Children's home run by Oracle Care Limited in Central Bedfordshire

Inspection report children’s home: SC469686 1 SC469686 Registered provider: Oracle Care Limited

p.1

Full inspection Inspected under the social care common inspection framework

p.1

Information about this children’s home

This home is owned and operated by a private company. It is registered to provide care and accommodation for up to three young people aged eight to 18. Young people may have complex social, emotional and/or behavioural needs and require attachment- aware, trauma-informed care and support. The current manager successfully registered with Ofsted in July 2018.

p.1

Overall experiences and progress of

children and young people, taking into account

p.1

good

How well children and young people are helped and protected good

p.1

good

The effectiveness of leaders and managers requires improvement to be good

p.1

good

The children’s home provides effective services that meet the requirements for good.

p.1

good

Date of last inspection: 21 January 2019

p.1

good

Overall judgement at last inspection: declined in effectiveness

p.1

good

Enforcement action since last inspection: none Inspection report children’s home: SC469686 2

p.1

Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

21/01/2019 Interim Declined in effectiveness 25/07/2018 Full Good 06/02/2018 Interim Declined in effectiveness 13/09/2017 Full Requires improvement to be good Inspection report children’s home: SC469686 3

p.2

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.

p.3

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. In particular, the standard in paragraph (1) requires the registered person to ensure that staff— help each child to develop socially aware behaviour; encourage each child to take responsibility for the child’s behaviour, in accordance with the child’s age and understanding; help each child to develop the understanding and skills to recognise or withdraw from a damaging, exploitative or harmful relationship. (Regulation 11(1)(b)(2)(ii)(iii)(vii)) 15/11/2019

p.3

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— (a) helps children to aspire to fulfil their potential: and (b) 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 staff have the experience, qualifications and skills to meet the needs of each child; 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

p.3

Requirement Due date

15/11/2019 Inspection report children’s home: SC469686 4 quality of care provided in the home; feedback on the experiences of children, including complaints received, use monitoring and review systems to make continuous improvements in the quality of care provided in the home. (Regulation 13(1)(a)(b)(2)(a)(b)(c)(d)(e)(f) (ii)(h)) The registered person must ensure that children can access all appropriate areas of the children’s home’s premises; and any limitation placed on a child’s privacy or access to any area of the home’s premises is necessary and proportionate; is kept under review and, if necessary, revised; and allows children as much freedom as is possible when balanced against the need to protect them and keep them safe. (Regulation 21(b)(c)(ii)(iii)(iv)) 15/11/2019

p.3

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)) 15/11/2019

p.4

Recommendations

 Regulations 35-39 detail the records that must be kept in children’s homes. All children’s records must be kept up to date and stored securely whilst they remain in the home. Case records must be kept up to date. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 62, paragraph 14.3) In particular, risk assessments need to be updated.  The registered person must challenge (under regulation 5 (c)) any placing authority. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 56, paragraph 11.5) In particular, escalate with the placing local authority to ensure that life story work is completed for young people.

p.4

Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

After having one young person in the home for a long period, a decision was made to move in a new young person. This move has been well managed. Young people receive good-quality care in a nurturing environment. Staff are passionate and committed to helping young people to make progress despite the challenges that they face. This helps young people to build up resilience and to form positive relationships. The relationships between young people and the staff are humorous, reflective and appropriately affectionate. Despite young people taking pride in and personalising their bedrooms, little consideration has been given to bringing in photographs into the living areas that help to celebrate young people’s achievements. Inspection report children’s home: SC469686 5 The registered manager and staff enable young people to maintain important and positive relationships with family members, regardless of the distance staff have to

p.4

Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

travel. The registered manager and staff keep parents, professionals and carers updated on the young people’s progress. Family members are invited to the home to spend time with the young people and meet the staff that care for them. Staff have promoted one young person’s educational needs. He has gone from having very poor school attendance to now having almost 100% school attendance. As a result, the young person has made good progress in his learning and in developing his social skills. Staff continue to monitor and support the health of young people in various ways. For example, staff help young people to attend their medical appointments. The registered manager ensures that young people have opportunities to express their views and wishes. Young people have regular meetings and individual discussions with staff about their day-to-day care. Staff also provide the opportunity for young people to experience new adventures, such as playing football, going mountain biking and trying

