Children's home run by Inspirations Leicestershire Limited

Inspection report children’s home: SC437825 1 SC437825 Registered provider: Inspirations Leicestershire Ltd

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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 is an independent children’s home that offers placements for up to three children and young people, irrespective of gender, from the age of six to 17 years. The home provides care and accommodation for children and young people with emotional and/or behavioural difficulties.

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Information about this children’s home

The manager is registered with Ofsted and is suitably qualified and experienced.

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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

Overall judgement at last inspection: outstanding

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requires improvement to be good

Enforcement action since last inspection: none Inspection report children’s home: SC437825 2

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

07/08/2018 Full Outstanding 02/08/2017 Full Outstanding 08/02/2017 Interim Improved effectiveness 10/05/2016 Full Good Inspection report children’s home: SC437825 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 health and well-being standard is that— children receive advice, services and support in relation to their health and well-being.

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Requirement Due date

In particular, the standard in paragraph (1) requires the registered person to ensure— that staff help each child to— achieve the health and well-being outcomes that are recorded in the child’s relevant plans; understand the child’s health and well-being needs and the options that are available in relation to the child’s health and well-being, in a way that is appropriate to the child’s age and understanding.

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Requirement Due date

(Regulation 10 (1)(b)(2)(a)(i)(ii)) 01/03/2020

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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— 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; 17/02/2020 Inspection report children’s home: SC437825 4 take effective action whenever there is a serious concern about a child’s welfare.

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Requirement Due date

(Regulation 12 (1)(2)(a)(i)(ii)(iii)(iv)(v)(vi))

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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—

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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.

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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

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.

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Requirement Due date

(Regulation 13 (1)(b)(2)(a)(c)) 01/03/2020

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must make arrangements for the handling, recording, safekeeping, safe administration and disposal of medicines received into the children’s home.

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Requirement Due date

After consultation with the fire and rescue authority, the registered person must— ensure, by means of fire drills and practices at suitable intervals, that persons working at the home and, so far as reasonably 17/02/2020 Inspection report children’s home: SC437825 5 practicable, children are aware of the procedure to be followed in the case of a fire.

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must ensure that— 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”)— has spoken to the user about the measure.

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Requirement Due date

In order to complete a quality of care review the registered person must establish and maintain a system for monitoring, reviewing and evaluating—

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Requirement Due date

the quality of care provided for children.

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improvement to be good

Some progress is being made by children. Both of the children currently living at the home attend education full time. Their attendance and behaviour at school have improved. Children are given opportunities to spend time with their families regularly.

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improvement to be good

Children do not always receive specialist support to meet their individual needs. One child with complex healthcare needs was admitted to the home on a short-term basis to have an assessment of need by external health professionals. Additional staff support was to be provided by the health team to undertake this assessment. However, there is no date for this assessment to begin. Not all of the staff at the home are suitably qualified or experienced enough to manage this child’s needs.

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improvement to be good

Some children need specific assessments to support and inform their care plans and risk assessments. Placements have ended for three children this year due to the risks they posed to themselves and/or others. The way in which placements have ended has had an impact on the children and staff at the home. However, professionals have provided good feedback about how the home worked with the children at the time.

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improvement to be good

Children are not regularly involved in activities in the community. There is over-reliance on the use of personal tablets and computers for entertainment in the home. This means Inspection report children’s home: SC437825 6 that children do not get to experience a wide range of recreational opportunities and develop positive hobbies and interests.

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improvement to be good

Risk assessments for the children are ineffective. Some risks have not been fully identified and strategies are not in place for managing these risks. These risks include the use of a tablet, internet use, allegations against staff and managing time away from the home. For example, one child who has two-to-one staffing in the home and at school has time in the community on his own. There is no risk assessment or strategy in place for managing this unsupervised time.

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improvement to be good

Risk of harm to younger children has not been considered in placement matching or in the home. Risk assessments do not link to the information in behaviour support plans. This means that conflicting advice is given about risk management and staffing levels. Not all staff have a good awareness of risk and the potential for harm to children or to others. Staff do not have clear guidance around managing specific risks.

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improvement to be good

Allegations are reported and recorded in line with legislation. On one occasion, following an allegation of harm from a child, a staff member remained on shift and continued to work while this was investigated. The management of lone-working arrangements was not sufficiently robust and there was no risk assessment underpinning the decision to allow the staff member to continue working. This meant that the child was being cared for by a staff member they had made an allegation about. It was not clear what support the child received during this time.

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improvement to be good

Incident reports are not always clear. On one occasion, information shared with Ofsted through a notification was inconsistent with the incident report in the home, with significant information missing on the record of the incident. Staff do not receive debriefs following incidents and physical interventions.

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improvement to be good

There are significant concerns about how staff monitor children’s internet use in the home. Children are accessing websites that are inappropriate in their content and not age appropriate. Some of this content includes swearing, violence and sexualised behaviour. Children are not monitored when they are in their bedrooms and accessing the internet. Staff are not working in line with the risk assessments in place regarding the use of internet and social media. This means that children are being exposed to significant risk from their unsupervised use of the internet.

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improvement to be good

Children are spending inappropriate amounts of time on the internet. One child spent over sixty hours in one week accessing social media websites. This is having a direct impact on the child’s behaviour and social development.

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improvement to be good

Administration of medication, particularly around controlled drugs, is not recorded in line with company policy. Untrained agency staff are observing and signing controlled drugs records. Some medication has insufficient labelling. Existing labels are faded and Inspection report children’s home: SC437825 7 unreadable. This has the potential to cause harm, as staff are unable to check medication labels against records.

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improvement to be good

Fire evacuation drills are not recorded accurately. One newly admitted child has not had the opportunity to take part in a fire drill since arriving at the home. Not all staff have participated in fire drills; this omission is particularly relevant to agency staff employed at the home.

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

The home has not had regular or consistent management oversight. Consequently, there has been a decline in essential auditing and monitoring. Children’s plans have not been regularly reviewed and updated. This has led to conflicting information being recorded within documents.

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

The manager was proactive in accessing a more suitable education placement for a child. The barriers to learning were identified and this information was used to support the child’s move to a new education provision. This has been positive for the child.

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

The home has a stable staff team that is supplemented with agency staff. Agency staff receive a very detailed induction to the home. There are robust recruitment procedures in place. This means that children are cared for by suitable staff.

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

Staff receive good-quality training and a comprehensive training programme is in place. All staff have received mandatory training. However, staff need further training to enable them to support children with additional needs.

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

The manager has a good understanding of the affect that placement breakdowns have had on children and staff. This has been reflected on and discussed within the team. Lessons have been learned and the manager has put additional measures in place when considering potential referrals.

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

Positive feedback has been received from other professionals about the communication and support from the home. The manager always attends meetings relating to the children.

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

Staff have regular one-to-one supervision. Supervision is facilitated by the home’s deputy manager. A range of topics are discussed, including staff practice and safeguarding. Staff see teamwork as a strength in the home.

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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 Inspection report children’s home: SC437825 8 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: SC437825 9

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Children’s home details

Registered provider: Inspirations Leicestershire Ltd

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: 131a London Road, Oadby, Leicester LE2 5DP

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Inspector

Sarah Orriss, Social Care Inspector Inspection report children’s home: SC437825 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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