Children's Home run by Broadlands Hall Limited in Suffolk

Inspection report children’s home: SC060936 1 SC060936 Registered provider: Broadlands Hall 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 privately owned children’s home provides care, accommodation and education for up to 11 children who have moderate to severe learning difficulties and/or autistic spectrum disorders. There is a large education provision, last inspected by Ofsted in May 2017, in the grounds of the home. Since the last inspection, the previous manager has left. A new manager was appointed on 1 May 2019. She has yet to apply for registration with Ofsted.

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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.

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inadequate

Overall judgement at last inspection: declined in effectiveness

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inadequate

Enforcement action since last inspection: none Inspection report children’s home: SC060936 2

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

07/03/2019 Interim Declined in effectiveness 26/06/2018 Full Requires improvement to be good 10/05/2017 Full Requires improvement to be good 08/02/2017 Interim Sustained effectiveness Inspection report children’s home: SC060936 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 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;

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Requirement Due date

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—

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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

provide personalised care that meets each child’s needs, as recorded in the child’s relevant plans, taking account of the child’s background. (Regulation 6 (1)(a)(b)(2)(a)(b)(ii)(iv))

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Requirement Due date

In particular, ensure that staff support children to see their brothers and sisters in line with agreed plans. 16/07/2019

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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—

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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; 16/07/2019 Inspection report children’s home: SC060936 4 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;

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Requirement Due date

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)(b)(d))* 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

ensure that the home has sufficient staff to provide care for each child;

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Requirement Due date

ensure that the home’s workforce provides continuity of care to 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)(a)(b)(2)(a)(c)(d)(e)(f)(h))* 16/07/2019

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must— keep the statement of purpose under review and, where appropriate, revise it; and

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Requirement Due date

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)) 16/07/2019 Inspection report children’s home: SC060936 5 If the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005(a) applies to the home—

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Requirement Due date

the registered person must ensure that the requirements of that Order and any regulations made under it, except for article 23 (duties of employees), are complied with in respect of the home. (Regulation 25 (2)(b)) 16/07/2019

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must ensure that all employees—

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Requirement Due date

undertake appropriate continuing professional development; and receive practice-related supervision by a person with appropriate experience. (Regulation 33 (4)(a)(b)) 16/07/2019

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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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Requirement Due date

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

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Requirement Due date

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

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Requirement Due date

a description of the measure and its duration;

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Requirement Due date

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 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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Requirement Due date

has spoken to the user about the measure; and 16/07/2019 Inspection report children’s home: SC060936 6 has signed the record to confirm it is accurate; and 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. (Regulation 35 (3)(a)(i)(ii)(iii)(iv)(v)(vi)(vii)(viii)(b)(i)(ii)(c)(iv)) The registered person must complete a review of the quality of care provided for children (‘a quality of care review’) at least once every 6 months.

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Requirement Due date

In order to complete a quality of care review the registered person must establish and maintain a system for monitoring, reviewing and evaluating—

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Requirement Due date

the quality of care provided for children;

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Requirement Due date

the feedback and opinions of children about the children’s home, its facilities and the quality of care they receive in it; and

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Requirement Due date

any actions that the registered person considers necessary in order to improve or maintain the quality of care provided for children.

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Requirement Due date

After completing a quality of care review, the registered person must produce a written report about the quality of care review and the actions which the registered person intends to take as a result of the quality of care review (‘the quality of care review report’).

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Requirement Due date

supply to HMCI a copy of the quality of care review report within 28 days of the date on which the quality of care review is completed; and

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Requirement Due date

make a copy of the quality of care review report available on request to a placing authority, if the placing authority is not the parent of a child accommodated in the home.

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Requirement Due date

The system referred to in paragraph (2) must provide for ascertaining and considering the opinions of children, their parents, placing authorities and staff. (Regulation 45 (1)(2)(a)(b)(c)(3)(4)(a)(b)(5)) 16/07/2019

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Requirement Due date

* These requirements are subject to a compliance notice. Inspection report children’s home: SC060936 7

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: inadequate

The quality of care is inadequate. Persisting shortfalls have the potential to harm children. A history of poor inspection outcomes and repeating regulatory breaches demonstrate a lack of capacity to improve the care provided and ensure children’s safety. Managers have not ensured that the decor of the building is maintained to a good standard. Hazards include broken windows in a child’s bedroom, one of which was boarded up with cardboard, damaged and overflowing guttering, broken roof tiles, damaged brickwork and trees growing through masonry. A child’s bedroom smells strongly of urine and another bedroom has paint smeared over the walls. Broken radiator covers, scratched and damaged wood and paintwork and broken door handles compound the lack of homeliness. Managers could not provide evidence of important health and safety checks, such as electrical testing and fire prevention. The hazards and lack of adequate maintenance mean that children are not living in a suitable

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: inadequate

environment. Some significant communication issues have had a negative impact on children. One child, on two separate occasions, was not able to spend time with his family due to organisational error. Failure to help children maintain important familial relationships is not acceptable and does not provide children with the care that they need. Most children are attending school regularly. They are making progress in education. Some children are making progress with managing their emotions and behaviour.

