Children's Home run by Lancashire County Council in Lancashire

Assurance visit report: SC039248 1 SC039248

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Information about this children’s home

This children’s home is registered to accommodate six children with social and emotional difficulties. The home is owned by a local authority, which has other homes in the county.

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Information about this children’s home

Ofsted has taken enforcement action against this home since the last inspection. A monitoring visit on 8 July 2020 resulted in two compliance notices being issued under regulation (the care planning standard) and regulation 40 (notifications). A second monitoring visit took place on 13 August 2020 which resulted in the first compliance notice being met and the second notice not met. A compliance notice under regulation 14 (the care planning standard) was therefore re-issued.

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Information about this children’s home

The manager has been in post since January 2020 and submitted her application to Ofsted to be registered on 4 November 2020.

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Information about this children’s home

Previous inspection judgement: Improved effectiveness

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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 Assurance visit report: SC039248 2 practice and care within the context of the restrictions placed on society during the COVID-19 pandemic.

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Information about this visit

During this visit, inspectors also monitored compliance against a compliance notice that was issued on 13 August 2020.

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Findings from the visit

We did not identify any serious or widespread concerns in relation to the care or protection of children at this assurance visit.

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The care of children

Children’s experiences and progress are mixed. One child has formed trusted and secure relationships with staff. As a result, she has made good progress from her starting point. However, other children have failed to fully invest in the home or consistently engage with staff for a significant period. For two children, when not engaged in education, significant time is spent with other family members and friends away from the home.

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The care of children

Staff support children to regularly meet and contact those who are most important to them. However, on occasion, this has resulted in children not following current Covid-19 regulations around mixing and staying over with people not from their household. A multi-agency team has considered the risks associated with this and has agreed that it is in the best interests of the child’s mental health and well-being to allow this contact to continue.

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The care of children

Children have settled in the home, with two children returning to education. Another child is waiting to start an apprenticeship on the successful completion of her traineeship. However, another child does not engage in any education or training but chooses to spend time in her bedroom on social media. As a result, her progress is minimal. Staff efforts to address this issue so far have been ineffective.

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The care of children

During the lockdown period, staff were unable to engage children in structured activities during the day. Staff appear to be resigned to not being able to engage the children effectively in education or in structured direct work. This was a missed opportunity for staff to focus on alternative activities and raise children’s aspirations.

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The care of children

Staff offer children good opportunities to take part in leisure activities. However, this is rarely taken up, with children choosing to be with friends or on social media.

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The safety of children

Assurance visit report: SC039248 3 There have been 50 episodes of children going missing since 1 April 2020. For one child, who was regularly missing from the home, a plan has been agreed that he is taken to his friends on a daily basis. This has eliminated the need to report him missing. Although there was concern that he was in a sexual relationship, staff did not fully evaluate the impact of this relationship on the child and the one that they were in the relationship with. Nor did they intervene to manage the possible risks associated with this relationship, which will have lifelong implications for him and the child they are in a relationship with.

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The safety of children

The provider is not effective in managing risks. There is insufficient guidance to support staff in identifying, assessing and therefore reducing risk. For example, as children return from staying over or mixing with people in other households there are no additional procedures in place to reduce the risk of the COVID-19 virus coming into the home and affecting other children and staff. This fails to adequately protect children and staff.

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The safety of children

Staff safeguard children well. However, on one occasion, following an allegation against a member of staff there was a missed opportunity to reflect with the staff member an intervention which led to a child being harmed. The debrief reviewed the staff member’s errors in recording, rather than the physical intervention. This failed to to allow the manager and the staff member to reflect on the incident and make any necessary changes to practice.

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The safety of children

Staff work in a proactive way with partner agencies, and the multi-agency safeguarding plans are clear.

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Leaders and managers

The home has not had a registered manager in post since November 2019. A manager has been appointed and an application to be registered has very recently been submitted. The manager has previously been registered with another provider and has the qualifications and experience for the role.

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Leaders and managers

The independent visitor continues to monitor the progress and well-being of the children. Visits were carried out virtually initially, but the visitor did not speak with children or staff. This failed to give children the opportunity to speak with someone independent from the home about their care during lockdown. Documents were viewed but not scrutinised and evaluated. The visitor has now returned to making on-site visits.

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Leaders and managers

Training continues in a variety of formats to ensure ongoing and effective staff development. The manager provides supervision to all staff, however staff felt this had not been as regular of late.

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Leaders and managers

The manager maintains highly effective partnerships with the police, schools, social workers and other professional agencies to ensure that children benefit from receiving the best possible help and all-round support. Concerns are escalated Assurance visit report: SC039248 4 appropriately and the manager challenges decisions if she believes that these have not been made in the best interests of children.

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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. In particular, the standard in paragraph (1) requires the registered person to ensure— 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)(b)) 25/11/2020

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must ensure that all employees— receive practice-related supervision by a person with appropriate experience. (Regulation 33 (4)(b)) 25/11/2020

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Requirement Due date

The independent person must produce a report about a visit ("the independent person’s report") which sets out, in particular, the independent person’s opinion as to whether— children are effectively safeguarded; and the conduct of the home promotes children’s well-being. (Regulation 44 (4)(a)(b)) 25/11/2020

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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. (‘Guide to the Children’s Homes Regulations including the quality standards’, page 49, paragraph 9.59) This specifically relates to the need to demonstrate whether other behaviour management strategies were tried before staff felt it necessary to use physical restraint, particularly when the reason why a restraint was needed is not clearly recorded. Assurance visit report: SC039248 5

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Children’s home details

Registered provider: Lancashire County Council

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: PO Box 78, County Hall, Fishergate, Preston PR1 8XJ

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Inspectors

Elaine Clare, Social Care Inspector Marie Cordingley, Social Care Inspector Assurance visit report: SC039248 6 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

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

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