Children's Home run by Idem Living Limited in Knowsley

Inspection report children’s home: 1240449 1 Registered provider: Idem Living 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

A private company owns the home. It is registered to provide care and accommodation for three young people who may have a physical or learning disability.

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Information about this children’s home

The registered manager resigned in June 2019. A new manager has been identified and she is in the process of submitting her application.

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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 good

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good

The children’s home provides effective services that meet the requirements for good.

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good

Overall judgement at last inspection: good

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good

Enforcement action since last inspection: none Inspection report children’s home: 1240449 2

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

22/05/2018 Full Good 08/02/2018 Interim Improved effectiveness 06/06/2017 Full Good 19/10/2016 Full Good Inspection report children’s home: 1240449 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 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 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)(b))

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Requirement Due date

In particular, ensure that risk assessments include the actions that staff need to take if an incident was to occur, and ensure that they include any risk that has been identified as a potential hazard. 30/09/2019

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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—

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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)(b))

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Requirement Due date

This is specifically in relation to ensuring that all environmental risks are considered in the safer location area report and that the young people’s impact risk assessments consider the safer area report, when deciding whether the area is safe for them. 30/09/2019

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must ensure that all employees—

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Requirement Due date

receive practice-related supervision by a person with appropriate experience. (Regulation 33 (4)(b)) 30/09/2019 Inspection report children’s home: 1240449 4

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Recommendations

 The registered person should ensure that staff can access appropriate facilities and resources to support their training needs. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 53, paragraph 10.11)

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Recommendations

In particular, ensure that staff receive training that will allow them to respond to and support the specific needs of young people, such as bereavement training and training on autistic spectrum disorder.

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Recommendations

 Ensure that the home’s records on each child represent a significant contribution to their life history. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 62, paragraph 14.5)

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Recommendations

In particular, ensure that young people’s files are in good order.

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Recommendations

 As set out in regulations 31-33, the registered person is responsible for maintaining good employment practice. They must ensure that recruitment of staff safeguards children and minimises potential risks to them. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 61, paragraph 13.1)

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Recommendations

This is specifically in relation to ensuring that there is a recent photograph of staff on their recruitment file and that all gaps in employment have been verified.

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Recommendations

 The home’s record of a serious event must include a description of the action taken and the outcome of any resulting investigation. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 63, paragraph 14.14)

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Recommendations

This is specifically in relation to ensuring that all the records relating to a safeguarding incident are kept together for clarity, and to assist the effective oversight of the action taken and the outcome.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Young people have been living at this home for a significant period. There have been no new young people placed here since the last inspection. The inspector observed and interacted with three young people during this inspection. They all appeared to be settled, happy and safe, and were benefiting from good routines and structure in the home.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

This home provides care to young people who have autistic spectrum disorder. Some of the young people have additional physical and learning disabilities. Most of the young people are non-verbal and use picture boards and signs to indicate their needs. Staff are Inspection report children’s home: 1240449 5 exceptional communicators and are skilled at helping the young people to express their views, wishes and feelings. A professional said, ‘He [the young person] is due to transition into adult services soon. He is excited, and he constantly signs the same questions. The staff are patient. They continue to go over the information with him, and they reassure him. This helps to alleviate his anxieties.’

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

The deputy manager is currently assessing a new referral. Prior to a young person coming to the home, the deputy manager thoroughly assesses the needs of the young person to ensure that the home can meet these needs. The deputy manager also consults with the allocated social worker, parents and health professionals, as well as with relevant schools or education settings and other care services. In addition, staff members visit the young person in their current placement and the young person visits the home before moving in, including tea visits and overnight stays. This attention to detail means that young people are suitably placed and that members of staff know and understand the new young person’s vulnerabilities and care needs. Therefore, young people do not experience placement breakdowns. However, the safer location area report does not identify local environmental risks, such as the derelict barn opposite the

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

home, an adjacent hotel or the main road. Therefore, these things have not been considered when assessing new referrals to the home and whether they would impact on a young person’s safety.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

