Children's Home run by DMR Services Ltd in Derbyshire

Inspection report children’s home: 1245390 1 Registered provider: DMR Services Limited Full inspection Inspected under the social care common inspection framework

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Information about this children’s home

This home is registered to provide care and support for up to five children and young people. It is owned by a private provider.

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

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inadequate

Overall judgement at last inspection: improved effectiveness

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inadequate

Enforcement action since last inspection: none Inspection report children’s home: 1245390 2

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

13/03/2019 Interim Improved effectiveness 18/04/2018 Full Good 19/10/2017 Interim Declined in effectiveness 10/05/2017 Full Requires improvement to be good Inspection report children’s home: 1245390 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 ensure that—

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Requirement Due date

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)) 30/07/2019

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Requirement Due date

The positive relationships standard is that children are helped to develop, and to benefit from, relationships based on—

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Requirement Due date

an understanding about acceptable behaviour; and

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Requirement Due date

positive responses to other children and adults.

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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

help each child to develop and practise skills to resolve conflicts positively and without harm to anyone;

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Requirement Due date

de-escalate confrontations with or between children, or potentially violent behaviour by children;

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Requirement Due date

understand and communicate to children that bullying is unacceptable; and

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Requirement Due date

have the skills to recognise incidents or indications of bullying and how to deal with them; and

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Requirement Due date

that each child is encouraged to build and maintain positive 30/07/2019 Inspection report children’s home: 1245390 4 relationships with others. (Regulation 11 (1)(a)(b)(c)(2)(a)(iv)(xi)(xii)(xiii)(b)) 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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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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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 a child’s welfare; and

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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)(iii)(iv)(v)(vi)(b)) 30/07/2019

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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—

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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. (Regulation 12 (1)(2)(d)) 30/07/2019

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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—

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Requirement Due date

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—

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Requirement Due date

lead and manage the home in a way that is consistent with the 30/07/2019 Inspection report children’s home: 1245390 5 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 staff work as a team where appropriate; and

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Requirement Due date

ensure that staff have the experience, qualifications and skills to meet the needs of each child. (Regulation 13 (1)(a)(b)(2)(a)(b)(c)) 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; and

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Requirement Due date

that each child’s relevant plans are followed. (Regulation 14 (1)(a)(b)(2)(a)(c)) 30/07/2019

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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

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, 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;

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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;

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Requirement Due date

the individual is mentally and physically fit for the purposes of the work that the individual is to perform; and 30/07/2019 Inspection report children’s home: 1245390 6 full and satisfactory information is available in relation to the individual in respect of each of the matters in Schedule 2. (Regulation 32 (1)(2)(a)(b)(3)(a)(b)(c)(d))

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: inadequate

Since the last inspection, this home has experienced high levels of disruption. Staffing arrangements at this home have been ineffective. Staff have not prevented challenging behaviours from escalating. This means that young people have not been safe. Challenging behaviour and poor dynamics have had a negative impact on the quality of young people’s day-to-day care and their experiences.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: inadequate

The operation of the home does not enable young people to fulfil their potential. There is a lack of structure in the home. Young people are not appropriately supported to establish routines, and this contributes to a lack of progression for young people. Disruption to daytime and night-time routines affects young people’s school attendance. Young people have particularly complained about the behaviour of others causing disruption in the night. Arrangements to promote education, health and social and recreational activities are ineffective.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: inadequate

The dynamics between young people are not positive. Care planning with regards to the admission of young people to the home has been problematic. Poor compatibility between young people has led to some young people feeling unsafe. Some young people have been drawn into behaviour which is new for them and this behaviour increases risk. This has had a negative impact on the welfare and safety of young people. Young people do not feel that placements are well planned or that they are prepared for a new young person coming into the home. This undermines young people’s sense of stability and security.

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

Concerns were raised about how the home is run and the staff’s capacity to safeguard young people. These concerns were considered as part of the inspection.

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

This home accommodates young people who are at risk of sexual and criminal exploitation. However, not all staff have training in relation to sexual and criminal exploitation. Staff do not have effective skills in preventing young people from leaving the home without permission. Young people are frequently missing from the home. Given their known vulnerabilities, this means that young people are at continued risk of exploitation.

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

Relationships between some young people have been harmful. Young people have been verbally and physically bullied. On one occasion, a young person was seriously assaulted Inspection report children’s home: 1245390 7 by another young person in the home and required hospital treatment. Consequently, not all young people feel safe.

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

Staff have not been effective in de-escalating heightened behaviours. This has led to multiple incidents of property damage and assaults on staff. Staff do not have the knowledge or skills to ensure that conflict management is effective.

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

A range of professionals have raised concerns about childcare practice. This includes concerns that staff are unable to manage the behaviours of the young people. Social workers have said that staff lack suitable safeguarding knowledge, and this leads to poor safeguarding practice. Failure to address these concerns means that positive working relationships with placing authorities and professionals are not promoted.

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

The home employs a range of agency staff. Recruitment practice for agency staff is not thorough. The registered manager has failed to obtain full employment and training information for agency staff. This does not show robust scrutiny of temporary staff. On one occasion, an agency member of staff assaulted a young person.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

Leadership and management arrangements have not changed since the last inspection. The home is led by a suitably experienced and qualified manager and a management team. However, the home is not managed in a way that is consistent with the offer described in the statement of purpose.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

Insufficient consideration has been given to the mix of children and young people, contrary to the statement of purpose. Incompatibility between young people has been a significant factor in the patterns of negative behaviour.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

Leaders and managers have not ensured that care planning meets young people’s needs. Sometimes young people have not felt safe in the home. The agreement reached between managers and the placing authority in relation to one young person having a mobile phone has exposed young people living at the home to the risk of sexual exploitation.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

Leaders and managers have not ensured that there are sufficient qualified and adequately trained staff. This fails to ensure that day-to-day care promotes improved outcomes for young people. Care practice is poor and does not ensure the safety and welfare of children.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

Partnership arrangements with social care professionals and the wider network have been variable. Social care professionals highlight that communication requires improvement. This includes providing case information when requested and consulting with social workers when new children are admitted to the home. Importantly, managers need to notify the local authority of all safeguarding incidents.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

The home is currently poorly maintained in several areas. Property damage is evident. Inspection report children’s home: 1245390 8 Young people’s bedrooms and en-suite bathrooms were of concern as they were unkempt, unhygienic and hazardous.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

The registered manager understands what actions need to be taken to improve the performance of the home. She has good insight into the reasons for the shortfalls and demonstrates a commitment to deliver good outcomes for all young people.

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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: 1245390 9

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Children’s home details

Registered provider: DMR Services Limited

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: DMR Services, 102 Queslett Road East, Sutton Coldfield, Birmingham B74 2EZ

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Inspector:

Amanda Ellis: social care inspector Inspection report children’s home: 1245390 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 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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