Children's home run by The Percy Hedley Foundation

Inspection report children’s home: 1234990 1 Registered provider: The Percy Hedley Foundation 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 and accommodation for up to 14 children or young people who may have physical disabilities, learning disabilities and/or a sensory impairment. The accommodation consists of a residential unit and a three-bedroom cottage. A private provider operates the home. There is no registered manager in post.

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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 and their welfare is not promoted.

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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: 1234990 2

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

01/08/2018 Full Requires improvement to be good 22/05/2018 Interim Declined in effectiveness 14/06/2017 Full Outstanding Inspection report children’s home: 1234990 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, the 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 understand the children’s home’s overall aims and outcomes it seeks to achieve for children; and use this understanding to deliver care that meets the 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 ensure that staff–

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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; and

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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. (Regulation 6(1)(a)(b), (2)(b)(ii)(iii)(iv)) 21/07/2019

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Requirement Due date

The health and well-being standard is that children receive advice, services and support in relation to their health and well- being.

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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–

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Requirement Due date

achieve the health and well-being outcomes that are recorded in the child’s relevant plans; and

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Requirement Due date

understand and develop skills to promote the child’s well-being. (Regulation 10(1)(b), (2)(a)(ii)(iv)) 02/09/2019

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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–

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Requirement Due date

assess whether each child is at risk of harm, taking into account information in the child’s relevant plans, and, if necessary, make 21/07/2019 Inspection report children’s home: 1234990 4 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 from harm;

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Requirement Due date

understand the roles and responsibilities in relation to protecting children that are assigned to them by the registered person;

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Requirement Due date

take effective action whenever there is a serious concern about the child’s welfare; and

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Requirement Due date

are familiar with, and act in accordance with, the home’s child protection policies;

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Requirement Due date

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. (Regulation 12(1), (2)(a)(i)(iii)(v)(vi)(vii)(b)) *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

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 statement of purpose;

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Requirement Due date

ensure that staff work as a team where appropriate;

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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

ensure that the staff have the experience, qualifications and skills to meet the needs of each child;

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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; and

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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 02/09/2019 Inspection report children’s home: 1234990 5 and use this understanding to inform the development of the quality of care provided in the home. (Regulations 13(1)(b), (2)(a)(b)(c)(d)(e)(f)) The registered person may only–

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Requirement Due date

employ an individual to work at the children’s home; or

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Requirement Due date

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,

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Requirement Due date

if the individual satisfies the requirements in paragraph (3).

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Requirement Due date

the individual has the appropriate experience, qualification and skills for the work that the individual is to perform. (Regulation 32(2), (3)(b)) 02/09/2019

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Requirement Due date

* These requirements are subject to a compliance notice. Inspection report children’s home: 1234990 6

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: inadequate

The staff are failing to provide adequate levels of care and support to ensure that the children’s and young people’s needs are met. As a result, not all the children and young people are progressing or achieving their full potential.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: inadequate

The children’s and young people’s good health and positive well-being is compromised. None of the children or young people have a written healthcare plan that sets out fully their healthcare needs, how these will be met or who is responsible for meeting these needs. Consequently, staff are not informed sufficiently about how to meet the children and young people’s health needs. This also reduces the effectiveness of the monitoring arrangements to inform leaders and managers whether health needs are being met.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: inadequate

The staff do not act when there are clear indications that children and young people have new and significant needs. For example, there is clear record in a young person’s daily diary that he experienced disturbed nights for several weeks, getting out of bed at least five times during the night. Staff have not responded to this to support the young person to have a healthy sleeping regime.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: inadequate

The children and young people are not cared for by a regular staff team and this is not supporting consistency and continuity. One young person’s records show that she was looked after by 19 different staff over a seven-day period. This practice is not acceptable and does not promote positive relationships and stability.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: inadequate

The children and young people are achieving at school. They have regular attendance and are meeting their educational targets. The staff have improved the activities available and the children and young people have had their first holiday, which they thoroughly enjoyed. The provider has reduced the number of children and young people in the larger residential unit. As a result, the current children and young people are much more settled. Transitions for young people moving into adulthood are good. Careful planning and support are leading to these young people having a positive moving-on experience.

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

Leaders, managers and the staff are not adequately following the home’s child protection procedures. This compromises the children’s and young people’s safety and their welfare.

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

Since an allegation made against a member of staff and subsequent investigation, the staff in charge of the home have not recorded any details in the home’s child protection log. A failure to ensure that the required safeguarding records are kept increases the likelihood that future child protection enquiries could be compromised and does not support effective monitoring. This places the children and young people at risk from Inspection report children’s home: 1234990 7 unsafe practice.

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

The staff have failed to act after seeing unexplained bruising on some children and young people. The staff have recorded these injuries on body maps that are kept in the children’s and young people’s individual case files. The staff, including managers and senior staff, have not recognised these injuries as potential child protection concerns, nor have they escalated their concerns to a relevant child protection officer. This places the children and young people at risk.

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

There are significant shortfalls in risk management. Risk assessments do not adequately identify risks that can have a serious impact upon the safety of the children, young people and staff. Leaders and managers have failed to act upon known high-risk situations. For example, the staff have not updated the risk assessment for a vulnerable young person who went missing.

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

In addition, despite a significant reduction in staffing levels at night, there is no generic risk assessment to guide staff about the steps that they must take when incidents occur during the night. This insufficient approach to reducing known risks compromises the safety of the children and young people.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

The provider has not ensured that there is stable leadership at the home. Since May 2018, two registered managers have left their employment. A lack of strong leadership is contributing to the unsatisfactory services that are being delivered to the children and young people.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

The provider is failing to employ adequate numbers of suitably qualified, trained and experienced staff. As a result, staff turnover is extremely high. The home is dependent on an excessive use of agency staff and the regular staff working long hours that include overtime shifts. This is affecting the quality of care and staff morale.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

Statutory training, including a level 3 childcare diploma qualification, is not being delivered in a timely manner to ensure that the staff have the skills and knowledge that they need to meet children’s and young people’s needs. For example, the training to carry out safe restraints and manage challenging behaviours is out of date. This is because the deputy manager who is responsible for delivering the training has been allocated additional management tasks.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

The home has failed to fully meet previous, repeated requirements and a previous compliance notice. This points to an inability to make progress to the home’s performance. The provider is not adequately developing the home to create an environment where children and young people can flourish.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

The provider has failed to ensure that there are comprehensive monitoring systems to scrutinise the home’s performance and the outcomes for the children and young people. Outcomes from this inspection demonstrate that there are wide-ranging failings in all Inspection report children’s home: 1234990 8 outcome areas that put children and young people at risk of harm.

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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 difference 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: 1234990 9

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Children’s home details

Registered provider: The Percy Hedley Foundation

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: Percy Hedley School, Forest Hall, Newcastle upon Tyne NE12 8YY

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Inspectors

Debbie White: social care inspector Mark Proffitt: social care inspector Inspection report children’s home: 1234990 10 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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Inspectors

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Inspectors

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Inspectors

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