Children's home run by Oracle Care Limited in Central Bedfordshire

Inspection report children’s home: SC356327 1 SC356327 Registered provider: Oracle Care 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 home is owned and operated by a private company. It is registered to provide care and accommodation for up to three children and young people aged eight to 18. Children and young people may have complex social, emotional and behavioural needs and require attachment-aware, trauma-informed care and support.

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Overall experiences and progress of

children and young people, taking into account

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inadequate

How well children and young people are helped and protected inadequate

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inadequate

The effectiveness of leaders and managers inadequate

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inadequate

There are serious and 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.

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inadequate

Date of last inspection: 11 January 2018

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inadequate

Overall judgement at last inspection: outstanding

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inadequate

Enforcement action since last inspection: none Inspection report children’s home: SC356327 2

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

11/01/2018 Full Outstanding 28/02/2017 Interim Improved effectiveness 26/10/2016 Full Good 15/03/2016 Interim Improved effectiveness Inspection report children’s home: SC356327 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— 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.

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Requirement Due date

The standard in paragraph (1) requires the registered person to ensure that staff—

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Requirement Due date

protect and promote each child’s welfare; and

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Requirement Due date

provide personalised care that meets each child’s needs, as recorded in the child’s relevant plans, taking account of the child’s background. (Regulation 6(1)(a)(b)(2)(b)(ii)(iv)) 04/01/2019

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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 that staff—

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Requirement Due date

help each child to achieve the child’s education and training targets, as recorded in the child’s relevant plans; and

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Requirement Due date

understand the barriers to learning that each child may face and take appropriate action to help the child to overcome any such barriers. (Regulation 8(1)(2)(a)(i)(iii)) 04/01/2019

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Requirement Due date

The health and well-being standard is that— the health and well-being needs of children are met; and children receive advice, services and support in relation to their health and well-being.

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Requirement Due date

In particular, the standard in paragraph (1) requires the registered person to ensure that staff help each child to— 04/01/2019 Inspection report children’s home: SC356327 4 achieve the health and well-being outcomes that are recorded in the child’s relevant plans. (Regulation 10(1)(a)(b)(2)(a)(i)) The positive relationships standard is that children are helped to develop, and to benefit from, relationships based on an understanding about acceptable behaviour.

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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

meet each child’s behavioural and emotional needs, as set out in the child’s relevant plans;

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Requirement Due date

help each child to develop socially aware behaviour; and

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Requirement Due date

encourage each child to take responsibility for the child’s behaviour, in accordance with the child’s age and understanding. (Regulation 11(1)(b)(2)(a)(i)(ii)(iii)) 04/01/2019

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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 that staff—

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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;

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Requirement Due date

help each child to understand how to keep safe; and

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Requirement Due date

take effective action whenever there is a serious concern about a child’s welfare. (Regulation 12(1)(2)(a)(i)(ii)(vi)) 04/01/2019

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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 helps children aspire to fulfil their potential; and 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

ensure that the home has sufficient staff to provide care for each child; and

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Requirement Due date

ensure that the home’s workforce provides continuity of care to each child. (Regulation 13(1)(a)(b)(2)(d)(e)) 04/01/2019

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Requirement Due date

The registered person may only use devices for the monitoring or surveillance of children if— the monitoring or surveillance is for the purpose of safeguarding 04/01/2019 Inspection report children’s home: SC356327 5 and promoting the welfare of the child concerned, or other children; and the monitoring or surveillance is no more intrusive than necessary, having regard to the child’s need for privacy. (Regulation 24(1)(a)(d)) The registered person may only employ an individual to work at the children’s home if the individual satisfies the requirements in paragraph (3). The requirements are that full and satisfactory information is available in relation to the individual in respect of each of the matters in Schedule 2. (Regulation 32(2)(a)(3)(d)) 04/01/2019

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must prepare and implement a policy which is intended to safeguard children accommodated in the children’s home from abuse or neglect. (Regulation 34(1)(a))

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Requirement Due date

Ensure that senior managers liaise with the designated officer to complete safeguarding investigations when staff resign from the organisation. 04/01/2019

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Recommendations

 The registered person is responsible for deciding what each review should focus on, based on the specific circumstances of the home at that particular time and any areas of high risk to the children that the home is designed to care for. There is no expectation that the registered person will review the home against every part of the Quality Standards every six months – registered persons should use their professional judgement to decide which factors to focus on. The review should enable the registered person to identify areas of strength and possible weakness in the home’s care, which will be captured in the written report. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 65, paragraph 15.4)

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: inadequate

Children’s day-to-day experiences are poor. Significant instability within the management team and staff team means that children do not receive good-quality care. This is detrimental to their development. Consequently, children have made little progress since the last inspection.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: inadequate

Staff do not ensure that children’s internal care plans reflect the aims and objectives of the placing authorities. They do not deliver personalised care that shapes positive attachments for children or that promotes their welfare. Children’s care is mostly driven by reactions to their negative behaviours, rather than pre-planned to reflect their Inspection report children’s home: SC356327 6 individual needs and support their emotional development. This means that the progress of some children has stalled.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: inadequate

