Children's home run by HAVEN CARE GROUP LIMITED

Inspection report children‟s home: 1244350 1 Registered provider: Haven Care Group

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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 provides care for up to three children who have social and emotional difficulties. The home is privately owned. A manager is in post and has applied to register with Ofsted.

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Information about this children’s home

Inspection dates: 8, 9 and 17 October 2019

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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.

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inadequate

Overall judgement at last inspection: good

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inadequate

Enforcement action since last inspection: none Inspection report children‟s home: 1244350 2

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

13/08/2018 Full Good 16/01/2018 Interim Improved effectiveness 20/06/2017 Full Good Inspection report children‟s home: 1244350 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 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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In particular, the standard in paragraph (1) requires the registered person to—

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Requirement Due date

understand and apply the home’s statement of purpose;

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understand and apply the home’s statement of purpose;

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Requirement Due date

protect and promote each child’s welfare. (Regulation 6 (1)(2)(a)(b)(i)(ii))

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Requirement Due date

This relates to the manager and staff’s knowledge and understanding about the provision of therapy commissioned by the home. 08/11/2019

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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.

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Requirement Due date

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

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Requirement Due date

understand the roles and responsibilities in relation to protecting children that are assigned to them by the registered person;

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Requirement Due date

take effective action whenever there is a serious concern about 08/11/2019 Inspection report children‟s home: 1244350 4 a child‟s welfare; and

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Requirement Due date

are familiar with, and act in accordance with, the home‟s child protection policies; and

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Requirement Due date

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 form harm;

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Requirement Due date

and that the effectiveness of the home‟s child protection policies is monitored regularly. (Regulation 12 (2)(a)(iv)(v)(vi)(vii)(b)(e))

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Requirement Due date

This relates to understanding of roles and responsibilities, including the sharing of information with police, ensuring all visitors to the home sign the visitor‟s book and managerial scrutiny of how managers and staff implement the child protection policies.

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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 promotes their welfare.

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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

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;

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Requirement Due date

ensure that staff have the experience, qualifications and skills to meet the needs of each child;

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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.

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Requirement Due date

This also relates to the provider’s regard for legislation designed to protect vulnerable children. 08/11/2019

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must compile in relation to the children’s home a statement (“the statement of purpose”) which covers the matters listed in Schedule 1. 08/11/2019 Inspection report children‟s home: 1244350 5 (Regulation 16 (1) Schedule 1, 14))

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Requirement Due date

This relates to accuracy in the statement of purpose and on the website about the provision of therapy. The registered person must recruit staff using recruitment procedures that are designed to ensure children’s safety.

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Requirement Due date

(a) employ an individual to work at the children’s home; or (b) if an individual is employed by a person other than the registered person to work at the home in a position in which the individual may have regular contact with children, allow that individual to work at the home, if the individual satisfies the requirements in paragraph (3).

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Requirement Due date

(a) the individual is of integrity and good character; (b) the individual has the appropriate experience, qualification and skills for the work that the individual is to perform; (c) the individual is mentally and physically fit for the purposes of the work that the individual is to perform; and (d) full and satisfactory information is available in relation to the individual in respect of each of the matters in Schedule 2.

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Requirement Due date

(Regulation 32 (1)(2)(a)(b)(3)(a)(b)(c)(d))* 08/11/2019

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Requirement Due date

* This requirement is subject to a compliance notice.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: inadequate

There has been a period of significant change in staff, management and children since the last inspection. The majority of the staff team members are new and a group of three children moved out in the spring after a difficult period.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: inadequate

The children currently living in the home are doing well. However, shortfalls in how the service protects children and how leaders manage and monitor the home have the potential to jeopardise their welfare and current progress. These are repeated regulatory failures.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: inadequate

Children’s relationships with the new staff team are positive and nurturing. Children express a high level of trust and confidence in the staff who care for them. Staff involve Inspection report children‟s home: 1244350 6 children in meaningful discussions about their lives and encourage community activities, holidays and friendships. This has a positive effect on their well-being and mental health.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: inadequate

The house looks and feels like a well-maintained family home. Children feel able to contribute to everyday household decisions. They have a pet kitten. They feel that they are valued members of the household.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: inadequate

Staff help children to go back to school and college after long periods out of education when they were living in other placements. This means children are now able to enjoy and achieve academically.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: inadequate

Children are actively involved in effective care planning between the home and the local authority. Staff have also worked hard to support children’s positive connection with their families. Consequently, children begin to make sense of their life in care.

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

Weakness in safeguarding practice and decision making has the potential to affect the safety of children.

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

Issues relating to staff’s poor behaviour management of a previous group of children have not been resolved to a conclusion. There are no concerns about how staff help current residents manage their behaviour, but this was not the case in the spring. Staff did not manage children’s behaviour well. Concern about staff practice was identified and this has not been followed up and addressed by managers.

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

Additionally, management of safeguarding allegations and incidents has not always followed procedure. This has resulted in historical delay in notifying the local safeguarding team about allegations about staff and, more recently, managers have failed to notify the police of a serious knife threat to a child living in the home.

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

The provider has not followed safe recruitment procedures to ensure that only adults who are safe and appropriate to do so work with children.

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

Managers have failed to ensure that all visitors to the home sign the visitor’s book. This compromises children’s safety.

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

Despite these significant failures, staff have helped children to become safer in their own lives. Staff are proactive in identifying triggers for self-harm and distress. Children are missing infrequently, however staff respond appropriately when this does occur. A social worker described how staff have clear boundaries for their child. This has reduced the child’s risk of sexual exploitation, as she cooperates well with staff and feels safer.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

Inspection report children‟s home: 1244350 7 Three managers have led the home since the last inspection. The current manager was appointed in May 2019 and has applied to register with Ofsted.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

The responsible individual has not followed up on action points and discrepancies arising from an internal investigation six months ago. The investigation identified that children’s records were unreliable and that staff may have pushed and held bedroom doors shut on children. The responsible individual did not demonstrate professional curiosity to pursue these matters and, consequently, has not learned lessons to improve the care of children.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

Staff and managers are confused about the provision of ‘therapy’ in the home. Information on the organisation’s website and in the statement of purpose is not accurate. The provider has not ensured that consultants, whom managers and staff believed were psychologists or other therapists, were suitably vetted, trained, experienced, qualified or supervised. This means that the staff were not clear about how the ethos, approach or model of care is used to help children develop their emotions in safety.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

The staff team is new, motivated and feels well supported. However, not all staff have yet had training to help children with bullying, extremism and being missing from care, or have achieved a level 3 qualification in working with children within timescales. Additionally, the manager has not been trained in the model of care the home uses.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

The provider has limited the number of children living at the home to two. The provider is improving in-house and external training, supervision, induction and appraisal to build a staff team with the depth of skill and experience to meet children’s needs.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

Weakness in leadership and decision-making has put children at risk of harm. Ofsted has issued a compliance notice to ensure that all adults working with children are safe to do so. Ofsted will return to check that improvements have been made.

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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 Inspection report children‟s home: 1244350 8 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: 1244350 9

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: First Floor, Unit 3 Barberry, Burton-on-Trent, Staffordshire DE14 2UE

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Inspector

Christy Wannop, social care inspector Inspection report children‟s home: 1244350 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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