Children's Home run by Reflexion Care Group Limited in Shropshire

Inspection report children’s home: SC460973 1 SC460973 Registered provider: Reflexion Care Group 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

This private children’s home provides care and accommodation for up to three children and young people who have social and/or emotional needs. The home is currently in transition, from being a home that provides a 12-week assessment period to support the young people to their next placement, to a home that provides long-term care for young people.

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Information about this children’s home

The registered manager has left the home. Since 2 July 2019, a newly appointed manager has been in post. The new manager holds a level 5 management award and intends to apply to become the next registered manager.

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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/or 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

Overall judgement at last inspection: sustained effectiveness

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inadequate

Enforcement action since last inspection: none Inspection report children’s home: SC460973 2

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

04/03/2019 Interim Sustained effectiveness 19/09/2018 Full Requires improvement to be good 19/09/2017 Full Requires improvement to be good 23/03/2017 Interim Sustained effectiveness Inspection report children’s home: SC460973 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 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 promotes their welfare. In particular, the standard in paragraph (1) requires the registered person to— 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; ensure that staff work as a team where appropriate; 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; 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; use monitoring and review systems to make continuous

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Requirement Due date

improvements in the quality of care provided in the home. (Regulation 13 (1)(a)(b)(2)(a)(b)(c)(d)(e)(f)(h)) 27/09/2019

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Requirement Due date

The protection of children standard is that children are protected from harm and enabled to keep themselves safe. 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; help each child to understand how to keep safe; have the skills to identify and act upon signs that a child is at risk of harm; manage relationships between children to prevent them from harming each other; understand the roles and responsibilities in relation to protecting children that are assigned to them by the registered person; take effective action whenever there is a serious concern about a child’s welfare. (Regulation 12 (1)(2)(a)(i)(ii)(iii)(iv)(v)(vi)) 30/08/2019 Inspection report children’s home: SC460973 4

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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 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)(b)) 30/08/2019

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Requirement Due date

The quality and purpose of care standard is that children receive care from staff who— understand the children’s home’s overall aims and the outcomes it seeks to achieve for children; use this understanding to deliver care that meets children’s needs and supports them to fulfil their potential. In particular, the standard in paragraph (1) requires the registered person to ensure that the premises used for the purposes of the home are designed and furnished so as to— meet the needs of each child; and enable each child to participate in the daily life of the home. (Regulation 6 (1)(a)(b)(2)(c)(i)(ii)) 27/09/2019

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Requirement Due date

The quality and purpose of care standard is that children receive care from staff who— understand the children’s home’s overall aims and the outcomes it seeks to achieve for children; 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 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)(2)(b)(vii)) 27/09/ 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 mutual respect and trust; an understanding about acceptable behaviour; and positive responses to other children and adults.

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Requirement Due date

In particular, the standard in paragraph (1) requires the registered person to ensure that staff— meet each child’s behavioural and emotional needs, as set out in the child’s relevant plans; 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; help each child to 27/09/ 2019 Inspection report children’s home: SC460973 5 develop the understanding and skills to recognise or withdraw from a damaging, exploitative or harmful relationship; understand how children’s previous experiences and present emotions can be communicated through behaviour and have the competence and skills to interpret these and develop positive relationships with children; are provided with supervision and support to enable them to understand and manage their own feelings and responses to the behaviour and emotions of

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Requirement Due date

children, and to help children to do the same. (Regulation 11 (1)(a)(b)(c)(2)(a)(i)(vi)(vii)(ix)(x))

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Requirement Due date

The health and well-being standard is that the health and well- being needs of children are met; children receive advice, services and support in relation to their health and well-being; and children are helped to lead healthy lifestyles. In particular, the standard in paragraph (1) requires the registered person to ensure— that staff help each child to— achieve the health and well-being outcomes that are recorded in the child’s relevant plans; understand the child’s health and well-being needs and the options that are available in relation to the child’s health and well-being, in a way that is appropriate to the child’s age and understanding; and understand and develop skills to promote the child’s well-being. (Regulation 10 (1)(a)(b)(c)(2)(a)(i)(ii)(iv)) 27/09/ 2019

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Requirement Due date

The children’s views, wishes and feelings standard is that children receive care from staff who develop positive relationships with them; engage with them; and take their views, wishes and feelings into account in relation to matters affecting the children’s care and welfare and their lives. In particular, the standard in paragraph (1) requires the registered person to ensure that staff— help each child to express views, wishes and feelings; 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; regularly consult children, and seek their feedback, about the quality of the home’s care. (Regulation 7 (1)(a)(b)(c)(2)(a)(ii)(iii)(iv)) 27/09/2019 Inspection report children’s home: SC460973 6

