Children's Home run by John-Edwards Care Homes Limited in Swindon

Inspection report children‟s home: SC437171 1 SC437171 Registered provider: John-Edwards Care Homes Limited Full inspection Inspected under the social care common inspection framework

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Information about this children’s home

 This children‟s home is registered to care for five children who have a learning disability.  The provision offers a long-term home for some children and a short break for others.  Ownership of this home changed to a private company in August 2018.  The home has had a vacancy for the post of registered manager since June 2017.  A new manager has been appointed and commenced their post on 1 May 2019.

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Information about this children’s home

Inspection dates: 30 April to 1 May 2019

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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

Overall judgement at last inspection: requires improvement to be good

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Enforcement action since last inspection:

A notice of decision was served on 7 March 2019 to refuse a manager‟s registration. Inspection report children‟s home: SC437171 2

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

04/07/2018 Full Requires improvement to be good 10/10/2017 Full Good 27/01/2017 Interim Sustained effectiveness 18/10/2016 Full Outstanding Inspection report children‟s home: SC437171 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

13: The leadership and management standard *

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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

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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;

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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

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; and

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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)(a)(c)(e)(f)) 05/06/2019

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Requirement Due date

6: The quality and purpose of care standard

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Requirement Due date

The quality and purpose of care standard is that children receive care from staff who—

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Requirement Due date

understand the children‟s home‟s overall aims and the outcomes it seeks to achieve for children; 05/06/2019 Inspection report children‟s home: SC437171 4 use this understanding to deliver care that meets children‟s needs and supports them to fulfil their potential.

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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

understand and apply the home‟s statement of purpose;

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Requirement Due date

protect and promote each child‟s welfare;

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Requirement Due date

treat each child with dignity and respect; and

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Requirement Due date

provide personalised care that meets each child‟s needs, as recorded in the child‟s relevant plans, taking account of the child‟s background.

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Requirement Due date

(Regulation 6 (1)(a)(b)(2)(b)(i)(ii)(iii)(iv)) 12: The protection of children standard

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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 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

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

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

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Requirement Due date

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; and

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Requirement Due date

that the effectiveness of the home‟s child protection policies is monitored regularly. 05/06/2019 Inspection report children‟s home: SC437171 5 (Regulation 12 (1)(2)(a)(i)(ii)(iii)(v)(vi)(b)(e)) 20: Restraint and deprivation of liberty

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Requirement Due date

Restraint in relation to a child is only permitted for the purpose of preventing—

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Requirement Due date

injury to any person (including the child); or

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Requirement Due date

serious damage to the property of any person (including the child).

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Requirement Due date

Restraint in relation to a child must be necessary and proportionate.

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The registered person may only use devices for the monitoring or surveillance of children if—

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the monitoring or surveillance is no more intrusive than necessary, having regard to the child‟s need for privacy.

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Requirement Due date

For the purposes of paragraph (3)(b), an individual who works in the home in a care role has the appropriate qualification if, by the relevant date, the individual has attained—

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the Level 3 Diploma for Residential Childcare (England) (“the Level 3 Diploma”); or

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Requirement Due date

a qualification which the registered person considers to be equivalent to the Level 3 Diploma.

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Requirement Due date

in the case of an individual who starts working in a care role in a home after 1st April 2014, the date which falls 2 years after the date on which the individual started working in a care role in a home; or

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Requirement Due date

in the case of an individual who was working in a care role in a home on 1st April 2014, 1st April 2016. 05/06/2019 Inspection report children‟s home: SC437171 6 (Regulation 32 (4)(a)(b)(5)(a)(b)) 33: Employment of staff

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must ensure that all employees—

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undertake appropriate continuing professional development;

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Requirement Due date

receive practice-related supervision by a person with appropriate experience; and

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Requirement Due date

have their performance and fitness to perform their roles appraised at least once every year.

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Requirement Due date

35: Behaviour management policies and records

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Requirement Due date

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

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

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the measures of control, discipline and restraint which may be used in relation to children in the home.

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must keep the behaviour management policy under review and, where appropriate, revise it.

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Requirement Due date

within 24 hours of the use of a measure of control, discipline or restraint in relation to a child in the home, a record is made which includes—

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details of the child‟s behaviour leading to the use of the measure;

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the date, time and location of the use of the measure;

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a description of the measure and its duration;

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details of any methods used or steps taken to avoid the need to use the measure;

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the name of the person who used the measure (“the user”), and 05/06/2019 Inspection report children‟s home: SC437171 7 of any other person present when the measure was used;

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Requirement Due date

the effectiveness and any consequences of the use of the measure; and

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Requirement Due date

a description of any injury to the child or any other person, and any medical treatment administered, as a result of the measure;

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Requirement Due date

within 48 hours of the use of the measure, the registered person, or a person who is authorised by the registered person to do so (“the authorised person”)—

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has spoken to the user about the measure; and

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has signed the record to confirm it is accurate; and

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within 5 days of the use of the measure, the registered person or the authorised person adds to the record confirmation that they have spoken to the child about the measure.

