Children's home run by Back on Track Children’s Services SE LTD in Dover

Inspection report children‟s home: SC473404 1 SC473404 Registered provider: Back on Track Children’s Services SE Limited Full inspection Inspected under the social care common inspection framework

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Information about this children’s home

The home is privately owned and provides care and accommodation for up to five young people. The home’s statement of purpose states that the home looks after young people who have emotional and/or behavioural difficulties.

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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: 6 November 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: SC473404 2

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

06/11/2018 Full Good 13/12/2017 Full Good 23/03/2017 Interim Improved effectiveness 20/09/2016 Full Good Inspection report children‟s home: SC473404 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 protection of children standard is that children are protected from harm and enabled to keep themselves safe. 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; help each child to understand how to keep safe; have the skills to identify and act upon signs that a child is at risk of harm; manage relationships between children to prevent them from harming each other; understand the roles and responsibilities in relation to protecting children that are assigned to them by the registered person; take effective action whenever there is a serious concern about a child’s welfare; and are familiar with, and act in accordance with, the home’s child protection policies. (Regulation 12

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Requirement Due date

(1)(2)(a)(i)(ii)(iii)(iv)(v)(vi)(vii)) 01/02/2020

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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— 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— use monitoring and review systems to make continuous improvements in the quality of care provided in the home. (Regulation 13 (1)(a)(b)(2)(h)) 01/02/2020

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must complete a review of the quality of care provided for children (“a quality of care review”) at least once every 6 months.

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Requirement Due date

In order to complete a quality of care review the registered 01/02/2020 Inspection report children‟s home: SC473404 4 person must establish and maintain a system for monitoring, reviewing and evaluating— the quality of care provided for children; the feedback and opinions of children about the children’s home, its facilities and the quality of care they receive in it; and any actions that the registered person considers necessary in order to improve or maintain the quality of care provided for children. After completing a quality of care review, the registered person must produce a written report about the quality of care review and the actions which the registered person intends to take as a result of the quality of care review (“the quality of care review report”). The registered person must— supply to HMCI a copy of the quality of care review report within 28 days of the date on which the quality of care review is

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Requirement Due date

completed. The system referred to in paragraph (2) must provide for ascertaining and considering the opinions of children, their parents, placing authorities and staff. (Regulation 45 (1)(2)(a)(b)(c)(3)(4)(a)(5))

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Requirement Due date

In particular, ensure that the review is focused on matters that relate to the quality of care and that the evaluation of these includes analysis, conclusions and planning for the next review period.

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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— helps children aspire to fulfil their potential; and promotes their welfare. In particular, the standard in paragraph (1) requires the registered person to— 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; ensure that staff work as a team where appropriate; ensure that the home has sufficient staff to provide care for each child; and ensure that the home’s workforce provides continuity of care to each child. (Regulation 13 (1)(a)(b)(2)(a)(b)(d)(e)) 01/02/2020 Inspection report children‟s home: SC473404 5

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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. Children’s homes must comply with relevant health and safety legislations (alarms, food hygiene etc.); however, in doing so, homes should seek as far as possible to maintain a domestic rather than ‘institutional’ impression. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 15, paragraph 3.9) In particular, children should be encouraged and supported to be involved in the care, appearance and personalisation of their bedrooms.

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improvement to be good

Standards within the home and the quality of care provided for the children deteriorated for a period after the last inspection. The children’s progress and experiences have not been consistently positive. More recently, leaders and staff have taken steps to address the decline. Standards of care and stability for the children are improving.

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improvement to be good

Some children initially make good progress but then disengage from learning and their plans are not amended or refocused. The staff team has struggled at times to maintain cohesion and clarity of purpose and, on occasion, staff have not provided the children with the right support to re-engage with plans for their futures and to increase their life chances.

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improvement to be good

Overall, staff focus well on the progress and well-being of the children. They have a good level of knowledge about children’s families and the things that matter most to the children. This helps the children to settle when they arrive and to develop feelings of belonging and attachment. It is common for children who have moved on to more independent living to visit the home and maintain regular contact with staff.

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improvement to be good

The planning and preparation for new children moving into the home is thorough and careful. The approach systematically takes into consideration the needs and vulnerabilities of all the children who will be living together. This helps the new children to settle and enables the children already living in the home to deal with the changes that new arrivals bring.

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improvement to be good

Most children make steady progress and staff are adept in supporting them to engage in education, including by working closely with teachers. Staff encourage the children to explore their interests and expand their experience of the world through a wide range of activities in the community. Inspection report children‟s home: SC473404 6 The home is spacious and well equipped and is decorated and maintained to a good standard. Plans are currently underway to increase the homely atmosphere by redecorating areas of the home and replacing pictures on the walls. However, the children’s bedrooms do not reflect their personalities, interests or preferences and children have not been sufficiently encouraged by staff to take a pride in their bedrooms.

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improvement to be good

There is a lack of clarity in some of the home’s policies and procedures and insufficient precision in plans and recording. This undermines the consistency of staff responses and boundaries provided to the children and reduces children’s feelings of security and stability.

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improvement to be good

Staff understand the most prominent risks and vulnerabilities associated with each of the children and plans to manage these risks are satisfactory. For most children, previous high-risk activities reduce significantly after they move into the home. Staff are protective and demonstrate genuine care for the children, who feel increasingly secure and trusting of those who care for them. However, the formal guidance for staff regarding keeping the children safe is not clear enough. Staff do not record key incidents and behaviours precisely enough and managers’ monitoring of safeguarding practice is not robust. This means that staff and managers are not reviewing and learning from incidents sufficiently to enable them to improve practice in the future.

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improvement to be good

Staff are knowledgeable about how children can be exploited and recognise when this becomes a threat. They are also competent in safeguarding, supporting and teaching children how to be safe and to become more able to protect themselves.

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improvement to be good

Staff know the locality well and liaise closely with key agencies involved in safeguarding children. This enables staff to respond effectively when children go missing. Local police speak highly of the staff response to circumstances where children’s safety is threated. Information sharing between the home and those involved in community safety is appropriate.

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

Changes in the home and the wider organisation have contributed to a loosening of the managerial grip on the day-to-day running of the home. Since the last inspection, children became increasingly unsettled and their progress slowed significantly. This unsettled period has passed, but it has highlighted some weaknesses in the monitoring systems in the home. It also identified the need for increased rigour in workforce management and monitoring to ensure a cohesive and consistent staff team that is able to provide continuity of care to the children. There have been gaps and inconsistencies in staff supervision and insufficient attention paid to team working, alongside poor planning of activities and staff leave. This has undermined the children’s feelings of security and stability. Inspection report children‟s home: SC473404 7 Leaders and managers had already identified some of the shortfalls at the time of the

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

inspection and had taken some limited steps to address these. Leaders now recognise the current strengths and weaknesses of the service and express a strong desire to build on strengths and address shortfalls. Further and more comprehensive efforts are required to bring the leadership and management of the home to the required standard.

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

The required six-monthly reviews, aimed at maintaining and improving the quality of children’s care, do not link with monthly monitoring systems. The reviews contain very little evaluation and no long-term planning to address identified issues. Opportunities to address shortfalls and improve the quality of care for children are being missed.

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

Current staffing levels are good, and several experienced staff have recently been appointed. The leadership structure has been strengthened. Previous high standards of partnership working with external agencies and advocacy have been maintained.

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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: SC473404 8

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Children’s home details

Registered provider: Back on Track Children’s Services SE Limited

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Children’s home details

Responsible individual: John McDonald-Baker

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Inspector

John Pledger: social care inspector Inspection report children‟s home: SC473404 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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