Children's home run by Aurora Care and Education Opco Limited

Inspection report children‟s home: 1243958 1 Registered provider: Aurora Care and Education Opco Limited Full inspection Inspected under the social care common inspection framework

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Information about this children’s home

The children‟s home provides care for up to 48 young people, irrespective of gender, who have learning and physical disabilities. The registered manager has resigned, and new applicants are being considered.

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

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inadequate

Date of last inspection: 11 December 2018

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inadequate

Overall judgement at last inspection: requires improvement to be good

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inadequate

Enforcement action since last inspection: none Inspection report children‟s home: 1243958 2

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

11/12/2018 Full Requires improvement to be good 03/09/2018 Full Inadequate 06/02/2018 Interim Sustained effectiveness 17/07/2017 Full Requires improvement to be good Inspection report children‟s home: 1243958 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 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

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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 the home has sufficient staff to provide care for each child;

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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

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 quality of care provided in the home;

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Requirement Due date

demonstrate that practice in the home is informed and improved by taking into account and acting on—

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Requirement Due date

research and developments in relation to the ways in which the needs of children are best met; and

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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. 26/07/2019 Inspection report children‟s home: 1243958 4 (Regulation 13 (1)(a)(b)(2)(a)(d)(e)(f)(g)(i)(h))

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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

are signed and dated by the author of each entry. (Regulation 36 (1)(b)(c)) 26/07/2019

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Requirement Due date

No measure of control or discipline which is excessive, unreasonable or contrary to paragraph (2) may be used in relation to any child. (Regulation 19 (1)) 26/07/2019

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Requirement Due date

Behaviour management policies and records

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Requirement Due date

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—

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Requirement Due date

details of any methods used or steps taken to avoid the need to use the measure; and

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Requirement Due date

the effectiveness and any consequences of the use of the measure.

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Requirement Due date

In particular, ensure that there is clear evaluation and analysis of the incident. (Regulation 35 (3)(a)(v)(vii)) 26/07/2019

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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

In particular, ensure that the number of agency workers is reduced. (Regulation 31 (1)) 26/07/2019

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Requirement Due date

The quality and purpose of care standard 26/07/2019 Inspection report children‟s home: 1243958 5 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

understand and apply the home‟s statement of purpose;

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Requirement Due date

understand and apply the home‟s statement of purpose;

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Requirement Due date

protect and promote each child‟s welfare;

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Requirement Due date

treat each child with dignity and respect;

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Requirement Due date

provide personalised care that meets each child‟s needs, as recorded in the child‟s relevant plans, taking account of the child‟s background;

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Requirement Due date

help each child to understand and manage the impact of any experience of abuse or neglect;

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Requirement Due date

help each child to develop resilience and skills that prepare the child to return home, to live in a new placement or to live independently as an adult;

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Requirement Due date

provide to children living in the home the physical necessities they need in order to live there comfortably;

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Requirement Due date

provide to children personal items that are appropriate for their age and understanding; and

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Requirement Due date

make decisions about the day-to-day arrangements for each child, in accordance with the child‟s relevant plans, which give the child an appropriate degree of freedom and choice;

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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—

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Requirement Due date

meet the needs of each child; and Inspection report children‟s home: 1243958 6 enable each child to participate in the daily life of the home; and

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Requirement Due date

ensure that any care that is arranged or provided for a child that—

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Requirement Due date

relates to the child‟s development (within the meaning of section 17(11) of the Children Act 1989) or health; and

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Requirement Due date

is not arranged or provided as part of the health service continued under section 1(1) of the National Health Service Act 2006(a), satisfies the conditions in paragraph (3).

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Requirement Due date

that the care is delivered by a person who—

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has the experience, knowledge and skills to deliver that care; and

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Requirement Due date

is under the supervision of a person who is appropriately skilled and qualified to supervise that care. (Regulation 6 (1)(a)(b)(2)(a)(b)(i)(ii)(iii)(iv)(v)(vi)(vii)(viii)(ix)(c)(i)(ii) (3)(b)(c)(i)(ii))

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must make arrangements for the handling, recording, safekeeping, safe administration and disposal of medicines received into the children‟s home.

