Children's Home run by The Serendipity Centre Limited in Hampshire

Inspection report children’s home: SC485423 1 SC485423 Registered provider: The Serendipity Centre Limited

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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 five children. It is privately owned by an organisation which has other homes and an educational setting in the vicinity. Its statement of purpose states that it specialises in caring for children who have experienced significant trauma resulting in behavioural, social and complex difficulties. The manager has been registered with Ofsted since February 2018.

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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

Date of last inspection: 8 November 2018

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inadequate

Overall judgement at last inspection: requires improvement to be good

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inadequate

Enforcement action since last inspection: none Inspection report children’s home: SC485423 2

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

08/11/2018 Full Requires improvement to be good 06/03/2017 Interim Sustained effectiveness 13/07/2016 Full Good 01/02/2016 Interim Sustained effectiveness Inspection report children’s home: SC485423 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

In meeting the quality standards, the registered person must, and must ensure that staff— seek to involve each child’s placing authority effectively in the child’s care, in accordance with the child’s relevant plans; seek to develop and maintain effective professional relationships with such persons, bodies or organisations as the registered person considers appropriate having regard to the range of needs of children for whom it is intended that the children’s home is to provide care and accommodation. (Regulation 5 (a)(d)) 18/08/2019

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Requirement Due date

The positive relationships standard is that children are helped to develop, and to benefit from, relationships based on— mutual respect and trust; an understanding about acceptable behaviour; and positive responses to other children and adults. In particular, the standard in paragraph (1) requires the registered person to ensure— that staff— help each child to develop and practise skills to resolve conflicts positively and without harm to anyone; understand how children’s previous experiences and present emotions can be communicated through behaviour and have the competence and skills to interpret these and develop positive relationships with children. (Regulation 11 (1)(a)(b)(c)(2)(b)) 18/08/2019

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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— 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; have the skills to identify and act upon signs that a child is at risk of harm; 18/08/2019 Inspection report children’s home: SC485423 4 are familiar with, and act in accordance with, the home’s child protection policies. (Regulation 12 (1)(2)(a)(i)(iii)(v)(vii))

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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— promotes their welfare.

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Requirement Due date

In particular, the standard in paragraph (1) requires the registered person to— ensure that staff have the experience, qualifications and skills to meet the needs of each child; use monitoring and review systems to make continuous improvements in the quality of care provided in the home. (Regulation 13 (1)(b)(2)(c)(h))* 18/08/2019

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must ensure that— any limitation placed on a child’s privacy or access to any area of the home’s premises— allows children as much freedom as is possible when balanced against the need to protect them and keep them safe. (Regulation 21 (c)(iv)) 18/08/2019

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Requirement Due date

Subject to paragraph (5), the registered person must ensure that children are provided at all reasonable times with access to the following facilities which they may use without reference to persons working in the home— a telephone on which to make and receive telephone calls in private. (Regulation 22 (3)(a)) 18/08/2019

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Requirement Due date

If the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005(a) applies to the home— the registered person must ensure that the requirements of that Order and any regulations made under it, except for article 23 (duties of employees), are complied with in respect of the home. (Regulation 25 (2)(b))* 18/08/2019

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must recruit staff using recruitment procedures that are designed to ensure children’s safety.

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Requirement Due date

The registered person may only— employ an individual to work at the children’s home if the individual satisfies the requirements in paragraph (3).

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Requirement Due date

The requirements are that— the individual has the appropriate experience, qualification and skills for the work that the individual is to perform. 18/08/2019 Inspection report children’s home: SC485423 5 (Regulation 32 (1)(2)(a)(3)(b))

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must notify HMCI and each other relevant person without delay if— There is any other incident relating to a child which the registered person considers to be serious. (Regulation 40 (4)(e)) 18/08/2019

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Requirement Due date

* These requirements are subject to a compliance notice.

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Recommendations

 The registered person must ensure that all incidents of control, discipline and restraint are subject to systems of regular scrutiny to ensure that their use is fair and the above principles as set out in 9.35 are respected. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 46, paragraph 9.36)  Staff should be familiar with the home’s policies on record keeping and understand the importance of careful, objective and clear recording. Information about the child must always be recorded in a way that will be helpful to the child. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 62, paragraph 14.4)

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: inadequate

Significant concerns relating to the protection of children and the effectiveness of leaders and managers were identified at this inspection.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: inadequate

The admission process does not evaluate effectively the likely impact of a new child moving into the home on children already living here. The risk assessments outline children’s behaviours but not the impact that the children’s behaviours may have on each other and how to manage these appropriately. For example, a risk to children of sexually harmful behaviour was responded to by restricting a child behind a locked door at night. Permission for this measure was not sought prior to an incident. This does not demonstrate safe, preventative decision-making.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: inadequate

