Children's home run by Wessex College Limited in Dorset

Inspection report children’s home: SC043245 1 SC043245 Registered provider: Wessex College Full inspection Inspected under the social care common inspection framework

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Information about this children’s home

The home can provide care for up to four children aged over 10 years who may have experienced trauma, abuse and attachment difficulties. The home is one of six homes operated by a private organisation. The organisation also operates an independent school and a therapeutic care farm, which children from this home may attend. The registered manager’s post has been vacant since September 2018. The intended registered manager is in the process of applying to Ofsted.

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Information about this children’s home

Inspection dates: 21 to 22 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 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

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: SC043245 2

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

17/07/2018 Full Good 19/07/2017 Full Good 02/02/2017 Interim Sustained effectiveness 10/08/2016 Full Good Inspection report children’s home: SC043245 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

11: The positive relationships standard The positive relationships standard is that children are helped to develop, and to benefit from, relationships based on— mutual respect and trust;

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Requirement Due date

an understanding about acceptable behaviour; and 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— that staff—

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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; and

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Requirement Due date

are provided with supervision and support to enable them to understand and manage their own feelings and responses to the behaviour and emotions of children, and to help children to do the same. (Regulation 11 (1)(a)(b)(c)(2)(a)(ii)(iii)(iv) and (x)) 31/12/2019

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Requirement Due date

13: The leadership and management standard 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 promotes their welfare.

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Requirement Due date

In particular, the standard in paragraph (1) requires the registered person to— 31/12/2019 Inspection report children’s home: SC043245 4 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 the home’s workforce provides continuity of care to 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)(a)(e)(f) and (h))

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Requirement Due date

33: Employment of staff The registered person must ensure that all employees—

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Requirement Due date

receive practice-related supervision by a person with appropriate experience. (Regulation 33 (4)(b)) 31/12/2019

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Recommendations

 Staff should continually and actively assess the risks to each child and the arrangements in place to protect them. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 42, paragraph 9.5) In particular, ensure that all known risks are included in written documents.  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. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 15, paragraph 3.9) In particular, ensure that there is a functional catch on the front door so that it can be closed without being locked.  As set out in Regulations 31–33, the registered person is responsible for maintaining good employment practice. They must ensure that recruitment, supervision and performance management of staff safeguards children and minimises potential risks to them. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations

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Recommendations

including the quality standards’, page 61, paragraph 13.1) In particular, when employing agency staff, obtain from the agency written evidence of the agency worker’s experience and suitability to work at this home.  Regulations 35–39 detail the records that must be kept in children’s homes. All children’s case records (Regulation 36) must be kept up to date and stored securely whilst they 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) Inspection report children’s home: SC043245 5

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improvement to be good

Children form some positive relationships with a core group of adults who care for them. However, the turnover of managers and staff reduces the quality and opportunity for developing trusted and secure relationships. Since the previous inspection in July 2018, the registered manager left and a succession of five different managers have been appointed to work in or to oversee the home. This disrupted leadership has a negative impact on the continuity of care provided and in particular, the staff teams management of children’s behaviour. Children are not always protected from bullying and at times, they have physically assaulted each other and those who care for them.

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improvement to be good

Children are supported to attend education, employment or other learning experiences to contribute to their personal development. In addition to local schools and colleges, the provider has a school and a care farm that children can attend. Creative approaches enable children to undertake work experience, voluntary work or college. Children have gained success with attaining GCSEs and employment has contributed to one child moving to semi-independence, learning to drive and purchasing a car.

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improvement to be good

Children benefit from access to a therapy team for support with their emotional needs and well-being. This available resource prevents having lengthy delays with referrals to community services. At times when children are reluctant to engage with the therapists, guidance is available to the staff team to enable them to use supportive strategies within the home. Children who have previously lived in lots of different care settings are able to consider this their home. Some children have lived at this home for more than one year and much longer for others, bringing some stability to their lives.

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improvement to be good

The family-style home is generally in good decorative order, with input from the children on their choice of colours and furnishings. Damaged furniture and items are repaired and replaced promptly. One area of maintenance required is on the front door. The door is fitted with a thumb lock and there is no catch or handle to close the door from the outside. This is particularly noticeable when children smoke cigarettes outside and the front door remains open, enabling the smoke to fill the entrance hall and into the home. Despite discussions and information available on maintaining a healthy lifestyle, two children continue to smoke.

