Children's Home run by Sheffield City Council in Sheffield

Inspection report children’s home: SC356868 1 SC356868 Registered provider: Sheffield City Council Full inspection Inspected under the social care common inspection framework

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Information about this children’s home

This is a local authority children’s home. The home is registered to provide care and accommodation for up to five children or young people who have emotional and/or behavioural difficulties. The home strives to provide an environment that facilitates growth, change and fulfilment in children and young people. The manager has been registered since September 2008.

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Information about this children’s home

Inspection dates: 31 October to 1 November 2018

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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: outstanding

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requires improvement to be good

Enforcement action since last inspection: none Inspection report children’s home: SC356868 2

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

31/05/2017 Full Outstanding 08/02/2017 Interim Sustained effectiveness 02/08/2016 Full Good 27/01/2016 Interim Sustained effectiveness Inspection report children’s home: SC356868 3

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Statutory requirements

This section sets out the actions that the registered persons 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 persons must comply within the given timescales.

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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.

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Requirement Due date

In particular, the standard in paragraph (1) requires the registered person to ensure—

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Requirement Due date

raise any need for further assessment or specialist provision in relation to a child with the child’s education or training provider and the child’s placing authority. (Regulation 8 (1)(2)(a)(vii))

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Requirement Due date

In particular, ensure that each child has a suitable and appropriate education provision in line with legal requirements and that it is provided in a timely manner that will support the child’s learning and development. 03/11/2018

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Requirement Due date

The quality and purpose of care standard is 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.

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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

ensure that the premises used for the purposes of the home are designed and furnished so as to—

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Requirement Due date

enable each child to participate in the daily life of the home. (Regulation 6 (1)(a)(2)(c)(i)(ii))

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Requirement Due date

In particular, ensure that all areas of the home are decorated and furnished to a suitable standard and that damaged items are 28/11/2018 Inspection report children’s home: SC356868 4 replaced. This includes the dining chairs, wall units, having a working showerhead, hall and stair carpets, damaged kitchen units and having a working front doorbell. In particular, the standard in paragraph (1) requires the registered person to—

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Requirement Due date

make decisions about the day-to-day arrangements for each child, in accordance with the child’s relevant plans, which give the child an appropriate degree of freedom and choice. (Regulation 6 (2)(b)(ix))

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Requirement Due date

In particular, that recommendations made at the children’s and young people’s statutory review are implemented promptly to ensure that their identified needs are fully met. 03/11/2018

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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—

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Requirement Due date

helps children aspire to fulfil their potential; and

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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

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))

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Requirement Due date

In particular, ensure that the individual needs of a child or young person can be met while also meeting the needs of the group of children and young people in residence. 03/12/2018

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Recommendations

 The registered person is responsible for ensuring that each child’s day-to-day health and well-being needs are met. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 33, paragraph 7.3) With particular reference to ensuring that all children and young people receive regular dental checks.  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 Inspection report children’s home: SC356868 5 should take account of information provided by such interviews when assessing risks and putting arrangements in place to protect each child. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 45, paragraph 9.30) In particular, ensure that children and young people receive an independent

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Recommendations

return home interview after each missing from care incident.

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improvement to be good

The young people living at the home have made varied progress. This is dependent on how long they have lived at the home and other factors, such as experiencing emotional trauma and living in a placement that is not able to fully meet their individual needs.

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improvement to be good

The staff have built good relationships with young people. Some young people are now positively engaging in education placements, have improved behaviour and their missing from home incidents have reduced. Other young people have learned life skills that prepare them well for moving on to semi-independence placements. However, for some young people their behaviour remains unsettled and their engagement with staff is limited. Young people’s attendance in education is sporadic or the local authority has provided a limited education timetable. This has happened even though the staff strongly promote the importance of education and work tirelessly to support the young people to attend their educational placements.

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improvement to be good

Some young people have gained a good level of life skills in preparation for independence. These life skills include cooking, budgeting money and undertaking household chores. The young people have been well supported and prepared to move to new placements. Ongoing support from the staff team is in place for a period after they have moved to their new accommodation.

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improvement to be good

The young people benefit from good care planning in the home. However, not all recommendations made at a young person’s statutory review have been implemented by the local authority as they have exceeded the timescales set at the review.

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improvement to be good

The young people are encouraged to lead healthy lifestyles and to attend health appointments with support from staff. This includes some young people accessing specialist services, for example support for their emotional well-being and substance misuse. However, some young people still access illegal substances and refuse to attend the dentist. The staff continue to support young people to engage with these health professionals to promote good health.