Generally, children have made some progress. One child has increased in confidence and another is better able to manage her behaviour and is much calmer. Children’s liberty in the home is too restricted and excessively monitored to ensure their safety. This does not prepare them for when they leave the home to live in a family environment or independently.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: inadequate

Managers and staff liaise with education professionals and arrange personalised educational and activity-based programmes for children. Despite the reasonable efforts of staff to work with relevant professionals none of the children were attending school Inspection report children’s home: SC485423 6 full time.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: inadequate

At the last inspection, the manager informed inspectors that a telephone line for children’s use would be in place. This has not been achieved. A child resorts to using the office telephone in the corridor outside the office to make private calls.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: inadequate

Staff were observed to interact positively with children during the inspection. The children all spoke positively about the current staff team and their relationships with them. They report that they are listened to and the staff act on their requests.

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

The manager has failed to protect the children from potential risks. She made a decision to restrict a child’s access to the communal areas at night. The child was locked into a small area reliant on sleep-in staff to be able to release her in an emergency. The manager failed to consult with the fire service in regard to this action to ensure that fire regulations were met.

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

The manager did not update the home’s fire risk assessment. In addition, there is no specific risk assessment undertaken to address the locking of the door. The risks to the child and staff were not considered. The child has a known risk of attempting to set fires and a disregard for fire safety. This was not considered as part of the decision-making.

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

The child’s personal emergency evacuation plan was not updated to reflect the use of this measure and to instruct staff as to how to respond in the event of a fire. Fire drills did not occur at night-time. The child and staff’s responses have not been tested to ensure that they are able to vacate the area at night quickly and safely.

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

Inspectors raised concerns about the safety of the child during the inspection. Leaders and managers responded by implementing an alternative way to keep children safe overnight.

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

The manager does not take all relevant information regarding children’s vulnerabilities into account when completing risk assessments. For example, a risk assessment for a child remaining in the home alone fails to specify sufficient strategies for how he will manage certain circumstances, such as a visitor coming to the house.

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

Analysis of physical intervention records are compromised by a lack of detail about the measures used to prevent an incident occurring. In addition, the discussion with the child after one incident did not include how she felt about being restrained in this way. This was a missed opportunity to identify learning points.

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

Staff are instructed to check a child’s electronic device for inappropriate use or access to risky sites. There is no record of this being undertaken. Managers and staff failed to identify the increased risk resulting from the child’s reluctance to discuss dangers associated with his use of social media. Inspection report children’s home: SC485423 7

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

The manager failed to consider the impact on the child of the restrictive measure of locking doors and restricting her access to the rest of the home. She failed to consider the fire risk or the legal implications of depriving a child of her liberty. She failed to recognise the seriousness of this action and consult with senior professionals within the organisation and externally. In failing to do this, she did not ensure that those who are responsible for giving permission for this measure were informed. This meant that she alone was accountable for this action.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

This restrictive practice is further evidenced by staff locking the front door in the evening. The manager’s response to risks is to restrict children’s access. This does not demonstrate staff’s ability to support them to learn to moderate their behaviours.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

The manager failed to notify the designated officer, and Ofsted, in regard to a staff member’s poor conduct. In addition, senior managers did not inform external professionals of a potential conflict of interest. This does not demonstrate a safe and transparent approach to practice.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

A serious incident occurred at the organisation’s school involving a child who is known to present with sexualised behaviour. The manager failed to request a copy of the incident report to inform risk assessments and safety measures needed to protect the child and the other children living here.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

Incidents are inconsistently recorded. On some occasions, known behaviours such as a child’s fabrication have not been recorded. Another incident, involving a child in a car accident, lacked detail. There are other examples, however, when incidents have been well recorded with the necessary detail and strategies evidenced.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

Sanctions are also inconsistently recorded. The manager fails to monitor and review all the sanctions for their effectiveness and appropriateness.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

Responses to staff shortages have been on occasions unsafe. The registered manager asked a maintenance worker to undertake sleep-in duties despite him not being employed to carry out these duties. He did not have the necessary induction, supervision, training, skills or knowledge to fulfil this role. He also had access to confidential information.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

Leaders and managers do not provide staff with a sufficiently high level of training to respond to complex behaviours, such as mental health problems and sexualised behaviour. In addition, a staff member with supervising responsibilities has not had formal training to support her in this role.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

The registered manager informed inspectors that the compliance lead for the organisation had previously overseen the quality of care. She has not been replaced since leaving the organisation. This has undermined the monitoring and quality assurance processes. Inspection report children’s home: SC485423 8

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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: SC485423 9

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Children’s home details

Registered provider: The Serendipity Centre Limited

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: Ist Floor, Goodlands House, St Lukes Close, Hedge End, Southampton SO30 2US

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Inspectors

Suzy Lemmy, social care inspector Stephen Collett, social care inspector Inspection report children’s home: SC485423 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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