Children's Home run by Progressive Futures Care Limited in Sefton

Inspection report for children’s home – monitoring visit: SC061924 1 SC061924

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Progressive Futures Care Limited

Monitoring visit Inspected under the social care common inspection framework

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Information about this children’s home

The home is operated by a small private organisation. It is registered to provide care and accommodation for up to three children who may have emotional and/or behavioural needs.

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Information about this children’s home

The registered manager has been absent from work since 30 May 2019. A new manager has been in charge of the home for over a year, but has yet to submit a complete application for registration with Ofsted. She is also applying to register for another home in the organisation.

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This monitoring visit

The home was last inspected in March 2020. At that time, the overall experiences and progress of children were judged to be good, and the effectiveness of leaders and managers judged to require improvement. This monitoring visit was undertaken due to concerns relating to poor-quality or missing monthly reports from the independent person; concerns about the length of time that there has been no registered manager in the home; and a notification regarding a recent fire in the home.

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This monitoring visit

The monitoring visit included a review of documents off site, as well as a visit to the home. Inspectors were able to speak to the one child who is living in the home, staff and the manager, and were able to have a tour of the premises.

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This monitoring visit

The registered manager has not been working in the home since May 2019. There is an interim manager in post who has been managing the home for over a year. However, at the time of this monitoring visit she had still not submitted a completed application for registration. It is a concern that this has not been prioritised. Inspection report for children’s home – monitoring visit: SC061924 2 The statement of purpose outlines the functions of the home. However, despite the document being updated since the new manager took up post, an updated document has not been sent to Ofsted, as required by regulation, since November 2019.

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This monitoring visit

Inspectors identified a lack of robust decision-making regarding the placement of new children in the home. Impact risk assessments lack sufficient information and consideration of all known risks. Furthermore, information about children’s previous behaviours and risks has not been fully explored. Decisions have also been made to accept children into the home without all the necessary historical information. Impact risk assessments do not include detail of any further information that has been taken into account, such as discussions with the child’s previous carer. Ultimately, these documents do not support the decision-making around the suitability of the children who are admitted to the home. This has resulted in some children moving on from the home in an unplanned way, following serious incidents. This is despite the manager being aware of historical incidents of the same behaviour.

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This monitoring visit

Staff are lone working and are usually on shift for a period of 48 hours, caring for up to three children in the home. However, individual lone-working risk assessments are not undertaken. Consequently, it is not clear what matters have been taken into consideration, or what additional support measures have been put in place, to ensure that sufficient staff are on duty to provide safe levels of care for children.

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This monitoring visit

The manager’s monitoring of the home is weak. It is unclear if staff are familiar with crucial information about children, as documents are not always signed. Incident reports and daily recording are not always reviewed by the manager, so required actions have not been followed through. Internal and external monitoring are not currently supporting the development of the home. Reports prepared under regulation 45 fail to critically evaluate the impact that the home has had or identify areas for development, thus limiting their effectiveness. Similarly, the monthly independent visits to the home are failing to address areas for development. There has been no on-site visit to the property since January 2020 and limited discussion has taken place with children. Documents have not been routinely examined due to the remote nature of these visits. Consequently, the effectiveness of these crucial visits is compromised.

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This monitoring visit

Risk management plans do not include key information relating to the children who are living in the home. Strategies for staff to follow in order to minimise known risks are not clear. When staff did have concerns about a child smoking cannabis in the home, no action was taken. Lone-working arrangements mean that staff are not able to undertake room searches when these are required. Arrangements in place to manage known risks, such as utilising the home’s on-call arrangements, are not clear. Inspection report for children’s home – monitoring visit: SC061924 3 The rules about smoking are unclear and children have been allowed lighters. This has led to a serious incident of fire-setting in the home. At the time of the fire, staff were in the kitchen area of the home and had access to a fire extinguisher. This allowed them to tackle the fire and evacuate the children safely. However, if they had been upstairs, they would have been unable to pass the fire in order to access

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This monitoring visit

the fire extinguisher, as it was located downstairs. This is despite the fire risk assessment being clear that a fire extinguisher should be kept upstairs in the home. This matter had still not been rectified at the time of this visit, as there was still no fire extinguisher located upstairs. Furthermore, staff are not receiving fire safety training at the frequency outlined in the home’s own fire safety policy. This compromises children’s safety.

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This monitoring visit

In addition, to prevent a child re-entering the home during the fire, a physical intervention was required. Staff have not had physical intervention training and were unable to produce relevant paperwork relating to the recording of this intervention.

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This monitoring visit

The home is in need of some maintenance and refurbishment. Repairs are not always carried out swiftly. For example, the shower cubicle was mouldy. This does not promote good hygiene for children. Similarly, boxed pipework had been removed for repair and not replaced, and furniture in one of the children’s rooms was of poor quality.

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This monitoring visit

External and internal doors are locked with keys at night, which means that children’s movement within their home is restricted. This also means that the home is not following its own fire safety procedures, which identify that thumb-turn locks should be on external doors, allowing for children to independently exit the home in an emergency.

