Children's home run by Leeds City Council in Leeds

Inspection report children’s home: SC033370 1 SC033370 Registered provider: Leeds City Council

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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 a local authority home. The home provides care and accommodation for up to four young people aged between 11 and 17. The home aims to provide a relaxing environment in which young people can feel safe and have a sense of belonging.

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Information about this children’s home

The manager is no longer in post although a new manager has now been identified who will start in December 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

Date of last inspection: 27 February 2019

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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: SC033370 2

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

27/02/2019 Full Good 03/05/2017 Full Good 05/07/2016 Full Good 10/05/2016 Full Inadequate Inspection report children’s home: SC033370 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, the Children’s Home (England) Regulations 2015 and the ‘Guide to the Children’s Home 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, and 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 (1)(a)(b)(c)) 31/12/2019

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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

help each child to achieve the child’s education and training targets, as recorded in the child’s relevant plans;

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Requirement Due date

support each child’s learning and development, including helping the child to develop independent study skills and, where appropriate, helping the child to complete independent study;

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Requirement Due date

understand the barriers to learning that each child may face and take appropriate action to help the child to overcome any such barriers;

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Requirement Due date

help each child to understand the importance and value of 31/12/2019 Inspection report children’s home: SC033370 4 education, learning, training and employment;

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Requirement Due date

promote opportunities for each child to learn informally;

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Requirement Due date

maintain regular contact with each child’s education and training provider, including engaging with the provider and the placing authority to support the child’s education and training and to maximise the child’s achievement;

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Requirement Due date

raise any need for further assessment or specialist provision in relation to a child with the child’s education or training provider and the child’s placing authority;

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Requirement Due date

help a child who is excluded from school, or who is of compulsory school age but not attending school, to access educational and training support throughout the period of exclusion or non-attendance and to return to school as soon as possible;

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Requirement Due date

help each child who is above compulsory school age to participate in further education, training or employment and to prepare for future care, education or employment;

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Requirement Due date

help each child to attend education or training in accordance with the expectations in the child’s relevant plans. (Regulation 8 (1)(2)(a)) 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) 05/12/2019 Inspection report children’s home: SC033370 5 The positive relationships standard is that children are helped to develop, and to benefit from, relationships based on—

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Requirement Due date

an understanding about acceptable behaviour; and

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Requirement Due date

positive responses to other children and adults.

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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

meet each child’s behavioural and emotional needs, as set out in the child’s relevant plans;

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Requirement Due date

help each child to develop socially aware behaviour;

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Requirement Due date

encourage each child to take responsibility for the child’s behaviour, in accordance with the child’s age and understanding;

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Requirement Due date

help each child to develop and practise skills to resolve conflicts positively and without harm to anyone;

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Requirement Due date

communicate to each child expectations about the child’s behaviour and ensure that the child understands those expectations in accordance with the child’s age and understanding;

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Requirement Due date

help each child to develop the understanding and skills to recognise or withdraw from a damaging, exploitative or harmful relationship;

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Requirement Due date

strive to gain each child’s respect and trust;

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Requirement Due date

de-escalate confrontations with or between children, or potentially violent behaviour by children;

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Requirement Due date

understand and communicate to children that bullying is unacceptable; and

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Requirement Due date

have the skills to recognise incidents or indications of bullying and how to deal with them. (Regulation 11 (1)(2)(a)(i)(ii)(iii)(iv)(v)(vii)(viii)(xi)(xii)(xiii)) 08/12/2019

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Requirement Due date

The protection of children standard is that children are protected 12/12/2019 Inspection report children’s home: SC033370 6 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

help each child to understand how to keep safe;

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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

manage relationships between children to prevent them from harming each other;

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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;

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Requirement Due date

take effective action whenever there is a serious concern about a child’s welfare; and

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Requirement Due date

are familiar with, and act in accordance with, the home’s child protection policies;

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Requirement Due date

that the home’s day-to-day care is arranged and delivered so as to keep each child safe and to protect each child effectively from harm. (Regulation 12 (1)(2)(a)(b)) 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

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 work as a team where appropriate; 15/12/2019 Inspection report children’s home: SC033370 7 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;

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Requirement Due date

understand the impact that the quality of care provided in the home is having on the progress and experiences of each child and use this understanding to inform the development of the quality of care provided in the home;

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Requirement Due date

demonstrate that practice in the home is informed and improved by taking into account and acting on—

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Requirement Due date

research and developments in relation to the ways in which the needs of children are best met; and

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Requirement Due date

feedback on the experiences of children, including complaints received; 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) 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.

