Children's Home, Residential special school run by Sheffield City Council in Sheffield

Inspection report children’s homes: SC458115 1 SC458115 Registered provider: The Governing Body of Bents Green School

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Full inspection Inspected under the social care common inspection framework

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Information about this children’s homes

This home is part of a residential special school. It is registered to provide care, accommodation and education for children who have an autism spectrum disorder and/or complex learning difficulties. Accommodation is split between two areas: one offering residential provision for 52 weeks of the year, the other operating as a short- break provision.

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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 homes provides effective services that meet the requirements for good.

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good

Date of last inspection: 10 October 2017

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good

Overall judgement at last inspection: outstanding

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good

Enforcement action since last inspection: none Inspection report children’s homes: SC458115 2

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

10/10/2017 Full Outstanding 21/03/2017 Interim Sustained effectiveness 05/01/2017 Full Outstanding 23/03/2016 Interim Sustained effectiveness Inspection report children’s homes: SC458115 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, the 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

Before implementing or making an amendment which the registered person considers to be substantive to the missing child policy, the registered person must—

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Requirement Due date

have regard to any relevant local authority or police protocols on missing children in the home. (Regulation 34(5)(b)) 28/02/2019

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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—

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Requirement Due date

understand the roles and responsibilities in relation to protecting children that are assigned to them by the registered person;

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Requirement Due date

take effective action whenever there is a serious concern about a child’s welfare; and (Regulation 12(1)(2)(a)(v)(vi)) 28/02/2019

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Requirement Due date

If the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005(a) applies to the home—

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Requirement Due date

the registered person must ensure that the requirements of that Order and any regulations made under it, except for article 23 (duties of employees), are complied with in respect of the home. (Regulation 25(2)(b))

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Requirement Due date

Ensure that persons working at the home, children and young people are made aware of the procedure to be followed in case of a fire through the use of regular fire drills. 30/04/2019 Inspection report children’s homes: SC458115 4

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Recommendations

 Staff should continually and actively assess the risks to each child and the arrangements in place to protect them. Where there are safeguarding concerns for a child, their placement plan, agreed between the home and their placing authority, must include details of the steps the home will take to manage any assessed risks on a day-to-day basis. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 42, paragraph 9.5)  The registered person should have a workforce plan which can fulfil the workforce-related requirements of regulation 16, schedule 1 (paragraphs 19 and 20). The plan should: – detail the processes and agreed timescales for staff to achieve induction, probation and any core training (such as safeguarding, health and safety and mandatory qualifications). The registered person should ensure that staff can access appropriate facilities and resources to support their training needs, and should understand the key role

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Recommendations

they play in the training and development of staff in the home. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 53, paragraphs 10.8 and 10.11)  Medicines must be administered in line with a medically approved protocol. Records must be kept of the administration of all medication, which includes occasions when prescribed medication is refused. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 35, paragraph 7.15) In particular, the manager should ensure that the home’s non-prescribed medication is labelled and stored safely, and audited centrally and on the individual’s medicine administration record.  Children should be encouraged by staff to see the home’s records as ‘living documents’ supporting them to view and contribute to the record in a way that reflects their voice on a regular basis. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations

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Recommendations

including the quality standards’, page 58, paragraph 11.19)  Staff should be familiar with the home’s policies on record keeping and understand the importance of careful, objective and clear recording. Staff should record information on individual children in a non-stigmatising way that distinguishes between fact, opinion and third-party information. Information about the child must always be recorded in a way that will be helpful to the child. Children should be actively encouraged to read their records and to add further information to them. They should be regularly reminded of their rights to see information kept about them and be given information about how they might be supported to access their records in later life. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 42, paragraphs 14.4 and 14.6) Inspection report children’s homes: SC458115 5

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

The children and young people have excellent relationships with staff who know them very well. They have effectively ‘grown up’ in the care of the same staff group. This has enabled the staff to tailor care to meet the children’s and young people’s very complex needs. The children and young people feel valued because the staff listen to them and invest time in them.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

The children and young people have care and behaviour management plans that enable the staff to understand their complex needs. The care planning process for some children and young people lacks a child-centred approach; their participation, voice and opinions about the way they are cared for would help them to be more involved in decisions about their lives. A recommendation has been made at this inspection.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

The children and young people access a range of activities, such as trips to the seaside, attending a Grand Prix, staying at football camps, visiting local beauty spots, swimming and going to the cinema. Participation in these activities improves their life experiences. Whether a child or young person is receiving a short break or living permanently at the home, they feel a sense of belonging. They make measurable progress and have lots of first-time experiences.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

The children and young people are very much involved in their community and they are valued members of society. They learn a range of skills which help them to be as independent as possible now, and will enable them to be independent in later life. These skills include washing their hair, travelling on public transport, shopping and budgeting.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

