Children's home run by Nottinghamshire County Council

Inspection report children’s home: SC044692 1 SC044692 Registered provider: Nottinghamshire County Council

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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, which is a local authority provision, provides care and accommodation for up to four children and young people who have emotional and/or behavioural difficulties and/or a learning disability. The home’s manager is yet to registered with Ofsted.

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Information about this children’s home

Inspection dates: 18 to 19 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 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: 8 February 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: SC044692 2

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

08/02/2018 Full Outstanding 21/03/2017 Interim Sustained effectiveness 07/12/2016 Full Outstanding 24/02/2016 Interim Sustained effectiveness Inspection report children’s home: SC044692 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—

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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

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—

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Requirement Due date

help each child to understand how to keep safe;

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Requirement Due date

have the skills to identify and act upon signs that a child is at risk of harm;

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Requirement Due date

manage relationships between children to prevent them from harming each other; and

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Requirement Due date

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

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Requirement Due date

(Regulation 12 (1)(2)(a)(ii)(iii)(iv)(vi)) 05/02/2019

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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 the effectiveness of the home’s child protection policies is monitored regularly. 05/02/2019 Inspection report children’s home: SC044692 4 (Regulation 12 (1)(2)(e))

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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 staff work as a team where appropriate;

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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’s workforce provides continuity of care to 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

demonstrate that practice in the home is informed and improved by taking into account and acting on feedback on the experiences of children, including complaints received;

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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.

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Requirement Due date

(Regulation 13 (1)(a)(b)(2)(b)(c)(e)(f)(g)(ii)(h)) 05/02/2019

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Requirement Due date

The positive relationships standard is that children are helped to develop, and to benefit from, relationships based on mutual respect and trust; an understanding about acceptable behaviour; and positive responses to other children and adults.

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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, in a way that is appropriate according to the child’s age and understanding, personal, sexual and social relationships, and how those relationships can be supportive or harmful.

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Requirement Due date

(Regulation 11 (1)(a)(b)(c)(2)(a)(vi)) 05/02/2019 Inspection report children’s home: SC044692 5 * These requirements are subject to a compliance notice.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: inadequate

The quality of children’s experiences at the home has been affected by poor safeguarding practice and by turbulence and change within the staff and management team. Children are not being kept safe and children do not feel safe in this home.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: inadequate

Children poor routines. There is little evidence of staff responding consistently to support and encourage good routines, such as the use of incentives or rewards.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: inadequate

One child’s current education arrangements are significantly below the statutory requirement and staff have not ensured that the child engages with the education plan. Two children have not been in education for part of the autumn term, and only one has education planned for the spring term. Children do not have planned, robust educational or recreational activities in place for them to support their progress and development. This lack of purposeful activity shows a lack of ambition for children by staff.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: inadequate

Some work has been carried out with children to develop their skills to support transition plans. Social workers have expressed concerns that recently this work has been less effective.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: inadequate

Children have raised complaints with home staff, managers and their social workers about changes in staffing at the home and the lack of opportunities to spend time with staff known to them, such as their key workers. This does not support children to develop safe and secure relationships.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: inadequate

Staff and managers are not adhering to the home’s complaints procedure and are not systematically recording children’s views. As such, it is not clear that children’s views have been responded to, or what has changed as a result of their views being shared. This does not support children in feeling listened to.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: inadequate

Some children are leaving the home throughout the night and are returning to the home under the influence of substances. There is not a robust, consistent response to children’s use of substances.

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

There is poor staff practice, and poor oversight of practice by managers, in respect of behaviour management and risk management. Children’s individual needs are not well understood by staff and children’s plans, including risk management plans, are not adhered to by staff. Inconsistent responses to children’s needs and behaviours by staff make children feel unsafe. Inspection report children’s home: SC044692 6 There have been several incidents of sexualised and sexually harmful behaviour by two children. Child protection procedures have not been followed. Staff and managers have not understood and have not responded to the harmful nature of these behaviours.

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

Staff have not received essential training in areas of practice relating to children’s needs. Specifically, staff have not received training regarding children who display sexually harmful behaviours. In addition, children have not received specialist support to assess and address harmful behaviours.

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

There have been several incidents of violence towards staff and threats of harm to staff and children from children. Staff are not using known information to predict and manage risk of harm. Staff are not intervening at the right time and are not using physical intervention with confidence, when necessary and appropriate, to manage the risk of harm. This has resulted in children’s behaviours escalating and the police being called to provide assistance. One incident resulted in serious harm to a member of staff and this was distressing for the staff and children involved.

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

There have been admissions to the home that have not taken into consideration the needs and behaviours of the children already living at the home, or the likelihood of increased risk because of the combination of needs and risks. This has resulted in poor outcomes for children. Two children have moved on from the home in an unplanned way. A third child is in the process of moving from the home because of increased risks in her behaviours.

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

There have been occasions when children have made allegations of harm against staff and procedures have not been followed, or there has been an unhelpful delay in reporting concerns. This has not ensured the safety and welfare of children.

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

Children complained to the inspector about experiencing staff being negative about other members of staff in front of them. Children also complained about staff speaking in an abusive way to them. They said that they had reported this to managers. These concerns have recently been responded to, following a member of staff raising similar concerns.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

There has not been a registered manager in this home for over 26 weeks. The arrangements for management cover at the home, while recruitment has taken place, have not been sufficiently robust. There has not been effective oversight and monitoring of safe care and the progress of children.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

A new manager has been appointed as the home’s manager. She has received some support from a manager of another home. Together, they have started to review systems and records and have identified areas for improvement in staff skills, knowledge and practice. Inspection report children’s home: SC044692 7 The quality of care has been adversely affected due to changes of staff and managers at the home. There has been an increase in the use of relief staff and agency staff because of staff leaving, staff performance issues and staff sickness. The lack of stability in the staff group has exacerbated inconsistent responses to children’s needs.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

Children and social workers have complained about poor communication, children not feeling listened to and reduced access to individual time with staff and activities for children.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

As a result of poor management oversight, there has been no analysis of incidents to inform the assessment of children’s needs and response to them. Incidents of concern have not led to a notification to HMCI and have not been referred to the local authority for child protection discussions. This has not kept children safe.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

When children have been involved in a concerning incident, there has been little follow up or direct work carried out with them. When there has been individual work, it is generally of poor quality, with no assessment of the impact on the child’s welfare or their progress.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

There is a need for improvement in the quality of monitoring mechanisms within the home. The reports by the independent visitor are not sufficiently critical and robust, and they do not include recommendations to improve practice and outcomes for children.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

There is a need for improvement in staff cohesion. Some staff have reported a divisive culture within the home. Staff are not applying policies and procedures consistently. As a result, there are different approaches to behaviour and risk management. Some staff are resisting change and performance management. Staff are not functioning as a team and this is having a detrimental effect on children’s experiences in the home.

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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: SC044692 8

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: Nottinghamshire County Council, County Hall, Loughborough Road, West Bridgford, Nottingham NG2 7QP

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Inspector:

Cathey Moriarty, social care regulatory inspector Inspection report children’s home: SC044692 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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