Children's Home run by Bolton Metropolitan Borough Council in Bolton

Inspection report children's home: SC040723 1 SC040723 Registered provider: Bolton Metropolitan Borough Council Full inspection Inspected under the social care common inspection framework

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Information about this children’s home

This local authority home is registered to provide care for up to four children. The home provides support for children who may find it difficult to manage their emotions, which has a negative impact on their behaviour.

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Information about this children’s home

The registered manager has been in post since October 2018.

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Information about this children’s home

Due to COVID-19, at the request of the Secretary of State, we suspended all routine inspections of social care providers carried out under the social care common inspection framework (SCCIF) on 17 March 2020. We returned to routine SCCIF inspections on 12 April 2021.

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Information about this children’s home

We last visited this setting on 9 December 2020 to carry out a monitoring visit. The report is published on the Ofsted website.

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Overall experiences and progress of

children and young people, taking into account

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good

How well children and young people are helped and protected good

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good

The effectiveness of leaders and managers requires improvement to be good

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good

The children’s home provides effective services that meet the requirements for good.

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good

Overall judgement at last inspection: good

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good

Enforcement action since last inspection: none Inspection report children's home: SC040723 2

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

26/06/2019 Full Good 18/09/2018 Full Good 19/10/2017 Full Good 06/03/2017 Interim Improved effectiveness Inspection report children's home: SC040723 3

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Since the last visit, five children have left the home. For the majority, the experience of living at the home has helped them to make positive progress relative to their individual needs.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Three children have been supported to return to live with family or move on to semi- independent living. Staff see their responsibility for the children being like that of a parent. For those children who need it, staff support continues beyond their time living in the home. A child who was visiting on the day of the inspection said, ‘Living here was the closest I have ever felt to having a home. Staff are still there to help me.’

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Two placements have ended in an unplanned way. One was out of staff’s control and the other was because a child was admitted whose needs could not be met. This was quickly acknowledged, and searches for alternative placements were carried out. Unavoidably, and because of a serious incident that placed children and staff at risk, the manager made the decision to end the placement.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Three children were living at the home at the time of the inspection. One of the children has been living at the home for over two years. The child said, ‘Staff are caring. They put a lot of time into the home and 100% into me.’

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

One child’s school attendance has notably improved, as have his aspirations to continue with his studies post-16. The other two children are relatively new in placement but are both engaging well with their tutors who visit the home daily. Although this time is structured, it only accounts for a fraction of school the day. The absence of structured plans for the rest of the school day does not promote a good learning routine, in preparation for when the right placement is identified.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Care planning is individualised and focused on each child’s needs. Staff work closely with other professionals, agencies and family members to promote a ‘team around the child’ approach. Every opportunity is taken to support children to have their say and be involved in the decisions affecting their lives.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Good support is given to help children keep in touch with the important people in their lives. Staff recognise the importance of contact and work tirelessly to help children and family members to understand and rebuild relationships. For those children who do not have the support of their family, every effort is made to involve an independent advocate. Inspection report children's home: SC040723 4

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

Children say that they feel safe. They are confident in staff’s ability to keep them safe and can identify key staff who they would go to if they had any serious concerns.

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

The manager and staff understand, and take seriously, their safeguarding responsibilities. They have a good understanding of the support each child needs and are consistent in their implementation of age-appropriate strategies that are designed to minimise and manage risk. For most children, this has been effective in reducing the risks seen prior to living at the home. However, poor decision-making regarding the admission of one child did place other children at increased risk until the decision to end the child’s placement was made.

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

A small number of children have presented serious concerns in terms of going missing from care. When incidents have occurred, staff implement well-thought-out strategies that are designed to secure a safe return as quickly as possible.

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

Staff are proactive in engaging the support of specialist agencies, such as substance misuse workers and the complex safeguarding team. By taking a multi-agency approach, children have been supported to make better choices about keeping themselves safe. A social worker said: ‘Staff always take the right steps if [name of child] goes missing. They have really invested in [name of child] and have supported him to work with the complex safeguarding team, who will be closing the case soon because of the progress that he has made.’

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

Staff take a patient and non-confrontational approach to behaviour management. They are highly experienced and show an ability to adapt to the changes in group dynamics, which have been extremely challenging at times. They make good use of positive relationships and de-escalation, which means that instances when children need to be physically held are rare.

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

Records that show measures taken in response to incidents have been improved and now evidence that the child has been spoken to and that the manager has evaluated the effectiveness of the measure. However, despite evaluating measures as ineffective, the same measures which bear little relevance to the behaviour and are not restorative in nature are often repeated.

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good

The manager has taken suitable action to address most of the outstanding requirements and recommendations. These were raised at the assurance visit in November 2020 and were not considered as part of the monitoring visit in December 2020.

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good

One requirement and one recommendation have not been addressed. Supervision records continue to be poorly organised and do not demonstrate that staff are Inspection report children's home: SC040723 5 receiving regular formal supervision. Neither do they confirm that staff are having their performance appraised annually. More significantly, a decision was made to move a child into the home, despite the matching risk assessment concluding that his needs could not be met without detriment to the children already living at the home. This has been raised as a requirement.

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good

Overall, the home is decorated to a good standard, particularly children’s bedrooms. These are highly personalised and reflect each child’s personality and tastes. However, some areas of the home have been damaged during incidents and are waiting to be repaired.

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good

All internal doors are fitted with locks. However, there is no guidance for staff to follow regarding their use when children are in the home. This creates the potential for children to be restricted from accessing communal areas. Although children were seen moving freely about the home, they did report that, on occasions, the doors to the kitchen and lounge are locked by staff.

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good

The manager is experienced and qualified. She is registered for a second home and divides her time between the two. She is supported by a competent deputy manager and a stable, highly experienced and qualified staff team. Together, they provide good support for each other and the children. A social worker said, ‘Staff offer [name of child] unconditional support. Despite [name of child]’s challenging needs, they are committed to supporting her 100%.’

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good

The manager is fully involved in supporting children’s plans. She maintains good oversight of each child’s progress and how staff are implementing their plans. Internal monitoring is further strengthened by the scrutiny of an independent visitor whose monthly visits promote improvement. Inspection report children's home: SC040723 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 care planning standard is that children—

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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

that children are admitted to the home only if their needs are within the range of needs of children for whom it is intended that the home is to provide care and accommodation, as set out in the home’s statement of purpose. (Regulation 14 (1)(b) (2)(a)) 16 December 2021

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must ensure that all employees—

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Requirement Due date

receive practice-related supervision by a person with appropriate experience; and

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Requirement Due date

have their performance and fitness to perform their roles appraised at least once every year. (Regulation 33 (4)(b)(c)) 16 December 2021

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Recommendations

 The registered person should ensure that all outstanding repairs are completed in a timely manner. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 15, paragraph 3.9)  The registered person should review and revise the policy for locked doors to ensure that children are not unnecessarily restricted access to shared areas in the home. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 15, paragraph 3.10)  The registered person should improve the structure of the education day for those children on a reduced home tuition timetable. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 28, paragraph 5.15)  The registered person should ensure that any sanctions to address poor behaviour are restorative in nature and that the consequence relates to the Inspection report children's home: SC040723 7 behaviour. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality

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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: SC040723 8

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Children’s home details

Registered provider: Bolton Metropolitan Borough Council

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: Town Hall, Victoria Square, PO Box 29, Bolton BL1 1RU

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Inspector

Paul Scott, Social Care Inspector Inspection report children's home: SC040723 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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