Children's Home run by Aspris Children’s Services Limited in Herefordshire

Inspection report children’s home: SC476486 1 SC476486 Registered provider: Priory Education Services 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 for up to seven children, whose complex needs may be associated with having autism spectrum disorder and complex related difficulties. The registered manager has managed the home since January 2014, and is appropriately experienced and qualified.

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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: declined in effectiveness

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good

Enforcement action since last inspection: none Inspection report children’s home: SC476486 2

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

05/03/2019 Interim Declined in effectiveness 18/04/2018 Full Good 03/05/2017 Full Requires improvement to be good 22/02/2017 Interim Sustained effectiveness Inspection report children’s home: SC476486 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. In particular, the standard requires the registered person to ensure that staff— 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. (Regulation 12(1)(2)(a)(i)) In particular, ensure that children’s impact risk assessments are sufficiently detailed to make decision-making about matching clear. 23/08/2019

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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— promotes children’s welfare . In particular, the standard in paragraph (1)requires the registered person to— ensure that staff have the experience, qualifications and skills to meet the needs of each child. (Regulation 13(1)(b)(2)(c)) 23/08/2019

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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— 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— 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)(3)(d)) 23/08/2019

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Recommendations

 When establishing the home, the registered person must ensure that it is suitably located so that children are effectively safeguarded and can access services to meet Inspection report children’s home: SC476486 4 needs identified in their relevant plans (see regulations 12(2)(c)). Under regulation 46, the registered person should review the appropriateness and suitability of the location and premises of the home at least once a year. The review should include the identification of any risks and opportunities presented by the home’s location and strategies for managing these. Providers should refer to the non-statutory advice about the location assessment process: ‘Children’s homes regulation amendments 2014: Advice for children’s homes providers on new duties under regulations that came in to effect in January and April 2014’. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 64, paragraph 15.1)

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Recommendations

 Staff should provide a nurturing environment that is welcoming, supportive, and which provides appropriate boundaries in relation to their behaviour. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 15, paragraph 3.7)

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children develop nurturing and trusting relationships with staff. This is because staff are consistent and spend time with them. Children feel able to talk to staff if they have any worries. Children feel safe and listened to.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children have access to therapeutic support, either through the organisation’s own service, or through local health services. Staff work closely with therapeutic support providers and demonstrate a good understanding of children’s emotional needs. Good support helps children to improve their emotional health and well-being.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff support children to access education. Children who have struggled in the past to attend school now attend regularly. Some children have recently completed their GCSEs. One child is hoping to enrol on a college course and staff are supporting him through the process. Another child wants to join the army and is being supported with this. As a result, children achieve their potential and develop aspirations. In addition, staff help children pursue their ambitions.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff enable children to develop age-appropriate independent living skills to help them with their transitions to adulthood. For example, children learn to manage a budget, cook their own meals and complete household chores such as cleaning the kitchen. One child commented, ‘Staff are helping me to learn things so that I can be more independent.’

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff facilitate contact between children and their families, in line with each child’s care plan. Staff recognise the importance of children maintaining links with their families and advocate for them to do so, when necessary. This gives children a sense of identity and helps them to keep in touch with people who are important to them. Although staff mostly manage contact arrangements well, on one occasion these were not clear. This led to some confusion about supervision arrangements for the visit. Inspection report children’s home: SC476486 5 Staff ensure that new children to the home have a good induction, which helps them to settle well. However, managers do not ensure that impact risk assessments contain enough information. This makes it difficult to evaluate how they make considered decisions about placing children who have similar needs and behaviours.

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

Staff write detailed behaviour managements plans for children. They review them regularly to reflect any changes to children’s needs. This good practice allows staff to have a sound understanding of children’s risky behaviours and the strategies they need to implement to reduce risk.

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

Children do not regularly go missing from the home. When this has happened, staff have followed missing protocols to ensure that children have returned to the home promptly and safely.

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

Staff teach children how to manage their own emotions and behaviours better. This enables children to feel safe, make better choices about their behaviour and develop resilience.

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

Staff work hard to de-escalate challenging situations in the home. As a result, there are few incidents when staff are required to physically intervene. When physical interventions are used, good management oversight and challenge take place. This ensures that physical interventions are proportionate and safe.

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

Managers ensure that when staff are recruited by the organisation to work at the home, thorough recruitment checks are carried out. However, managers do not ensure that this good practice extends to agency staff. For example, managers did not know the full employment histories of agency workers. This means that managers do not know if agency staff have the experience and skills to meet the needs of children, and do not know if there are adequate explanations for any gaps in employment.

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

The home’s locality risk assessment does not capture in detail the current known risks around exploitation, knives and drugs. In addition, it does not include information about how they have made effective use of local resources/organisations and agencies, such as the police to inform the risk assessment. Therefore, this does not clearly inform staff of the measures that they need to take to keep children safe.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The experienced and stable management team has high expectations for children in the home. Managers closely monitor children’s progress, and this helps children to fulfil their potential.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Staff feel valued and supported by managers and each other. They work well as a team, and feel that they are listened to and that their views are valued. A stable workforce Inspection report children’s home: SC476486 6 ensures continuity and consistency for children.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Staff receive regular supervision and appraisals. Effective supervision allows staff to reflect on and develop their practice.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Managers ensure that staff have access to and complete mandatory online training and some face-to-face specialist courses. However, staff do not receive in-depth training to gain a better understanding of some of the children’s needs, for example needs that relate to them having autism spectrum disorder. This means that staff may not have all the necessary knowledge or skills to support children.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

A lack of management oversight and a lack of good care by staff at times mean that the home is not clean throughout. This does not encourage children to take pride in their home.

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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: SC476486 7

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Children’s home details

Registered provider: Priory Education Services Limited

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: Fifth Floor, 80 Hammersmith Road, London W14 8UD

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Inspectors

Shazana Jamal: social care inspector Sue Young: social care inspector Inspection report children’s home: SC476486 8 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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