Children's home run by Educare Adolescent Services Limited in Cannock Chase

Inspection report children‟s home: SC063285 1 SC063285 Registered provider: Educare Adolescent Services 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 owned by a private company. It is registered to provide care and accommodation for up to four children aged between 10 and 17 years old, who have social and/or emotional difficulties.

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Information about this children’s home

The manager was registered with Ofsted in 2014 and is suitably qualified.

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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: 16 October 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: SC063285 2

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

16/10/2018 Full Requires improvement to be good 30/07/2018 Full Inadequate 24/10/2017 Full Good 29/03/2017 Interim Improved effectiveness Inspection report children‟s home: SC063285 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

In meeting the quality standards, the registered person must, and must ensure that staff— if the registered person considers, or staff consider, a placing authority‟s or a relevant person‟s performance or response to be inadequate in relation to their role, challenge the placing authority or the relevant person to seek to ensure that each child‟s needs are met in accordance with the child‟s relevant plans. (Regulation 5(c)) 31/07/2019

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Requirement Due date

The children‟s views, wishes and feelings standard is that children receive care from staff who 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 understand how the child‟s views, wishes and feelings have been taken into account and give the child reasons for decisions in relation to the child. (Regulation 7(1)(c)(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.

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Requirement Due date

In particular, the standard in paragraph (1) requires the registered person to ensure that staff— have the skills to identify and act upon signs that a child is at risk of harm. (Regulation 12(1)(2)(a)(iii))

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Requirement Due date

In particular, share information with relevant professionals and use the information to inform children‟s risk assessments and risk management plans. 31/07/2019

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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; and promotes their welfare.

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Requirement Due date

In particular, the standard in paragraph (1) requires the registered person to use monitoring and review systems to 31/07/2019 Inspection report children‟s home: SC063285 4 make continuous improvements in the quality of care provided in the home. (Regulation 13 (1)(a)(b)(2)(h)) The registered person must ensure that within 24 hours of the use of a measure of control, discipline or restraint in relation to a child in the home, a record is made which includes all necessary information;

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Requirement Due date

and within 48 hours of the use of the measure, the registered person, or a person who is authorised by the registered person to do so (“the authorised person”) has spoken to the user about the measure; and has signed the record to confirm it is accurate;

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Requirement Due date

and within 5 days of the use of the measure, the registered person or the authorised person adds to the record confirmation that they have spoken to the child about the measure. (Regulation 35(3)(a)(i-viii)(b)(i)(ii)(c))

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Requirement Due date

In particular, ensure that records include all required information and that the registered person or authorised person who speaks to the child and debriefs staff was not involved in the restraint. 31/07/2019

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Recommendations

 The registered person should ensure that, in line with their individual health plans and the ethos of the home, children are offered advice, support and guidance on health and well-being to enhance and supplement that provided by their school through Personal, Social and Health Education (PSHE). Staff should have the relevant skills and knowledge to be able to help children understand, and where necessary work to change negative behaviours in key areas of health and well- being such as, but not limited to, nutrition and healthy diet, exercise, mental health, sexual relationships, sexual health, contraception and use of legal highs, drugs, alcohol and tobacco. („Guide to the children‟s homes regulations including the quality standards‟, page 35, paragraph 7.18)

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Recommendations

In particular, ensure that children who smoke receive help and support to stop.

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Recommendations

 Staff should be familiar with the home‟s policies on record-keeping and understand the importance of careful, objective, and clear recording. Staff should record information on individual children in a non-stigmatising way that distinguishes between fact, opinion and third-party information. Information about the child must always be recorded in a way that will be helpful to the child. („Guide to the children‟s homes regulations including the quality standards‟, page 62, paragraph 14.4)

