Children's home run by Little Belsteads Care Home Limited

Inspection report children’s home: 1248979 1 Registered provider: Little Belsteads Care Home 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 home provides care for up to seven children, aged eight to 17 on admission, who have learning disabilities and/or sensory impairment.

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Information about this children’s home

The registered manager left the service in May 2019. The new manager started six weeks before this inspection.

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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 to be good

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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 December 2018

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good

Overall judgement at last inspection: sustained effectiveness

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good

Enforcement action since last inspection: none Inspection report children’s home: 1248979 2

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

05/12/2018 Interim Sustained effectiveness 09/05/2018 Full Good 07/03/2018 Interim Improved effectiveness 18/07/2017 Full Inadequate Inspection report children’s home: 1248979 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 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

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)) 30/08/2019

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must recruit staff using recruitment procedures that are designed to ensure children’s safety.

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Requirement Due date

full and satisfactory information is available in relation to the individual in respect of the matters in Schedule 2. (Regulation 32(3)(d))

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Requirement Due date

In particular, if a person has previously worked in a position involving work with children, so far as is reasonably practicable, verify the reason why the employment or position ended. 30/08/2019

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must ensure that, within 48 hours of the use of a measure of control, 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

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Requirement Due date

has signed the record to confirm it is accurate; and

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Requirement Due date

within 5 days of the use of the measure, the registered person 30/08/2019 Inspection report children’s home: 1248979 4 or the authorised person adds to the record confirmation that they have spoken to the child about the measure. (Regulation 35(3)(b)(c)) The registered person must maintain records (‘case records’) for each child which—

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Requirement Due date

are kept up to date. (Regulation 36(1)(b)) 30/08/2019

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Recommendations

 Keep the statement of purpose under review. The statement of purpose should be child-focused, indicating how the home provides individualised care to meet the Quality Standards for the children in its care. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 14, paragraph 3.5) In particular, provide details of the calm room.  Ensure that staff follow and understand ‘Managing medicines in care homes’ (March 2014). (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 35, paragraph 7.17)  Ensure that all staff can access appropriate facilities and resources to support their training needs. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 53, paragraph 10.11) In particular, provide training in understanding mental health, anxiety and depression.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

The majority of children, who have complex needs, make significant social and behavioural progress from their unique starting points. Children learn new skills and their health improves.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

All children benefit from the routine of attending school. Some children attend the school run by the provider. Good communication between the home’s staff and teaching staff and regular discussion ensure that all children attend regularly and engage positively in their school day. This helps children to reach their learning potential.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children benefit from a varied and nutritious diet. This encourages children to experiment and try new foods. Some children are encouraged to take an active role in food preparation, which helps to encourage independence. Staff and children have fun together. They celebrate occasions, play games and share meal times. This is inclusive and enables a family atmosphere. Inspection report children’s home: 1248979 5 Children’s hygiene and ability to achieve small personal goals improve. For example, some children learn how to brush their teeth and feed themselves independently.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff actively listen to children. They encourage children to participate in the running of the home and to make suggestions for improvement. This ensures that children maintain a firm sense of identity.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Inside the home, children have enough space to relax and they have shared access to electronic equipment. Children’s bedrooms are personalised. The extensive and stimulating grounds offer exceptionally generous space for children to explore, be curious, play and have fun.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Parents are regular visitors and are consistently made welcome. A parent said, ‘When we visit, it is like we are one big family together.’ Staff do a good job involving children in group and individual activities in the local community. Every child is encouraged to develop their personal interests and unique talents, for example in musical theatre or gardening. Children develop their social skills, are valued and reach their potential.

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

Staff advocate for the children. Children like living at this home. They build good relationships with staff and managers. Children named trusted adults in the staff team to whom they go for help and support. Children recognise that lots of staff do their best to provide them with good help, support, structure and routine.

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

Rewards, praise, incentives, positive regard and encouragement help most children to manage and regulate their behaviour a lot of the time. Nonetheless, the frequency and intensity of physical intervention spiked significantly for a short time during the admission of one child who has since moved on. Written records are not sufficiently clear about the opportunities provided to staff and children to reflect on practice after an incident. This does not demonstrate that there is learning for all from every physical intervention.

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

Children going missing from this home is unusual and limited to one child. Staff take positive and proactive action to work transparently and efficiently with all relevant agencies to ensure children’s safe return. This significantly reduces the likelihood of recurrence.

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

There have been no complaints from children, parents or placing local authorities. The quality assurance officer takes positive action to ensure that all staff are aware of their responsibilities to make known any concerns or worries. Internal investigations inform recommendations to improve safeguarding practice. Very recent additional safeguarding training has ensured that all staff are aware of the required action in the event of staff seeing or hearing anything of concern. Inspection report children’s home: 1248979 6

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: requires improvement to be good

The registered manager has left the service, and her application to voluntarily cancel registration has been received. The new manager, who was recently appointed, has submitted an application to Ofsted to register as manager. The new manager has the relevant experience and knowledge to help staff to understand their responsibilities.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: requires improvement to be good

Some new staff have been recruited to work at the home. Some of the recruitment procedures are not satisfactory. Specifically, reference checks are not sufficiently far reaching, which does not ensure that full information about every individual’s suitability is available prior to their working with vulnerable children, some of whom are non- verbal.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: requires improvement to be good

Staff undertake a relevant level 3 qualification. The assessor visits the home, and this arrangement encourages groups of staff to talk to one another about some practice issues. A recently revamped induction process helps to ensure that staff are equipped with the required knowledge to fulfil their role and that all staff are familiar with the internal whistle-blowing procedures.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: requires improvement to be good

Staff receive training, and this can be face-to-face or online. They have received training in understanding autistic spectrum conditions and managing challenging behaviour. However, the breadth of training avaible does not focus on some of the mental health issues that some of the children are dealing with. Thus, not all staff are fully prepared to deal with specific challenges.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: requires improvement to be good

The statement of purpose refers to the home having a calm room available for children to use. However, this room is currently unavailable for children. This reduces the resources available to staff to help them to support children to manage stress when they are at the home. This is misleading for parents, commissioners and children.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: requires improvement to be good

Quality assurance processes are not good enough. The managers and leaders do not identify and respond to errors in documentation quickly enough. Much of the paperwork and written documentation is poorly organised. Some information about the arrangements for the administration of children’s medication is not clear enough. Large sections of children’s records are muddled, incomplete or not up to date. This does not ensure that full and satisfactory information is available for every child living at the home. Lack of accurate information can result in inconsistency in practice and errors of judgement. However, the new manager is working well with the home’s two deputy managers. Together with the quality assurance officer, they have developed an action plan that identifies many areas for improvement. This means that the current managers and leaders are aware of and working to address some of the shortfalls identified at this

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: requires improvement to be good

A maintenance log helps leaders to keep track of the physical improvements needed at the home. The responsible individual ensures that appropriate funds and resources are available to repair damage and wear and tear. Inspection report children’s home: 1248979 7 The responsible individual has achieved a relevant level 5 qualification, which demonstrates that he is committed to continuing his professional development in social care.

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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: 1248979 8

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Children’s home details

Registered provider: Little Belsteads Care Home Limited

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: Little Belsteads, Back Lane, Little Waltham, Chelmsford CM3 3PP

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Inspectors

Rosie Davie: social care inspector Joanna Heller: social care inspector Inspection report children’s home: 1248979 9 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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Inspectors

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Inspectors

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Inspectors

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