Children's Home run by Lincolnshire County Council in Lincolnshire

Inspection report children‟s home: SC042967 1 SC042967 Registered provider: Lincolnshire County Council Full inspection Inspected under the social care common inspection framework

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Information about this children’s home

This home is run by the local authority and is registered to provide care and accommodation for up to seven children and young people. It provides care for children with social and emotional difficulties. The home‟s manager came into post earlier this year. She is in the process of applying to Ofsted to be registered.

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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 requires improvement to be good

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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: sustained effectiveness

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requires improvement to be good

Enforcement action since last inspection: none Inspection report children‟s home: SC042967 2

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

01/03/2019 Interim Sustained effectiveness 24/07/2018 Full Good 31/01/2018 Full Requires improvement to be good 16/01/2017 Interim Improved effectiveness Inspection report children‟s home: SC042967 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 registered person must ensure that all employees receive practice-related supervision by a person with appropriate experience.

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Requirement Due date

The children‟s views, wishes and feelings standard is that children receive care from staff who—

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Requirement Due date

develop positive relationships with them;

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Requirement Due date

take their views, wishes and feelings into account in relation to matters affecting the children‟s care and their lives.

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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

ascertain and consider each child‟s views, wishes and feelings, and balance these against what they judge to be in the child‟s best interests when making decisions about the child‟s care and welfare;

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Requirement Due date

help each child to express views, wishes and feelings;

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Requirement Due date

help each child to understand how the child‟s views, wishes and feelings have been taken into account and give the child reasons for decisions in relation to the child; and

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Requirement Due date

regularly consult children, and seek their feedback, about the quality of the home‟s care.

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Requirement Due date

(Regulation 7 (1)(a)(b)(c)(2)(a)(i)(ii)(iii)(iv)) 27/09/2019 Inspection report children‟s home: SC042967 4 The health and well-being standard is that—

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Requirement Due date

the health and well-being needs of children are met;

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Requirement Due date

children receive advice, services and support in relation to their health and well-being; and

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Requirement Due date

children are helped to lead healthy lifestyles.

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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

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.

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Requirement Due date

(Regulation 11 (1)(a)(b)(c)(2)(a)(iv)(xii)(xiii)) 27/09/2019

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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

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. 27/09/2019 Inspection report children‟s home: SC042967 5 (Regulation 12 (1)(2)(a)(i))

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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

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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‟s statement of purpose;

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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 experience of each child and use this understanding to inform the development of the quality of care provided in the home;

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Requirement Due date

demonstrate that practice in the home is informed and improved by taking into account and acting on—

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research and development in relation to the ways in which the needs of children are best met; and

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Requirement Due date

feedback on the experiences of children, including complaints received; and

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Requirement Due date

use monitoring and review systems to make continuous improvements in the quality of care provided in the home.

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Requirement Due date

(Regulation 13 (1)(a)(b)(2)(a)(f)(g)(i)(ii)(h)) 27/09/2019

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must maintain records (“case records”) for each child which—

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Requirement Due date

include the information and documents listed in Schedule 3 in relation to each child;

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Requirement Due date

are signed and dated by the author of each entry. 27/09/2019 Inspection report children‟s home: SC042967 6 (Regulation 36 (1)(a)(b)(c))

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Requirement Due date

Schedule 4 sets out the other information that the registered person must keep in relation to a children‟s home.

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Requirement Due date

maintain in the home the records in Schedule 4; and

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Requirement Due date

ensure that the records are kept up to date.

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Requirement Due date

This particularly refers to ensuring that the date on which a child ceased to be accommodated and their address on leaving the home are recorded.

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must ensure that a record is made of any complaint, the action taken in response and the outcome of any investigation.

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must notify Ofsted and each other relevant person without delay if—

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Requirement Due date

an incident requiring police involvement occurs in relation to a child which the registered person considers to be serious.

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Recommendations

 The information set out in the statement of purpose is an essential part of the process of agreement between the registered person and placing authority that a placement in that home is the right one for the child, and that the home will be able to respond effectively to the child‟s assessed needs. Emergency admissions should not be taken unless the home‟s statement of purpose and its capacity and support systems mean that it has the capability to care for children admitted at very short notice while continuing to offer high-quality care to children already living in the home. („Guide to the children‟s homes regulations including the quality standards‟, page 15, paragraph 3.6)  Those with a leadership and/or management role should be visible and accessible to staff and able to deliver their leadership and/or management responsibilities. („Guide to the children‟s homes regulations including the quality standards‟, page

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Recommendations

Inspection report children‟s home: SC042967 7 52, paragraph 10.7)

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improvement to be good

Children do not receive consistently good care or support. This affects their ability to enjoy positive experiences and to make progress. The resignations of some staff over recent months have led to a lack of consistency. The new manager has recently reintroduced a key-worker system for each child. This is likely to provide a clearer and more robust oversight of each child‟s needs.

