Children's home run by Keys Care Limited in Belfast

Inspection report children’s home: 1242216 1 Registered provider: Keys Care Ltd Full inspection Inspected under the social care common inspection framework

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Information about this children’s home

This home is operated by a large private provider. It is registered to provide care and accommodation for up to four young people who have emotional, behavioural and social difficulties. The manager was registered by Ofsted in September 2016 and is qualified.

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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: 11 December 2018

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requires improvement to be good

Overall judgement at last inspection: good

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requires improvement to be good

Enforcement action since last inspection: none Inspection report children’s home: 1242216 2

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

11/12/2018 Full Good 22/02/2018 Interim Sustained effectiveness 31/07/2017 Full Good 08/11/2016 Full Requires improvement Inspection report children’s home: 1242216 3

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improvement to be good

Young people and staff have experienced a difficult period over the past few months. There have been incidents of challenging behaviour exhibited by young people. Safeguarding practice, including behaviour management and management oversight of incidents, has not been consistently good.

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improvement to be good

Young people have variable experiences. Some do well, have positive experiences and make good progress. Others do less well. One young person had her placement ended because behaviour management strategies were not effective. Another placement was not maintained because the young person experienced a deterioration in mental health and required more intense care and support.

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improvement to be good

Relationships between young people, staff and the manager are affectionate and nurturing. Staff use individual key-work sessions to discuss important issues that affect young people’s lives. Young people know that they can confide in staff and trust them.

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improvement to be good

The manager and staff understand the importance of supporting young people to do well at school. One young person is undertaking an apprenticeship. He attends daily and he enjoys the working environment. Staff provide consistent support and encouragement to this young person to complete the apprenticeship. Staff are proud of him and his achievements.

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improvement to be good

Staff work hard to maintain young people’s relationships with family and friends. The manager and staff advocate on behalf of young people to maintain these important links. Staff provide the emotional support that young people require when having contact with family and friends.

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improvement to be good

Young people enjoy a comfortable home environment. The home is decorated and furnished to the tastes of the young people and is well maintained. The home has recently experienced some damage, but the manager has ensured that this has been quickly repaired.

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improvement to be good

There have been some concerning safeguarding incidents, including young people attempting to harm themselves and others. Staff responses to these incidents have been, at times, ineffective. Incidents of challenging behaviour have escalated and become unmanageable for staff. Police assistance has been required to restore order on some occasions.

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improvement to be good

The manager did not ensure that staff had a good understanding of a young person’s risk and vulnerabilities. The manager completed a risk assessment in Inspection report children’s home: 1242216 4 relation to the young person but failed to share this with staff. Consequently, the young person’s behaviour deteriorated and the staff struggled to manage the behaviour.

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improvement to be good

Assaults on staff have resulted in a high number of physical interventions. The manager has not carefully or promptly reviewed or evaluated these incidents. Debriefs with staff and young people have not taken place. This prevents the manager from being confident that restraint practice is safe or learning lessons to prevent future incidents.

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improvement to be good

Staff have taken quick and effective action when young people have left the home without agreement. Staff make every effort to follow them and keep in touch with them. Staff contact the police and relevant partner agencies immediately to quickly secure the young person’s safe return home. When young people come home, the manager ensures that the local authority completes a return home interview.

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good

The manager is experienced, knowledgeable and committed. She has the required management qualification and has set out to develop a stable and reflective team to provide young people with good care. However, the manager has not, on this occasion, provided the right level of oversight and direction to staff in managing some difficult and challenging behaviours. The manager failed to convey the contents of a crucial risk assessment that she had undertaken to staff. As a result, the staff were not equipped to provide the best possible care and manage risk.

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good

The quality of record keeping is not good enough. Written records of incidents are not sufficiently detailed and do not always provide a clear and accurate record of events. This limits the effectiveness of any management review of incidents and has the capacity to prevent managers from identifying concerning practice.

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good

New staff receive a thorough induction that includes the training that they need to be able to provide good care to young people. Staff undertake a broad range of ongoing training throughout their careers. Although most staff do have the required qualification, two are yet to complete it and require more support to achieve this important qualification.

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good

Ofsted was not provided with an up-to-date statement of purpose by the manager. This is an important document that should, in line with regulation, be forwarded to Ofsted following its revision.

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good

The manager has led a focused team meeting to review the recent difficulties in the home and to identify any areas of potential improvement. The efforts of the manager and staff team to understand what went wrong during a difficult period is a positive sign for the future. Inspection report children’s home: 1242216 5

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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

notify HMCI of any revisions and send HMCI a copy of the revised statement of purpose within 28 days of revision. (Regulation 16 (3)(b)) 27/03/2020

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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—

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Requirement Due date

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

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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. (Regulation 12 (1)(2)(a)(vi) and (b)) 27/03/2020

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Requirement Due date

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”)—

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Requirement Due date

has spoken to the user about the measure; and

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Requirement Due date

has signed the record to confirm it is accurate; and

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Requirement Due date

within 5 days of the use of the measure, the registered person or the authorised person adds to the record confirmation that they have spoken to the child about the measure. (Regulation 35 (3)(b)(i)(ii) and (c)) 27/03/2020 Inspection report children’s home: 1242216 6

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Recommendations

 The registered person should ensure that staff can access appropriate facilities and resources to support their training needs and 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)  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 a 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)

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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: 1242216 7

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: C/o Pinsett Mason Llp, The Soloist Building, 1 Lanyon Place, Belfast, Northern Ireland BT1 3LP

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Inspector

Phillip Morris, Social Care Inspector Inspection report children’s home: 1242216 8 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 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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