The home is excellent at ensuring that reviews take place and that regular meetings are held if any issue becomes a concern. The home keeps parents and professionals updated through regular telephone calls and a monthly report. As a result, parents and professionals understand the progress that young people are making.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

The young people attend specialist education provisions. Each young person receives individual support and a curriculum that is designed to meet their educational needs. Young people have excellent attendance and they are making good progress. The home works closely with the individual schools so that any changes in routines or behaviour management strategies are shared.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

All the young people are in good health. There have been two minor medication errors. These were reported to the relevant safeguarding professionals. The responsible individual took effective action by ensuring that all staff received extra training in administering medication. Staff now receive competency assessments before they can administer medication. Staff show respect for the privacy and dignity of young people who require help with their personal care. Young people are prompted and encouraged to wash, shower and take pride in their appearance. As a result, some young people now do this independently or need less supervision.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Young people enjoy a wide range of activities and experiences. They like to go on walks, go swimming, play in the park and go to the cinema. Mostly, they enjoy doing crafts and art. Their pictures and crafts projects are proudly displayed around the home. The young people have an abundance of games, jigsaws and toys, and their evenings, weekends and holidays are structured well and are packed with fun things to do.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

The young people have different arrangements for seeing their parents. Most see their Inspection report children’s home: 1240449 6 parents, siblings or extended family members weekly, and this can be at the home, on an activity or at their family home. These details are highlighted in their placement plans, which means that staff know the arrangements and can prepare young people well for their visits.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Young people are very well supported to move into another home or adult services. Transition plans start early, and the young people and their parents are involved at every step of the way. A social worker said, ‘Transitions into adult services have to start early so that the necessary assessments can be completed. The staff have worked really hard in preparing him for this move, and his independence skills are improving. He is learning to do things for himself and not expecting staff to do them for him. That makes all the difference.’

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Young people live in a large home that provides plenty of space and reflects the individual personalities of each young person. Young people display certificates of achievements, artwork and photographs around the home. This gives them a sense of pride and of belonging.

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

Young people have pictorial charts that they use to express their views, wishes and feelings. Staff also complete social stories with young people. These approaches are used to explain about and help young people to understand the world around them, as well as being a means to include young people in decisions about their lives such as their routines and transitions.

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

Young people receive a high level of supervision due to their vulnerabilities. However, they are not prevented from taking reasonable risks, such as having private time alone or exploring new activities. Staff use social stories creatively to teach young people about issues such as stranger danger, using the internet safely and acceptable behaviour. Therefore, young people are learning about how to keep themselves safe. Staff receive regular safeguarding training on topics that include child exploitation, whistleblowing, county lines and data protection. This means that they have the skills and knowledge to identify concerns and act on them.

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

Young people have not been reported missing from this home. Good risk assessments regarding missing from care show young people’s vulnerabilities if they were missing and the action staff should take if an incident was to occur. Similarly, young people have not been held for their own or other people’s safety. The young people have differing levels of understanding and cognitive reasoning. Therefore, sanctions are not imposed. However, the use of social stories shows that young people are taken through their negative behaviour, how this behaviour impacts on others, and what they could do differently in the future. As a result, there has been a significant reduction in incidents in the home.

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

Staff understand how to manage safeguarding incidents. The deputy manager investigates these promptly, which ensures that the young people are safeguarded. Staff inform Ofsted when there are significant incidents in the home so that the regulator has Inspection report children’s home: 1240449 7 oversight of patterns and trends. However, safeguarding records were in different files in the home and they were hard to locate. Therefore, the system could be enhanced by keeping all the information together, for clarity.

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

There have been three incidents that have been reported to safeguarding professionals: two medication errors and an accident involving the incorrect use of a hoist and sling. These incidents were appropriately reported. Learning was taken from these incidents and the staff team has received additional training to help reduce the likelihood of further errors.

