Children's home run by YCPG Services Ltd in Walsall

Inspection report children’s home: SC392492 1 SC392492 Registered provider: DMR Services 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

This home is owned by a private company. It is registered for four young people. The home provides care for young people aged between 11 and 17, who have had adverse childhood experiences. The manager was registered with Ofsted in November 2015.

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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 requires improvement to be good

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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: inadequate

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Enforcement action since last inspection:

This children’s home was judged inadequate on 2 July 2019. Following this inspection, Ofsted issued three compliance notices. Inspection report children’s home: SC392492 2

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

02/07/2019 Full Inadequate 30/07/2018 Full Requires improvement to be good 02/02/2018 Interim Declined in effectiveness 29/06/2017 Full Good Inspection report children’s home: SC392492 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 ensure that staff—

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Requirement Due date

seek to involve each child’s placing authority effectively in the child’s care, in accordance with the child’s relevant plans;

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Requirement Due date

seek to secure the input and services required to meet each child’s needs;

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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 (a)(b)(c)) 15/12/2019

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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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Requirement Due date

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

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Requirement Due date

provide to children living in the home the physical necessities they need in order to live there comfortably;

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Requirement Due date

ensure that the premises used for the purposes of the home are designed and furnished so as to meet the needs of each child. (Regulation 6 (1)(2)(vii)(c)(i)) 15/12/2019

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Requirement Due date

The children’s views, wishes and feelings standard is that children receive care from staff who— 15/12/2019 Inspection report children’s home: SC392492 4 develop positive relationships with them;

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Requirement Due date

take their views, wishes and feelings into account in relation to matters affecting the children’s care and welfare and their lives.

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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

help each child to understand how the child’s views, wishes and feelings have been taken into account and give the child reasons for decisions in relation to the child;

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Requirement Due date

is enabled to provide feedback to, and raise issues with, a relevant person about the support and services that the child receives. (Regulation 7 (1)(a)(b)(c)(2)(a)(iii)(b)(i)) 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;

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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

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. (Regulation 13 (1)(2)(c)(h)) 15/12/2019

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Requirement Due date

The care planning standard is that children—

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Requirement Due date

receive effectively planned care in or through the children’s home; and

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Requirement Due date

have a positive experience of arriving at or moving on from the home. 15/12/2019 Inspection report children’s home: SC392492 5 In particular, the standard in paragraph (1) requires the registered person to ensure—

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Requirement Due date

that each child’s relevant plans are followed. (Regulation 14 (1)(2)(c)) The registered person must recruit staff using recruitment procedures that are designed to ensure children’s safety. The registered person may only—

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Requirement Due date

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

For the purposes of paragraph (3)(b), an individual who works in the home in a care role has the appropriate qualification if, by the relevant date, the individual has attained—

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Requirement Due date

the Level 3 Diploma for Residential Childcare (England) ("the Level 3 Diploma"); or a qualification which the registered person considers to be equivalent to the Level 3 Diploma.

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Requirement Due date

in the case of an individual who starts working in a care role in a home after 1st April 2014, the date which falls 2 years after the date on which the individual started working in a care role in a home. (Regulation 32 (1)(3)(a)(b)(5)(a)) 29/12/2019

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must ensure that all employees undertake appropriate continuing professional development; and receive practice-related supervision by a person with appropriate experience. (Regulation 33 (4)(a)(b)) 29/12/2019

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Recommendations

 Homes are required to develop and keep under review a ‘statement of purpose’ (regulation 16 and schedule 1). The home’s statement of purpose should be child-focused, indicating how the home provides individualised care to meet the quality standards for the children in their care. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 14, paragraph 3.5)

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Recommendations

In particular, the registered manager should ensure that the statement of purpose accurately reflects the mode of care the home practises and staffing at the home.

