Children's Home run by East Riding of Yorkshire Council in East Riding of Yorkshire

Inspection report children’s home: SC035499 1 SC035499 Registered provider: East Riding of Yorkshire Council

p.1

Inspected under the social care common inspection framework

p.1

Information about this children’s home

A local authority operates and runs this home. It provides care for children and young people whose plan is for them to live in medium- to long-term residential care.

p.1

Overall experiences and progress of

children and young people, taking into account

p.1

inadequate

How well children and young people are helped and protected inadequate

p.1

inadequate

The effectiveness of leaders and managers inadequate

p.1

inadequate

There are serious and/or widespread failures that mean children and young people are not protected or their welfare is not promoted or safeguarded, and the care and experiences of children and young people are poor, and they are not making progress.

p.1

inadequate

Overall judgement at last inspection: good

p.1

inadequate

Enforcement action since last inspection: none Inspection report children’s home: SC035499 2

p.1

Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

02/03/2018 Full Good 13/03/2017 Interim Improved effectiveness 13/06/2016 Full Good 29/03/2016 Interim Improved effectiveness Inspection report children’s home: SC035499 3

p.2

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 must comply within the given timescales.

p.3

Requirement Due date

*The protection of children standard is that children are protected from harm and enabled to keep themselves safe.

p.3

Requirement Due date

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

p.3

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;

p.3

Requirement Due date

have the skills to identify and act upon signs that a child is at risk of harm;

p.3

Requirement Due date

take effective action whenever there is a serious concern about a child’s welfare.

p.3

Requirement Due date

(Regulation 12 (1)(2)(a)(i)(iii)(vi)) 16/12/2018

p.3

Requirement Due date

The positive relationships standard is that children are helped to develop, and to benefit from, relationships based on—

p.3

Requirement Due date

an understanding about acceptable behaviour; and

p.3

Requirement Due date

positive responses to other children and adults.

p.3

Requirement Due date

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

p.3

Requirement Due date

that staff— 16/12/2018 Inspection report children’s home: SC035499 4 meet each child’s behavioural and emotional needs, as set out in the child’s relevant plans;

p.3

Requirement Due date

encourage each child to take responsibility for the child’s behaviour, in accordance with the child’s age and understanding;

p.4

Requirement Due date

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;

p.4

Requirement Due date

help each child to understand, in a way that is appropriate according to the child’s age and understanding, personal, sexual and social relationships, and how those relationships can be supportive or harmful; and

p.4

Requirement Due date

help each child to develop the understanding and skills to recognise or withdraw from a damaging, exploitative or harmful relationship.

p.4

Requirement Due date

(Regulation 11 (1)(a)(b)(c)(2)(a)(i)(iii)(v)(vi)(vii))

p.4

Requirement Due date

The registered person must ensure that all employees—

p.4

Requirement Due date

receive practice-related supervision by a person with appropriate experience.

p.4

Requirement Due date

Specifically, that staff receive regular reflective supervision. 16/12/2018

p.4

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—

p.4

Requirement Due date

helps children aspire to fulfil their potential; and

p.4

Requirement Due date

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

p.4

Requirement Due date

understand the impact that the quality of care provided in 16/12/2018 Inspection report children’s home: SC035499 5 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.

p.4

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—

p.5

Requirement Due date

helps children aspire to fulfil their potential; and

p.5

Requirement Due date

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

p.5

Requirement Due date

use monitoring and review systems to make continuous improvements in the quality of care provided in the home.

p.5

Requirement Due date

Specifically,  improve the quality of sanctions records and the records relating to room searches and frequency, risk assessments and the area risk assessment to ensure that they support safe and transparent practice  provide for ascertaining and considering the opinions of children, their parents, placing authorities and staff when carrying out the quality of care review. 16/12/2018

p.5

Requirement Due date

The independent person must produce a report about a visit (‘the independent person’s report’) which sets out, in particular, the independent person’s opinion as to whether—

p.5

Requirement Due date

children are effectively safeguarded; and

p.5

Requirement Due date

the conduct of the home promotes children’s well-being.

p.5

Requirement Due date

Specifically, they must ensure that the independent visitor explores safeguarding incidents and use the 16/12/2018 Inspection report children’s home: SC035499 6 information to provide an accurate evaluation about the safety and well-being of children and young people.

p.5

Requirement Due date

The registered person must notify HMCI and each other relevant person without delay if—

p.6

Requirement Due date

there is any other incident relating to a child which the registered person considers to be serious.

p.6

Requirement Due date

Specifically, notify Ofsted when information shared in multi-agency meetings relates to children’s involvement in risky incidents. 16/12/2018

p.6

Requirement Due date

* These requirements are subject to a compliance notice.

p.6

Recommendations

 Children should be actively encouraged to read their records and to add further information to them. They should be regularly reminded of their rights to see information kept about them and be given information about how they might be supported to access their records in later life. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 62, paragraph 14.6)

p.6

Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: inadequate

Weaknesses in safeguarding practice has exposed some children to an unacceptable level of risk. Some children are engaging in high risk and challenging behaviours inside and outside of the home. Strategies to reduce risk are not always effective. Some children go missing on a frequent basis and regularly misuse alcohol and substances. This has increased their vulnerability in the community to exploitation and offending behaviour. This is having a negative effect on their wellbeing and outcomes. Other children living in the home are adversely affected through witnessing their peers in crisis. They experience disruption when children return at all hours of the night.

p.6

Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: inadequate

Children benefit from positive relationships with staff in the home. While this is a strength, this can be to the detriment of the safety and welfare of some children. Staff do not always prevent them leaving the home, even when children are intoxicated, are at their most vulnerable and at high risk of harm.

