Children's home run by Halliwell Homes Limited in Staffordshire Moorlands

Inspection report children’s home: SC008488 1 SC008488 Registered provider: Halliwell Homes Limited Full inspection Inspected under the social care common inspection framework

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Information about this children’s home

This is a private children’s home registered for up to eight children who may have emotional and/or behavioural difficulties.

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Information about this children’s home

The home offers education on-site at a registered school.

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Information about this children’s home

The registered manager’s post is currently vacant. There is an acting manager in place.

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Overall experiences and progress of

children and young people, taking into account

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good

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

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good

The effectiveness of leaders and managers requires improvement to be good

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good

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

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good

Date of last inspection: 11 December 2019

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good

Overall judgement at last inspection: inadequate

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Enforcement action since last inspection:

The home was judged inadequate at the full inspection on 11 December 2019. Ofsted issued four compliance notices under regulation 10 (health and well-being), regulation 12 (protection of children), regulation 13 (leadership and management) Inspection report children’s home: SC008488 2 and regulation 23 (medicines). Ofsted carried out two monitoring visits on 2 January and 30 January 2020 and found that sufficient progress had been made to meet the compliance notices. Inspection report children’s home: SC008488 3

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

11/12/2019 Full Inadequate 05/12/2018 Interim Sustained effectiveness 12/06/2018 Full Good 20/02/2018 Interim Improved effectiveness Inspection report children’s home: SC008488 4

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Since the last inspection, one child has moved to a foster placement. Staff supported the transition effectively and have maintained contact during the ‘step-down’ process. This has enabled the child to settle well in his new placement. There have been no new admissions to the home since the last inspection.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Key documentation, including children’s education, health and care plans and speech and language therapy assessments, has now been secured. Agreed actions within these plans are now being implemented by staff.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children’s health needs are well supported, and staff ensure that children get the right help and support to meet their needs. For example, one child has recently had an initial speech and language assessment. The therapist plans to visit the home to advise staff and school. This will ensure consistency of practice across the home and school.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

That said, staff are not recording the work undertaken with the child as advised by the speech and language therapist. This means that there is no evaluation of this work to assess what is working or if it is successful.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff work proactively with schools and education professionals. Where possible, children are supported to re-integrate back into mainstream education. All children have made some educational progress from their initial starting points.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children enjoy a range of social and recreational opportunities within the local community. This provides them with the opportunity to meet other children of a similar age.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Observations show that relationships between the children and staff are warm and friendly. Staff told inspectors that since the last inspection, they have more time for their key-working role. However, records show that the majority of key-work sessions are not planned or measured for their impact on children’s identified areas of need.

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improvement to be good

Since the last inspection, managers have strengthened safeguarding practice within the home. Safeguarding training has been revisited and the staff induction process strengthened. There have been no safeguarding concerns since the last inspection.

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improvement to be good

There has been a significant reduction in the number of physical interventions. However, the physical intervention records are not maintained to a consistently good standard. Examples seen include, the trigger for a physical intervention not always clear and staff involved in a physical intervention debriefing the child. The duration Inspection report children’s home: SC008488 5 of a hold for one child was inaccurately recorded, but this shortfall had not been corrected by managers. This lack of oversight compromises the reliability of any review of staff practice and does not promote improvements in this area.

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improvement to be good

Consequences and sanctions are still not clear and any direct work that would support children in managing their behaviour is very limited. The use of ‘reflection time’ as a behaviour management technique has reduced since the last inspection. However, there is evidence of this practice still being used by staff, and managers have not addressed this with the staff team.

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good

The home is still without a registered manager. There is an interim manager in place who has had a strong focus on ensuring improved practice within the home. A permanent manager is now in post and is in the process of submitting an application for registration to Ofsted.

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good

The interim manager has maintained good oversight of children’s progress. She has worked well with other professionals so that children have access to the right support and services to match their needs. One professional commented, ‘She [the interim manager] has made a lot of positive changes.’

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good

Staff have not received regular supervision and new members of staff are not being afforded supervision at the frequency expected by the organisation. This leaves staff without the opportunity to reflect on their practice.

