Children's home run by Witherslack Group Limited in Westmorland and Furness

Inspection report children’s home: SC480422 1 SC480422 Registered provider: Witherslack Group 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

Inspection dates: 12 to 13 December 2018

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Overall experiences and progress of

children and young people, taking into account

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good

How well children and young people are helped and protected good

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good

The effectiveness of leaders and managers good

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good

The children’s home provides effective services that meet the requirements for good.

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good

Date of last inspection: 20 November 2017

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good

Overall judgement at last inspection: outstanding

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good

Enforcement action since last inspection: none

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

20/11/2017 Full Outstanding 15/03/2017 Interim Sustained effectiveness 19/07/2016 Full Good 25/02/2016 Interim Sustained effectiveness Inspection report children’s home: SC480422 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

34 The registered person must prepare and implement a policy which—

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Requirement Due date

(a) is intended to safeguard children accommodated in the children’s home from abuse or neglect; and (b) sets out the procedure to be followed in the event of an allegation of abuse or neglect. (2) The procedure to be followed in the event of an allegation of abuse or neglect must, in particular—

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Requirement Due date

(a) provide for liaison and co-operation with any local authority which are, or may be, making a child protection enquiry in relation to a child accommodated in the home;

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Requirement Due date

(b) provide for the prompt referral of an allegation about current or ongoing abuse or neglect in relation to a child to the placing authority and, if different, the local authority in whose area the home is located. 24/01/2019

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Recommendations

 Children must be consulted regularly on their views about the home’s care. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 22, paragraph 4.11) In particular, any complaints they make should be brought to a conclusion in a timely fashion where practicable.  Children’s home staff should act as effective advocates for or on behalf of a child who may be experiencing difficulties with education, as a good parent would do. . (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 28, paragraph 5.12) In particular, engaging children in areas of learning where they are having difficulty. Ensure that staff continually and actively assess the risks to each child and the arrangements in place to protect them. In particular, that risk assessments are used to identify appropriate strategies to keep young people safe. The registered manager should use monitoring systems to monitor the effectiveness of these

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Recommendations

Inspection report children’s home: SC480422 3 strategies, including any preventive measures. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 42, paragraph 9.5)  The registered person should seek to establish a diverse staff team (promoting a gender balance where possible) with a range of interests, skills and experiences. They should lead staff to share those interests, skills and experiences with children to enrich the children’s lives. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 52, paragraph 10.6) Whenever possible, staff in day to day contact with children should include staff from the different gender groups. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 54, paragraph 10.22)

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Young people settle well into the home and make good progress from their starting points, with carefully planned admission processes in place. They soon develop a good sense of belonging and acceptance in an environment that is highly nurturing and friendly. One young person remarked from the survey that ‘I am lucky to live here and feel special here, staff are funny and play with me. I love my bedroom.’

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Young people benefit greatly from positive engagement in a wide range of activities that capture their curiosity and imagination; for example, the allotment area has been extended to house chickens. Young people learn about their habits and the laying of eggs, which they then sell for a small incentive.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Young people also learn new skills, for example using a range of tools to rebuild a path area at the allotment using decking material, giving them a sense of responsibility and independence at a young age. Photographs of this activity show that young people were happy to join in this venture. They also have fun participating in ‘bushtucker trials’, ‘fish- off’ activities and baking mince pies. These activities enable them to interact and build positive relationships with their peers.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Activities are extended to the local community, where young people are encouraged to pursue their interests and attend clubs, such as ‘Stagecoach’ and participate in parades and charitable events. They show good confidence and willingness to try new things out. Staff are on hand to guide and offer reassurance to children, helping them feel secure.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Young people’s needs are well supported by the detailed care planning in place, which provides good insight into their history and backgrounds. This enables individual, but realistic, goals and targets to be set. This involves close consultation with all partner agencies. On-site therapists, along with staff, play a crucial role in helping young people self-regulate their behaviour, deal with past traumas, develop positive interactions and build trusting relationships with people. One young person felt that his ability to control his anger had improved, as he was thinking more before reacting to situations, which is a good sign of progress. Inspection report children’s home: SC480422 4 Young people are fully involved in the plans; their voices are heard, thus ensuring that they feel valued and listened to. Young people like living at the home. One young person, quoted recently at a Looked After Child (LAC) meeting, said: ‘I am happy here. I

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

will be back where I started if I go back to Newcastle.’ External professionals give positive feedback about the home, particularly regarding staff’s knowledge of the young people.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Young people experience positive relationships with staff, who provide consistency and continuity as care givers within a settled team. Staff show considerable patience and interest in listening and talking through young people’s anxieties, particularly at critical times of the year like Christmas when they generally want to be at home with their families. Staff know the young people well, which enables them to respond appropriately when in crisis and give them all the support they need to keep them stable and secure.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Young people regularly attend the company’s school, which upholds the same nurturing ethos as they experience at the home. This provides young people with helpful continuity. They are making really good progress from their starting points; some children were previously non-attenders. While there are activities within the home such as quizzes that are beneficial to young people’s learning, there is scope for staff to be more proactive in promoting areas where they might be struggling, such as reading and mathematics. One young person said that he was frustrated that he could do algebra but not multiplication or division.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Young people’s physical health needs are routinely met by local practitioners. Young people are encouraged to make healthy choices that keep them feeling well and healthy. They enjoy cooking and preparing meals with staff, who actively encourage young people to eat fruit and vegetables. Young people are supported well in their hobbies and interests, for example benefiting from regular outdoor activities that include go-karting, football and swimming. Such activities enable young people to burn off some energy and for some, help feel relaxed.

