Children's home run by Evergreen Children’s Home Ltd

Inspection report children‟s home: 1241407 1 Registered provider: Evergreen Children‟s Home 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

This home is owned by a private company. It is registered to provide care and accommodation for up to three young people who may have social and/or emotional difficulties.

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Information about this children’s home

The home has been without a registered manager since January 2018.

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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: inadequate

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Enforcement action since last inspection:

Ofsted inspected this service in April 2019 and judged the home as inadequate. Ofsted served a notice of restriction on accommodation to prevent any new young people from being admitted to the home. In addition, three compliance notices were issued. Inspection report children‟s home: 1241407 2 Monitoring visits took place on 23 May 2019 and 4 July 2019. Limited progress had been made at the May inspection and as a result three compliance notices were reissued. Following the monitoring visit in July 2019, the compliance notices were considered met. The restriction of accommodation was allowed to expire.

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

08/04/2019 Full Inadequate 30/11/2018 Interim Declined in effectiveness 26/06/2018 Full Good 16/03/2018 Interim Declined in effectiveness Inspection report children‟s home: 1241407 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, and must ensure that staff— seek to involve each child‟s placing authority effectively in the child‟s care, in accordance with the child‟s relevant plans; seek to secure the input and services required to meet each child‟s needs; 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(a)(b)(c)) 27/09/2019

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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 the outcomes it seeks to achieve for children; use this understanding to deliver care that meets children‟s needs and supports them to fulfil their potential. In particular, the standard in paragraph (1) requires the registered person to— 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. (Regulation 6(1)(a)(b)(2)(b)(vi)) 27/09/2019

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must recruit staff using recruitment procedures that are designed to ensure children‟s safety. The registered person may only employ an individual to work at the children‟s home; or 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). The requirements are that— the individual is of integrity and good character; and 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)(d)) 27/09/2019 Inspection report children‟s home: 1241407 4 The registered person must ensure that— 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

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Requirement Due date

which includes— the name of the child; details of the child‟s behaviour leading to the use of the measure; the date, time and location of the use of the measure; a description of the measure and its duration; details of any methods used or steps taken to avoid the need to use the measure; the name of the person who used the measure (“the user”), and of any other person present when the measure was used; the effectiveness and any consequences of the use of the measure; and a description of any injury to the child or any other person, and any medical treatment administered, as a result of the measure; within 48 hours of the use of the measure, the registered person, or a person who is authorised by the registered person to do so (“the authorised person”)— has spoken to the user about the measure; and has signed the record to confirm it is accurate; and within 5 days of the use of the measure, the registered person

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Requirement Due date

or the authorised person adds to the record confirmation that they have spoken to the child about the measure. (Regulation 35(3)(a)(i)(ii)(iii)(iv)(v)(vi)(vii)(viii)(b)(i)(ii)(c)(iv)) 27/09/2019

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must complete a review of the quality of care provided for children (“a quality of care review”) at least once every 6 months. In order to complete a quality of care review the registered person must establish and maintain a system for monitoring, reviewing and evaluating— the quality of care provided for children; the feedback and opinions of children about the children‟s home, its facilities and the quality of care they receive in it; and any actions that the registered person considers necessary in order to improve or maintain the quality of care provided for children. After completing a quality of care review, the registered person must produce a written report about the quality of care review and the actions which the registered person intends to take as a result of the quality of care review (“the quality of care review report”). (Regulation 45(1)(2)(a)(b)(c)(3)) 27/09/2019

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Recommendations

 Regulation 19(2) details sanctions that are prohibited in behaviour management. Inspection report children‟s home: 1241407 5 Any sanctions used to address poor behaviour should be restorative in nature, to help children recognise the impact of their behaviour on themselves, other children, the staff caring for them and the wider community. In some cases it will be important for children to make reparation in some form to anyone hurt by their behaviour and the staff in the home should be skilled to support the child to understand this and carry it out. („Guide to the children‟s homes regulations including the quality standards‟, page 46, paragraph 9.38)  Equally, staff should understand the system for rewarding and celebrating positive behaviour and recognising where children have managed situations well. („Guide to the children‟s homes regulations including the quality standards‟, page 47, paragraph 9.39)

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Recommendations

 The registered person should have a workforce plan which can fulfil the workforce-related requirements of regulation 16, schedule 1 (paragraphs 19 and 20) („Guide to the children‟s homes regulations including the quality standards‟, page 53, paragraph 10.8) This is in regard to ensuring that the workforce development plan is up to date and reflects the current staff team.

