Children's Home run by John-Edwards Care Homes Limited in Swindon

Inspection report children‟s home: SC437171 1 SC437171 Registered provider: John-Edwards Care Homes Limited Full inspection Inspected under the social care common inspection framework

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Information about this children’s home

 This children‟s home is registered to care for five children who have a learning disability.  The provision offers a long-term home for some children and a short break for others.  Ownership of this home changed to a new company in August 2018.  The home has had a vacancy for the post of registered manager since June 2017.  A manager commenced their post on 1 May 2019 and finished her employment on 31 July 2019.

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Information about this children’s home

Inspection dates: 31 July to 1 August 2019

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

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inadequate

Date of last inspection: 30 April to 1 May 2019

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inadequate

Overall judgement at last inspection: inadequate

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inadequate

Enforcement action since last inspection: A compliance notice was served on 16 May 2019 for Regulation 13. A monitoring visit took place on 12 June 2019. The Inspection report children‟s home: SC437171 2 compliance notice was met, but it was recognised that progress was slow.

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

30/04/2019 Full Inadequate 04/07/2018 Full Requires improvement to be good 27/01/2017 Interim Sustained effectiveness 18/10/2016 Full Outstanding Inspection report children‟s home: SC437171 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

13: The leadership and management standard *

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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

ensure that staff have the experience, qualifications and skills to meet the needs of each child;

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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 experiences of each child and use this understanding to inform the development of the quality of care provided in the home; 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. (Regulation 13 (1)(a)(b)(2)(a)(c)(e)(f)(h)) 13/09/2019

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Requirement Due date

In meeting the quality standards, the registered person must, and must ensure that staff—

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Requirement Due date

seek to involve each child‟s placing authority effectively in the child‟s care, in accordance with the child‟s relevant plans; 13/09/2019 Inspection report children‟s home: SC437171 4 seek to secure the input and services required to meet each child‟s needs;

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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; and

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Requirement Due date

seek to develop and maintain effective professional relationships with such persons, bodies or organisations as the registered person considers appropriate having regard to the range of needs of children for whom it is intended that the children‟s home is to provide care and accommodation. (Regulation 5 (a)(b)(c)(d)) 6: The quality and purpose of care standard

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Requirement Due date

The quality and purpose of care standard is that children receive care from staff who—

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Requirement Due date

understand the children‟s home‟s overall aims and the outcomes it seeks to achieve for children;

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Requirement Due date

use this understanding to deliver care that meets children‟s needs and supports them to fulfil their potential.

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Requirement Due date

In particular, the standard in paragraph (1) requires the registered person to ensure that staff—

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Requirement Due date

understand and apply the home‟s statement of purpose;

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Requirement Due date

protect and promote each child‟s welfare;

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Requirement Due date

treat each child with dignity and respect;

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Requirement Due date

provide personalised care that meets each child‟s needs, as recorded in the child‟s relevant plans, taking account of the child‟s background; and

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Requirement Due date

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)(i)(ii)(iii) (iv) and (vi)) 13/09/2019

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Requirement Due date

7: The children‟s views, wishes and feelings standard

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Requirement Due date

The children‟s views, wishes and feelings standard is that 13/09/2019 Inspection report children‟s home: SC437171 5 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 welfare and their lives.

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Requirement Due date

In particular, the standard in paragraph (1) requires the registered person to— ensure that staff—

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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;

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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

help each child to understand how the child‟s privacy will be respected and the circumstances when it may have to be limited;

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Requirement Due date

help each child to prepare for any review of the child‟s relevant plans and to make the child‟s views, wishes and feelings known for the purposes of that review; and

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Requirement Due date

make each child aware of and, if necessary, remind them of each of the matters in sub-paragraph (d)(i) to (iii);

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Requirement Due date

is enabled to provide feedback to, and raise issues with, a relevant person about the support and services that the child receives. (Regulation 7 (1)(a)(b)(c)(2)(a)(i)(ii)(iii)(iv)(v)(vi) and (b)(i)(ii)(iii)) 12: The protection of children standard

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Requirement Due date

The protection of children standard is that children are 13/09/2019 Inspection report children‟s home: SC437171 6 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 that staff—

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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;

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Requirement Due date

help each child to understand how to keep safe;

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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)(i)(ii)(iii)(iv)(v)(vi) and (b)) 14: The care planning standard

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Requirement Due date

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

ensure the effective induction of each child into the home;

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Requirement Due date

manage and review the placement of each child in the home; and

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Requirement Due date

plan for, and help, each child to prepare to leave the home or to 13/09/2019 Inspection report children‟s home: SC437171 7 move into adult care in a way that is consistent with arrangements agreed with the child‟s placing authority. (Regulation 14 (1)(a)(b)(2)(b)(i)(ii) and (iii)) 24: Monitoring and surveillance

