Children's Home run by Keys Group Progressive Care & Education Limited in Manchester

Inspection report children’s home: 1247773 1 Registered provider: Keys Group Limited Full inspection Inspected under the social care common inspection framework

p.1

Information about this children’s home

The home provides care for up to five young people who may have learning disabilities. Two young people are accommodated under short-break arrangements, and three children live at the home. The home is run and managed by a large private company. The registered manager post is currently vacant.

p.1

Overall experiences and progress of

children and young people, taking into account

p.1

good

How well children and young people are helped and protected requires improvement to be good

p.1

good

The effectiveness of leaders and managers requires improvement to be good

p.1

good

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

p.1

good

Date of last inspection: 10 October 2018

p.1

good

Overall judgement at last inspection: good

p.1

good

Enforcement action since last inspection: none Inspection report children’s home: 1247773 2

p.1

Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

10/10/2018 Full Good 10/01/2018 Interim Improved effectiveness 18/07/2017 Full Good Inspection report children’s home: 1247773 3

p.2

Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Young people benefit from a consistent, caring environment with peers who are being cared for full time or who are accessing short-breaks provision at the home. Young people have the opportunity to build relationships with their peers and establish routines and boundaries.

p.3

Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Young people make good progress from their starting points. Young people are supported to develop life skills within the home such as cooking and caring for their personal hygiene. Young people are supported to develop skills for independence, taking into consideration their cognitive and physical needs.

p.3

Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Young people who communicate non-verbally or who are developing verbal communication are, to an extent, supported to express their views and wishes. Staff use visual, verbal and sensory techniques to help young people to communicate. The use of visual prompts for young people is not used consistently throughout the home. Improving the use of such techniques will help young people to make their needs known.

p.3

Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Young people are supported to participate in some day-to-day decisions about their care. Staff are not regularly reviewing established practices and they do not always have high enough aspirations for young people. As a result of this, some young people are not being sufficiently supported to participate in decision making and to have new experiences.

p.3

Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

All young people are in full-time education which meets their needs. They are supported to participate fully in school life. The home contributes to the review of education plans. There is good communication between schools, colleges and the home. As a result, young people make good progress in education from their starting points.

p.3

Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Young people who access short breaks at the home are supported by regular sharing of information between the home and family members. Written communication books and the sharing of resources help to build positive relationships with families. This means that young people benefit from consistency of care.

p.3

Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Young people have access to all relevant universal and specialist health services. Young people with complex physical and learning needs are supported to attend appointments. Staff have a good understanding of each young person’s health needs. Concerns about young people’s health are escalated and appropriate interventions are sought. As a result, young people’s physical and emotional well- being are well supported. Inspection report children’s home: 1247773 4

p.3

improvement to be good

Young people have not always been effectively safeguarded in the home. Since the last inspection, whistleblowing by staff has brought to light malpractice within the staff team in their care of young people. The registered manager acted quickly to remove staff and safeguard young people. All appropriate procedures were followed once the allegations were made. This does not detract from the harm caused to a vulnerable young person by staff employed to help and protect him.

p.4

improvement to be good

The responsible individual has acted promptly to address the previously accepted practice in the home of holding internal doors shut for short periods of time to contain young people. Handles have been removed from doors and staff are now aware that this is a deprivation of liberty. As a result, young people’s rights are being promoted and they are being safeguarded more effectively.

p.4

improvement to be good

There has not been a robust process in place for recruitment of agency staff. Agency staff have been employed to work at the home with no previous experience of working with young people with additional learning needs and with no training in physical interventions. This has now changed and appropriate safe recruitment processes are in place.

p.4

improvement to be good

Young people’s care needs and the risks associated with each young person are, on the whole, well understood by staff. Staff care about young people. This care and understanding is not supported by effective written placement plans. Some plans lack basic details about young people, such as their cultural needs, despite young people being cared for at the home for a number of years. Plans lack clear goals, actions and reviews of progress. As a result, staff do not have sufficient information to formally plan and review care.

p.4

improvement to be good

Direct work with young people is not routinely planned and undertaken to progress young people’s care plans. One-to-one work with young people is not recorded. One young person who is moving to adult provision has no formal transition plan and joint work with adult services has been belatedly implemented. The culture of the home and the practice of staff do not support good care planning.

