Children's Home run by Birmingham Children’s Trust Community Interest Company in Birmingham

Inspection report children’s home: 1273663 1 Registered provider: Birmingham Children’s Trust Community Interest Company

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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 provides care for 12 children who have learning disabilities. Children can stay beyond their 18th birthday while they finish their education.

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Information about this children’s home

The home has been operated for several years by a local authority. The service and the existing manager were re-registered under a newly created local authority children’s trust in March 2018. The registered manager has extensive experience and knowledge.

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Information about this children’s home

It is one of four homes operated by this local authority children’s trust.

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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: 1273663 2

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

19/03/2019 Interim Declined in effectiveness 20/09/2018 Full Requires improvement to be good Inspection report children’s home: 1273663 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 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

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

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Requirement Due date

achieve the health and well-being outcomes that are recorded in the child’s relevant plans. (Regulation 10 (2)(a)(i)(ii)) 30/11/2019

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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;

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Requirement Due date

that the effectiveness of the home’s child protection policies is monitored regularly. (Regulation 12 (1)(2)(a)(i)(e)) 30/11/2019

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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; 30/11/2019 Inspection report children’s home: 1273663 4 and promotes their welfare.

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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

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

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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. (Regulation 13 (1)(a)(b)(2)(g)(ii)(h))

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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 move into adult care in a way that is consistent with arrangements agreed with the child’s placing authority;

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Requirement Due date

that each child’s relevant plans are followed. (Regulation 14 (1)(a)(b)(2)(b)(i)(ii)(iii)(c)) 30/11/2019

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must recruit staff using recruitment procedures that are designed to ensure children’s safety. The registered person may only—

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Requirement Due date

employ an individual to work at the children’s home; or

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Requirement Due date

if an individual is employed by a person other than the 30/11/2019 Inspection report children’s home: 1273663 5 registered person to work at the home in a position in which the individual may have regular contact with children, allow that individual to work at the home, if the individual satisfies the requirements in paragraph (3).

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Requirement Due date

full and satisfactory information is available in relation to the individual in respect of each of the matters in Schedule 2. (Regulation 32 (1)(2)(a)(b)(3)(d))

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must ensure that all employees—

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Requirement Due date

undertake appropriate continuing professional development;

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Requirement Due date

receive practice-related supervision by a person with appropriate experience. (Regulation 33 (4)(b)) 30/11/2019

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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;

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Requirement Due date

ensure that the records are kept up to date; and

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Requirement Due date

retain the records for at least 15 years from the date of the last entry. (Regulation 37 (1)(2)(a)(b)(c))

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Requirement Due date

This relates to the children’s register. 30/11/2019

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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. (Regulation 39 (3)) 30/11/2019

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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).

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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)) 30/11/2019 Inspection report children’s home: 1273663 6

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Recommendations

 The registered person should actively seek independent scrutiny of the home and make best use of information from independent and internal monitoring (including under regulations 44 and 45) to ensure continuous improvement. They should be skilled in anticipating difficulties and reviewing incidents. They are responsible for proactively implementing lessons learned and sustaining good practice. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 55, paragraph 10.24)

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Recommendations

This relates specifically to timely regulation 44 reporting and ensuring that key safeguarding information is shared with the visitor.

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improvement to be good

Regulatory shortfalls in leadership and management, safeguarding, safer recruitment, complaints and record-keeping are recurrent weaknesses from the time of the full inspection conducted in September 2018. Despite these ongoing shortfalls, children do make progress and have a positive experience at the home.

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improvement to be good

Children’s care planning and records vary in quality and sufficiency. Some records are good. However, this is not consistent across the three houses.

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improvement to be good

Managers have lost sight of the quality and purpose of children’s plans. For example, there are no records for one child who arrived in an emergency and stayed three nights. New formats for carrying out initial baseline assessments are not always complete. Staff do not always have access to children’s health assessments or know the purpose of prescribed medication. Information about how staff help children to develop skills for independence is not always up to date.

