Children's Home run by Care and Management Services Ltd in Birmingham

Inspection report children‟s home: SC470457 1 SC470457 Registered provider: Care and Management 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

This privately owned children‟s home provides care and accommodation for up to three young people. The home cares for young people who exhibit complex behaviours as a result of their childhood experiences.

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Information about this children’s home

The home has been without a registered manager since July 2018. The acting manager has made an application to register with Ofsted.

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Information about this children’s home

Inspection dates: 10 to 11 December 2018

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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, or 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: 31 January 2018

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inadequate

Overall judgement at last inspection: good

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inadequate

Enforcement action since last inspection: none Inspection report children‟s home: SC470457 2

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

31/01/2018 Full Good 07/09/2016 Full Good 08/02/2016 Interim Improved effectiveness 24/08/2015 Full Good Inspection report children‟s home: SC470457 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 protection of children standard is that children are protected from harm and enabled to keep themselves safe. In particular, the standard in paragraph (1) requires the registered person to ensure that staff 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))* 27/01/2019

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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. In particular, the standard in paragraph (1) requires the registered person to ensure that the home‟s day-to-day care is arranged and delivered so as to keep each child safe and to protect each child effectively from harm. (Regulation 12(1)(2)(b)) 27/01/2019

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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. In particular, the standard in paragraph (1) requires the registered person to ensure that staff have the experience, qualifications and skills to meet the needs of each child. (Regulation 13(1)(2)(c)(d)(e))* 27/01/2019

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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. In particular, the standard in paragraph (1) requires the registered person to ensure that ensure that the home‟s workforce provides continuity of care to each child. (Regulation 13(1)(a)(b)(2)(a)(b)(c)(d)(e)) 27/01/2019

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must recruit staff using recruitment procedures that are designed to ensure children‟s safety. The registered person may only employ an individual to work at the children‟s home; or if an individual is employed by a person 27/01/2019 Inspection report children‟s home: SC470457 4 other than the registered person to work at the home in a position in which the individual may have regular contact with children, allow that individual to work at the home, if the individual has the appropriate experience, qualification and skills for the work that the individual is to perform.

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Requirement Due date

For the purposes of paragraph (3)(b), an individual who works in the home in a care role has the appropriate qualification if, by the relevant date, the individual has attained the Level 3 Diploma for Residential Childcare (England) (“the Level 3 Diploma”); or a qualification which the registered person considers to be equivalent to the Level 3 Diploma. The relevant date is in the case of an individual who starts working in a care role in a home after 1st April 2014, the date which falls 2 years after the date on which the individual started working in a care role in a home; or in the case of an individual who was working in a care role in a home on 1st April 2014, 1st April 2016. (Regulation 32(1)(2)(3)(b)(4)(5))

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must recruit staff using recruitment procedures that are designed to ensure children‟s safety. The registered person may only employ an individual to work at the children‟s home; or if an individual is employed by a person other than the registered person to work at the home in a position in which the individual may have regular contact with children, allow that individual to work at the home, 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(1)(2)(3)(d)) 27/01/2019

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must notify HMCI and each other relevant person without delay if a child is involved in or subject to, or is suspected of being involved in or subject to, sexual exploitation; an incident requiring police involvement occurs in relation to a child which the registered person considers to be serious; there is an allegation of abuse against the home or a person working there; a child protection enquiry involving a child is instigated; or concludes (in which case, the notification must include the outcome of the child protection enquiry); or there is any other incident relating to a child which the registered person considers to be serious. (Regulation 40(4)) 27/01/2019

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must complete a review of the quality of care provided for children (“a quality of care review”) at least once every 6 months. In order to complete a quality of care review the registered person must establish and maintain a 27/01/2019 Inspection report children‟s home: SC470457 5 system for monitoring, reviewing and evaluating the quality of care provided for children; the feedback and opinions of children about the children‟s home, its facilities and the quality of care they receive in it; and any actions that the registered person considers necessary in order to improve or maintain the quality of care provided for children.

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Requirement Due date

After completing a quality of care review, the registered person must produce a written report about the quality of care review and the actions which the registered person intends to take as a result of the quality of care review (“the quality of care review report”). (Regulation 45(1)(2))

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Requirement Due date

* These requirements are subject to a compliance notice.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: inadequate

Managers have failed to fully assess a young person‟s needs at the planning stage prior to their admission. This is despite the young person having a history of significant risk- taking behaviour, including being involved in a high number of incidents of going missing from care, experimenting with illegal drugs, displaying sexualised behaviour towards females and attempting to steal and drive motor vehicles underage. None of these known risks have been considered in the home‟s impact assessment. This significant failure to fully assess the young person‟s history has compromised the safety of the young person and of the other young people living in the home.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: inadequate

Managers have failed to ensure that young people receive care from a consistent staff team. The permanent staff team has been subject to frequent changes in recent months and, since 1 September 2018, 19 temporary staff have worked at the home. The manager told the inspector that this high turnover in staff has had a negative impact on the standard of care that the home provides to young people

