Children's home run by Protea Care Limited

Inspection report children’s home: 2502918 1 Registered provider: Protea Care Ltd Full inspection Inspected under the social care common inspection framework

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Information about this children’s home

This is a two-bedded, privately owned residential home. It is registered to support children aged eight to 18 years who have emotional and behavioural difficulties.

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Information about this children’s home

The manager is suitably experienced and qualified. He registered with Ofsted on 11 September 2019. He manages this home and another Protea two-bedded home close by.

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Information about this children’s home

Inspection dates: 30 September to 1 October 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

Date of last inspection: Not applicable. This is the home’s first inspection.

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requires improvement to be good

Overall judgement at last inspection: not applicable

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requires improvement to be good

Enforcement action since last inspection: none Inspection report children’s home: 2502918 2

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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 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 the care is delivered by a person who–

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Requirement Due date

has the experience, knowledge and skills to deliver that care; and

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Requirement Due date

is under the supervision of a person who is appropriately skilled and qualified to supervise that care. (Regulation 6(1)(a)(b), (3)(c)(i)(ii))

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Requirement Due date

This is in relation to the need to ensure that staff caring for children are suitably experienced, and have sufficient skill and understanding to anticipate situations and take action to reduce risks. 25/11/2019

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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–

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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

ensure that staff have the experience, qualifications and skills to meet the needs of each child; 25/11/2019 Inspection report children’s home: 2502918 3 ensure that the home’s workforce provides continuity of care to each child;

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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

research and developments in relation to the ways in which the needs of children are best met;

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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)(c)(e)(g)(i)(ii)(h))

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Requirement Due date

This is in relation to developing the staff team and having sufficient oversight of the service to ensure that improvements can be embedded. Ensure, by means of fire drills and practices at suitable intervals, that persons working at the home and, so far as reasonably practicable, children are aware of the procedure to be followed in case of fire. (Regulation 25(d))

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Requirement Due date

This relates to conducting and recording fire evacuation drills, particularly when a child is newly admitted to the home. 21/10/2019

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Recommendations

 Supervision of staff practice should ensure that individual adults in the home are engaged in the safeguarding culture of the home so they understand what they would need to do if they found other staff misusing or abusing their position to the detriment of the safety of a child. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 43, paragraph 9.14) This is in relation to ensuring that all staff have regular, good-quality supervision which supports the development of safe, individualised care, and that this is recorded appropriately.  Professional judgements may need to be taken quickly, and staff training and supervision of practice should support this. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 48, paragraph 9.53) This is in relation to having a system which clearly identifies the mandatory and additional training that staff have received and also clearly identifies gaps in

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Recommendations

training. This information should inform the workforce plan. Inspection report children’s home: 2502918 4

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improvement to be good

This home has had a difficult start. Instability in leadership and management has contributed to difficulties in this new home becoming established. Staff are not yet providing good enough care.

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improvement to be good

Many of the staff recruited to work at this home did not have experience of working in residential childcare and were ill prepared to meet children’s complex care needs. In addition to this, staff were not adequately supported or supervised.

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improvement to be good

The children residing in this home are now making progress. Staff have advocated on their behalf to secure school places. Staff recognise the importance of education and the children’s need for stability, routine and positive peer relationships.

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improvement to be good

Children are provided with opportunities to take part in extra-curricular activities, clubs and leisure activities.

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improvement to be good

Children are settled and are beginning to form positive, trusting relationships with staff. For one child, this home has provided much needed stability following a number of placement breakdowns. The placement has enabled staff and multi-agency partners to fully assess her needs. There is an opportunity now to provide the educational and clinical support required.

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improvement to be good

Children’s physical healthcare needs are quickly addressed, however children’s emotional health and well-being needs are not always met as promptly.

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improvement to be good

Some very good-quality direct work is carried out to promote self-care skills and help children to regulate their behaviour. Direct work with children is planned well and links directly to their care plans. Staff use a range of resources to engage children so that they make progress.

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improvement to be good

There is no mechanism in place to ensure that children’s views are heard. Practice in the home is therefore not always informed by children’s wishes or feelings.

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improvement to be good

Staff support children to maintain contact with people who are important to them. Staff shared an example of supporting a child to repair their relationship with a family member. This work helped the child to develop self-esteem.

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improvement to be good

The admission processes were poor when the home first opened. Managers admitted to the home a child whom the largely inexperienced and unqualified staff team were ill equipped to care for. These processes have now improved. The high number of Inspection report children’s home: 2502918 5 unqualified staff remains a vulnerability of this home. The new manager identified straightaway that he needed to work alongside these staff to ensure that the quality of care was good enough. This was particularly important in relation to ensuring that staff had the confidence to use re-direction and other strategies to prevent situations from escalating out of control. Managers have worked hard to develop the staff, and this has been at the cost of other management activity.

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improvement to be good

The newly revised behaviour management plans are good, because they are easy for staff to follow. The plans describe what behaviour looks like and provide simple, effective intervention strategies for staff.

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improvement to be good

Partner agencies spoke positively about improvements in children’s behaviour and the progress that children are making generally. The use of physical intervention has reduced significantly in recent months as children have become more settled. The recording of physical intervention was poor, initially, but it is improving.

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improvement to be good

Up until June 2019, staff were not receiving adequate supervision. Some staff had no supervision recorded in this period. Given the vulnerabilities in the staff team, this was unsafe practice. Supervision is now taking place regularly, but the supervision records need to be improved.

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improvement to be good

Safeguarding incidents are managed appropriately, and Ofsted is notified accordingly. Staff follow the missing-from-care protocol well when children run away. Good-quality multi-agency work is being carried out to reduce the risks associated with being missing from care. However, strategies to prevent missing-from-care incidents are not as well developed.

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

This home has had three managers since it was registered in January 2019. There has also been a change in responsible individual. The new manager has recently been registered. He has a very good understanding of the strengths and weaknesses at this home.

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

The manager quickly identified opportunities to improve. He has been child-focused in his approach, maintaining a focus on improving the day-to-day experiences of children. He has worked alongside staff to model good practice. This has brought about a reduction in challenging behaviour. The manager has also ensured that staff have regular supervision. Staff appraisals are underway. These have been detailed and thorough.

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

Other aspects of the manager’s responsibilities have suffered as a result of this intensive direct work with staff. An example of this is the fact that the manager could not find the records of fire drills and conceded that a fire evacuation drill had not taken place in recent months.

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

Staff are provided with a range of training, some of which is mandatory and some of which is additional training. Improvement is needed in how training is recorded so that gaps can be identified and addressed more easily. This will form the basis of the Inspection report children’s home: 2502918 6 workforce development plan.

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

The recommendations for improvement made by the home’s independent visitor are now being addressed. The manager also demonstrates in his own audit very good insight into the quality of care. However, staffing vulnerabilities persist, with further changes happening at both deputy manager and team leader level. Inspection report children’s home: 2502918 7

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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 difference 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: 2502918 8

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: 317 Horn Lane, London, Middlesex W3 0BU

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Inspector

Corrinne Barker, regulatory inspection manager Inspection report children’s home: 2502918 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 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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