Children's Home run by Your Chapter Limited in Lancashire

Inspection report for children’s home - monitoring visit: SC489416 1 SC489416

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Care 4 Children Residential Services Ltd

Monitoring visit Inspected under the social care common inspection framework

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Information about this children’s home

This home is privately owned and run. It is registered to provide care and accommodation for four children who may have emotional and/or behavioural difficulties. The home provides care, in line with its statement of purpose, for children who are at risk of child sexual exploitation.

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This monitoring visit

A monitoring visit took place due to an escalation in notifications, giving cause for concern about safeguarding practices and the leadership and management of the home. Inspectors identified poor practice relating to safeguarding, care planning, and risk management. This poor practice has a significant and negative effect on children’s safety and welfare. In addition, the leadership and management of the home are ineffective.

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This monitoring visit

The home is registered for four children. There are currently two children living in the home with a permanent staff team of four. One child is in need of the supervision of 2:1 staffing at all times. Consequently, the home is heavily reliant on staff covering the hours required for each shift from other homes across the organisation. Staff said, ‘This has increased the chaos in the home with no clear routines.’ They stated, ‘Staff practice is inconsistent with no clear leadership.’ Children reported, ‘Staff are here one day, gone the next.’ This has significantly impacted on the stability of the staff team and the care provided to children and any other potential children moving in to the home.

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This monitoring visit

Risk management plans and missing-from-care action plans are of a poor quality. The records fail to provide a clear strategy for staff to follow to minimise the risks for children, and although staff did follow children if they went missing from home, this practice was not consistent. In addition, records did not demonstrate that all information is shared with all relevant professionals. In one example, the staff team Inspection report for children’s home - monitoring visit: SC489416 2 had made a decision to remove and securely store a child’s outer clothes and shoes to prevent any further missing-from-care incidents. This strategy had neither been agreed nor shared with the child’s social worker.

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This monitoring visit

Children who smoke do not have a clear plan to help them reduce this behaviour. Children and staff told inspectors that when children are given money, some staff drive them to local shops known to sell cigarettes, tobacco and lighters illegally to children. Social workers spoken to were unaware of this practice. This means that children and staff collude in illegal behaviour and this does not support a healthy lifestyle.

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This monitoring visit

Managers have failed to ensure that safeguarding procedures are followed. Despite a clear mobile-phone policy, which reports that staff should not use their personal phone for work, inspectors observed a member of staff sharing a personal video on her mobile phone with a child. The provider reported that staff have access to work mobile phones. However, these could not be located during the visit and staff confirmed that they do not have access to work phones and instead use their own mobile phones for work. In addition, some staff share their personal numbers with children. Staff reported that they had raised concerns about this practice with managers. However, no further action has been taken to address this safeguarding concern.

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This monitoring visit

The registered manager is not currently in day-to-day management of the home. An interim manager has been identified and has worked in the home since November 2020. Throughout the visit, the interim manager demonstrated a lack of knowledge and understanding of safeguarding incidents that had occurred in the home. During the visit, the interim manager provided information that was factually incorrect when inspectors requested information to clarify responses to serious incidents, such as a fire in the home.

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This monitoring visit

Staff informed inspectors during the visit and it was recorded in the team meeting notes that staff had previously raised with the management team that they were concerned that any new children moving in to the home could not be cared for safely. For example, staff reported that staff who would be expected to cover the rotas had failed to follow the established plans in place for the children in the home, which are of a poor quality. This would cause a concern if a new child moved in to the home as staff would not receive consistent care.

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This monitoring visit

Managers and staff have failed to recognise risks to children’s safety and well-being. For example, there has recently been two fires in the home. It is unclear what action was taken during and after the events to prevent these incidents reoccurring. In addition, despite the home on one occasion being reported as ‘full of smoke which meant a child was taken to hospital’, the fire procedures were not followed and an evacuation of the premises did not take place. Records were not completed to provide information about the actual event, how the fire was started, and any action taken during and after the event. Staff and children both confirmed that the Inspection report for children’s home - monitoring visit: SC489416 3 incidents had occurred, However, staff and the manager could not explain why this information had not been recorded and internal fire safety procedures followed. This fails to ensure the regulator that appropriate action was taken to deal with incidents

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This monitoring visit

The environment was poor and presented as unclean. Children complained that the home was cold as the heating was broken. In addition, televisions in the home did not work as they did not have outside aerials. During the visit, some action was taken to make improvements in the home when the concerns were brought to the provider’s attention. However, a bedroom for a child remains out of operation due to a smashed window, and the home environment is cold. Despite the interim manager being aware of these issues prior to the visit, no immediate action had been taken to rectify the concerns.

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Recent inspection history

Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement 16/09/2019 Full Requires improvement to be good 30/04/2019 Full Inadequate 17/07/2018 Full Good 16/05/2017 Full Good Inspection report for children’s home - monitoring visit: SC489416 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

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;

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Requirement Due date

manage relationships between children to prevent them from harming each other;

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Requirement Due date

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; and

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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

that the premises used for the purposes of the home are located so that children are effectively safeguarded; 15 January 2021 Inspection report for children’s home - monitoring visit: SC489416 5 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; and

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Requirement Due date

that the effectiveness of the home’s child protection policies is monitored regularly. (Regulation 12 (1) (2)(a)(i)(ii)(iii)(iv)(v)(vi)(vii)(b)(c)(d)(e))

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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

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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; and

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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. (Regulation 13 (1)(a)(b) (2)(a)(b)(c)(f)(h)) 15 January 2021

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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)) 29 January 2021

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Requirement Due date

children can access all appropriate areas of the children’s home’s premises; and 29 January 2021 Inspection report for children’s home - monitoring visit: SC489416 6 any limitation placed on a child’s privacy or access to any area of the home’s premises—

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Requirement Due date

is intended to safeguard each child accommodated in the home;

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Requirement Due date

is kept under review and, if necessary, revised; and

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Requirement Due date

allows children as much freedom as possible when balanced against the needs to protect them and keep them safe. (Regulation 21 (b)(c)(i)(ii)(iii)iv))

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Requirement Due date

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,

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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. (Regulation 40 (4)(a)(b)(c)(d)(i)(ii)(e)) 29 January 2021

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Requirement Due date

*These requirements are subject to a compliance notice.

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Information about this inspection

The purpose of this visit was to monitor the action taken and the progress made by the children’s home since its last Ofsted inspection.

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Information about this inspection

This inspection was carried out under the Care Standards Act 2000. Inspection report for children’s home - monitoring visit: SC489416 7

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Children’s home details

Registered provider: Care 4 Children Residential Services Ltd

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: Care 4 Children, 1 Stuart Road, Bredbury Park Industrial Estate, Bredbury, Stockport SK6 2SR

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Children’s home details

Responsible individual: Stephanie Hewitt

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Inspectors

Jessica Forshaw, Social Care Inspector Michelle Edge, Regulatory Inspection Manager Inspection report for children’s home - monitoring visit: SC489416 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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Inspectors

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Inspectors

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Inspectors

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