Children's Home, Residential special school run by The Sheiling Special Education Trust in Dorset

Inspection report children’s home: SC472485 1 SC472485 Registered provider: The Sheiling Special Education Trust Full inspection Inspected under the social care common inspection framework

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Information about this children’s home

 The home is part of an independent residential special school which is registered as a children’s home. The school is run according to principles inspired by Rudolf Steiner.  The home provides accommodation and personal care for up to 31 children and young people who have learning disabilities. Some may also have a physical disability.  Children live in four homes within the extensive grounds.  The home has two registered managers who were registered in January 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: requires improvement to be good

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Enforcement action since last inspection:

A monitoring visit took place on 23 January 2019 following a complaint received by Ofsted. Inspection report children’s home: SC472485 2

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

02/05/2018 Full Requires improvement to be good 29/11/2017 Full Good 15/02/2017 Interim Sustained effectiveness 23/11/2016 Full Good Inspection report children’s home: SC472485 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

6: The quality and purpose of care standard

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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

In particular, the standard in paragraph (1) requires the registered person to— ensure that the premises used for the purposes of the home are designed and furnished so as to— meet the needs of each child; and enable each child to participate in the daily life of the home.

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Requirement Due date

(Regulation 6 (1)(a)(2)(c)(i)(ii)) 16/08/2019

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Requirement Due date

13: The leadership and management standard

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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— helps children aspire 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 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.

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Requirement Due date

(Regulation 13 (1)(a)(2)(c)(e)) 16/08/2019

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Requirement Due date

After consultation with the fire and rescue authority, the 16/08/2019 Inspection report children’s home: SC472485 4 registered person must— ensure, by means of fire drills and practices at suitable intervals, that persons working at the home and, so far as reasonably practicable, children are aware of the procedure to be followed in case of fire.

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Requirement Due date

(Regulation 25 (1)(d)) 31: Staffing of children’s homes

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must ensure that the employment of any person on a temporary basis at the children’s home does not prevent children from receiving such continuity of care as is reasonable to meet their needs.

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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

The registered person may only— employ an individual to work at the children’s home; or if an individual is employed by a person other than the registered person to work at the home in a position in which the individual may have regular contact with children, allow that individual to work at the home, if the individual satisfies the requirements in paragraph (3).

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Requirement Due date

The requirements are that— the individual is of integrity and good character; the individual has the appropriate experience, qualification and skills for the work that the individual is to perform; the individual is mentally and physically fit for the purposes of the work that the individual is to perform; and full and satisfactory information is available in relation to the individual in respect of each of the matters in Schedule 2.

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Requirement Due date

(Regulation 32 (1)(2)(a)(b)(3)(a)(b)(c)(d)) 16/08/2019

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must ensure that all employees—

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Requirement Due date

have their performance and fitness to perform their roles appraised at least once every year.

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Requirement Due date

(Regulation 33 (4)(c)) 16/08/2019 Inspection report children’s home: SC472485 5

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improvement to be good

Weaknesses in how well children are helped and protected and the effectiveness of leaders and managers mean that children’s overall progress and experiences require improvement to be good. Leaders and managers understand these weaknesses and have a suitable action plan in place to improve.

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improvement to be good

Children’s progress in developing independence skills is limited due to the excessive use of locks in their homes. Independent access in and out of the home is prevented by electronic keypads. Some children’s wardrobes and cupboards have locks on them meaning that children cannot access their personal belongings. In one home, the living room door has been locked during behavioural incidents. These restrictions place limitations on the amount of progress children can make.

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improvement to be good

While some good work is taking place to personalise children’s bedrooms, not all areas in the four homes are achieving a homely style. Some areas of the homes require redecoration and there are too many signs displayed on walls. A suitable maintenance plan is being implemented aiming to address these weaknesses.

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improvement to be good

Relationships between children and staff are good. Staff treat children with respect and implement the ethos of the home well. Excluding the use of environmental restrictions, children receive individualised and well-thought-out care that meets their needs. Achievable targets and goals in relation to self-care, behaviour and education are well implemented into day-to-day living. Children make progress in these areas.

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improvement to be good

Children benefit from an effective, integrated therapy team that works collaboratively in school and in the home. The therapy team gives good support to enable staff to implement children’s individual communication and sensory plans. The children’s sensory and communication needs are met well.

