Children's Home run by Positive Pathways Limited in Birmingham

Inspection report children’s home: 1234430 1 Registered provider: Positive Pathways Limited Full inspection Inspected under the social care common inspection framework

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Information about this children’s home

The privately owned children’s home provides care for up to three children with social and/or emotional difficulties and/or learning disabilities.

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Information about this children’s home

The registered manager has been in post at this home since November 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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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: good

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requires improvement to be good

Enforcement action since last inspection: none Inspection report children’s home: 1234430 2

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

06/01/2020 Full Good 02/01/2019 Full Outstanding 12/12/2017 Full Outstanding 24/01/2017 Full Outstanding Inspection report children’s home: 1234430 3

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improvement to be good

Since the previous inspection, five children have moved into the home and five children have moved out, at different times. Currently, three children live in the home and have been here for some time.

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improvement to be good

Children are not always well matched to the home. The registered manager visits children before they arrive at the home to get to know them. However, some children’s needs are not fully understood when they move in. This has led to some children becoming more unsettled recently, and one child moved out of the home in an unplanned way. This does not help children to establish lasting relationships that make them feel secure.

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improvement to be good

Children’s relationships with staff are mostly positive, and children said that they can talk to staff without feeling ‘judged’. However, one child’s emotional well-being has deteriorated recently. While the registered manager has offered the child comfort, they have not organised the child’s care in the home or spoken to other professionals about getting help for this child to reduce the concerns. This has detrimentally affected the child’s progress and has led to situations with children that could have been managed better.

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improvement to be good

Staff support children by offering direct work and regular praise. However, some children struggle with their relationships with one another. One child told the inspector that this made them wish they no longer lived at the home as they are afraid of another child. Staff have not acted on this issue at an early enough stage. This has resulted in an incident where one child harmed another child.

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improvement to be good

The staff team communicates well with specialist services that are working with children. However, when children’s care plans change, or other professionals may need to take action to support children, the registered manager does not act on this. This can mean that children miss out on the full range of help they are entitled to.

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improvement to be good

The registered manager encourages staff to think positively about children and to have high expectations of children’s ability to progress. This ethos results in low numbers of incidents when children are in emotional distress. However, when incidents do happen, staff are not always skilled in managing these. This resulted in one child receiving a delayed response to protect them when they were at risk of potential harm.

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improvement to be good

Staff are not aware of all the signs when children may be at risk, and what actions should be taken if a child gets hurt. In addition, staff do not clearly record what has Inspection report children’s home: 1234430 4 happened in incidents. This prevents staff from learning from events to better manage incidents next time. Children do not always receive a consistent response from staff to meet their needs.

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improvement to be good

Staff miss patterns in children’s behaviour that suggest they may be at increased risk. This leads to some children becoming more distressed over time. This has led to incidents between children when they have become angry or upset. When the registered manager is aware of these welfare concerns, she and the staff team have not increased their support for children, reflected on the concerns together, or escalated their worries with other agencies. This shortfall has exposed children to incidents that could have been better managed.

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good

The registered manager understands the importance of building relationships with children but sometimes overlooks the importance of care planning for children and ensuring that risks are properly managed. For example, when the care that children receive needs to be reviewed or changed, the registered manager does not challenge other agencies to ensure that support is put in place. This means that children miss out on personalised care.

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good

The registered manager has started to develop some reviewing systems so that she understands the quality of care children are receiving. However, when these monitoring systems have identified shortfalls in recording and the need for clearer guidance for staff, the registered manager has not acted on this to improve the quality of care. This means that the kind of care children are receiving is unclear in records, which prevents the registered manager from having sufficient oversight to ensure that staff practice is of a good standard.

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good

The registered manager does not always make use of her own recording systems. This has led to the registered manager missing that the quality-of-care review had not been sent to Ofsted when required. In addition, a recent complaint record lacked essential information to capture the work that the registered manager had done to address the issues raised.

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good

Staff have not received the training they need to meet all the needs of the children in their care. As a result, staff have not had the skills required to manage some incidents, leading to a disorganised response to children in distress. The registered manager has since rectified this issue and prioritised these areas of staff training.

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good

The registered manager provides staff with regular practice-related supervision. Team meetings are child-focused. However, some important worries for children are not discussed by the manager, which would help staff to understand how to offer children better care. This means that the registered manager misses opportunities to offer staff guidance that would help them to provide care that considers each child’s specific needs. Inspection report children’s home: 1234430 5

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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

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 (c))

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Requirement Due date

This specifically relates to the registered person ensuring that they advocate for statutory reviews and paperwork for children to be completed in a timely manner, escalating where necessary.

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Requirement Due date

It also relates to ensuring that, where there are concerns with the care plans for a child or their risks are increasing, the registered person engages other professionals. 24 March 2022

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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

manage relationships between children to prevent them from harming each other;

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Requirement Due date

take effective action whenever there is a serious concern about a child’s welfare. 24 March 2022 Inspection report children’s home: 1234430 6 (Regulation 12 (1) (2)(a)(i)(iv)(vi))

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Requirement Due date

This specifically relates to the registered manager ensuring that risk-management plans for children consider all the required information. For example, the registered manager must ensure that any tensions between children are considered in risk-management planning, to keep children safe. In addition, the registered manager must ensure that effective action is taken when children are at risk of harm.

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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

This relates to the registered person ensuring that, where issues in their oversight of care are highlighted, this information is then used to inform their planning and management of care. 24 March 2022

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Requirement Due date

within 24 hours of the use of a measure of control, discipline or restraint in relation to a child in the home, a record is made which includes—

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Requirement Due date

the date, time and location of the use of the measure;

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Requirement Due date

a description of the measure and its duration;

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Requirement Due date

details of any methods used or steps taken to avoid the need to use the measure;

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Requirement Due date

the effectiveness and any consequences of the use of the measure. (Regulation 35 (3)(a)(iii)(iv)(v)(vii)) 24 March 2022 Inspection report children’s home: 1234430 7 This specifically relates to the registered person ensuring that all the details required as per the regulations are included in incidents of restraint.

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must ensure that a record is made of any complaint, the action taken in response, and the outcome of any investigation. (Regulation 39 (3))

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Requirement Due date

This specifically relates to ensuring that all actions and outcomes relating to complaints are clearly recorded. 24 March 2022

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Requirement Due date

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

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) (4)(a)) 24 March 2022

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Recommendation

 The registered person should ensure that staff are familiar with the home’s policies on record-keeping and understand the importance of careful, objective and clear recording. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations, including the quality standards’, page 62, paragraph 14.4)

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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: 1234430 8

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Children’s home details

Registered provider: Positive Pathways Limited

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: Park Business Centre, Hastingwood Industrial Park, Wood Lane, Erdington, Birmingham B24 9QR

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Inspector

Fiona Roche, Social Care Inspector Inspection report children’s home: 1234430 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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