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Requirement Due date

In particular the registered person must ensure that—

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Requirement Due date

medicine which is prescribed for a child is administered as prescribed to the child for whom it is prescribed and to no other child; and

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Requirement Due date

a record is kept of the administration of medicine to each child. (Regulation 23 (1)(2)(b)(c)) 26/07/2019

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Requirement Due date

The independent person must provide a copy of the independent person‟s report to— 26/07/2019 Inspection report children‟s home: 1243958 7 HMCI. (Regulation 44 (7)(a))

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Requirement Due date

After consultation with the fire and rescue authority, the registered person must—

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Requirement Due date

provide adequate means of escape from the home in the event of fire;

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Requirement Due date

make arrangements for persons working at the home to receive suitable training in fire prevention; and

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Requirement Due date

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. (Regulation 25 (1)(b)(c)(d)) 26/07/2019

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Requirement Due date

The care planning standard is that children—

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Requirement Due date

receive effectively planned care in or through the children‟s home; and

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Requirement Due date

have a positive experience of arriving at or moving on from the home.

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Requirement Due date

In particular, the standard in paragraph (1) requires the registered person to ensure—

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Requirement Due date

that children are admitted to the home only if their needs are within the range of needs of children for whom it is intended that the home is to provide care and accommodation, as set out in the home‟s statement of purpose;

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Requirement Due date

manage and review the placement of each child in the home; and

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Requirement Due date

plan for, and help, each child to prepare to leave the home or to move into adult care in a way that is consistent with arrangements agreed with the child‟s placing authority; and

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Requirement Due date

that each child‟s relevant plans are followed. (Regulation 14 26/07/2019 Inspection report children‟s home: 1243958 8 (1)(a)(b)(2)(a)(b)(ii)(iii)(c))

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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—

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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;

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Requirement Due date

have the skills to identify and act upon signs that a child is at risk of harm;

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Requirement Due date

manage relationships between children to prevent them from harming each other;

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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;

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Requirement Due date

that the premises used for the purposes of the home are located so that children are effectively safeguarded;

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Requirement Due date

that the premises used for the purposes of the home are designed, furnished and maintained so as to protect each child from avoidable hazards to the child‟s health; and

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Requirement Due date

that the effectiveness of the home‟s child protection policies is monitored regularly. (Regulation 12 (1)(2)(a)(i)(iii)(iv)(b)(c) (d)(e)) 26/07/2019

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Requirement Due date

The positive relationships standard is that children are helped to develop, and to benefit from, relationships.

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Requirement Due date

In particular, the standard in paragraph (1) requires the registered person to ensure—

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Requirement Due date

that staff— 26/07/2019 Inspection report children‟s home: 1243958 9 meet each child‟s behavioural and emotional needs, as set out in the child‟s relevant plans;

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Requirement Due date

are provided with supervision and support to enable them to understand and manage their own feelings and responses to the behaviour and emotions of children, and to help children to do the same; and

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Requirement Due date

de-escalate confrontations with or between children, or potentially violent behaviour by children. (Regulation 11 (1)(2)(a)(i)(x)(xi)

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: inadequate

Leaders and managers have repeatedly failed to meet requirements made following each inspection since the home was registered in October 2016. As a result, children and young people have lived for too long in a home where leaders have failed to demonstrate sustained improvements. Consequently, too many children and young people do not achieve consistently good experiences and progress.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: inadequate

Leaders and managers do not ensure that all the children and young people have their needs met. For example, one young person who is not in education, employment or training does not receive support to help him to regularly access the community or engage in meaningful activities. In addition, incidents have occurred that have had a negative impact on some children and young people. For example, a child was physically hurt by another resident child, children have missed their prescribed medication and children have been restrained inappropriately.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: inadequate

On too many occasions, staff are not provided with clear direction about how to care for the children and young people. This is because some care and support documents are conflicting and misleading. This results in children and young people receiving inconsistent approaches to their care by staff.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: inadequate

Serious incidents take place which are often difficult to manage and staff have been injured. Consequently, some children and young people who were not involved, have witnessed volatile incidents and continue to live in a home that remains damaged in part.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: inadequate

Some children and young people experience being physically restrained. Children, young people and staff are not always offered a meaningful debrief following incidents of restraint. Three restraints used on children and young people were inappropriate and placed them and staff at risk of harm. Inspection report children‟s home: 1243958 10 Leaders and managers have not been able to prevent staffing and recruitment difficulties. Despite an improved recruitment and training programme, an overreliance on agency workers continues. This means that children and young people with autism spectrum disorder and learning difficulties are not able to build relationships with all of their carer‟s.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: inadequate

