Children's Home run by Doncaster Children‟s Services Trust Limited in Doncaster

Inspection report children’s home: SC481447 1 SC481447 Registered provider: Doncaster Children’s Services Trust Limited Full inspection Inspected under the social care common inspection framework

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Information about this children’s home

The local authority owns and manages this home. The home is registered to provide care and accommodation for up to five children who may have emotional and/or behavioural difficulties.

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Information about this children’s home

The registered manager is appropriately qualified. He registered with Ofsted in October 2019.

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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 10 February 2021 to carry out 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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requires improvement to be good

How well children and young people are helped and protected requires improvement to be good

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requires improvement to be good

The effectiveness of leaders and managers requires improvement to be good

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requires improvement to be good

The children’s home is not yet delivering good help and care for children and young people. However, there are no serious or widespread failures that result in their welfare not being safeguarded or promoted.

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requires improvement to be good

Date of last inspection: 10 December 2019

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requires improvement to be good

Overall judgement at last inspection: improved effectiveness

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requires improvement to be good

Enforcement action since last inspection: none Inspection report children’s home: SC481447 2

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

10/12/2019 Interim Improved effectiveness 20/05/2019 Full Good 10/10/2018 Full Requires improvement to be good 06/12/2017 Full Good Inspection report children’s home: SC481447 3

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improvement to be good

Children’s experiences of living in the home are mixed. Some children make progress, but others do not and spend significant amounts of time out of the home.

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improvement to be good

Staff welcome children into the home. The home is well maintained and well decorated throughout. Children contribute to the decisions about the decoration of the home. Some children have also personalised their bedrooms. This helps children feel valued.

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improvement to be good

Incidents of bullying and aggression have taken place between children. These have resulted in one child refusing to return from a family visit. Another child has not unpacked his belongings since moving into the home in February. This means that the experiences of these children have been poor. Managers and staff have not been effective in addressing these issues in a meaningful way.

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improvement to be good

Staff have built relationships with some of the children who have lived at the home for a substantial amount of time. These children say they are confident to speak with the staff about their individual worries and concerns. This provides some children with a sense of security.

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improvement to be good

Staff promote education for children. One child is making progress and attending education and aspires for their future. Staff have struggled to ensure this for all children and levels of attendance and attainment vary. For these children, staff do not plan or structure their day. This means that they are not developing routines to their day, which will help them when education or work placements are found and affects how they prepare for their life as an adult.

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improvement to be good

Staff complete ‘My Chats’ key-work sessions with the children. However, these are reactive and not linked to care plans. The sessions include a variety of topics for discussion, such as keeping safe in the community, online safety and healthy relationships. This gives some children the opportunity to discuss issues and helps to reduce their anxieties, although this is not the case for all children. Some ‘My Chat’ records place the responsibility back on the child to manage situations, with vague information about how staff will help and support the child to achieve their goal. This means that children experience inconsistent approaches to their care and do not know how staff will help them to understand and manage risks.

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improvement to be good

Staff help children to register with health professionals. Staff encourage and support children to attend routine appointments and health checks. Records show that some children are not being helped by staff to adopt a healthy lifestyle and staff are unable to make sustained progress in addressing these issues. Inspection report children’s home: SC481447 4 Staff have accessed specialist mental health support and advice to help them understand and meet the individual needs of the children. This has enabled staff to support some children with their emotional health and well-being.

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improvement to be good

All of the known risks to children in this home are not well understood or acted on, in particular risks in the community.

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improvement to be good

When children go missing from the home, the staff follow the individual missing- from-care procedures and make initial attempts to find the children. However, for one child, incidents of going missing from the home have significantly increased. The child often leaves the home very early in the morning and the staff have not managed to prevent this. There are known individual risks for the child and risks in the community he gravitates to. Staff do try and contact children by phone when they are out to check on their welfare, but this has mixed results as some children do not respond. There is limited evidence of what staff do in these circumstances to ensure that children are safe. This leaves children at potential risk of harm.

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improvement to be good

The individual risk assessments and safety plans are varied in quality. Some plans provide the staff team with strategies to follow and actions to take. Other plans are confusing and lengthy with conflicting information, and place responsibility for resolving the risk with the child. This does not provide the staff team with clear direction about the actions they should take to help and support the child.

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improvement to be good

Staff carry out regular health and safety checks. There is a system in place to ensure that staff undertake fire checks and drills. However, these do not ensure that all children receive information, are involved in the drills, or receive training to be safe in case of a fire. This potentially compromises the children’s safety.

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good

The manager is supported by a deputy, senior staff and a consistent staff team. However, the systems in place to monitor the effectiveness of practice in the home have not identified some of the shortfalls found at this visit.

