Children's Home run by Hampshire County Council in Hampshire

Inspection report children's home: 2508451 1 Registered provider: Hampshire County Council Full inspection Inspected under the social care common inspection framework

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Information about this children’s home

This home is owned and run by the local authority. It is registered to provide care and accommodation for up to four children with emotional and/or behavioural difficulties.

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Information about this children’s home

The manager has been registered with Ofsted since 22 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.

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Information about this children’s home

The home was closed for over a year due to COVID-19 and reopened in July 2021.

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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: 13 February 2020

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requires improvement to be good

Overall judgement at last inspection: declined in effectiveness

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requires improvement to be good

Enforcement action since last inspection: none Inspection report children's home: 2508451 2

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

13/02/2020 Interim Declined in effectiveness 15/08/2019 Full Outstanding Inspection report children's home: 2508451 3

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improvement to be good

Overall, the children have made some progress. The home has a relatively new staff team. The children are also not familiar with each other or the staff. This means that children are developing relationships with staff but these are not yet fully formed.

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improvement to be good

All the children can enjoy some activities. For example, the children wanted to attend a local Pride festival. The registered manager and staff supported the children to attend. This broadened their experiences and enabled them to engage more with the community. The children also told the inspector that they are comfortable expressing who they are, and staff support and accept their individual identities and views.

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improvement to be good

One child is attending school, has 100% attendance and is making good progress. Those children not attending education have minimal positive routines, structure or educational activities provided. As a result, these children’s immediate and longer- term outcomes are compromised.

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improvement to be good

Children know how to complain and feel empowered to do so. The registered manager responds quickly both in writing and verbally. Children have access to the complaints policy and all required information is in the children’s guide. Children say they feel supported and listened to.

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improvement to be good

Planned key-work sessions are rarely held with the children. Therefore, children do not have the opportunity to have positive time with their key-workers to explore issues. This is a missed opportunity to carry out planned work around children’s wishes, views and feelings. Nonetheless, children do have plentiful opportunities to discuss incidents or worries with staff.

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improvement to be good

Children live in a safe environment. This is because health and safety in the home is well managed. All staff are informed when policies are updated. Staff are familiar with the processes to maintain the environment and take responsibility for this. Fire safety risk assessments and services are up to date. However, not all children have been part of a fire evacuation drill. As a result, this could compromise the safety of themselves and others in an emergency.

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improvement to be good

Children’s health is, on the whole, promoted. There has been one occasion when a child did not receive a daily test that was requested as part of a health investigation. Although there was no detrimental impact on the child, there is the potential that other health-related tasks could be missed.

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improvement to be good

The home is clean, tidy and well maintained. Children have the option to personalise their bedrooms. All children have access to an en-suite bathroom with shower. This Inspection report children's home: 2508451 4 provides the children with a good level of privacy and gives the older children the opportunity to build on self-care skills.

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improvement to be good

One professional spoke of how the managers advocate strongly for the children. There is open and realistic communication from staff with professionals. Although not always reaching the desired outcome, staff support the children when difficult decisions are made. As a result, children are better prepared and informed about what is happening.

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improvement to be good

The staff do not have all the information necessary to enable them to identify, and act upon, specific risks. Some staff are not yet skilled in managing relationships between the children to prevent them harming each other. As a result, one child has caused minor injury to another child in the home. Another child says there are times when they do not feel safe in the home.

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improvement to be good

The registered manager has updated relevant policies and purchased necessary equipment. This has ensured that the staff are well informed and equipped to manage situations where children could harm themselves. Therefore, the staff can help children quickly and ensure that they are safe at the earliest opportunity.

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improvement to be good

Physical restraint is rarely used. However, inexperienced staff have requested police attendance when they have not able to manage a situation in the home. Consequently, children could be criminalised due to the lack of understanding of their behaviours by staff.

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improvement to be good

New staff are motivated and enthusiastic. However, some processes are not fully understood by staff, for example, allowing a child to read information about themselves without preparation and the agreement of their social worker, or reporting a member of staff if they had any concern about their practice. As a result, the children do not always have consistency in the care provided by staff. However, action taken to ensure that children are safeguarded is good.

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improvement to be good

The staff advocate well for the children, ensure that the children attend meetings when possible and that professionals maintain communication with the children. For example, if a social worker is due to visit a child, staff speak to the child to let them know there is someone coming to see them. As a result, this reduces anxieties for the children and reduces incidents of verbal abuse and aggressive behaviour if they are prepared.

