Children's Home run by Meadows Care Limited in Birmingham

Inspection report children’s home: 1228090 1 Registered provider: Meadows Care Ltd

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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 one of four operated under a contract with a large local authority. It is registered to provide care and accommodation for up to four children who may have experienced trauma, placement and family breakdown.

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Information about this children’s home

The organisation’s clinical team provides a service to children and staff.

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Information about this children’s home

The home has been without a registered manager since December 2018. A manager is now in post and applying to register with Ofsted.

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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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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: declined in effectiveness

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requires improvement to be good

Enforcement action since last inspection: none Inspection report children’s home: 1228090 2

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

20/03/2019 Interim Declined in effectiveness 02/05/2018 Full Good 12/12/2017 Interim Sustained effectiveness 11/07/2017 Full Requires improvement to be good Inspection report children’s home: 1228090 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 children’s views, wishes and feelings standard is that children receive care from staff who 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. (Regulation 7(1)(c)(2)(a)(i)) 20/09/2019

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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 an understanding about acceptable behaviour.

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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

encourage each child to take responsibility for the child’s behaviour, in accordance with the child’s age and understanding. (Regulation 11(1)(b)(2)(a)(iii)) 20/09/2019

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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 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. (Regulation 12(2)(a)(i)) 20/09/2019

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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 their welfare.

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Requirement Due date

In particular, the standard in paragraph (1) requires the 20/09/2019 Inspection report children’s home: 1228090 4 registered person to—

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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. (Regulation 13(1)(b)(2)(f))

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Requirement Due date

This is with particular regard to ensuring that the review of incidents provides all staff with the opportunity to reflect on any potential learning from these events. The care planning standard is that children receive effectively planned care in or through the children’s home.

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Requirement Due date

In particular, the standard in paragraph (1) requires the registered person to ensure that each child’s relevant plans are followed. (Regulation 14(1)(a)(2)(c))

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Requirement Due date

This is with particular regard to ensuring that staff engage children in relevant one-to-one sessions as reflected in their care plans. 20/09/2019

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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. (Regulation 33(4)(b)) 20/09/2019

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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). (Regulation 46(1)) 20/09/2019

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Recommendations

 Ensure that any sanctions used to address poor behaviour are 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. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 46, paragraph 9.38)  The registered person should undertake a review that focuses on the quality of the care provided by the home, the experiences of children living there and the impact the care is having on outcomes and improvements for the children. Reviews should be underpinned by the Quality Standards as described in regulations 5 to 14. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 65, paragraph 15.2) Inspection report children’s home: 1228090 5

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improvement to be good

Children’s progress is limited in some areas of their development. Statutory care plans highlight the need for some children to complete specific one-to-one sessions. These sessions include building positive relationships and the safe use of social media. Staff do not consistently deliver this work and the quality of these sessions is variable. This does not fully support children’s progress and safety.

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improvement to be good

Staff use information from children’s placing authorities to develop internal care plans and risk assessments. However, children are unaware of the content of these plans. This is because staff do not discuss these with children or seek their views or opinions. This reduces the effectiveness of these plans in helping children to achieve their goals.

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improvement to be good

Staff prioritise children’s education. They understand the importance of working with education providers, virtual school services and allocated teaching staff to address the challenges children face. All children have suitable school placements and their school attendance is generally high. One child said, ‘I like school now, much more than I thought I would, it’s good.’

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improvement to be good

Children benefit from easy access to clinical and psychological services to support their mental health. Some children participate in bespoke therapy sessions delivered by specialist staff. These help children to make sense of their past experiences and understand how these may influence their current actions and behaviours. This approach enables children to make progress and prepare emotionally for adulthood.

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improvement to be good

Relationships between children and staff are mostly positive. Children said that they like spending time with staff doing activities and ‘fun stuff’. Staff encourage children to make friends outside of the home by joining local clubs and groups. This helps children to expand their social circles, make new friends and grow in confidence.

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improvement to be good

Staff work with children’s families and placing authorities to facilitate regular family visits and social occasions. These help children to maintain these important relationships and ensure that they are not isolated from their families.

