Children's Home run by Pilgrims Corner Limited in Kent

Inspection report children’s home: SC473877 1 SC473877 Registered provider: Pilgrims Corner 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

The home is registered to accommodate two children. It is one of four homes operated by a privately owned organisation. The home shares a manager with a similar-size home which is situated nearby. The company also owns a separately registered school, which children living in the homes may attend. The manager was registered with Ofsted on 21 March 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 serious and 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: 23 October 2018

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Inadequate

Overall judgement at last inspection: Requires improvement to be good

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Inadequate

Enforcement action since last inspection: None Inspection report children’s home: SC473877 2

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

23/10/2018 Full Requires improvement to be good 01/11/2017 Full Good 21/02/2017 Interim Sustained effectiveness 01/11/2016 Full Good Inspection report children’s home: SC473877 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 positive relationships standard is that children are helped to develop, and to benefit from, relationships based on— mutual respect and trust; an understanding about acceptable behaviour; and positive responses to other children and adults. In particular, the standard in paragraph (1) requires the registered person to ensure that staff— help each child to understand, in a way that is appropriate according to the child’s age and understanding, personal, sexual and social relationships, and how those relationships can be supportive or harmful. (Regulation 11 (1)(a)(b)(c)(2)(a)(vi)) In particular, ensure that staff have the knowledge and skills to support and safely care for children who demonstrate sexually harmful behaviour. 08/09/2019

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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. In particular, the standard in paragraph (1) 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; have the skills to identify and act upon signs that a child is at risk of harm. (Regulation 12 (1)(2)(a)(i)(iii)) This is with specific reference to the assessment and management of risk and ensuring that staff are aware of when a child leaves the home. 08/09/2019

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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— helps children aspire to fulfil their potential; and 08/09/2019 Inspection report children’s home: SC473877 4 promotes their welfare. In particular, the standard in paragraph (1) requires the registered person to— ensure that the home has sufficient staff to provide care for each child; ensure that the home’s workforce provides continuity of care to each child; use monitoring and review systems to make continuous improvements in the quality of care provided in the home. (Regulation 13 (1)(a)(b)(2)(d)(e)(h)) The registered person must ensure that— children can access all appropriate areas of the children’s home’s premises. (Regulation 21 (b)) This is with specific reference to using the lounge as a staff sleep-in room. 08/09/2019

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Requirement Due date

*If the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005(a) applies to the home— the registered person must ensure that the requirements of that Order and any regulations made under it, except for article 23 (duties of employees), are complied with in respect of the home. (Regulation 25 (2)(b)) This is with specific reference to consulting the fire service and reviewing and updating the home’s fire risk assessment when there is a significant change in circumstances. 08/09/2019

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Requirement Due date

An organisation may only carry on a home if— each director of the organisation, except for a director who is the responsible individual, who is involved in the carrying on of a home by that organisation satisfies the requirements in paragraph (6). The requirements are that— the individual is of integrity and good character. A responsible individual must— 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(6)(a)(7)(b)) 08/09/2019

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must ensure that all employees— undertake appropriate continuing professional development. (Regulation 33 (4)(a)) 08/09/2019 Inspection report children’s home: SC473877 5 This is with particular reference to ensuring that staff who provide practice-related supervision have received the necessary training and guidance to make them competent to do so. The registered person must prepare and implement a policy which— sets out the procedure to be followed in the event of an allegation of abuse or neglect. (Regulation 34 (1((b)) This is with specific reference to managing allegations made against members of the senior management team. 08/09/2019

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must notify HMCI and each other relevant person without delay if— there is an allegation of abuse against the home or a person working there. (Regulation 40 (4)(c)) 08/09/2019

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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. (Regulation 45 (1)) 08/09/2019

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Requirement Due date

* These requirements are subject to a compliance notice.

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Recommendations

 Children should be encouraged to develop positive relationships with others both in and outside the home as set out in the positive relationships standard. However, staff should be alert to the possibility that children may be at risk from such relationships including with other children in the home, staff, family members, friends and others outside the home, and they therefore should take appropriate steps to protect a child where there are concerns for a child’s safety. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 43, paragraph 9.13) In particular, ensure that staff take effective action to prevent children from physically harming one another.  For children’s homes to be nurturing and supportive environments that meet the needs of their children, they will, in most cases, be homely, domestic environments. Children’s homes must comply with relevant health and safety

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Recommendations

legislations (alarms, food hygiene etc.); however, in doing so, homes should seek as far as possible to maintain a domestic rather than ‘institutional’ impression. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 15, paragraph 3.9) This is with specific reference to ensuring that worn carpets are replaced and the home is kept clean.  The children’s home must produce a children’s guide. The children’s guide must be made available to all children when their placement in the home is agreed (or on arrival at the home if the placement is made in an emergency) and must be Inspection report children’s home: SC473877 6 age appropriate, provided in an accessible format and explained to each child to make sure they understand it. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 24, paragraph 4.21)