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Recommendations

 All children’s records must be kept up to date and stored securely while they Inspection report children’s home: SC392492 6 remain in the home. Case records must be kept up to date and signed and dated by the author of each entry. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 62, paragraph 14.3)

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improvement to be good

Young people’s progress is varied. For example, one young person’s risk of gang affiliation has reduced. Two young people who are supported to attend school are making progress. However, another young person’s progress at school has deteriorated and is receiving limited support from a visiting tutor. While this is a temporary measure, it means that the young person is not receiving adequate education.

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improvement to be good

Staff help young people to develop essential life skills. However, staff do not hold other professionals to account to ensure that young people’s statutory plans are regularly reviewed. For example, one young person’s statutory plans have not been reviewed for a significant period.

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improvement to be good

Staff understand some of the young people’s anxieties and emotional vulnerabilities. Staff give young people praise and show them appropriate affection. This helps young people to develop some positive relationships with some of the staff.

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improvement to be good

Staff do not always support young people to attend routine healthcare appointments. This has the potential to compromise young people’s health and well-being.

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improvement to be good

Despite managers and staff making some improvements to the home environment, there are still shortfalls. For example, staff continue to display food hygiene signage in the home. This practice creates a more institutional feel rather than a homely environment.

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improvement to be good

Staff regularly consult young people through key-work sessions and house meetings. This support helps young people to express their views, wishes and feelings. However, staff do not always apply the same level of support to enable young people to receive feedback when they raise complaints about their care. This compromises young people’s abilities to raise concerns and to feel confident that staff will investigate their worries.

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improvement to be good

Staff encourage young people to maintain positive relationships with people who are important to them.

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improvement to be good

Young people’s risk assessments remain lengthy and contain information about general Inspection report children’s home: SC392492 7 risks that are not specific to each young person. This makes it difficult for staff to prioritise risks. This has the potential to compromise young people’s safety. Managers have also introduced risk summaries alongside risk assessments. Although these provide better guidance to staff, the use of both documents creates confusion and means that sometimes staff are unclear about how to manage a specific young person’s risks.

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improvement to be good

Managers do not adequately assess all risks relating to the home environment. For example, it took the inspector to highlight concerns regarding a potential fire risk. Although the registered manager acted on this immediately, she had failed to identify this risk through her own monitoring.

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improvement to be good

When young people go missing from the home, staff have guidance to follow. As a result, staff are prepared and know what to do should such an incident occur. However, young people are not always offered a return home interview. Staff do not escalate the concern over the lack of return home interviews to the placing authority. This limits staff from gaining a better understanding of the reasons why young people go missing from the home.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: requires improvement to be good

The registered manager does not always use monitoring and review systems effectively. For example, since the last inspection the registered manager has not escalated concerns about one young person’s emotional health with their placing authority. Furthermore, she has failed to carry out a review of the statement of purpose to bring it up to date, to reflect the model of care provided and details on staff working hours.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: requires improvement to be good

The registered manager does not ensure that staff help and support all young people to maintain their bedrooms to an acceptable standard. This does not help young people to learn to value their personal belongings.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: requires improvement to be good

Staff still do not receive regular practice-related supervision. As a result, staff do not have the opportunity to discuss their performance and to develop their practice.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: requires improvement to be good

Only eight out of 13 staff are qualified to the level 3 diploma in residential childcare. In addition, one member of staff has not completed their level 3 qualification within the required timescale. Consequently, young people do not always have staff on duty who are suitably qualified.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: requires improvement to be good

The registered manager now ensures that physical intervention records contain full and accurate information. This has improved the monitoring of staff practice.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: requires improvement to be good

Partner agencies have mixed views about the service. Some professionals are pleased with the care provided and others feel that improvements are needed.

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Information about this inspection

Inspection report children’s home: SC392492 8 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: SC392492 9

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Children’s home details

Registered provider: DMR Services Limited

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: DMR Services, 102 Queslett Road East, Sutton Coldfield, Birmingham B74 2EZ

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Inspector

Patrick McIntosh, social care inspector Inspection report children’s home: SC392492 10 to 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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