Children's Home run by Doncaster Children‟s Services Trust Limited in Doncaster

Inspection report children’s home: SC481447 1 SC481447 Registered provider: Doncaster Children’s Services Trust Limited

p.1

Full inspection Inspected under the social care common inspection framework

p.1

Information about this children’s home

A local authority operates and runs this home. It provides care for up to four children and young people whose plan is for them to live in medium- to long-term residential care. The manager started in July 2018 and he is applying for registration.

p.1

Overall experiences and progress of

children and young people, taking into account

p.1

good

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

p.1

good

The effectiveness of leaders and managers good

p.1

good

The children’s home provides effective services that meet the requirements for good.

p.1

good

Date of last inspection: 10 October 2018

p.1

good

Overall judgement at last inspection: requires improvement to be good

p.1

good

Enforcement action since last inspection: none Inspection report children’s home: SC481447 2

p.1

Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

10/10/2018 Full Requires improvement to be good 06/12/2017 Full Good 03/03/2017 Interim Not judged 28/11/2016 Interim Not judged Inspection report children’s home: SC481447 3

p.2

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.

p.3

Requirements 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.

p.3

Requirements Due date

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 and accommodation, as set out in the home’s statement of purpose. (Regulation 14 (1)(a)(b) and (2)(a)) 17/07/2019

p.3

Requirements 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. (Regulation 12 (1)(2)(a)(i))

p.3

Requirements Due date

This is with particular reference to ensuring that the staff care practice is in line with the children’s safety plan. 17/07/2019

p.3

Recommendations

 Regulation 23 requires the registered person to ensure that they make suitable arrangements to manage, administer and dispose of any medication. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 35, paragraph 7.15). This is with particular reference to the staff having readily available access to a medication counter. This device enables the staff to manage controlled medication in line with the home’s agreed governance arrangements, Inspection report children’s home: SC481447 4 including stock checks.

p.3

Recommendations

 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. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 62, paragraph 14.4)

p.4

Recommendations

 The locking of external doors, or doors to hazardous materials, may be acceptable as a security precaution if applied within the normal routine of the home. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 50, paragraph 9.62). This is with particular reference to the fitting of thumb-turn locks onto the front and rear external doors.

p.4

Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

The children and young people are very happy at their home. This is because they receive consistent care and support from the staff, whose focus is to ensure that the children and young people make progress and achieve positive outcomes. The children and young people benefit from good relationships with the staff. They enjoy each other’s company and listen to the advice and guidance that the staff provide. The individualised care and support that the children and young people receive is having a positive impact on their progress and experiences.

p.4

Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

The children and young people take part in a variety of activities, including horse riding, playing bowls and snooker, and going swimming. Pictorial memory books show the children and young people enjoying new experiences and celebrating significant events in their lives.

p.4

Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

The manager values education and proactively works with professionals to create improved plans for the children and young people. The children and young people are committed to their learning and attend school daily. They benefit from extra tuition and art therapy to support them further. This is enabling them to achieve their individual targets, which for some includes sitting their GCSEs.

p.4

Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

The children and young people’s physical and emotional health needs are understood by the staff as they encourage the children and young people to make positive life choices . Good partnership working with mental health services means the children and young people receive good access to services to improve their psychological well-being. The staff respond to the children and young people with nurturing responses, which the children and young people find helpful. When the children and young people require Inspection report children’s home: SC481447 5 medication, this is administered effectively by the staff, but currently the home does not have the required piece of equipment to safely check all medication quantities.

p.4

Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

The home is well decorated with high-quality furnishings, and the atmosphere is very welcoming.

p.5

improvement to be good

One child has recently experienced a well-planned admission into the home. The good matching of this child has limited any negative impact on the existing group of children and young people, who continue to make progress. However, not all admissions have been as positive, and one child was admitted in an emergency despite the admission contravening the home’s statement of purpose. The lack of planning meant that the placement had a negative impact on the group dynamic. The previous requirement relating to admissions is therefore unmet and is repeated.

p.5

improvement to be good

Although the children and young people remain vulnerable to exploitation, the level of risk has reduced. The staff promote positive friendships and the children and young people’s free time is encouraged. The children and young people have trusting relationships with the staff and together they talk about pertinent issues, including online safety. The staff are not risk adverse; they work closely with the children, young people and professionals to ensure that care plans and strategies for managing risk are appropriate and targeted to individual need. However, staff have not always responded to children and young people in line with their safety plan. This gap in practice led to a child’s behaviour escalating into a significant incident, a situation which could have been avoided.

p.5

improvement to be good

The staff are helped to understand and manage the children and young people’s complex and challenging behaviours through the implementation of research-based strategies and consultation with specialist services. De-escalation strategies are imbedded into the staff practice and this has seen a reduction in the use of physical intervention. The reason for locking external doors is recorded clearly in the children and young people’s risk assessments, and new plans are in place to fit thumb-turn locks to avoid restriction of liberty issues.

p.5

improvement to be good

The staff understand the importance of routines and stability for the children and young people and are proactive at creating schedules. This is particularly important for some children, as unstructured school holidays can cause them distress.

p.5

The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

There has been a stable manager in post since July 2018, and he has submitted his application to become the registered manager. The staff report that they are well supported by him.

p.5

The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The children and young people are benefiting from a child-centred manager who is Inspection report children’s home: SC481447 6 transforming the ethos of the home. There is a focus on the staff providing good care to the children and young people. There are evident improvements in the standard of the staff practice, and this is echoed by professionals who support the children and young people. Performance plans have been created by the manager to enhance the staff practice. Additionally, relevant training has been undertaken by the staff, which they utilise and implement in their care for the children and young people.

p.5

The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The manager is clear about the strengths and required developments for the home and has implemented actions to address these. He has clear monitoring processes and utilises the internal monitoring procedures and the external visitor’s reports to further develop the care provided to the children and young people. However, there are developments required within some of the children and young people’s records, to ensure that language used does not mislead the reader. Examples include the use of nondescript statements in safety plans.

p.6

The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Partnership working is highly effective. The staff have built positive relationships with professionals and families. The staff communicate frequently with all those involved to support the children and young people’s continuity of care, good health, education and safety. An advocate regularly visits the home to further support the children and young people to express their feelings about issues that are important to them.

p.6

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.

p.6

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: SC481447 7

p.6

Children’s home details

Registered provider: Doncaster Children’s Services Trust Limited

p.7

Children’s home details

Registered provider address: Colonnades House, Duke Street, Doncaster, South Yorkshire DN1 1ER

p.7

Inspector

Jennifer Fenlon, social care inspector Inspection report children’s home: SC481447 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 children looked after, safeguarding and child protection.

p.7

Inspector

If you would like a copy of this document in a different format, such as large print or Braille, please telephone 0300 123 1231, or email enquiries@ofsted.gov.uk . You may reuse this information (not including logos) free of charge in any format or medium, under the terms of the Open Government Licence. To view this licence, visit http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/doc/open-government-licence , write to the Information Policy Team, The National Archives, Kew, London TW9 4DU, or email: psi@nationalarchives.gsi.gov.uk .

p.8

Inspector

Interested in our work? You can subscribe to our monthly newsletter for more information and updates: http://eepurl.com/iTrDn .

p.8

Inspector

T: 0300 123 1231 Textphone: 0161 618 8524 E: enquiries@ofsted.gov.uk W: http://www.gov.uk/ofsted

p.8