Children's Home run by Darlington Borough Council in Darlington

Inspection report children's home: SC037861 1 SC037861 Registered provider: Darlington Borough Council Full inspection Inspected under the social care common inspection framework

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Information about this children’s home

The home provides care for up to three children who may experience social, emotional and/or behavioural difficulties. It is managed by a local authority.

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Information about this children’s home

The manager registered with Ofsted in March 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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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 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: 12 September 2019

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requires improvement to be good

Overall judgement at last inspection: good

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requires improvement to be good

Enforcement action since last inspection: none Inspection report children’s home: SC037861 2

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

12/09/2019 Full Good 01/05/2018 Full Good 20/06/2017 Full Good 26/01/2017 Interim Improved effectiveness Inspection report children’s home: SC037861 3

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improvement to be good

Experiences for one child are not positive, which is detrimental to their progress. One child is heavily involved in criminal and antisocial behaviour in the local community. This has led to multiple police arrests. Staff’s actions to prevent or reduce these incidents are not effective.

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improvement to be good

Some children do not make good progress in education. When children are admitted to the home, staff do not consistently ensure that constructive meetings are arranged with children’s teachers to support their attendance. As a result, some children’s school attendance is poor, and they do not recognise the importance of education.

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improvement to be good

Children living at the home are generally healthy and staff support them to attend their routine medical appointments. Staff carry out key-work sessions with children around key health issues, including sexual health and contraception. This helps the children to understand about safe sex and how infections and diseases are spread. This in turn helps children to consider their long-term health needs.

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improvement to be good

Staff do not raise children’s awareness around attending sessions with therapeutic social workers or other specialists, such as mental health professionals. They do not help children to understand the importance of these sessions or how these will support their personal progress. This is a missed opportunity for children to reflect on their background experiences and recognise how these may influence their development.

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improvement to be good

Staff provide children with opportunities to develop their independent living skills. The registered manager has identified areas for improvement within the independence packages and is adapting these to be more useful for the children currently living in the home. This helps children to learn life skills to prepare them for adult living.

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improvement to be good

The registered manager and staff recognise the importance of children's relationships with their families. They support children to have time with those who are important to them, which helps children to maintain these relationships. As a result, children are not isolated from their families.

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improvement to be good

Some children are involved in unacceptable and antisocial behaviours, such as violence and burglaries, in the local community. External professionals, including the youth offending team, work with the children, and staff complete some basic level Inspection report children’s home: SC037861 4 key-work sessions about these concerns. However, this work is not effective and risks to some children’s safety remain high.

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improvement to be good

For one child, staff do not know their whereabouts when they are out of the home. Other professionals, including the child’s social worker and the missing-from-home coordinator, say that the child is not safe when out in the community. Despite staff making welfare calls to the child, they do not follow these up with visual checks or attempts to locate the child. Consequently, the child’s risks continue to escalate because staff’s actions are not effective.

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improvement to be good

Children’s risk assessments do not always reflect all their known risks. For some risks, the strategies in place to manage and reduce these are not effective. This prevents some children from understanding why their actions and behaviours may increase potential risks to their safety.

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improvement to be good

Staff are not raising one child’s awareness around acceptable behaviour in the community. Key-work sessions are carried out; however, these are not effective as police involvement continues to increase.

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improvement to be good

The use of physical restraint is rare. Staff use verbal de-escalation techniques to distract children and to help them to manage their frustrations. As a result, the number of physical restraints continues to reduce.

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improvement to be good

The registered manager ensures that staff recruitment is safe. Staff files include all relevant references and verification checks. This means that children work with staff who are deemed to be safe and suitable.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The registered manager is experienced and is well established in her role. She is central to the running of the home and knows the progress that the children make. Care provided to the children is individualised and in line with their statutory plans. As a result, there is a consistent approach to the care provided to the children.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Staff are supported by the registered manager and have regular supervision and team meetings. Supervision sessions are reflective discussions that help staff to learn and share new skills and approaches to better care for the children living at the home.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Face-to-face training, such as physical intervention and first aid, has continued during the COVID-19 pandemic. Staff have also completed more bespoke online training to meet the children’s specific needs. This includes training around child sexual exploitation, county lines and safeguarding, and means that staff have some of the skills they need to support children.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The registered manager is aware of the strengths of the service and the areas for development. She reviews these through internal monitoring systems. This means that the registered manager can quickly identify and address some shortfalls, such Inspection report children’s home: SC037861 5 as reporting damage to the home to the maintenance team. This ensures that the children live in a safe environment.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Professionals, including children’s social workers, consistently praise the commitment of the registered manager and her leadership of the home, specifically the good communication between the service and other agencies. This means that other professionals are kept up to date about recent incidents and that they are able to use this information to plan suitable care for children. Inspection report children’s home: SC037861 6

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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 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

In particular, the standard in paragraph (1) requires the registered person to ensure—

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Requirement Due date

achieve the health and well-being outcomes that are recorded in the child’s relevant plans. (Regulation 10 (1)(a) (2)(a)(i)) 30 July 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

help each child to develop socially aware behaviour. (Regulation 11 (1)(b)(c) (2)(a)(ii)) 30 July 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— 30 July 2021 Inspection report children’s home: SC037861 7 help each child to understand how to keep safe;

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Requirement Due date

take effective action whenever there is a serious concern about a child’s welfare. (Regulation 12 (1) (2)(a)(ii)(vi)

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Recommendation

 The registered person should act as an effective advocate, in a way that a good parent would, for or on behalf of a child who may be experiencing difficulties with education. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 28, paragraph 5.12)

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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: SC037861 8

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Children’s home details

Registered provider: Darlington Borough Council

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: Town Hall, Feethams, Darlington, County Durham DL1 5QT

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Children’s home details

Responsible individual: Jane Kochanowski

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Inspector

Gemma McDonnell, Social Care Inspector Inspection report children’s home: SC037861 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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Inspector

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Inspector

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Inspector

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