Children's Home, Residential special school run by Kedleston (High Peak School) Limited in Cheshire East

Inspection report children’s home: SC484134 1 SC484134 Registered provider: Kedleston Limited Full inspection Inspected under the social care common inspection framework

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Information about this children’s home

The home provides care and accommodation for up to 20 young people who may have learning disabilities and/or emotional and/or behavioural difficulties. A private company runs the home and offers education on site at a registered school.

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Information about this children’s home

There is no registered manager at the home. The home’s manager has submitted her application for registration to Ofsted.

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Overall experiences and progress of

children and young people, taking into account

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good

How well children and young people are helped and protected good

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good

The effectiveness of leaders and managers requires improvement

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good

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

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good

Date of last inspection: 5 September 2018

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good

Overall judgement at last inspection: requires improvement to be good

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good

Enforcement action since last inspection: none Inspection report children’s home: SC484134 2

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

05/09/2018 Full Requires improvement to be good 08/02/2018 Interim Improved effectiveness 25/05/2017 Full Good 10/03/2017 Interim Declined in effectiveness Inspection report children’s home: SC484134 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 registered person must ensure that all employees–

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Requirement Due date

receive practice-related supervision by a person with appropriate experience; and have their performance and fitness to perform their roles appraised once every year. (Regulation 33(4)(b)(c)) 31/08/2019

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Recommendations

 Children’s homes staff should seek to identify and provide appropriate opportunities for children to develop themselves in accordance with their wishes and feelings and as part of the home’s plan for their care. Each child’s talents and interests should be understood and nurtured, with children selecting activities based on their personal preferences and abilities, so far as is reasonable. Staff should also support children to try activities that are ‘new’ for them, where appropriate. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 31, paragraph 6.4) This is with reference to children having the opportunity to take part in activities that they enjoy.  The capacity and competence of staff to build constructive, warm relationships with children that actively promote positive behaviour, provides the foundations for managing any negative behaviour. Staff should have the skills to respond to each

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Recommendations

child’s individual behaviour. Where necessary they should manage conflict, maintain constructive dialogues and react appropriately if challenged by a child in their care. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 39, paragraph 8.14)  The registered person is responsible for ensuring that all staff consistently follow the home’s policies and procedures for the benefit of the children in the home’s care. Everyone working at the home must understand their roles and responsibilities and what they are authorised to decide on their own initiative. There should be clear lines of accountability. Each home must have clear arrangements in place to maintain effective management when the manager is absent, off duty or on leave. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 54, paragraph 10.20)  Staff should have the skills and confidence to communicate easily and understand

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Recommendations

Inspection report children’s home: SC484134 4 the importance of listening to, involving and responding to the children they care for. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 22, paragraph 4.10) This is with particular reference to the provision of focused key-work sessions that are structured.  A child’s bedroom should not generally be entered without their permission, though it may be necessary to establish routines to allow for rooms to be cleaned regularly. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 16, paragraph 3.20) Inspection report children’s home: SC484134 5

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children are involved in a range of age-appropriate and stimulating activities in the home and in the community. One child maintains a flowerbed on the grounds, and there are plans to develop this further into a vegetable patch. Another child celebrated his birthday by having a swimming pool party with his friends at the on-site swimming pool. This child is also undertaking a personal swimming challenge, and this has helped him to lead a healthier lifestyle. Some children help at the on-site café and another at the village lunch club, serving meals to residents. Such opportunities increase self-confidence, self-esteem and social skills for children. While all children are encouraged to take part in activities, some can miss out due to the lack of availability of staff. Closer planning of individual activities would help to ensure that children can continue to have access to their chosen hobby or interest.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

The wishes and feelings of children are listened to, and children have access to an advocate provided by an external agency. The advocate has been proactive in helping one child to be able to continue with therapeutic support after the age of 16 years. One child is due to have direct mentoring to help him to understand the risks around the influence of gang culture. Children also attend their looked after children reviews, and staff support them to attend. Children have key-work sessions, but these are often in response to a specific incident. Children may benefit from planned and focused individual key-work sessions.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children access the on-site education provision, and all children are making good progress. There is excellent communication between the home and the school, and good examples of collaborative work. A staff handover at the start and the end of each day means that staff are aware if a child may need support because they have had a difficult day at school.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