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good

Leaders and managers have not fully considered the needs and risks for children when agreeing to another child coming to live in the home. The lack of information sharing resulted in considerable instability for the other children. This was avoidable Inspection report children's home: 2508451 5 and shows that managers need to review, and improve, the process for children arriving at the home.

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good

The registered manager is not able to ensure that there are always staff on each shift who have a good mix of knowledge and skills. This is due to a high level of new and inexperienced staff. As a result, decisions are not always in the best interests of the children, for example, involving the police to manage children’s behaviour.

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good

Not all staff have received regular and effective supervision. This means staff have not had the opportunity to discuss concerns and delegated actions have not been completed. Some new staff have not been given the direction and guidance to ensure that all children’s records are up to date and adequately recorded. Children’s progress has not always been fully shared with professionals.

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good

All mandatory training has been completed by the staff. However, new staff require further training about recognising and responding to child sexual exploitation, managing risks in relation to social media and how to manage behaviour that challenges staff physically. More long-serving and experienced staff are becoming exhausted. This is because they are supporting their less-experienced colleagues. This means senior staff are not able to fulfil their own roles within the home due to supporting others to care for the children.

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good

Reports of incidents that the registered manager considers serious are sent to relevant professionals. These are recorded well, and action noted is followed up. The manager’s own quality checks have identified some areas of weakness, including staff supervision. However, monitoring systems are not yet robust or fully embedded in practice to enable strengths and weaknesses to be identified and acted upon.

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good

Leaders and the registered manager have addressed the requirements made at the last inspection. The independent visitor adds an additional layer of scrutiny. Their recommendations are followed up by the registered manager and learning is shared with the wider staff team. Additional challenge, regarding the content of the report, is not happening. This is a missed opportunity to embed a reflective learning culture with the staff team where practice can be further analysed and improved. Inspection report children's home: 2508451 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 education standard is that children make measurable progress towards achieving their educational potential and are helped to do so.

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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 achieve the child’s education and training targets, as recorded in the child’s relevant plans;

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Requirement Due date

support each child’s learning and development, including helping the child to develop independent study skills and, where appropriate, helping the child to complete independent study;

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Requirement Due date

understand the barriers to learning that each child may face and take appropriate action to help the child to overcome any such barriers;

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Requirement Due date

help each child to understand the importance and value of education, learning, training and employment. (Regulation 8 (1) (2)(a)(i)(ii)(iii)(iv)) 31 December

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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

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; 31 December Inspection report children's home: 2508451 7 understand the roles and responsibilities in relation to protecting children that are assigned to them by the registered person. (Regulation 12 (1)(2)(a)(iii)(iv)(v))

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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

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)(h)) 31 December

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Requirement Due date

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)) 31 December Inspection report children's home: 2508451 8 The registered person must ensure that all employees—

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Requirement Due date

undertake appropriate continuing professional development;

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Requirement Due date

receive practice-related supervision by a person with appropriate experience. (Regulation 33 (4)(a)(b)) 31 December

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Recommendations

 The registered person should ensure that the home complies with relevant health and safety legislations (alarms, food hygiene etc.); however, in doing so, the registered person should seek as far as possible to maintain a domestic rather than ‘institutional’ impression. This specifically refers to ensuring that all children have taken part in a fire drill. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’ page 15, paragraph 3.9)  The registered person should ensure that staff take every step to make sure that individual children and young people are not subject to discrimination, marginalisation or bullying from their peers by virtue of their gender, religion, ethnicity, cultural and linguistic background, sexual identity, mental health, disability or for any other reason. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’ page 16, paragraph 3.12)

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Recommendations

 The registered person should ensure that each child’s day to day health and well- being needs are met. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’ page 33, paragraph 7.3)  The registered person should only accept placements for children where they are satisfied that the home can respond effectively to the child’s assessed needs as recorded in the child’s relevant plans and where they have fully considered the impact that the placement will have on the existing group of children. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 56, paragraph 11.4)  The registered person should ensure that they, and the staff team, understand what will be required of them before they accept responsibility for a child’s placement, to avoid disruption and instability for the child in future and for other children in the home. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the

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Recommendations

quality standards’, page 56, paragraph 11.5)  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. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 62, paragraph 14.4) Inspection report children's home: 2508451 9

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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’.

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Children’s home details

Registered provider: Hampshire County Council

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: Hampshire Council, 3rd Floor, Elizabeth II Court North, The Castle, Winchester, Hampshire SO23 8UG

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Inspector

Jill Sephton-Wright, Social Care Inspector Inspection report children's home: 2508451 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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