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improvement to be good

The young people enjoy positive relationships with their families. The staff recognise that this is important to the young people. Therefore, the staff team strongly advocates and Inspection report children’s home: SC356868 6 works to rebuild and maintain constructive family relationships.

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improvement to be good

The young people benefit from regular consultation, giving their views and preferences about their daily life and being involved in making decisions about their own futures. This is achieved through general discussion, key work, young people’s meetings and attending their statutory reviews.

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improvement to be good

The young people live in a safe environment. However, over several months, the decoration and furnishings throughout the home have deteriorated. The decoration on several walls is marked, the hall carpet is badly stained in numerous areas and some broken furniture has not been replaced. There are insufficient matching dining chairs for everyone to eat together. Homely touches have completely disappeared, and this leaves the main communal rooms looking barren. There is no door bell. The reduction in quality of the home has occurred after repeated incidents where damage has been caused by some young people that are experiencing severe difficulties, particularly when they are not able to regulate their emotions.

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improvement to be good

The staff understand the vulnerabilities and risks specific to each young person and implement the clear strategies set out in regularly reviewed individual risk assessments. The staff are aware of child sexual exploitation risks and take appropriate action to safeguard those concerned. Training in child protection, first aid and behaviour management ensures that the staff respond appropriately to assist in keeping young people safe from harm.

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improvement to be good

Structured routines and clear boundaries assist the young people to feel more secure. For some, this results in the continued reduction in risk-taking behaviour, particularly missing from care incidents. The staff undertake work with young people on the dangers and consequences of risk-taking behaviour, including going missing, self-harm, taking illegal substances and criminal behaviour. The staff work alongside youth offending teams and others to bring about positive change with the young people concerned. However, some young people’s criminal behaviour in the community continues. As a result, these behaviours remain an area of concern. There are shortfalls in the completion of return home interviews by an independent person after each missing from care incident. Not carrying out the interview misses the opportunity to follow up on the reason for these events, and what change in care and support is required to bring about a reduction that

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improvement to be good

The close and direct supervision of the young people from high staff levels assists in maintaining their safety and greatly reduces the occurrence of any bullying within the home.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: requires improvement to be good

The registered manager has been in post since September 2008 and he holds the Inspection report children’s home: SC356868 7 required qualifications. He has relevant experience in managing and working with children and young people. He disseminates clear expectations to the staff team in wanting the very best for the young people.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: requires improvement to be good

A stable, experienced and diverse staff team delivers care to the young people. The staff hold the level 3 qualification to care for young people. They have more specialist training in such areas as mental health, drugs awareness and around child sexual exploitation. As a result, young people benefit from their knowledge, experience, commitment and positive role modelling.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: requires improvement to be good

The staff are committed to putting the needs of young people first. They give priority to building strong, trusting relationships with the young people, which assist them to care and work with the young people positively. However, some young people’s placements have conflicted with the needs of other young people living at the home. In addition, when identifying that young people’s needs cannot be fully met at the home, there has been a delay by the provider to find an alternative and suitable placement for a young person. The impact of this has presented disruption to the daily life and routines for all young people living in the home on a regular basis in recent months. The registered manager has made the senior management team aware of the situation. However, the situation remains the same and this impacts negatively on the outcomes for young people.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: requires improvement to be good

The staff form a cohesive team and believe that this is one of their strengths. They receive support and guidance from the manager and each other. The staff receive formal supervision consistently. In addition, regular staff meetings take place. Therefore, this provides the staff with reliable environments to routinely discuss their practice, development and the young people’s care and progress. However, in recent months, the morale of staff has declined due to their concerns around not being able to meet all the young people’s needs in their care.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: requires improvement to be good

Most professionals, including the police, youth offending manager, team manager, independent reviewing officer and an education provider, state that the staff team works inclusively with them, in the best interests of the young people.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: requires improvement to be good

The recommendations made at the last inspection have been implemented. These include the formal supervision records of the staff which now demonstrate that they reflect on their practice in relation to the young people’s needs. The young people are given a welcome pack to the home which includes the contact information for the Office of the Children’s Commissioner. The staff are keeping clear records that are more carefully worded and objective.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: requires improvement to be good

Thorough monitoring systems assist and support the manager and staff to continue to work to make improvements to the quality of care being provided to the young people. Inspection report children’s home: SC356868 8

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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: SC356868 9

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Children’s home details

Registered provider: Sheffield City Council

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: Town Hall, Pinstone Street, Sheffield S1 2HH

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Inspector

Debbie Foster: social care inspector Inspection report children’s home: SC356868 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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Inspector

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Inspector

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Inspector

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