Children's home run by Almond Care Children’s Services Ltd

Information about this children’s home

This home provides care and accommodation for up to five children and/or young people who have emotional and/or behaviour difficulties. It is owned by a private provider.

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Information about this children’s home

This is the first inspection since the home opened in February 2020.

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Information about this children’s home

Previous inspection date: Not previously inspected

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Information about this children’s home

Previous inspection judgement: Not previously inspected

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Information about this visit

Due to COVID-19 (coronavirus), Ofsted suspended all routine inspections in March 2020. As part of a phased return to routine inspection, we are undertaking assurance visits to children’s social care services that are inspected under the social care common inspection framework (SCCIF).

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Information about this visit

At these visits, inspectors evaluate the extent to which:

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Information about this visit

 children are well cared for  children are safe  leaders and managers are exercising strong leadership.

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Information about this visit

This visit was carried out under the Care Standards Act 2000, following the published guidance for assurance visits.

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Information about this visit

Her Majesty’s Chief Inspector of Education, Children’s Services and Skills is leading Ofsted’s work into how England’s social care system has delivered child-centred practice and care within the context of the restrictions placed on society during the COVID-19 pandemic.

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Findings from the visit

We identified the following serious and/or widespread concerns in relation to the care or protection of children at this assurance visit: Assurance visit report: 2567607 2  The staff team does not have the skill, qualification and experience to meet the children’s needs.  Inappropriate matching means that children are admitted to the home without ensuring that staff can meet their needs.  Staff fail to keep children safe, through inexperience, lack of skill, not understanding risks and not maintaining a safe environment.  The police are called to manage the behaviour of the children.  Managers fail to learn from incidents, leading to repetition of harmful incidents.

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The care of children

This provider sets out to care for children who have significant and complex needs. Staff do not have the skills, qualifications or experience to meet these needs.

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The care of children

Staff do not have the confidence to support children with complex healthcare and/or emotional and behavioural needs. Most staff are provided with training, but this training is often provided long after the child moves into the home. In addition to this, there is little evidence of the impact of this training on day-to-day practice.

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The care of children

Children do not have a clear plan for their education. Managers have not worked effectively with partner agencies to make sure that children’s education is in place soon after their admission to the home.

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The care of children

Children do not live in a homely or inviting environment. There are few pictures on the walls, limited soft furnishings and the children’s bedrooms are sparsely decorated. They live separately, with limited shared communal areas. There is not a clear plan to integrate the children who live in the home. However, children say that they are happy.

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The care of children

Staff responded appropriately to the risks associated with the COVID-19 pandemic.

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The safety of children

Staff do not fully understand children’s risks, needs and vulnerabilities. Staff fail to keep children safe. This is due to a lack of experience, skill, training and leadership. Staff struggle to manage difficult behaviours and have at times called the police to help manage behaviour.

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The safety of children

Children with known risks in relation to self-injurious behaviour are exposed to risks in the home environment, including access to knives and scissors, staff mobile telephones and staff personal medication. Managers and staff demonstrate poor insight into what constitutes risk within a domestic home environment and elevated risks in a children’s home setting. Staff fail to put in place appropriate, well- considered, preventative measures. Assurance visit report: 2567607 3 There is a high level of physical restraint in the home. Staff do not have the required skills and experience to anticipate and defuse situations. Records relating to physical restraint are not good enough to enable appropriate review of incidents.

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The safety of children

Risk management plans are not understood by staff. Managers fail to analyse and evaluate incidents. There is no learning from incidents, and, as a result, incidents are repeated.

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The safety of children

Children’s healthcare needs are not always met. Not all staff understand the actions they must take in the event of an error in the administration of medication. This could have very serious consequences for children living at the home.

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The safety of children

When children go missing from the home, they are not given the opportunity to speak with an independent person following their return to the home. This means that the reasons for going missing, and indicators of risk, cannot be identified. Action is not taken to prevent further incidents of children going missing from the home.

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Leaders and managers

Managers have admitted children to the home who have very complex needs. Staff cannot meet those children’s needs due to their lack of skill and experience, and due to the lack of specific training ahead of placements being made. Information about the children’s needs is known prior to admission. This means that the home’s matching process is inappropriate and unsafe.