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: inadequate

The children at this home have not made good progress since the last inspection in October 2018. The children in the home have either disengaged with staff or have significantly escalated their unsafe behaviours and placed themselves at serious risk of harm. In one case, the lack of progress is partly attributable to shortfalls on the part of the child’s placing authority, despite leaders and managers consistently raising their concerns. The quality of relationships that children build with care staff has been mixed. Although some children begin to build positive attachments with staff who have remained at the home for a significant period of time, other relationships have been fractious. Some staff have been targeted and subjected to physical assaults by children. A professional from one placing authority said that the responsible individual’s response to a child’s challenging behaviour was ‘emotive’ and ‘disproportionate’.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: inadequate

The children’s engagement with their educational provision has been variable. One child has maintained very high attendance rates, although another child became demotivated and subsequently refused to engage in any form of educational activity. At night, the lounge is used as a staff sleep-in room and is kept locked. This restricts children’s free movement around communal areas of the home and detracts from it being a homely, domestic environment. The stair carpet is threadbare in places, and an odour from the bathroom indicates that more attention should be paid to cleanliness. Not all the children know about the children’s guide to the home. This means that they cannot regularly remind themselves of the expectations placed on them and how they will be cared for and supported. It also restricts their access to information regarding external support agencies.

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

The managers and staff do not ensure that there are effective strategies in place to minimise the potential for children to come to harm. There is a failure to recognise how children’s unsafe behaviours could have a negative impact on other children and staff living and working at the home. Risk assessments, including the fire risk assessment, are not always reviewed and updated in a timely way, or when there has been a serious incident. Strategies for preventing children harming one another are weak, particularly in relation to the overnight arrangements. There has been confusion and inconsistency regarding the level of staffing required to keep children safe and whether it is appropriate for female staff to be working alone. One child has recently been physically assaulted by Inspection report children’s home: SC473877 7 another child when staff were not present, and on at least two occasions a highly

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

vulnerable child was able to leave the home undetected by staff. The management of allegations made against staff is poor. This is partly attributable to the associated policy providing no guidance on the actions that should be taken when an allegation is made against the responsible individual or other members of the senior management team. Internal investigations are flawed, partly because there has been no recognition of the potential for conflict of interest, in relation to the person conducting the investigation. There are significant weaknesses in the recording of child protection concerns. The responsible individual was not able to provide a clear audit trail or chronology of the actions she had taken when a member of the public made a serious allegation about the conduct of a member of staff. The inspector was, therefore, unable to establish whether appropriate action had been taken to keep the children in the home safe.

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

The staff are not provided with the training and guidance that would assist them to keep highly vulnerable children safe. As a result, staff do not have an adequate understanding of the complex and dangerous behaviours that some children demonstrate. This impairs their ability to effectively assess risk and anticipate how one child could harm others. The staff take a proactive approach to locating children when they go missing. They liaise well with other professionals, particularly the police, and promptly share all relevant information. Children who have been missing are sensitively welcomed back, and their health and welfare needs are given high priority. This good practice has not had a significant impact on preventing children going missing in the first place.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

Since the last inspection the manager has become registered with Ofsted. During this inspection, she demonstrated an awareness of the shortfalls in the standard of practice in the home. However, poor oversight by the organisation’s senior leadership team, particularly the responsible individual, has meant that these shortfalls have not been addressed. The registered manager has only had one formal supervision meeting in the last six months. The responsible individual was not able to demonstrate how the registered manager is supported to raise the standard of practice and reduce the potential for children to come to harm. Despite there being some acknowledgement, from the senior leadership team, that an investigation into an allegation made against the responsible individual was flawed, the same poor practice was repeated for a second time. Systems for monitoring the quality of care being provided are weak and ineffectual. No

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

quality of care review has been completed in the last 15 months. The responsible individual’s monthly internal quality assurance audit had not been completed since April 2019. The independent visitor provides good-quality monthly reports, but the recommendations made are not always implemented in a timely way. Weaknesses in the implementation of monitoring systems has resulted in poor standards of practice not being addressed. Inspection report children’s home: SC473877 8 There are shortfalls in the admission process, particularly in terms of assessing the likely impact of moving a new child into the home. Recent incidents, such as a child encouraging a new child to go missing and a new child physically assaulting a child, could have been anticipated. However, there was a failure to analyse all the children’s needs when the impact risk assessment was completed. This resulted in a lack of strategies for staff to follow to reduce the potential for serious incidents to occur.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

There are indications that any reservations the registered manager may have regarding the admission of a new child are superseded by the organisation’s need to keep the home running at full capacity. Although the organisation provides a good core training programme, there is a failure to provide staff with the specialist training that they need to meet the needs of individual children. Senior care staff who supervise team members have not been provided with the training that would increase their competence to undertake this role. There have been difficulties in recruiting and retaining staff. The home has not been fully staffed for several months and six staff have left since the home was last inspected. This compromises the prospect of children developing strong, trusting relationships with the adults who care for them, and undermines the potential for children to receive consistency of care. Leaders and managers have not ensured that Ofsted is consistently notified when

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

serious incidents occur. This includes a failure to notify Ofsted that a serious allegation had been made against a member of care staff. Inspection report children’s home: SC473877 9

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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: SC473877 10

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Children’s home details

Registered provider: Pilgrims Corner Limited

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: Suite 5, The Links, Herne Bay, Kent CT6 7GQ

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Children’s home details

Registered manager: Shanelle Maxwell-Amayigha

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Inspector

Stephen Collett, social care inspector Inspection report children’s home: SC473877 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 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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