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

Children feel safe in the home because they have built trusting relationships with staff and there are avenues such as regular key-work and therapy sessions where they can talk about their anxieties and fears, coping strategies and wishes for the future. Family contact is promoted particularly well within the home. Children have had overnight stays with family members, which had previously not been feasible, thus helping raise their sense of security and identity.

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

Staff demonstrate good familiarity with regard to children’s specific vulnerabilities and risks. Children’s individual risk assessments and positive behaviour support plans are logical, easy to follow and kept up to date. Risk assessments, however, are not consistently robust in that the strategies for staff to follow are not explicitly set out, such as the levels of supervision to be maintained when on outings with children. They don’t always show that all preventive measures have been identified to reduce the risk of incidents occurring, for example of children going missing. Inspection report children’s home: SC480422 5 There continues to be a strong focus on behaviour management, with good systems in place for identifying patterns and trends, including the frequency of physical interventions, which are used appropriately to protect children from harming themselves or others. Good use continues to be made of reward systems and throughout the

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

inspection staff encouraged and praised children for their achievements, thus raising self-esteem and confidence.

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

Staff understand the missing-from-care protocols and take appropriate action in response to associated episodes of going missing, initiating strategy meetings at certain trigger points. There has been an emerging pattern of one child going missing since his admission and he has influenced others in such behaviours. On occasions, children have resisted the temptation to run off, which shows good courage and resilience and an awareness of their own safety. The concern about missing behaviour has been identified as a priority area for the home moving forward, with the aim to reduce the number of episodes.

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

Staff use key-work sessions and debriefs with young people to raise their awareness of risks and educate them about the importance of keeping safe. Child sexual exploitation risk-assessment tools have been completed for all young people. While there are no known current risks of child sexual exploitation, staff continue to monitor for signs and indicators.

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

Safeguarding practice within the home is not always robust. Procedures in response to allegations made by young people are not consistently followed in the correct manner. There have been notable delays in making the referrals to the relevant agencies in a timely manner. Internal action outside of any lead agency advice has also been taken, thus leaving children at potential risk of harm and compromising any investigation by outside agencies.

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

Safer recruitment practice helps maintain the safety of children in the home. All staff are suitably checked and vetted to make sure that children are only cared for by staff who are deemed safe.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The home is led by a highly committed and ambitious management team that is dedicated in providing young people with the best possible care. Team morale is high. The staff team is settled and its members hold the managers in high regard. They feel listened to with their ideas and opinions respected. Through regular supervision and team meetings, staff are provided with high levels of direction and support, enabling them to fulfil their respective roles and responsibilities as care givers and mentors. Children warm to the staff because they are child-centred and highly attentive to their needs. This gives children the confidence to approach staff if they have any concerns or worries.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Internal and external monitoring arrangements are well established and working well Inspection report children’s home: SC480422 6 overall. However, there have been notable shortfalls in safeguarding practice with regard to procedures not being followed. While extensive work is undertaken to ensure that risk assessments are robust for all young people, these are not always effective in practice in preventing incidents occurring. To their credit, managers have taken full responsibility for this and taken heed of the advice given. There is a strong commitment to continually improve, which is reflected in the manager’s latest quality monitoring report, which is comprehensively written, clear and evaluative. The report provides a good evaluation of the home’s performance and the progress children are making. This has successfully contributed to the home’s development planning. Methods such as extensive data analysis detect emerging patterns and trends, which

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

along with stakeholder consultation has resulted in improvement. For example, the action plan references that the home will work with the school and resource materials closely to support young people in their education and acquire a tutor where necessary. This is an area also where the home can play to the staff’s strengths, as some of them have teaching backgrounds. The action plan also identified the need to address holistically the number of physical interventions for one young person where there has been a marked increase. There are positive indications that these are on the decrease. Through training and research practice discussions, staff develop their knowledge and understanding of key areas such as child sexual exploitation and county lines. This gives them a wider skill base on which to detect and act on issues of concern affecting children. The manager is adept at identifying relevant training to fill any gaps in learning

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

and upskill the workforce. He has recently secured funding for staff to attend training on ‘autism spectrum disorder’, which can only enhance their ability to provide better informed, individualised care for children with complex needs. The manager previously identified the need to promote a gender balance within the staff team, which still remains male-dominated. This should be an area for development moving forward. The home has a good record of compliance. The two recommendations made at the last inspection have been fully addressed. This has resulted in improvements being made to the condition and standard of children’s bedrooms. In addition, a young person has been selected as ‘home’s champion’, playing a key role in ensuring that bedrooms are kept in good order. Bedrooms are individualised according to young people’s tastes and kept tidy.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Regarding the system for monitoring and overseeing safeguarding allegations, improvement is noted in terms of the management team being more proactive in challenging and chasing up the local authority where there are delays in investigations. Complaints, however, raised by young people are not always concluded as quickly as they could be from the time that allegations are made. Management therefore needs to exercise vigilance in making sure that young people are kept informed of each stage of the complaint where possible to avoid any unnecessary anxiety.

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Information about this inspection

Inspection report children’s home: SC480422 7 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: SC480422 8

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Children’s home details

Registered provider: Witherslack Group Ltd

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: Witherslack Group, Lupton Tower, Lupton, Carnforth LA6 2PR

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Children’s home details

Responsible individual: Marcia McLoughlin

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Inspector

Michael Charnley, social care inspector Inspection report children’s home: SC480422 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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