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This monitoring visit

Monitoring systems have failed to identify the above shortfalls. Similarly, the lack of visits to the property, by both the independent person and the responsible individual over the last year, means that they have failed to identify the need to address the required maintenance issues in the home.

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This monitoring visit

The staff team is consistent and staff reported that they enjoy working in the home. Social workers were largely positive about the home. One was complimentary about the staff’s ability to engage the child, and was positive about the way staff support contact between children and their families.

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This monitoring visit

One child told inspectors, ‘I like it here and want to stay here.’ Positive interactions were also observed between staff and the child when he became upset after receiving some bad news.

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This monitoring visit

One requirement relating to obtaining up-to-date records from the local authority was not explored as part of this monitoring visit. Similarly, a number of recommendations were not looked at during this monitoring visit. Inspection report for children’s home – monitoring visit: SC061924 4

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Recent inspection history

Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement 02/03/2020 Full Good 19/11/2018 Full Good 23/08/2017 Full Good 11/01/2017 Interim Sustained effectiveness Inspection report for children’s home – monitoring visit: SC061924 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 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

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. (Regulation 12 (1) (2)(a)(i)(iii)(b)(d)) 25 April 2021

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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— 25 April 2021 Inspection report for children’s home – monitoring visit: SC061924 6 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

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)(h))

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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; 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. (Regulation 14 (1)(a)(b) (2)(a)) 25 April 2021

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Requirement Due date

keep the statement of purpose under review and, where appropriate, revise it; and

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Requirement Due date

notify HMCI of any revisions and send HMCI a copy of the revised statement within 28 days of the revision. (Regulation 16 (3)(a)(b)) 25 April 2021

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Requirement Due date

If the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005(a) applies to the home—

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Requirement Due date

the registered person must ensure that the requirements of that Order and any regulations made under it, except for article 23 (duties of employees), are complied with in respect of the home. (Regulation 25 (2)(b)) 25 April 2021

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must maintain records (“case records”) for each child which—

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Requirement Due date

include the information and documents listed in Schedule 3 in relation to each child. (Regulation 36 (1)(a)(b)(c)) 25 April 2021 Inspection report for children’s home – monitoring visit: SC061924 7 In particular, children’s case records must contain up-to-date plans and reports relating to each child, including: personal education plans; a copy of any plan for the care of the child prepared by the child’s placing authority; and the date and result of any review of the placing authority’s plan for the care of the child, or of the child’s placement plan.

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must ensure that an independent person visits the children’s home at least once each month.

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Requirement Due date

When the independent person is carrying out a visit, the registered person must help the independent person—

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Requirement Due date

if they consent, to interview in private such of the children, their parents, relatives and persons working at the home as the independent person requires; and

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Requirement Due date

to inspect the premises of the home and such of the home’s records (except for a child’s case records, unless the child and the child’s placing authority consent) as the independent person requires.

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Requirement Due date

The independent person must provide a copy of the independent person’s report to—

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Requirement Due date

HMCI. (Regulation 44 (1) (2)(a)(b) (7)(a)) 25 April 2021

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Requirement Due date

Care Standards Act 2000: Requirement to register.

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Requirement Due date

Any person who carries on or manages an establishment or agency of any description without being registered under this Part in respect of it (as an establishment or, as the case may be, agency of that description) shall be guilty of an offence. (Regulation 11 (1)) 25 April 2021

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Requirement Due date

*These requirements are subject to a compliance notice.

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Recommendations

 The registered person should ensure that the child’s plan forms the basis of their care. In particular, the home’s placement and health plans should include all the relevant information about each child’s identity needs, including gender and sexual identity, and the arrangements for promoting each child’s understanding of sexual health and well-being and appropriate Inspection report for children’s home – monitoring visit: SC061924 8 relationships. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 56, paragraph 11.1).  The registered person should ensure that they have systems in place so that all staff, including the manager, receive supervision of their practice from an appropriately qualified and experienced professional, which allows them to reflect on their practice and the needs of the children assigned to their care (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’,

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Recommendations

page 61, paragraph 13.2). The record of supervision should provide evidence that staff have reflected critically on children’s progress, their work with children and the staff’s training and professional development.  The registered person should ensure that the review of the quality of care (under regulation 45) should enable the registered person to identify areas of strength and possible weakness in the home’s care, which will be captured in the written report. The report should clearly identify any actions required for the next six months of delivery within the home and how those actions will be addressed. The whole review process and the resulting report should be used as a tool for continuous improvement in the home. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 65, paragraph 15.4)

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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: Progressive Futures Care Limited

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: c/o, 18a London Street, Southport, Merseyside PR9 0UE

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Inspectors

Mandy Williams, Social Care Regulatory Inspector Genevieve O’Reilly, Social Care Regulatory Inspector Inspection report for children’s home – monitoring visit: SC061924 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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