Children's home run by Aspris Care North West Limited

Inspection report children’s home: 2582337 1 Registered provider: Sandcastle Care Limited Full inspection Inspected under the social care common inspection framework

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Information about this children’s home

This is one of a number of homes owned and operated by a private organisation. The home provides care for up to four children. The provider states in their statement of purpose that they provide care for children who may have emotional or behavioural needs.

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Information about this children’s home

The manager was registered at the same time that the home was registered.

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Information about this children’s home

Due to COVID-19 (coronavirus), at the request of the Secretary of State, we suspended all routine inspections of social care providers on 17 March 2020. This is the home’s first inspection since registration.

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Overall experiences and progress of

children and young people, taking into account

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good

How well children and young people are helped and protected good

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good

The effectiveness of leaders and managers requires improvement to be good

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good

The children’s home provides effective services that meet the requirements for good.

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good

Overall judgement at last inspection: not applicable

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good

Enforcement action since last inspection: not applicable Inspection report children’s home: 2582337 2 Inspection judgements

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good

Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

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good

Children say they are happy living in the home, and that they have staff they can talk to if they are upset or anxious. Children also said they are able to speak to the registered manager if they are unhappy about any aspects of their care. Positive relationships were observed between children, the registered manager and staff. Children who have moved on from the home often keep in touch, demonstrating the positive impact that the staff have on children’s lives and experiences.

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good

Staff help children to understand the importance of education. Despite the pandemic, staff continue to promote and support children’s education and learning. Staff consistently attend education meetings and support children to learn informally when they are not in full-time education. As a result, all children in the home are engaged in some form of education.

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good

The staff promote children’s physical and emotional health well. With the staff’s support and encouragement, children engage with counselling services, and their emotional well-being improves. Children benefit from staff’s guidance and support on a range of important matters, such as healthy lifestyles and developing skills to live independently. As a result, children are better prepared for their future and living independently.

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good

The number of incidents when children are missing from care significantly decrease after they move into the home. This is because staff support children and undertake direct work sessions to raise children’s awareness of the risks associated with these behaviours and to teach them how to keep safe.

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good

Staff support children to spend time with important people in their lives, in line with children’s care plans. Staff facilitate and supervise family time when necessary. One child said that staff had taken the time and effort to travel a long distance with her. This allowed her to visit her family, who she had not seen for some time due to the travel restrictions. When issues arise around family time, staff liaise with the local authority and look at how this could be more enjoyable, for example by facilitating activities. This ensures that the children have continuing relationships with important people in their lives.

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good

Transitions into and out of the home are managed well. For example, one child had the opportunity to meet the other children before they moved into the home. This helped the children to develop positive relationships in the home. However, not all impact assessments are clear, and they do not always consider the needs of all of the children living in the home or include information to indicate that staff have the skills to meet the individual needs of each child.

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good

Parts of the home environment require improvement. For example, mould and mildew in a child’s bedroom need to be removed. Internal doors in the home should be unlocked to allow children free access to all areas of their home. The registered Inspection report children’s home: 2582337 3 manager acknowledged these areas for improvement and has made a commitment to urgent maintenance work being carried out.

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How well children and young people are helped and protected: good

Children rarely go missing from this home. When children do go missing, staff are proactive in trying to find them and follow the correct procedures to find them and keep them safe. Return home interviews are carried out after children have been missing from home. This gives children the opportunity to talk with someone who is independent from the home.

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How well children and young people are helped and protected: good

There is a low level of restraint in the home. There have been some incidents of challenging behaviour, but staff manage these situations well using de-escalation strategies. Staff have carried out some good work with children to promote better relationships in the home. Consequently, significant incidents in the home have reduced.

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How well children and young people are helped and protected: good

Staff understand the children’s risks and vulnerabilities and are proactive at identifying concerns when they arise. Staff take effective action to ensure that children are safe. The registered manager needs to ensure that risk management plans include clear written guidance for staff to follow to minimise all known risks, and that all staff working in the home have read and understand these plans.

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How well children and young people are helped and protected: good

Managers ensure that each child has an individual risk assessment in place. However, the assessments are not consistently updated as new risks occur. In addition, not all staff follow the actions identified in children’s plans in order to reduce the identified risks. This is particularly in respect of children who smoke in their bedrooms. Failure to follow agreed plans does not ensure that children and staff working in the home are kept consistently safe from harm.

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How well children and young people are helped and protected: good

Staff use a restorative approach to address negative behaviour displayed by children. This approach encourages children to reflect on any concerning or risky behaviours and take responsibility for their actions, while gaining an understanding of the effect of their behaviours on others. For example, children have helped to complete repairs to the home when they have caused the damage. This promotes a sense of personal responsibility for children and their actions.

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How well children and young people are helped and protected: good

Staff and managers undertake a range of training in safeguarding matters. Staff complete online courses on a range of topics, including health and safety. This ensures that staff have a good understanding of their safeguarding roles and duties.