A team of clinicians support the children’s emotional and behavioural issues both in school and in their home. This ensures continuity of care. Clinicians offer advice and guidance to staff and measure therapeutic progress by working directly with the children. One child has weekly visits, including at weekends, from the occupational therapist, who assesses progress in the home environment. This assessment tracks independence skills and will help to form a holistic view for the child’s future.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

New filing systems have created a more organised and easily accessible recording system to track the progress of children. Each child is discussed at a regular, child-focused meeting. This is a multidisciplinary meeting between the school, the residential home and the clinical team. Copies of minutes of the meeting are an integral part of tracking children’s progress, but some copies of previous meetings were missing from their files. There are plans to develop these meetings further under the new leadership team, and this will ensure that they occur more frequently and are attended by all relevant staff. Social workers are sent monthly reports that track the progress that children make. The home ensures that it meets the health needs of all children. The nurse has developed Inspection report children’s home: SC484134 6 a health matrix which tracks the health progress of each child. She has ensured

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

professional liaison with the looked after children’s nurse from the placing authority. Links with the local health services are good. The home’s nurse chases up routine health appointments and ensures that all medical assessments are updated. The nurse proficiently tracks the stock and distribution of medication from the central store to each site, and all staff complete medication training.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Family members’ and professionals’ feedback is very positive. One social worker said: ‘When he went, he had no social skills. He is now very endearing, and staff promote independence skills.’ A parent said, ‘I can’t fault the quality of care’.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

There has been extensive refurbishment of the home since the last inspection. This has been undertaken to a very high standard. Since the home covers a large geographical site, there are still some areas to be completed. Therefore, improvements are continuing daily. The outcome of the development has been a significant improvement in the lived experience of children. Their living and sleeping areas have been refurbished to ensure a homelier appeal.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Detailed impact assessments are completed before a child is placed. For younger children, staff focus on creating a nurturing environment. Children are supported by staff to move on to foster placements or rehabilitation back with family members. In another setting, staff prepare children with independence skills. Some children need a more structured and quieter home, and their living space is tailored to their needs. There are further plans to develop a games room and a nurture room to meet the needs of children with autism spectrum disorder.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children have personalised their bedrooms and have chosen the colour schemes and themes for their rooms. Children who require a calming and relaxing environment now have sensory lighting in their bedrooms. Children say that they do not like it when other children enter their rooms without permission. Staff, too, enter rooms without knocking. It is important that all children have their personal space respected by staff and children.

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

All children have detailed and evaluative behaviour management plans and risk assessments, which are followed in practice by home staff. Clear and detailed risk management plans provide staff with valid information to support their understanding of children’s behaviours, with guidance on how to manage challenging behaviours and the preferred de-escalation technique.

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

For some young people, there are clear self-harm care plans informed by the home’s clinical psychologist, but some require signatures from senior staff to ensure further oversight of these plans. Other members of the clinical team, for example the speech and language therapist, have assisted in developing a plan to help a child with communication anxiety. A consistent approach by this multidisciplinary team ensures continuity of care for all the children. Children say that they feel safe and can talk to staff members if they are worried. Bullying Inspection report children’s home: SC484134 7 incidents among the children are resolved quickly by staff. Behaviours requiring physical restraint by staff have significantly decreased, and physical intervention is used only as a last resort. When this approach is necessary, staff follow the correct procedure and protocol. Staff say that the change in management and daily structure has meant that

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

children are happier. Therefore, there are fewer behavioural incidents requiring the use of restraint.

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

Children can earn incentives for good behaviour, such as settling down at bedtime. Children would benefit from measured and balanced sanctions, as some sanctions are punitive. For example, one child became destructive after a difficult contact session and then had to pay a small fee for the repair of the door handle that he had broken.

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

Every month, the staff team carries out an analysis of physical interventions. This analysis includes information on the child involved, the duration of the hold, the type of hold and the staff member involved. This helps the management team to identify any patterns or trends. Physical holds are always of a short duration and aim to prevent injury to staff and to children, and are only ever used as a last resort.