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Requirement Due date

(Regulation 35 (1)(a)(b)(2)(3)(a)(i)(ii)(iii)(iv)(v)(vi)(vii)(viii) (b)(i)(ii)(c)) 40: Notification of a serious event

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The registered person must notify HMCI and each other relevant person without delay if—

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Requirement Due date

there is an allegation of abuse against the home or a person working there.

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Requirement Due date

44: Independent person: visits and reports

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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

* These requirements are subject to a compliance notice. Inspection report children‟s home: SC437171 8

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: inadequate

Leaders and managers have failed to appoint a suitable person to lead and manage this home. Requirements from the previous inspection are not met. Weaknesses in how well children are helped and protected mean that their welfare is not safeguarded. These critical issues impact negatively on the experiences and progress of children.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: inadequate

Targets and goals do not link effectively to children‟s placement plans or to their education, health and care plans. Consequently, children are not making enough progress with achieving independence and the skills for adult life. Care and positive behaviour plans along with risk assessments do not always include important information. This potentially places children at risk and impacts negatively on their progress.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: inadequate

Staff do not review children‟s individual needs or plans to determine what progress they are making. Risk assessments are not regularly updated. Staff do not provide children with individual care that meets their current needs. Consequently, children continue to use poor-quality plastic plates and cutlery when they may no longer need to. Children do not have access to the rear garden without asking staff, and closed-circuit television (CCTV) remains in bedrooms used by children who do not require this level of supervision. This impacts negatively on children‟s dignity and privacy, particularly the inappropriate use of CCTV.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: inadequate

New children have moved into the home without enough consideration of how their needs will be met and whether there will be any impact on the children already living there. Overall, relationships between staff and children are positive. Children enjoy activities such as swimming, visiting theme parks and shopping. However, staff lack strong leadership to ensure that they are ambitious for children and that opportunities are built on to help children to achieve positive outcomes.

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

Children are not effectively protected from harm. Disclosures made by a child have not been acted on or shared with external safeguarding agencies as required. In addition, a serious allegation made about the home was not reported to Ofsted in accordance with the regulations.

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

Child protection policies have not been reviewed since the ownership of the home changed. Staff have not received adequate safeguarding disabled children training. Child protection records are not well maintained, and the actions and outcomes of concerns are unclear. These critical weaknesses do not ensure that children are well supported, protected and cared for.

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

Leaders and managers have not ensured that specialised equipment to move and lift children is safe to use. The manager is unaware of what equipment has had the required Inspection report children‟s home: SC437171 9 servicing. This is a serious safeguarding concern.

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

Leaders and managers told the inspector that restraint is not used in the home. Nevertheless, some children‟s records indicate that restraint may have been used, for example staff holding children‟s wrists during incidents. Not all staff have been trained to use restraint. It is of concern that staff do not recognise what constitutes a restraint. Leaders and managers are not challenging or recognising weak practice. This leaves children at potential risk of harm.

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

Staff do not receive effective support to write good-quality records about children‟s behaviour. Information available to leaders and managers is insufficient to enable them to evaluate the quality of care effectively. Ineffective monitoring and oversight of records puts children at risk.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

This home is not led and managed effectively. Weaknesses in the home are widespread and serious. The registered manager left their position in June 2017. Senior leaders have not ensured that effective management arrangements have been in place since this time. A new manager has recently been appointed.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

Leaders‟ and managers‟ monitoring and oversight of the quality of care is poor. They do not scrutinise incidents effectively and have failed to identify concerns and report them to external professionals. Leaders and managers do not fully understand the strengths and weaknesses of the home. Senior leaders do not have effective development plans in place to address the weaknesses and improve the quality of care for children.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

Reports completed by the independent visitor are not provided to Ofsted in the required timescales. Without these reports, the regulator is unable to monitor the performance of the home effectively.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

Staff are not provided with the essential training and supervision that they need to support them to care for children effectively. None of the staff have the required childcare qualification. However, staff have very recently been enrolled to start this qualification. Supervision is not regular, and staff do not have their performance appraised at least annually.

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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 Inspection report children‟s home: SC437171 10 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: SC437171 11

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Children’s home details

Registered provider: John-Edwards Care Homes Limited

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: 1 Suffolk Way, Sevenoaks TN13 1YL

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Inspector

Nicola Lownds: social care inspector Inspection report children‟s home: SC437171 12 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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