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good

The home is led by an experienced registered manager. She is passionate and child centred. She knows the children well and demonstrates good insight into their needs. She has a good understanding of the progress children are making and has Inspection report children’s home: 2582337 4 acted to ensure that there is more consistency and better communication between the staff, which has started to improve the quality of care that children receive.

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good

The manager has worked effectively throughout the COVID-19 pandemic to ensure that a stable staff team is in place to take responsibility for caring for children. During a challenging period, the managers completed shifts to limit the numbers of staff changes to maintain continuity and consistency of care for children.

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good

Although some staff receive regular supervision and training, this is not consistent across the team. In particular, not all staff had completed training in mental health, self-harm and first aid. It is recognised that some face-to-face training sessions had not taken place due to the pandemic. However, without the relevant training, not all staff are equipped with the necessary skills to respond to all risk-taking behaviours that children may face.

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good

There are systems in place, such as a communication book, daily handovers and team meetings to ensure that staff are kept informed about anything they need to know about the children regarding their day-to-day needs and any emerging risks. However, despite the manager giving instructions to improve practice issues, including acceptable sanctions, not all staff adhere to the guidance provided. This leads to inconsistent practice and confusion for children.

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good

There are shortfalls in the registered manager’s monitoring and evaluation of documentation in the home. Not all records have been completed in full, including sanctions, rosters and incident forms, and documents are not always signed and dated by the author. Training records have not been updated to demonstrate that all staff have had sufficient training to meet the needs of the children. The registered manager understands the importance of the improvements required to improve her oversight and development of the home.

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good

The registered manager was unable to demonstrate the action taken in response to complaints raised by children and parents. Although a child and a parent confirmed that complaints they had made had been actioned, recordings of these are not available. This is a missed opportunity to demonstrate the work that the manager completes when concerns and complaints are resolved.

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good

The organisation has introduced a new computerised system to record and store care records. However, this is not used consistently, and paper copies of documents are also completed. This leads to inconsistency in recording, and not all records include the voice of the child. Furthermore, staff should understand the organisation’s policies on record-keeping, recording information on individual children in a non-stigmatising way that distinguishes between fact and opinion. Information about the child must always be recorded in a way that will be helpful to the child. Inspection report children’s home: 2582337 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, 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 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—

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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; and

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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))

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Requirement Due date

This relates to staff keeping individual risk assessments up to date and identifying suitable and clear strategies, where necessary, to keep children safe, and ensuring that children live in a safe, clean environment. 23 May 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—

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Requirement Due date

ensure that staff have the experience, qualifications and skills to meet the needs of each child; 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. 23 May 2021 Inspection report children’s home: 2582337 6 (Regulation 13 (1)(a)(b) (2)(c)(h))

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Requirement Due date

This relates to the registered manager ensuring that there is robust oversight of the home’s practice, with particular regard to the implementation of the risk assessments and an evaluation of incidents to inform lessons learned and future improvements.

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Requirement Due date

The care planning standard is that children receive effectively planned care in or through the children’s home. (Regulation 14 (1)(a))

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Requirement Due date

This specifically relates to the need to make sure that all necessary information is captured on the impact risk assessments, including relevant background histories, in order to make an accurate assessment of the risk factors associated with any new admissions and also potential risk to other children in placement. 23 May 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;

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Requirement Due date

are signed and dated by the author of each entry. (Regulation 36 (1)(a)(b)(c)) 23 May 2021

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Requirement Due date

Schedule 4 sets out the other information that the registered person must keep in relation to a children’s home.

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Requirement Due date

maintain in the home the records in Schedule 4; ensure that the records are kept up to date. (Regulation 37 (1)(2)(a)(b))

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Requirement Due date

In particular, ensure that the records include a copy of the staff duty roster of persons working at the home, a record of the actual rotas worked, and a record of any persons who work at any time at the home, including the registered manager. 23 May 2021 Inspection report children’s home: 2582337 7

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Recommendations

 Staff should be familiar with the home’s policies on record-keeping and understand the importance of careful, objective and clear recording. 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)

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Information about this inspection

Inspectors have looked closely at the experiences and progress of children and young people, using the ‘Social care common inspection framework’. This inspection was carried out under the Care Standards Act 2000 to assess the effectiveness of the service, how it meets the core functions of the service as set out in legislation, and to consider how well it complies with The Children’s Homes (England) Regulations 2015 and the ‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’. Inspection report children’s home: 2582337 8

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Children’s home details

Registered provider: Sandcastle Care Limited

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: 49 Whitegate Drive, Blackpool FY3 9DG

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Children’s home details

Responsible individual: Penelope Rafferty

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Inspectors

Michelle Edge, Social Care Inspection Manager

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Inspectors

Michael Charnley, Social Care Inspector Inspection report children’s home: 2582337 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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