Children's Home run by Bay View Child Care Limited in Lancashire

Inspection report children’s home: 2533956 1 Registered provider: Bay View Child Care 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 home is registered to provide care for up to four children who display a combination of emotional difficulties and associated challenging behaviours and require intensive support. The home is privately owned and forms part of a small social care organisation which offers therapeutic support.

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Information about this children’s home

The registered manager was registered with Ofsted in May 2019 and is appropriately experienced and qualified to manage a children’s home. This is the home’s first inspection following registration.

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Overall experiences and progress of

children and young people, taking into account

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good

How well children and young people are helped and protected requires improvement to be good

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good

The effectiveness of leaders and managers requires improvement to be good

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good

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

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good

Overall judgement at last inspection: not applicable

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good

Enforcement action since last inspection: not applicable Inspection report children’s home: 2533956 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 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 requires the registered person to ensure that staff understand the roles and responsibilities in relation to protecting children that are assigned to them by the registered person; and take effective action when there is serious concern about a child’s welfare. (Regulation 12 (2)(a)(v)(vi)) 06/12/2019

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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)) 06/12/2019

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Recommendations

 Ensure that there is a system in place, so that all serious events are notified, within 24 hours, to the appropriate people. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 63, paragraph 14.13) This particularly relates to notifying Ofsted.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Generally, children receive a good standard of individualised care and all children make good progress. However, three staff members were involved in a recent incident when a child’s well-being was not promoted, and the child was not treated with dignity and respect.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children enjoy strong relationships with staff and demonstrate clear signs of trust and belonging. Two social workers confirmed this, making positive comments on how well Inspection report children’s home: 2533956 3 staff both understand and meet their child’s needs.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children value education. They attend school or an alternative provision regularly and do very well. The importance of education is quickly endorsed when new children arrive at the home. The registered manager and staff work closely with services to ensure that education placements are quickly sourced and needs-led. Additional tutor support and help with homework from staff promote children’s potential to do well and improve their education outcomes.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children’s core health needs are well met. They are offered balanced meals given encouragement to exercise and provided with support from staff, who have sensitive insight into children’s mental and emotional health. Good-quality, child-centred key- work sessions, combined with access to regular therapy, promote children’s well-being.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children are confident in making their views known to staff and are influential in contributing to the decorating of their own room, weekly menus and activities. They experience nurture and grow in confidence, as staff have high levels of respect for children’s individuality. Children feel valued because the manager and staff consult with them about the running of the home and their individual placements.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Considerable thought is given to planning new admissions to the home, with attention being paid to matching new children with existing children. Staff arrange planned introductory visits, which include introductions to existing children to smooth the transition for all. Understanding of which children staff work best with is still developing, but any admissions that are planned would appropriately reflect the learning so far.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Except for the recent example of poor practice, children generally have a positive experience in this home. They enjoy a good range of indoor and outdoor activities, have been away on holiday and benefit strongly from personalised daily routines.

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improvement to be good

The manager failed to ensure that staff followed procedures correctly during the use of physical intervention with a child. Following the physical intervention, staff, the next day, recorded their concerns around the practice of the staff member responsible for the physical intervention, in their debrief. They failed to act on their concerns immediately and therefore failed to safeguard the child and the member of staff involved. The manager, having listened to the child and the staff’s concerns around practice, did take action to put this right after she was made aware.

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improvement to be good

The manager has failed to monitor her staff sufficiently. Following a police caution in September 2019, a member of staff did inform the manager of the events that led to the caution. However, additional checks to verify and protect staff and children living in the home had not occurred. This isolated incident does not accurately reflect the home’s usually careful approach to keeping children safe. It starts with robust staff Inspection report children’s home: 2533956 4 recruitment practice, with appropriate checks and validation in place. This is then well supported by appropriate induction training, and then further locally sourced safeguarding training.

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improvement to be good

The responsible individual has completed a good, comprehensive location risk assessment. She has obtained a variety of views from partner agencies on potential risks to children in the area. This assessment helps staff to keep children safe.

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improvement to be good

Staff actively encourage respectful and good relationships between children. The three children enjoy a good friendship with each other, but equally like time alone with staff. This means that bullying and intimidation are not issues in this home.

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improvement to be good

Staff have an in-depth understanding of the children’s needs and use well-written risk assessments and safety plans to support children’s safety inside and outside of the home. Risk management strategies are in place and are consistently implemented by staff. Documentation is prominently displayed in children’s files.

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improvement to be good

Children are kept safe with effective and jointly agreed missing-from-care protocols. Collaborative work with other agencies ensures that children who present a risk to others are closely supervised and monitored.

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good

The registered manager is held in high regard by the staff and the children. Staff feel fully involved, and value the registered manager’s high aspirations for children and her commitment to staff development.

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good

Children appreciate the way in which the registered manager and staff treat them as individuals and they are assured and confident in their relationships with staff. They enjoy full participation in the running of the home and are confident that the registered manager and staff will listen to and resolve any concerns they may have.

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good

The registered manager and staff show unquestionable commitment to children. They access information about the children and visit them prior to placements being agreed. Social workers are reassured not only by good information-sharing, but also the consideration staff give to the needs of the other children when a new child arrives.

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good

The registered manager has a clear understanding of the home’s statement of purpose and strives to work well with the other professionals involved with each child. She challenges placing authorities assertively and competently when poor practice affects the child in placement.

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good

Staff report that they feel well supported and know what their responsibilities are. However, individual supervision arrangements are not sufficiently frequent to support and challenge staff professionally and effectively. For example, one new member of staff had only two supervisions in their four months of employment and one Inspection report children’s home: 2533956 5 experienced member of staff received only three supervisions in the past five months. All staff who have been working with children in a children’s home for over two years have completed their level 3 diploma and all the remaining staff have been enrolled.

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good

Usually, notifications are timely and appropriate. However, there was a delay in sending one to Ofsted relating to a recent incident. This delay did not have a negative effect on the investigation.

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good

The registered manager has a clear understanding of her monitoring responsibilities. Her monthly audits show good compliance and demonstrate tracking of the positive outcomes for children. Independent monitoring reports are comprehensive and positive, and any recommendations are quickly addressed.

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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: 2533956 6

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Children’s home details

Registered provider: Bay View Child Care Ltd

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: The Borough, 3–5 Dalton Square, Lancaster, Lancashire LA1 1PP

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Children’s home details

Inspector: Elaine Clare, social care inspector Inspection report children’s home: 2533956 7 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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Children’s home details

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Children’s home details

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Children’s home details

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

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