Children's home run by Oldham Children’s Social Care in Oldham

Inspection report children’s home: SC387671 1 SC387671 Registered provider: Oldham Metropolitan Borough Council

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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 a six-bedded short-break service for disabled children between the ages of six and 17. The home is within the Oldham Metropolitan Borough Council boundary and is for children from the Oldham and Rochdale area.  In addition to the six beds available for planned admissions, another bed is retained for emergency accommodation for children with additional and complex needs to help families through real crisis periods or for safeguarding reasons.  The duration of short breaks can vary from day-care provision to a maximum of 17 days.  There has been no registered manager in post since March 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 requires improvement to be 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: declined in effectiveness

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requires improvement to be good

Enforcement action since last inspection: none Inspection report children’s home: SC387671 2

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

12/03/2019 Interim Declined in effectiveness 04/04/2018 Full Good 16/08/2017 Full Good 01/02/2017 Full Good Inspection report children’s home: SC387671 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

ensure that the premises used for the purposes of the home are designed and furnished so as to meet the needs of each child. (Regulation 6(1)(a)(b)(2)(c)(i)) 30/07/2019

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Requirement Due date

The children’s views, wishes and feelings standard is that children receive care from staff who—

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Requirement Due date

develop positive relationships with them;

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Requirement Due date

take their views, wishes and feelings into account in relation to matters affecting the children’s care and welfare and their lives.

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Requirement Due date

In particular, the standard in paragraph (1) requires the registered person to ensure that staff help each child to express views, wishes and feelings. (Regulation 7 (1)(a)(b)(c)(2)(ii)) 30/07/2019

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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—

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Requirement Due date

assess whether each child is at risk of harm, taking into account 30/07/2019 Inspection report children’s home: SC387671 4 information in the child’s relevant plans, and, if necessary, make arrangements to reduce the risk of any harm to the child;

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Requirement Due date

have the skills to identify and act upon signs that a child is at risk of harm. (Regulation 12 (1)(2)(a)(i)) 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

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

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)(h)) 30/07/2019

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Requirement Due date

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)) 30/07/2019

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must ensure that all employees receive practice-related supervision by a person with appropriate experience. (Regulation 33(4)(b)) 30/07/2019

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must maintain records (‘case records’) for each child which—

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Requirement Due date

include the information and documents listed in Schedule 3 in relation to each child;

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Requirement Due date

are signed and dated by the author of each entry. (Regulation 36 (1)(a)(b)(c)) 30/07/2019 Inspection report children’s home: SC387671 5

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Recommendations

 Just as in a family home, children should be able to access all shared areas of their home unless there are specific reasons why this would not meet a child’s needs. Limits on privacy and access may only be put in place to safeguard each child in the home. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 15, paragraph 3.10 )  Supervision of staff practice should ensure that individual adults in the home are engaged in the safeguarding culture of the home, so they understand what they would need to do if they found other staff misusing or abusing their position to the detriment of the safety of a child. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 43, paragraph 9.14)

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improvement to be good

Young people receive individualised and well-planned care from an experienced and consistent staff team. Staff are committed to ensuring that young people make progress and enjoy a wide range of experiences when they stay in this home for a short break. Parents and professionals are positive about the level of care young people receive from staff. Parents were positive about how the short-break stay in the home has improved young people’s confidence and provided them with an opportunity to develop their social relationships. Staff know young people’s likes and dislikes. Consequently, young people spend time participating in activities that they enjoy during their stay, such as going to the cinema. Planned admissions into the home are managed well. Referrals are discussed in team meetings and the acting manager communicates with the placing local authority about any new admissions. Young people attend the home for teatime visits prior to staying

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improvement to be good

over in the home. This supports young people in the transition process. However, not all staff have a full understanding of the needs of the young people who are accessing the service. Some staff were vague about young people’s health needs. The acting manager has put in place new systems to address this issue. As a short-breaks service, parents retain responsibility for young people’s health and education. Staff have fostered good links with the local schools to ensure that young people receive consistency in care. Staff attend reviews and multi-agency meetings. This ensures that a multi-agency approach is used in planning young people’s care. Staff understand each young person’s chosen method of communication. However, there is limited evidence of how staff have ascertained young people’s views about their care. Internal doors are locked within the home. This means that young people cannot access

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improvement to be good

all areas of the home without the use of a fob key. The rationale behind this practice is unclear and needs to be reviewed to ensure that young people are not unnecessarily restricted in the home. Inspection report children’s home: SC387671 6

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improvement to be good

Risk assessments are currently being updated. They do not always reflect young people’s known risks or include clear written guidance for staff to follow to reduce known risks associated with self-harming behaviour or food allergies. There are very few incidents of challenging behaviour in the home. Overall, staff manage young people’s behaviour well, using individualised strategies to de-escalate behaviour. However, it is not always clear from case records how staff have managed young people’s behaviour when it has escalated. Records contain reference to young people being guided out of situations, but this is not recorded as restraint. Some records lack sufficient detail as to how staff have responded to these incidents. This does not ensure that children or staff are kept safe. Young people do not go missing, due to a high level of staffing. Staff are clear about what actions to take should a young person go missing.

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improvement to be good

Staff have completed further training in safeguarding since the last inspection. This was following an incident where there was a delay in a member of staff reporting safeguarding concerns to the manager. Despite this training, some staff were not clear about the whistle-blowing process. Staff communicate well with professionals to ensure that young people are kept safe. Social workers spoke about a recent improvement in communication, particularly in relation to unexplained bruising and body maps.

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

There is currently no registered manager in post. The acting manager has been in post since March 2019, and is still working to gain a good knowledge of the young people who access the service. He is not yet able to access some of the computer systems for information; this will hinder him in his role. During the inspection, there were also gaps identified in the acting manager’s understanding of the home’s statement of purpose and the policies in place. The home accepts emergency admissions; however, these are not managed in accordance with the home’s statement of purpose. This states that, when young people are admitted in an emergency, there should be a planning meeting within 24 hours. Planning meetings do not take place within this timescale and young people are admitted without the required documentation. This limits the staff’s ability to provide individualised care as they do not have the required information about young people that

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

they are caring for. Staff say that they feel well supported by management in their roles. However, not all staff receive regular supervision, and the acting manager is unclear about how frequently he should be supervising all staff. Training records are unclear. As a result, it is not possible to establish whether all staff have had mandatory training in the administration of medication or first aid. This limits the acting manager’s ability to monitor whether staff have the required knowledge to meet the needs of young people. Inspection report children’s home: SC387671 7 Although the acting manager has put new monitoring systems in place, these need to be further developed to provide a clear overview of staff practice. Furthermore, the monitoring of the fire safety arrangements needs to be improved. This will ensure that personal evacuation plans for young people are regularly reviewed and that staff

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

undertake and record all fire evacuations in line with guidance they are given by the acting manager. The home is a large building that is in need of some redecoration. Some of the young people’s bedrooms have holes in the walls and water damage marks on the ceilings. This does not promote a homely environment for young people to stay in.

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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: SC387671 8

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: Oldham Metropolitan Borough Council, Civic Centre, West Street, Oldham OL1 1UT

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Inspector

Sarah Billett, social care inspector Inspection report children’s home: SC387671 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 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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