Children's home run by Herefordshire and Worcestershire Health and Care NHS Trust

Inspection report children’s home: 2516984 1 Registered provider: Worcestershire Health and Care NHS Trust

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Full inspection Inspected under the social care common inspection framework

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Information about this children’s home

The service provides short breaks for up to six children who may have sensory impairment, and/or physical and/or learning disabilities.

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Information about this children’s home

This is the service’s first inspection with Ofsted after being registered in June 2019. Prior to this date, the service had been operational and was registered with the Care Quality Commission (CQC). The service is now dual registered with both Ofsted and the CQC.

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Information about this children’s home

The manager has applied to register with Ofsted. She is a qualified learning disability nurse and is currently working towards the level 5 diploma in leadership and management of residential childcare.

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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 first inspection since registration in June 2019.

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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: none Inspection report children’s home: 2516984 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

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 the 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.

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Requirement Due date

In particular, the standard in paragraph (1) requires the registered person to—

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ensure that the premises used for the purposes of the home are designed and furnished so as to meet the needs of each child. (Regulation 6(1)(a)(b)(2)(c)(i)) 01/05/2020

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Requirement Due date

The children’s views, wishes and feelings standard is that children receive care from staff who take their views, wishes and feelings into account in relation to matters affecting the children’s care and welfare and their lives.

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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

ascertain and consider each child’s views, wishes and feelings, and balance these against what they judge to be in the child’s best interests when making decisions about the child’s care and welfare;

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Requirement Due date

help each child to express views, wishes and feelings;

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Requirement Due date

help each child to understand how the child’s views, wishes and feelings have been taken into account and give the child reasons for decisions in relation to the child;

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Requirement Due date

regularly consult children, and seek their feedback, about the quality of the home’s care. 01/05/2020 Inspection report children’s home: 2516984 3 (Regulation 7(1)(c)(2)(a)(i)(ii)(iii)(iv))

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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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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)(d)) 01/05/2020

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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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helps children aspire to fulfil their potential; and promotes their welfare.

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In particular, the standard in paragraph (1) requires the registered person to–

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ensure that staff have the experience, qualifications and skills to meet the needs of each child;

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understand the impact that the quality of care provided in the home is having on the progress and experiences of each child;

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use this understanding to inform the development of the quality of care provided in the home;

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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)(f)(h)) 01/05/2020

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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

The requirements are that full and satisfactory information is available in relation to the individual in respect of each of the matters in Schedule 2. (Regulation 32(1)(3)(d)) 01/12/2020

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must ensure that all employees—

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Requirement Due date

undertake appropriate continuing professional development; 01/05/2020 Inspection report children’s home: 2516984 4 receive practice-related supervision by a person with appropriate experience. (Regulation 33(4)(a))

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must maintain records (‘case records’) for each child which include the information and documents listed in Schedule 3 in relation to each child. (Regulation 36(1)(a)) 01/05/2020

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must ensure that they maintain in the home the records relating to schedule 4. (Regulation 37(2)(a)) 01/05/2020

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Recommendations

 Staff should be familiar with the home’s policies on record keeping and understand the importance of careful, objective, and clear recording. Staff should record information on individual children in a non-stigmatising way that distinguishes between fact, opinion and third-party information. Information about the child must always be recorded in a way that will be helpful to the child. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 62, paragraph 14.4)  Staff should understand factors that affect children’s motivation to behave in a socially acceptable way. Staff should encourage an enthusiasm for positive behaviour through the use of positive behaviour strategies in line with the child’s relevant plans. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 39, paragraph 8.13)

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improvement to be good

Despite the shortfalls found during this inspection, children immensely enjoy their short- break experiences and receive a good quality of care.

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improvement to be good

Staff show children appropriate warmth and affection during their short-break stays. This helps children to feel safe and relaxed.

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improvement to be good

Children benefit from a wide range of activities. These include going out for meals and using the on-site hydrotherapy pool and sensory room. These experiences help to enrich children’s lives and provide them with positive childhood memories. Inspection report children’s home: 2516984 5 Staff are knowledgeable about the children. However, this knowledge is not always captured in the children’s records. Care planning often focuses on children’s medical needs. The manager recognises that care planning needs to improve to show how children’s views are captured, and that records need to show children’s achievements, goals and aspirations.

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improvement to be good

Staff are attuned to children’s individual communication needs. However, not all staff have received training to help them develop the necessary skills to use alternative methods of communication. This represents a missed opportunity to enable staff to improve how they engage with children.

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improvement to be good

The accommodation is bright and colourful. However, one of the bedrooms has a bed stored in it that could be pulled over and the garden equipment is not accessible to all of the children. Furthermore, there is an ongoing concern about the parking area at the front of the building and how this blocks wheelchair access. The manager has plans to put signage up to help alert people to this concern.

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improvement to be good

Staff understand children’s vulnerabilities. Staff are diligent in monitoring children’s health needs, and will provide medical intervention when it is needed to safeguard children’s health.

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improvement to be good

Staff manage children’s challenging behaviour with patience and understanding. As a result, physical intervention is not necessary. However, there is a lack of guidance on the risk and behaviour management strategies that staff should implement. This has the potential to lead to inconsistencies in practice, and confusion for children.

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improvement to be good

There have been no significant safeguarding incidents. No children have gone missing from the home or been at risk of child sexual exploitation or radicalisation.

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improvement to be good

Managers have not ensured that staff keep their knowledge of safeguarding up to date. This represents a missed opportunity to help develop the staff’s knowledge in regard to keeping children safe.

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improvement to be good

Staff recruitment requires improvement. Staff are sometimes able to start employment before their references have been verified, and before managers have found out why they left their previous roles when they have worked with children and/or vulnerable adults.

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

The new manager joined in November 2019 and is still getting to know the service. Inspection report children’s home: 2516984 6 The new manager has already identified many of the shortfalls found during this inspection, but is yet to implement all of her new ideas.

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

The manager does not yet have a monitoring system that is effective. This leaves her without accurate information about the difference the service makes to children and their families. It also means that she is unable to plan how the staff’s qualifications will align with the children’s homes regulations

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

Staff do not benefit from receiving regular supervision. This represents a missed opportunity to help staff to regularly reflect on their practice.

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

Staff rotas do not identify the times that staff work in the home. As a result, it is difficult to establish which staff members have been caring for the children at any given time.

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

Parents value the service greatly, and especially appreciate how much their children enjoy their short-break stays.

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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: 2516984 7

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: 2 Kings Court Business Park, Charles Hastings Way, Worcester, Worcestershire WR5 1JR

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Inspectors

Louise Battersby: social care inspector Dawn Bennett: social care inspector Inspection report children’s home: 2516984 8 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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Inspectors

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Inspectors

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Inspectors

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