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Recommendations

 Limits on privacy and access may only be put in place to safeguard each child in the home (regulation 21(c)(i)). Any decisions to limit a child’s access to any area of the home and any modifications to the environment of the home, must only be made where this is intended to safeguard the child’s welfare. All decisions should be informed by a rigorous assessment of that individual child’s needs, be properly recorded and be kept under regular review. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 15, paragraph 3.10)  The importance of understanding who we are and where we come from is recognised in good social work practice, for example through undertaking life story work or other direct work. Staff in children’s homes should play a full role in work of this kind. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 16, paragraph 3.14)

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: inadequate

Staff do not always ensure that children are cared for in a nurturing and homely environment. Repairs are needed throughout the property and some furniture needs to be either repaired or replaced. Children do not have access to some areas of the home. Despite these restrictions being in place, managers have not provided any evidence to explain why these measures are deemed necessary. All these factors detract from children being able to live in a pleasant and homely environment.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: inadequate

Children do not know enough about their progress and/or the targets that they should be working towards. For example, one child’s care plan indicates that she should be working towards semi-independence. However, staff have failed to support this learning. This lack of support compromises the child’s ability to develop her life skills in readiness for adulthood.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: inadequate

Staff do not hold regular key-working sessions with children to promote their welfare and to support their plans. As a result, children do not receive help to understand the importance of eating a healthy diet, budgeting and having positive relationships.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: inadequate

Staff do not have a full knowledge of essential information or understanding about the children living in the home. This includes fundamental characteristics such as their ethnic and cultural origin. This means that staff cannot support children to explore and understand their individual and diverse heritage.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: inadequate

Children’s views are not listened to or given enough priority. Meetings designed to take account of their views are not held regularly. On the odd occasions when these meetings are held, staff fail to follow through on agreed actions. For example, staff bought a child a trampoline but did not help the child to put it up, and the trampoline remains unbuilt. Inspection report children’s home: SC460973 7 More widely, staff do not create or take important opportunities to empower children to influence decisions about their care and to build trusting relationships.

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

Children who are at high risk of going missing from care do not receive the right level of supervision to reflect their significant vulnerabilities. Staff have been too slow in recognising the early warning signs when children are planning to go missing from the home. As a result, children have been able to leave the home unchallenged and have been in situations where their safety and welfare has been placed at risk.

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

When a child was returned to the home by the police after being missing from care, the police reported concerns of domestic abuse. The police had to intervene when the child was being physically assaulted by a potential partner. Despite staff being given this information, they failed to talk to the child about her experience and to ensure that she received support about domestic abuse in relationships. This failure to act shows a lack of professional curiosity and concern about the child’s significant vulnerability. Staff missed a valuable opportunity to make her aware of the nature of exploitative relationships and of domestic abuse.

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

Staff do not ensure that safety standards are consistently maintained. For example, food is not always stored correctly and is sometimes found to be out of date. The home’s locality risk assessment does not include risks to children from having a pond in the garden. This poses a potential risk to the health and well-being of children.

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

Management oversight of how incidents are recorded has declined in effectiveness and is now weak. The impact of this is that valuable opportunities for strategies to be put in place to keep children safe are much reduced.

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

Staff undergo a rigorous interview and vetting process before they start to work with children in the home. As a result, safe recruitment is effective.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

Leaders and managers have not ensured that children receive consistent care during a period of change in the home’s model of care. This change has resulted in five staff being redeployed to work for a new service in the organisation. In response to this, the provider has had to place four new staff and a new manager in the home. These changes have disrupted one child’s relationships with members of staff whom she had started to trust.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

Despite the leaders and managers being aware they had times when too few core staff were working in the home following a group of staff moving to a new service, a decision was made to admit a new child. This has resulted in an over-reliance on staff from other homes in the company covering shifts. This continuous pattern of having unfamiliar staff in the home has significantly compromised the children’s ability to receive care from a consistent and stable staff team. Staff who are less familiar with the home have failed to Inspection report children’s home: SC460973 8 recognise early signs of risk and to intervene soon enough. As a result, children have gone missing from the home more often than was the case.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

Some staff do not receive regular supervision or an annual appraisal. This prevents them from having their performance and practice regularly appraised and represents a missed opportunity to discuss the care of children and how to best meet their needs.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

Weaknesses in managers’ oversight of the quality of care means that shortfalls in the staff’s record keeping go unchallenged. This results in an unnecessary delay in poor practice being picked up and addressed.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

The newly appointed manager has a proven record of managing homes that have been judged outstanding. The manager has started to make plans to improve the home. However, these plans are yet to be implemented.

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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: SC460973 9

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Children’s home details

Registered provider: Reflexion Care Group Limited

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: Black Birches, Hadnall, Shrewsbury, Shropshire SY4 3DH

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Inspector

Karen Gillingwater, social care inspector Inspection report children’s home: SC460973 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 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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