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

The physical environment and care practice are unsafe. Lack of effective management and senior management oversight means that obvious and numerous hazards have not been identified and rectified. Children’s behaviour management plans are too generic. The plans do not take enough account of individual children’s needs. These plans state that restrictive physical interventions may be used when children present with violent or destructive behaviour. However, the plans do not make clear which restrictive physical interventions could be safely used for individual children, and for how long. This means that any child could potentially be subject to a supine or other ground hold without any prior agreement or assessment of risk to that child. The lack of agreed, clearly defined and readily accessible behaviour management plans means that staff do not have clear enough information to guide them on how children should be kept safe.

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

Managers have failed to ensure that adequate records are kept on the use of physical interventions. Records do not contain necessary information and there is a lack of evaluation and review. The lack of effective management means that scrutiny of concerns about practice, rationale for interventions and reflection on incidents are absent. Lack of effective oversight fails to ensure that children are adequately safeguarded. Serious defects with fire doors and fire safety at the home have not been addressed. At Inspection report children’s home: SC060936 8 least 12 fire doors were not fit for purpose. At least six fire doors or door frames were damaged, preventing them from closing properly. Managers have failed to ensure that essential fire safety measures are properly maintained. Managers have failed to ensure that staff have the guidance and support that they need to deal with risk. Risk assessments intended to safeguard a child at known risk of self-

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

harm were muddled and inconsistent with one another. Staff were unsure how they should act to protect this child. The manager did not know whether staff have received appropriate training and no safeguarding training records were available. Failure to provide clear guidance for staff and ensure that they have training to enable them to safeguard children effectively means that children are at risk of harm. The location risk assessment does not consider the building works on the site of the school grounds. These building works are easily accessible by adults and children as they are not fenced off. Therefore, potential risks may not be identified and mitigated. An impact assessment for a new child did not contain relevant information and did not assess the impact of the child’s placement on other children and vice versa. The grounds of the home contain many hazards that put children at risk. Managers have

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

failed to remove broken play equipment and furniture, overflowing refuse bins and ride- on lawnmowers from areas in which the children play. The fridge in one of the flats is damaged and the door does not close. Despite this, the fridge contained food.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

Leadership and management of the home are ineffective. The home has a history of less than good judgements since 2016. Regulatory breaches have persisted, with repeated shortfalls in help and protection and leadership and management over the course of the last four inspections. This demonstrates a lack of capacity to improve. Managers were unable to provide inspectors with important records during the inspection. Managers could not demonstrate that health and safety checks have taken place. They could not locate important information throughout the inspection, despite repeated requests. Failure to ensure that records are complete, clear and readily accessible means that there is an inadequate audit trail of staff practice. This makes it difficult for managers and any other relevant professionals to ensure that children are cared for safely and effectively. The management team could not locate training records for staff. Consequently, it is not

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

possible for managers to monitor what training staff have received and address any gaps. This affects the manager’s ability to plan shifts and risk assess which staff can work together to provide safe care to children. The management team has not provided staff with annual appraisals or sufficient supervisions. The lack of regular, recorded and effective supervision and appraisal means that staff are not receiving the support that they need to provide safe and effective care. Managers are not providing the scrutiny, support, reflection or challenge required. Management monitoring is ineffective. The management team has not undertaken a Inspection report children’s home: SC060936 9 review of the quality of care. Managers have not updated the statement of purpose, despite significant changes to the service. Issues that should have been identified and addressed have not been. There is a significant reliance on agency members of staff. Agency staff frequently far

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

outnumber permanent staff. Agency staff are not receiving adequate supervision and managers are unaware of the level of experience and qualifications that they have. This fails to ensure that children are looked after by suitably qualified people. As a result of the concerns identified throughout this inspection, Ofsted is likely to take further enforcement action.

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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: SC060936 10

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Children’s home details

Registered provider: Broadlands Hall Limited

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: Greenwood House, Greenwood Court, Bury St. Edmunds, Suffolk IP32 7GY

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Inspectors

Ashley Hinson, social care inspector Ricky D’Arcy, social care inspector Inspection report children’s home: SC060936 11 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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Inspectors

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Inspectors

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Inspectors

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