Children's Home run by Radical Services Limited in Cumberland

Inspection report children’s home: SC487549 1 SC487549 Registered provider: Radical Services Limited Full inspection Inspected under the social care common inspection framework

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Information about this children’s home

The home is registered to provide care and accommodation for four children who may have emotional and/or behavioural difficulties. The home is one of several operated by a private provider. The manager was registered with Ofsted in May 2019.

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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 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: sustained effectiveness

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requires improvement to be good

Enforcement action since last inspection: none Inspection report children’s home: SC487549 2

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

06/03/2019 Interim Sustained effectiveness 13/11/2018 Full Requires improvement to be good 16/02/2018 Interim Improved effectiveness 25/05/2017 Full Good Inspection report children’s home: SC487549 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 positive relationships standard is that children are helped to develop, and to benefit from, relationships based on—

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Requirement Due date

an understanding about acceptable behaviour; and

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Requirement Due date

positive responses to other children and adults.

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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

communicate to each child expectations about the child’s behaviour and ensure that the child understands those expectations in accordance with the child’s age and understanding. (Regulation 11 (1)(a–c)(2)(a)(v)) 16/07/2019

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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; and

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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. (Regulation 6 (1)(a)(b))

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Requirement Due date

In particular, staff should be consistent in their implementation of routines, rules and boundaries. 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. 16/07/2019 Inspection report children’s home: SC487549 4 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. (Regulation 12 (1)(2)(a)(i))

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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

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. (Regulation 12 (1)(2)(b))

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Requirement Due date

Specifically, that any faults identified with the home’s vehicles are repaired without delay. 16/07/2019

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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

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; and

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Requirement Due date

ensure that the home’s workforce provides continuity of care to each child. (Regulation 13 (1)(a)(b)(2)(b)(c) and (e)) 16/07/2019

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must prepare and implement a policy which—

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Requirement Due date

is intended to safeguard children accommodated in the children’s home from abuse or neglect; and 16/07/2019 Inspection report children’s home: SC487549 5 sets out the procedure to be followed in the event of an allegation of abuse or neglect. (Regulation 34 (1)(b))

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improvement to be good

Overall, young people at this home have not made good progress since the last inspection. One young person’s placement ended and her behaviour had a significant negative impact on the other two young people in the home. A young person spoken to during the inspection made some negative and some positive comments about living in the home and another young person’s documentation clearly showed that she was not happy living there and felt ready to move on.

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improvement to be good

One young person did not engage in any education and this contributed to her placement ending. Another young person attends the school operated by the same company but has stated several times that this provision does not stretch him educationally and he fears that he will not be able to take GCSE exams if he remains at this school. He has consistently requested a move to a mainstream school, and although this is not thought to be the best option for him at present, he feels his views are not being listened to. The manager was hoping that this would be addressed in his upcoming personal education plan meeting. One young person is in full-time employment. She has maintained a full-time job for a considerable time, which is a huge success for her. However, she has not had the opportunity to progress her education in the workplace.

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improvement to be good

The home has an almost entirely new staff team since its last full inspection seven months ago. Although the staff team members are positive and eager to learn, their lack of experience is evident in the care that they provide. Young people have not had the opportunity to develop secure and trusting relationships yet due to the high turnover of staff.

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improvement to be good

The members of the newly formed staff team are not yet working effectively together to ensure that routines, rules and boundaries are implemented consistently. This results in young people being unsure of the response that they will receive from staff. One young person was observed to be rude and intimidating to staff, which went unchallenged. This does not promote respect and positive relationships or help young people to learn how to behave in a way that is socially acceptable.

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improvement to be good

There is a new manager in post who is working hard to address the shortfalls identified at the home’s previous two inspections. His implementation of structure and boundaries has been difficult for the young people to accept and adjust to, and this has resulted in Inspection report children’s home: SC487549 6 negative feelings and behaviours towards him.

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improvement to be good

One young person has maintained a high level of independence and is ready to move on from the home. Although she is being supported to look at options open to her, there is no clear plan in place yet for her transition. She is paying for her own driving lessons to further develop her independence. The home has allowed this young person to bring a pet cat into the home, which is helping her to manage a significant bereavement in her life.

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improvement to be good

Young people know how to complain and have made use of the complaints process. The complaint that they made was not resolved to their satisfaction and has resulted in them not feeling that they are listened to. Young people have allocated key workers and regular key-work sessions, some of which are recorded in a good level of detail, with the voice of the young person clearly evidenced. Similarly, the home uses a ‘My care plan’ document, which shows that young people’s wishes and feelings are identified and that they make a contribution to their own care planning.

