Children's Home run by Considerate Care Limited in Liverpool

Inspection report for children’s home: SC062674 1 SC062674 Registered provider: Considerate Care Limited Full inspection Inspected under the social care common inspection framework

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Information about this children’s home

This home is privately run. It is registered to care for up to four children who may experience social or emotional difficulties, or learning disabilities.

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Information about this children’s home

The manager registered with Ofsted in February 2006.

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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: 30 October 2019

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requires improvement to be good

Overall judgement at last inspection: good

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requires improvement to be good

Enforcement action since last inspection: none Inspection report for children’s home: SC062674 2

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

30/10/2019 Full Good 11/12/2018 Full Good 18/10/2017 Full Good 15/02/2017 Interim Improved effectiveness Inspection report for children’s home: SC062674 3

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improvement to be good

The staff have a good understanding of children’s needs. However, children’s plans do not clearly capture how the staff will meet these needs. Work that the staff do to help children is scattered across various documents, which makes it difficult to understand children’s progress journeys.

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improvement to be good

The manager takes swift and effective action when the home is not suitable to meet children’s needs. She challenged a placing authority that failed to provide information about a child whose admission had a detrimental effect on other children. However, pre-admission planning does not always identify strategies to minimise the risks that children may have on each other. Furthermore, children who move on from the home in a planned way do not always have a transition plan, and their wishes and feelings are not always recorded.

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improvement to be good

Children’s attendance and progress in education is variable. However, there is close communication between the staff and education providers to ensure careful planning to encourage children to reintegrate when their attendance falters. The manager advocates for children’s education, health and care plans to be reviewed to ensure that they are appropriately meeting children’s current circumstances.

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improvement to be good

The staff endeavour to register children with health services, despite challenges due to the impact of COVID-19. However, children’s health plans do not record how the staff ensure that arrangements are made to meet children’s health needs, for example if childhood immunisations are required, or how the staff will monitor children’s emotional well-being.

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improvement to be good

The team promotes equality and diversity in the home. The staff work closely with social workers to ensure that interpreter services are in place to communicate with children’s families. The staff meet children’s cultural needs and challenge discriminatory language to help children learn how to respect others.

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improvement to be good

Children’s risk management plans highlight children’s vulnerabilities, but lack detailed strategies to manage the identified concerns. They do not link well with children’s other plans to identify actions to help children.

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improvement to be good

Children have regular meetings with their key worker to discuss their needs. This helps some children to understand the risks associated with substance misuse, for example, and how they can stay safe. Children are referred to specialist services for support. However, children’s plans do not always include direct work for staff to complete with children to help them understand the risks to their safety. Inspection report for children’s home: SC062674 4 The staff rely on parental controls to ensure that children do not access unsuitable websites via the home’s internet provider. However, staff have limited further systems in place to monitor what children access if they are using independently purchased data, for example on mobile telephones, to ensure that they are safe from grooming or inappropriate internet content.

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improvement to be good

The staff respond well when children go missing from the home and attend relevant multi-agency meetings. This reduces the likelihood of repeat missing episodes. However, the manager failed to notify Ofsted when child criminal exploitation was a concern following a missing incident.

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improvement to be good

Staff use sanctions effectively in the home. This means that children think about their behaviour and are more likely to act positively. Children have good relationships with staff at the home and feel trusted. As a result, children talk openly to staff about their needs. This helps staff to help and protect children.

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improvement to be good

Staff refrain from using physical intervention to manage children’s behaviour. Staff use de-escalation techniques to calm distressed children. This approach helps to maintain positive relationships between staff and children. Although the police are called for assistance on occasion, this occurs when children’s actions are likely to affect others in the local community.

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improvement to be good

Some staff have not accessed specific training in respect to children’s identified needs and vulnerabilities. This does not ensure that staff have the knowledge and skills to respond to concerns.

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good

The home has a strong leadership team comprising an experienced manager and deputy. They have supported the staff team to meet the needs of children flexibly through the challenges presented by COVID-19. Leaders and managers recognise the shortfalls identified during the inspection and know how they need to address them.

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good

The staff receive regular supervision which encourages them to reflect on their practice and to identify any training needs. Although individual staff files record their professional development needs, there is no workforce development plan in place to identify the requirements needed to meet the relevant aspects of the home’s statement of purpose.

