Children's home run by Nottinghamshire YMCA in Nottingham

Inspection report children’s home: 1216657 1 Registered provider: Nottinghamshire YMCA

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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 owned and run by a local charitable organisation. It provides care and accommodation for up to two children or young people who display behavioural difficulties.

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Information about this children’s home

Inspection dates: 11 to 12 November 2019

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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 inadequate

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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: not applicable Inspection report children’s home: 1216657 2

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

17/07/2018 Full Good 07/08/2017 Full Good 09/01/2017 Interim Improved effectiveness 03/05/2016 Full Good Inspection report children’s home: 1216657 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 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

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

ensure that the home has sufficient staff to provide care for each child;

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Requirement Due date

ensure that the home’s workforce provides continuity of care to each child. (Regulation 13 (1)(a)(b)(2)(a)(c)(d)(e)) 13/12/2019

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must keep the statement of purpose under review and, where appropriate, revise it; and notify HMCI of any revisions and send HMCI a copy of the revised statement within 28 days of the revision. (Regulation 16 (3)(a)(b)) 13/12/2019

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must recruit staff using recruitment procedures that are designed to ensure children’s safety. The registered person may only employ an individual to work at the children’s home if full and satisfactory information is available in relation to the individual in respect of each of the matters in Schedule 2. (Regulation 32 (1)(2)(a)(b)(3)(d)) 13/12/2019

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must ensure that all employees undertake appropriate continuing professional development; receive practice-related supervision by a person with appropriate experience; and have their performance and fitness to perform 13/12/2019 Inspection report children’s home: 1216657 4 their roles appraised at least once every year. (Regulation 33 (4)(a)(b)) The registered person must review the appropriateness and suitability of the location of the premises used for the purposes of the children’s home at least once in each calendar year taking into account the requirement in regulation 12(2)(c) (the protection of children standard). When conducting the review, the registered person must consult, and take into account the views of, each relevant person. (Regulation 46 (1)(2)) 13/12/2019

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Recommendations

 For children’s homes to be nurturing and supportive environments that meet the needs of their children, they will, in most cases, be homely, domestic environments. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 15, paragraph 3.9) Specifically, this relates to the timely repair of window locks, and keeping the home well decorated and cleaned to a good standard.  Supervision of staff practice should ensure that individual adults in the home are engaged in the safeguarding culture of the home so they understand what they would need to do if they found other staff misusing or abusing their position to the detriment of the safety of a child. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 43, paragraph 9.14)  When a child returns to the home after being missing from care or away from the home without permission, the responsible local authority must provide an opportunity

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Recommendations

for the child to have an independent return home interview. Homes should take account of information provided by such interviews when assessing risks and putting arrangements in place to protect each child. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 45, paragraph 9.30)  Sufficient staff means a home having enough suitably trained staff (including someone in a management role) on duty to meet the assessed needs of all children in the home, and that those staff are able to respond to emergency placements, where accepted. The registered person must demonstrate every effort to achieve continuity of staffing so that children’s attachments are not overly disrupted, including ensuring that the employment of any temporary staff will not prevent children from receiving the continuity of care that they need (regulation 31(1)). (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 51, paragraph 10.1)

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Recommendations

 Those with a leadership and/or management role should be visible and accessible to staff and able to deliver their leadership and/or management responsibilities. Any registered manager employed in the home should have sufficient capacity to ensure that the Quality Standards are met for each child in the home. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 52, paragraph 10.7)  Any individual appointed to carry out visits to the home as an independent person must make a rigorous and impartial assessment of the home’s arrangements for safeguarding and promoting the welfare of the children in the home’s care. (‘Guide to Inspection report children’s home: 1216657 5 the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 65, paragraph 15.5) The independent person’s report should be submitted to Ofsted within the timescales stipulated in the ‘Social care common inspection framework (SCCIF):

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improvement to be good

Since the last inspection, changes in leadership, management and staffing have had a negative impact on the effectiveness of care arrangements. This has not ensured enough consistency or continuity of care for young people.

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improvement to be good

The staff team shows commitment to support young people in their day-to-day care. They engage positively with young people. However, weaknesses in leadership have restricted their ability to provide consistently high standards of care.

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improvement to be good

Staff encourage and support young people to engage in education and activities. When young people are resistant to engage, staff make alternative plans.

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improvement to be good

Staff ensure that young people receive medical care and healthcare support. Issues such as drug use are referred to specialist agencies. When young people refuse to engage, staff ensure that young people are provided with information and education about the risks associated with drug use.

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improvement to be good

Young people are helped to develop improved relationships with their parents. Staff also give advice and support to young people about their friendships. This has helped some young people to form positive new friendships. However, some young people still develop peer relationships that are not healthy and lead them into risk-taking behaviours.

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improvement to be good

The staff team has not been provided with an adequate level of safeguarding training. This includes mandatory physical intervention and safeguarding training. Staff have not had training on issues including child sexual exploitation, child criminal exploitation, mental health, drug use or radicalisation. This means that some staff do not have a strong understanding of potential risks to young people.

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improvement to be good

Young people have gone missing from this home. Staff follow protocols to secure their safe return. On return to the home, young people have an opportunity to have a return interview. However, the home does not retain a record of these discussions. This fails to ensure that staff understand the reasons and circumstances of incidents of going missing. This limits the staff’s ability to prevent further episodes. Inspection report children’s home: 1216657 6 Young people have engaged in criminal activity. Managers and staff have worked in partnership with safeguarding and social care agencies to respond to these behaviours and help young people to understand the consequences of their actions.

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improvement to be good

Risk assessments are robust. Detailed risk assessments outline risks and strategies to manage risk. This means that staff have clarity to implement effective risk management strategies.

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improvement to be good

The home has an up-to-date locality risk assessment. However, this lacks detail. It fails to outline the known risk factors within the wider community and to provide strategies to manage risk. This assessment does not include consultation with stakeholders and relevant agencies.

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improvement to be good

Several new staff have been recruited since the last inspection. Recruitment records do not show attention to detail. They fail to provide evidence of diligent vetting of staff.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

Some staff do not feel supported in their roles. Supervision and support of staff are not consistent. There are delays in new staff receiving initial supervisions. This inspection identified relief staff who have not had supervision for several months. Weak supervision arrangements do not support staff in their professional roles. In addition, they demonstrate a lack of management oversight of staff performance. Supervision records lack detail. They do not show practice-related discussion. Importantly, they do not have a clear focus on children’s progress or safeguarding.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

Independent monitoring of the home has not been effective in identifying the issues identified in this inspection. The provider has failed to ensure that the independent person’s reports are submitted to Ofsted within required timescales. This limits the regulator’s ability to oversee the performance of the home.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

The home is not led or managed in a way that is consistent with the approach and ethos that is set out in the home’s statement of purpose. For example, weaknesses in training and staff supervision mean that staff are not well supported to care for young people. The registered manager has not submitted the statement of purpose to Ofsted as required under regulation. This further restricts the regulator’s oversight of the home.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

The registered manager has a development plan in place. This includes plans to improve the physical condition of the home. This proposal is pending approval. However, the day- to-day maintenance and cleaning of the home are not currently good enough to ensure a consistently welcoming and nurturing home environment. Inspection report children’s home: 1216657 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: 1216657 8

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Children’s home details

Registered provider: Nottinghamshire YMCA

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: YMCA, 4 Shakespeare Street, Nottingham, Nottinghamshire NG1 4FG

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Inspector

Amanda Ellis, social care inspector Inspection report children’s home: 1216657 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 children looked after, safeguarding and child protection.

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Inspector

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Inspector

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Inspector

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