Children's Home run by Radical Services Limited in Westmorland and Furness

Inspection report children’s home: 1249264 1 Registered provider: Radical Services Ltd Full inspection Inspected under the social care common inspection framework

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Information about this children’s home

The home is operated by a private company. It currently provides care and accommodation for up to four young people irrespective of gender.

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Information about this children’s home

The home’s registered manager resigned in April 2020. A new manager has now been appointed and has submitted an application to register with Ofsted, although there have been significant delays in the process.

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Information about this children’s home

Due to COVID-19, at the request of the Secretary of State, we suspended all routine inspections of social care providers on 17 March 2020.

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Information about this children’s home

We last visited this setting on 21 October 2020 to carry out an assurance visit. The report is published on our website.

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inadequate

How well children and young people are helped and protected inadequate

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inadequate

The effectiveness of leaders and managers inadequate

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inadequate

There are serious and widespread failures that mean children and young people are not protected and their welfare is not promoted or safeguarded. The care and experiences of children and young people are poor and they are not making progress.

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inadequate

Date of last inspection: 27 November 2019

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inadequate

Overall judgement at last inspection: outstanding

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inadequate

Enforcement action since last inspection: not applicable Inspection report children’s home: 1249264 2

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

27/11/2019 Full Outstanding 30/07/2018 Full Outstanding 23/02/2018 Interim Sustained effectiveness 09/05/2017 Full Good Inspection report children’s home: 1249264 3

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inadequate

Children living in this home do not have positive routines or structure to their days. Inspectors observed children to sleep until the afternoon and remain in their bedrooms all day. Children’s sleep routines are disrupted and disorganised, resulting in them often sleeping during the daytime and being awake at night. These poor routines and sleep patterns negatively affect children’s overall well-being and progress.

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inadequate

Children are not well matched, and their relationships with others living in the home are fractured. This has resulted in children spending a lot of time alone in their bedrooms and preferring not to use the communal areas. Children say that they do not feel comfortable in the home and that they do not have many positive relationships with staff. A lack of positive relationships with both staff and peers has resulted in increased isolation for children.

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inadequate

Changes to the organisation’s structure, model and approaches have led to inconsistent caregiving and a loss of rules and boundaries. This has resulted in children feeling unsafe, uncared for and unsure of expectations.

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inadequate

Children have not progressed well in education. Currently, none of the children in the home are engaging with any formal education and only one child has a formal education placement. Opportunities for informal learning and extra-curricular activities are not planned or promoted. Education and activity planners are not in place to guide positive engagement and children are not motivated or incentivised to participate.

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inadequate

The food that children consume on a daily basis is not reflective of a healthy or balanced diet and does not promote good physical health. Children frequently eat unhealthy and fast foods as well as energy or fizzy drinks. Documentation shows that on occasions, some children will not consume anything within a day and on other occasions, children may eat to excess.

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inadequate

Children are rarely motivated to participate in activities with staff or each other. They said that this was because they did not really know the staff. This limits their opportunities to engage in healthy activities, develop social relationships and expand their range of experiences.

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inadequate

The work done with children is of a poor quality and not well recorded. There is no evidence to show that staff have meaningful discussions with children about issues that affect them. This does not show that staff help them to have a positive experience of care and achieve their potential. Inspection report children’s home: 1249264 4

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

Risk assessments in place to guide staff’s response to children’s behaviours are not robust. Strategies to manage risk-taking and unsafe behaviours are not always fit for purpose. Additionally, not all the necessary risk assessments are in place. For example, one young person had been misusing aerosols. No risk assessment was in place to manage this despite the potentially fatal outcome. This hinders staff’s ability to respond to such incidents and puts children at increased risk of harm.

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

Managers have not fully considered children’s risks when matching them. Nor have they taken reasonable steps to mitigate the risks children may pose to one another. Subsequently, bullying behaviours have had a detrimental impact on children’s overall welfare and well-being.

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

Bullying is a significant concern in the home and because of this, children do not feel safe. Some children have been subject to significant and repeated incidents of intimidation, threats and teasing. This has had a negative effect on their physical, emotional and mental health. The manager has failed to act on these concerns and has not prevented children from being harmed.