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Requirement Due date

The registered person may only use devices for the monitoring or surveillance of children if—

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Requirement Due date

the monitoring or surveillance is no more intrusive than necessary, having regard to the child‟s need for privacy. (Regulation (1)(d)) 13/09/2019

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Requirement Due date

have the capacity, experience and skills to supervise the management of the home, or the homes, in respect of which the responsible individual is nominated. (Regulation 26 (7)(b)) 13/09/2019

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Requirement Due date

The registered provider must appoint a person to manage the children‟s home if—

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Requirement Due date

there is no registered manager in respect of the home. (Regulation 27 (1)(a)) 13/09/2019

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Requirement Due date

For the purposes of paragraph (3)(b), an individual who works in the home in a care role has the appropriate qualification if, by the relevant date, the individual has attained—

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Requirement Due date

the Level 3 Diploma for Residential Childcare (England) (“the Level 3 Diploma”); or

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Requirement Due date

a qualification which the registered person considers to be equivalent to the Level 3 Diploma.

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Requirement Due date

in the case of an individual who starts working in a care role in a home after 1st April 2014, the date which falls 2 years after the date on which the individual started working in a care role in a home; or

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Requirement Due date

in the case of an individual who was working in a care role in a home on 1st April 2014, 1st April 2016. (Regulation 32 (4)(a)(b)(5)(a)(b)) 13/09/2019 Inspection report children‟s home: SC437171 8 33: Employment of staff

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must ensure that each employee—

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Requirement Due date

undertakes appropriate continuing professional development;

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Requirement Due date

receives practice-related supervision by a person with appropriate experience; and

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Requirement Due date

has their performance and fitness to perform their role appraised at least once every year. (Regulation 33 (1)(a) and (4)(a)(b)(c)) 13/09/2019

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Requirement Due date

35: Behaviour management policies and records

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must prepare and implement a policy (“the behaviour management policy”) which sets out—

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Requirement Due date

how appropriate behaviour is to be promoted in the children‟s home; and

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Requirement Due date

the measures of control, discipline and restraint which may be used in relation to children in the home.

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must keep the behaviour management policy under review and, where appropriate, revise it. (Regulation 35 (1)(a)(b)(2)) 13/09/2019

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Requirement Due date

Subject to paragraph (6), the registered person must establish a procedure for considering complaints made by or on behalf of children. (Regulation 39 (1)) 13/09/2019

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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.

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Requirement Due date

In order to complete a quality of care review the registered person must establish and maintain a system for monitoring, reviewing and evaluating—

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Requirement Due date

the quality of care provided for children;

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Requirement Due date

the feedback and opinions of children about the children‟s home, its facilities and the quality of care they receive in it; and 13/09/2019 Inspection report children‟s home: SC437171 9 any actions that the registered person considers necessary in order to improve or maintain the quality of care provided for children.

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Requirement Due date

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”).

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Requirement Due date

supply to HMCI a copy of the quality of care review report within 28 days of the date on which the quality of care review is completed; and

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Requirement Due date

make a copy of the quality of care review report available on request to a placing authority, if the placing authority is not the parent of a child accommodated in the home.

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Requirement Due date

The system referred to in paragraph (2) must provide for ascertaining and considering the opinions of children, their parents, placing authorities and staff. (Regulation 45 (1)(2)(a)(b)(c)(3)(4)(a)(b) and (5)) 46: Review of premises

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must review the appropriateness and suitability of the location of the premises used for the purposes of the children‟s home at least once in each calendar year taking into account the requirement in Regulation 12 (2)(c) (the protection of children standard).

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Requirement Due date

When conducting the review, the registered person must consult, and take into account the views of, each relevant person. (Regulation 46 (1)(2)) 13/09/2019

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Requirement Due date

* These requirements are subject to a compliance notice. Inspection report children‟s home: SC437171 10

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: inadequate

Leaders and managers have been ineffective in prioritising and in taking the required actions to improve the quality of the provision. The home was judged inadequate at the previous inspection and requirements set at that inspection remain unmet. These continuing weaknesses impact negatively on children‟s experiences and progress.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: inadequate

Children do not receive the required support to help them to make progress and to fulfil their potential. Targets which have been introduced are generic and lack detail about how staff can help children to achieve them. It is not clear how children are progressing from their starting points. This weakness is significant as some children have lived in the home for many years.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: inadequate

Staff do not provide young people with effective support to move on from the home successfully. Lack of planning for young people means that they remain living or receiving short breaks in the home post-18 with no purpose or plan to move them on. Consequently, staff are left unclear about the support that these young people require to move on in an individualised and well thought out manner.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: inadequate

