Children's home run by New Forest Care Limited in Southampton

Inspection report for children’s home - monitoring visit: SC402135 1 SC402135

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New Forest Care

Monitoring visit Inspected under the social care common inspection framework

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Information about this children’s home

The home provides care and accommodation for up to four children. According to the statement of purpose, the home specialises in caring for children who have complex emotional, behavioural and educational difficulties, including those who have certain diagnosed psychiatric or psychological disorders. The age range of children is not specified.

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Information about this children’s home

The manager registered with Ofsted in January 2020.

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This monitoring visit

At the assurance visit on 13 October 2020, serious and widespread concerns in relation to the care or protection of children were identified. These included: poor practice in relation to the use, staff training, and monitoring of physical restraint; examples of weak admissions processes; a lack of response by leaders to the weaknesses identified by the independent visitor reports and previous Ofsted inspection findings about restraint practice; and a lack of evidence to demonstrate that staff are suitably trained to look after children with psychiatric and psychological disorders.

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This monitoring visit

Following that visit, a compliance notice was issued in relation to regulation 35, behaviour management records, and nine other requirements were made. The date for completion was 12 November 2020. The provider was also served with a restriction of accommodation notice.

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This monitoring visit

This visit was used to assess the provider’s progress in meeting the requirements and the steps in the compliance notice and to review whether there are grounds to lift the restriction of accommodation notice.

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This monitoring visit

Weaknesses in the senior leadership’s safeguarding practice continues. In one example, the responsible individual does not demonstrate that she has the skills to undertake a safeguarding investigation thoroughly or to complete a meaningful Inspection report for children’s home - monitoring visit: SC402135 2 allegation risk assessment. Consequently, some of the associated risks for children’s safety are not reduced. This is exacerbated by the absence of definitive plans to support and improve the responsible individual’s safeguarding practice, despite this being identified as an area of need in her annual appraisal.

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This monitoring visit

The responsible individual has demonstrated poor judgement by delegating key responsibilities in the response to the compliance notice to the registered manager. She has lacked professional curiosity and attention to detail when monitoring incidents where the registered manager has been directly involved. For example, she has not considered if records of restraint demonstrate the reasons that led up to the restraint, how the restraint escalated, and whether the quality of the child and staff debriefs is suitable.

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This monitoring visit

The absence of scrutiny in determining that such interventions were necessary and proportionate is hindering the provider’s progress in changing the culture about the use of physical restraint. Research at director level supports the provider’s behaviour management instructor’s view that the culture needs to change so high-risk interventions are only used as a last resort. However, the inspectors’ findings at this visit include a staff member being reassured by the registered manager that a previous ground floor hold was appropriate. This use of restraint was an example of concerning practice raised by the inspector at the previous inspection.

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This monitoring visit

In his written response to the compliance notice, the registered manager stated that all staff are sufficiently trained in restraint techniques. Nevertheless, he arranged additional training in behaviour management as required by the compliance notice. However, this did not cover the monitoring of vital signs as specified in the notice. Inspectors found that the staff held one child for 17 minutes with a limited record of what happened during that time and no mention of monitoring vital signs. Staff have recorded that they used positive touch without further explanation of what this means.

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This monitoring visit

Staff have not had training in other areas necessary to meet the needs of the children, including training in supervised contact and attachment disorder. The stated therapeutic approach is weak because training in this regard does not extend beyond staff’s induction period. There is no obvious ongoing work and no annual training in the practice even though the behaviour management policy states that there will be annual training. Although children see a therapist regularly, leaders could not identify the type of therapy this is. Consequently, it is not clear that the staff understand the impact of the therapy for the children and how they can complement this.

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This monitoring visit

Children’s specific health needs are not always sufficiently considered. For example, staff have not taken medical advice about the risk of using restraint on a child with asthma, even though they have determined that the child needs an inhaler.

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This monitoring visit

Leaders have not reviewed the statement of purpose, which was required following the previous inspection. It does not contain the specific detail required by regulation, Inspection report for children’s home - monitoring visit: SC402135 3 such as how staff’s competency in restraint techniques will be assessed, and it does not it list all the staff who work in the home. The document describes that the home can accommodate children with psychiatric or psychological disorders. However, leaders could not specify what those disorders are, or that the staff have received specific training and guidance. There is a continuing risk that children could be inappropriately placed with staff who cannot meet their needs.

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This monitoring visit

Leaders reassured Ofsted that the on-call managers would be trained in making statutory notifications to ensure the relevant agencies are informed of significant incidents. This training has not taken place. Some notifications lack detail, such as why the police were involved in an incident. This makes it difficult for the relevant agency to come to a reasoned decision about how significant incidents have been managed.

