Children's home run by After Care (NW) Limited in Sefton

Inspection report for children’s home: SC063673 1 SC063673 Registered provider: After Care NW Limited Full inspection Inspected under the social care common inspection framework

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Information about this children’s home

This privately owned home provides care for up to four children with social, emotional and mental health needs.

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Information about this children’s home

The home currently does not have a registered manager.

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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 30 October 2020 to carry out an assurance 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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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

Overall judgement at last inspection: requires improvement to be good

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requires improvement to be good

Enforcement action since last inspection: none Inspection report for children’s home: SC063673 2

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

11/06/2019 Full Requires improvement to be good 04/09/2018 Full Requires improvement to be good 29/08/2017 Full Good 09/05/2017 Full Inadequate Inspection report for children’s home: SC063673 3

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improvement to be good

Children who have emotional health needs are not receiving the therapeutic support that is on offer, as outlined in the home’s statement of purpose. Children who have experienced a significant amount of trauma are not benefiting from therapeutic strategies to help them overcome adversity.

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improvement to be good

Children are supported by their staff team to make progress. However, children’s plans do not contain specific and measurable goals. This results in support for children which is not focused on their needs and their desired goals are not tracked.

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improvement to be good

Children who are not in education are supported by a tutor until plans are put in place for them to attend a formal setting. Staff ensure that children attend education settings that meet their needs. However, staff and managers do not understand the children’s educational abilities, as they are not contained in children’s plans. This prevents the staff from working on areas that the child may be struggling with and reduces the opportunity to close any attainment gaps.

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improvement to be good

Children work on some life skills to help them in the future as an independent adult; however, this support is not fully embedded into staff practice. Staff do not track children’s progress in this area to target future support. This could potentially lead to children not being fully equipped for the expectations of adult life.

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improvement to be good

Staff develop good relationships with people who are important to the children. This practice has achieved good outcomes for children in relation to their long-term plans. It also enables children to create positive memories with people who they love and care about.

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improvement to be good

Children moving into the home or moving out of the home do not have child-focused plans to support them through this significant time in their lives. This reduces the opportunity for children to feel secure and in control during an emotional event.

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improvement to be good

Most risks in children’s lives are known by the staff and they understand how to keep children safe from the risks. However, staff lack knowledge of current safeguarding issues that affect children generally, such as child exploitation. There is also a lack of knowledge relating to the external protocols in place to safeguard children from complex safeguarding issues. This has resulted in a lack of curiosity within the staff team following significant incidents. It has also resulted in children not receiving education about current risks in society to develop their knowledge and safeguard themselves. Inspection report for children’s home: SC063673 4 Children are supported by safety plans. However, staff lack training in therapeutic parenting and de-escalation techniques to ensure that they have the skills to support children to regulate their emotions when they are struggling. This has resulted in the police attending the home to manage children’s behaviour, which could result in

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improvement to be good

children being criminalised and impacting on their future.

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improvement to be good

When a child is missing from home, staff follow a plan to try and locate the child and get them home safely. They search for children, contact appropriate people and children can engage in an independent discussion when they return home to discuss any worries that they may have.

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improvement to be good

Children are confident to raise any issues of bullying. Staff respond to any concerns in a proactive way. Plans are put in place to keep children safe from bullying, and education takes place to ensure that all children live in a home that promotes equality.

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improvement to be good

Staff and managers follow child protection processes and work well with other agencies when there is a specific safeguarding risk. This ensures that there is a multi-agency response to keep children safe.

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good

Staff feel well supported by the interim manager. They have received regular supervision and team meetings to help them develop and reflect on their practice to ensure that they are providing the best care to children.

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good

The interim manager has oversight of events in the children’s lives; however, there is a lack of evaluation and curiosity about staff practice linked to events. This shortfall results in poor practice not being identified and a learning culture not developing.

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good

The interim manager is creating a culture of empathy, passion and understanding. However, she has not ensured that staff have training in key topics to help them care for the current child and other children who have been in their care. This reduces the opportunity for staff to develop their knowledge base about children’s individual needs, which has an impact on children’s day-to-day care.

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good

The assessment process to inform the decision-making about children moving into the home is not robust. The staff team has not had the skills to meet children’s individual needs. This has resulted in disruption and instability for some children when they have already experienced trauma in their lives.

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good

The manager has not requested feedback from children, their families, professionals, and the staff team to inform the review of the quality of care. In addition, the quality-of-care review does not evaluate practice and a focused action plan is not formed from the review. The lack of feedback from these important people reduces the opportunity for improving the care provided to the children. The lack of Inspection report for children’s home: SC063673 5 evaluation hinders the manager’s ability to create a forward-thinking vision for the staff team.

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good

The manager’s response to complaints is inconsistent. There have been some good responses to complaints; however, not all complaints have been responded to. This reduces the opportunity for the manager to develop the staff team and ensure that children and their families feel listened to. Inspection report for children’s home: SC063673 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 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;

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Requirement Due date

help each child to understand how to keep safe;

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Requirement Due date

have the skills to identify and act upon signs that a child is at risk of harm; and

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Requirement Due date

that the home’s day-to-day care is arranged and delivered so as to keep each child safe and to protect each child effectively from harm. (Regulation 12 (1) (2)(a)(i)(ii)(iii)(b))

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Requirement Due date

This specifically relates to the team having a good knowledge base about complex safeguarding issues and how to respond to these specific risks with the help of specialist services when required.

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Requirement Due date

This also relates to the team helping children to understand risks that could put them in danger and how to keep themselves safe. 7 January 2022

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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 7 January 2022 Inspection report for children’s home: SC063673 7 promotes their welfare.

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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

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 have the experience, qualifications and skills to meet the needs of 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

demonstrate that practice in the home is informed and improved by taking into account and acting on—

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Requirement Due date

feedback on the experiences of children, including complaints received; and

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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)(a)(c)(f) (g)(ii) (h))

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Requirement Due date

This specifically relates to the team receiving training to meet the children’s needs. It also relates to the manager evaluating practice to improve the quality of care to children.

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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..

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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)(a) (2)(a))

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Requirement Due date

This specifically relates to: 7 January 2022 Inspection report for children’s home: SC063673 8 children having specific and measurable goals; children’s care and plans being informed by other agencies including therapeutic and education services; 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.

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Requirement Due date

After completing a quality of care review, the registered person must produce a written report about the quality of care review and the actions which the registered person intends to take as a result of the quality of care review ("the quality of care review report").

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Requirement Due date

supply to HMCI a copy of the quality of care review report within 28 days of the date on which the quality of care review is completed. (Regulation 45 (1) (3) (4)(a))

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Requirement Due date

This specifically relates to the report being evaluative and including independent scrutiny from children and those involved in the children’s lives. 7 January 2022

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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 for children’s home: SC063673 9

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Children’s home details

Registered provider: After Care NW Limited

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: 45 Kensington Road, Southport, Lancashire PR9 0RT

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Children’s home details

Responsible individual: Timothy Blundell

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Inspector

Carly Quinn, Social Care Inspector Inspection report for children’s home: SC063673 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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