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good

The management team has not notified Ofsted on one occasion when there has been a serious incident. This does not allow external scrutiny of the practice in the home and means that Ofsted cannot be assured that all actions have been taken to safeguard children.

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good

The home has good links with a range of professionals. The manager attends strategy and professional meetings to discuss and share concerns to ensure there is a joint multi-agency approach to supporting the children. However, such practice is not supported by succinct, clear care plans that outline measurable outcomes for children in the home. There is a lack of cross referencing between plans, risk Inspection report children’s home: SC481447 5 assessments and daily records, which means that information is looked at in a fragmented way. This makes it difficult for the management team to have full oversight and, therefore, be effective in ensuring the progress of children.

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good

Prior to children coming to live in the home, the manager completes an assessment. These do not evaluate the impact of any new child on those children already living there, or the impact of the group on the new child. This makes it difficult for the management team to assure itself that the group of children are well matched.

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good

The management team ensures that staff receive regular supervision, training and development. Staff state that they feel supported and say that the manager and deputy are approachable.

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good

Recruitment processes are good. This means that staff are vetted and deemed safe to work with children. New staff receive induction and complete a probationary period. This provides the staff with expectations of their roles and responsibilities. Inspection report children’s home: SC481447 6

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Statutory requirements

This section sets out the actions that the registered persons 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 persons 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— understand the children’s home’s overall aims and the outcomes it seeks to achieve for children; use this understanding to deliver care that meets children’s needs and supports them to fulfil their potential. In particular, the standard in paragraph (1) requires the registered person to— ensure that staff— 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)(b)(iv)) This specifically relates to ensuring that all relevant plans are personalised to meet the child’s individual needs. 1 August 2021

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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. In particular, the standard in paragraph (1) requires the registered person to ensure— that staff— understand the barriers to learning that each child may face and take appropriate action to help the child to overcome any such barriers; help each child to understand the importance and value of education, learning, training and employment; help each child who is above compulsory school age to participate in further education, training or employment and to prepare for future care, education or employment. (Regulation 8 (1) (2)(a)(iii)(iv)(ix)) This specifically relates to the children who are not attending or fully engaging in education or training. 1 August 2021 Inspection report children’s home: SC481447 7 The health and well-being standard is that— children are helped to lead healthy lifestyles. (Regulation 10

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Requirement Due date

(1)(c)) This specifically relates to children eating healthily and leading a healthy lifestyle. 1 August 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— mutual respect and trust; an understanding about acceptable behaviour; and positive responses to other children and adults. In particular, the standard in paragraph (1) requires the registered person to ensure— that staff— help each child to develop the understanding and skills to recognise or withdraw from a damaging, exploitative or harmful relationship. (Regulation 11 (1)(a)(b)(c) (2)(a)(vii)) This specifically relates to one child where there are concerns with their associations when out in the community and the potential of criminal exploitation. 1 August 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. In particular, the standard in paragraph (1) requires the registered person to ensure— that staff— 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; take effective action whenever there is a serious concern about a child’s welfare. (Regulation 12 (1) (2)(a)(i)(vi)) This specifically relates to managing one child’s risks when out in the community and some of the relationships between the children. 1 August 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— helps children aspire to fulfil their potential; and promotes their welfare. 1 August 2021 Inspection report children’s home: SC481447 8 In particular, the standard in paragraph (1) requires the registered person to— use monitoring and review systems to make continuous improvements in the quality of care provided in the home. (Regulation 13 (1)(a)(b) (2)(h)) After consultation with the fire and rescue authority, the registered person must— ensure, by means of fire drills and practices at suitable intervals, that persons working at the home and, so far as reasonably practicable, children are aware of the procedure to be followed in case of fire. (Regulation 25 (1)(d)) This specifically relates to one child not participating in a fire drill. 1 August 2021

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must notify HMCI and each other relevant person without delay if— a child is involved in or subject to, or is suspected of being involved in or subject to, sexual exploitation; an incident requiring police involvement occurs in relation to a child which the registered person considers to be serious; there is an allegation of abuse against the home or a person working there; a child protection enquiry involving a child— is instigated; or concludes (in which case, the notification must include the outcome of the child protection enquiry); or there is any other incident relating to a child which the registered person considers to be serious. (Regulation 40 (4)(a)(b)(c)(d)(i)(ii)(e)) 1 August 2021

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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: SC481447 9

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Children’s home details

Registered provider: Doncaster Children’s Services Trust Limited

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: Colonnades House, Duke Street, Doncaster, South Yorkshire DN1 1ER

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Inspectors

Sue Hatton, Social Care Inspector Sue Atkinson-Millmoor, Regulatory Inspection Manager Inspection report children’s home: SC481447 10 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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