident, there was delay in making the formal notification to the designated officer and to Ofsted. Consequently, it is difficult for Ofsted to monitor the home’s safeguarding practice.

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improvement to be good

The council’s human resources department takes the lead on staff recruitment processes. While recruitment processes have improved since the last inspection, the manager had not verified the references provided for one applicant when concluding the recruitment process for the most recent staff appointment.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The registered manager is enthusiastic about the work of the service and the role that it plays in preventing young people coming into care. The staff team members share his enthusiasm and enjoy their work. However, the service is currently short of staff and is reliant on casual staff. The service has had to limit the number of young people that it can currently support.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Permanent staff receive regular supervision and feel well supported by managers. However, casual staff do not receive formal supervision, despite some of them working for the service on a regular basis. Similarly, casual staff do not have access to the same training opportunities. This limits their development opportunities and has an impact on their ability to best meet the needs of young people. This is of particular significance currently, as the service is reliant on these individuals. Managers acknowledge this and Inspection report children’s home: SC033411 7 are in the process of recruiting more permanent staff.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The majority of permanent staff have received an annual performance appraisal, but one remains outstanding. This is important for staff to reflect on their practice and achievements, but also to consider personal targets for the year ahead.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The manager and senior staff work well with other professionals involved with young people. Professionals speak positively about the enthusiasm and commitment of staff, as well as their ability to communicate well. Staff are good advocates for young people and will challenge social workers and other professionals when required. Staff have good links with a number of local agencies, such as drug and alcohol services. This means that they can access support for young people when they need it.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The internal and external monitoring of the home is good. This helps to drive forward improvement. Regular audits of case files also help to ensure that records are kept up to date. Action has been taken to address the requirements and recommendations resulting from the last inspection of the service.

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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: SC033411 8

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Children’s home details

Registered provider: Blackpool Borough Council

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: Municipal Building, PO Box 50, Blackpool FY1 1NF

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Inspector

Mandy Williams, social care inspector Inspection report children’s home: SC033411 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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Inspector

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Inspector

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Inspector

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