Children's home run by Wrottesley Care Limited

Inspection report children’s home: 2494881 1 Registered provider: Wrottesley Care Limited 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 three young people who may have social and/or emotional difficulties. Ofsted registered this home on 11 January 2019 and this is the first inspection. There is a registered manager in post who is suitably qualified.

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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: 2494881 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. In particular, the standard in paragraph (1) requires the registered person to ensure that staff 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; help each child to understand how to keep safe; have the skills to identify and act upon signs that a child is at risk of harm; manage relationships between children to prevent them from harming each other; understand the roles and responsibilities in relation to protecting children that are assigned to them by the registered person; take effective action whenever there is a serious concern about a child’s welfare; and are familiar with, and act in accordance with, the home’s child protection policies. (Regulation 12

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Requirement Due date

(1)(2)(a)(i)(ii)(iii)(iv)(v)(vi)(vii)) 26/07/2019

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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.

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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 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 and accommodation, as set out in the home’s statement of purpose. (Regulation 14 (1)(a)(b)(2)(a)) 26/07/2019

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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 if the individual satisfies the requirements in paragraph (3).

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Requirement Due date

The requirements are that full and satisfactory information is available in relation to the individual in respect of each of the 26/07/2019 Inspection report children’s home: 2494881 3 matters in Schedule 2. (Regulation 32 (1)(2)(a)(3)(d)) The registered person must ensure that each employee completes an appropriate induction and ensure that each permanent appointment of an employee is subject to the satisfactory completion of a period of probation. (Regulation 33 (1)(a)(b)) 26/07/2019

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must ensure that all employees undertake appropriate continuing professional development. (Regulation 33 (4)(a)) 26/07/2019

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must notify HMCI and each other relevant person without delay if a child is involved in or subject to, or is suspected of being involved in or subject to, sexual exploitation; an incident requiring police involvement occurs in relation to a child which the registered person considers to be serious; there is an allegation of abuse against the home or a person working there; a child protection enquiry involving a child is instigated; or concludes (in which case, the notification must include the outcome of the child protection enquiry); or there is any other incident relating to a child which the registered person considers to be serious. (Regulation 40 (4)(a)(b)(c)(d)(i)(ii)(e)) 26/07/2019

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Recommendations

 The registered person must specify the procedures to be followed and the roles and responsibilities of staff when a child is missing from care or away from the home without permission and how staff should support the child on return to the home. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 45, paragraph 9.28)  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)  Where a child runs away persistently or engages in other risky behaviours, such as frequently being absent from the home to meet with inappropriate adults, the

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Recommendations

registered person, in consultation with the child’s placing authority, should convene a risk management meeting to develop a strategy for managing risks to the young person. The strategy should be agreed with the child’s placing authority, the local authority where the home is located and the local police. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 45, paragraph 9.32)  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 Inspection report children’s home: 2494881 4 including the quality standards’, page 58, paragraph 11.19)  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

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Recommendations

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. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 56, paragraph 11.4)

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improvement to be good

Since the home opened in January 2019, four young people have lived at the home. Two young people have now moved out. Consequently, at the time of the inspection, there were two young people living at the home. One of the young people has spent an extended period of time away from the home and their local authority is now in the process of identifying a new placement.

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improvement to be good

Young people’s overall experience and progress requires improvement. Young people’s school attendance is variable. One young person who has now left the home had good school attendance and successfully sat her GCSE examinations. However, other young people have done less well. For example, one young person’s school attendance is at only 30%. Staff have not done enough to promote education and to break the cycle of poor attendance.

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improvement to be good

One young person is beginning to form better relationships with staff and is settling. She told the inspector, ‘It is starting to feel like home. It feels natural now and I don’t want to move again.’ Staff are supporting this young person to access counselling to help her understand her difficulties.

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improvement to be good

One young person enjoys cooking and will sometimes cook for the staff. This enables her to develop her life skills.

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improvement to be good

Managers fail to assess young people’s needs prior to their admissions. For example, managers have not made sure that the home’s impact assessment considers any known risk and assesses the impact of this risk for the new young person and the potential impact on other young people already living at the home. This compromises the safety of young people who are admitted to the home and the other young people already in placement. Inspection report children’s home: 2494881 5 The manager has not ensured that risk assessments provide staff with enough guidance or strategies to respond to and reduce risk-taking behaviour. For example, staff do not always discuss risks with young people during key-working sessions. This represents a missed opportunity to explore with a young person the impact of their behaviour and to find new ways to manage their emotions safely.

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improvement to be good

When young people go missing from home and then return home, the staff fail to ensure that their placing authority arranges a return home interview. This represents a missed opportunity to try and help young people to talk through the reasons why they have put themselves at risk of harm.

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improvement to be good

Managers do not always ensure that they get validation on safeguarding decisions. For example, managers have raised concerns about one young person’s family contact. Despite having concerns, staff have continued to allow this contact to happen without the up-to-date advice of the child’s social worker. This does not ensure that the young person is safeguarded from potential risk of harm.

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improvement to be good

When incidents have occurred that trigger the need for a notification to be sent into the regulator, these have not always been promptly made. This hinders Ofsted being kept informed about significant incidents.

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improvement to be good

Managers do not always ensure that safe recruitment practice is followed. For example, one member of staff was able to start working at the home without one reference being verified. Managers have also failed to check the reason why a person who has previously worked with children and vulnerable adults had their employment ended. Managers have failed to pick up gaps in staff members’ employment histories and/or noticed discrepancies in dates of employment. These weaknesses represent a shortfall in safeguarding practice.

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

There is an experienced and qualified manager in post. Staff are qualified to level 3 in residential childcare or equivalent or are within the time frame for obtaining these qualifications.

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

Management oversight of staff training, induction and probation is now in place. However, in previous months, managers failed to ensure that new staff received a full induction and that all staff received training that would enable them to meet the young people’s complex needs. As a result, staff performance has not been reviewed as part of a probation period.

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

The manager is motivated and has a vision for the service. She is keen to ensure that the quality of care provided to young people improves and that children make sustained progress.

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

The manager is providing regular supervision to her team and twice-monthly team meetings are taking place. The manager is supporting staff to understand their roles and responsibilities. Inspection report children’s home: 2494881 6

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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: 2494881 7

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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: 2494881 8 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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