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improvement to be good

Staff are competent in identifying children’s risks and other factors that may impact on their safety. However, strategies in place to manage and reduce these risks remain weak. For example, risk management focuses on engaging children in one-to-one sessions to help them to understand how their actions may be harmful to themselves or others. Staff do not consistently deliver these sessions. Consequently, risk management strategies are sometimes ineffectual and this does not fully promote children’s welfare. This shortfall was raised at the last inspection and has not been satisfactorily addressed. Inspection report children’s home: 1228090 6 Children’s behaviours can be extremely challenging and complex. These include assaults on staff, verbal abuse, property damage and bullying. Staff use a range of strategies to try to de-escalate these incidents. They only use physical restraint as a last resort. Staff

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improvement to be good

complete records of these events in detail to show that this measure of control was necessary and proportionate.

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improvement to be good

Staff do not make sure that they work with children effectively to help them to take responsibility for their behaviours. For example, when staff sanction children because of their negative behaviour, they do not always make sure that these are restorative in nature to help children to reflect on their actions and consider how their actions may impact on the welfare of others. This means that children are not always motivated to change their behaviours.

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improvement to be good

Staff work closely with social workers, families and local police teams to quickly locate children if they are missing from the home. They make sure that they welcome children back to the home and arrange independent return interviews. These give children the opportunity to talk about the reasons why they may have gone missing from the home. This information helps staff to identify possible factors that may influence a child’s decision to leave the home. However, follow-up work with children around these reasons is variable in quality and effectiveness.

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improvement to be good

Since the last inspection, senior managers have reviewed safeguarding and child protection procedures. Staff benefit from face-to-face training around this area of practice. They have a good understanding of safeguarding referral processes and recognise their personal responsibility for protecting children from harm. This helps to protect children from possible abuse.

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improvement to be good

The home is now a more welcoming environment and communal areas include soft furnishings and appropriate seating. Staff complete health and safety checks and fire safety checks, and contact local contractors if any repairs are needed. This means that children live in a safe environment.

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improvement to be good

Managers review the location of the home. However, this risk assessment does not include local environmental factors, such as open bodies of water, that may impact on children’s safety when they are away from the home. In addition, it is not clear what staff do to educate children about these risks.

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

The home has been without a registered manager since December 2018. The manager in post at the time of the last inspection has now left the home. The previous registered manager has returned to the home and is in the process of re-registering with Ofsted.

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

Constant changes to the day-to-day management of the home affect children’s progress and overall experiences. For example, as new managers joined the home and other managers left, the poor quality of some one-to-one sessions was missed. Within the Inspection report children’s home: 1228090 7 quality of care review report, managers do not take account of or consider the impact of this shortfall on children’s progress and achievements. This means that managers do not always have a clear overview of the strengths of the service or areas for improvement.

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

Managers review significant events and incidents of concern. However, they do not use these reviews to influence the development of the service. For example, when incidents occur managers limit their investigations to identifying the facts of the event. They do not enable all staff to reflect on these incidents to learn from the experiences of others, or to shape future practice. This is a missed opportunity to ensure that staff practice continually evolves to meet children’s needs.

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

Training programmes for staff reflect children’s individual needs and include bespoke sessions with the clinical team. This helps staff to understand children’s needs and behaviours. However, staff do not always receive regular formal supervision. Consequently, managers do not sufficiently monitor or review staff performance. As a result, they are unable to quickly identify shortfalls in staff practice that may impact on children’s progress.

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

Professional relationships between managers and external agencies are mostly positive and effective. Social workers said that managers understand children’s complexities and that communication with the home is ‘open and professional’. This means that children benefit from an integrated approach to care planning that reflects their individual needs.

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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: 1228090 8

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: Meadows Care Ltd, Egerton House, Wardle Road, Rochdale OL12 9EN

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Children’s home details

Responsible individual: Niel Shelmerdine

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Inspector

Jo Stephenson, social care inspector Inspection report children’s home: 1228090 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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