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

Since the last inspection, missing-from-home incidents have involved seven children. None of the children were missing overnight and they tended to go missing for a few hours. The episodes did not involve criminal behaviour, and staff say that the children are usually looking for cigarettes. The records show that staff do follow children and encourage them to return home. An independent agency completes the return-to-home interviews and there is a meeting with the missing-from-care coordinator. Risk assessments are subsequently reviewed and updated.

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

Senior staff members attend local multidisciplinary safeguarding meetings with the police and relevant agencies. These meetings ensure that staff are kept up to date with any new risks in the local community. Safeguarding concerns involving allegations from children about staff members have been reported and the relevant protocols have been followed.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: requires improvement

There has been no registered manager since June 2018. Since that time, managers have been appointed to run the home, but they have not registered with Ofsted. The current manager has applied to register with Ofsted.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: requires improvement

The manager is a highly experienced and organised leader who leads with a child-centred and dynamic approach. She has introduced new systems around policies and procedures. The manager enjoys spending time with children and will visit them in their individual settings, cooking and chatting to them. She says that this has helped her to come to know her staff and children. She hopes that this will show children that she is approachable and will change the dynamic of the home. Children have commented on this, and like to see her visit them.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: requires improvement

The manager has developed positive relationships with the new principal of the school, and they share a passion and drive for improving the quality of care and overall outcomes Inspection report children’s home: SC484134 8 for children. As part of the ongoing refurbishment, there is a plan to change the location of the manager’s office. This will make it more accessible for children to come directly to the office. The current office is in the staffroom area shared by the school.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: requires improvement

Staff report that the new management style has created a culture of proactive decision- making and that there is more structure and guidance. Staff feel that the changes are positive and that they are listened to. This has helped to improve staff morale, and there is a collective ethos of teamwork. There are several permanent staff members, but the home does rely on agency staff to cover shifts. The home will always try to ensure that the same staff are called upon to cover shifts to ensure continuity for the children. A programme also encourages temporary staff to become permanent members of staff.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: requires improvement

A comprehensive training package is offered to all staff. Training is tailored to the needs of children. A training matrix has been developed, and this helps to track the progress of staff training. Managers can check the progress of their staff and ensure that they are completing mandatory training in a timely manner. Managers at each site are offered in- house management programmes and can progress to the level 5 health and social care qualification. Training is frequently evaluated by senior managers and tailored to the needs of children. One example is that managers have recognised that staff would benefit from focused training on attachment theories and the impact of separation and loss on children. It is envisaged that the clinical team will assist with this training.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: requires improvement

Senior managers acknowledge that the quality and quantity of supervision sessions have been lacking, as the primary focus has been on the refurbishment of the home. Team meeting records show that the onus is on staff to seek supervision, rather than on managers to fulfill their management duties and offer supervision. Managers report that supervision can be overlooked, dependent on the circumstances at the time. This results in staff missing out on their one-to-one time with their manager. Due to the complex nature of the needs of the children in their care, it is vital that staff have an opportunity for reflective supervision to understand how their own behaviours and actions could have an impact on the children.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: requires improvement

Staff from Black and ethnic minorities are frequently the target of racist abuse from children when there is an escalation in a child’s behaviour. The day-to-day impact of this can have a significant impact on the emotional and mental well-being of staff. Senior managers have a duty of care to their staff, and embedding learning and understanding of diversity and different cultures would help children to increase their understanding of different races.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: requires improvement

Detailed external monitoring reports are used well by the manager to reflect on and improve care in the home. The independent visitor will spend time at the home talking to children, parents and professionals. The frequency of the visits enables close monitoring of progress, and any shortfalls are highlighted. One example highlighted by the visitor relates to a late management review of an incident. The impact of this is that notifications to Ofsted could be delayed. The manager has reflected upon this and plans to change the procedure to ensure that, in her absence, senior staff review incidents thoroughly to avoid delay in sharing details of any incident with the relevant parties. Inspection report children’s home: SC484134 9 Inspection report children’s home: SC484134 10

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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 difference 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: SC484134 11

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Children’s home details

Provision sub-type: Residential special school

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: Unit 8, Brook Business Centre, Cowley Mill Road, Uxbridge, Middlesex UB8 2FX

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Inspectors

Kamal Bhamra, social care inspector Michelle Bacon, social care inspector Inspection report children’s home: SC484134 12 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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