Children's Home run by Nugent Care 2019 in St Helens

Inspection report children’s home: SC022447 1 SC022447 Registered provider: Nugent Care

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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 is owned and run by a charitable organisation. It is registered to provide care and accommodation for up to three young people who have behavioural and developmental problems, neglect, attachment issues and disruptive behaviour.

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Information about this children’s home

The registered manager has been in post since 8 October 2014

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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 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

Date of last inspection: 12 February 2019

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inadequate

Overall judgement at last inspection: sustained effectiveness

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inadequate

Enforcement action since last inspection: none Inspection report children’s home: SC022447 2

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

12/02/2019 Interim Sustained effectiveness 10/04/2018 Full Good 05/12/2017 Full Requires improvement to be good 11/01/2017 Interim Improved effectiveness Inspection report children’s home: SC022447 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 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; and that staff are familiar with, and act in accordance with, the home’s child protection policies.

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Requirement Due date

ensure that the premises used for the purposes of the home are designed, furnished and maintained so as to protect each child from avoidable hazards to the child’s health. (Regulation 12(1)(2)(a)(i)(vii)(d)) * 28/06/2019

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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—

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Requirement Due date

helps children aspire to fulfil their potential; and promotes their welfare.

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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 work as a team where appropriate;

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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

ensure that the home’s workforce provides continuity of care to 28/06/2019 Inspection report children’s home: SC022447 4 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;

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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. (Regulation 13(1)(2)(a)(b)(c)(e)(f)(h)) * The care planning standard is that children—

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Requirement Due date

receive effectively planned care in or through the children’s 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

manage and review the placement of each child in the home; and

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Requirement Due date

plan for, and help, each child to prepare to leave the home or to move into adult care in a way that is consistent with arrangements agreed with the child’s placing authority, and

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Requirement Due date

that each child’s relevant plans are followed. (Regulation 14(1)(a)(2)(b)(ii)(iii)(c))

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Requirement Due date

In particular, ensure that impact risk assessments are thorough and undertaken prior to a young person coming to live in the home. Ensure that all care planning documents and agreed local authority plans are adhered to by managers and staff. 28/06/2019

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must maintain records (‘case records’) for each child which include the information and documents listed in Schedule 3 in relation to each child; are kept up to date and are signed and dated by the author of each entry. (Regulation 36(1)(a)(b)(c)) 28/06/2019

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Requirement Due date

Schedule 4 sets out the other information that the registered person must keep in relation to a children’s home. The registered person must maintain in the home the records in Schedule 4 and ensure that the records are kept up to date. (Regulation 37(1)(2)(a)(b))

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Requirement Due date

In particular, ensure that the records include a copy of the staff duty roster of persons working at the home, a record of the 28/06/2019 Inspection report children’s home: SC022447 5 actual rotas worked, and a record of any persons who work at any time at the home.

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Requirement Due date

Ensure that a record is kept, in the form of a register, showing in respect of each young person details of their admission and discharge, into and from the home.

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Requirement Due date

* These requirements are subject to a compliance notice.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: inadequate

The current standards of care and support provided at this home mean that young people’s safety and emotional well-being needs are not being adequately met. The lack of coordinated placement planning to support young people effectively is placing them at significant risk. The lack of detailed planning documentation hinders the staff team’s ability to keep young people safe and improve their outcomes by having defined objectives to work towards.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: inadequate

Contrary to the home’s admissions policy and procedures, not all young people have benefited from a detailed compatibility risk assessment or a thorough appraisal of their needs. The registered manager offered a placement to a new young person without clearly identifying, assessing or addressing their full range of needs and the subsequent impact on other young people living in the home. This has resulted in disruption among the group of young people living in the home and this young person’s placement ending prematurely.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: inadequate

On a positive note, some young people, for whom going missing from home was previously a feature of their lives, experience a reduction in the frequency of these episodes.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: inadequate

All young people living at the home have an identified education provision, and their attendance is good. One young person is benefiting from planned activities, for example horse-riding and working in a vegetable garden that he has created in the home’s garden.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: inadequate

The staff and managers recognise the importance of young people staying in touch with family and friends. The staff ensure that safe and suitable arrangements are in place for young people to keep in contact with those people who are important in their lives.