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

However, the training regarding the use of a hoist identified that the sling can be caught under the young person’s chair. This information has not been added to the young person’s manual handling risk assessment as a potential hazard. More broadly, young people’s risk assessments require further work. Currently they do not adequately identify the action for staff to take if an incident was to occur, and the staff were unable to explain what was meant by the terms proactive strategies, active strategies and reactive strategies that were used in the assessments. This does not ensure that staff are consistent with their approach.

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

Young people are cared for by a stable core staff team. Several new staff have been appointed since the home’s last inspection. The company follows the safer recruitment guidance. However, not all gaps in employment have been explored. For example, some dates say that a staff member left at the beginning of a month and started a new job at the end of the next month. This means that the member of staff could have potentially been out of work for eight weeks. Also, the home has taken photocopies of staff’s passports and/or driving licences as proof of identity. However, the images are poor and do not clearly show the person. These issues have not impacted on the care that young people receive, but they have the potential to do so.

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

All appliances and insurance certificates are updated regularly. Members of staff, young people and visitors are taken through the fire evacuation procedure. This ensures that everyone knows what to do in an emergency.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The previous registered manager resigned from this home in June 2019. The deputy manager is covering in his absence. The company has taken quick action in identifying a new manager. She is starting at the home at the end of July 2019. She is ready to submit her application to Ofsted. The deputy manager has ensured that the home has run smoothly and that most of the paperwork and records are up to date.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The home’s statement of purpose reflects the ethos of the home. It has all the necessary information for other services and local authorities to make an informed decision on whether the home can meet the needs of a young person. Professionals confirmed that they had received the statement of purpose. They said that the home works with them collaboratively and that communication from the home is excellent.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Most of the staff team have a suitable childcare qualification. The new members of staff have been registered on an equivalent qualification and are at varying stages of Inspection report children’s home: 1240449 8 completion. When members of staff start their induction, they complete all mandatory training. Additional training is completed throughout their employment. As part of their induction, staff complete an online autistic spectrum disorder training course to support them to care for young people. However, some of the staff team have not yet received the bespoke autistic spectrum disorder training that expands on the initial training. Further to this, a young person has recently experienced a family bereavement. The staff have been carrying out social story work with the young person to help him understand the impact of this loss and as a vehicle for him to express his emotions. Staff would benefit from training about bereavement and loss to be able to provide him with

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

informed support and to understand their own feelings through this emotional period.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The level of staff supervisions has improved. However, the home’s workforce plan states that new members of staff will receive supervision fortnightly until their probation period ends. This is not currently happening and does not follow the organisation’s policies to ensure that staff have a good level of support when they are new to the role. In contrast to this, the deputy manager currently receives a high level of supervision, including a weekly case conference call in the absence of a registered manager.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Staff meetings are regular. Young people’s progress, the development of the home and the company’s policies are covered in these meetings. The deputy manager often discusses different research or legislation changes with the staff team, such as the new data protection legislation. In addition to this, the responsible individual has attended staff meetings to discuss recent safeguarding incidents and to offer additional support to the staff while there is no registered manager at the home.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The deputy manager and staff work collaboratively with a range of agencies and professionals involved in young people’s care. When services have been slow to respond or not available, the deputy manager has challenged these shortfalls, such as delays in identifying the next steps in young people’s transitions to adult services, effectively. This means that young people usually receive the services that they need, and staff have the knowledge to support young people well.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The deputy manager and the staff team work positively with placing authorities and other services. A social worker said that communication between them and the home is excellent.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

External monitoring of the home is good. The independent visitor regularly identifies areas for improvement. The deputy manager takes all findings through to his monitoring and review report. This includes consultation with young people, parents, professionals and stakeholders. Therefore, the deputy manager has good oversight of the service.

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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 Inspection report children’s home: 1240449 9 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: 1240449 10

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Children’s home details

Registered provider: Idem Living Limited

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: Newlands, 1a Huyton Hey Road, Liverpool, Merseyside L36 5SE

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Inspector

Pam Nuckley, social care regulation inspector Inspection report children’s home: 1240449 11 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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