Children's Home run by Innovate Therapeutic Care Limited in Blackpool

Inspection report children’s home: 2612071 1 Registered provider: Innovate Therapeutic Care Limited Full inspection Inspected under the social care common inspection framework

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Information about this children’s home

This home is registered to provide care for up to four children who may experience emotional or behavioural difficulties.

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Information about this children’s home

The home’s purpose is to provide 16-week placements during which assessment, therapeutic intervention and transition to foster care take place.

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Information about this children’s home

The registered manager’s post is vacant.

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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 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

Overall judgement at last inspection: inadequate

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requires improvement to be good

Enforcement action since last inspection: At the last inspection on 11 May 2021, three compliance notices were issued under regulations 12, 13 and 14. Inspection report children’s home: 2612071 2

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

11/05/2021 Full Inadequate Inspection report children’s home: 2612071 3

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improvement to be good

This home was judged to be inadequate at the last full inspection on 11 May 2021. During this inspection, the inspector considered the action the provider has taken to meet the steps in the three compliance notices which were issued at the previous inspection in May 2021.

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improvement to be good

There were no children living in the home at the time of this inspection. All the children living at the home at the time of the last full inspection have now moved to alternative placements. Two children benefitted from planned moves to foster care placements. However, some children moved very quickly and, although staff had arranged planned introductions, the children refused to engage in these opportunities. Staff tried to ensure that their moves were positive experiences, but there was little opportunity to explore how some of the children were feeling. Staff have continued to provide outreach support for some of the children, which has helped to stabilise these placements. One carer said, ‘The move here went well for [name of child]. Staff are visiting her each week for support and she enjoys this.’

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improvement to be good

Despite shortfalls being identified in one child’s care plans, this plan was not updated prior to the child leaving the home. This means that staff were not provided with clear written guidance to support the child in order to provide consistent care for children.

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improvement to be good

There have been no new admissions to the home. However, the responsible individual has reviewed the admissions procedure to make improvements. A new impact risk assessment has been developed to support the manager to make informed decisions about whether children’s needs can be safely met prior to admitting them to the home.

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improvement to be good

A new child-friendly welcome pack has been developed to better support children’s transition to the home. This will provide children with accessible information about the home and what they can expect when they arrive. In addition, a new booklet has been designed to capture children’s likes, dislikes, hobbies and interests, to help staff to prepare and plan their admission.

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improvement to be good

Some children’s risk management plans have not been updated and some documents contain unclear and conflicting guidance. This means that staff do not have access to all the information they need to support children to stay safe.

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improvement to be good

The responsible individual has introduced a new risk assessment toolkit which is designed to capture the full range of risks children are vulnerable to. This is Inspection report children’s home: 2612071 4 supplemented by a new risk management plan to detail the strategies staff must use to support children to stay safe. In addition, a system is now in place to alert staff to any changes in children’s risk management plans so that they can familiarise themselves with the new information.

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improvement to be good

All staff have completed additional training to support them to manage children’s relationships more safely. Staff speak confidently about how they would identify risks and the actions they would take to deal with incidents of bullying.

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good

The registered manager’s post is vacant. The previous postholder has left the company and a new manager has not yet been recruited. In the interim, the home is being led by the responsible individual.

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good

No children have been living at the home for several weeks. The responsible individual has used this time to develop an action plan to address the shortfalls identified at the last full inspection. Staff have also received additional training to better equip them with the skills and knowledge they require for their role. Staff told the inspectors that they valued this training and used it as an opportunity for reflective practice. One member of staff said, ‘It has given us the time and space to gel better as a team.’

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good

Shortfalls were identified in the manager’s oversight of care planning and risk management. For example, children’s care plans and risk management plans have not been updated and some records of significant incidents in the home have not been reviewed by the manager. Furthermore, the quality of record-keeping is variable. Some documents were not signed and dated by the author of each entry.

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good

The responsible individual has a good understanding of the home’s strengths and weaknesses. She has developed new and more robust monitoring systems to support the management team to make continuous improvements to the quality of care provided in the home. However, this system has not been adopted yet, so it is too soon to assess the impact of this on practice.

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good

Compliance notices in respect of regulation 12 (the protection of children standard), regulation 13 (the leadership and management standard) and regulation 14 (the care planning standard) were considered met. A number of requirements and recommendations made at the previous full inspection are repeated as there was insufficient evidence of the impact of the improvements in practice.

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good

Ofsted will continue to monitor the provider closely to ensure that improvements are sustained. Inspection report children’s home: 2612071 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, 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 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

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. (Regulation 7 (1)(a)(b)(c)(ii)(iii))

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Requirement Due date

This relates to staff ensuring that children’s complaints are heard and acted on. 29 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—

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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; 29 August 2021 Inspection report children’s home: 2612071 6 understand and communicate to children that bullying is unacceptable; and

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Requirement Due date

that each child is encouraged to build and maintain positive relationships with others. (Regulation 11 (1)(a)(b)(c) (2)(a)(iii)(xii)(b))

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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. (Regulation 12 (1) (2)(a)(i)(iv)) 29 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—

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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

understand the impact that the quality of care provided in the home is having on the progress and experiences of each child and use this understanding to inform the development of the quality of care provided in the home;

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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)(f)(h)) 29 August 2021 Inspection report children’s home: 2612071 7 The care planning standard is that children—

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Requirement Due date

receive effectively planned care in or through the children’s home; and

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Requirement Due date

have a positive experience of arriving at or moving on from the home.

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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

ensure the effective induction of each child into the home. (Regulation 14 (1)(a)(b) (2)(b)(i)) 29 August 2021

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Requirement Due date

within 48 hours of the use of the measure, the registered person, or a person who is authorised by the registered person to do so ("the authorised person")—

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Requirement Due date

has spoken to the user about the measure; and

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Requirement Due date

has signed the record to confirm it is accurate; and

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Requirement Due date

within 5 days of the use of the measure, the registered person or the authorised person adds to the record confirmation that they have spoken to the child about the measure. (Regulation 35 (3)(b)(i)(ii)(c)) 29 August 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)) 29 August 2021 Inspection report children’s home: 2612071 8

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Recommendations

 The registered person should ensure that additional scrutiny takes place in relation to information received about a prospective employee. (‘Guide to the children’s home regulations including the quality standards’, page 61, paragraph 13.1)  The registered person should ensure that any consequences used to address poor behaviour are restorative in nature, to help children recognise the impact of their behaviour on themselves, other children, the staff caring for them and the wider community. In some cases, it will be important for children to make reparation in some form to anyone hurt by their behaviour, and the staff in the home should be skilled to support the child to understand this and carry it out. (‘Guide to the children’s home regulations including the quality standards’, page 46, paragraph 9.38)  The registered person should ensure that there is a written policy which describes how any closed-circuit television or other monitoring equipment will support the

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Recommendations

safeguarding and well-being of those living and working in the home in accordance with regulation 24. The home should obtain written consent for any monitoring or surveillance from the placing authority at the time of placement. (‘Guide to the children’s home regulations including the quality standards’, page 16, paragraph 3.16)

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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: 2612071 9

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Children’s home details

Registered provider: Innovate Therapeutic Care Limited

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: 15 Friars Street, Ipswich IP1 1TD

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Inspectors

Sophie Thomson, Social Care Inspector Chris Scully, Social Care Inspector Inspection report children’s home: 2612071 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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