Children's home run by Wrottesley Care Limited

Inspection report children’s home: 1280623 1 Registered provider: Wrottesley Care Limited

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Full inspection Inspected under the social care common inspection framework

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Information about this children’s home

This home is owned by a private company. It is registered to provide care and accommodation for up to three young people who may have social and/or emotional difficulties. The home was registered on 16 October 2018, and this is the first inspection.

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Information about this children’s home

The home has been without a registered manager since 7 February 2019. The current manager has submitted an application to register with Ofsted.

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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: not applicable

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requires improvement to be good

Enforcement action since last inspection: none Inspection report children’s home: 1280623 2

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

This is the first inspection. Inspection report children’s home: 1280623 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 children’s views, wishes and feelings standard is that children receive care from staff who develop positive relationships with them; engage with them; and take their views, wishes and feelings into account in relation to matters affecting the children’s care and welfare and their lives. In particular, the standard in paragraph (1) requires the registered person to ensure that staff regularly consult children, and seek their feedback, about the quality of the home’s care. Regulation 7 (1)(a)(b)(c)(2)(a)(iv) 31/05/2019

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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. In particular, the standard in paragraph (1) requires the registered person to 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; ensure that staff work as a team where appropriate; ensure that staff have the experience, qualifications and skills to meet the needs of each child; ensure that the home has sufficient staff to provide care for each child; ensure that the home’s workforce provides continuity of care to each child; 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

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Requirement Due date

provided in the home; and use monitoring and review systems to make continuous improvements in the quality of care provided in the home. (Regulation 13 (1)(a)(b)(2)(b)(c)(d)(e)(f)(h)) 31/05/2019

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Requirement Due date

The care planning standard is that children receive effectively planned care in or through the children’s home; and have a positive experience of arriving at or moving on from the home. in particular, the standard in paragraph (1) requires the registered person to ensure that children are admitted to the home only if their needs are within the range of needs of children for whom it is intended that the home is to provide care 31/05/2019 Inspection report children’s home: 1280623 4 and accommodation, as set out in the home’s statement of purpose. (Regulation 14 (1)(a)(b)(2)(a)) The registered person must keep the statement of purpose under review and, where appropriate, revise it; and notify HMCI of any revisions and send HMCI a copy of the revised statement within 28 days of the revision. (Regulation 16 (3)(a)(b)) 31/05/2019

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must recruit staff using recruitment procedures that are designed to ensure children’s safety. The registered person may only employ an individual to work at the children’s home; or if an individual is employed by a person other than the registered person to work at the home in a position in which the individual may have regular contact with children, allow that individual to work at the home, if the individual satisfies the requirements in paragraph (3).The requirements are that full and satisfactory information is available in relation to the individual in respect of each of the matters in Schedule 2. (Regulation 32 (1)(2)(3)(d)) 31/05/2019

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must ensure that each employee completes an appropriate induction; ensure that each permanent appointment of an employee is subject to the satisfactory completion of a period of probation; and ensure that all employees undertake appropriate continuing professional development; receive practice-related supervision by a person with appropriate experience. (Regulation 33 (1)(a)(b)(4)(a)(b)) 31/05/2019

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Recommendations

 When a child returns to the home after being missing from care or away from the home without permission, the responsible local authority must provide an opportunity for the child to have an independent return home interview. Homes should take account of information provided by such interviews when assessing risks and putting arrangements in place to protect each child. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 45, paragraph 9.30)  The registered person should only accept placements for children where they are satisfied that the home can respond effectively to the child’s assessed needs as recorded in the child’s relevant plans and where they have fully considered the impact that the placement will have on the existing group of children. The Statement of Purpose is an important document in the process of care planning as it sets out the needs of children the home is set up and equipped to care for.

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Recommendations

(‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 56, paragraph 11.4)  Homes set up for emergency placements as indicated and detailed in their Inspection report children’s home: 1280623 5 Statement of Purpose will require sufficient staff trained and skilled in the admission and care of children, where their full background may not be known. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 57, paragraph 11.6)  It is for the registered person to judge whether the incident is sufficiently serious to make formal notifications and, if it is, which other relevant persons may be notified, for example, the police, probation service, health professionals, the local authority for the area the home is located in (if this is not the child’s placing authority) and others involved with the care or protection of the child. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 63,

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improvement to be good

This is the home’s first inspection since it opened in October 2018. Since the home opened, four young people have moved in to the home and two have moved out. At the time of the inspection, there were two young people in placement.

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improvement to be good

Not all young people have made progress. The manager has needed to serve notice on two of the young people’s placements because staff were not able to meet the young people’s presenting needs. One young person was only in placement for one night. Another young person went missing from the home shortly after his admission.

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improvement to be good

The current two young people in placement generally get on well together and are beginning to develop positive relationships with staff.

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improvement to be good

Staff ensure that young people are kept occupied with meaningful activities, such as going swimming, playing football and helping with cooking and baking. One social worker told the inspector, ‘(Young person’s name) is settling at the home. Staff are getting him involved in activities and are helping him with his behaviour and difficulties.’

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improvement to be good

Staff ensure that young people are supported to maintain links with people who are important to them. Staff look at how best they can support family contact and make sure that these are positive experiences for the young person and their family.

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improvement to be good

Young people reported feeling safe and well cared for. Incidents when staff need to resort to physical interventions are rare. Instead, staff use de-escalation and distraction and keep the young people occupied to reduce the need for intervention. Inspection report children’s home: 1280623 6 On occasion, young people are admitted to the home without managers gaining a full history. This results in staff not being aware of all the needs of the young people or their risks. Managers have not sufficiently considered the impact that new admissions may have on existing young people. This failure has the potential to place young people at risk.

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improvement to be good

One young person who has now left the home frequently went missing from the home. Independent return interviews did not take place when the young person returned to the home. Care plans for the young person did not provide enough detail to help to reduce this behaviour. This resulted in staff not being consistent in how they safeguarded him from harm. For example, the young person was supervised by two members of staff when he was at the home. However, when he went out, staff allowed him to have unlimited free time in the community unsupervised.

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improvement to be good

In most cases, the staff do their best to keep young people safe. However, documentation that relates to incidents does not record all the actions that staff have taken or their rationale for their decision-making. For example, following an incident of physical aggression between two young people, staff did not document whether there were any injuries sustained or explore whether the incident needed to be formally notified. On one occasion, staff removed some illegal substance from a young person. However, they failed to report this to the police or make a record of how they disposed of the illegal substance.

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

There is currently no registered manager in post. The new manager is in the process of applying to be registered with Ofsted.

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

Management oversight of staff induction, probation and training is not in place. Staff work at the home without the benefit of an induction or period of probation. This means that staff competency and skills have not been formally assessed. Some staff have been working at the home without completing key areas of mandatory training, such as first aid, safeguarding and physical intervention training. In addition, staff have not received training in understanding the affects of bullying, county lines, substance misuse and risk assessments.

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

Managers have failed to check new staff members’ qualifications. This means that they cannot be assured that new members of staff hold the required qualification for working in residential childcare.

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

New members of staff do not benefit from regular supervision. This prevents them from having their performance and practice regularly appraised.

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

The new manager is motivated and keen for the service to improve. He is supported by a new deputy manager. Both are aware of shortfalls in the provision of care and are keen to make improvements to the home. Inspection report children’s home: 1280623 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 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: 1280623 8

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Children’s home details

Registered provider: Wrottesley Care Limited

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: Fairgate House, Room S51, 205 Kings Road, Tyseley, Birmingham, West Midlands B11 2AA

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Inspector

Debbie Holder, social care inspector Inspection report children’s home: 1280623 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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