Children's home run by Roseberry Specialist Care Centres Ltd in Sunderland

Inspection report children’s home: SC430002 1 SC430002 Registered provider: Roseberry Specialist Care Centres Limited Full inspection Inspected under the social care common inspection framework

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Information about this children’s home

The home is owned and operated by a private organisation. It is registered to provide care for up to six children who have learning and/or physical disabilities.

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Information about this children’s home

The manager registered with Ofsted in December 2020.

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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.

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Information about this children’s home

We last visited this setting on 15 October 2020 to complete a monitoring visit. The report is published on our website.

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Overall experiences and progress of

children and young people, taking into account

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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 widespread failures that mean children are not protected and their welfare is not promoted or safeguarded. The care and experiences of children are poor.

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inadequate

Date of last inspection: 12 November 2019

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inadequate

Overall judgement at last inspection: sustained effectiveness

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Enforcement action since last inspection:

Ofsted issued a compliance notice to this home following a monitoring visit on 13 July 2020. This was with regard to the provider failing to ensure that staff receive suitable supervision. Ofsted completed a further monitoring visit on 24 August 2020 Inspection report children’s home: SC430002 2 and issued additional compliance notices with regard to child protection procedures and the monitoring of the home by the registered provider. At the assurance visit on 18 September 2020, Ofsted identified serious concerns that placed children at risk of harm. At a follow-up monitoring visit on 15 October 2020, managers had taken sufficient action to address these concerns. Inspection report children’s home: SC430002 3

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

12/11/2019 Interim Sustained effectiveness 30/04/2019 Full Good 08/01/2019 Full Good 28/02/2018 Interim Declined in effectiveness Inspection report children’s home: SC430002 4

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inadequate

The children’s overall experiences are poor. This is because of significant shortfalls in the leadership and management of the home and the failure of managers and staff to protect children from the risk of harm.

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inadequate

The children do not live in a settled home environment. This is due to the high number of serious incidents that occur in the home. There are occasions when some children are subjected to the threats of physical harm from other children. Staff do not have the skills to manage and reduce these incidents. As a result, some children are scared when incidents arise and they do not want to be in the communal areas of the home, opting to remain in their bedrooms. For some children, this means that they are isolated from their peers and from staff. This is detrimental to their emotional health and well-being.

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inadequate

Relationships between the children and staff are not always positive. This is because staff practice is inconsistent due to the high turnover of staff working in the home. This makes it difficult for the children to form trusting relationships with the adults responsible for their care.

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inadequate

The children do not live in a comfortable or well-maintained home. Parts of the home are damaged, and the registered manager does not ensure that repairs are completed in a timely manner. This is hazardous to the children’s safety. Furthermore, there are padlocks on kitchen cupboards to prevent the children from freely accessing food and snacks. These measures give the home an institutional feel and do not create a homely or welcoming environment for the children to live in.

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inadequate

Staff recognise the importance of children’s education. When children face barriers to education, staff work with the children’s social workers to find alternatives to formal education. For some children, this includes receiving home tuition to support their learning. This means that the children are able to continue with their education.

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inadequate

The children have a range of complex health needs, including learning and physical disabilities. Staff work in partnership with social workers, health professionals and allocated consultants. This means that the children have access to specialist medical services to meet their health needs and to support their development.

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inadequate

Staff encourage the children to remain active and to develop their hobbies and interests. The COVID-19 pandemic has meant that the children are spending more time in the home and garden and are more reliant on staff to entertain and engage them. Staff provide the children with a range of fun and educational activities aimed at developing their skills and stimulating their interests. Inspection report children’s home: SC430002 5

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inadequate

The children are at risk of harm. The registered manager does not always review and update children’s risk assessments following significant incidents. This means that there is no evaluation of the likelihood that these incidents will re-occur. Children’s risk assessments do not consistently provide staff with clear instructions to help them to manage all known risks to children’s safety. Furthermore, some risk assessments contain risks which are not relevant to the child. This causes confusion for staff who do not know what actions to take to protect the children from harm.

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inadequate

The registered manager does not make sure that effective procedures are in place for staff to follow to correctly administer prescribed medication to the children. Medication errors are frequent, resulting in some children being given the incorrect doses of medication. In addition, not all medication is correctly stored. For example, medication that is no longer in use is being stored alongside current medication. This means that some staff are unsure which medication to give to the children. This places the children at risk of serious harm.

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inadequate

The use of physical intervention for one child is currently high. Work is ongoing with specialist professionals to support the child through this difficult time. However, current staffing issues mean that not all the staff who work with this child are permanent staff who are trained to use physical restraint. There are occasions when this child has been restrained on the floor by untrained agency staff. This poor practice may lead to the child being injured.

