Children's home run by Kent County Council

Inspection report children's home: 2536967 1 Registered provider: Kent County Council Full inspection Inspected under the social care common inspection framework

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Information about this children's home

This local authority owned home registered in December 2019. According to the home's statement of purpose, it is a specialist service that delivers support for up to three young people, male or female, aged 11 to 18 years, who demonstrate complex and challenging behaviour. The aim of the home, as set out in the statement of purpose, is to provide a period of intervention and support to young people for up to 12 weeks before they return to their families.

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Information about this children's home

The home has not had a registered manager since 31 July 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. We last visited this setting on 4 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 inadequate

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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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Date of last inspection: 4 February 2021

Overall judgement at last inspection: Not applicable

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Date of last inspection: 4 February 2021

Enforcement action since last inspection: Not applicable Inspection report children's home: 2536967 2

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Recent inspection history

This is the first full inspection undertaken since the home registered in December 2019. Inspection report children's home: 2536967 3

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improvement to be good

Experiences for children are mixed. The two children living in the home have complex needs and require high levels of support to provide safe care for them. There are insufficient numbers of staff within the permanent team to be able to meet these needs, meaning that there is a large proportion of temporary staff. Staff are deployed in such a way that one child is predominately cared for by agency staff and the other is predominately cared for by permanent staff. This means that one child is cared for by staff who are not integrated into the team, and not all of them are fully aware of his needs and have the experience, training and support that is required to provide consistently good care. The number of temporary staff on regular occasions exceeds the number of permanent staff working in the home.

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improvement to be good

Parents report being happy with how children are looked after. They comment on the fact that communication is good, and that the manager and her team are superb and are always child-focused, ensuring that decisions are made with the best interest of the child. This view is also supported by social workers. However, both also acknowledge that number of temporary staff in the home is not ideal in terms of providing children with a consistent experience of care.

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improvement to be good

Children have a wide range of activities available to them and the manager of the home has high aspirations for what the children can achieve. However, the impact of the current staff situation limits the availability of some of these activities and opportunities.

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improvement to be good

The home is a positive environment that is designed to allow space for the children to play, learn and develop skills. Staff work hard to ensure that bedrooms feel child- friendly and personalised.

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improvement to be good

In most instances, when children move into the home, the manager works hard to ensure that there is good level of information collated prior to a child moving in. This is achieved through an in-depth assessment of the children’s needs and abilities. Clear plans are in place to specify the support that children will need to help them make progress. However, the quality of planning is inconsistent. This is because sometimes decisions to place children are taken by senior managers in the organisation before the manager has undertaken the assessment to ensure that they can meet children’s needs.

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improvement to be good

When children leave the home, end of placement reviews capture the progress that they make against their plans. This helps children to understand what they have achieved and what areas that they need to get further support in. There is good- quality information contained in these documents that informs whoever supports with the child in their next placement, to have a clear understanding of how to help them. Reports of two children who have left the home show that they have Inspection report children's home: 2536967 4 improved in daily living skills, increased their community participation and reduced the number of behaviour incidents.

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improvement to be good

Children are supported to make choices about their life and the care that they receive in the home through individual discussions with staff and at children’s meetings. These discussions are enhanced by the use of visual cues, for example in ‘widget’ form, to fully involve children and to give them both a voice and a choice. Children are encouraged to develop independence skills such as personal care and cooking. When children have been involved in these activities, there are accompanying photo memory books as reminders for them. When children cook, this is recorded in photo books with accompanying widget instructions so that they can use the recipes again in the future.

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improvement to be good

The number of temporary staff in the home has increased the risk to children. Staff who are not familiar with children’s behaviours are primarily responsible for the day- to-day care of children. There have been several incidents as a result of this which could have been prevented if sufficient permanent staff were working with the children. For example, when out in the community with a child, staff chose a route that was alongside a dual carriageway instead of a safer alternative route that was available to them. This disregarded a known condition for this child in that he is sensitive to noise. He became distressed as a result and staff struggled to manage his behaviours. Managing this on a busy roadside increased the risk of harm. The manager took action to ensure that all staff were fully informed of this child’s needs following this incident.

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improvement to be good

There have been two errors in recording information and one incident that resulted in a child not receiving their prescribed medication. In one instance, this meant that a child did not get medication that was prescribed to help reduce his anxiety and stabilise his moods. This was identified through medication audits, and steps have been taken by leaders to avoid repeat errors.

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improvement to be good

Children do not go missing. There are plans in place for children in the event that they do so. Staff help children to understand the dangers that they may face when in the community. The provider has renewed the garden fence to improve security and to make it more difficult for children to wander off unsupervised.

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improvement to be good

The core team of permanent staff are suitably experienced and have a good understanding of the needs of the children. Factors that potentially place individual children at risk are well understood, and clear guidance is provided to staff on how to provide safe care. Individual risk assessments are well recorded and regularly reviewed to ensure that they remain relevant and up to date.

