Children's home run by Heath Solo Limited

Inspection report children’s home: 2519266 1 Registered provider: Heath Solo 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

This privately owned children’s home is registered to provide care and accommodation for one young person who may experience emotional and/or behavioural difficulties. The home is operated by a registered manager who is supported by a consistent staff team.

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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

Date of last inspection: This is the home’s first inspection

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requires improvement to be good

Overall judgement at last inspection: not applicable

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requires improvement to be good

Enforcement action since last inspection: not applicable

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

This is the home’s first inspection Inspection report children’s home: 2519266 2

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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

6: The quality and purpose of care standard The quality and purpose of care standard is that children receive care from staff who—

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Requirement Due date

understand the children’s home’s overall aims and outcomes it seeks to achieve for children;

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Requirement Due date

use this understanding to deliver care that meets children’s needs and supports them to fulfil their potential. (Regulation 1(a)(b)) 14/02/2020

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Requirement Due date

8: The education standard 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 educational and training targets, as recorded in the child’s relevant plans;

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Requirement Due date

promote opportunities for each child to learn informally;

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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)(i)(v)(x)) 14/02/2020

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Requirement Due date

10: The health and well-being standard The health and well-being standard is that—

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Requirement Due date

the health and well-being needs of children are met;

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Requirement Due date

children receive advice, services and support in relation to their health and well-being. 14/02/2020 Inspection report children’s home: 2519266 3 In particular, the standard in paragraph (1) requires the registered person to ensure—

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Requirement Due date

achieve the health and well-being outcomes that are recorded in the child’s relevant plans. (Regulation 10(1)(a)(b)(2)(a)(i)) 12: The protection of children standard 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

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

have the skills to identify and act upon signs that a child is at risk of harm. (Regulation 12(1)(2)(a)(I)(iii)) 14/02/2020

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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 their full 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

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 by taking into account and acting on—

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Requirement Due date

use of monitoring and review systems to make continuous improvements in the quality of care provided in the home. (Regulation 13(1)(a)(2)(f)(g)(ii)(h)) 14/02/2020

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Requirement Due date

22: Contact and access to communications 14/02/2020 Inspection report children’s home: 2519266 4 If the registered person considers it to be necessary for the purpose of safeguarding or promoting the welfare of a child, the registered person may impose conditions, prohibitions or restrictions upon a child’s—

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Requirement Due date

contact with parents, friends or relatives;

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Requirement Due date

access to communications under paragraph (3). (Regulation 22(5)(a)(b))

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Recommendations

 Staff should be skilled in understanding the range of influences that friendships can have and should encourage those with a positive impact and discourage those with a negative impact. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards,’ page 38, paragraph 8.8)

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Recommendations

 The registered person should ensure that staff can access appropriate facilities and resources to support their training needs, and should understand the key role they play in the training and development of staff in the home. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards,’ page 53, paragraph 10.11)

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Recommendations

 In some instances, a child may express wishes that are not always in their best interest. In such circumstances, the responsible adults will have to balance the wishes of the child against what they judge to be in the best interest of the child and reach a reasonable view about the best way forward in the interests of all. The reasons for reaching any decision will need to be carefully explained to and understood by the child concerned. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards,’ page 22, paragraph 4.9)

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improvement to be good

Since the children’s home was registered in July 2019, it has provided accommodation for two young people. The first resident was discharged after a short period, because of ongoing risk-taking behaviours. A second admission was made in August 2019, and this young person remains in placement.

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improvement to be good

Placement planning requires improvement. Although plans, including healthcare plans, are in place, placement targets are not clearly identified. This means that the young person’s fundamental needs are not prioritised or addressed. Therefore, the young Inspection report children’s home: 2519266 5 person is not helped to address critical elements of her life experiences so that she can take positive steps forward into her adult life.

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improvement to be good

Systems for promoting the young person’s education are deficient. Personal education plans are not in place. This means that staff have no direction in the planning for the young person’s continued education. Likewise, when the young person refuses planned education, the home does not provide a daily routine that encompasses learning and instils the importance of education. This lack of planning negatively impacts on the young person’s educational attainment.

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improvement to be good

The young person is supported to develop new friendships within the community, and maintain contact with friends from outside the area. However, action to address the impact of potential negative influences within these friendships is not consistently undertaken. As a result, some relationships can have a destructive impact on the progress the young person makes.