p.6

Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: inadequate

There has been a decrease in anti-social behaviour from children at the home and with other young people in the area. Senior managers acted appropriately to reduce this Inspection report children’s home: SC035499 7 risk. They engage well with community leaders and local partnerships. This has been effective in diffusing tensions and improving relationships. Effective communication with multi-agency partners ensures swift operational responses from police when children go missing. There is a strong partnership commitment to risk reduction, although this does not translate well enough into individual safety planning and risk prevention.

p.6

Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: inadequate

Staff engage well with educational professionals to promote school attendance. Some children are making good progress from their starting points, others are not engaging and consequently progress is limited. Most children benefit from attending health appointments. This provides opportunities for them to seek the specialist support they need to stay well and healthy. While not all children engage with the support available to them, staff do work hard to engage them and offer support.

p.7

How well children and young people are helped and protected: inadequate

Not all individual risk assessments and plans are strong enough. There is weakness in the response to missing, sexual exploitation, alcohol and substance misuse. The staff team has not received training on contextual safeguarding, such as county lines and criminal gang activities. This limits their ability to consider risk prevention in its widest sense.

p.7

How well children and young people are helped and protected: inadequate

Children benefit from the care they receive from an experienced staff team and manager. Children are cared for and they are cared about. The model of care in the home is based on building trusting relationships with children. This does provide a level of safeguarding as children can speak to staff about the risks they face and their worries. This has led to some effective risk prevention. Staff try to use their positive relationships with children to stop them from leaving the home. This is not effective when children are at their most vulnerable and highest level of risk. This results in a reluctance by staff to physically intervene to safeguard children. Children are not always prevented from leaving the home when intoxicated and/or under the influence of substances. While staff do try to follow them and monitor their whereabouts, this is not always successful. This has resulted in some children suffering actual harm and being at

p.7

How well children and young people are helped and protected: inadequate

a significantly increased risk of exploitation. A very recent and serious incident, had led the manager and other professionals to reflect on the extent to which individual children with escalating risks can be safeguarded in the home.

p.7

How well children and young people are helped and protected: inadequate

Managers and staff are working effectively with police and multi-agency partners to identify risk in the community. These strategies are beginning to reduce the very high number of missing episodes. Staff know their children well. Staff collate intelligence and information on local hot spots were children meet. Multi-agency partners together with the staff have successfully disrupted some of the criminal and anti-social behaviours involving the children and their peers in the community. Return home interviews offer children opportunities to discuss their reasons for leaving the home. This activity does not always translate into individual safety planning.

p.7

How well children and young people are helped and protected: inadequate

Sanction records do not consistently record the children’s views, and/or the effectiveness of the measures used. The locality risk assessment has not been updated Inspection report children’s home: SC035499 8 since the recent serious incident to ensure that the area of the incident is a priority search area when children go missing.

p.7

The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

Managers do not always ensure that systems to safeguard children inside and outside of the home are effective. When children are admitted, impact risk assessments are not always completed. They do not always consider whether the needs of the children can be met and safely managed. The needs and matching of children with others, is not explored thoroughly before placements are made. This has led to some inappropriate placements and has had a detrimental impact on the experiences and safety of other children. Consequently, some placements have ended more quickly than anticipated, and after some children have suffered harm.

p.8

The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

The manager has made improvements at the home and has addressed the two requirements raised at the last inspection. Improvement work has led to new bathrooms. The manager understands the need to obtain the children’s views when they make a complaint. There have not been any complaints since the last inspection. Staff confirm that they have good relationships with the managers and with each other. They work well together as a team. Communication with partner agencies is effective.

p.8

The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

Staff report they receive regular supervision and support. This is not reflected in their supervision records which show that supervision is infrequent. Records do not evidence that staff are helped to reflect on individual children’s progress or safety. They do not reflect discussions about individual management strategies.

p.8

The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

Internal monitoring systems do not evidence the outcome of consultations with children, parents and professionals that would help to inform service developments. External monitoring visits are timely but have missed opportunities to explore the current safeguarding practice. Information is not used to consider whether children are safeguarded effectively and whether their welfare is promoted in line with the regulation.

p.8

The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

The regulator has not always been informed about incidents of concerns through safeguarding notifications. This reduces Ofsted’s oversight about how the home is managing complex children. The recommendation relating to children’s active involvement in reading and contributing to their records has not been achieved. This is therefore repeated so that children can influence their plans. Some records relating to room searches indicate inconsistent and reactive practice and these records are not all signed off by the manager. Sanctions and risk assessments have gaps in the information recorded. They are not consistently signed or updated to reflect the current changes to the children’s plans.

p.8

Information about this inspection

Inspection report children’s home: SC035499 9 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.

p.9

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: SC035499 10

p.9

Children’s home details

Registered provider : East Riding of Yorkshire Council

p.10

Children’s home details

Registered provider address: County Hall, Cross Street, Beverley, North Humberside HU17 9BA

p.10

Inspector

Jacqueline Malcolm, social care inspector Inspection report children’s home: SC035499 11 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.

p.10

Inspector

If you would like a copy of this document in a different format, such as large print or Braille, please telephone 0300 123 1231, or email enquiries@ofsted.gov.uk . You may reuse this information (not including logos) free of charge in any format or medium, under the terms of the Open Government Licence. To view this licence, visit http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/doc/open-government-licence , write to the Information Policy Team, The National Archives, Kew, London TW9 4DU, or email: psi@nationalarchives.gsi.gov.uk .

p.11

Inspector

Interested in our work? You can subscribe to our monthly newsletter for more information and updates: http://eepurl.com/iTrDn .

p.11

Inspector

T: 0300 123 1231 Textphone: 0161 618 8524 E: enquiries@ofsted.gov.uk W: http://www.gov.uk/ofsted

p.11