Children's Home run by Parkview Care (Broadstairs) Limited in Cambridgeshire

Inspection report children’s home: 1274846 1 Registered provider: Parkview Care (Broadstairs) Limited

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Inspected under the social care common inspection framework

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Information about this children’s home

This privately owned home is registered to provide care for up to six children who have social and emotional difficulties. The manager is registered with Ofsted and has been in post since the home was registered in June 2018.

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Information about this children’s home

Inspection dates: 14 to 15 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

Date of last inspection: not applicable, this is the first inspection.

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requires improvement to be good

Overall judgement at last inspection: not applicable, this is the first inspection.

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requires improvement to be good

Enforcement action since last inspection: none Inspection report children’s home: 1274846 2

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

This is the first inspection. Inspection report children’s home: 1274846 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.

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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

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)(2)(a)(i))

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Requirement Due date

This is with particular regard to ensuring that children’s risk assessment are accurate, up to date and make clear what staff should be doing to reduce the hazards children face. This includes, but is not limited to, risk assessing the night-time staffing arrangements. 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.

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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

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)(b))

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Requirement Due date

This is with particular regard to ensuring that compatibility impact risk assessments are accurate, evaluative and give comprehensive consideration to the potential impact a placement in the home may have on the child being placed and the other children already in 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— 30/11/2018 Inspection report children’s home: 1274846 4 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

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)(a)(b)(2)(f)) The registered person must ensure that—

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Requirement Due date

the privacy of children is appropriately protected;

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Requirement Due date

children can access all appropriate areas of the children’s home’s premises; and

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Requirement Due date

any limitation placed on a child’s privacy or access to any area of the home’s premises—

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Requirement Due date

is intended to safeguard each child accommodated in the home;

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Requirement Due date

is kept under review and, if necessary, revised; and

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Requirement Due date

allows children as much freedom as is possible when balanced against the need to protect them and keep them safe. (Regulation 21 (a)(b)(c)(i)(ii)(iv))

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Requirement Due date

This is with particular regard to ensuring that any restriction of access to a shared area of the home is based on an individual assessment of needs and risks. 30/11/2018

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Requirement Due date

The registered person may only use devices for the monitoring or surveillance of children if—

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Requirement Due date

the monitoring or surveillance is for the purpose of safeguarding and promoting the welfare of the child concerned, or other children;

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Requirement Due date

the child’s placing authority consents in writing to the monitoring or surveillance. (Regulation 24 (1)(a)(b))

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Requirement Due date

This is with particular regard to ensuring that risk assessments 30/11/2018 Inspection report children’s home: 1274846 5 demonstrate the need for all of the monitoring devices used at the home and that written consent is provided by each child’s placing authority for the use of door alarms. The registered person must ensure that all employees—

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Requirement Due date

receive practice-related supervision by a person with appropriate experience. (Regulation 33 (4)(a)(b)) 31/12/2018

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Recommendations

 Children’s home staff should take every step to make sure that individual children and young people are not subject to discrimination, marginalisation or bullying from their peers by virtue of their gender, religion, ethnicity, cultural and linguistic background, sexual identity, mental health, disability or for any other reason. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 16, paragraph 3.12) This is with particular regard to ensuring that plans, assessments and case records reflect and consider children’s cultural needs.  Children should have access to a computer and the internet to support their education and learning, unless there are specific safeguarding reasons why this would be inappropriate. In such cases, the home should consider whether and how it can support the child to access a computer and the internet safely. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 29,

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improvement to be good

The children are not yet receiving good enough help and protection. The characteristics of good leadership and management have not been consistently in place since the home opened. There are several areas in which the service needs to demonstrate sustained improvement. However, there are some aspects of good care in the home.

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improvement to be good

Ineffective, inaccurate and incomplete placement planning has significantly affected children’s experiences. The breakdown of a child’s placement is a substantial concern. The manager completed a compatibility assessment that contained inaccuracies and lacked evaluation. In addition, important information that would have influenced the manager’s decision was not gathered, despite the child moving from another home owned by the provider. This has led to a situation whereby the child’s placement is now ending. Consequently, the child will experience another placement breakdown, and another experience of rejection, all of which could have been avoided had an appropriate assessment taken place at the outset. Inspection report children’s home: 1274846 6 The children have only been in the home for a short period of time. It is therefore difficult to draw substantial conclusions on their progress. The children have begun to

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improvement to be good

engage with education since arriving in the home and this is positive. However, the children do not have access to the internet or to computers to support their learning.