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

Inspection report children’s home: SC022447 6 Managers and staff are unable to identify, manage or minimise risks to young people adequately. Poor-quality risk assessments prevent the staff from having a clear understanding of young people’s needs and vulnerabilities and a consideration of their previous known risks. These assessments do not provide staff with clear strategies and guidance to enable them to keep young people safe. This fails to ensure that risks are managed consistently by the staff and that appropriate support is in place to minimise risk to young people.

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

The manager’s response to bullying allegations is inadequate. For example, a young person complained of bullying on two occasions and also stated to the inspector during this inspection that he is ‘sometimes frightened’. The managers completed a ‘bullying action plan’ in response to both incidents. However, the plan was not actioned, as it was kept in the manager’s office in a separate building from the home and was not shared with the staff team or the young people. Furthermore, there was no evidence that any direct work was undertaken to address these bullying issues. Consequently, the home’s policy and procedures in relation to bullying are ineffective.

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

Records are ineffectual in providing a full insight into the young people’s lives and experiences. For example, records that are on young people’s files detail informal discussions, and do not reflect a more comprehensive record of the planned sessions that seek to address the individual needs of the young people. This is particularly evident in the lack of recorded key-working sessions after concerns about possible substance misuse, to show the work that the staff have undertaken to educate young people about the risks that they are exposing themselves to. Therefore, there is limited information against which to measure all young people’s progress or by which to identify the effectiveness of the support being provided to them.

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

Relationships between young people and permanent care staff are generally positive. Genuine emotional attachments were observed during the inspection. However, the manager has failed to ensure that there is sufficient continuity of staff who have the experience, qualifications and skills to meet the needs of the young people. For example, on 1 May 2019 and 18 May 2019, there were no permanent staff on duty overnight. Two agency staff were used. The lack of continuity of care compromises the young people’s health, well-being and safety. It does not enable the young people to build positive relationships with a consistent team of staff who they can get to know well. Furthermore, the roster for the home fails to identify the full names of the staff on duty at the home.

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

The home’s environment is not adequately maintained. There are cigarette burns on one of the bedroom carpets; this was identified by the inspector at a previous inspection. Furthermore, the young people’s bathroom requires attention, as the bath panel is cracked. The home’s condition and the general environment are tired and are in need of attention in order to offer a suitable place for young people to live without compromising their health and well-being.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

Inspection report children’s home: SC022447 7 There have been failings in management oversight and monitoring of the home and in identifying areas of weakness and taking decisive action to resolve these. Thorough internal monitoring does not take place regularly and, as a result, the quality and standard of care have fallen to an unacceptable level. The manager has not reviewed records in the home or evaluated incidents that have occurred, to identify shortfalls in staff practice and to highlight patterns and trends. Such records include, for example, thorough responses to bullying allegations, individual risk assessments and room search documentation.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

Managers have failed to ensure that the young people receive effectively planned care in or through the children’s home; for example, managers failed to support a young person, and served notice to end their placement. The deputy manager stated that the notice could be lifted if the young person changed his behaviour. However, there were no written plans which identified achievable and measurable goals for the young person to reach. There was no evidence that the young person has received any support since being told that his placement was ending.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

Care planning documents are not robust. For example, the local authority care plan states that the young person cannot be restrained. However, this is not reflected in the home’s placement plan. Furthermore, some records contain inaccurate information; for example, one record indicates that the young person has previously been in the provider’s secure children’s home when this is inaccurate.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

The managers have failed to keep a record in the form of a register that provides information detailing each young person’s admission and discharge details, into and from the home.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

The lack of rigour by the managers has not helped the home to sufficiently protect young people and maintain good enough standards of care. More effective systems are needed to ensure that the safety and well-being of the young people are suitably scrutinised and always promoted.

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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 Inspection report children’s home: SC022447 8 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: SC022447 9

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: 99 Edge Lane, Edge Hill, Liverpool L7 2PE

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Children’s home details

Responsible individual: Gary Thistlewood

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Inspector

Elaine Allison, social care inspector Inspection report children’s home: SC022447 10 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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