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Leaders and managers

Managers do not ensure that staff have the specialist skills to care for children with complex healthcare or mental health needs. As a result of this, staff cannot provide a safe level of care, and children have been placed at risk. Placing authorities, rather than internal management monitoring processes, have recognised this and taken appropriate action.

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Leaders and managers

Training is provided to staff, but the effectiveness of this training is not evaluated. Staff are not always provided with good-quality supervision. Staff are not given the guidance and support they need to manage risks well and care for children confidently.

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Leaders and managers

The manager has failed to use effective monitoring systems to evaluate the competency of staff, or the impact of the care provided at the home. The responsible individual is not fully aware of the extent of the poor practice in the home and the impact on children. Assurance visit report: 2567607 4

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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 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

have the skills to identify and act upon signs that a child is at risk of harm;

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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;

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Requirement Due date

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.

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Requirement Due date

(Regulation 12 (1)(2)(a)(iii)(b)(d)) 15/11/2020

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

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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

lead and manage the home in a way that is consistent with the approach and ethos, and delivers the outcomes, set out in the home’s statement of purpose;

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Requirement Due date

ensure that staff have the experience, qualifications and skills to meet the needs of each child; 15/11/2020 Assurance visit report: 2567607 5 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

use monitoring and review systems to make continuous improvements in the quality of care provided in the home.

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Requirement Due date

(Regulation 13 (1)(a)(b)(2)(a)(c)(f)(h)) The care planning standard is that children—

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Requirement Due date

receive effectively planned care in or through the children’s home; and

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Requirement Due date

have a positive experience of arriving at or moving on from the home.

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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

that children are admitted to the home only if their needs are within the range of needs of children for whom it is intended that the home is to provide care and accommodation, as set out in the home’s statement of purpose.

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Requirement Due date

(Regulation 14 (1)(a)(b)(2)(a)) 15/11/2020

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must make arrangements for the handling, recording, safekeeping, safe administration and disposal of medicines received into the children’s home.

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Requirement Due date

In particular the registered person must ensure that—

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Requirement Due date

medicines kept in the home are stored in a secure place so as to prevent any child from having unsupervised access to them;

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Requirement Due date

medicine which is prescribed for a child is administered as prescribed to the child for whom it is prescribed and to no other child; and

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Requirement Due date

a record is kept of the administration of medicine to each child.

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Requirement Due date

(Regulation 23 (1)(2)(a)(b)(c)) This relates to prescribed medication for children and to ensuring that any personal medication brought in by staff is safely stored and inaccessible to children. 15/11/2020 Assurance visit report: 2567607 6 *These requirements are subject to a compliance notice.

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Recommendations

 For children’s homes to be nurturing and supportive environments that meet the needs of their children, they will, in most cases, be homely, domestic environments. Children’s homes must comply with relevant health and safety legislation (alarms, food hygiene etc); however in doing so, homes should seek as far as possible to maintain a domestic rather than an ‘institutional’ impression. (‘Guide to Children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, Page 15, 3.9)

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Recommendations

 Where children placed in a home are not participating in education because they have been excluded, or not on a school roll for some other reason, the registered person and staff must work closely with the placing authority so that the child is supported and enable to resume fulltime education as soon as possible. In the interim, the child should be supported to sustain or regain their confidence in education and be engaged in suitable structured activities. If no education place is identified by the placing authority, the registered person must challenge them to meet the child’s needs under regulation 5 (engaging with the wider system to ensure children’s needs are being met). (‘Guide to Children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, Page 28, 5.15)

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Recommendations

 The registered person should support staff to be ambitious for every child in the home and to gain skills and experience that enable them to actively support each child to achieve their potential. To ensure staff can understand and can meet each child’s needs, in line with their responsibilities, the registered person themselves will need to have a high level of understanding of the needs of the children in their care. (‘Guide to Children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, Page 52, 10.5)

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Children’s home details

Registered provider: Almond Care Children’s Services Limited

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: Unit 4 Everitt Close, Wellingborough, Northamptonshire NN8 2QE

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Children’s home details

Registered manager: Donna Withers Assurance visit report: 2567607 7

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Inspectors

Simon Hunter, Social Care Inspector Zoey Lee, Social Care Inspector Assurance visit report: 2567607 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 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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Inspectors

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