Children's Home run by Benjamin UK Ltd in Buckinghamshire

Inspection report children’s home: SC067757 1 SC067757 Registered provider: Benjamin UK Ltd Full inspection Inspected under the social care common inspection framework

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Information about this children’s home

The home is owned and run by a private organisation. It provides therapeutic residential care to up to four children aged from 12 to 18 years who have had adverse childhood experiences. The organisation also has a registered school, and the teachers provide education in the home.

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Information about this children’s home

The manager has been registered with Ofsted since October 2018.

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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 widespread failures that mean children and young people are not protected or their welfare is not promoted or safeguarded and the care and experiences of children and young people are poor and they are not making progress.

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inadequate

Overall judgement at last inspection: sustained effectiveness

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inadequate

Enforcement action since last inspection: none Inspection report children’s home: SC067757 2

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

04/03/2020 Interim Sustained effectiveness 12/08/2019 Full Good 22/10/2018 Interim Sustained effectiveness 10/04/2018 Full Requires improvement to be good Inspection report children’s home: SC067757 3

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inadequate

Children have a poor experience of care and poor outcomes in this home. This is due to poor matching when children come to live in the home, poor practice in relation to managing their behaviours and inconsistent care practice in relation to meeting children’s needs and keeping them safe from harm.

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inadequate

Children are not having their basic needs met. Their bedrooms are poorly maintained and have the potential to adversely affect their health, safety and well- being. One child’s bedroom has damage to furnishings, which has gone unaddressed. Another child’s room was dirty. There were foodstuffs left in their room, the mattress was soiled and there were no sheets on the bedding. The child has a pet hamster which, due to failures from staff in supporting the child to care for the pet, is in a poor state of neglect. Staff have failed to identify that children require support with their personal care, maintaining their personal space and looking after their possessions and, in one instance, their pet. One social worker raised a concern with the manager a week prior to the inspection regarding the presentation of a child’s room. This has not been resolved. This lack of attention to basic needs creates a poor experience for children with regard to feeling valued and

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inadequate

When children move into the home, the manager does not fully consider whether the needs of all of the children living in the home are compatible. In one instance, risks relating to previous bullying behaviour were not taken into consideration when moving a child into the home. This means that children may be vulnerable to or adversely influenced by the behaviours of their peers living in the home.

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inadequate

Staff fail to support children to make progress. One child has not always been given medication as prescribed by a general practitioner, and children are not receiving a healthy, balanced diet. Staff are not providing the support needed to help children understand matters relating to health and hygiene in relation to changes in their body as they reach puberty.

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inadequate

Outcomes for children leaving the home are poor. Since the last inspection, all seven children who have left the home have done so in an unplanned manner. The provider has not been effective in delivering the care plans that were set out when children moved into the home. This has resulted in poor outcomes and a poor experience of care for children.

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

Staff fail to reduce the risks that children face when they go missing in the community. Children who lived in the home until recently, went missing from the home for extended periods of time. The home’s missing-from-care policy outlines Inspection report children’s home: SC067757 4 the immediate actions for staff to take when children initially go missing. However, it does not give staff guidance as to what action they should take if children remain missing for longer periods. This has resulted in inconsistent responses to children who go missing from care. In one example, a child who went missing had their phone confiscated by police, and the manager did not ensure that the child had access to a replacement. This means that the child had no means to communicate with the home while they were missing from care. Another child was delayed in being brought home while missing from care due to staff insisting that the child met

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

them at a police station. This led to the child refusing to walk there and remaining missing for another 24 hours. This lack of urgency and care means that children are at increased risk of harm.

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

Staff are unable to manage incidents of behaviour effectively. When restraint is used, the outcomes often lead to police intervention and the child being arrested. Staff fail to communicate clearly to children when they impose sanctions as consequences to behaviours. This leads to uncertainty for the child and results in them displaying negative behaviours. For example, one child was delayed access to their games console after being arrested, but this was not previously mentioned to the child. The child became frustrated and made threats of violence to staff. This led to the child being restrained on two occasions and he was subsequently arrested. Staffed locked doors to communal areas of the home in response to a child who was displaying behaviours including damage to property and threats to staff. This prevented other children from accessing these areas and was not a successful strategy to de-escalate the situation. This child was arrested and moved directly

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

Health and safety risk assessments are outdated and are not reviewed by the manager. This means that actions to address hazards in the home are delayed, which places children at an increased risk of harm.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

The manager fails to demonstrate high aspirations for the home, or for the children who live in the home. Children who recently moved to the home had newly created plans just prior to the inspection. Aspects of these plans do not hold the correct information for children and, in some instances, have the incorrect pronouns for children. This risks a lack of clarity for the staff about the needs of the children and how best to support them.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