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improvement to be good

Young people are generally reluctant to participate in organised leisure activities but have been involved in hatching and raising some chickens in the home’s grounds, which shows that staff can be creative in their efforts to engage young people.

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improvement to be good

The frequency of missing from home incidents has reduced since the previous inspection. However, there continue to be some occasions when young people do go missing from care and put themselves at risk of harm by misusing drugs and alcohol while they are missing. Staff follow missing from home protocols and make every effort to contact and locate young people when they go missing. Independent return interviews are requested following each incident of going missing. Missing from home logs and incident records are clear and detailed.

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improvement to be good

Risk assessments contain a good amount of detail about each young person’s specific risks. They also identify actions that staff can take to reduce and manage risks. Some risk assessments contain inaccurate information. For example, a young person who was potentially a risk to others through sexually harmful behaviour had incorrect information relating to this risk in his risk assessment. One young person who had expressed suicidal ideation did not have a risk assessment relating to this and there were no strategies in place to monitor or address this risk. This risk was added to his risk assessment during the inspection.

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improvement to be good

Similarly, impact risk assessments for young people admitted are not sufficiently robust and do not contain all the relevant information about their risks. This means that they may pose a safeguarding risk to those already placed in the home. For example, a young person who had risks of sexually harmful behaviour was admitted to the home where there were two vulnerable female residents without any record of how this risk would be managed. The manager was able to articulate that the risk had been considered and the Inspection report children’s home: SC487549 7 omission was in the recording of this consideration.

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improvement to be good

There is no policy or procedure within the home for guidance when a young person makes an allegation against a staff member. Although the correct procedure was followed when an allegation was made, the absence of a policy to deal effectively with allegations is an omission which could lead to unsafe practice and mismanagement of allegations.

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improvement to be good

One young person has an ongoing safeguarding risk of drug and alcohol misuse. To date, this risk has not decreased and staff have not successfully helped her to engage with any external agency providing support for drug and alcohol misuse despite their efforts to do so.

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improvement to be good

The home’s vehicles are subject to daily safety checks. These checks have highlighted several deficits requiring repair, which have not been acted on in a timely manner. This puts young people’s safety at risk when travelling in the home’s vehicles. One of the home’s vehicles was booked into the garage for repairs on the day of the inspection.

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improvement to be good

Positively, the level and frequency of risk-taking behaviours have reduced since the last inspection and young people are safer than they were.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The home’s newly registered manager is working hard to develop a staff team whose members can build positive relationships with young people and keep them safe. The staff are mainly newly recruited and do not yet work together as a cohesive team. Not all staff are confident to implement rules and boundaries, which results in some inconsistencies in the delivery of care. New staff are all enthusiastic and willing to learn and develop their skills. The manager recognises the limitations of the team currently and anticipates improvement over time. The home is no longer using agency staff, which will give young people more opportunities to develop stronger and more trusting relationships with the adults who care for them.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

None of the newly recruited staff are qualified to the level 3 diploma in residential childcare, which means that only one out of nine care staff have the relevant qualification.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The manager is motivated to make continuous improvement to the home and has a good understanding of its strengths and weaknesses. He has started to implement systems to improve all areas of care, which will take time to become embedded into practice. New daily and weekly check sheets have been introduced to improve internal monitoring. The manager is also developing clear lines of accountability through appointing seniors and developing them through regular seniors’ meetings. Issues identified at this inspection were, where possible, rectified promptly.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Staff report that they are well supported and can approach managers at any time for advice and additional support. They benefit from a positive and comprehensive induction Inspection report children’s home: SC487549 8 into the home and regular professional supervision. The staff team members meet on a regular basis to discuss young people and a range of issues affecting them. These meetings are recorded in detail and provide guidance to staff, especially around implementing routines and ensuring that they work together as a team to achieve consistency.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

A good range of training is provided for staff. The training package includes sessions on safeguarding risks such as county lines and child sexual exploitation so that staff can identify signs that a young person may be at risk. There are also training sessions which are aimed at supporting staff to meet young people’s individual needs.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Staff are working hard to implement recent training on trauma pathways and playfulness, acceptance, curiosity and empathy (PACE) care to further develop relationships with young people and to help them to make emotional progress.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The home itself has had a significant amount of work to improve its comfort and homeliness. Interior decoration and repairs have all been carried out and the home is now warm, welcoming and homely.

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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: SC487549 9

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Children’s home details

Registered provider: Radical Services Limited

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: Rouse House, 2 Wyther Lane, Leeds LS5 3BT

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Inspector

Charlie Bamber: social care inspector Inspection report children’s home: SC487549 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 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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