Children's Home run by Derby City Council in Derby

Inspection report children’s home: SC488596 1 SC488596 Registered provider: Derby City Council Full inspection Inspected under the social care common inspection framework

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Information about this children’s home

This local authority run home is registered to provide care for up to four children and/or young people who experience emotional and/or behavioural difficulties.

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Information about this children’s home

There is no registered manager in post. A new manager was appointed in June 2021 and intends to register with Ofsted.

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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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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 serious and/or widespread failures that mean children and young people are not protected or their welfare is not promoted or safeguarded.

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inadequate

Overall judgement at last inspection: inadequate

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inadequate

Enforcement action since last inspection: none Inspection report children’s home: SC488596 2

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

22/06/2021 Full Inadequate 12/11/2019 Interim Declined in effectiveness 16/07/2019 Full Good 05/12/2018 Interim Sustained effectiveness Inspection report children’s home: SC488596 3

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inadequate

Since the last inspection, shortfalls in practice have persisted. During an activity away from the home, two children were placed at considerable risk. Managers responded to this once they were made aware of the situation. However, managers have not ensured that staff adhere to risk assessments, policies and procedures.

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inadequate

The arrangements to administer medication to children and record this continue to be inadequate. Despite considerable extra resources to support the process, this has not improved sufficiently. The new processes in place are not being followed by staff. This lack of improvement has the capacity to adversely affect children’s health.

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inadequate

Previous inspections have identified that staff do not always provide children with good routines. This inspection took place during the school holidays. Consequently, any improvements in children’s routines were not readily seen. However, children were making plans and spending time with staff or family members.

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inadequate

New staff understand the children well and have a good awareness of children’s early life experiences, as well as their experiences of being in foster care and/or residential care previously. Staff show empathy and they understand some of the challenges children may experience.

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inadequate

Children now have education plans in place to begin the new term in September 2021. One of the children is studying music, another is studying catering. Previously, some children were at risk of poor educational outcomes. This focus on education is an improvement.

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inadequate

Children live in a large house. They benefit from good-sized bedrooms and their own bathrooms. There is a substantial garden. However, some of the outside sporting equipment is of poor quality.

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How well children and young people are helped and protected: inadequate

Staff have not ensured that activities planned for children are safe. Since the last inspection, two children have been put at considerable risk during an activity away from the home. Activity risk assessments were not completed. Following the incident, staff did not complete an incident report. The processes to safeguard children and reduce the risk of harm were not sufficiently robust and this near-miss incident was not appropriately recorded. To date, there has been no formal learning from the incident.

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How well children and young people are helped and protected: inadequate

When serious risks are identified, children are not helped to understand how to keep themselves safe. Following this near-miss incident, it was identified that direct work would be carried out with the children involved to specifically support and educate Inspection report children’s home: SC488596 4 them about the risks. This work had not been carried out with the children at the time of the inspection, which was two weeks after the incident.

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How well children and young people are helped and protected: inadequate

Medication administration and recording continue to be weak. There are systemic failings in the way that children’s medication is handled. Senior managers continue to provide resources to try and ensure that medication administration and recording improve. However, no improvements have been made. These continued shortfalls have the potential to have a significant impact on children’s health and well-being.

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How well children and young people are helped and protected: inadequate

The manager has failed to ensure that regular health and safety checks are carried out. Daily fire checks have been missed. Staff and children have not taken part in a fire evacuation drill since May 2021.

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How well children and young people are helped and protected: inadequate

Action has been taken to decrease the risk of children having access to cigarette lighters, which is positive. There is an improved focus on setting boundaries for children and implementing changes to make children safer.

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How well children and young people are helped and protected: inadequate

When managers become aware of poor staff practice, they ensure that appropriate safeguarding agencies are consulted. Appropriate action is taken in response to poor staff practice.

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How well children and young people are helped and protected: inadequate

When children go missing from the home, they are now offered an independent return home interview. This means that there are increased opportunities to learn about the reasons why children go missing from the home and the risks they may be exposed to in the community. This helps to keep children safe.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

A new manager took up her post in June 2021. She is becoming more established and beginning to make an impact. Leaders and managers have improvement plans for the home. Unfortunately, due to unforeseen and unavoidable circumstances, not all these developments and improvements have had chance to become fully embedded. A new deputy manager is due to start in August 2021. This will increase the management oversight and support in the home.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

The manager has not ensured that the additional resources provided to staff, to improve medication administration practice, have been effective. Monitoring by the manager has not identified consistent shortfalls. This means that there continues to be the potential for harm to children’s health.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

Managers provide staff with regular supervision. There have been two staff team meetings since the last inspection. This is an improving picture; however, there continues to be concerns about several areas of care practice in the home and team meetings are not yet being used as a vehicle to promote good practice.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

Managers have not ensured that all safer recruitment checks are completed for new staff joining the home. However, this shortfall has not impacted on the safety and well-being of children. Inspection report children’s home: SC488596 5 Two requirements set at the last inspection have not been met. These requirements will be set again following this inspection. A compliance notice will be issued due to medication processes not improving. Inspection report children’s home: SC488596 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 registered person must make arrangements for the handling, recording, safekeeping, safe administration and disposal of medicines received into the children’s home.

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Requirement Due date

In particular the registered person must ensure that—

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Requirement Due date

a record is kept of the administration of medicine to each child. (Regulation 23 (1) (2)(c))

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Requirement Due date

This particularly relates to ensuring that practices in relation to the administration and recording of medication are adhered to at all times. 12 September

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Requirement Due date

After consultation with the fire and rescue authority, the registered person must—

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Requirement Due date

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 procedures to be followed in the case of fire. (Regulation 25 (1)(d))

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Requirement Due date

This particularly relates to ensuring that fire safety checks take place and are recorded. 12 September

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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. (Regulation 12 (1) (2)(a)(i)) 12 September Inspection report children’s home: SC488596 7 This particularly relates to ensuring that children are safe when they are participating in activities with staff away from the home.

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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

help each child to understand how to keep safe. (Regulation 12 (1) (2)(a)(ii))

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Requirement Due date

This particularly relates to ensuring that children are provided with information on how to keep themselves safe from harm. 12 September

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Requirement Due date

* These requirements are subject to a compliance notice.

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Recommendation

 The registered person should ensure that they maintain good employment practice. They should ensure that recruitment, supervision and performance management of staff safeguards children and minimises potential risk to them. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 61, paragraph 13.1)

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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: SC488596 8

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: Derby City Council, Treasurers Department, Council House, Corporation Street, Derby DE1 2FE

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Inspector

Simon Hunter, Social Care Inspector Inspection report children’s home: SC488596 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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