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This monitoring visit

Gaps were identified in some of the policy and procedural guidance for the staff at the previous inspection, which resulted in a requirement being made. Examples include the room search policy, which calls for permission to be sought from the emergency duty team. Staff could not provide a reason for this practice, which stands to present unnecessary delays should a search be needed urgently. It was also noted that case records for children can be accessed by staff in the organisation’s other children’s homes who do not work with those children. Senior leaders have not made progress in addressing these shortfalls.

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This monitoring visit

Gaps and omissions remain with regards to children’s care planning. The move for a child into temporary accommodation was poorly planned, including the use of unsuitable accommodation. In another example, there has been a lack of integrated care planning and poor communication with the placing authority about a child’s emotional needs. Despite the previous requirement about care planning, the registered manager has not completed a lessons-learned analysis of why key information was not included in an impact risk assessment.

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This monitoring visit

The provider has demonstrated compliance with the restriction of accommodation notice. No children have moved into the home since this was served. However, minimal progress has been made in meeting the steps of the compliance notice and the requirements. Consequently, the senior leadership of the home has not demonstrated that it has the capacity to improve the service and give Ofsted reason to lift the restriction of accommodation notice at this stage. Therefore, two further compliance notices are issued in respect of the fitness of the provider and the fitness of the registered manager. All previous requirements are repeated, with an addition to the regulation 40 requirement, to ensure that notifications made to Ofsted include the details of the matter being notified.

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This monitoring visit

Ofsted will continue to monitor the provider’s progress through further monitoring inspections. Inspection report for children’s home - monitoring visit: SC402135 4

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Recent inspection history

Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement 26/02/2020 Interim Sustained effectiveness 05/06/2019 Full Good 13/11/2018 Full Requires improvement to be good 24/01/2018 Full Good Inspection report for children’s home - monitoring visit: SC402135 5

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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 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

a description of the measure and its duration;

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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)(ii)(iv)(b)(i)(ii)(c)) 31 December 2020

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Requirement Due date

Restraint in relation to a child is only permitted for the purpose of preventing—

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Requirement Due date

injury to any person (including the child);

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Requirement Due date

serious damage to the property of any person (including the child).

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Requirement Due date

Restraint in relation to a child must be necessary and proportionate. (Regulation 20 (1)(a)(b) (2)) 31 December 2020 Inspection report for children’s home - monitoring visit: SC402135 6 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

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

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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)(c)(h)) 31 December 2020

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Requirement Due date

The health and well-being standard is that—

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Requirement Due date

the health and well-being needs of children are met;

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Requirement Due date

children receive advice, services and support in relation to their health and well-being. (Regulation 10 (1)(a)(b)) 31 December 2020

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must compile in relation to the children’s home a statement ("the statement of purpose") which covers the matters listed in Schedule 1.

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Requirement Due date

keep the statement of purpose under review and, where appropriate, revise it. (Regulation 16 (1) (3)(a)) 31 December 2020

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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

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 any other incident relating to a child which the registered person considers to be serious.

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Requirement Due date

A notification made under this regulation—

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Requirement Due date

must include details of— 31 December 2020 Inspection report for children’s home - monitoring visit: SC402135 7 the matter. (Regulation 40 (4)(b)(e) (5)(a)(i))

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Requirement Due date

securely in the children’s home during the period when the child to whom the case records relate is accommodated there. (Regulation 36 (2)(c)) 31 December 2020

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Requirement Due date

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. (Regulation 14 (1)(a)) 31 December 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

that the effectiveness of the home’s child protection policies is monitored regularly. (Regulation 12 (1) (2)(a)(i)(e)) 31 December 2020

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Requirement Due date

Seek to develop and maintain effective professional relationships with such persons, bodies or organisations as the registered person considers appropriate having regard to the range of needs of children for whom it is intended that the children’s home is to provide care and accommodation. (Regulation 5 (d)) 31 December 2020

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Requirement Due date

have the capacity, experience and skills to supervise the management of the home, or the homes, in respect of which the responsible individual is nominated. (Regulation 26 (7)(b)) 31 December 2020

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Requirement Due date

*A person may only manage a children’s home if— 31 December 2020 Inspection report for children’s home - monitoring visit: SC402135 8 having regard to the size of the home, its statement of purpose, and the number and needs (including any needs arising from any disability) of the children—

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Requirement Due date

the person has the appropriate experience, qualification and skills to manage the home effectively and lead the care of children. (Regulation 28 (1)(b)(i))

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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.

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: New Forest Care Limited, West Shore House, West Street, Hythe, Southampton, Hampshire SO45 6AA

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Inspectors

Keith Riley, Social Care Inspector Andy Whippey, Her Majesty’s Inspector Inspection report for children’s home - monitoring visit: SC402135 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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