Children's home run by Witherslack Group Limited in Westmorland and Furness

Inspection report children’s home: SC475723 1 SC475723 Registered provider: Witherslack Group Ltd

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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 children’s home is privately owned and registered to care for nine young people who have emotional and/or behavioural difficulties. The manager has been registered with Ofsted since January 2017.

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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: good

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requires improvement to be good

Enforcement action since last inspection: none Inspection report children’s home: SC475723 2

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

08/08/2018 Full Good 31/10/2017 Full Good 20/02/2017 Interim Sustained effectiveness 13/12/2016 Full Outstanding Inspection report children’s home: SC475723 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 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

help each child to understand how to keep safe;

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manage relationships between children to prevent them from harming each other; and

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are familiar with, and act in accordance with, the home’s child protection policies. (Regulation 12 (1)(2)(a)(i)(ii)(iv)(vii)) 20/12/2019

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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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helps children aspire to fulfil their potential; and

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

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use monitoring and review systems to make continuous improvements in the quality of care provided in the home. (Regulation 13 (1)(a)(b)(2)(h)) 20/12/2019

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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 20/12/2019 Inspection report children’s home: SC475723 4 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

that children are admitted to the home only if their needs are within the range of needs of children for whom it is intended that the home is to provide care and accommodation, as set out in the home’s statement of purpose.

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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)(a)(b)(iii)(c)) The registered person must ensure that—

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Requirement Due date

within 24 hours of the use of a measure of control, discipline or restraint in relation to a child in the home, a record is made which includes—

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details of the child’s behaviour leading to the use of the measure;

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the date, time and location of the use of the measure;

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a description of the measure and its duration;

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details of any methods used or steps taken to avoid the need to use the measure;

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the name of the person who used the measure (‘the user’), and of any other person present when the measure was used;

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Requirement Due date

the effectiveness and any consequences of the use of the measure; and

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Requirement Due date

a description of any injury to the child or any other person, and any medical treatment administered, as a result of the measure; 20/12/2019 Inspection report children’s home: SC475723 5 within 48 hours of the use of the measure, the registered person, or a person who is authorised by the registered person to do so (‘the authorised person’)—

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Requirement Due date

has spoken to the user about the measure; and

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Requirement Due date

has signed the record to confirm it is accurate; and

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Requirement Due date

within 5 days of the use of the measure, the registered person or the authorised person adds to the record confirmation that they have spoken to the child about the measure. (Regulation 35 (3)(a)(i)(ii)(iii)(iv)(v)(vi)(vii)(viii)(b)(i)(ii)(c)(iv))

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must notify HMCI and each other relevant person without delay if—

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Requirement Due date

a child is involved in or subject to, or is suspected of being involved in or subject to, sexual exploitation;

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Requirement Due date

an incident requiring police involvement occurs in relation to a child which the registered person considers to be serious;

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Requirement Due date

there is an allegation of abuse against the home or a person working there;

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Requirement Due date

a child protection enquiry involving a child—

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Requirement Due date

concludes (in which case, the notification must include the outcome of the child protection enquiry); or

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Requirement Due date

there is any other incident relating to a child which the registered person considers to be serious. (Regulation 40 (4)(a)(b)(c)(d)(i)(ii)(e)) 20/12/2019

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Recommendations

 The registered person should ensure that staff can access appropriate facilities and resources to support their training needs and should understand the key role they play in the training and development of staff in the home. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 53, paragraph 10.11)  Case records must be kept up to date and signed and dated by the author of Inspection report children’s home: SC475723 6 each entry. Staff should be familiar with the home’s policies on record keeping and understand the importance of careful, objective, and clear recording. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 62, paragraphs 14.3 and 14.4)  When a child returns to the home after being missing from care or away from the home without permission, the responsible authority must provide an opportunity for the child to have an independent return to home interview. Homes should

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Recommendations

take account of the information provided by such interviews when assessing risks and putting arrangements in place to protect a child. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 45, paragraph 9.30) In particular, the manager should challenge the responsible authority when return to home interviews are not offered to young people.

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improvement to be good

Progress for young people is mixed, with some young people doing well in some areas and others experiencing poorer outcomes.

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improvement to be good

All young people currently living at this home are regularly attending the on-site education provision. Many young people had previously had erratic school attendance. One young person said, ‘Before I came here I only went to school when I felt like it. Now I wear a uniform and go every day. It was a real challenge at first but I have managed it.’