Young people who are over the age of 18 are not in education or meaningful activities. For these young people, there is a lack of career and work advice for those who are no longer receiving education. One young person who is 18 has a repetitive schedule and has made no progress in the last six months.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: inadequate

Pathway plans are not always in place or implemented effectively, resulting in significant drift for some young people who need to move on. While waiting to move on, some young people‟s behaviours have deteriorated, and as a result, staff sustain injuries.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: inadequate

Generally, the houses are clean and tidy. However, there are areas that remain damaged, stark and clinical, despite attempts to upgrade and improve. This means that the living environments for some children and young people with complex sensory needs are insufficient.

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

Poor practice includes the use of unsafe physical restraint. In addition, leaders and managers cannot assure themselves that all agency staff have received training in physical restraint, and not all agency staff are trained in the same intervention method. Leaders and managers have failed to identify these concerns during their auditing of restraints.

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

Restraint records are often poorly written and incomplete. A lack of reflection, timely supervision, evaluation and sufficiently robust management analysis places children and young people at risk.

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

Leaders and managers have failed to improve the recording and storage of medication. Too many staff continue to not follow protocol when administering and storing medication. This has resulted in unclean medication cabinets, three medication errors, incomplete records, staff not following medication instructions and a lack of management oversight and clear auditing of stock control. Continued weaknesses and breaches in regulations place children, young people and staff at risk.

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

Insufficient action has taken place to safeguard children and young people in the event of a fire. Since the last inspection, recommendations made by an external assessment of the fire systems have not all been completed. Poor understanding by some staff continues in relation to the recording of when children and young people take part in fire drills. A cluttered fire exit, out of date training for some staff and not all personal evacuation plans being up to date place children and young people at risk in the event of a fire. Inspection report children‟s home: 1243958 11

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

Since this home was registered in 2016, it has had recurring changes in leadership, resulting in inconsistent delivery of a coherent strategy. Weaknesses and poor performance are repeatedly identified at successive inspections and stem from inadequate leadership and management.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

In 2018, the home was issued with three compliance notices and was subsequently restricted. Regulatory breaches found at this inspection have been identified at previous inspections. There is a distinct and ongoing failure by senior leaders to make and sustain the improvements necessary to provide children and young people with good experiences and care. So much so that children and young people have lived for too long in a home that has not sustained improvements.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

In the face of an acting principal being newly appointed, there remains instability in the leadership team. The registered manager and lead nurse have recently resigned. Despite an ongoing recruitment campaign, vacancies exist across the homes, including at senior level and there continues to be an overreliance on agency staff.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

Monitoring by managers and leaders remains weak. Internal audits have again failed to identify and correct poor practice and incomplete and inaccurate records. Furthermore, the registered manager has not demonstrated scrutiny and rigour in their role, by failing to submit an action plan following the previous inspection and by not ensuring that independent visitor reports were submitted to Ofsted in line with regulations.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

The frequency of supervision for all staff and the quality of supervision records are variable. Managers and leaders fail to consistently promote a reflective ethos that seeks to learn lessons from serious incidents through staff supervision. Moreover, the registered manager could not produce any records of his own supervision and therefore could not evidence his own continuing professional development.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

Steps to recruit new staff, to improve the induction programme and to provide training have continued since the last inspection. Staff spoke positively of these changes and how, in particular, the rota provides dedicated time to learn. However, it is unclear from records if all staff have attended all necessary training, and as these changes remain in their infancy their impact is not yet measurable.

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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 Inspection report children‟s home: 1243958 12 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: 1243958 13

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Children’s home details

Registered provider: Aurora Care and Education Opco Limited

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: The Aurora Group, 33 Holborn, London EC1N 2HT

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Inspector(s)

Linda Bond: social care inspector Joy Howick: her majesty‟s inspector Wendy Anderson: social care inspector Janice Hawtin: social care inspector Inspection report children‟s home: 1243958 14 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(s)

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Inspector(s)

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Inspector(s)

T: 0300 123 1231 Textphone: 0161 618 8524 E: enquiries@ofsted.gov.uk W: http://www.gov.uk/ofsted

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