p.4

improvement to be good

Young people experience physical interventions in the home as a response to the risks they may pose to themselves or others. These interventions are appropriate and in line with the organisation’s behaviour management policy. There has been an improvement in the quality of recording, particularly in the management evaluation of interventions. The recording of escalation and de-escalation from incidents sometimes lacks sufficient detail. As a result, managers and staff do not have all the information needed to reflect on interventions and address any changes needed to practice. Inspection report children’s home: 1247773 5

p.4

good

Leadership and management of the home have undergone a number of changes since the last inspection. Following the departure of the previous registered manager, the home was managed on an interim basis by a deputy manager from one of the organisation’s other homes. Recently, an experienced permanent manager has been appointed to the home. He is not yet registered with Ofsted.

p.5

good

Alongside changes to the registered manager, the home also has a new responsible individual. The manager and responsible individual have quickly formed a good understanding of the strengths and areas for development of the home. They have been proactive in beginning to implement identified changes. As a result of the changes in leadership and management, the home now has good capacity for improvement.

p.5

good

The wider team is not yet fully staffed with permanent and suitably experienced staff. A number of staff have left the home since the last inspection. The ratio of staff needed to safely care for young people has been maintained. This sufficiency of staffing has required the regular use of agency staff. This has led to instability for young people and permanent staff members.

p.5

good

Staff are, on the whole, receiving regular supervision. Staff new to the home receive more frequent supervision to support and supervise them through their probationary period. Some supervision meetings are brief and the quality of written records of supervision are not always of sufficient quality. As a result, staff are not always being provided with the level of support and challenge to promote a high standard of practice.

p.5

good

Staff have access to regular training. The majority of training offered is online learning. There are no mechanisms in place to review the effectiveness of this learning and the impact on practice. Staff are not, as a matter of course, offered training in respect of caring for young people with a learning disability, including those with autism spectrum disorder. The responsible individual has plans in place to address this, but this training has not yet been undertaken. There is not yet an ongoing requirement for this training to be part of the organisation’s mandatory training offer for the home.

p.5

good

Prior to the departure of the registered manager, a quality of care review had not been completed. This was not identified in a timely manner by senior managers in the organisation. This resulted in significant delay in the review and reporting of the quality of care in the home. The report subsequently completed by the previous interim manager evidences some insight into the care provided by the home and the areas for development. The report demonstrated good consultation with young people’s families and external services.

p.5

good

It was a recommendation of the previous inspection that improvements were made to the quality of the accommodation and facilities for young people. This Inspection report children’s home: 1247773 6 recommendation is not met. There are ongoing improvements to the home and some progress has been made. These improvements are not yet sufficient. The home lacks personalisation. Some areas of the home continue to have an institutional feel. The main kitchen is a large commercial design which does not invite use by young people. The design and size of the property does not easily lend itself to providing young people with a warm and homely environment. Inspection report children’s home: 1247773 7

p.5

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.

p.7

Requirement Due date

The care planning standard is that children receive effectively planned care in or through the children’s home; and have a positive experience of arriving at or moving on from the home. In particular, the standard in paragraph (1) requires the registered person to ensure that arrangements are in place to ensure the effective induction of each child into the home; manage and review the placement of each child in the home; and plan for, and help, each child to prepare to leave the home or to move into adult care in a way that is consistent with arrangements agreed with the child’s placing authority. (Regulation 14 (1)(a)(b)(2)(b)(i)(ii) and (iii))

p.7

Requirement Due date

This is with particular reference to the planning for transition to adult services and the use of placement plans to identify the individual needs and progress of each young person. 31/05/2020

p.7

Requirement Due date

The quality and purpose of care standard is that children receive care from staff who understand the children’s home’s overall aims and the outcomes it seeks to achieve for children; use this understanding to deliver care that meets children’s needs and supports them to fulfil their potential.