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improvement to be good

Young people enjoy taking part in a wide range of activities and hobbies in the local community. One independent reviewing officer said, ‘They have a focus on giving [young person’s name] positive experiences and trying to engage him in more and more activities locally.’ Staff arrange appropriate contact with family and friends. Contact for some has increased, enabling them to meet with extended family.

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improvement to be good

Some young people have struggled to manage their relationships with each other and there have been incidents of bullying. Not all incidents have been recognised or recorded. This means that staff have not always responded appropriately. Where bullying has been identified, staff members have addressed the issue on an individual basis. However, there have been missed opportunities to work with the young people as a group to support them to manage their relationships more positively.

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improvement to be good

Young people’s care plans and risk assessments are not always updated to reflect their current support needs. Furthermore, some key strategies identified by external professionals and contained within the care plan are not being implemented by staff.

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improvement to be good

The manager conducts impact risk assessments to inform his decision about admitting young people to the home. However, these are generic and do not adequately assess young people’s individual risks. As a result, one young person’s placement broke down Inspection report children’s home: SC475723 7 very quickly as his needs could not be met by the staff team. Furthermore, experiences of leaving the home are not always positive and some young people have not been adequately prepared for their move.

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improvement to be good

Staff have established firm boundaries, which help young people understand what is expected of them. As a result, young people are engaging in fewer risk-taking type behaviours. Staff use an incentive scheme to reinforce positive behaviours. This is helping young people to manage their behaviours better. However, there were shortfalls identified in the use of sanctions. Some sanctions were not recorded and did not have review dates. This means that managers are not able to measure their effectiveness, equity or impact.

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improvement to be good

There has been a reduction in incidents of young people who go missing from home. When young people do go missing, staff respond quickly and effectively to safeguard them. However, missing from care profiles do not always contain sufficient detail to support a consistent response. In addition, return interviews are not always undertaken by the responsible local authority. On some occasions, the manager has not provided sufficient challenge to hold those responsible to account.

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improvement to be good

Staff undertake regular individual key-work sessions with young people. However, these do not adequately address the target areas identified in the young people’s care plans. Records of key-work sessions do not capture the young person’s engagement and this makes it difficult to evidence their progress.

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improvement to be good

Incidents where staff have used physical interventions to manage young people’s behaviours have reduced. However, staff do not always implement strategies contained within young people’s behaviour support plans to manage situations. Management oversight in this area is not sufficiently robust to address this. There are anomalies in the recording of some incidents that have not been identified and acted on by the manager.

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improvement to be good

Debriefings with young people after the use of restraint are not child-focused and do not provide young people with a sufficient opportunity to discuss their views and feelings. These are missed opportunities for staff to listen, learn and adapt their practice in this area. Furthermore, when young people have raised concerns about staff practice they have not always been acted upon.

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

The manager is suitably experienced and has been registered with Ofsted since January 2017. He is well supported by the senior management team. Staff report that they feel valued and supported by the manager. One member of staff said, ‘The manager advocates and always listens to the young people. He encourages the young people to do their best and ensures the staff team do the same.’ Inspection report children’s home: SC475723 8 Staff benefit from regular supervision and an annual appraisal. There has been a high staff turnover since the last inspection. All new staff attend a mandatory training programme and have access to refresher courses. However, insufficient numbers of staff have received training in areas that are specific to the young people’s needs, such as supporting young people at risk of criminal and/or sexual exploitation. A recommendation has been made to address this.

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

The staff team has developed good relationships with external professionals and parents. Those spoken to as part of the inspection said that the staff keep them updated with young people’s progress. One social worker said, ‘I have a good working relationship with all of the staff and we have excellent communication on a regular basis.’

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

The manager’s internal monitoring systems are not sufficiently robust and a number of shortfalls were identified during the inspection. Record-keeping standards are inconsistent. In some instances, records are inaccurate and contradictory. The manager has failed to identify anomalies in the records of some significant incidents. This means that the appropriate actions were not always taken. Furthermore, on a number of occasions the manager has failed to notify Ofsted of significant events. A requirement has been made to address this.

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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: SC475723 9

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Children’s home details

Registered provider: Witherslack Group Ltd

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: Lupton Tower, Lupton, Carnforth LA6 2PR

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Inspectors

Sophie Thomson, social care inspector Marie Cordingley, social care inspector Inspection report children’s home: SC475723 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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Inspectors

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Inspectors

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Inspectors

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