Staff report that they do not feel well supported by the registered manager. Supervision sessions are infrequent. There are gaps in some of the staff’s training in areas such as safeguarding, anti-bullying, risk management, and reporting and managing challenging behaviour. Team meetings lack focus on the needs of children and safeguarding. This has led to inconsistencies in staff practice, and staff are unsure of their roles in safeguarding children. As a result, a high number of staff have left and continue to leave the home, which leaves a core team of inexperienced staff to support children. Inspection report children’s home: SC067757 5 There is poor management oversight with regard to all aspects of care practice. Children’s plans are inaccurate to the extent that they often fail to give the child’s correct name. The manager has failed to review records with respect to children going missing from the home in a timely manner. This has led to children not

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

receiving interviews to check on their well-being and to explore why they went missing from the home. Behavioural incidents have not been reviewed in a timely manner. On one occasion, this meant that a child did not have the opportunity to talk through an incident that led to a physical intervention. Reviews of incidents have failed to identify learning, such as exploring the impact of highly restrictive practice and the emotional effect this may have on all children living at the home. This has led to poor outcomes for children living in the home, who have all moved from the home in an unplanned manner.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

The manager has received a high number of complaints from neighbours. Generally, complaints are regarding the children’s use of bad language. There are also concerns from neighbours about the impact of staff parking vehicles near to the home. These concerns have not been addressed by the manager. A recent charity cake sale went someway to repair this relationship. However, the neighbours currently share their concerns with the local police rather than directly with the manager of the home. This indicates that they do not have confidence in the home’s complaints system. Inspection report children’s home: SC067757 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 health and well-being standard is that—

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Requirement Due date

the health and well-being needs of children are met. (Regulation 10 (1)(a))

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Requirement Due date

In particular, ensure that children are offered medication as prescribed and are offered a healthy, balanced diet. In addition, ensure that children are supported to understand how to attend to their personal care and hygiene. 26 September 2021

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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))

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Requirement Due date

In particular, ensure that impact risk assessments consider the risks to all children entering the home. 26 September 2021

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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

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. (Regulation 12 (1) (2)(d)) 26 September 2021 Inspection report children’s home: SC067757 7 In particular, ensure that children’s bedrooms are cleaned and maintained to an acceptable standard.

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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

promotes their welfare. (Regulation 13 (1)(a)(b))

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Requirement Due date

In particular, ensure that children’s plans are relevant to the child and that the home is maintained to promote children’s welfare. 26 September 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

ensure that staff have the experience, qualifications and skills to meet the needs of each child. (Regulation 13 (1)(a)(b) (2)(c))

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Requirement Due date

In particular, ensure that staff working in the home have training with regard to safeguarding, preventing bullying, managing risks, and behaviour management. 26 September 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

ensure that the home’s workforce provides continuity of care to each child. (Regulation 13 (1)(a)(b) (2)(e)) 26 September 2021 Inspection report children’s home: SC067757 8 In particular, the manager must ensure that staff provide a consistent level of care for children.

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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

use monitoring and review systems to make continuous improvements in the quality of care provided in the home. (Regulation 13 (1)(a)(b) (2)(h))

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Requirement Due date

In particular, the registered manager must ensure that risk assessments, children’s plans, missing-from-care records and behavioural incidents are reviewed in a timely manner. 26 September 2021

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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. (Regulation 14 (1)(a)(b))

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Requirement Due date

In particular, ensure that staff are equipped to meet the needs of the children coming into the home and that these needs are compatible with children already living in the home. 26 September 2021

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Requirement Due date

No measure of control or discipline which is excessive, unreasonable or contrary to paragraph (2) may be used in relation to any child.

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Requirement Due date

The following measures may not be used to discipline any child—

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Requirement Due date

any measure involving punishing a group of children for the behaviour of an individual child. (Regulation 19 (1) (2)(j))

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Requirement Due date

In particular, review the effectiveness of staff practice of locking doors to communal areas in response to behaviour 26 September 2021 Inspection report children’s home: SC067757 9 incidents and consider the impact of this practice on other children living in the home.

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Requirement Due date

* These requirements are subject to a compliance notice.

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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: SC067757 10

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: Churchfarm, Station Road, Aldbury, Tring HP23 5RS

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Children’s home details

Responsible individual: Claudette Rudman

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Inspectors

Matt Nicholls, Social Care Inspector Sara Stoker, Social Care Inspector Inspection report children’s home: SC067757 11 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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