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improvement to be good

The staff have started to support children with their independence. A baseline assessment is completed when children arrive. This is reviewed monthly.

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improvement to be good

The staff support children to have contact with their families. Families are positive about the quality of their relationship with the staff and manager. One child spoke of having good relationships with the staff. He feels that staff listen to him and take his views seriously.

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improvement to be good

The children have large, en-suite rooms. The building is tidy and generally well kept. However, the children do not have access to the kitchen at night-time as it is locked. There is no risk assessment relating to this. As a result, this is an unjustified restriction on the children.

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improvement to be good

Professionals speak positively of the service and the staff:  ‘They are extremely reliable in sending me detailed reports that give me a flavour of what needs addressing.’  ‘The workers are knowledgeable. We have a good relationship and she keeps me up to date with what is going on.’  ‘They are friendly, accommodating and professional.’  ‘I have been impressed by the staff’s support and efficiency.’

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improvement to be good

The approach to risk assessment and risk management needs to improve. The management team does not ensure that risk assessments are promptly updated, are consistently accurate, consistently identify or evaluate risks or give clear instruction to staff on how to respond to risk. For example, a missing risk assessment referred to contacting a child every 30 minutes if he goes missing. This child does not have a phone and the manager recognised that it was therefore not realistic to do this. An internet risk assessment spoke of ‘monitoring’ a child but offered no clarity as to what this meant and how this should be achieved.

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improvement to be good

One child has gone missing on three occasions. One of these occasions was at night. The home does not use waking night staff and the child was only discovered to be missing by chance. He returned shortly afterwards. The risk management strategy that was put in place after this was not sufficient and would not support staff to be able to respond quickly if the child tried to leave the home at night again. In addition, the risk assessment has not been updated to reflect the increased risk arising from a current missing episode. Inspection report children’s home: 1274846 7 Professionals spoke positively about the staff’s and manager’s actions when the children go missing. In addition, the deputy manager has been proactive in identifying specialist support for a child who is involved with gangs. A professional said, ‘Really importantly, she was able to give me info about gang diversionary work [child’s name] could have.

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improvement to be good

They were not waiting for others to do this.’ This increases the potential for timely interventions to be provided.

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improvement to be good

One child spoke of feeling safe in the home. He said that he can talk to staff. Parents and professionals also spoke about children being safe in the home. The children have one-to-one staffing. This ensures that during the day a member of staff is available to them.

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improvement to be good

The staff manage the children’s behaviour without recourse to physical interventions. A child said, ‘If I am angry they give me time and I can calm down.’ Consequently, there have been no physical interventions since the home opened.

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improvement to be good

The staff are aware of whistleblowing procedures. They are clear about what to do if they have concerns about colleagues.

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

The characteristics of good leadership and management have not consistently been in place. The provider has taken steps to address some of the issues, but it is too early to assess the effectiveness of these steps.

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

The service has experienced a significant staff turnover, with four permanent staff members recently leaving. The staff report this having had an inevitable effect on the service and that it has unsettled children. While new staff are being recruited, and children are experiencing continuity of care, the staffing capacity remains fragile.

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

The organisation has not ensured sufficient senior management oversight of the home since it opened. Prior to recent changes in service management, arrangements did not inspire staff, support staff or contribute to an appropriate culture.

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

The manager has not had the support or guidance she needs. Prior to the inspection, the manager had only had one recorded supervision since appointment. This was in the last month and followed a change in management arrangements. Other staff have received regular supervisions. However, they describe a procedural and punitive approach before recent changes.

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

The manager and the staff have a good knowledge of the children. The management team attends meetings and gets to know key professionals. This helps to foster positive relations and partnership working.

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

Most case records are clearly recorded and will be useful to children in the future. However, the children’s plans and assessments lack consideration of their cultural needs. This does not ensure that staff have the necessary guidance or understanding of how to Inspection report children’s home: 1274846 8 support the children.

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

The management team is realistic about the quality of the service. Its members recognise that further work is necessary to ensure that a consistently good service is provided. Visits by an independent person result in reports that offer challenge and have the potential to contribute to improvement and development 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: 1274846 9

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Children’s home details

Registered provider: Parkview Care (Broadstairs) Limited

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: Suite 56 The Brentano Suite, Solar House, 915 High Road, London N12 8QJ

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Children’s home details

Responsible individual: Christopher Holland

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Inspector

Ashley Hinson: social care inspector Inspection report children’s home: 1274846 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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