Children's Home run by Frances House Ltd in Lancashire

Inspection report children’s home: SC403462 1 SC403462 Registered provider: Frances House Ltd Full inspection Inspected under the social care common inspection framework

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Information about this children’s home

This home is owned by a private company. It is registered to care for up to five young people with emotional and/or behavioural needs.

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Information about this children’s home

The manager has been registered with Ofsted since September 2016.

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Information about this children’s home

Inspection dates: 10 to 11 December 2019

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Overall experiences and progress of

children and young people, taking into account

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inadequate

How well children and young people are helped and protected inadequate

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inadequate

The effectiveness of leaders and managers inadequate

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inadequate

There are serious and/or widespread failures that mean young people are not protected or their welfare is not promoted or safeguarded and the care and experiences of children and young people are poor and they are not making progress.

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inadequate

Overall judgement at last inspection: good

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inadequate

Enforcement action since last inspection: none Inspection report children’s home: SC403462 2

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

17/04/2018 Full Good 20/09/2017 Full Good 08/03/2017 Interim Sustained effectiveness 08/11/2016 Full Good Inspection report children’s home: SC403462 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

In meeting the quality standards, the registered person must, and must ensure that staff–

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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(c))

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Requirement Due date

In particular, challenge the local authority when they fail to arrange return home interviews. 26/01/2020

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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.

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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

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

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

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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; and

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Requirement Due date

that the premises used for the purposes of the home are designed, furnished and maintained so as to protect each child from avoidable hazards to the child’s health. (Regulation 12(1), (2)(a)(i)(ii)(vi)(b)(d)) 26/01/2020 Inspection report children’s home: SC403462 4 * 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 have the experience, qualifications and skills to meet the needs of 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)(c)(h)) 26/01/2020

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Requirement Due date

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 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. (Regulation 14(1)(a)(b), (2)(a)) 26/01/2020

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Requirement Due date

The registered person may only use devices for the monitoring or surveillance of children–

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Requirement Due date

if the child’s placing authority consents in writing to the monitoring or surveillance. (Regulation 24(1)(b)) 26/01/2020

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Requirement Due date

* These requirements are subject to a compliance notice. Inspection report children’s home: SC403462 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. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 15, paragraph 3.9)  Where children placed in a home are not participating in education because they have been excluded or are not on a school roll for some other reason, the registered person and staff must work closely with the placing authority so that the child is supported and enabled to resume full-time education as soon as possible. In the interim, the child should be supported to sustain or regain their confidence in education and be engaged in suitable structured activities. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 28, paragraph 5.15) Inspection report children’s home: SC403462 6

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people:

Inadequacies in safeguarding practice are compromising the young people’s welfare, progress and experiences. Furthermore, weak management oversight has meant that unsafe practice has not been adequately addressed.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people:

Young people’s progress and experiences are variable. Although some young people move into the home, settle and make measurable progress from their starting points, others do not. The staff have not been able to manage and reduce some young people’s unsafe behaviour, which has resulted in poor outcomes for these young people, including unplanned moves from the home.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people:

The staff work jointly with virtual schools and social workers to identify suitable education for young people. However, young people who are not participating in education do not benefit from consistent support to enable them to regain their confidence and return to full-time education.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people:

The home is not maintained to a high standard. Ripped wallpaper, worn carpets and missing tiles in the kitchen undermine the welcoming and homely atmosphere.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people:

On a positive note, the young people confirmed that they like living at the home and get on with the managers and staff. Furthermore, warm interactions between the staff and young people were observed during the inspection.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people:

Young people enjoy taking part in a range of activities that enhance their skills and confidence, for example volunteering at a local homeless project.

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How well children and young people are helped and protected:

The risk management plans are variable and often omit important information, such as strategies for managing unsafe internet use. Consequently, young people’s internet use is not being successfully managed, and this is placing them at risk of significant harm, such as child sexual exploitation.

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How well children and young people are helped and protected:

Staff do not consistently help young people to understand their vulnerabilities or how to keep safe. Despite substance misuse and unsafe internet use having been identified as risks for some young people, there was little evidence of staff undertaking meaningful direct work with the young people on these issues.

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How well children and young people are helped and protected:

Impact risk assessments are weak. Due consideration is not given to all potential risks or the staff’s knowledge and experience. As a result, some young people’s needs have not been met and their safety has been jeopardised.

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How well children and young people are helped and protected:

The staff do not consistently follow the home’s risk management plans, for example securing car keys in the office safe. Such shortfalls have significantly compromised Inspection report children’s home: SC403462 7 young people’s and others’ safety.

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How well children and young people are helped and protected:

The staff do not report safeguarding incidents to the relevant professionals in a timely way. This can potentially cause delay in getting serious incidents investigated and resolved.

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How well children and young people are helped and protected:

The home’s day-to-day care is not arranged and delivered so as to keep each young person safe from harm. On one occasion, staff failed to undertake regular checks on a young person when she was unwell and alone in her bedroom. Moreover, they did not make sure that the young person had taken the prescribed medication for her illness.

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How well children and young people are helped and protected:

The manager does not ensure that all hazards identified within the home are adequately addressed, in particular not implementing effective strategies to prevent young people from leaving the home through the bedroom windows.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers:

The registered manager is suitably qualified and experienced. She is supported by an experienced deputy manager. However, weaknesses in management monitoring and oversight have contributed to the shortfalls identified at this inspection.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers:

The home is not being managed in a way that is consistent with the home’s statement of purpose. At times, managers have failed to take swift and decisive action to address young people’s high-risk behaviour and lack of progress. As a result, some young people have experienced poor outcomes.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers:

Young people are not being cared for by a suitably qualified and experienced staff team. The majority of the team are unqualified and lack experience in children’s residential care. Furthermore, new staff’s induction to the home is variable, and at times insufficient.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers:

Monitoring systems are weak. The registered manager was unable to provide important information, such as the number of times that the police have been called to the home. This reflects shortfalls in the monitoring of young people’s behaviour, welfare and progress.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers:

There is little evidence of the manager or staff challenging the local authority when they fail to follow missing-from-care statutory guidance, in particular in arranging return-home interviews.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers:

The registered manager has not obtained written consent from each child’s placing authority to use CCTV cameras within the home. This does not demonstrate strong partnership working between the home and placing authorities to ensure that young people’s privacy is duly considered.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers:

The company’s plan to open a new home has diverted the registered manager’s attention, which, in turn, has contributed to the significant decline in the standard of Inspection report children’s home: SC403462 8 care provided at this home.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers:

Encouragingly, the managers have already started to implement an improvement plan, which involves temporarily putting on hold any new admissions to the home. Inspection report children’s home: SC403462 9

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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: SC403462 10

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: 73 Albert Road, Colne, Lancashire BB8 0BP

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Children’s home details

Responsible individual: Pamela Forrester

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Inspectors

Marina Tully, social care inspector Marie Cordingley, social care inspector Inspection report children’s home: SC403462 11 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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Inspectors

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Inspectors

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Inspectors

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