Children‟s records are inadequate. Care plans do not contain all the relevant information about the support that children need from staff. The views of children are absent in all records and staff make no attempt to support children to contribute to their plans. The introduction of key working lacks meaningful purpose. Children are not supported to progress as the records lack goals and high expectations.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: inadequate

Not all children‟s privacy and dignity are promoted. Two bedrooms continue to have closed circuit television (CCTV) operating throughout the night. While leaders and managers have identified that there are other less intrusive monitoring systems, there is a lack of progress to replace these.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: inadequate

Not enough progress is made to improve the quality of the environment. The disablement of the electronic keypad on the back door means that children can now access the garden more independently. However, aesthetically it remains in place. Other environmental issues which distract from a family-style home include:

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: inadequate

 The introduction of an electronic system in the home‟s entrance for staff to register their working hours.  Lack of investment in the garden to meet the sensory needs of the children.  Too many signs on the walls that are for staff and not children.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: inadequate

Staff have built positive relationships with the children and mainly respond to their day- to-day care needs adequately. Children have many opportunities to visit local points of interests, to go shopping and trips to the beach and aquarium. Inspection report children‟s home: SC437171 11

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

Progress seen at the monitoring visit in how well children are helped and protected has not been maintained. Leaders and managers have not taken enough action to ensure that children‟s welfare is promoted.

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

Children are not effectively safeguarded because disclosures made by a child are not routinely reported to the social worker or designated person as required. While leaders and managers have discussed the rationale for this with the social worker, there is no endorsed multi-agency plan about why or how this response safeguards the child.

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

On three separate occasions, one young person harmed a child. Staff did not intervene to protect the child from the young person‟s behaviour. This is significant as the child being harmed relies solely on staff to safeguard them. Leaders and managers failed to review these incidents effectively. These incidents were not reported to the social workers of those involved.

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

Leaders‟ and managers‟ monitoring remains ineffective as poor practice is not identified and challenged. Staff are not given sufficient direction to support children effectively. For example, an incident record details a child‟s dislike for personal care. However, no work is done with staff about this and there has been no consultation with the child about finding ways to improve their daily experiences. In another example, staff record that a child stole food from the kitchen. This record is unchallenged and does not promote a positive ethos and culture within the home.

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

Leaders and managers have not implemented an effective behaviour management policy. Records about children‟s behaviour remain weak. Leaders and managers do not monitor these records effectively to bring about the required changes. Four restraints occurred since the previous full inspection. Staff did not receive a debrief following these restraints as required.

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

Staff have now received adequate training in child protection and how to support children with their behaviour. This shows some progress from the previous full inspection. However, staff are not implementing the learning from this training effectively. In addition, the responsible person has not completed child protection training, which weakens their ability to safeguard children and oversee practices in the home successfully.

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

Leaders and managers have completed a review of the premises. However, they made no attempt to consult with other agencies in their locality as required.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

Leaders and managers fail to manage the home in a manner that is consistent with the home‟s approach and ethos and they do not deliver the outcomes set out in the home‟s statement of purpose. The required policies and procedures are not in place or up to date. The complaints procedure refers to the previous company owners and includes Inspection report children‟s home: SC437171 12 incorrect manager details and other important policies, such as the behaviour policy, are in draft format.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

The home has had no registered manager since 1 June 2017. The latest manager commenced their post on 1 May 2019 and left this role on 31 July 2019. A new manager has been appointed to commence in September 2019. The responsible person does not have the experience to suitably supervise the management of the home as they have no previous childcare experience or training. The interim management arrangements are insufficient to lead and manage the home effectively and to bring about the required changes.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

Leaders and managers do not seek to develop positive relationships with other professionals. Some children‟s records lack important documentation such as education, health and care (EHC) plans, but leaders and managers have not escalated this to the appropriate professional. The lack of a registered manager impacts on the ability to improve these relationships.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

Staff do not receive the support to fulfil their roles and responsibilities. Gaps remain in the supervision and appraisal of staff. Staff do not receive an effective induction into their roles. This includes staff who have been promoted internally.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

Some progress is made to provide staff with mandatory training required to meet the needs of children. However, the workforce remains largely unqualified. Despite staff now being enrolled on the level 3 qualification, there are still staff who have gone beyond the required date of completion.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

Leaders and managers have not completed a review of the quality of care as required.

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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: SC437171 13

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Children’s home details

Registered provider: John-Edwards Care Homes Limited

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: 1 Suffolk Way, Sevenoaks TN13 1YL

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Inspector

Nicola Lownds: social care inspector Inspection report children‟s home: SC437171 14 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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