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good

The staff consult with children regularly for their views about their feelings and what they would like to change in the home. Children personalise their bedrooms to their taste. Inspection report for children’s home: SC062674 5 External professionals are positive about how the staff help children to make progress. They say that there is good communication and liaison to make sure that children’s needs are met.

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good

Some documents use slang and judgemental language about children, which is not helpful. Also, some policies require updating to remove outdated terminology or inaccurate information.

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good

Independent external monitoring of the home lacks robust analysis of practice in the home. The independent person does not consistently gather the view of children or external stakeholders. Reports do not make appropriate recommendations to drive forward improvements.

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good

The manager has monthly monitoring systems in place to track children’s progress and has good oversight of any incidents that occur. However, the report on the review of the quality of care lacks the opinions of stakeholders, including children, and continues to focus on children’s progress rather than the quality of care. It lacks actions to address areas for development to improve the care provided to children. Inspection report for children’s home: SC062674 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; 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)(b))

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Requirement Due date

In particular, that risk management plans provide clear strategies for how the staff support children to become safer, including any direct work with children to help them to understand their own risks and vulnerabilities. 6 February 2022

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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

that arrangements are in place to— 6 February 2022 Inspection report for children’s home: SC062674 7 plan for, and help, each child to prepare to leave the home or to move into adult care in a way that is consistent with arrangements agreed with the child’s placing authority; and

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Requirement Due date

that each child’s relevant plans are followed. (Regulation 14 (1)(a)(b)(2)(b)(iii)(c))

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Requirement Due date

Specifically, that robust and effective care plans identify the support that children need and how the staff will help them to make progress. Plans should reflect children’s relevant plans in accordance with placing authorities’ expectations. Clear transition plans should be in place for children who are moving on from the home in a planned way, that include children’s wishes and feelings.

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Requirement Due date

The independent person must produce a report about a visit ("the independent person’s report") which sets out, in particular, the independent person’s opinion as to whether—

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Requirement Due date

children are effectively safeguarded; and

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Requirement Due date

the conduct of the home promotes children’s well-being.

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Requirement Due date

The independent person’s report may recommend actions that the registered person may take in relation to the home and timescales within which the registered person must consider whether or not to take those actions. (Regulation 44 (4)(a)(b)(5))

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Requirement Due date

In particular, the independent person should ensure that the report provides robust evaluation to help the registered person’s understanding of the quality of care provided in the home. The independent person should regularly seek the opinions of stakeholders and should make recommendations to improve practice. 6 February 2022

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Requirement Due date

In order to complete a quality of care review the registered person must establish and maintain a system for monitoring, reviewing and evaluating—

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Requirement Due date

the quality of care provided for children;

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Requirement Due date

the feedback and opinions of children about the children’s home, its facilities and the quality of care they receive in it; and 6 February 2022 Inspection report for children’s home: SC062674 8 any actions that the registered person considers necessary in order to improve or maintain the quality of care provided for children.

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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

The system referred to in paragraph (2) must provide for ascertaining and considering the opinions of children, their parents, placing authorities and staff. (Regulation 45 (2)(a)(b)(c)(3)(5))

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Requirement Due date

Specifically, the report should provide analysis and evaluation of the quality of care, rather than focus on children’s progress. It should include the views of stakeholders and any actions to address any shortfalls and drive continuous improvement in the quality of care provided.

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must notify HMCI and each other relevant person without delay if—

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Requirement Due date

there is any other incident relating to a child which the registered person considers to be serious. (Regulation 40 (4)(e)) 6 February 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

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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

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; and 6 February 2022 Inspection report for children’s home: SC062674 9 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)(f)(h))

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Requirement Due date

In particular, that the staff have the skills to meet the individual needs of children and that robust monitoring systems identify areas for development in practice.

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Recommendations

 The registered person should ensure that records use language that is non- judgemental and helpful to the child. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations, including the quality standards’, page 62, paragraph 14.4)  The registered person should ensure that a workforce plan is in place which can fulfil the workforce-related requirements of regulation 16 and include the information as set out in the guide. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations, including the quality standards’, page 53, paragraph 10.8)

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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: SC062674 10

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Children’s home details

Registered provider: Considerate Care Limited

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: 64 Derby Lane, Liverpool L13 3DN

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Children’s home details

Responsible individual: William Aspinall

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Inspectors

Karen Willson, Social Care Inspector Mark Woodbridge, Social Care Inspector Inspection report for children’s home: SC062674 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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