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improvement to be good

Since the last full inspection, the same two young people have continued to live at the home. They have built positive relationships with staff, and report that they are happy and settled.

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improvement to be good

Young people‟s overall experience and progress still need to improve. One young person is still waiting to receive a specialist assessment to assess if they need therapeutic support. Young people‟s school attendance remains variable. One young person has made some progress with starting a training programme after being out of education for two years. However, another young person‟s school placement was disrupted for a term and there has been no progress in securing a full-time educational provision for him.

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improvement to be good

Staff still do not offer sufficient support to one young person who is preparing for independence. There is still no plan in place to offer structured support. For example, staff are not reviewing his progress or addressing areas where he requires more support.

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improvement to be good

Since the last full inspection in April 2019, the home has been redecorated and further work is planned. Young people have personalised their bedrooms and have had the opportunity to contribute their input regarding the development of the home.

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improvement to be good

Staff ensure that young people are supported to maintain links with people who are important to them. Inspection report children‟s home: 1241407 6

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improvement to be good

Since the last full inspection, there has been a significant reduction in the number of incidents and concerns. There have been no safeguarding incidents and when one young person raised a complaint against a member of staff, the manager took swift action to address the young person‟s concerns. Staff have received training on the home‟s child protection policy and now have a better understanding of young people‟s behaviour. This increased knowledge has helped them to be more professionally curious in their everyday practice. All young people‟s risk assessments have now been updated. Nevertheless, some assessments still contain conflicting information and staff still do not consistently follow the risk assessment. For example, sometimes staff fail to ensure that young people do not smoke in their bedrooms, or that young people do not spend unsupervised time together. Staff are not conducting bedroom searches when needed. Managers have not ensured that the

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improvement to be good

environmental risk assessment is up to date and reflects the risks of the current young people. These ongoing omissions mean that further improvements are still required in the management and reduction of risk.

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improvement to be good

Incidents in which staff need to resort to physical interventions are continuing to reduce in number. However, staff sometimes fail to record all physical interventions in enough detail.

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improvement to be good

Staff do not always maintain a clear record of when they praise and reward a young person, or when they apply a sanction. This compromises their ability to show the difference that the home‟s behaviour management makes in helping young people to manage their emotions.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

There has been no registered manager since January 2018. A new manager is now in post and is in the process of applying to be registered with Ofsted.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

Managers have implemented an induction and probation process for all staff, which means that the staff‟s competency and skills are now formally assessed. Management oversight of staff training, and supervision is now in place. However, the workforce development plan and the statement of purpose both remain out of date and contain inaccurate information.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

Managers are not sufficiently escalating and challenging placing authorities to ensure that young people‟s needs, such as education provision and specialist assessments, are being met.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

The manager has recently reviewed the home‟s locality risk assessment. However, the manager‟s review has omitted to secure feedback from relevant professionals, and has Inspection report children‟s home: 1241407 7 not included assessment of the specific risks in relation to the location of the home and the current young people in placement.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

Managers have failed to ensure that safe recruitment is fully completed prior to new staff members working at the home. This means that they cannot be assured that staff are safe to work with young people.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

The manager‟s quality of care review fails to acknowledge the current Ofsted judgement, or the enforcement action taken. This omission means that the review fails to demonstrate accurately the quality of care offered at the home or what action is needed to make the required improvements.

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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: 1241407 8

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Children’s home details

Registered provider: Evergreen Children‟s Home Limited

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: Fairgate House, 205 Kings Road, Tyseley, Birmingham B11 2AA

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Inspector

Debbie Holder: social care inspector Inspection report children‟s home: 1241407 9 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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