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improvement to be good

Despite this, staff work well with placing social workers, teachers and health professionals to deliver the services and support that children need. The service is increasingly responsive to issues raised by professionals and parents about the quality of communication and care. An external advocate visits regularly and is impressed with the number of activities, adventures and holidays that the children can participate in.

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improvement to be good

Consultation with children at regular in-house meetings is well established. Staff are now skilled in helping children to communicate on the subject of a wide range of issues. This includes their care plans and the next stage in their lives. Staff promote early planning for children and are actively involved in helping to find their next placement when the time is right.

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improvement to be good

Children stay in a pleasant environment. Many staff put in more effort than is expected Inspection report children’s home: 1273663 7 of them to give children enhanced social and cultural opportunities. They take children abroad on holiday and involve them in appropriate religious celebrations in their community. The staff and children have affectionate, respectful relationships. One child wrote to Ofsted to tell the regulator that they have a lot of friends, support and activities.

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improvement to be good

Safeguarding arrangements are still not thorough. Inconsistent planning to reduce risk still has the potential to jeopardise children’s safety. Children’s plans do not always show current agreements for how late children can stay up at night using the internet. Other plans do not tell staff how they should reduce risk of self-harm, or how to reduce the impact of some children’s behaviour on other children.

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improvement to be good

Managerial monitoring of safeguarding matters is not effective. The manager does not always consider the home’s child protection policy when children complain or make allegations about staff.

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improvement to be good

Records in the home do not evidence that agency staff have been through a rigorous system of checks on their suitability to work with children.

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improvement to be good

Risk from the absence of good management plans is minimised because longstanding permanent staff are familiar with children’s individual needs and vulnerabilities. All care staff are trained in reducing risks from radicalisation. They have also been trained in helping children to stay safe on line.

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improvement to be good

Children do not go missing from the home and are protected from exploitation by close supervision provided by staff. Restraint is very rare. However, when distressed, some children have become very challenging. Staff have received up-to-date training to help them to manage this positively.

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improvement to be good

Staff are alert to the risk of bullying and work with all parties to encourage positive relationships. One social worker wrote to Ofsted: ‘The home has changed the life of the young person I am allocated to. We have seen a positive change in behaviour as a result of him being treated in the right way and given space when it is needed.’

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

Shortfalls continue in the way in which the management team monitors, develops and sustains the quality of the service, particularly in relation to risks for children.

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

Children are cared for by a diverse team of longstanding, qualified staff who know them well. Staff work extra hours to fill gaps in the rota to provide children with continuity of care and to reduce the necessity for agency staff. Inspection report children’s home: 1273663 8 The manager now formally reviews some significant incidents and is increasingly identifying learning to take from events and complaints. However, actions after complaints or safeguarding incidents are not always followed through to completion.

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

Managers do not always give staff professional supervision at the right time or frequency. Staff have not had managerial support to reflect on issues raised after complaints or allegations to help to improve their practice.

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

Complaint investigations are not thorough or transparent. Children’s complaints about staff have not always been investigated. Management monitoring has not ensured that a consistent quality of care planning and recording is in place.

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

Managers do not give their regulation 44 visitors the support and information necessary for them to make a judgement about children’s well-being and protection.

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

The manager has ineffective oversight of records of staff training or the adequacy of staff supervision. There are weaknesses in the children’s register for their admissions and discharges from the home. There is no evidence that an annual review of the location of the premises has been carried out.

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

Consultation with staff, children, their parents and the placing authority is now in place and forms part of the manager’s review of the quality of care. This is an improvement.

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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: 1273663 9

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Children’s home details

Registered provider: Birmingham Children’s Trust Community Interest Company

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: Third Floor Zone 16, 1 Lancaster Circus, Birmingham B4 7DJ

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Inspector

Christy Wannop, social care inspector Inspection report children’s home: 1273663 10 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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