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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

that children are admitted to the home only if their needs are within the range of needs of children for whom it is intended that the home is to provide care and accommodation, as set out in the home’s statement of purpose;

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Requirement Due date

ensure the effective induction of each child into the home; 05/12/2019 Inspection report children’s home: SC033370 8 manage and review the placement of each child in the home; and

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Requirement Due date

plan for, and help, each child to prepare to leave the home or to move into adult care in a way that is consistent with arrangements agreed with the child’s placing authority;

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Requirement Due date

that each child’s relevant plans are followed;

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Requirement Due date

that, subject to regulation 22 (contact and access to communications), contact between each child and the child’s parents, relatives and friends, is promoted in accordance with the child’s relevant plans;

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Requirement Due date

that staff help each child to access and contribute to the records kept by the registered person in relation to the child. (Regulation 14 (1)(2)(a)(b)(c)(d)(f))

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improvement to be good

Children and young people are encouraged to be involved in making decisions in the home. However, some of the children and young people decline to engage, and one of them wants full control of decisions in the home and will behave negatively towards other children and young people when they want to be involved. This is not actively challenged by the staff, and work needs to be done with the children and young people to enable them to understand that this is a shared living environment.

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improvement to be good

Evidence of the staff engaging with the children and young people is limited and some lack relationships with staff as a result of this. The aim of some children and young people is to return to live with their parents, and they decline to engage with staff. However, the staff do not discuss how the children and young people can achieve better relationships through working with them and putting plans in place. Some children and young people are isolated or spend most of the time out of the home; they are not receiving the support they are entitled to.

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improvement to be good

Most of the children and young people are not in education, employment or training. There is a lack of structure to the day to engage them in productive activities or time with staff. The children and young people are isolating themselves or are going out with inappropriate peers, putting themselves at higher risk of engaging in anti-social behaviour and exploitation.

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improvement to be good

The interim manager has not challenged the lack of education provisions effectively. The interim manager has worked with the youth offending team to gain their support in Inspection report children’s home: SC033370 9 addressing a suitable provision but has not personally escalated this shortfall. In addition, work has not been carried out with most of the children and young people to help them value the importance of education. There is a lack of focus and ambition in the staff team for the children and young people to engage in education, which does not encourage them to be motivated. Staff have supported a younger child, who is happy to attend school, to engage in completing homework tasks, and the child is progressing extremely well as a result of the support given.

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improvement to be good

Independence plans in place are limited, and those that are in place are not being followed by the staff team. The lack of plans and support has led to a young person transitioning to independence unprepared and unable to look after himself. The children and young people currently in placement will be unable to look after themselves if the work is not undertaken with them. The home is supporting the children and young people to engage in doing their own food shopping. However, independence planning needs to focus on a young person being able to look after themselves in all areas of their life, including keeping themselves safe.

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improvement to be good

Some of the children and young people are taking part in activities which provide them with positive things to do and opportunities to build friendships with peers. However, other children and young people do not engage, and there is a lack of evidence of work being completed to support them to be more involved. They are missing opportunities to have enjoyable experiences and to build on their social skills.

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improvement to be good

The staff team encourages the children and young people to see their families in line with their individual plans. However, there has been a lack of escalation of one child’s wishes to see other members of the family, which has led to a delay in a response for the child and caused some distress.

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improvement to be good

Risk assessments are not in place for significant risk factors. The lack of risk assessments means that staff do not know how to meet the needs of the children and young people and puts them all at risk. Risk assessments that are in place lack clarity and understanding and contradict plans for the children and young people.

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improvement to be good

When potentially serious incidents occur, these are not recorded clearly and are not reviewed to inform future practice. The lack of effective review means that risks are not reduced, and children and young people are placed at further risk of harm. There is no work completed with the children and young people to help them to learn how to manage their emotions and to develop their ability to self-manage.

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improvement to be good

There is a lack of evidence to show whether actions have been taken to protect the privacy of children and young people, including whether inappropriate videos taken by the children and young people of each other have been deleted. There is no evidence of work undertaken with the children and young people on how to respect each other, and a lack of communication between the staff means that they are not all aware that this Inspection report children’s home: SC033370 10 has occurred or could occur again.

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improvement to be good

Some children and young people are putting themselves at risk of harm and are involved in anti-social behaviour. There are few discussions taking place to help educate the children and young people about their behaviour, and there is no evidence of alternative activities offered to the children or young people to provide them with positive structure to the day to reduce the risk of harm.