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Recommendations

In particular, key-work sessions should contain more detailed information about Inspection report children‟s home: SC063285 5 the work undertaken and the impact of this work on children‟s progress.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff prepare well for each child coming to live at the home. As a result, children have a positive experience of moving in and settle well. For example, prior to moving to the home children have the opportunity to visit and meet with staff. They are also provided with some good information about their new home. This makes children feel welcomed and helps to allay any anxieties they may have.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff encourage children to live an active life. Children have access to a range of activities, for example ice-skating, trampolining and dance. This means that children‟s interests and hobbies are promoted. In addition, they build confidence and social skills while having fun.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff support children to attend health appointments This means that children mostly receive the advice and treatment that they need to overcome health issues. However, staff are not carrying out work with one child to understand the dangers and impact of smoking, and this does not fully promote this child‟s health.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

The registered manager and the staff are working hard with the in-house clinicians to develop new strategies for helping the children to manage their emotions. This provides children with the opportunity to develop different coping strategies and promotes resilience.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children attend education and most children do well with their learning. There have been some delays by the placing authority in arranging a suitable school placement for one child. Although the registered manager initially raised his concerns about this with the placing authority he did not escalate these when it was not quickly resolved. This resulted in a delay in one child accessing appropriate education, which may impact on his learning.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

For the children that do attend school, the registered manager and staff develop positive relationships with school staff. Effective communication with teachers ensures that children are supported to achieve in their learning and make progress from their starting points.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff promote family contact well. This ensures that children maintain relationships with people who are important to them.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff consult with children regularly. However, when children make requests during residents‟ meetings staff do not always provide them with consistent feedback. This means that sometimes children do not feel listened to about their input into the day-to- day running of the home. Inspection report children‟s home: SC063285 6

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

Children informed the inspector that they feel safe. Children can identify a member of staff they can talk to about any concerns. Staff talk to children about issues that may be causing children or others concern. They help children to express their feelings, and they work out how best to help children deal with those feelings. This work is effective in helping children to feel safe and begin to develop trusting relationships with staff.

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

Managers have improved staff recruitment practice. This means that children are receiving care from staff who have been adequately checked and deemed safe to work at the home.

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

Staff use de-escalation strategies effectively when children present challenging behaviour. As a result, physical restraint is used only as a last resort to keep children and other people safe from harm. However, restraint records do not contain all the required information and children and staff do not always have the opportunity to have a debrief with someone who was not involved with the restraint. This means that children do not speak to someone independent to explore their feelings about what happened.

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

On most occasions when children go missing from the home staff take appropriate action. For example, staff will go looking for the child, and speak with the police, the child‟s social worker and parents. Staff ensure that they work closely with others to facilitate the child‟s safe return. On one occasion this did not happen, and staff did not share some information with relevant professionals about who the child was associating with. This was a missed opportunity to explore these concerns further and inform the child‟s risk assessment.

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

Record-keeping is sometimes inconsistent and does not reflect the good practice that goes on to help children to understand their behaviours and how to treat others. For example, staff do not always keep detailed records that highlight the good work carried out by staff.

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

Not all aspects of leadership and management are good. For example, some of the requirements from the previous inspection have not been met. There are ongoing shortfalls in how children‟s views, wishes and feelings are acted on, and the quality of record-keeping remains variable. These continued shortfalls show that some aspects of management oversight are still not wholly effective.

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

Some staff have not completed mandatory training within agreed timescales. As a result, staff do not keep their knowledge and skills up to date in all areas of practice. Since the last inspection, the registered manager and staff team have worked hard to improve standards and provide good-quality care for children. These improvements have enabled children to make good progress from their starting points. Inspection report children‟s home: SC063285 7 Agency workers are used to supplement the number of permanent staff who work at the home. The registered manager makes sure that the same agency staff are used, and this helps to provide consistency for children.

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

The registered manager and staff receive supervision in line with the organisation‟s policies and procedures. This means that they get feedback on their practice and feel supported in their roles.

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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: SC063285 8

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Children’s home details

Registered provider: Educare Adolescent Services Limited

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: Venture House, 12 Prospect Business Park, Longford Road, Cannock, Staffordshire WS11 0LG

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Inspector

Sarah Junor-Fitzpatrick, social care inspector Inspection report children‟s home: SC063285 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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