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inadequate

The children do not go missing from the home. Staff understand their role and responsibility for preventing children from going missing from the home and they know what actions to take if the children do go missing. There are occasions when children have left the home because of incidents that they find distressing or upsetting. In these circumstances, staff closely follow the children to support them to return quickly.

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inadequate

Staff know and understand the home’s safeguarding and child protection procedures. The responsible individual and the registered manager ensure that these are followed in the event of any allegations of abuse. In these circumstances, the children are informed of the actions being taken to investigate these allegations and the arrangements in place to keep them safe during these investigations.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

The leadership and management of the home are ineffective, and this is detrimental to children’s safety, development and progress. The registered manager does not identify practice shortfalls. As a result, action is not taken swiftly to prevent children from receiving poor and unsafe care. When practice concerns are identified by other agencies, the registered manager and the responsible Inspection report children’s home: SC430002 6 individual take action to rectify these. However, progress made is not always sustained.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

Staff are not all trained to meet the children’s individual needs, including those needs associated with the children’s diagnoses of autism spectrum disorders. The registered manager does not ensure that all staff receive specialist training to enable them to effectively communicate with the children, in particular when children use non-verbal communication media. Furthermore, the registered manager does not provide staff with relevant training to equip them with the skills and knowledge that they need to support those children who display sexualised behaviours. As a result, the staff are unable to manage these behaviours. This means that the children do not receive the specialist care they require to support their development and progress.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

The children do not receive care from a consistent or cohesive staff team that is trained and experienced to meet their needs. High levels of staff sickness and a high turnover of staff leaving the home have led to a reliance on the use of temporary agency staff. The majority of these agency staff are unfamiliar with the children’s individual needs and do not have the skills or knowledge to meet these. These significant staffing issues have an impact on the children’s daily routines and progress and prevent children from building strong relationships with staff.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

The children do not consistently receive the type of care and support described in the home’s statement of purpose. The service is not meeting its aim of being a centre of excellence for children with autism spectrum disorders and learning disabilities.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

Staff receive regular supervision, although the effectiveness of these sessions is mixed. The constant changes in the staff team, and the continual use of agency staff, place extra pressure on the permanent staff. Although some staff reported feeling well supported by the registered manager, other staff stated that they do not receive the support they need to ensure that children’s experiences are positive.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

Leaders and managers recognise that the service is not currently supporting children well or always protecting them from harm. They have introduced staff debrief sessions to encourage staff to reflect on their practice and to share their views about how to better meet children’s needs. However, these sessions are a new development, and the effectiveness of these is not yet known.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

The registered manager works with other agencies and professionals such as children’s medical consultants and allocated teachers. Working closely with other professionals helps to ensure that children receive the external support they need, particularly in relation to their healthcare needs.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

A requirement made at the last inspection with regard to the quality of the manager’s six-monthly monitoring report remains in place and was not reviewed as part of this inspection. Inspection report children’s home: SC430002 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 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

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; 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)(iv)(d)) 6 June 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 promotes their welfare.

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Requirement Due date

In particular, the standard in paragraph (1) requires the registered person to— 6 June 2021 Inspection report children’s home: SC430002 8 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

ensure that the home has sufficient staff to provide care for each child; and

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Requirement Due date

ensure that the home’s workforce provides continuity of care to each child. (Regulation 13 (1)(a)(b) (2)(a)(b)(c)(d)(e))

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Requirement Due date

Subject to paragraph (6), the registered person must ensure that the home is at all times conducted in a manner which is consistent with its statement of purpose. (Regulation 16 (5)) 6 June 2021

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Requirement Due date

*The registered person must make arrangements for the handling, recording, safekeeping, safe administration and disposal of medicines received into the children’s home. In particular the registered person must ensure that—

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Requirement Due date

medicine which is prescribed for a child is administered as prescribed to the child for whom it is prescribed and to no other child; and

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Requirement Due date

a record is kept of the administration of medicine to each child. (Regulation 23 (1) (2)(a)(b)(c) (3)(a)(b)) 6 June 2021

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must complete a review of the quality of care provided for children (‘a quality of care review’) at least once every 6 months.

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Requirement Due date

supply to HMCI a copy of the quality of care review report within 28 days of the date on which the quality of care review is completed. (Regulation 45 (1) (4)(a)) 6 June 2021

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Requirement Due date

* These requirements are subject to a compliance notice. Inspection report children’s home: SC430002 9

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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: SC430002 10

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Children’s home details

Registered provider: Roseberry Specialist Care Centres Ltd

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: Roseberry Specialist Care Centres Ltd, Lakeside House, Kingfisher Way, Stockton-on-Tees, County Durham TS18 3NB

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Inspectors

Jamie Richardson, Social Care Inspector Gemma McDonnell, Social Care Inspector Inspection report children’s home: SC430002 11 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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