Children's home run by Outdoor Care Limited in Northumberland

Inspection report children’s home: SC000678 1 SC000678 Registered provider: Outdoor Care Limited Full inspection Inspected under the social care common inspection framework

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Information about this children’s home

The home is run by a private organisation and is registered for the care and accommodation of one child or young person with emotional and/or behavioural difficulties.

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Information about this children’s home

The home is described in the statement of purpose as a ‘crisis intervention service’ for one child or young person, with high levels of staff supervision.

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Information about this children’s home

The manager was registered in July 2010 and is appropriately qualified.

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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 requires improvement to be 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: 29 November 2017

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good

Overall judgement at last inspection: good

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good

Enforcement action since last inspection: none Inspection report children’s home: SC000678 2

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

29/11/2017 Full Good 28/02/2017 Interim Sustained effectiveness 26/07/2016 Full Good 30/03/2016 Interim Sustained effectiveness Inspection report children’s home: SC000678 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 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. (Regulation 13(2)(a)) 31/03/2019

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Requirement Due date

The care planning standard is that children–

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Requirement Due date

receive effectively planned care in or through the children’s home; and

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Requirement Due date

have a positive experience of arriving at or moving on from the home.

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Requirement Due date

In particular, the standard in paragraph (1) requires the registered person to ensure–

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Requirement Due date

that arrangements are in place to ensure the effective induction of each child into the home;

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Requirement Due date

plan for, and help, each child to prepare to leave the home or to move into adult care in a way that is consistent with arrangements agreed with the child’s placing authority. (Regulation 14(1), (2)(b)(i)(iii))

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Requirement Due date

In particular, to involve young people in planning for admissions and planning for leaving. 31/03/2019

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must notify HMCI of any revisions and send HMCI a copy of the revised statement within 28 days of the revision. (Regulation 16(3)(b)) 31/03/2019 Inspection report children’s home: SC000678 4 The registered person must appoint a person to manage the children’s home if the registered provider is an organisation or a partnership. (Regulation 27(1)(b)(i)) 31/03/2019

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must ensure that all employees receive practice-related supervision by a person with appropriate experience. (Regulation 33(4)(b)) 31/03/2019

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Recommendations

 The registered person should ensure that skills in safeguarding are gained, refreshed and recorded. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 43, paragraph 9.12)  Regulation 45 sets out requirements for the registered person to have a system in place which allows them to monitor the matters set out in the regulation at least once every six months; also see regulation 13(2)(h) (the leadership and management standard). The registered person should undertake a review that focuses on the quality of the care provided by the home, the experiences of children living there and the impact the care is having on outcomes and improvements for the children. Reviews should be underpinned by the Quality Standards as described in regulations 5 to 14. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 64, paragraph 15.2)

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Recommendations

In particular, to improve the recording of the opinions of children, their parents, placing authorities and staff. Inspection report children’s home: SC000678 5

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

The home provides crisis placements for children and young people with complex needs in a rural and isolated location. There have been three children and young people accommodated during the inspection period.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Most of the children and young people have made progress, albeit from very low starting points and crisis situations. The staff have been able to build good relationships with the children and young people, and this has been positive. The staff offer calm, considered care, and are understanding and thorough in their approach. This improves the children’s and young people’s emotional well-being and feelings of stability. However, care planning for these children and young people has been mixed. More efforts could have been made to plan admissions with the placing authorities and with the children and the young people in order to ensure that they are better involved and engaged in the placement from the start.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children and young people have benefited from the opportunity to be out of their home areas and use this time to reflect with staff. This has enabled children and young people to reduce behaviours that were of concern and plan for their futures once they returned to their home area.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff have worked with the children and young people to improve their family relationships. This has enabled a successful transition back home for three children. The stability offered by the placement also enabled children and young people to re-engage with education. This improves life opportunities for children and young people.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

The staff have been able to provide good-quality, personalised work which has supported these children and young people well. They have also referred them for specialist support as required, and these psychological services have been positive.

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

The staff do understand risk and are able to make good risk assessments. They offer high levels of supervision while the children and young people are in the placement and therefore keep them safe within the home.

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

All of the children and young people who have been in placement during the inspection period have spent time missing from the home. However, staff have made good efforts to limit and reduce this. When children or young people have gone missing, staff have stayed in touch as much as they can or have searched for and located them. The staff make good efforts to talk to missing children and young people and to encourage them to return. They have worked with the children and young people to negotiate appropriate home leave and family contact, which has helped to limit the number of ‘missing’ incidents. Inspection report children’s home: SC000678 6 One social worker who has placed several children in the home was spoken to by the inspector. They were full of praise for the safeguarding efforts that staff have made when children have been missing, and felt that levels of risk have been significantly reduced because of the good work that staff have carried out.

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

The staff do provide appropriate boundaries and expectations for the children and young people, and do offer good advice and guidance. When children and young people have engaged with staff, this works well.

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

The staff provide a range of activities which some children and young people have taken part in. However, other children and young people have chosen not to take advantage of these opportunities, and staff have been unable to change this.

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

The leadership and management have been inconsistent in the period since the previous inspection. The registered manager has allowed the objectives of the home to drift away from providing ‘stable, safe, positive and supportive surroundings to young people in crisis’, as written in the statement of purpose.

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

The registered manager has not been good at care planning. Children and young people have not been involved in admissions, care planning and discharges. Care planning has generally been poor. The impact of this has been that placements have been allowed to drift and children have not had the opportunity to fulfil their potential.

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

The registered manager has not sent an up-to-date copy of their statement of purpose to HMCI.

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

The registered manager has also been the responsible individual, but this is no longer appropriate. He has promoted his deputy manager to the acting manager position, and they are now in the process of applying to be registered. This action has not been given sufficient priority and now needs to be completed.

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

There have been a number of other areas where management practice has not been as good as it should. Supervision of staff was not in sufficient depth and was not regular enough. Also, refresher safeguarding training was not sufficiently up to date for all staff. The Regulation 45 report did not contain sufficient evidence of wider consultation. Inspection report children’s home: SC000678 7

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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 difference 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: SC000678 8

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Children’s home details

Registered provider: Outdoor Care Limited

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: 16 Bondgate Without, Alnwick, Northumberland NE66 1PP

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Inspector

Colin Imrie, social care inspector Inspection report children’s home: SC000678 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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Inspector

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