Children's Home run by Sandcastle Care Limited in Lancashire

Inspection report children’s home: 1265128 1 Registered provider: Sandcastle Care Ltd

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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 a number of homes operated by a private provider. The home is registered to provide care and accommodation for two children. The home may provide care for children who have emotional and/or behavioural difficulties.

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Information about this children’s home

The registered manager is experienced and qualified.

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Information about this children’s home

Inspection dates: 14 to 15 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: 1265128 2

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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

seek to involve each child’s placing authority effectively in the child’s care, in accordance with the child’s relevant plans;

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Requirement Due date

seek to secure the input and services required to meet each child’s needs;

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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 (a)(b)(c)) 10/01/2019

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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;

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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

protect and promote each child’s welfare; treat each child with dignity and respect; provide to children living in the home the physical necessities they need in order to live there comfortably; and provide to children personal items that are appropriate for their age and understanding.

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Requirement Due date

(Regulation 6 (1)(2)(b)(ii)(iii)(vii)(viii))

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Requirement Due date

In particular, when action is taken to remove items from a young person’s bedroom, or to carry out checks throughout the night and prop open bedrooms doors, ensure that these actions are evaluated as part of a planned and agreed response and 10/01/2019 Inspection report children’s home: 1265128 3 subject to review and evaluation to measure their effectiveness.

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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 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; and

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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

(Regulation 8 (1)(2)(a)(iv)(v)(viii)) 10/01/2019

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

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Requirement Due date

In particular, ensure that strategies to manage and reduce risk are clear and followed by staff. 10/01/2019

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Recommendations

 Where children placed in a home are not participating in education because they have been excluded or are not on a school roll for some other reason, the registered person and staff must work closely with the placing authority so that the child is supported and enabled to resume full-time education as soon as Inspection report children’s home: 1265128 4 possible. In the interim, the child should be supported to sustain or regain their confidence in education and be engaged in suitable structured activities. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 28, paragraph 5.15)

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improvement to be good

Progress for children is mixed, with children doing well in some areas and not progressing so well in others. Similarly, experiences are varied, with children living through some poor day-to-day events, but also enjoying some positive experiences.

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improvement to be good

Children are making some progress in developing their independence skills. One child told the inspector that she had learned skills in ‘cooking, budgeting and could look after herself more’. Children are being supported to improve their social skills, for example work on good manners, and building positive relationships. One child told the inspector that ‘my relationship is better with my mum because of living here’.

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improvement to be good

Staff complete keyworker sessions with children on a regular basis. Sessions are creative and interesting and include quizzes to aid learning and understanding, in areas such as internet safety. Children are encouraged to be part of their own placement planning and detail how they would like to be cared for, including their cultural needs.

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improvement to be good

Specialist support is available to help children with their emotional needs but there is poor engagement from children. The emotional health of children has deteriorated since living at the home, with an increase in self-harming behaviour for some children.

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improvement to be good

Relationships between staff and children are strong and based on mutual respect. One child said, ‘Staff are like family; and rated them’ 10 out of 10’. Children feel that the staff care for them, and that they have their best interests at heart. On one occasion, staff went to great lengths to ensure that a child had a dress that they needed, to avoid disappointment and ensure that she could attend a religious family gathering.

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improvement to be good

Children enjoy holidays with the staff and activities are planned to give them enjoyable experiences and to have fun. One child said that activities ‘help me forget the bad stuff’. However, activity planners for children showed that there are some weeks when they have limited activities or engagement with the staff.

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improvement to be good

Children are not engaging with education. Children have been out of education for a considerable time and there have been failures in the statutory duty of the local authority alongside poor planning and a lack of coordination. A child in Year 11 has not received any education provision this school year. There is a lack of clarity between staff Inspection report children’s home: 1265128 5 and wider professionals about current and future plans for children’s education. Personal education plans have not been reviewed. For one child, the last time their plan was reviewed was November 2017.

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improvement to be good

The registered manager has not effectively challenged other agencies where they have failed in their statutory duties, and has not escalated her concerns through the proper procedures when there has been insufficient action. This has led to further drift in children receiving education. Furthermore, daily planners do not show any informal learning activities for children.

