Children's home run by Bryn Melyn Care Limited in Telford and Wrekin

Inspection report children’s home: SC372611 1 SC372611 Registered provider: Bryn Melyn 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 service is owned by a private company. The home is registered to accommodate two children. Children come to live at the home because of family or placement breakdowns. Some children have difficulties that make their situation very challenging, or they choose not to live in a family setting at this time. Some children have experienced abuse.

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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 inadequate

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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: good

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requires improvement to be good

Enforcement action since last inspection: none Inspection report children’s home: SC372611 2

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

03/10/2018 Full Good 01/12/2017 Interim Declined in effectiveness 12/07/2017 Full Good 12/12/2016 Interim Declined in effectiveness Inspection report children’s home: SC372611 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 positive relationships standard is that children are helped to develop, and to benefit from, relationships based on mutual respect and trust; an understanding about acceptable behaviour; and positive responses to other children and adults. In particular, the standard requires the registered person to ensure that staff help each child to understand, in a way that is appropriate according to the child’s age and understanding, personal, sexual and social relationships, and how those relationships can be supportive or harmful. (Regulation 11(1)(a)(b)(c)(2)(a)(vi)) 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 requires the registered person to ensure that staff take effective action whenever there is a serious concern about a child’s welfare. (Regulation 12(1)(2)(a)(vi)) 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 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. (Regulation 12(1)(2)(a)(i)) 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. In particular, the standard requires the registered person to ensure that staff have the experience, qualifications and skills to meet the needs of each child. (Regulation 13(1)(a)(b)(2)(c)) 31/07/2019

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Requirement Due date

The care planning standard is that children receive effectively planned care in or through the children’s home; and in particular, the standard requires the registered person to ensure that each child’s relevant plans are followed. 31/07/2019 Inspection report children’s home: SC372611 4 (Regulation 14(1)(a)(2)(b)(c))

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Recommendations

 Many children placed in homes may undergo a difficult transition and what should be simple aspects of their care take on a substantial significance in this context. Staff should provide a nurturing environment that is welcoming, supportive, and which provides appropriate boundaries in relation to their behaviour. Homes must also meet children’s basic day to day needs and physical necessities. Staff should seek to meet the child’s basic needs in the way that a good parent would, recognising that many children in residential care have experienced environments where these needs have not been consistently met – doing so is an important aspect of demonstrating that the staff care for the child and value them as an individual. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 15, paragraph 3.7)

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Recommendations

In particular, two window frames in the downstairs rooms are rotten and leaking and the kitchen cupboards are worn and do not close properly.

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improvement to be good

The home has undergone some improvements since the last inspection. However, the kitchen cupboards are worn, and leaking window frames have not been repaired.

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improvement to be good

Young people’s plans are updated monthly, but these plans are not always adhered to by staff and so are not as effective as they could be. Key work plans for the month are not always completed, and the level of key work is sometimes below the minimum required by the service. This means that young people are not supported to make progress in significant areas such as understanding issues relating to sexual health.

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improvement to be good

Young people make progress in regulating their emotions and behaviour and attending and engaging in school (including undertaking and passing exams). They develop independence skills, including money management and cooking. When young people told staff that performing independence tasks during their exams felt too stressful, staff responded sensitively and reduced their expectations to enable young people to concentrate on school work.

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improvement to be good

Young people enjoy warm and trusting relationships with staff and said that staff care about them and listen to them. They have fun with staff and each other. Staff support young people to engage in their reviews, and young people regularly attend and Inspection report children’s home: SC372611 5 contribute confidently to young people’s meetings. One young person, who has struggled to trust staff in previous placements, is very happy living in this home. She said that she can talk to any of the staff and hopes to keep in touch with them after she moves out.

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improvement to be good

Staff support young people to enjoy a range of stimulating and fun activities, including ice skating, bowling, playing pool, horse riding and photography. Staff transport young people to see their families and make sure that young people’s health needs are well met.

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improvement to be good

Staff do not do enough work with young people to help them understand about harmful relationships. Key work sessions do not regularly revisit significant issues in young people’s plans, including drug misuse and sexual health. This means that young people are not equipped to recognise risks or to develop strategies to keep themselves safe.

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improvement to be good

After one incident when a young person hurt themselves, staff did not follow through with planned work to enable the young person to gain the support that he needed to prevent a recurrence. The manager planned to discuss the matter in a team meeting and to carry out a clinical consultation about the young person’s needs. Neither of these events was recorded as having occurred, and the registered manager did not inform the team of the incident for several days. Staff did not update the risk assessment to include key issues; nor did they undertake a room search to reduce the risks. Staff did not undertake a key work session with the young person to address the incident. The young person did not sustain any significant injuries, but his emotional and mental health needs were not met on this occasion.

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improvement to be good

When young people go missing, staff search for them and follow clear protocols. Positive collaboration with the police has been a significant element in keeping young people safe. Staff have worked effectively with one young person to help her to understand the risks of going missing. Since January 2019, there has been a significant reduction in the number of these incidents and incidents when police involvement has been required. A local authority worker commented that this placement keeps this young person as safe as anywhere could, and that when the young person does go missing from care she now keeps in touch with staff via her mobile phone. This is helping her to become increasingly safe.

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improvement to be good

Young people said that they feel that staff do a lot to keep them safe. For example, when young people are out on free time, staff call them on their mobile phones and undertake regular visual checks to ensure that they are safe.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

The home has been without a registered manager for over 12 months. The current manager started in post in April 2018 but did not submit her application for 10 weeks. The application was then returned to her as she had not ensured that it was complete. Following this, two further applications were returned as they did not contain the required Inspection report children’s home: SC372611 6 information/documents. This delay has had an impact on the ability of the regulator to formally assess the suitability and skills of the manager.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

The manager does not ensure that all staff are adequately trained. Staff have recently undertaken training in child sexual exploitation and county lines. They have also recently updated their physical intervention training. However, other important training is not always completed in a timely way. Specifically, not all staff are up to date with safeguarding training, training about how to respond to the use of ligatures, self-harm, health and safety and fire training. This could have an impact on the safety of young people and the ability of staff to meet their needs.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

The manager takes positive action to challenge placing authorities to ensure that the needs of young people are met. She gathers relevant information and opinions, when appropriate, from other professionals, including therapists and nurses, to support the case for additional services for young people, should these be required.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

Social workers, other professionals and family members said that staff communicate very well with them and keep them informed about the young people. Family members are particularly positive about the level of support that staff provide to enable young people to have family contact.

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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: SC372611 7

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Children’s home details

Registered provider: Bryn Melyn Care Limited

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: Edward James House, Hadley, Telford TF1 6QJ

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Inspector

Louise Whittle, social care inspector Inspection report children’s home: SC372611 8 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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Inspector

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Inspector

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Inspector

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