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

Children do not benefit from clear and consistent rules and boundaries. Children spoken to as part of the inspection felt that there were very few boundaries imposed on them. They also reported that there were no sanctions in place for children who bully. This left them feeling that staff took no action to reduce the incidents of bullying.

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

Children have been able to engage in sexual relationships with each other. Despite being aware of this possibility, staff had not taken effective action to prevent the children from accessing each other’s bedrooms. Even after staff were aware of the issue, actions taken to militate against this risk are not fully implemented or effective.

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

An allegation of abuse received from a child was not investigated or shared with the designated officer. The failure to respond appropriately to significant concerns, complaints and allegations made by children has compromised their safety and well- being.

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

Concerns for children’s welfare and incidents in the home are not always appropriately documented. This means that there is a lack of clarity about the frequency and severity of incidents. The home’s manager does not have effective systems in place for collating information relating to incidents and for monitoring and evaluating this information.

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

Children appear to be beyond the control of staff. Children do not have trusting relationships or respect for staff and so do not follow their direction. Staff do not have the skills to manage children’s behaviour. The impact of this is that children do not learn to regulate their own behaviour, which affects all areas of their lives. Inspection report children’s home: 1249264 5 Social workers are not informed or consulted about concerns for children’s welfare or in relation to incidents that have occurred. For example, one social was unaware that her child had misused substances or had gone for periods without eating. The lack of communication around significant concerns for children’s safety and well- being has prevented children receiving externally guided and multi-agency support. This has compromised their overall safety.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

There is no registered manager in place. The acting manager has been in post since September 2020. Difficulties with the submission process have meant that his application remains in process. This has left the home without a registered manager since April 2020, a period of over 12 months.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

The manager does not have effective monitoring systems in place. This means that he does not have an in-depth knowledge of how the home is operating or the rate at which children are progressing. The company’s own compliance team, as well as the independent visitor, have found significant shortfalls in the operation and management of the home recently.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

The manager did not demonstrate an expectation that children would progress and achieve while living at the home. He had limited understanding of the poor outcomes children were experiencing and the impact of their lack of progression.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

Staff morale has been low. There have been changes within the organisation which have resulted in changes to the staffing of the home. This includes changes in roles, staffing ratios and shift patterns. Subsequently, several staff have resigned from their posts and left the home within a short timescale. A total of 10 members of staff have left in the seven months since the home was last inspected. Agency staff are used to support the need for increased supervision levels in the home. This does not promote continuity of care for children living in the home.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

Some staff working in the home do not feel fully supported by the manager. They have not received regular supervision and do not feel confident in implementing the new models of practice imposed by the organisation. This is because staff do not have the knowledge, skills or training to do so. Furthermore, staff do not have the relevant skills to manage all the behaviours presented by children. For example, they have not received substance misuse training despite children currently living in the home being at risk of using alcohol, cannabis and aerosols.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

The statement of purpose, which reflects significant changes to models and approaches used in the home as well as the staffing structure, has not been submitted to Ofsted. This has prevented appropriate oversight, monitoring and review from the regulator.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

The acting manager has not managed complaints from children robustly. Some complaints have not been thoroughly investigated. One child has requested to progress their complaint to the regulator but was not afforded the opportunity to do Inspection report children’s home: 1249264 6 so. This does not allow children to be listened to by an independent person of their choosing and prevents external review. Furthermore, this does not provide children with an opportunity to be heard and for them to know that their views are important.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

Senior managers within the organisation have identified some of the issues raised in this inspection report. They have implemented an action plan and provided additional management support and oversight of the home to help the manager achieve the required levels of care and protection for the children. Inspection report children’s home: 1249264 7

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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 quality and purpose of care standard is that children receive care from staff who—

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Requirement Due date

understand the children’s home’s overall aims and the outcomes it seeks to achieve for children;

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Requirement Due date

use this understanding to deliver care that meets children’s needs and supports them to fulfil their potential.

