Children's Home run by Archways Care Limited in Worcestershire

Inspection report children’s home: SC383941 1 SC383941 Registered provider: Archways Care 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

The home is one of three homes run by a private organisation. It is registered to provide care and accommodation for up to four children who display emotional and/or challenging behaviour. The manager was registered with Ofsted in March 2018. She is in the process of completing her level 5 diploma in leadership and management.

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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 are not protected or their welfare is not promoted or safeguarded and the care and experiences of children are poor and they are not making progress.

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inadequate

Date of last inspection: 4 September 2018

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inadequate

Overall judgement at last inspection: good

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inadequate

Enforcement action since last inspection: none Inspection report children’s home: SC383941 2

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

04/09/2018 Full Good 26/09/2017 Full Good 08/11/2016 Interim Sustained effectiveness 27/04/2016 Full Good Inspection report children’s home: SC383941 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 children’s views, wishes and feelings standard is that children receive care from staff who develop positive relationships with them; engage with them. (Regulation 7(1)(a)(b)) 31/07/2019

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Requirement Due date

The health and well-being standard is that— staff help each child to— take part in activities, and attend any appointments, for the purpose of meeting the child’s health and well-being needs. (Regulation 10(2)(a)(iii)) 31/07/2019

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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. In particular, the standard in paragraph (1) requires the registered person to ensure that staff— 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; help each child to understand how to keep safe; have the skills to identify and act upon signs that a child is at risk of harm; understand the roles and responsibilities in relation to protecting children that are assigned to them by the registered person; take effective action whenever there is a serious concern about a child’s welfare; 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; that the premises used for the purposes of the home are

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Requirement Due date

designed, furnished and maintained so as to protect each child from avoidable hazards to the child’s health. (Regulation 12(1)(2)(a)(i)(ii)(iii)(v)(vi)(b)(d)) 09/07/2019 Inspection report children’s home: SC383941 4 The leadership and management standard is that the registered person enables, inspires and leads a culture in relation to the children’s home that— helps children aspire to fulfil their potential; and promotes their welfare. In particular, the standard in paragraph (1) requires the registered person to— ensure that staff have the experience, qualifications and skills to meet the needs of each child; ensure that the home has sufficient staff to provide care for each child; ensure that the home’s workforce provides continuity of care to each child; 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

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Requirement Due date

quality of care provided in the home; (Regulation 13(1)(a)(b)(2)(b)(c)(d)(e)(f)) * 09/07/2019

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Requirement Due date

After consultation with the fire and rescue authority, the registered person must— make arrangement for persons working in the home to receive training in fire prevention. (Regulation 25(1)(c)) 31/07/2019

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Requirement Due date

A responsible individual must— Have the capacity, experience and skills to supervise the management of the home, or the homes, in respect of which the responsible individual is nominated. (Regulation 26(7)(b)) 31/07/2019

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must ensure that at all times at least one person on duty at the home has a suitable first aid qualification. (Regulation 31(2)(a)) 09/07/2019

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must ensure that full and satisfactory information is available in relation to any individual employed to work in the children’s home in respect of each of the matters in Schedule 2. (Regulation 32(3)(d)) 09/07/2019

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must ensure that all employees— undertake appropriate continuing professional development; receive practice-related supervision by a person with appropriate experience. (Regulation 33(4)(a)(b)) 31/07/2019

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must provide for the prompt referral of an allegation about current or ongoing abuse or neglect in relation to a child to the placing authority and, if different, the local authority in whose area the home is located. (Regulation 09/07/2019 Inspection report children’s home: SC383941 5 34(2)(b))

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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

Children do not have positive experiences of living at the home. They receive inconsistent care from staff. This is because there is a high turnover of staff and, consequently, children are not able to form strong attachments and trusting relationships with staff. This does not help children to feel secure and does not support their progress. Children do not regularly engage in activities within the local community. Their routines are unstructured. This results in children becoming bored and engaging in negative behaviour. Managers and staff do not ensure that children attend regular routine dental and other health appointments. This does not promote young people’s physical health and emotional well-being. Despite these shortfalls, children have made some progress from their starting point. They are progressing well in their education. Those children in full-time education have good attendance in school and are engaging well. Children not in full-time education

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

The manager and staff do not understand their responsibilities to ensure that children in their care are protected from harm. Decisions are made to allow children to engage in inappropriate activities without considering the risks to them, or the impact on other children in the home. As a result, boundaries are blurred leading to children becoming confused about what is considered acceptable behaviour. Staff do not have the skills and understanding to manage children’s challenging behaviours. For example, they have not effectively challenged children when alcohol has been brought into the home. This has led to children placing themselves and other children in the home at risk. Staff do not work effectively with children to help them to understand and be alert to potentially risky situations. As a result, children are unable to develop strategies to keep themselves safe. Staff carry out physical interventions without the required training. This increases the

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

risk of children and staff getting injured. The manager does review restraint records to assess whether they are appropriate and proportionate. Furthermore, children are not always spoken to by someone who was not involved in the restraint. This does not give children the opportunity to talk about what happened and the impact of this on them. Inspection report children’s home: SC383941 6 The manager has not reported and referred allegations to the designated officer for the local authority in a timely manner. On one occasion, there was a delay of four days in referring an allegation to the relevant persons. This places young people at risk of significant harm because it means that concerns are not investigated promptly. Managers do not consistently follow safer recruitment practice. For example, on one occasion a new member of staff was allowed to work without a DBS check. In addition, managers do not clarify gaps in employment histories. This does not adequately ensure

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

that only safe adults are employed to care for children. Staff and managers have a good understanding of the missing from care protocol. They are proactive in trying to reduce missing from care episodes. Children have return interviews and this helps staff to understand the reason why children go missing from home and what happened while they were missing. This information is used to develop strategies to reduce risks.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

The home continues to have a high turnover of staff. As a result, children experience a lack of continuity in their care. Furthermore, it has resulted in a high level of inexperienced staff working in the home. Staff lack the necessary skills and confidence to manage the needs of some of the children. At the time of the inspection, only one permanent member of staff was qualified to the expected level. Staff are not adequately trained to enable them to care for children safely and to meet their identified needs. Consequently, children experience care from staff who do not have a good level of understanding of their needs. Managers do not encourage a culture of improvement and development in the home. Management oversight into the day-to-day activities in the home is ineffective. As a result, managers do not know what is happening and are not able to ensure that children are safe and well cared for. Staff do not receive adequate supervision. The quality of supervision is poor and does

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

not enable staff to reflect on their own development and practice. This compromises the quality of care provided to children. Children do not live in a well-maintained and homely environment. The home is tired and unkempt, the garden is overgrown, and carpets stained. Children’s bedrooms are untidy and dirty. This has a negative effect on children’s self-esteem and on their experiences while living at the home. Staff develop some good working relationships with professionals, such as local authority social workers and schools. The home employs an education coordinator who is proactive in maintaining a link between home, school and the virtual schools and supporting those children who are not in full-time education.

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Information about this inspection

Inspection report children’s home: SC383941 7 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: SC383941 8

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Children’s home details

Registered provider: Archways Care Limited

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: Hill Farm, Shawbury Lane, Shustoke, Coleshill, Birmingham B46 2RN

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Children’s home details

Responsible individual: Christopher Aristidou

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Inspectors

Sue Young, social care inspector Shazana Jamal, social care inspector Inspection report children’s home: SC383941 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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