p.5

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

One young person told the inspector that he feels safe in the home. The home has risk assessments that detail each young person’s risks, and provides staff with strategies and guidance on how to manage and reduce these risks. However, risk assessments have some unnecessary information that can detract the reader from the main risks and can be confusing for new staff to follow. Young people rarely go missing from the home. Since the last inspection, there has been one episode of a young person going missing. Staff take quick and decisive action in accordance with the home’s missing from care policy. Staff continue to work closely with the police, placing local authority and local services to identify potential risks and ways to reduce them when young people are away from the home. All staff have received training on the home’s use of physical restraints and de-escalation techniques. Incidents involving physical restraint have continued to fall. This is a result of

p.5

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

staff having a good understanding of a range of de-escalation techniques to distract and manage the young people’s behaviour. Staff provide a balance between incentive and rewards to ensure that positive behaviours received appropriate recognition. There is a culture and practice in the home whereby unnecessary restrictions limit young people’s movement. Staff currently lock internal doors such as the kitchen, lounge and the games room. There are no updated risk assessments in place to explain the need to lock internal doors. This action results in young people having a restriction imposed on them without clear justification.

p.5

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

Inspection report children’s home: SC469686 6 The registered manager is passionate about providing good care to young people. He ensures that he sends safeguarding concerns to Ofsted in a timely manner. However, the registered manager has not always been instrumental in monitoring and improving the home. The registered manager has had additional management responsibility across the organisation. This has compromised the home’s leadership. One young person told the inspector, ‘[registered manager] is not here [home] most of the time, and I can’t get my pocket money until [registered manager] agrees it.’ The home has experienced several changes since the last inspection. There have been different registered managers from sister homes providing leadership and a high level of staffing being used from the organisation to cover shifts in the home. This has created an unsettling time for the young people. Staff do not always ensure that one-to-one sessions take place when required. For

p.6

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

instance, when one young person had used racist language towards another young person staff did not carry out a direct session to help the young person to understand the impact of their action. The lack of support left the young person feeling victimised and felt that the staff had not understood how racist language had made him feel. The registered manager’s relationships with staff are positive and staff feel supported by the registered manager. However, staff do not receive regular practice-related supervision. This has resulted in some staff having significant gaps between supervisions. This does not allow staff the opportunities to receive regular support and to reflect on their practice. Staff have received all mandatory training and some specific training on learning disability. This has helped the staff to increase their knowledge and skills to support and meet the needs of young people in the home. The registered manager invites the in-

p.6

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

house psychotherapist to regular in-house clinical team meetings to help to support the staff’s approach to developing reflective practices and to understand the young people better. The registered manager does not always challenge other professionals. For example, the registered manager has not challenged a placing local authority regarding a failure in providing one young person with life story work. The statement of purpose does not reflect the current staff structure and does not accurately reflect all staff qualifications and the staffing levels required. The failure to update the statement of purpose means that there is a potential for misleading placing local authorities over sufficiency of staff.

p.6

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 Inspection report children’s home: SC469686 7 the children and young people whom it is trying to help, protect and look after.

p.6

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: SC469686 8

p.7

Children’s home details

Registered provider: Oracle Care Limited

p.8

Children’s home details

Registered provider address: Unit 54 Wrest Park, Silsoe, Bedford MK45 4HS

p.8

Inspector

Patrick McIntosh, social care inspector Inspection report children’s home: SC469686 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.

p.8

Inspector

If you would like a copy of this document in a different format, such as large print or Braille, please telephone 0300 123 1231, or email enquiries@ofsted.gov.uk . You may reuse this information (not including logos) free of charge in any format or medium, under the terms of the Open Government Licence. To view this licence, visit http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/doc/open-government-licence , write to the Information Policy Team, The National Archives, Kew, London TW9 4DU, or email: psi@nationalarchives.gsi.gov.uk .

p.9

Inspector

Interested in our work? You can subscribe to our monthly newsletter for more information and updates: http://eepurl.com/iTrDn .

p.9

Inspector

T: 0300 123 1231 Textphone: 0161 618 8524 E: enquiries@ofsted.gov.uk W: http://www.gov.uk/ofsted

p.9