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: inadequate

Staff do not provide young people with regular opportunities for key-work sessions. For example, despite a change in one young person‟s demeanour, staff failed to provide the young person with any direct-work sessions for three months. This unresponsive approach to care shows that staff do not demonstrate the necessary professional curiosity needed to help young people overcome difficulties.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: inadequate

Staff do not always ensure that young people are cared for in a nurturing and homely environment. For example, one young person‟s bedroom has no curtains and their bedroom needs a deep clean. Some food in the fridge is not stored safely and some food is out of date. This failure to address environmental factors detracts from young people living in a pleasant and homely environment. Inspection report children‟s home: SC470457 6 Despite the significant shortfalls identified during this inspection, young people do make some progress. For example, young people regularly attend school, and this is supported by close working relationships between staff and teachers. One teacher told the inspector, „Working together is a major factor in the success.‟

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: inadequate

Staff ensure that young people are supported to maintain links with people who are important to them. Young people are supported to welcome family members to their home and a parent told the inspector, „As parents we feel involved. They do keep us informed.‟

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

Managers have failed to ensure that risk assessments reflect the individual needs of young people. For example, two young people‟s risk assessments contain information that has been cut and pasted from previous residents‟ risk assessments. In addition, two young people‟s risk management plans assess the risk of sexually exploitation identically. This is despite their assessed risk levels being widely different. This lack of individualised care and poor management oversight prevents staff from taking the required action to safeguard young people from potential harm.

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

Staff have not ensured that risk assessments are updated to reflect significant events. For example, one young person‟s risk assessment had not been updated after they attended hospital following an alleged overdose. Another young person‟s risk assessment was based on a staffing level of two to one, even though they are currently on one to one. Consequently, staff are without the most up-to-date information to enable them to keep young people safe.

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

Managers have failed to act in response to a young person‟s fire setting behaviour. Managers have failed to ensure that the home‟s fire risk assessment is up to date to reflect an incident. Furthermore, managers and staff have not sought the advice of the fire officer on how best to safeguard young people in the home given that the levels of risk have increased.

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

Staff have not received clear guidance on how to manage challenging situations. For example, one young person who requires a high level of prescribed medication was suspected to be under the influence of an unknown substance. Despite the staff noting their concerns, they proceeded to offer him his prescribed medication without seeking medical advice as to whether this would be safe.

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

Staff have failed to follow guidance on the supervision of young people. For example, despite one young person being on a one-to-one staffing ratio, the young person was able to go missing from the home on three occasions as a result of being unsupervised for a period of one hour each time.

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

Managers have not ensured that staff who work in the home are recruited safely. For example, managers have not verified the reasons why staff have left their previous employment when they have worked with children or vulnerable adults. This means that managers are not completing comprehensive pre-employment checks to ensure that only Inspection report children‟s home: SC470457 7 suitable staff get to work with young people.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

Managers and staff have failed to accurately assess the risks that young people face or devise effective plans to manage these risks. Staff lack the necessary skills to ensure that they can safeguard the young people in their care. Because of significant failures found in the provision of care, Ofsted has issued a notice to restrict the admission of new young people to the home and also issued two compliance notices.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

The acting manager was previously the deputy manager in the home. He has applied to Ofsted to be registered.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

Managers have failed to demonstrate that they have effective oversight of what is happening in the home. For example, the acting manager told the inspector that he had not read the young people‟s risk assessments.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

Staff are not adequately trained to meet the complex needs of the young people who live in this home. For example, not all staff have attended training that would enable them to understand how to respond to incidents of self-harm or how to safeguard young people who place themselves at risk by going missing from the home. This means that managers cannot be assured that staff can accurately identify or respond to particular behaviours that are likely to occur.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

Not all staff have received the specialist training needed to be able to respond to a young person who may use ligatures as a means of self-harming. This is despite this being a known risk factor for one young person. This has resulted in occasions when there are no staff on duty who are competent to deal with such an emergency.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

Managers have not ensured that all staff have completed their level 3 diploma in residential childcare within the required timeframe. In addition, some staff have yet to be registered for this qualification despite working at the home for a period of one year.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

Managers have failed to notify Ofsted of a significant allegation by a young person. This lack of transparency prevents the regulator from having effective oversight of the service.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

The acting manager has completed a quality of care review for the home. However, this fails to consider the views of young people, staff or wider professionals. This means that this is limited in its support of service improvement.

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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 Inspection report children‟s home: SC470457 8 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: SC470457 9

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Children’s home details

Registered provider: Care and Management Services Limited

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: Park Business Centre, Hastingwood Industrial Park, Wood Lane, Birmingham B24 9QR

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Inspector

Tracey Coglan Greig, social care inspector Inspection report children‟s home: SC470457 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 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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