Children's Home run by HMO NE Ltd in Sunderland

Information about this children’s home

The children’s home is operated and managed by a private provider. The home provides care and accommodation for up to three children who have emotional and/or behavioural difficulties. The manager has been in post since the home registered in May 2020.

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Information about this children’s home

Ofsted issued a restriction notice following this visit, which restricts the accommodation of children being admitted to the home.

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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:  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. Assurance visit report: 2569358 2

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Findings from the visit

We identified the following serious and widespread concerns in relation to the care or protection of children at this assurance visit:  Children’s risk-taking behaviours are not fully recognised or responded to by staff. This means that children are not sufficiently helped and protected.  Children’s complaints about their care and experiences are not taken seriously by leaders and managers.  Leaders and managers do not take effective action to safeguard children when they make allegations against staff.  Children’s records demonstrate that unsafe practice is taking place in the home.  Leaders and managers do not monitor staff practice. This has led to serious and widespread failings being identified during this visit.

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The care of children

There are serious and widespread concerns in several areas of practice relating to the care and protection of the children. Children’s care plans and risk assessments are poor. They do not have sufficient information about the children’s individual needs and risks. This results in staff providing the children with inconsistent care.

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The care of children

Staff do not support the children to help them understand their risk-taking behaviours. Staff do not help the children to develop strategies that aim to reduce or eradicate these behaviours. Key-working sessions are poorly planned and are reactive following incidents. A lack of planning in this area means that children’s risks do not sufficiently reduce to help them make progress.

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The care of children

Staff have ensured that family time has continued throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, following government guidance. This has been either face-to-face or virtual contact with people who are important to them. This supports the children’s well-being and their sense of identity.

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The care of children

The children enjoy spending time with staff doing the activities that they like. Outings are well planned to ensure that appropriate staffing levels can accommodate a range of activities out in the community. This promotes opportunities for the children to have fun, enjoy themselves and socialise.

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The safety of children

Children are not adequately safeguarded. Staff do not identify the link between missing-from-home incidents and the increased risk of exploitation or criminalisation. Children who return from missing-from-home episodes are not always offered the opportunity to speak with someone independent of the home. This limits the opportunity to learn from the children’s experiences about the risks they face, or how to reduce the risk. Assurance visit report: 2569358 3 When children make allegations against staff, the managers do not follow safeguarding procedures, which leaves children at risk of harm. Some children report that staff do not help them to understand what happens next when they have shared a concern. This leaves the children feeling worried and confused.

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The safety of children

Despite training in safeguarding, staff have failed to recognise and respond to the children’s risk-taking behaviours effectively. The manager has not identified this as a shortfall, which has resulted in the children being harmed or being at risk of harm.

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The safety of children

Children sometimes need physical intervention when they are in crisis and need support to manage their feelings. However, staff are not trained in all the techniques that they use. Records completed following physical interventions have contradictions and inaccuracies. Debriefs with the children following physical interventions are poor or in some cases have not happened at all. These issues expose children to a risk of harm.

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Leaders and managers

Management oversight of the home is ineffective. The manager registered with Ofsted in May 2020. She understands that the knowledge required to successfully fulfil the role is an area for her development. She has established a support network of professionals to assist her with this.

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Leaders and managers

There are discrepancies throughout the recordings in the children’s documents. Records often contradict one another. Some recordings are not factually correct, and can therefore be misleading. This means that for some children, their records have inaccurate information about their lives and this prevents them from fully understanding their experiences of living in the home.

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Leaders and managers

The manager provides her staff team with supervision to discuss their practice and development. However, the manager does not sufficiently scrutinise the practice of staff. For example, when staff use sanctions to help children learn that there are consequences for their actions, the manager does not evaluate the effectiveness of this practice. This demonstrates a lack of oversight of the quality of care that children receive.

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Leaders and managers

The manager has been ineffective in ensuring that staff fulfil all their roles and responsibilities, as set out in the home’s statement of purpose. Ineffective monitoring of care plans and risk assessments has meant that the children are unable to see the areas where they are making progress. Additionally, where the children are not making progress there has been a lack of management oversight to address shortfalls.

