Children's home run by Esland North Limited

Inspection report children’s home: 1276249 1 Registered provider: Esland North Limited

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Full inspection Inspected under the social care common inspection framework

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Information about this children’s home

This privately owned children’s home provides care and accommodation for a maximum of three young people who have a range of complex difficulties. The home will take children who have emotional and behavioural difficulties, including but not exclusively mild to moderate learning disabilities.

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Information about this children’s home

The registered manager has been registered with Ofsted since May 2018.

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Information about this children’s home

Inspection dates: 28 to 29 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: This is the home’s first inspection.

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requires improvement to be good

Overall judgement at last inspection: Not applicable

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requires improvement to be good

Enforcement action since last inspection: Not applicable Inspection report children’s home: 1276249 2

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

This is the first inspection of this home. Inspection report children’s home: 1276249 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 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

use this understanding to deliver care that meets children’s needs and supports them to fulfil their potential.

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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

In particular, ensure that all maintenance issues in the home are actioned and that there is outside lighting to the property. 28/12/2018

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Requirement Due date

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 positive responses to other children and adults.

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Requirement Due date

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

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Requirement Due date

understand how children’s previous experiences and present emotions can be communicated through behaviour and have the competence and skills to interpret these and develop positive 28/12/2018 Inspection report children’s home: 1276249 4 relationships with children.

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Requirement Due date

(Regulation 11 (1)(a)(b)(c)(2)(a)(ix)(xii))

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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, that young people are helped to understand the impact of violence and bullying between peers.

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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 homes day-to-day care is arranged and delivered so as to keep each child safe and to protect each child effectively from harm.

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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

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.

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Requirement Due date

In particular, the registered manager should review systems in the home to ensure that they are safeguarding young people. 28/12/2018

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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 28/12/2018 Inspection report children’s home: 1276249 5 promotes their welfare.

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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

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

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improvement to be good

This is a newly registered children’s home that experienced a very unsettled period when it opened. This meant that the quality of care was not good enough. The first cohort of young people did not have consistently positive experiences. However, the organisation recognised the issues and has taken action to address weaknesses. The management team has been reorganised, and additional support has been provided to help the inexperienced staff team.

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improvement to be good

At times, the home environment has been chaotic. For periods, it was not calm enough to provide a stable and nurturing environment. Staff were not able to consistently manage behaviours to enable young people to have a strong sense of security. This meant that unruly and challenging behaviours occasionally escalated, and young people did not develop a strong sense of emotional well-being.

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improvement to be good

Shortfalls in care provided to the first cohort of young people, who had a complex mix of needs and behaviours, resulted in some placement breakdowns. Having recognised the need for stability, the organisation has reduced occupancy levels, allowing time for the remaining resident to develop stability and establish healthy routines. The young person said, ‘I like it here. Staff are nice. They have helped me to settle and I know they would help me if I needed them to.’

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improvement to be good

The young person is now in full-time education. This is extremely positive given his history. Staff have begun to develop strong and effective relationships with him.

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improvement to be good

Inspection report children’s home: 1276249 6 Young people have not always been safeguarded in the home. Shortfalls in behaviour management have left young people in vulnerable and, at times, risky situations. Bullying has taken place.

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improvement to be good

Because the needs of the initial cohort of young people sometimes exceeded the skills of the staff, young people’s behaviours escalated. This led to significant damage to the home. While some maintenance issues remain, the majority have been rectified and repairs and redecoration have taken place. The home is now a welcoming and calm environment for young people.

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improvement to be good

During two incidents when a young person went missing, their risk assessment was not followed. Although staff looked for the young person, there was a delay in calling the police. Good strategies to respond to children who run away from home are not yet embedded into practice.

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improvement to be good

Notwithstanding these shortfalls, a social worker said, ‘Staff were professional to work with. Communication was good, and they did their best under very difficult circumstances. They safeguarded the young person as best they could.’

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

Although the manager is committed to young people and passionate about the care they receive, the quality of management is not yet good enough. Systems to monitor young people’s progress have not been robust. As a result, managers and staff did not have a comprehensive oversight of the quality of care provided to young people. This limited the ability of managers to recognise and respond to problems in the home.

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

Decisions to admit new young people while staff were facing difficulties in caring for existing residents placed significant pressure on the inexperienced staff team. The management team was slow to recognise that staff needed additional support. Staff spoke about the extreme pressure that had been placed on them. Staff morale has been low.

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

However, robust improvement measures were taken when problems became apparent. Managers are now in the process of re-establishing this home by providing additional management support, additional support for staff and better oversight. These measures are proving effective. All staff said that, in recent weeks, there had been significant improvement. A staff member said, ‘Everyone is now working together as a team and that was not happening before. The home is now being developed and it’s definitely going in the right direction. The changes were needed, and staff welcome the support that we are now getting.’

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

Additional staff training is giving staff a better insight into the underlying reasons for young people’s challenging behaviour. This supports the development of effective behaviour management strategies. Inspection report children’s home: 1276249 7

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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: 1276249 8

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Children’s home details

Registered provider: Esland North Limited

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: Esland Ltd, Suites 1 & 5, Riverside Business Centre, Foundry Lane, Milford, Belper, Derbyshire DE56 0RN

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Inspector

Davinia Lawton, social care regulatory inspector Inspection report children’s home: 1276249 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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