Children's Home run by Central and Southern Homes Limited in Devon

Inspection report children's home: 2611536 1 Registered provider: Central & Southern Homes Ltd Full inspection Inspected under the social care common inspection framework

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Information about this children’s home

The provider states in its statement of purpose that the home provides care for a maximum of five children between the ages of eight and 16 with emotional or behavioural difficulties.

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Information about this children’s home

A new manager started in November 2021 and has not yet applied to register with Ofsted. The previous registered manager left the post on 29 November 2021.

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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

This is the first full inspection since registration.

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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 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

Date of last inspection: not previously inspected

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inadequate

Overall judgement at last inspection: not applicable

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inadequate

Enforcement action since last inspection: not applicable Inspection report children's home: 2611536 2

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

Not previously inspected Inspection report children's home: 2611536 3

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inadequate

Leaders and managers have failed to provide the care that children need to thrive and make progress.

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inadequate

Children are not receiving education that enables them to reach their potential. One child is only able to attend the school site for one hour per day. Staff have attended meetings with education providers but have not raised a formal challenge with the local authority. Despite a planned transition, one child who is new to the home does not have a school place. This has resulted in the child being unable to make friendships and meet peers in the new area she has moved to.

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inadequate

One child is not protected from the risk of smoking tobacco or cannabis. Staff are aware that the child smokes, but do not proactively provide support to reduce this. Action has been taken to stop the child smoking in the home by installing an additional smoke alarm. However, staff provide the child a locked box to store lighters, normalising the activity for him. The child’s cannabis use is not effectively explored in key working and is minimised throughout records. The lack of action has a detrimental impact on the child’s health.

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inadequate

There has been instability and change within the staff team. Six members of staff have left since the home opened in May 2021. While inspectors observed positive interactions between staff and children, there is not yet consistency to enable children to form meaningful and lasting attachments with care givers.

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inadequate

Staff show genuine affection for the children in the home. They have created a homely and welcoming environment. However, the inexperience of staff results in a lack of challenge or support to one child, to reduce the time he has been missing from the home. As a result, his outcomes are compromised.

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inadequate

Children have individual guides to the home which are handwritten by staff. There is a range of creative methods used by staff to capture memories and experiences of children’s time in the home.

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inadequate

Staff manage concerns about COVID-19 appropriately, with procedures in place to reduce the risk of infection.

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

Recruitment processes are unsafe. Leaders and managers have failed to ensure that staff are safely recruited. Details of previous employment are not sufficiently scrutinised, and assumptions are made. Inconsistencies in applications and supporting documents are not identified and challenged. For one member of staff, a Inspection report children's home: 2611536 4 reference was not taken up from a previous employer. This means that leaders and managers have failed to ensure that staff are safe to work with children.

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

Leaders and managers have failed to take adequate action to safeguard one child.

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

The risk posed to one child is poorly understood and decisions made by leaders and managers have placed the child at risk of harm. In an effort to reduce missing-from- care episodes, staff support the child to attend the home of a friend on an agreed basis. This was presented to inspectors as a positive intervention. However, the child and his friend are both known to misuse cannabis. During the visit inspectors noted the smell of cannabis from the child’s bedroom. Leaders and managers fail to demonstrate professional curiosity about how the child is obtaining illegal substances. Consequently, the risk of exploitation is not known and cannot be mitigated.

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

Leaders and managers have not identified or understood the risks relating to the location of the home in respect of one child. The location risk assessment is incomplete and fails to identify the specific risk to a child in relation to known local substance misuse and anti-social behaviour concerns.

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

Staff know how to respond when one child is missing from the home, and the records show the steps taken to encourage the child to return. Feedback from the police praises staff responses to missing-from-home episodes. However, staff fail to show curiosity about what the child is doing while they are missing. Staff are over reliant on the child’s self-reporting of their whereabouts. Staff have failed to be vigilant in supervision. On one occasion, the child brought a friend into the home undetected.

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

The risk assessment and behaviour support plan for one child is not consistently updated after significant incidents. In addition, the risk assessment fails to explicitly consider the risk of substance misuse, the child carrying a screwdriver and risk of harm to others, all of which are known to staff. As a result, the risk assessment does not provide staff with the information they require to keep the child safe.

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

Leaders and managers have failed to ensure that the needs and risks of the children are matched or assessed effectively. There are individual matching documents for each child, but these are not updated when a new child moves in. There is a lack of consideration about the interplay of specific needs and risks of children living in the home. Therefore, it is not known that children are suitably and safely matched.

