Children's home run by PIC Children’s Services in St. Helens

Inspection report children‟s home: SC022440 1 SC022440 Registered provider: PIC Children‟s Services 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

The home is one of several owned and managed by a limited company. The home can provide care and support for one young person who is no longer able to live at home with their family.

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Information about this children’s home

The home‟s manager left in October 2018. A new manager has been appointed and is to submit her application for registration to Ofsted.

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Information about this children’s home

Inspection dates: 22 to 23 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

Overall judgement at last inspection: good

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requires improvement to be good

Enforcement action since last inspection: none Inspection report children‟s home: SC022440 2

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

22/08/2017 Full Good 14/02/2017 Full Good 26/05/2016 Interim Sustained effectiveness 10/03/2016 Interim Not judged Inspection report children‟s home: SC022440 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

In meeting the quality standards, the registered person must, and must ensure that staff—

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Requirement Due date

if the registered person considers, or staff consider, a placing authority‟s or a relevant person‟s performance or response to be inadequate in relation to their role, challenge the placing authority or the relevant person to seek to ensure that each child‟s needs are met in accordance with the child‟s relevant plans. (Regulation 5 (c)) 28/12/2018

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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;

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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;

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Requirement Due date

help each child to understand the importance and value of education, learning, training and employment;

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Requirement Due date

promote opportunities for each child to learn informally;

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Requirement Due date

help a child who is excluded from school, or who is of compulsory school age but not attending school, to access educational and training support throughout the period of exclusion or non-attendance and to return to school as soon as possible;

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Requirement Due date

help each child to attend education or training in accordance 28/12/2018 Inspection report children‟s home: SC022440 4 with the expectations in the child‟s relevant plans; and

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Requirement Due date

that each child has access to appropriate equipment, facilities and resources to support the child‟s learning. (Regulation 8 (1)(2)(a)(i)(iii)(iv)(v)(viii)) 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. (Regulation 12 (1)(2)(a)(i))

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Requirement Due date

In particular, ensure that risk assessments are up-to-date and identify the current risk around children going missing from care and knife crime. 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 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

lead and manage the home in a way that is consistent with the approach and ethos, and delivers the outcomes, set out in the home‟s statement of purpose;

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Requirement Due date

ensure that staff have the experience, qualifications and skills to meet the needs of each child;

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Requirement Due date

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

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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

use monitoring and review systems to make continuous improvements in the quality of care provided in the home; 28/12/2018 Inspection report children‟s home: SC022440 5 ensure that the home‟s workforce provides continuity of care to each child. (Regulation 13 (1)(a)(b)(2)(a)(c)(d)(f)(h)) The registered person must maintain records (“case records”) for each child which—

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Requirement Due date

include the information and documents listed in Schedule 3 in relation to each child;

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Requirement Due date

are signed and dated by the author of each entry. (Regulation 36 (1)(a)(b)(c)) 28/12/2018

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must ensure that an independent person visits the children‟s home at least once each month.

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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—

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Requirement Due date

children are effectively safeguarded; and

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Requirement Due date

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

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Requirement Due date

The independent person‟s report may recommend actions that the registered person may take in relation to the home and timescales within which the registered person must consider whether or not to take those actions.

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Requirement Due date

The independent person must provide a copy of the independent person‟s report to HMCI. (Regulation 44 (1)(4)(a)(b)(5)(7)(a)) 28/12/2018

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must review the appropriateness and suitability of the location of the premises used for the purposes of the children‟s home at least once in each calendar year taking into account the requirement in regulation 12(2)(c) (the protection of children standard).

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Requirement Due date

When conducting the review, the registered person must consult, and take into account the views of, each relevant person. (Regulation 46 (1)(2)) 28/12/2018

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Recommendation

Inspection report children‟s home: SC022440 6  Ensure that the staff are familiar with the home‟s policies on record keeping and understand the importance of careful, objective, and clear recording. Staff should record information on individual young people in a non-stigmatising way that distinguishes between fact, opinion and third-party information. Information about young people should always be recorded in a way that will be helpful to them now or in the future. („Guide to the children‟s homes regulations including the quality standards‟, page 62, paragraph 14.4 and 14.5)

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improvement to be good

Care planning for the young person is not rigorous and this is compounded by the staff not having the most up-to-date information from the placing authority. Staff are endeavouring to build a positive relationship with the young person, but recent staff changes mean that they are now starting again to attempt to build his trust and confidence in staff.

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improvement to be good

Staff are aware of the young person‟s history and of his wish to return home to be with his family. Staff are trying to engage the young person in discussions around this to secure his views. However, this is providing difficult due to the young person‟s lack of engagement and reluctance to trust other adults.

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improvement to be good

The young person‟s progress with regard to his health remains an area for improvement. Despite discussions with him regarding the importance of attending healthcare appointments, and booking appointments, the young person refuses to go. Consequently, he is not up to date with various health checks, such as the dentist.

