Children's home run by Salford City Council in Salford

Inspection report children’s home: SC040511 1 SC040511 Registered provider: Salford City Council Full inspection Inspected under the social care common inspection framework

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Information about this children’s home

This home is an adolescent support service provided by a local authority. The home provides short- and medium-term care for up to four children. In addition, it provides help for children and families at times of crisis. It also provides emergency or overnight care for up to a further two children. The service provides intensive, time-limited support to children on the edge of care. This includes planned day visits for children and outreach support for their families.

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Information about this children’s home

The home is led by an experienced manager who registered with Ofsted in June 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 visited this setting on 24 February 2021 and 12 November 2020 to carry out monitoring visits. The reports are published on the Ofsted website. Previously, the home was temporarily closed so no judgement was given.

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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: 5 March 2019 Overall judgement at last inspection: not judged Enforcement action since last inspection: none Inspection report children’s home: SC040511 2

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

05/03/2019 Interim Not judged 08/02/2019 Interim Not judged 19/07/2017 Full Good 15/02/2017 Interim Improved effectiveness Inspection report children’s home: SC040511 3

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improvement to be good

Since the last monitoring visit, three children have lived at the home. One child moved out of the home a few days before this inspection to planned accommodation. Placements for the other two children ended abruptly, resulting in one of the children moving to a secure home. At the time of the inspection, no children were living in the home.

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improvement to be good

The home is clean and well maintained. Staff have decorated the home to offer a more homely appeal. Children have contributed to the decoration of the communal living space and were involved in the design of a large mural on the wall with images of local architecture and areas of interest. Children are encouraged to decorate their own bedrooms. This offers children a sense of belonging and ownership in their environment.

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improvement to be good

There is a multi-agency resource that supports the children when they live in the home. Used effectively, this could be a valued asset to support the day-to-day challenges of those children who present with complex needs. Children and their families are likely to be previously known to the outreach service. This helps to provide continuity of care for some children who already have a working relationship with staff.

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improvement to be good

Professional feedback on the quality of care provided by the home is generally positive. A social worker said that staff ‘demonstrate a good level of commitment to engaging children’.

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improvement to be good

Staff try to engage children in education and utilise creative measures to prepare a learning timetable of various opportunities to try and involve children. Success has been varied, as some children, who have been out of education for some time, have found it challenging to engage in any meaningful learning.

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improvement to be good

All children are registered with local primary healthcare services. Children are supported by staff to obtain treatment that they need and are often reluctant to receive. Staff supported one child, who had significant dental problems, to complete extensive corrective treatment.

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improvement to be good

Children are encouraged to meet with their families and friends. One child regularly saw their grandparent, and the staff ensured that this took place by providing funding to assist the meetings. Additionally, staff have supported safe meeting plans for one child who may otherwise have gone missing from home. Inspection report children’s home: SC040511 4

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improvement to be good

All children have risk assessments and behaviour support plans. Risk assessments are compiled with support from other professionals. Risk assessments are generalised and lack specific detail associated with a high-risk behaviour. Poor- quality risk assessments prevent staff from effectively managing incidents.

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improvement to be good

Monitoring and checking of children who use implements to self-harm are not effective. Following one incident of self-harm, staff reported that they were unable to locate the remainder of a sharp object but allowed the child to sleep in the same room. Risk assessments following the incident were not updated to reflect the increased risk or identify clear strategies for staff to follow to keep the child safe.

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improvement to be good

The manager attends multi-agency professional meetings to ensure that children who go missing from home are tracked to assess areas of exploitation. Children who are reported missing from home have missing-from-care risk assessments. Procedures to manage these risks are recorded as generic assessments. One child had their free time restricted. However, during the time that he was not being monitored, the child was able to leave the home and engage in criminal activity.

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improvement to be good

Staff effectively implemented de-escalation techniques to manage a serious incident whereby one child brought a weapon to the home. This was appropriately reported to the police. However, improved pre-planning, including the child’s previous use of weapons, may have helped to minimise or prevent the weapon being brought onto the premises. Insufficient follow-up and discussion about the incident with the child missed opportunities to reflect and provide learning about safety.

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good

The manager and her team are passionate and committed to providing a good level of care for the children in their care. The manager was able to reflect on and discuss concerns raised by inspectors throughout the inspection.

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good

The manager is responsible for the day-to-day management of the home, but there is an insufficient level of autonomy in decision-making to exercise effective plans for children. Procedures to keep children safe have insufficient detail to be effective.

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good

Poor-quality record-keeping highlighted missing and disparity of information in case recordings. Logbooks did not reflect recordings which were inconsistent with risk assessments and incident reports. Some staff were not confident about risk management plans and how to effectively manage risk-taking behaviour.

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good

There is evidence of regular supervision, and staff speak highly of the supportive management team. Inspectors found that supervision records did not show the discussions about staff’s practice or performance and the actions required to Inspection report children’s home: SC040511 5 improve it. As supervision notes are not signed by the supervisee, it is not clear if staff have read the supervision notes.

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good

Staff complete key-work sessions with children in a range of subjects. Discussions and recordings should be non-judgemental, and a recommendation has been made to address this matter.

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good

The manager is responsible for the overall evaluation and monitoring of the home which is routinely visited by an independent person. The views of children and parents about the care being provided are not routinely captured to promote continuous improvements. Inspection report children’s home: SC040511 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, the 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

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

understand the roles and responsibilities in relation to protecting children that are assigned to them by the registered person;

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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

are familiar with, and act in accordance with, the home’s child protection policies;

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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;

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Requirement Due date

that the premises used for the purposes of the home are located so that children are effectively safeguarded; 4 October 2021 Inspection report children’s home: SC040511 7 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; and

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Requirement Due date

that the effectiveness of the home’s child protection policies is monitored regularly. (Regulation 12 (1) (2)(a)(i)(ii)(iii)(iv)(v)(vi)(vii)(b)(c)(d)(e))

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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

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

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

demonstrate that practice in the home is informed and improved by taking into account and acting on—

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Requirement Due date

research and developments in relation to the ways in which the needs of children are best met; and

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Requirement Due date

feedback on the experiences of children, including complaints received; and

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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)(c)(e)(f)(g)(i)(ii)(h)) 4 October 2021 Inspection report children’s home: SC040511 8

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Recommendation

 The registered person should ensure that staff are familiar with the home’s policies on record keeping and understand the importance of careful, objective, and clear recording. Records should be accessible to children and should contain accurate information in accordance with their date. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 62, paragraph 14.4)

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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: SC040511 9

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Children’s home details

Registered provider: Salford City Council

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: Civic Centre, Chorley Road, Swinton, Manchester M27 5DA

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Inspectors

Kamal Bhamra, Social Care Inspector Mark Broomhead, Social Care Inspector Inspection report children’s home: SC040511 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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