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improvement to be good

Incidents have previously been managed well. However, since July 2019 police intervention has been used to assist in managing children and young people’s behaviour. There is a lack of evidence of why the police were needed, and staff did not follow training in de-escalation. This has led to the criminalisation of the children and young people, although the acting manager has challenged this and is trying to have the charges removed. However, staff have not undertaken further training, and there is the potential for them to continue to use the police, which will have a further negative impact on the children and young people’s future and criminal records.

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improvement to be good

Staff take action when children and young people are missing and attempt to locate and return them safely. However, there is a lack of key work undertaken with the children and young people when they return, and reasons for their going missing or strategies to prevent this are not fully understood. A low number of return home interviews have occurred and those that have are not recorded effectively. It is unclear how the children and young people’s thoughts and feelings are gathered to enable them to be supported further.

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improvement to be good

Sanctions that are put in place are appropriate. However, there is a lack of evidence to show the involvement of the children and young people’s input or their work with staff to enable them to understand how to move forwards. The recordings lack signatures, overviews and dates, which makes it unclear when sanctions have been put in place or finished. Children and young people are able to easily view the sanctions of others in this book, and their privacy is not protected.

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improvement to be good

The staff team works closely with the youth offending service to support the children and young people, who engage in the work offered, which offers some protective factors.

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improvement to be good

The home is maintained to a high standard and any damage is repaired quickly to provide a positive environment for the children and young people to live in.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

Clear plans were in place to support the staff and children and young people when the registered manager left. However, these plans changed and, as a result, an interim plan was put in place until the permanent position is filled in December 2019. Despite the acting manager’s efforts to maintain consistency, there has been a lack of oversight during this time, which has affected the support the staff, children and young people have received. Inspection report children’s home: SC033370 11 Not all staff understand the steps required to complete an incident of missing from home, which includes a return home interview. The staff team lacks formal and informal training to support the children and young people in all aspects of their lives, such as independence, how to build self-esteem, and criminalisation. There is a lack of understanding about how well the training that staff have received has been absorbed,

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

and it is evident in staff’s reactions during incidents that the training has not been fully effective. The lack of training links to the lack of clarity on risk assessments, and therefore staff are not always able to effectively keep children and young people safe or respond effectively to their needs.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

Impact risk assessments do not take into account the current children and young people or identify known risks and how these will be managed to prevent them having an effect on new children young people or those currently in placement. The lack of evaluation and plans has put the children and young people at risk. The acting manager has made efforts to improve the systems in place when assessing whether children and young people are well matched. However, this has still not identified key risks linked to a recent admission.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

Staffing levels are not high enough to support the current children and young people in placement and are not in line with the staffing levels agreed with other professionals. This means that children and young people are often unable to take part in activities when they want to or that they must accompany staff to drop peers off prior to doing their own activity, which can increase the children and young people’s anxiety.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

The acting manager and deputy manager lack a clear understanding of the strengths and weaknesses of the home, and the development plan does not identify key areas of improvement. The lack of understanding means that the shortfalls in the home are not being addressed and therefore practice is not improving, and children and young people are not receiving high-quality care.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

Recording and sharing of information are not completed fully, do not provide an overview of the day’s events and are not child focused. The lack of recording means that important information is not shared with the team or other professionals, the children and young people’s wishes are not identified or acted on and there is a lack of work undertaken with the children and young people to help them develop. The acting manager and deputy manager do not have oversight of these documents and have not identified that this is an area that needs to be improved.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

The staff team has regular supervisions and the opportunity to discuss issues. However, this does not then inform the plans that are in place. There is limited documentation in relation to staff having de-briefs following incidents, which means that there is a lack of evaluation of what happened and how things could improve.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

The acting manager and deputy manager care about the children and young people and request meetings with other professionals to work together to provide better outcomes in some areas. However, they do not escalate concerns or provide challenge when Inspection report children’s home: SC033370 12 actions are not completed by others. This means that the children and young people are not having all their needs met.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

The acting manager and deputy manager do not have high expectations for the children and young people regarding education and independence and lack an understanding of the ethos of the home and how to achieve this. Staff lack motivation and the skills to be able to support the children and young people as a result of the lack of aspiration for the children and young people.

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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 Home (England) Regulations 2015 and the ‘Guide to the Children’s Home regulations including the quality standards’. Inspection report children’s home: SC033370 13

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: Merion House, 7th Floor West, Merrion Centre, Leeds LS2 8TU

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Inspector

Debra Boldy: social care inspector Inspection report children’s home: SC033370 14 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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