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improvement to be good

The young person has been out of education for a long time. He was attending an alternative education placement until the summer, when this ended. The placing authority requested a home tutor for him and this eventually commenced from the middle of October 2018. Currently, this is for three one-hour sessions per week to rebuild his confidence and levels of engagement. The young person is refusing to engage. Following discussion with the young person, the manager has worked with the tutor to change the days and times to encourage the young person to attend the sessions. However, to date this has been unsuccessful. A contributory factor is that the young person‟s education plan does not make clear what the young person‟s current education levels are. Therefore, this is hindering the ability to secure the right educational support. As a result, the young person continues to miss out on education, which will impact on his future life chances.

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improvement to be good

Furthermore, the home‟s daily plans are unclear as to the time the young person should get up when he is not in education and what the planned activities are for the day. Some action has been identified to address this, but it has not yet been implemented.

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improvement to be good

The young person is willing to undertake some independence work, for example bringing Inspection report children‟s home: SC022440 7 down his laundry and compiling shopping lists with staff. Staff identified that the young person is a more of a visual learner. Recently, they have introduced noticeboards to notify the young person about who is on duty that day and what is happening. This has resulted in some improvement in the young person‟s level of engagement with staff.

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improvement to be good

The manager and staff are supportive of the young person‟s family and acknowledge how important their relationships are to the young person. The staff ensure that the young person keeps in touch and this helps maintain his sense of identity.

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improvement to be good

The manager and staff have a secure understanding of safeguarding practice. They have an awareness of the vulnerabilities and risks for the young person. However, their understanding and planning in some areas lack rigour, in particular the manager‟s and staff‟s understanding, knowledge and planning about how they should manage risks associated with knife crime, threats to others and being missing from care. The current arrangements mean that the staff‟s responses to incidents differ and, as a result, this does not promote continuity of care or contribute to the safety of the young person.

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improvement to be good

Staff talk to the young person about how to keep himself safe when away from the home, and he keeps in touch with staff when out with friends.

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improvement to be good

The young person did not go missing from home prior to moving into this home. His social worker and others cannot identify any trigger that has caused this behaviour to now become such an issue. The staff follow generic plans for reporting the young person missing and for searching for him in the local area. The young person generally returns in the early hours, but was recently located in Wales. The manager called a meeting to discuss the new concerns. This took place during the inspection and provided greater insight into the reasons for this and the people that the young person is associating with. Revised plans are being drawn up to include improved and more timely staff responses to incidents of the young person failing to return home.

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improvement to be good

There have been no physical interventions in the home. The young person benefits from consistent boundaries. The positive behaviour of the young person is promoted and rewarded in the home. A restorative approach is taken to manage negative behaviours. This is helping the young person to begin to reflect on his behaviour and to make positive changes.

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improvement to be good

The young person lives in a warm, homely environment. Despite the staff‟s efforts, he has refused to personalise his room because he wants to return home to his family. Recruitment practice is secure and helps to ensure that young people are protected from harm.

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

Inspection report children‟s home: SC022440 8 The registered manager left in October 2018 and a new manager has been appointed. She will be applying to Ofsted to become the registered manager. There have been several staff changes in the home, resulting in a new team being put into place as of the beginning of November 2018. The staff are beginning to come together as a team.

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

The statement of purpose has recently been updated to reflect the new management arrangements and staffing. This is currently being shared with other professionals. Staff have regular opportunities for practice-based supervision and training. However, staff would benefit from training on county lines, and attachment and loss, to further inform their practice. The location risk assessment is out of date.

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

There are many shortfalls in the young person‟s records. This is because information is not current, is contradictory or does not tell the story of the young person‟s time in the home. This is compounded because the planning documents received in May 2018 are not specific for this placement and do not make clear of the placing authorities expectations about the care and support to be provided. Similarly, nobody appears to have chased the care review notes from August 2018. Consequently, the new manager is unable to plan as effectively for the young person as she might, because his needs are not fully known. On several occasions, records have not been signed or dated by the author and, overall, records lack clarity.

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

In the short time the manager has been in the post, she has identified the shortfalls regarding record-keeping, and she has plans to initiate additional training and support for staff. She is also aware that her monitoring of records needs to be comprehensive so that she can quickly address any issues. Monitoring by the independent person is improving. However, their reports are not being submitted to Ofsted in a timely fashion. The last report received by Ofsted was for July 2018. This does not promote transparency.

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

New management oversight procedures are being implemented by the senior management team. This includes revised supervision formats, target setting and weekly planning. The manager said that this was helping to focus her time and to prioritise the work moving forward. Staff said that they are being supported well by the manager and senior management during this transition period.

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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. Inspection report children‟s home: SC022440 9 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

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Information about this inspection

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: SC022440 10

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Children’s home details

Registered provider: PIC Children‟s Services Limited

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: 2 North Street, Haydock, St Helens, Merseyside WA11 0TW

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Inspector

Chris Scully, social care inspector Inspection report children‟s home: SC022440 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 looked after children, safeguarding and child protection.

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Inspector

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Inspector

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Inspector

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