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improvement to be good

Restraint is not regularly used as staff are able to de-escalate challenging behaviour from children. Behaviour management plans are detailed and show a good Inspection report children's home: 2536967 5 understanding of children’s behaviour. There are photographic descriptions of agreed safe techniques to use in the event that staff need to use physical intervention. However, there is no written description of these techniques to help ensure that staff have a detailed understanding of how to use them safely.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

The current staffing arrangements are such that the quality of care and children’s experience of care are inconsistent. This is primarily because of the way staff are deployed in the home and the high use of agency staff who are providing care for children with complex needs without being integrated into the team and who do not have access to the training and support that this would afford them.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

The need for high numbers of agency staff is due to the high needs of the children, which necessitate high staffing ratios. The process for deciding whether the home has the capacity to meet the needs of young people when they come into the home is fragmented and flawed. This is because decisions regarding admitting new children into the home are sometimes taken prior to any assessment taking place. This means that ad hoc staffing arrangements are required to meet these children’s needs, rather than matching the children’s needs to the staffing resources that are already in place. For children, this means that they experience care that is sometimes good and at other times not good enough.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

Temporary staff working in the home do not receive supervision and are not part of team meetings. The impact of this is that temporary staff, who specifically work with one child, are not always afforded up-to-date information or the opportunity to reflect on their care practice.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

Managers and permanent staff have received receive effective supervision. However, records indicate there have been some gaps between supervisions and that these have increased over recent months. Staff spoken to suggest that this is due to having to meet the needs of children and not having time for supervision.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

Recruitment files show a lack of consistency. For new staff there is no verification of references, and the reasons for gaps in employment have not been explored. For staff who have been transferred from other services within the organisation, there are no records to confirm that identity checks have been completed. All staff are checked to ensure that they do not have a criminal record that would make them unsuitable for the role. However, the poor record-keeping in respect of recruitment checks means that the manager cannot be sure that all possible checks have been undertaken to ensure that staff have a good track record and are suitably experienced for the role.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

The workforce development plan does not sufficiently identify individual training that has been completed by staff. Given the complexity of the children who are referred to the home, there is a lack of specialist training to support and equip staff to fully meet their needs. This, combined with the lack of permanent staff, does not allow the manager to deliver the level of care that she aims to achieve effectively. Inspection report children's home: 2536967 6 The current manager has high aspirations and is passionate in her work to deliver high standards of care for children. She knows the children well and has a good understanding of how to meet their needs. Staff speak positively about the manager’s ability to lead by example and model good practice. However, there is a gap between the manager’s vision and the reality for children, and the shortfalls outlined in this report with regard to staffing, recruitment and admitting children to

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

the home are likely to hinder progress if not addressed. The manager’s report on their review of the quality of care provided in the home has not been submitted to Ofsted within the timescales required. Inspection report children's home: 2536967 7

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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 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 promotes their welfare.

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Requirement Due date

In particular, the standard in paragraph 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

ensure that staff work as a team where appropriate;

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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 has sufficient staff to provide care for each child. (Regulation 13(1)(a)(b) (2)(a)(b)(c)(d)) 30 September

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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. (Regulation 23(1)) 30 September

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Requirement Due date

31.—(1) The registered person must ensure that the employment of any person on a temporary basis at the children’s home does not prevent children from receiving such continuity of care as is reasonable to meet their needs. (Regulation 31(1)) 30 September

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must recruit staff using recruitment procedures that are designed to ensure children’s safety. (Regulation 32(1)) 30 September Inspection report children's home: 2536967 8 The registered person must complete a review of the quality of care provided for children (“a quality of care review”) at least once every 6 months. (Regulation 45(1)) 30 September

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Recommendations

 The registered person should have a workforce plan which can fulfil the workforce related requirements of regulation 16, schedule 1 (paragraphs 19 and 20). (Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards, page 53, paragraph 10.8)  The registered person must have systems in place so that all staff, including the manager, receive supervision of their practice from an appropriately qualified and experienced professional, which allows them to reflect on their practice and the needs of the children assigned to their care. (Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards, page 61, paragraph 13.2)  Regulation 35 requires each home to prepare and implement a behaviour management policy. This policy should describe the home's approach to promoting positive behaviour and the measures of control, discipline, and restraint which may be used in the home. (Guide to the children’s homes

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Recommendations

regulations including the quality standards, page 46 paragraph 9.33)

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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: 2536967 9

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Children's home details

Registered provider address: Kent County Council, Sessions House, County Road, Maidstone, Kent ME14 1XQ

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Inspector

Mark Newington, Social Care Inspector Inspection report children's home: 2536967 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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Inspector

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Inspector

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Inspector

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