Children's home run by Pebbles Care Limited in Leeds

Inspection report children’s home: SC056259 1 :

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SC056259 Registered provider: Pebbles Care

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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, which comprises a main home and a satellite home, is registered to provide care and accommodation for up to six children and young people who have emotional and/or behavioural difficulties. There is a manager in post, but he is not yet registered.

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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

Overall judgement at last inspection: inadequate

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requires improvement to be good

Enforcement action since last inspection: A restriction notice and four compliance notices were issued following the last full inspection. A monitoring visit completed on 24 September 2018 identified that the new manager has made some progress. Three compliance notices have been re-issued and the notice restricting accommodation has been extended for a further period. Inspection report children’s home: SC056259 2

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

14/08/2018 Full Inadequate 23/10/2017 Full Good 23/02/2017 Interim Improved effectiveness 07/12/2016 Full Outstanding Inspection report children’s home: SC056259 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 standard’. The registered person(s) 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— 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— 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 (2)(b)(vi)) In particular, to ensure that staff encourage children and young people to develop independent living skills. 16/12/2018

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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— 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; regularly consult children, and seek their feedback, about the quality of the home’s care. (Regulation 7 (2)(a)(iii)(iv)) 16/12/2018 Inspection report children’s home: SC056259 4 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

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Requirement Due date

positive responses to other children and adults. In particular, the standard in paragraph (1) requires the registered person to ensure— that staff— are provided with supervision and support to enable them to understand and manage their own feelings and responses to the behaviour and emotions of children, and to help children to do the same. (Regulation 11 (2)(a)(x)) 16/12/2018

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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— have the skills to identify and act upon signs that a child is at risk of harm. (Regulation 12 (2)(a)(iii)) 16/12/2018

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must ensure that all employees— undertake appropriate continuing professional development; and have their performance and fitness to perform their roles appraised at least once every year. (Regulation 33 (4)(a)(c)) 31/01/2019

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must complete a review of the quality of care provided for children (‘a quality of care review’) at least once every 6 months. In order to complete a quality of care review the registered person must establish and maintain a system for monitoring, reviewing and evaluating— the quality of care provided for children; the feedback and opinions of children about the children’s home, its facilities and the quality of care they receive in it; and any actions that the registered person considers necessary in order to improve or maintain the quality of care provided for children. After completing a quality of care review, the registered person must produce a written report about the quality of care review and the actions which the registered person intends to take as a result of the quality of care review (‘the quality of care review report’). 16/12/2018 Inspection report children’s home: SC056259 5

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must— supply to HMCI a copy of the quality of care review report within 28 days of the date on which the quality of care review is completed; and make a copy of the quality of care review report available on request to a placing authority, if the placing authority is not the parent of a child accommodated in the home. 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 (1)(2)(a)(b)(c)(3)(4)(a)(b)(5))

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Requirement Due date

* These requirements are subject to a compliance notice.

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improvement to be good

Since the last inspection, three children and young people have left in a planned way. There are now two children and young people who remain living at the home. Children and young people have mixed educational experiences. One young person is unable to attend college because of the distance and the time it would take to travel there. The placing authority has requested that the staff take him out on educational activities until an alternative provision can be found. Staff are open to this, but it has resulted in a disruption to the young person’s schooling and it is unknown when formal education will begin again. The other child is now attending and engaging well at school. Staff are not able to implement boundaries, which results in a lack of structure when children and young people are at home. Some children and young people spend significant time playing computer games as staff do not always limit their screen time.

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improvement to be good

Staff are not always successful in engaging children and young people in developing their independent living skills because young people refuse to take part in this work. This is because of the inconsistent care and a lack of boundaries. One professional said that staff need to be ‘more tenacious’. Children and young people provide feedback about their weekly menus and activities; however, staff do not seek their views about how the quality of their care can improve. Key working has improved, and discussions are now more targeted towards the areas in which children and young people need support, such as anger management. There is more engagement from children and young people in these sessions and they are going out more with staff on activities. This is helping them to develop relationships. There is significant progress in the repair and redecoration of the two homes and the garden area. The children and young people have picked the colour scheme for their

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improvement to be good

bedrooms and the environment looks more homely and comfortable. There have been Inspection report children’s home: SC056259 6 no incidents of children and young people damaging the home since the improvements.

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improvement to be good

Staff still lack a thorough understanding and/or insight about the underlying emotional and safety needs of children and young people. The compliance notice relating to training is not met. Not all of the staff have received safeguarding training relating to sexually harmful behaviours. Staff have not had guidance about how to deal with peer- on-peer allegations. There is no system to regularly test staff’s knowledge about how to respond to child protection concerns or allegations. Online safety training has not taken place. Staff are therefore still unable to safeguard children and young people from the dangers associated with social media. This is a key aspect of safeguarding practice in the home. Children and young people continue to be verbally and physically aggressive towards staff. Some staff report that they feel intimidated by the children and young people when they try to instil house rules and boundaries. This is because children and young

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improvement to be good

people do not have trusted and secure relationships with staff. Staff do not look at the underlying cause of children’s and young people’s behaviour and do not have the chance to debrief after an incident. This makes it difficult for the staff to discuss strategies to use, or to monitor the effectiveness of their interventions. The behaviour management system has been reviewed, linking incentives with the children’s and young people’s targets. It is too early to look at whether this is making improvements to the children’s and young people’s behaviour. There are no concerns about children and young people being at risk of criminal or sexual exploitation. There are no missing from home episodes and there is no known substance misuse. Risk assessments are now up to date and they outline the expectations of staff. These are updated by staff if and when further concerns are identified.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

The home has been without a registered manager for over 26 weeks. A manager joined the home shortly after the last full inspection. He is not yet registered with Ofsted. Not all compliance notices are met and there are other breaches of regulations. The manager’s focus has been on improving staff’s practice as well as reviewing documentation in the home. This has resulted in improved managerial oversight, but staff need constant monitoring, making it difficult for the manager to delegate even simple tasks. The changes made to procedures need embedding into practice. Several staff have left or are in the process of leaving the home. While new staff have been recruited, they are not yet in post. Regular supervision and team meetings take place, but the current team is not yet working together cohesively. This may take some time for the manager to embed a culture of openness and working together. Some staff’s training records are not complete, thus making it difficult to see what

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

Inspection report children’s home: SC056259 7 training they have received. The records also do not indicate when staff last had an appraisal relating to their performance and fitness to perform their roles. Staff have not received training in areas affecting children and young people living at the home, such as autistic spectrum disorder. This knowledge would help staff adapt their practice and gain strategies on how to support children and young people. Staff have also not received refresher training in important areas such as medication and first aid in order to ensure that their practice is up to date. There are also gaps in other aspects of safeguarding training that have led to some aspects of the compliance notice under regulation 12 being repeated. Staff have raised concerns about the behaviour and practice of some of their colleagues. This has led to an increase in the company’s investigations about the conduct and

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

performance of staff currently working at the home. The last review of the quality of care provided for children was completed in October 2017. It was due in April 2018 and is due again now. Consequently, the manager does not have an action plan and is working through the compliance notices as a starting point. The home is one of many owned by this provider. It is not clear why the leadership team is not working together to make quicker progress for children and young people.

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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 standard’. Inspection report children’s home: SC056259 8

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: 2 Wyther Lane, Leeds, Yorkshire LS5 3BT

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Inspector

Tina Ruffles, social care inspector Inspection report children’s home: SC056259 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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