Children's home run by Oxfordshire County Council

Inspection report children’s home: SC033896 1 SC033896 Registered provider: Oxfordshire County Council Full inspection Inspected under the social care common inspection framework

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Information about this children’s home

This local authority children’s home is registered to accommodate up to six children. The home is registered to care for children who may have emotional and social difficulties.

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Information about this children’s home

The home has been without a registered manager since 8 August 2018.

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Information about this children’s home

Inspection dates: 26 to 27 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: 7 February 2019

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requires improvement to be good

Overall judgement at last inspection: declined in effectiveness

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requires improvement to be good

Enforcement action since last inspection: none Inspection report children’s home: SC033896 2

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

07/02/2019 Interim Declined in effectiveness 26/09/2018 Full Good 14/11/2017 Full Requires improvement to be good 22/02/2017 Interim Improved effectiveness Inspection report children’s home: SC033896 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 education standard is that children make measurable progress towards achieving their educational potential and are helped to do so.

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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

promote opportunities for each child to learn informally. (Regulation 8(1), (2)(a)(v)) 30/01/2020

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Requirement Due date

The enjoyment and achievement standard is that children take part in and benefit from a variety of activities that meet their needs and develop and reflect their creative, cultural, intellectual, physical and social interests and skills.

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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

develop the child’s interests and hobbies;

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Requirement Due date

participate in activities that the child enjoys, and which meet and expand the child’s interests and preferences; and

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Requirement Due date

make a positive contribution to the home and the wider community; and

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Requirement Due date

that each child has access to a range of activities that enable the child to pursue the child’s interests and hobbies. (Regulation 9(1), (2)(a)(i)(ii)(iii)(b)) 30/01/2020

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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–

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Requirement Due date

helps children aspire to fulfil their potential; and 30/01/2020 Inspection report children’s home: SC033896 4 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

ensure that staff work as a team where appropriate. (Regulation 13(1)(a)(b), (2)(b)) 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. (Regulation 14(1)(a)(b)) 30/01/2020

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Recommendations

 Children must be consulted regularly on their views about the home’s care, to inform and support continued improvement in the quality of care provided. Due consideration should be given to the child’s cognitive ability in the development and implementation of any consultation processes. Children should be able to see the results of their views being listened to and acted upon. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 22, paragraph 4.11)  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)  The registered person should only accept placements for children where they are

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Recommendations

satisfied that the home can respond effectively to the child’s assessed needs as recorded in the child’s relevant plans and where they have fully considered the impact that the placement will have on the existing group of children. The Statement of Purpose is an important document in the process of care planning as it sets out the needs of children the home is set up and equipped to care for. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 56, paragraph 11.4) Inspection report children’s home: SC033896 5

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improvement to be good

Since the last inspection, this home has had several fundamental changes to its operation, including to management and to the type of young people whom it cares for. However, the most significant issue has been to the home’s staffing complement. Some experienced staff have left, leaving the home dependent on temporary and/or new staff alongside existing staff. Although this situation is now improving, it has had a significant and adverse impact on some staff’s morale, on management capacity and on day-to-day life in the home.

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improvement to be good

The young people have continued to generally receive a good standard of individualised care, but there have been some shortfalls. Plans to develop the young people’s interests and hobbies have not been sustained, for example the weekly music-making. Such ideas start off well but are not sustained, for various reasons, and the young people then become bored in the home or go outside of the home for their entertainment.

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improvement to be good

Young people are all receiving minimal or no education input, although staff have advocated for more. Some of these young people are having very unstructured days, when they sleep or stay in their rooms and then become fully awake in the evening or at night. These young people do have interests, such as art or shopping, but staff do not systematically use these interests to structure the young people’s days by arranging informal education opportunities.

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improvement to be good

Young people have made some progress, particularly in their ability to ask for the support that they need. Their voices are listened to, and regular young people’s meetings have generally taken place. In particular, these have encouraged the young people to have their say on some aspects of the decoration of the house and on the food provided.

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improvement to be good

The staff have successfully helped some of the young people to move onto more independent provision. There is an established pathway to follow that helps the young people to gain the necessary skills. Appropriate care was recently taken to assess the impact of a recent admission on the current young people. However, this coincided with staffing issues and so the planned mitigation of the risks presented did not happen, resulting in some negative outcomes.

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improvement to be good

Staff actively support young people’s contact with their families, to varying degrees. They recognise that supporting these relationships helps to maintain these vital, but often fragile, bonds. As a grandparent said, ‘They’ve been absolutely brilliant, very supportive to us and him’. Inspection report children’s home: SC033896 6

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improvement to be good

Over the summer holidays, there was a spike in risk-taking behaviour, particularly in relation to some young people going missing. This spike unfortunately drew in some young people who had not previously behaved in this way. In the same time period, on several occasions the police were called to the home to help the staff to manage behaviour.

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improvement to be good

These events were compounded by the impact of a young person moving in and by staffing issues. These factors put young people’s safety at risk. Appropriate action was taken to reduce the number of young people in the home. Consequently, the episodes of being missing from the home and the number of calls to the police to manage behaviour have been significantly reduced. However, there remains a lack of clarity about what the mutual expectations are, should the police be called out again.

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improvement to be good

Young people say that they feel safe in this home and can think of staff members whom they would confide in. One young person said, ‘I can talk to anyone here. I trust them.’

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improvement to be good

The staff team is in the process of moving towards a restorative approach to unhelpful behaviour. There are some positive examples of this approach, such as appropriate restorative actions in relation to neighbour complaints. However, not all staff are comfortable with this approach, nor do all interventions with the young people have a restorative focus. This risks a confusing picture for the young people.

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improvement to be good

The use of physical interventions is low, and currently conflict situations are uncommon. Not all staff feel confident in dealing with conflict. Some are unsure how some colleagues will react. This lack of cohesion in the team means that there may be an under-response to unhelpful behaviour, which does not help the young people to develop the necessary skills.

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

A manager has been in post for over a year, but he is not yet registered by Ofsted. He has now submitted a complete application with the necessary checks and references. This delay means that Ofsted has been unable to check the manager’s fitness for registration within a reasonable timescale.

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

Recruitment to the remaining vacant staff posts is underway. However, there is not yet a climate of collaborative working and shared values within the current team. Some staff do not have good morale, and they have concerns over why staff left and what the future holds.

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

The management team is very aware of these negative feelings. The daily management of the home has taken up almost all the available management energy to now but, as staff are recruited and the frequency of managers working shifts diminishes, managers feel that there is an opportunity to build this new staff team. Inspection report children’s home: SC033896 7 Supervision sessions for staff are now on track, and these meetings have an appropriate mixture of challenge and support. All staff have had appraisals, and there is an effective action plan in place to catch up on training shortfalls.

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

A comprehensive internal monitoring system is in place, and there is a new independent visitor, who visits on a monthly basis and produces a clear report.

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

The building is warm and homely, and it is maintained to a high standard. It has extensive private grounds and good internal facilities. Young people are comfortable in their environment. Inspection report children’s home: SC033896 8

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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 difference 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: SC033896 9

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: Oxfordshire County Council, County Hall, New Road, Oxford, Oxfordshire OX1 1ND

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Inspector:

Bridget Goddard, Ofsted inspector Inspection report children’s home: SC033896 10 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:

T: 0300 123 1231 Textphone: 0161 618 8524 E: enquiries@ofsted.gov.uk W: www.gov.uk/ofsted

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