Children's Home run by Greenfields Adolescent Development Limited in Herefordshire

Inspection report children’s home: 1271587 1 Registered provider: Greenfields Adolescent Development Limited 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 up to four young people aged 10 to 17 who have experienced adverse childhood experiences that have led to associated trauma and presenting complex behaviours. The home has been without a registered manager since 21 June 2019. A new manager has been appointed to the home. He took up post in May 2019. He holds a level 5 qualification in leadership and management. The new manager has applied to register with Ofsted.

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Information about this children’s home

Inspection dates: 12 to 13 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 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

Date of last inspection: 23 October 2018

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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: none Inspection report children’s home: 1271587 2

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

23/10/2018 Full Good Inspection report children’s home: 1271587 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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Requirement Due date

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

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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)(a)(b)(2)(c)(i)) 27/12/2019

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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—

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Requirement Due date

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;

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Requirement Due date

have the skills to identify and act upon signs that a child is at risk of harm;

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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; and

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Requirement Due date

take effective action whenever there is a serious concern about a child’s welfare. (Regulation 12 (1)(2)(a)(i)(iii)(v)(vi)) 27/12/2019 Inspection report children’s home: 1271587 4 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—

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Requirement Due date

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

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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)(a)(b)(2)(c)(h)) 27/12/2019

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Recommendations

 Staff should be 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’, page 62, paragraph 14.4)

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improvement to be good

The home’s living environment requires improvement. For example, staff have been far too slow to remove inappropriate language that has been handwritten on a children’s bathroom wall. The staff have failed to remove drink stains from walls and have not ensured that fire safety precautions are maintained.

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improvement to be good

Staff take time to listen to children. However, when children raise requests in children’s house meetings, there is no record to explain the outcome of the child’s request. This creates a missed opportunity to hold evidence to show how children’s wishes and feelings are respected.

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improvement to be good

Children make some progress. For example, all children have improved their school Inspection report children’s home: 1271587 5 attendance. One social worker told the inspector that his allocated child had not attended school for several months before coming to this home. He is now achieving 95% school attendance.

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improvement to be good

Staff help children to stay in touch with their families. As a result, children rebuild important relationships with people who are important to them.

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improvement to be good

Children take part in a range of activities. This can include playing board games to going fishing.

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improvement to be good

There is a current investigation into staff practice surrounding behaviour management. Before the new manager arrived, there was a high number of physical restraints being carried out that involved children being held on the floor. The new manager has quickly reviewed this practice. This quick action has resulted in a sharp decline in this type of physical restraint. However, management oversight of physical restraints still requires improvement. There are still missed opportunities in how information is shared with outside agencies. This compromises additional oversight and professional challenge to help to improve practice.

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improvement to be good

Although staff are improving how they maintain children’s records, further improvement is still necessary. For example, more than one document needs to be read to enable the reader to establish a level of understanding over what action staff have taken during an incident.

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improvement to be good

Staff receive safeguarding training to help them to protect children in their care. This training covers topics such as radicalisation, extremism, ‘Prevent’ and around child sexual exploitation.

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improvement to be good

Safe recruitment practice helps to ensure that new members of staff are safely employed and that their fitness to work with children is confirmed.

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

It has been a difficult 12 months. There have been two changes in managers and some staff leaving. The new manager is passionate and clear that the home is on a journey of improvement.

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

Although there has not been a registered manager in the home for some time, the provider has ensured that children have received consistent managerial oversight. Senior managers have acknowledged that there has been an unforeseen delay in the new manager submitting to Ofsted his full application to be the next registered manager. However, this has now been submitted.

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

The manager has identified that there has been some poor staff practice and he is Inspection report children’s home: 1271587 6 working hard to develop the staff’s skills and knowledge of residential childcare. However, his monitoring and review processes are still in their infancy.

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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: 1271587 7

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Children’s home details

Registered provider: Greenfields Adolescent Development Limited

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: Caretech Community Service Limited, Metropolitan House, 3 Darkes Lane, Potters Bar, Hertfordshire EN6 1AG

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Inspector

Louise Battersby: social care inspector Inspection report children’s home: 1271587 8 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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