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improvement to be good

The process for consultation requires improvement. Although the young person is provided with opportunities to review and comment on her individual plans, staff do not address the comments made by the young person. For example, a refusal to follow a specific plan or the plans to manage a specific risk. This results in the young person’s views being accepted without compromise and, therefore, this negatively impacts on the consistency of care provided in the home.

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improvement to be good

Staff work with the young person to ascertain her sports interests and encourage her to try out for teams within the community. This has resulted in the young person gaining a place in the community rugby league team. Staff promote the young person’s attendance and regularly cheer on the sidelines on match days.

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improvement to be good

The young person is supported to develop independence skills, including learning how to drive. The young person has recently passed her driving theory test and hopes to take her driving test very soon.

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improvement to be good

The safety and well-being of young people accommodated in this home are compromised by ineffective planning. Safeguarding systems require improvement.

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improvement to be good

Basic risk assessments are in place. Assessments outline risk-taking behaviours and the actions to be taken by staff in the event of a concern. However, assessments do not detail what actions staff are to take to address and minimise risks. Therefore, risk assessments are a response to behaviours rather than a proactive and strategic plan to minimise and reduce risks and change behaviour patterns.

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improvement to be good

Individual contracts are devised to address risks relating to the young person’s use of the internet, e-safety and free time in the community. However, no restrictions are imposed Inspection report children’s home: 2519266 6 when the young person refuses to accept the safeguarding conditions. Consequently, risks are left unchecked or unmanaged, and this compromises the young person’s overall safety.

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improvement to be good

The young person has a history of being reported missing from home. Although risk assessments detail this behaviour as a concern, there is little evidence of the work being undertaken with the young person to reduce this behaviour. Likewise, when the young person returns from a period of missing, staff do not use this as an opportunity to review the risks and/or update their missing-from-home strategy.

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improvement to be good

Systems for the management of negative behaviour require improvement. Behaviour management plans are not developed or in place to manage behaviour as identified in previous placements. Consequently, staff are not provided with suitable behaviour management guidance to ensure consistent and effective practice.

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improvement to be good

Since the home opened in July 2019, there have been no incidents requiring a physical intervention, no complaints or allegations against staff, and no criminal behaviour.

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improvement to be good

There are several shortfalls in the safeguarding and management of those accommodated in the home. The registered manager must ensure that the day-to-day care is arranged, delivered and reviewed to keep each young person safe and to protect each young person effectively from harm.

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

The registered manager has been in post since July 2019. He has worked in residential childcare for a number of years. This is his first position as a registered manager and this is the children’s home’s first full inspection.

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

The quality of training provided to staff is not sufficient to meet the needs of the young people placed in their care. Staff do not receive specialist training on critical matters such as self-harm, sexually harmful behaviours, or young people at risk of child sexual exploitation.

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

The registered manager has yet to develop clear expectations for the practice in the home and the roles and responsibilities of staff. This results in somewhat disorganised care and safeguarding practice. Consequently, staff do not receive clear and informed direction from the manager.

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

Relationships between the management and staff at the children’s home and senior management are somewhat mismanaged regarding the decision-making for the young person’s care. For example, the young person has been given direct access to communications with the senior management of the organisation. Where decisions have been made by the children’s home, the young person has used these lines of communication to have the decisions overruled. This has impeded the registered manager and staff’s ability to follow decisions through. Inspection report children’s home: 2519266 7 Evidence of external monitoring visits taking place are available in the home. Reports are provided to the registered manager for review, and action plans to address identified shortfalls are submitted to the external visitor.

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

The registered manager’s oversight of the safeguarding and care practice in the home requires improvement. The registered manager lacks a consistent approach to the assessment and analysis of the care and safeguarding practice in the home. Consequently, practice is not routinely checked or improved to enhance the progress and life chances of those accommodated.

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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: 2519266 8

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: Suite 1.3 My Buro, 20 Market Street, Altrincham, Cheshire WA14 1PF

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Children’s home details

Responsible individual: Ann-Cheri Callow

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Children’s home details

Registered manager: Ashley Kerfoot-Davies

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Inspector

Maria McGranaghan, social care inspector Inspection report children’s home: 2519266 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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