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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

understand and apply the home’s statement of purpose;

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Requirement Due date

protect and promote each child’s welfare;

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Requirement Due date

provide personalised care that meets each child’s needs, as recorded in the child’s relevant plans, taking account of the child’s background. (Regulation (6) (1)(a)(b) (2)(a)(b)(ii)(iv)) 20 June 2021

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Requirement Due date

The children’s views, wishes and feelings standard is that children receive care from staff who—

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Requirement Due date

develop positive relationships with them;

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Requirement Due date

take their views, wishes and feelings into account in relation to matters affecting the children’s care and welfare and their lives.

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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— 20 June 2021 Inspection report children’s home: 1249264 8 ascertain and consider each child’s views, wishes and feelings, and balance these against what they judge to be in the child’s best interests when making decisions about the child’s care and welfare;

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Requirement Due date

help each child to express views, wishes and feelings;

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Requirement Due date

help each child to understand how the child’s views, wishes and feelings have been taken into account and give the child reasons for decisions in relation to the child;

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Requirement Due date

has access to the home’s children’s guide, and the home’s complaints procedure, when the child’s placement in the home is agreed and throughout the child’s stay in the home. (Regulation (7) (1)(a)(b)(c) (2)(a)(iii)(b)(ii))

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Requirement Due date

*The education standard is that children make measurable progress towards achieving their educational potential and are helped to do so.

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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

help each child to achieve the child’s education and training targets, as recorded in the child’s relevant plans;

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Requirement Due date

support each child’s learning and development, including helping the child to develop independent study skills and, where appropriate, helping the child to complete independent study;

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Requirement Due date

promote opportunities for each child to learn informally;

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Requirement Due date

help each child to attend education or training in accordance with the expectations in the child’s relevant plans. (Regulation (8) (1) (2)(i)(ii)(iv)(v)(x)) 20 June 2021

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Requirement Due date

The enjoyment and achievement standard is that children take part in and benefit from a variety of activities that meet their needs and develop and reflect their creative, cultural, intellectual, physical and social interests and skills. (Regulation (9) (1)) 20 June 2021 Inspection report children’s home: 1249264 9 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; and

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Requirement Due date

children are helped to lead healthy lifestyles. (Regulation (10) (1)(a)(b)(c)) 20 June 2021

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Requirement Due date

*The positive relationships standard is that children are helped to develop, and to benefit from, relationships based on—

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Requirement Due date

an understanding about acceptable behaviour; and

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Requirement Due date

positive responses to other children and adults.

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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

encourage each child to take responsibility for the child’s behaviour, in accordance with the child’s age and understanding;

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Requirement Due date

help each child to understand, in a way that is appropriate according to the child’s age and understanding, personal, sexual and social relationships, and how those relationships can be supportive or harmful;

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Requirement Due date

de-escalate confrontations with or between children, or potentially violent behaviour by children;

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Requirement Due date

have the skills to recognise incidents or indications of bullying and how to deal with them. (Regulation (11) (1)(a)(b)(c) (2)(iii)(vi)(xi)(xiii)) 20 June 2021

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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

that staff— 20 June 2021 Inspection report children’s home: 1249264 10 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

take effective action whenever there is a serious concern about a child’s welfare; and

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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. (Regulation (12) (1) (2)(i)(ii)(iii)(iv)(b))

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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

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

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Requirement Due date

ensure that the home’s workforce provides continuity of care to 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)(a)(c)(e)(h)) 20 June 2021 Inspection report children’s home: 1249264 11 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; 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) (1) (3)(a)(b)) 20 June 2021

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must ensure that a record is made of any complaint, the action taken in response, and the outcome of any investigation. (Regulation (39) (3)) 20 June 2021

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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

there is an allegation of abuse against the home or a person working there;

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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) (c)(e)) 20 June 2021

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Requirement Due date

* These requirements are subject to a compliance notice.

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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: 1249264 12

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Children’s home details

Registered provider: Radical Services Limited

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: 2 The Calls, Leeds LS2 7JU

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Children’s home details

Responsible individual: Matthew McFadzean

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Inspectors

Charlie Bamber, Social Care Inspector Natalie Bennett, Social Care Inspector Inspection report children’s home: 1249264 13 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

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

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