p.7

Requirement Due date

In particular, the standard in paragraph (1) requires the registered person to ensure that staff understand and apply the home’s statement of purpose; protect and promote each child’s welfare; treat each child with dignity and respect; provide personalised care that meets each child’s needs, as recorded in the child’s relevant plans, taking account of the child’s background;

p.7

Requirement Due date

make decisions about the day-to-day arrangements for each child, in accordance with the child’s relevant plans, which give the child an appropriate degree of freedom and choice; and

p.7

Requirement Due date

ensure that the premises used for the purposes of the home are designed and furnished so as to— 31/08/2020 Inspection report children’s home: 1247773 8 meet the needs of each child; and enable each child to participate in the daily life of the home. (Regulation 6 (1)(a)(b)(2)(b)(i)(ii)(iii)(iv)(ix)(c)(i)(ii))

p.7

Requirement Due date

This is with particular reference to improving the quality of direct work with young people and ensuring that the home environment is homely and meets each young person’s sensory and communication needs.

p.8

Recommendations

 Records of restraint must be kept and should enable the registered person and staff to review the use of control, discipline, and restraint to identify effective practice and respond promptly where any issues or trends of concern emerge. The review should provide the opportunity for amending practice to ensure it meets the needs of each child. Any child who has been restrained should be given the opportunity to express their feelings about their experience of the restraint as soon as is practicable, ideally within 24 hours of the restraint incident, taking the age of the child and the circumstances of the restraint into account. In some cases children may need longer to work through their feelings, so a record that the child has talked about their feelings should be made no longer than 5 days after the incident of restraint (Regulation 35(3)(c)). Children should be encouraged to add their views and comments to the record of restraint. Children

p.8

Recommendations

should be offered the opportunity to access an advocacy support to help them with this (Regulation 7(2)(b)(iii)). (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 48, paragraphs 9.59 and 9.60)  The registered person must have systems in place so that all staff, including the manager, receive supervision of their practice from an appropriately qualified and experienced professional, which allows them to reflect on their practice and the needs of the children assigned to their care. A record of supervision should be kept for staff, including the manager. The record should provide evidence that supervision is being delivered in line with Regulation 33(4)(b). (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 61, paragraphs 13.2 and 13.3)  Regulation 45 sets out requirements for the registered person to have a system in place which allows them to monitor the matters set out in the regulation at least

p.8

Recommendations

once every six months; also see Regulation 13(2)(h) (the leadership and management standard). The registered person should undertake a review that focuses on the quality of the care provided by the home, the experiences of children living there and the impact the care is having on outcomes and improvements for the children. Reviews should be underpinned by the Quality Standards as described in Regulations 5 to 14. The processes the registered person puts in place to enable such a review to take place, should allow for a report to be generated at least once every six months. The generated report should be sent to Ofsted and the placing local authority of Inspection report children’s home: 1247773 9 all children in the home who are looked-after children. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, pages 64 and 65, paragraphs 15.2 and 15.3)  The registered person should ensure that staff can access appropriate facilities

p.8

Recommendations

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) This is with particular reference to training for all staff in respect of the needs of children with a learning disability including those with autism spectrum disorder and evaluating the impact of training on practice in the home.  The principle of listening to the child and taking their views, wishes and feelings into account when planning and undertaking their care applies to all children, including children with disabilities, special educational needs or other complex needs. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 21, paragraph 4.5)

p.9

Information about this inspection

Inspectors have looked closely at the experiences and progress of children and young people, 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: 1247773 10

p.9

Children’s home details

Registered provider address: Maybrook House, 2nd Floor, Queensway, Halesowen, Worcestershire B63 4AH

p.10

Inspector

Dawn Parton, Social Care Inspector Inspection report children’s home: 1247773 11 to 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.

p.10

Inspector

If you would like a copy of this document in a different format, such as large print or Braille, please telephone 0300 123 1231, or email enquiries@ofsted.gov.uk . You may reuse this information (not including logos) free of charge in any format or medium, under the terms of the Open Government Licence. To view this licence, visit www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/doc/open-government-licence , write to the Information Policy Team, The National Archives, Kew, London TW9 4DU, or email: psi@nationalarchives.gsi.gov.uk .

p.11

Inspector

Interested in our work? You can subscribe to our monthly newsletter for more information and updates: http://eepurl.com/iTrDn .

p.11

Inspector

T: 0300 123 1231 Textphone: 0161 618 8524 E: enquiries@ofsted.gov.uk W: www.gov.uk/ofsted

p.11