Children's Home run by Break Charity in Cambridgeshire

Inspection report children’s home: SC439153 1 SC439153 Registered provider: Break

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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 run by a registered charity, provides long-term placements for up to four children who have traumatic backgrounds and may have experienced neglect and/or emotional abuse. The manager of the home was registered in October 2011.

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Information about this children’s home

Inspection dates: 20 to 21 February 2019

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Overall experiences and progress of

children and young people, taking into account

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requires improvement to be good

How well children and young people are helped and protected requires improvement to be good

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requires improvement to be good

The effectiveness of leaders and managers requires improvement to be good

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requires improvement to be good

The children’s home is not yet delivering good help and care for children and young people. However, there are no serious or widespread failures that result in their welfare not being safeguarded or promoted.

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requires improvement to be good

Overall judgement at last inspection: good

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requires improvement to be good

Enforcement action since last inspection: none

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

17/07/2017 Full Good 17/01/2017 Interim Improved effectiveness 24/08/2016 Full Good 14/03/2016 Interim Improved effectiveness Inspection report children’s home: SC439153 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

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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are familiar with, and act in accordance with, the home’s child protection policies. (Regulation 12 (1)(2)(a)(vii))

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Requirement Due date

In particular, implement the whistle-blowing policy. 01/03/2019

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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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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))

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Requirement Due date

In particular, assess the risks for children and staff that are associated with lone working. 01/03/2019

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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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helps children aspire to fulfil their potential; and

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Requirement Due date

In particular, the standard in paragraph (1) requires the 01/03/2019 Inspection report children’s home: SC439153 3 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;

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Requirement Due date

ensure that staff work as a team where appropriate;

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ensure that staff have the experience, qualifications and skills to meet the needs of each child; and

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Requirement Due date

ensure that the home has sufficient staff to provide care for each child. (Regulation 13 (1)(a)(b)(2)(a)(b)(c)(d)) 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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helps children aspire to fulfil their potential; and

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

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use monitoring and review systems to make continuous improvements in the quality of care provided in the home. (Regulation 13 (1)(a)(b)(2)(h)) 30/03/2019

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Requirement Due date

ensure that each employee completes an appropriate induction; and

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that all employees receive practice-related supervision by a person with appropriate experience. (Regulation 33 (1)(a)(4)(b)) 01/04/2019

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The registered person must prepare and implement a policy (‘the behaviour management policy’) which sets out—

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Requirement Due date

how appropriate behaviour is to be promoted in the children’s home; and

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Requirement Due date

the measures of control, discipline and restraint which may be used in relation to children in the home. (Regulation 35 (1)(a)(b)) 01/04/2019

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must ensure that an independent person visits the children’s home at least once each month. 01/05/2019 Inspection report children’s home: SC439153 4 When the independent person is carrying out a visit, the registered person must help the independent person—

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Requirement Due date

if they consent, to interview in private such of the children, their parents, relatives and persons working at the home as the independent person requires.

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Requirement Due date

The independent person must provide a copy of the independent person’s report to—

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Requirement Due date

In particular, ensure that the report is submitted promptly to Ofsted, and that professionals’ and parents’ views are obtained.

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Recommendations

 The review of the appropriateness and suitability of the location and premises of the home should include the identification of any risks presented by the home’s location and the strategies for managing these. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 64, paragraph 15.1) In particular, ensure that the location risk assessment considers the risks in the neighbouring properties.

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improvement to be good

The quality of care has declined considerably since the last inspection. This is due to poor management and leadership. As a result, there are several regulatory shortfalls relating to leadership and management. The staff have worked hard to protect the children from these shortfalls. Despite the lack of effective and consistent managerial support, the staff are focused on children’s lives and the things that matter to children. Children enjoy the company of staff. They accept the help that staff give them and look to the staff for guidance. The home has a family feel. Staff provide children with warm, nurturing, parental-style care. Staff write to children daily to provide positive feedback and note their achievements. These actions help children to feel valued and to recognise their own progress. Most children experience minimal disruption and benefit from long placements. The children develop strong relationships with staff and enjoy quality time with them.

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improvement to be good

Staff support children to engage in education. Each child attends education well. The staff work closely with schools and alternative education provisions to meet children’s needs. Children benefit from trips out and regular holidays with the staff. Children make happy memories while enjoying new experiences. Inspection report children’s home: SC439153 5 Children have a voice at the home. Approachable staff and established relationships with staff whom they trust encourage children to express their views. Children’s independence and transition from the home are managed well. One child works part-time, attends college and has a strong work ethic. The staying put and staying close scheme run by the organisation has resulted in another child being well supported after leaving the home. She attends college and remains in contact with the staff, keeping them up to date on her progress. Children benefit from a spacious and welcoming family home that is maintained and

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improvement to be good

decorated to a high standard. Children take great pride in their bedrooms. They value the environment and use their personal tastes to create a sense of belonging and homeliness.