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good

Staff spoken with during the inspection said that morale has improved. There are now sufficient staff to meet the needs of the children. This means that staff are no longer working long hours to cover shortfalls in the rota.

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good

Suitable training in attachment and trauma that matches the needs of the children in the home has been completed. There is regular consultation with the in-house psychologist that reviews the needs of children and the progress they are making.

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good

The two requirements made at the last inspection, in relation to sanctions and physical interventions, are not met. In addition, a child’s local authority care plan was not on file. This meant that, until recently, staff were not aware of the contact arrangements or the separation loss that the child had experienced since being placed so far away from home. Inspection report children’s home: SC008488 6

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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

No measure of control or discipline which is excessive, unreasonable or contrary to paragraph (2) may be used in relation to any child.

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Requirement Due date

The following measures may not be used to discipline any child— any form of corporal punishment; any punishment involving the consumption or deprivation of food or drink; any restriction, other than one imposed by a court or in accordance with regulation 22 (contact and access to communications), on— a child’s contact with parents, relatives or friends; visits to the child by the child’s parents, relatives or friends; a child’s communications with any persons listed in regulation 22(1) (contact and access to communications); or a child’s access to any internet-based or telephone helpline providing counselling for children;

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Requirement Due date

the use or withholding of medication, or medical or dental treatment; the intentional deprivation of sleep;

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Requirement Due date

imposing a financial penalty, other than a requirement for the payment of a reasonable sum (which may be by instalments) by way of reparation;

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Requirement Due date

withholding any aids or equipment needed by a disabled child;

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Requirement Due date

any measure involving a child imposing any measure against another child; or

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Requirement Due date

any measure involving punishing a group of children for the behaviour of an individual child. (Regulation 19 (1)(2)(a)(b)(c)(i)(ii)(iii)(iv)(d)(e)(f)(g)(h)(i)(j)) 03/04/2020 Inspection report children’s home: SC008488 7 The registered person must ensure that—

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Requirement Due date

within 24 hours of the use of a measure of control, discipline or restraint in relation to a child in the home, a record is made which includes—

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Requirement Due date

details of the child’s behaviour leading to the use of the measure;

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Requirement Due date

the date, time and location of the use of the measure;

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Requirement Due date

a description of the measure and its duration;

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Requirement Due date

details of any methods used or steps taken to avoid the need to use the measure;

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Requirement Due date

the name of the person who used the measure (“the user”), and of any other person present when the measure was used;

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Requirement Due date

the effectiveness and any consequences of the use of the measure; and

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Requirement Due date

a description of any injury to the child or any other person, and any medical treatment administered, as a result of the measure;

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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)(a)(i)(ii)(iii)(iv)(v)(vi)(vii)(viii) (b)(i)(ii)(c)(iv)) 03/04/2020

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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; 03/04/2020 Inspection report children’s home: SC008488 8 receive practice-related supervision by a person with appropriate experience; and have their performance and fitness to perform their roles appraised at least once every year. (Regulation 33 (4)(a)(b)) The registered person must maintain records (“case records”) for each child which—

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Requirement Due date

include the information and documents listed in Schedule 3 in relation to each child;

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Requirement Due date

are signed and dated by the author of each entry. (Regulation 36 (1)(a)(b)(c))

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Requirement Due date

In particular, the registered person should ensure that copies of children’s local authority care plans are on file. 03/04/2020

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Recommendations

 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 children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 39, paragraph 8.13) In particular, key-working sessions should be planned and in accordance with the child’s identified needs.  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 children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 62, paragraph 14.4) In particular, ensure that staff record the work they complete with children as

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Recommendations

requested by therapists, so that children’s progress is maximised. Inspection report children’s home: SC008488 9

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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: SC008488 10

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Children’s home details

Registered provider: Halliwell Homes Limited

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: 1 Tape Street, Stoke-on-Trent ST10 1BB

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Inspectors

Michelle Bacon: Social Care Inspector Pauline Yates: Social Care Inspector Inspection report children’s home: SC008488 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 looked after children, safeguarding and child protection.

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Inspectors

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Inspectors

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Inspectors

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