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improvement to be good

Children do not always receive consistent responses from the adults who care for them. A lack of effective leadership in the home has, at times, contributed to low morale among the staff team. Consequently, children have challenged boundaries to the extent that adults have not always remained in control. Incidents of bullying, physical assault and children barging into the office to take money and keys have led to an unsettled home and the police being called. Inspection report children’s home: SC043245 6 The language used by children and the level of swearing is offensive at times. Meetings are held with other agencies to discuss how to work together to address such behaviour. However, despite calling a meeting to discuss the level of verbal abuse and escalation of incidents, this information is not included in a particular child’s risk assessment.

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improvement to be good

Bullying behaviour in this home leads to conflict among the residential group. Bullying is directed at children and adults, often through the use of social media. With the support of the therapy team, direct work has a focus to address bullying behaviour. However, to date, this has had limited success and therefore multi-agency meetings are being planned. Through working in partnership with the local police and the youth offending team, it is anticipated that children will learn about the seriousness and possible consequences of their behaviour to avoid being criminalised. In contrast, at times, positive relationships have enabled children to raise an alert when they are concerned for another child who may have self-harmed or consumed alcohol. This awareness of risk has enabled the staff to support and intervene appropriately.

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improvement to be good

Children are consulted well and involved in decision-making about their care planning. Consequences for disruptive behaviour are restorative in nature and can involve tidying up, repairing damage, writing a letter or making a cake. On one occasion, a child misspent the money she was given to buy some clothes. To repay the money back she is engaged in tasks to reduce the amount. For example, to produce a curriculum vitae equates to £5 less to repay and similarly upon completion of a job application. One child says that this approach is fair and supports them with consequences for their behaviour.

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improvement to be good

Safeguarding concerns and allegations are reported to external agencies appropriately, ensuring that child protection procedures are followed. There are clear missing from home protocols. Staff have a good understanding of the need to follow and search for children to ensure their safe return to the home. The use of physical intervention is kept to a minimum. The six records confirm that each intervention was minimal and mostly effective at disrupting behaviour that causes harm to children or others.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

The leadership and management of this home lacks consistency and stability. Five managers over a period of 14 months has led to a lack of overall responsibility. Consequently, records and care practices are not at the required level. The succession plan for a manager to replace the registered manager did not work out as expected and different managers have been present in the home. Two managers left their employment within a month. In response to the turnover of managers, the provider completed a management review and considered any lessons learned. During the last two months, the manager in post has started to address some of the shortfalls, in particular supervision and leadership for the staff team.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

The frequency of supervision provided to the staff team is inadequate. Records are missing or incoherent to establish what level of supervision has been provided during Inspection report children’s home: SC043245 7 this period of management instability. Records indicate that two new staff did not receive supervision during the first two to three months of their employment. The current manager is addressing this as a priority and records reflect how the morale of staff members is improving now that they feel there is support, direction and purpose to their work.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

Leaders and managers do not have a full understanding of the strengths and weaknesses of this home. Monitoring the quality of care provided in the home is hindered by the lack of a permanent manager. Examples of this include:

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

 Lack of frequency of supervision and records missing when meetings have occurred  Log book to record dates of supervision is inaccurate and disorderly  Regulation 45, the quality of care report is inaccurate as it states supervision is monthly  Many case records are without a date or the date is incorrect  A reference request for a new member of staff issued on 3 September 2019 is yet to be returned.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

Leaders and managers fail to obtain sufficient written information on the suitability of agency staff. Details held of the experience and training of agency staff is variable. Despite the agency providing details by telephone, there is no insistence on having this information confirmed in writing. Lack of oversight of agency staff means that leaders and managers are not fully informed to be satisfied that all agency staff are suitable to work at this home.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

The current management of this home is working towards improvement. The manager, and her line manager, have started to provide the much-needed support and stability for the children and staff. Children report positively on these changes and social workers are satisfied with the level of communication from the manager and report effective partnership working.

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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 Inspection report children’s home: SC043245 8 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: SC043245 9

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: Wessex College Limited, 4 Cedar Park, Cobham Road, Ferndown Industrial Estate, Wimborne BH21 7SF

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Inspector

Clare Davies: social care inspector Inspection report children’s home: SC043245 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

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