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improvement to be good

The registered manager has failed to manage an allegation in accordance with the home’s child protection policy. A member of staff who raised concerns was not taken seriously by the registered manager. The manager made no record of these concerns and failed to pass them on to the responsible individual, despite the concerns implicating managers at the home. This contradicts the organisation’s whistle-blowing policy. The responsible individual instigated an investigation as soon as she was made aware of the concerns. The manager’s failure to address these concerns and the delay incurred did not result in children being harmed. However, the disregard of safeguarding procedures discourages staff from raising concerns and has the potential to place children at risk. Children sometimes leave the home without agreement. Records suggest that the number of incidents is reducing. However, this is not a complete picture as record-

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improvement to be good

keeping appears inconsistent. For example, although one incident report indicates that a child left the home, the missing-from-home records do not include this incident. Inconsistent record-keeping makes it difficult to monitor incidents effectively. The staff manage behavioural incidents as well as possible. However, behaviour management has been compromised by the manager’s failure to provide follow-up work. Some staff feel undermined. Children who have caused injury to staff and damaged property are often given no consequences and do not do any restorative work. While the use of positive reinforcement is evident, failure to provide any consequences in response to negative behaviour gives children mixed messages. Despite this, children’s behaviours are generally good. Children like the staff and are guided well by them. Risks to children are generally managed well. The individual risk assessments include all

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improvement to be good

recent incidents. These documents demonstrate clearly what staff will do to minimise harmful behaviours. Most of the risks in the home’s locality are assessed and mitigated accordingly. However, the home’s location risk assessment does not assess the risk presented by substance misuse, despite evidence of this in the immediate vicinity. Consequently, staff may not all be aware of potential concerns and how to mitigate them. There have been some extremely difficult dynamics between children. Two of the children were not compatible or safe together because there were several incidents of harmful behaviour. The manager requested that the local authority moved one child, and Inspection report children’s home: SC439153 6 senior managers offered alternative placements for the child within the organisation. Managers made it clear that, together, the children presented a high level of risk that was not manageable. Despite the staff’s best efforts, and the use of door alarms, there

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improvement to be good

were several incidents in which the children were found alone together. While this was acknowledged as serious and harmful, moving a child required time and planning. Repeated changes to staffing at the placing authority delayed the moving plans. When a suitable placement was found, the child was moved in a prepared and planned way. Feedback from a professional confirmed that the staff did everything that they could to help find an alternative placement for the child and balanced this with reducing disruptions to the child’s care. Physical restraint records show that information is accurate and recorded. There is evidence that the manager monitors these records and requests further information and cross-references to incident records. This monitoring has been implemented since the last inspection.

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

The registered manager has been in post since 2011 and has the qualifications and experience for this role. An acting manager has been deployed to the home with the support of an operational manager in the absence of the registered manager. These contingencies provide satisfactory interim management arrangements. The registered manager has failed to manage the home effectively. Divisions between the registered and deputy managers and the staff team have resulted in leadership that is unacceptably poor. Staff have not benefited from the support and guidance that they should have. Supervision, appraisal, induction and assessment of lone working risks have not been undertaken. Initial concerns were raised by members of staff 10 months ago and made known to the responsible individual. Although these concerns were investigated, the manager’s ability to improve was not evidenced or checked. This has resulted in ineffective management of the home.

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

The staff feel unsupported, disempowered and hindered in their roles by decisions that they have not been consulted about. Throughout an extremely difficult year, the staff have held together and united in their effort to meet children’s needs and have children’s best interests at heart. The staff have provided stability and good care, despite the poor leadership and management. The manager has failed to supervise some staff. Five staff have had minimal supervision and two staff had no supervision for a year. This is despite senior managers raising this shortfall in the manager’s supervision and being told by the manager that this was being addressed. Lack of consistent and effective supervision fails to provide new and existing staff with proper support. There are two new staff who have had no induction. This lack of support has resulted in several staff leaving their employment at the home. This is

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

detrimental to children, who have built attachments with the staff. The risks for children and staff that are associated with lone working have not been assessed or recognised. This places staff and children in difficult situations and compromises the team. The registered manager has failed to ensure that there are enough staff on shift and that the staff working have a sufficient blend of experience and skills. Although this has Inspection report children’s home: SC439153 7 since been addressed and rectified, one shift included a member of staff with one year’s experience and another staff member on her first shift. The shift ran with two staff instead of three. During this shift, there was a serious incident in which both members of staff sustained injuries and a young child left the home without agreement. On a second occasion, the registered manager worked alone for one shift until support arrived several

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

hours later. This is far below the agreed levels and compromises the quality of care provided to children. The systems for monitoring incidents are ineffective. Records of some incidents are not completed, and other records are signed off despite missing details. The regular presence of a senior manager recently has addressed this. However, the monitoring and oversight of records have been intermittent. External monitoring reports include a safeguarding statement. However, three external monitoring reports were submitted to Ofsted late. Submitting reports late reduces the effectiveness intended by this extra safeguard. In addition, there are very few reports that capture the views of parents or professionals. This means that the views of these important people are missing, which further compromises the effectiveness of monitoring. The shortfalls identified present a concerning picture. The senior managers are aware of

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

these and are working with the team to ensure that they are addressed. Actions plans and interim management support are in place to address the identified concerns. Because these arrangements are in place, the judgement for leadership and management is requires improvement to be good, rather than inadequate.

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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’.

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Children’s home details

Unique reference number: SC439153 Inspection report children’s home: SC439153 8 Provision sub-type: Children’s home

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: Schofield House, Spar Road, Norwich NR6 6BX

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Children’s home details

Responsible individual: Catherine Kenney

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Inspector

Deirdra Keating, social care inspector Inspection report children’s home: SC439153 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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