Children's Home run by United Children's Services Limited in Leicestershire

Inspection report children’s home: SC489970 1 SC489970 Registered provider: United Children’s Services Limited Full inspection Inspected under the social care common inspection framework

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Information about this children’s home

This privately owned children’s home provides care and accommodation for up to four children who have emotional and/or behavioural difficulties. The registered manager’s post has been vacant since 10 March 2019. A new manager has been appointed and has recently submitted her application to Ofsted.

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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 good

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good

The effectiveness of leaders and managers requires improvement

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good

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

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good

Date of last inspection: 26 February 2019

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good

Overall judgement at last inspection: requires improvement to be good

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good

Enforcement action since last inspection: none Inspection report children’s home: SC489970 2

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

26/02/2019 Full Requires improvement to be good 17/10/2017 Full Good 22/02/2017 Interim Sustained effectiveness 04/10/2016 Full Good Inspection report children’s home: SC489970 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—

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Requirement Due date

if the registered person considers, or staff consider, a placing authority’s or a relevant person’s performance or response to be inadequate in relation to their role, challenge the placing authority or the relevant person to seek to ensure that each child’s needs are met in accordance with the child’s relevant plans. (Regulation 5 (c)) 29/11/2019

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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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Requirement Due date

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

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 quality of care provided in the home. (Regulation 13 (1)(a)(b) and (2)(f)) 29/11/2019

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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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Requirement Due date

helps children aspire to fulfil their potential; and

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Requirement Due date

In particular, the standard in paragraph (1) requires the registered person to— 29/11/2019 Inspection report children’s home: SC489970 4 use monitoring and review systems to make continuous improvements in the quality of care provided in the home. (Regulation 13 (1) and (2)(h))

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Requirement Due date

The registered provider must appoint a person to manage the children’s home if—

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Requirement Due date

there is no registered manager in respect of the home; and

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Requirement Due date

is not, or does not intend to be, in day-to-day charge of the home.

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Requirement Due date

If the registered provider appoints a person to manage the home, the registered provider must, without delay, give HMCI notice of—

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Requirement Due date

the name of the person so appointed; and the date on which the appointment takes effect. (Regulation 27 (1)(a)(b)(i)(ii)(iii) and (2)(a)(b)) 29/11/2019

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Recommendations

 Ensure that staff are familiar with the home’s policies on record-keeping and understand the importance of careful, objective and clear recording. Staff should record information on individual children in a non-stigmatising way that distinguishes between fact, opinion and third-party information. 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’, April 2015, page 62, paragraph 14.4)  Ensure that the registered person makes suitable arrangements to manage, administer and dispose of any medication. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 35, paragraph 7.15) This is with specific reference to the recording of the administration of medication. Inspection report children’s home: SC489970 5

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children are making good progress. Staff understand each child well and are committed to ensuring that their needs are consistently met. A child said, ‘This home is like living in a normal house. Everyone gets along with each other and it’s good to live here. The home is a lot better than it was before. It’s calmer now and much more settled.’

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Management and staff understanding the importance of education. They have high hopes and expectations for children. Children who have previously had poor education outcomes now attend school or an alternative educational provision. These arrangements are effective and improve children’s life chances.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

A range of social activities and opportunities are offered to children. Staff support children to engage in activities of their choice. This enables children to have fun, stimulating experiences and to create happy memories. Additionally, this helps to promote a positive sense of identity for children and increases their confidence.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children are valued and respected in the home. They are supported to share their views and staff consider what they have to say. Children know how to make a complaint. When complaints are made, they are taken seriously and given due consideration by the manager. However, there is no record of how complaints are resolved, and how the outcomes are fed back to children. This has the potential to leave children feeling like they have not been listened to.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff work well to prepare young people for moving on. They prepare them to manage their own finances, to do their own cooking and shopping and to meet their own needs. One child who has moved on to semi-independence continues to visit and contact the home. This is testament to the positive and trusting relationships that staff have built with him.

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

Children are safeguarded while living in this home. Safeguarding issues are taken seriously. Any concerns are promptly addressed by the management and staff team. Children feel happy and safe because they have strong relationships with staff.

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

Safeguarding agencies are very complimentary about the home. They note that the home shares information promptly and communicates well if any safeguarding concerns arise. Effective joint working has significantly improved the behaviours of one child. The home works well with its local police community support officer, who provides good advice on issues such as internet safety.

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

Matching of children is very good. This is because the manager has carefully reviewed the risk factors of all children potentially being placed in the home. Managers and staff have a very clear understanding of the locality and known risks. This information is used Inspection report children’s home: SC489970 6 to ensure that the home is suitable for the children who are admitted to it. This is a significant strength of the home and has been crucial in the numerous positive developments that have been made since the last inspection.

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

In recent months, the home has become more settled and incidents of children going missing have dramatically reduced. However, records of such incidents are not always clear. The records lack detail, which makes it difficult to evaluate the effectiveness of staff actions. This recording shortfall has not prevented children from being kept safe.

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

Staff have a clear understanding of each child’s vulnerabilities and know the actions that they should take to reduce risk. However, written risk assessments are not sufficiently clear. Some are difficult to read, and some are not focused on the main areas of risk for the children. Although this has not left children at risk, it has the potential to do so.

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

Children’s understanding of risk could be improved by more frequent, planned and focused key-work sessions. This would provide more opportunities to educate children and support them to develop safer patterns of behaviour.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: requires improvement

There has been no registered manager for a period of over 26 weeks. However, the home’s deputy manager has provided continuity of management and has now been appointed to the manager position. She has already made several significant improvements to the home. Helpfully, she has good knowledge of the previous shortfalls and has worked hard to ensure that practice improves.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: requires improvement

Systems to monitor the progress of children need to be developed. Limited data is used to monitor children’s behaviours and to evaluate the quality of care. Consequently, it is difficult for the manager to demonstrate the impact that living in the home is having on children.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: requires improvement

There are shortfalls in the way that records are completed. For example, records of medication administration are not clear enough to enable managers to audit and monitor medication arrangements.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: requires improvement

The manager is very passionate about the care offered to children. She advocates on their behalf to ensure that their needs are fully met. However, this is not always effective. On occasions, a lack of effective challenge has left children without services that they could benefit from.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: requires improvement

Staff receive good supervision. This gives them the opportunity to consider their practice and to reflect on how best to meet the needs of the children. Staff also attend regular team meetings. Through these team meetings, the manager has been able to effectively address issues that have arisen in the team. Inspection report children’s home: SC489970 7

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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: SC489970 8

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Children’s home details

Registered provider: United Children’s Services Limited

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: The Old Coach House, Drinsey Nook, Lincoln, Lincolnshire LN1 2JJ

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Inspector

Davinia Lawton: social care inspector Inspection report children’s home: SC489970 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 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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