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improvement to be good

All children have opportunities to contribute to the life of the home and the school. Consultation takes place in several ways to try and be inclusive to all children. Children are progressively making more choices.

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improvement to be good

Increasingly, children are offered more choice about activities and their own leisure time. The homes are set in extensive grounds, which children enjoy being within. Children enjoy the new youth club set up within the grounds where they take part in age- appropriate activities such as manicures, foot spas, movie nights and music. Activities in the community are also accessible and children enjoy an annual holiday. Memory books bring children’s experiences to life.

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improvement to be good

Inspection report children’s home: SC472485 6 Leaders and managers cannot be certain that all staff have been recruited safely because they do not apply the same rigorous checks of agency staff as they do for permanent staff. In addition, they have not assured themselves that all agency staff have completed child protection training.

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improvement to be good

While regular fire drills and practices take place, records do not detail which staff are present during the drill. This means that leaders and managers cannot be certain that all staff have taken part in a fire drill as required.

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improvement to be good

Staff understand their responsibility to protect children and to report concerns swiftly. In particular, staff are very good at identifying changes in children’s behaviour. Leaders and managers take quick action to refer concerns to external professionals and they follow the advice provided. Concerns about practice and outcomes from internal investigations are addressed appropriately during staff supervision.

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improvement to be good

Trustees add an additional layer to monitoring the effectiveness of safeguarding arrangements. The safeguarding trustee is well informed and sufficiently trained. Trustees spend time with children in their homes and at school and they hold leaders and managers to account. This level of scrutiny promotes children’s welfare.

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improvement to be good

Positive relationships between children and staff promote children’s positive behaviour. However, serious incidents have occurred where de-escalation strategies were not effective and staff restrained children to prevent harm. Leaders and managers have good oversight of these incidents and support staff through effective debriefs. Progress to improve children’s debriefs through individualised debrief tool kits is not yet embedded fully.

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improvement to be good

Staff identify children’s individual risk and think of ways to reduce this. One-to-one work with children helps them to progress and to become more independent, for example children learn to cook, to cross a road safely and to travel in the car wearing a seat belt. This work enhances children’s experiences. Children have not gone missing from this home in this inspection period.

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

Senior leaders took action to strengthen the leadership team since the previous inspection. Two registered managers have responsibility for the four homes and provide seven days a week management cover. An additional management post sits in-between the registered managers and principal, offering further oversight. Leaders and managers understand the strengths and weaknesses of the home. An effective development plan addresses the weaknesses.

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

Not enough permanent staff means that there is a reliance on agency staff to meet the needs of children. Although the use of agency staff is reducing, on occasions the agency staff on duty in one home has exceeded more than half of the staff team. In addition, incorrectly completed rotas mean that there is no accurate account of where and when staff work in the home as required. Inspection report children’s home: SC472485 7 Leaders and managers took effective action to address the gaps in staff supervision that they identified through their monitoring. Since January 2019, staff are receiving more frequent supervision, and this includes some agency staff. However, staff have not had their performance appraised annually as required. Regular team meetings give staff opportunities to discuss and reflect on the care provided to children.

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

Permanent staff receive good training to meet the needs of children. In particular, the therapy team offers support and training about children’s sensory and speech and language plans. This enables staff to respond quickly to children’s changing needs.

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

Trustees hold leaders and managers to account and have good oversight in monitoring the quality of care and education. Monitoring and scrutiny by the trustees is child- focused, with regular review and understanding of the experiences of children.

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

Leaders and managers are taking action to improve and are prioritising the sufficiency of staffing and the quality of the environment. The registered managers have not had enough time to implement fully their development plan. This means that there are still some high priority areas which require improvement to be good.

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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: SC472485 8

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Children’s home details

Provision sub-type: Residential special school

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Children’s home details

Registered provider: The Sheiling Special Education Trust

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: Horton Road, Ashley, Ringwood, Hampshire BH24 2EB

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Children’s home details

Responsible individual: Corine Van Barneveld

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Inspectors

Nicola Lownds: social care inspector Janice Hawtin: social care inspector Clare Davies: social care inspector Wendy Anderson: social care inspector Inspection report children’s home: SC472485 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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Inspectors

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Inspectors

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Inspectors

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