The children and young people are well supported emotionally. The staff work with specialist mental health services to make sure that the children and young people receive the support they need. Staff adopt clear and consistent boundaries that have helped many of the children and young people to manage their anxieties and conflicts in a more productive way.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

The children’s and young people’s physical health is prioritised. The staff promote exercise and a healthy diet. The storage, recording and auditing of medication which is required as and when necessary are not consistent. Consequently, it is hard for staff to monitor its usage. A recommendation has been made at this inspection.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

The children’s and young people’s attendance and engagement in education vary. The staff team makes every effort to encourage the young people to attend, and helps them to learn the importance of education. Through close work with partner agencies, alternative learning opportunities are provided for one young person who refuses to engage in education due to their complex needs. Inspection report children’s homes: SC458115 6 Transitions are well planned and well coordinated. Young people who have moved on to adult services have been fully supported. Young people have coped well with this momentous change because of planned visits, family involvement and professional support.

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

Children and young people respond well to consistent boundaries. The staff utilise their strong relationships, skills and knowledge to manage incidents of challenging behaviour. Staff understand the children’s and young people’s triggers. The staff use effective distraction and de-escalation techniques that defuse situations without the need to use physical intervention.

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

All the children and young people have risk assessments that identify known risks and vulnerabilities. The assessments for some children and young people do not make it clear whether risks are current or historic. Actions that staff should take to reduce risks are not specific in the risk assessments, for example, instructions for staff to take were not clear when a young person was recently in the company of an individual who was carrying a knife. Furthermore, risk assessments do not make it clear whether the child or young person fully understands the risks associated with the actions of others, such as types of exploitation. The manager has taken this on board and all staff are due to be trained in Signs of Safety. A recommendation has been raised at this inspection to improve the quality of the information recorded in the risk assessments and the understanding of risks and strategies in the risk assessments.

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

All children and young people attending the short-break service feel very safe and secure. Staff support the children and young people to take age-appropriate risks as part of their development and their journeys towards independence. An independent reviewing officer commented: ‘[Name of child] has made very positive progress in the placement. Staff support the contact with his parents. His independence skills have improved enormously.’

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

The recording of fire drills does not always clearly identify which children and staff have taken part in the drills. This is not helping the staff to identify that all children have participated in a fire drill to test their ability to evacuate safely. A requirement has been made at this inspection.

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

Children and young people do not go missing from the home. Since the last inspection, there have only been two incidents of a young person going missing from home. On both occasions, there was a well-coordinated multi-agency response. Such early intervention resulted in a reduction in possible harm. To enable searches for children or young people who go missing from the home to be effective, the manager needs to implement in full the requirements of the statutory guidance to include a missing person history profile that is in line with the protocol. A requirement has been made at this inspection. Inspection report children’s homes: SC458115 7

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The manager is suitably qualified and experienced, and continues to have ambition and high expectations of the staff in their delivery of good-quality individualised care. Staff know the children and young people very well. Staffing ratios ensure that the safety and well-being of all the children and young people are given priority.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Managers and staff can verbally confirm the progress children and young people make. They have a comprehensive understanding of the children’s and young people’s complex needs and vulnerabilities and this is well documented in behaviour management plans.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The objectives and targets set for children and young people are wide and unrealistic, making it difficult to measure and celebrate success. The monitoring of progress is hindered because small and achievable targets are not set. The deputy manager is actively addressing this in order to improve the quality of practice in this area.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Supervision is regular and all staff have had their annual performance reviews. Daily coordination and handover meetings ensure that there is effective sharing of information. This ensures that staff work collaboratively in providing consistency of care.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Some staff have not completed mandatory safeguarding training within their first year of employment. However, the assistant manager acknowledged that it was covered during induction at a basic level and staff were clear about their safeguarding responsibilities, such as whistle-blowing and acting on child protection concerns.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Wider risks to children, such as county lines, knife crime and criminal exploitation, have also not been covered and these correspond to the current risks of one young person. A recommendation has been made at this inspection.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Retention of staff is good and the use of agency staff is kept to a minimum. When agency staff are used, appropriate checks in line with safe recruitment practices are being applied. This ensures that children and young people are being cared for by an appropriately vetted workforce.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Recording systems are haphazard. Some information relating to the children and young people is difficult to pinpoint, for example key-work sessions are recorded in different places. This makes it difficult to monitor the children’s and young people’s progress and evaluate practice. Despite the home being effectively managed, there is capacity for improvement in this area.

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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 homes: SC458115 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 homes 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 homes: SC458115 9

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Children’s homes details

Provision sub-type: Residential special school

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Children’s homes details

Registered provider: The Governing Body of Bents Green School

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Inspectors

Cath Sikakana: social care inspector Jamie Richardson: social care inspector Inspection report children’s homes: SC458115 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 children looked after, safeguarding and child protection.

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Inspectors

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Inspectors

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Inspectors

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