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improvement to be good

Risk management in the home has not adequately safeguarded children. Staff have not always followed the plans in place to keep children safe and the manager has not ensured that plans are kept up to date and reviewed and updated following significant events.

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improvement to be good

One child has had items, including her personal belongings, bedroom furniture and items of clothing/footwear and make-up, removed from her room to prevent self-harm. This has not been agreed as part of a written planned response with other agencies. The child is not aware when her belongings will be returned to her. Failure to review and evaluate this strategy means it is not clear how this action has reduced the risk of harm.

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improvement to be good

Furthermore, plans to monitor and observe the child during the night, to help keep her safe, have not been followed by night staff. Monitoring systems have not alerted managers to this, and the registered manager was unaware of this failure until the inspector examined the log book and pointed this out.

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improvement to be good

One child has used ligatures, which staff needed to cut an incident. Following this incident, medical treatment was not sought, contrary to strategies detailed in the risk assessment that states an ambulance must be called. Furthermore, despite this being a known and current risk for the child, staff on duty at the time of inspection were not able to tell the inspector where a ligature knife/scissors were kept.

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improvement to be good

One child expressed suicidal thoughts over a two-day period. A report of an incident of self-harm during this period did not evidence what action staff took following this disclosure and whether professional advice was sought. In addition, the self-harm log book, where all incidents such as this should be recorded, did not contain a record of this incident to ensure that further evaluation and monitoring of patterns and trends is considered.

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improvement to be good

The manager has worked with staff and mental health professionals to devise a multi- agency plan with the child that identifies triggers, preferred strategies and feelings of the child during periods of crisis. The plan ensures that the child’s feelings and emotions are considered, as well as actions best used to support her. Inspection report children’s home: 1265128 6 Restrictive physical intervention, when used, is appropriate and well recorded and the manager ensures that every incident is evaluated to inform future planning.

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improvement to be good

Incidents of children going missing from home are rare. However, during once incident, where a child was able to leave the property undetected, the missing from home risk assessment was not followed. The child caused an injury to herself that required hospital attendance. Following the incident, her missing from home risk assessment was not updated or reviewed.

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improvement to be good

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

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improvement to be good

The registered manager is experienced, qualified and has a strong commitment to improving the outcomes for children. The manager acknowledged the shortfalls identified throughout the inspection and accepted the areas of improvement and the breaches in regulations.

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improvement to be good

Monitoring and review systems are not yet robust. This has impacted on the managers ability to have a clear overview of all incidents and ensure that the staff are following safe care practices. This was evident when the manager was not aware that the night staff have failed to follow a risk assessment in place to keep a child safe. The manager was only aware when the inspector brought this to her attention. This is an area that requires improvement.

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improvement to be good

The manager has built strong relationships with the children. Feedback from children, professionals and members of staff was positive in regard to support, communication and advocating for children. One social worker said, ‘The manager is amazing. I am always in the loop and she is very focused on [child’s name] and her needs.’

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improvement to be good

The manager leads a team of staff who are keen and sincere about the care of children. Recently, some staff have expressed concern about their ability to support the children and keep them safe. The registered manager has responded with additional support for staff, including group supervision sessions with specialist support. These sessions have addressed strategies for supporting children and young people but also allowed staff to share their own feelings and provide coping and resilience skills for them.

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improvement to be good

Staff have regular supervision with their manager. One member of staff said, ‘Supervision is great. The door is always open if we have any issues.’

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improvement to be good

Training for staff is good, ensuring that they have the skills to meet the needs of children. However, a significant number of staff do not have the required qualification and have limited experience of children’s residential care. Staff are currently working towards the qualification needed.

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Information about this inspection

Inspectors have looked closely at the experiences and progress of children and young Inspection report children’s home: 1265128 7 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: 1265128 8

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Children’s home details

Registered provider: Sandcastle Care Ltd

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: 49 Whitegate Drive, Blackpool, Lancashire FY3 9DG

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Inspector

Jessica Forshaw, social care inspector Inspection report children’s home: 1265128 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 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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