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Leaders and managers

Not all serious incidents are reported to Ofsted. This means that there has been no regulatory oversight to ensure that staff and leaders take appropriate steps to safeguard children. Assurance visit report: 2569358 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, the 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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Requirement Due date

understand and apply the home’s statement of purpose;

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Requirement Due date

help each child to understand and manage the impact of any experience of abuse or neglect.

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Requirement Due date

(Regulation 6 (1)(2)(b)(i)(v))* 22/11/2020

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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

assess whether each child is at risk of harm, taking into account information in the child’s relevant plans, and, if necessary, make arrangements to reduce the risk of any harm to the child;

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Requirement Due date

help each child to understand how to keep safe;

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Requirement Due date

have the skills to identify and act upon signs that a child is at risk of harm; 22/11/2020 Assurance visit report: 2569358 5 understand the roles and responsibilities in relation to protecting children that are assigned to them by the registered person;

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Requirement Due date

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

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Requirement Due date

are familiar with, and act in accordance with, the home’s child protection policies;

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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

(Regulation 12 (1)(2)(a)(i)(ii)(iii)(v)(vi)(vii)(b))*

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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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Requirement Due date

helps children aspire to fulfil their potential; and

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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 work as a team where appropriate;

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Requirement Due date

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

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Requirement Due date

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

demonstrate that practice in the home is informed and improved by taking into account and acting on—

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Requirement Due date

feedback on the experiences of children, including complaints received;

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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. 22/11/2020 Assurance visit report: 2569358 6 (Regulation 13 (1)(2)(a)(b)(c)(f)(g)(ii)(h))*

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Requirement Due date

If the registered provider is an individual, the individual must undertake such continuing professional development as is necessary to ensure that the individual has the skills needed for carrying on the children’s home.

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Requirement Due date

If the registered provider is a partnership, the partnership must ensure that one of the partners undertakes such continuing professional development as is necessary to ensure that the partner has the skills needed for carrying on the home.

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must prepare and implement a policy (“the missing child policy”) setting out—

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Requirement Due date

the steps taken, and to be taken, to prevent children from being absent without permission; and

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Requirement Due date

the procedures to be followed, and the roles and responsibilities of persons working at the home, in relation to a child who is, or has been, so absent.

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Requirement Due date

Before implementing, or making an amendment which the registered person considers to be substantive to, the missing child policy, the registered person must—

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Requirement Due date

have regard to any relevant local authority or police protocols on missing children. (Regulation 34 (4)(5)(b))

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Requirement Due date

In particular, that children have an opportunity to speak with someone independent of the home on their return from episodes of going missing. 22/11/2020

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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; 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; 22/11/2020 Assurance visit report: 2569358 7 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.

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Requirement Due date

(Regulation 35 (3)) The registered person must notify HMCI and each other relevant person without delay if—

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Requirement Due date

a child is involved in or subject to, or is suspected of being involved in or subject to, sexual exploitation;

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Requirement Due date

an incident requiring police involvement occurs in relation to a child which the registered person considers to be serious;

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Requirement Due date

there is an allegation of abuse against the home or a person working there;

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Requirement Due date

a child protection enquiry involving a child—

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Requirement Due date

concludes (in which case, the notification must include the outcome of the child protection enquiry); or

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Requirement Due date

there is any other incident relating to a child which the registered person considers to be serious. 22/11/2020 Assurance visit report: 2569358 8 A notification made under this regulation— must include details of—

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Requirement Due date

the other persons, bodies or organisations (if any) who or which have been notified; and

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Requirement Due date

any actions taken by the registered person as a result of the matter;

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Requirement Due date

*These requirements are subject to a compliance notice.

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Recommendations

 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)  Supervision of staff practice should ensure that individual adults in the home are engaged in the safeguarding culture of the home so they understand what they would need to do if they found other staff misusing or abusing their position to the detriment of the safety of a child. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 43, paragraph 9.14)

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Inspectors

Jacqueline Tate, Social Care Inspector Paula Kelly, Social Care Inspector Assurance visit report: 2569358 9 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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