The organisation operates its own independent school. This enables some children to benefit from easy access to specialist education facilities. When children are unable to thrive within a classroom environment, teaching staff provide alternative timetables and arrangements. However, these are ineffective. They do not address barriers to education or support children to re-engage in formal learning activities. The manager has taken steps to challenge this practice to ensure that teaching staff follow children’s education plans. Nevertheless, currently children are not making progress in this area of their development.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: inadequate

Staff support some aspects of children’s physical health. For example, they help children to attend general health appointments such as regular dental checks. However, staff do not take sufficient steps to help children maintain a healthy diet, and this has had a negative effect on children’s health and well-being.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: inadequate

The organisation provides therapeutic services to support children’s emotional well- being. However, for children living in the home, these sessions are infrequent. Consequently, therapeutic plans and practice do not help to stabilise children’s behaviours, build their emotional resilience or address their anxieties. Furthermore, insufficient action was taken to support a child who had experienced bereavement and loss.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: inadequate

Children said that their relationships with staff are ‘OK’ but also negatively reported on the frequent use of agency staff. This hinders children’s ability to form meaningful and lasting relationships. One child said, ‘Sometimes, I never see the staff again even if I like them and they’re good.’

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: inadequate

Since the last inspection, one child has left the home. This was not a planned transition, but the result of a period of disruptive, aggressive and risk-taking behaviour. Changes within the management team influenced these behaviours. Senior managers failed to help the child to understand the reasons for these changes. Consequently, staff did not provide personalised care to meet the child’s emotional or behavioural needs or that promoted their welfare.

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

Managers and staff do not regularly review and update children’s risk assessments or the strategies in place to manage and reduce risks. These documents do not accurately reflect children’s behaviours or the risks that they present to themselves or others. Current risk assessments fail to provide staff with clear guidance on how to support children or safely manage their behaviours. As a result, there has been a significant increase in children’s unsafe behaviours since the last inspection.

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

Support plans to help children to manage their behaviours and build positive Inspection report children’s home: SC356327 7 relationships are ineffective and do not meet their behavioural and emotional needs. Staff do not effectively address children’s challenging behaviours. They do not consistently encourage children to recognise and understand socially acceptable behaviours or take responsibility for their actions. This means that children are not motivated to change their behaviours because they see little reason to do so. Since the last inspection, some children’s behaviours have escalated and on occasion this has brought them to the attention of the police, increasing the risk of them being criminalised.

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

When children go missing, staff work with police teams and other agencies to quickly locate them and return them to the home. This swift action means that children are rarely away from the home overnight. Nevertheless, there have been occasions when staff have not taken appropriate action to prevent a child from leaving the home. This is despite staff strongly suspecting that the child did not intend to return. This failure has potentially placed the child at risk of harm.

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

The use of physical restraint remains infrequent. Staff only use this measure of control as a last resort to prevent significant harm. The manager ensures that staff complete records of these events in detail and include children’s views and comments. This enables the manager to review the effectiveness of the use of restraint.

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

The current manager recognises the importance of working in partnership with others to manage allegations of abuse or harm and to keep children safe. However, there have been two occasions when staff have left the organisation’s employment while subject to a safeguarding investigation. Senior managers in the organisation did not conclude these investigations or liaise appropriately with the designated officer. This contravenes good practice and safeguarding procedures and compromises children’s safety and protection.

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

The recruitment of new staff is not always safe. This is because previous employment references are not adequately verified. Staff files do not clearly indicate whether employees have previously been subject to disciplinary action or whether there are any safeguarding concerns. This lack of information means that managers cannot confirm the suitability of staff to work with children.

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

Staff monitor children’s movements using bedroom door alarms. There are no risk assessments in place to indicate why this restriction is necessary or how the use of these alarms promotes children’s safety and well-being.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

The home currently does not have a registered manager. The manager in day-to-day charge of the home has resigned her position and will shortly leave the organisation. Several care staff have also left in recent months, and the organisation has yet to fill these vacancies. This means that on a daily basis the home is dependent on the use of agency staff. Inspection report children’s home: SC356327 8 The lack of permanent staff and a high turnover of staff mean that children do not benefit from consistent care. They are unable to build meaningful relationships with staff that help and support their development or stabilise their behaviours. Since the last inspection, one child has been discharged from the home. Currently, only one child lives at the home, and the home does not have sufficient staff to provide care and support for any additional children. Nevertheless, the organisation continues to consider and

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

propose the admission of other children to the home. This is despite not having the resources to deliver care that meets children’s needs. Social workers and placing authorities are also concerned about this.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

The manager recognises the importance of providing staff with regular, practice-related supervision, particularly during this period of instability. She prioritises staff support, and continually reviews training and development plans. Permanent staff hold relevant qualifications or are working towards these.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

Improvements to internal monitoring systems are in their infancy. The manager is aware of the strengths and shortfalls of the service. Currently, the home does not have an action plan in place to support much-needed developments. Furthermore, the quality of care review does not adequately consider the effect that shortfalls have on children’s attachments, emotional well-being or overall experience.

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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: SC356327 9

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Children’s home details

Registered provider: Oracle Care Limited

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: Unit 54, Wrest Park, Silsoe, Bedford MK45 4HS

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Inspector

Jo Stephenson, social care inspector Inspection report children’s home: SC356327 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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