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improvement to be good

Children have educational placements. Staff work hard to support them to attend and engage. One child has very high attendance. Their end of year report stated: „I have been so lucky to have you in my class. It has been an absolute privilege to have you in my class.‟ However, case records relating to education do not include all relevant information. Some case records are missing education plans and do not contain basic information about the educational setting.

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improvement to be good

Children‟s healthcare needs are generally well met. However, the case records do not routinely contain all necessary information. A recommendation from a looked after review in March 2019, for one child to be referred for a specialist health assessment, has not been followed up. Where children have health needs, there is a lack of clarity as to how those needs have been or will be met.

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improvement to be good

Children are not routinely asked to express their wishes, views and feelings. There is a lack of consultation with children. Only one formal meeting has been held with children this year. The record from that meeting does not state how the children‟s wishes, views and feelings would be taken into consideration. Case records do not clearly reflect how children influence the running of the home.

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improvement to be good

Complaints made by children have not been responded to well. Three children have raised formal complaints this year. Managers have failed to ensure that concerns have been responded to fully. Children have not been provided with a clear account of what action has been taken to resolve their concerns. This potentially places children at risk of harm and may undermine their confidence in reporting any concerns or issues that they have.

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improvement to be good

There is a lack of detailed risk assessment and management oversight of risks. Not all children have specific risk assessments on their files. Where known risks are present, these are not fully considered. Regular reviews and updates of risk assessments do not take place. Inspection report children‟s home: SC042967 8 Staff respond quickly to any incidents of children going missing or being absent from care. They work with local police to ensure the safe return of children. Not all children are offered or take part in a return home interview. This would further assist managers to understand the reasons for such behaviours. It would also assist in formulating and implementing clearer risk assessments and plans.

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improvement to be good

Each child has a behaviour management plan in place. Not all such plans have been reviewed or updated within the agreed timescales. This does not provide for a consistent approach by staff to managing concerning or risky behaviours.

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improvement to be good

Bullying is not well responded to. Children have reported concerns about bullying to managers. Management action has not led to a reduction of such behaviours. The new manager intends to reintroduce a previously used system to address bullying, but this has not yet been put into place.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: requires improvement to be good

The home‟s manager has many years‟ experience of managing similar settings. She has the necessary qualifications for the role.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: requires improvement to be good

Some staff have recently left the home. This has led to an increase in the use of agency and relief staff. The manager is in the process of recruiting and appointing new staff to the home. Staff morale has been affected but is reported to be improving now. There are enough staff on shift to meet the needs of the children.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: requires improvement to be good

Staff have not received regular formal supervision. A requirement was set at the last inspection, which has not been met at this inspection. Frequency of supervision has improved slightly, but there are still several gaps. The manager has started to prioritise supervisions since coming into post.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: requires improvement to be good

Case records are not consistently kept up to date. There is no system in place for ensuring that regular file audits take place. The register of children living in and moving out of the home is not up to date. This has the potential to hinder future investigations or reviews.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: requires improvement to be good

There are insufficient clear arrangements in place for supporting staff outside office hours. Staff do not have access to on-call or duty managers in the event of an emergency. Although some informal arrangements do exist, these do not provide reassurance that staff can access the support that they need outside office hours.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: requires improvement to be good

Some recent emergency placements have been made. This had an impact on the stability of those children already living in the home. Full consideration of the capacity of staff to meet certain children‟s complex and challenging needs has not been undertaken by the manager. There is no clear pre-admission risk assessment process that takes into consideration the needs of those children already placed. There has been no serious impact on children due to this shortfall, but there is the potential for such placements to Inspection report children‟s home: SC042967 9 impact negatively on existing residents.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: requires improvement to be good

There is a detailed development plan in place. The new manager has not reviewed or updated this since coming into post. She has not fully considered the impact that the quality of care provided is having on the progress and experience of each child.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: requires improvement to be good

One serious incident, involving the police being called to the home, was not notified to Ofsted. This does not provide the regulator with an opportunity to consider and respond to any potential concerns.

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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: SC042967 10

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: Lincolnshire County Council, County Offices, Newland, Lincoln LN1 1YL

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Inspector

Tracy Murty: social care inspector Inspection report children‟s home: SC042967 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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