Children's Home run by Future In Mind Limited in Staffordshire

Inspection report children’s home: SC067839 1 SC067839 Registered provider: Future in Mind Limited

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Full inspection Inspected under the social care common inspection framework

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Information about this children’s home

A private provider operates this home. The provider provides care and accommodation for up to two children who have experienced childhood instability, resulting in trauma and associated complex behaviours.

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Information about this children’s home

Inspection dates: 17 to 18 December 2019

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Overall experiences and progress of

children and young people, taking into account

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good

How well children and young people are helped and protected good

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good

The effectiveness of leaders and managers requires improvement to be good

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good

The children’s home provides effective services that meet the requirements for good.

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good

Overall judgement at last inspection: outstanding

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good

Enforcement action since last inspection: none Inspection report children’s home: SC067839 2

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

01/08/2018 Full Outstanding 02/08/2017 Full Good 21/02/2017 Interim Sustained effectiveness 16/08/2016 Full Outstanding Inspection report children’s home: SC067839 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 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;

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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

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)(e)(h)) 20/01/2020

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Requirement Due date

After consultation with the fire and rescue authority, the registered person must—

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Requirement Due date

take adequate precautions against the risk of fire, including the provision of suitable fire equipment in the children’s home. (Regulation 25(1)(a))

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Requirement Due date

This relates to carrying out work that has been recommended by the fire safety officer and the fire risk assessment in a timely manner. 13/01/2020

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must recruit staff using recruitment procedures that are designed to ensure children’s safety.

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Requirement Due date

employ an individual to work at the children’s home; or 20/01/2020 Inspection report children’s home: SC067839 4 if an individual is employed by a person other than the registered person to work at the home in a position in which the individual may have regular contact with children, allow that individual to work at the home, if the individual satisfies the requirements in paragraph (3).

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Requirement Due date

the individual has the appropriate experience, qualification and skills for the work that the individual is to perform.

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Requirement Due date

For the purposes of paragraph (3)(b), an individual who works in the home in a care role has the appropriate qualification if, by the relevant date, the individual has attained—

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Requirement Due date

the Level 3 Diploma for Residential Childcare (England) (‘the Level 3 Diploma’); or

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Requirement Due date

a qualification which the registered person considers to be equivalent to the Level 3 Diploma.

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Requirement Due date

in the case of an individual who starts working in a care role in a home after 1st April 2014, the date which falls 2 years after the date on which the individual started working in a care role in a home; or

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Requirement Due date

in the case of an individual who was working in a care role in a home on 1st April 2014, 1st April 2016. (Regulation 32 (1)(2)(a)(b)(3)(4)(a)(b)(5)(a)(b)) The registered person must ensure that all employees undertake appropriate continuing professional development;

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Requirement Due date

receive practice-related supervision by a person with appropriate experience. (Regulation 33(4)(a)(b)) 20/01/2020

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Requirement Due date

within 24 hours of the use of a measure of control, discipline or restraint in relation to a child in the home, a record is made which includes—

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Requirement Due date

a description of the measure and its duration; and

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Requirement Due date

within 48 hours of the use of the measure, the registered person, or a person who is authorised by the registered person to do so (‘the authorised person’)— 20/01/2020 Inspection report children’s home: SC067839 5 has spoken to the user about the measure; and

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Requirement Due date

has signed the record to confirm it is accurate. (Regulation 35 (3)(iv)(b)(i)(ii))

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Recommendations

 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 home regulations including the quality care standards’, page 62, paragraph 14.3)

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Young people and staff have positive and trusting relationships. For example, young people seek physical affection from staff. This can include hugs and appropriate play. Staff know the young people very well and have good knowledge of their needs and difficulties.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Young people have excellent school and college attendance and have positive learning experiences from their starting points. Consequently, young people are thriving educationally.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff ensure that young people’s health needs are prioritised. Staff support young people to attend regular routine and medical appointments. This encouragement helps to ensure that young people’s health needs are met. One young person has benefited from the in-house therapeutic intervention. This has helped the young person to regulate his feelings and, as a result, incidents have reduced.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Young people make good progress developing their independent life skills. For example, one young person is now able to cook their meals, budget their money, use public transport and take more responsibility for their personal care.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff support young people to engage in various leisure activities and promote friendships outside of the home. For example, one young person has been supported to join and attend a local Scouts club. This participation has enabled him to develop new skills and confidence while having fun.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff support young people to maintain family relationships that are important to them. Inspection report children’s home: SC067839 6 For example, staff welcome family members to the home.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff help to create a warm and stimulating environment for the young people. Young people take pride in their personalised bedrooms and have an array of personal possessions. However, some parts of the home detract from the homely environment and require some modernisation.

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How well children and young people are helped and protected: good

Safeguarding concerns are managed well. Young people feel confident that staff will keep them safe and support them in managing their emotions. This gives young people a sense of reassurance and the feeling of being safe.

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How well children and young people are helped and protected: good

Young people benefit from regular key work sessions that help them to understand risk and how to keep themselves safe. For instance, staff will hold in-depth discussions with young people about dangers and potential risks, such as accessing inappropriate material online, social media and substance misuse.

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How well children and young people are helped and protected: good

When young people go missing from the home, staff respond quickly and work closely with the police and social workers. For instance, staff were quick to escalate concerns when one young person became at risk of potential exploitation. This resulted in a coordinated response that helped to safeguard the young person. Young people’s risk assessments and behaviour management plans are detailed and contain the relevant information. However, these documents are not specific to the young person. This leaves staff with inaccurate information about how best to support individual young people.

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How well children and young people are helped and protected: good

The managers and staff use physical restraints as a last resort and implement strategies well to de-escalate young people’s behaviours. However, the manager’s oversight is not always good. For example, the manager was not able to tell the inspector how long one young person had been physically restrained during an incident. Furthermore, not all staff have received debriefs following an incident. These missed opportunities do not ensure that restraint practice is proportionate and safe.

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

Managers show a good understanding of the therapeutic approach used in the home and how this helps them to support young people to make good progress, socially, emotionally and physically.

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

Since the recent appointment of the new manager, she has taken steps to start to address some of the shortfalls in the home. However, the manager does not always use her monitoring and review systems to support her oversight of the quality of care.

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

Managers have failed to ensure that staff who work in the home have the necessary Inspection report children’s home: SC067839 7 qualifications to meet the needs of the young people. Only two out of eight members of staff employed have achieved the level 3 diploma in residential childcare.

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

In the brief time that the manager has been in post, staff supervision has started to be more regular. However, since the last inspection frequency of supervision has required improvement. This gap in staff receiving their required supervision means that they have not had the opportunity to have their practice and development regularly evaluated.

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

Managers have been too slow to ensure that fire safety work is carried out when they have received advice from the fire safety officer. This has the potential to place young people at risk of harm.

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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: SC067839 8

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Children’s home details

Registered provider: Future in Mind Limited

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: Future in Mind, 65 Market Street, Hednesford, Cannock, Staffordshire WS12 1AD

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Inspector

Patrick McIntosh, social care inspector Inspection report children’s home: SC067839 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 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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