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

Any concerns that are raised about staff members are promptly referred to safeguarding authorities. Investigations are completed, and action is taken to safeguard the children.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

Staff currently recruited to the home have no experience of working in residential children’s homes or similar environments with children. There are no support staff or Inspection report children's home: 2611536 5 senior support staff who have a relevant qualification for the role. Although staff have a comprehensive induction programme, they lack practical knowledge and experience to be able to provide children with the nurture and boundaries they need. Staff lack the confidence to undertake restraints. This deficiency results in leaders and managers working alongside staff within the home to provide role modelling opportunities or to undertake interventions. While staff report that they feel supported, this support is to the detriment of the oversight leaders and managers have of the home.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

Monitoring and oversight by leaders and managers are weak. Management oversight is not reflective or challenging. Inconsistency or ambiguity is not identified in written records of incidents. For one child, the debrief following a restraint did not make it clear what the child actually said. For another child, the write-up of an incident was not scrutinised where language used indicated a restraint may have taken place. There is a formal agreement about the use of electronic devices for one child; however, this is not reviewed in line with the plan on file. Monitoring systems are insufficient to identify patterns or trends. For example, the missing-from-home tracker does not contain the day of the week that incidents occurred, meaning vital data is missing.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

Leaders and managers have failed to ensure that staff read and understand risk assessments and behaviour plans. There is a process in place for staff to sign to say that they have read these important documents. Inspectors found that the risk assessment for one child was only signed by five out of nine staff, and for another child only by three. Managers had not identified this weakness. This demonstrates that leaders and managers do not ensure that staff understand children’s needs and know how to care for them.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

Staff have positive relationships with parents and external professionals. Despite this, leaders and managers have failed to identify the need to formally challenge the delay in education for one child. While there is evidence of ongoing attempts to resolve the concern, they have not identified that a failure to engage relevant professionals requires escalation. Inspection report children's home: 2611536 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

In meeting the quality standards, the registered person must, and must ensure that staff—

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Requirement Due date

seek to secure the input and services required to meet each child’s needs;

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Requirement Due date

if the registered person considers, or staff consider, a placing authority’s or a relevant person’s performance or response to be inadequate in relation to their role, challenge the placing authority or the relevant person to seek to ensure that each child’s needs are met in accordance with the child’s relevant plans. (Regulation 5 (b)(c))

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Requirement Due date

In particular, the registered person should formally raise with the placing local authority the concerns about one child’s delay in accessing education. 10/12/2021

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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;

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Requirement Due date

children receive advice, services and support in relation to their health and well-being; and

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Requirement Due date

children are helped to lead healthy lifestyles.

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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

understand the child’s health and well-being needs and the options that are available in relation to the child’s health and well-being, in a way that is appropriate to the child’s age and understanding; 16/12/2021 Inspection report children's home: 2611536 7 understand and develop skills to promote the child’s well- being. (Regulation 10 (1)(a)(b)(c) (2)(a)(ii)(iv))

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Requirement Due date

In particular, the registered person should ensure that health plans fully consider the impact of smoking and substance misuse and identify how the child will be supported to improve their health outcomes.

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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

understand the roles and responsibilities in relation to protecting children that are assigned to them by the registered person;

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Requirement Due date

take effective action whenever there is a serious concern about a child’s welfare. (Regulation 12 (1) (2)(a)(v)(vi))

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Requirement Due date

In particular, staff must assess the risk of harm to children, ensure risk assessments are updated and act in accordance with the home’s procedures regarding signing documents to say that the risks are read and understood. 10/12/2021

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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;

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Requirement Due date

ensure that the home’s workforce provides continuity of care to each child; 23/12/2021 Inspection report children's home: 2611536 8 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))

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Requirement Due date

In particular, the registered person should ensure that staff are suitably experienced and skilled to meet the needs of the children in the home, and that staff retention is explored to maintain consistency for children.

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Requirement Due date

The registered person should also ensure there are systems in place to review the quality of interventions and to learn from incidents.

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Requirement Due date

The registered person should also develop systems to ensure documents are reviewed, and to be able to satisfy themselves that staff are aware of what they need to do to be able to care for children.

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must recruit staff using recruitment procedures that are designed to ensure children’s safety.

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Requirement Due date

employ an individual to work at the children’s home; or

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Requirement Due date

if an individual is employed by a person other than the registered person to work at the home in a position in which the individual may have regular contact with children, allow that individual to work at the home,

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Requirement Due date

if the individual satisfies the requirements in paragraph (3).

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Requirement Due date

the individual is of integrity and good character;

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Requirement Due date

the individual has the appropriate experience, qualification and skills for the work that the individual is to perform;

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Requirement Due date

the individual is mentally and physically fit for the purposes of the work that the individual is to perform; and 03/12/2021 Inspection report children's home: 2611536 9 full and satisfactory information is available in relation to the individual in respect of each of the matters in Schedule 2. (Regulation 32 (1) (2)(a)(b) (3)(a)(b)(c)(d))

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Requirement Due date

In particular, the manager should ensure that information provided by applicants is scrutinised to ensure complete dates of employment are provided, that discrepancies are identified and challenged, and that references are undertaken from the most recent employer.

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must review the appropriateness and suitability of the location of the premises used for the purposes of the children’s home at least once in each calendar year taking into account the requirement in regulation 12(2)(c) (the protection of children standard). (Regulation 46 (1))

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Requirement Due date

In particular, the registered person must take into account the risks for individual children in relation to the location of the home. 10/12/2021

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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: 2611536 10

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Children’s home details

Registered provider: Central & Southern Homes Ltd

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: Pitmaston House, Malvern Road, Worcester WR2 4LL

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Children’s home details

Responsible individual: Christopher Riordan

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Inspectors

Clare Nixson, Social Care Inspector Michelle Oxley, Social Care Inspector Inspection report children's home: 2611536 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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