Children's home run by Witherslack Group Limited in Westmorland and Furness

Inspection report children’s home: SC480422 1 SC480422 Registered provider: Witherslack Group Limited Full inspection Inspected under the social care common inspection framework

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Information about this children’s home

This is a private children’s home. It offers care for a maximum of eight children with emotional and/or behavioural difficulties.

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Information about this children’s home

The manager registered with Ofsted in 2014.

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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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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

Date of last inspection: 10 February 2020

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good

Overall judgement at last inspection: outstanding

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good

Enforcement action since last inspection: none Inspection report children’s home: SC480422 2

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

10/02/2020 Full Outstanding 12/12/2018 Full Good 20/11/2017 Full Outstanding 15/03/2017 Interim Sustained effectiveness Inspection report children’s home: SC480422 3

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children are progressing well and say that they feel safe living in their home. Despite the recent high turnover of staff, children have good relationships with staff. Children say that staff are great and that they like the staff. Staff take the time to get to know the children well and are very child centred. Staff understand children’s past experiences and develop care and support plans that recognise risks. For most children, relevant actions are identified to manage and reduce risk. This means that children are cared for according to their individual needs. Most children’s plans are regularly reviewed and updated. However, some children’s plans are not always updated quickly enough, which means that new and changing risks may not always be recorded for other staff and managers to be aware of.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children are supported to understand their behaviours through an established therapeutic service. Children have made progress managing their emotions and behaviours, and significant incidents have reduced, which demonstrates that this is effective. Children are supported to express their views through regular meetings and discussions in the home and through using appropriate advocates. Children told inspectors that they know how to make a complaint, and inspectors saw they do use this process. However, inspectors found that not all children’s complaints are managed well enough.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

All children actively participate in their education provision, which has resulted in a significant improvement from their starting points. During the COVID-19 pandemic, the children’s education provision has been disrupted. Therefore, staff have supported children to engage in home-based activities when schools and colleges have not been accessible. Staff have great aspirations for children, and they encourage them to explore different opportunities. Children engage in a wide and varied range of activities based on their own interests and likes. However, for some children, there has been a period of frequent missing-from-care episodes and they shared their views of ‘being bored’.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children are well supported to develop, sustain and rebuild relationships with important people in their lives. Staff actively provide opportunities for children to learn independence skills. When this is not as effective as planned, alternative plans are put in place to meet the child’s current needs.

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

Staff work effectively with professionals supporting the children to ensure that they are protected from harm and understand the risks that their behaviours can bring. The staff work closely with social workers to review children’s plans and amend the actions when necessary. One social worker said, ‘Staff have done well to manage his needs.’ Another said, [Name of child] has progressed massively and I wouldn’t change a thing about the home.’ Inspection report children’s home: SC480422 4 Children are supported to take age-appropriate risks and are encouraged to learn from any negative incidents. The staff use a positive behaviour approach in their behaviour management. However, this is not always effective and there has been a recent increase in the number of physical restraints used. Most of the staff are inexperienced using physical restraint and not all staff have received training for physical restraint. This means that a small number of staff implement the physical

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

restraints, which limits the benefit of other staff present. This can potentially impact on the relationships that children develop with staff.

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

Safeguarding concerns for children or allegations against staff are swiftly reported to the appropriate professionals and relevant action is taken to ensure that risks are mitigated and children’s safety is promoted.

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

Not all risks in the home environment are recognised or swiftly rectified. For example, potential fire risks were not recognised at the time of the inspection with mobile phones left to charge on children’s beds unattended.

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

During this inspection, it was observed that staff do not routinely check visitors’ identification or follow the home’s COVID-19 risk assessment to check the health status of visitors entering the home. Although this did not compromise the safety of children on this occasion, staff did not maintain these safe practices intended to keep children safe.

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good

The home has a permanent manager, who has been present for many years. This provides a depth of knowledge and experience of the functioning of the home and the needs of the children. The manager has faced significant difficulties resulting from a high turnover of staff recently. This means that the staff are relatively inexperienced, and most are not yet suitably qualified. However, they are all in training for their qualification. The manager is aware of the staffing difficulties and is taking appropriate action to be creative with recruitment activities.

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good

The monthly independent visitor reports provide the management with appropriate challenge to improve the care and support for children. However, these have mostly been completed virtually throughout the COVID-19 pandemic. This limits their effectiveness as children are not being observed and the premises are not seen. Effective data records provide managers and leaders with easy-to-understand progress reports for individual children. The manager also completes a comprehensive regulation 45 report to assess and analyse progress and areas for further development. These all act to inform staff of the effectiveness of practice when monitoring children’s progress. However, the management oversight of children’s records could be improved. There are inaccuracies in the recording of children’s legal status, and the manager and leaders were not aware of the lack of specific trigger points in some children’s risk assessments until raised by inspectors.

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good

Inspection report children’s home: SC480422 5 Leaders mostly provide an effective and timely response when children raise complaints. However, this does not always happen. This means that children may be left feeling that they are not being heard and their complaint is not being taken seriously. Leaders engage with professionals well. Social workers told inspectors that they receive regular updates about their children and communication is good.

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good

Supervision for staff is not as regular as the home’s policy requires it to be. When this was raised by inspectors, leaders recognised it as an area for improvement. Staff are provided with a debrief following a significant incident. However, the recording of this is limited to show how new and inexperienced staff have been supported.

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good

Children’s case records are mostly of good quality. They provide an in-depth understanding of what life is like for the child and help the reader to understand how best to support and care for the child. This means that new members of staff joining the team will be able to quickly gain an understanding of the child. However, some children’s case records are not accurate. For example, for at least two children, their legal status is recorded incorrectly.

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good

Staff in the home are very child centred and committed to providing a high level of care to the children. Inspection report children’s home: SC480422 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

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

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)(b))

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Requirement Due date

Specifically, ensure that all visitors to the home are asked for identification and that checks are made in accordance with the home’s infection control risk assessment. 14 March 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

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

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Requirement Due date

research and developments in relation to the ways in which the needs of children are best met; and

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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)(g)(i)(ii)(h)) 14 March 2022 Inspection report children’s home: SC480422 7 After consultation with the fire and rescue authority, the registered person must—

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Requirement Due date

take adequate precautions against the risk of fire, including the provision of suitable fire equipment in the children’s home. (Regulation 25 (1)(a))

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Requirement Due date

Specifically, check for fire hazards in the home, such as children leaving mobile phones on their beds while connected to a mains electrical charger. 14 March 2022

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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. (Regulation 33 (4)(b)) 14 March 2022

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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)) 14 March 2022

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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 an allegation of abuse against the home or a person working there. (Regulation 40 (4)(c)) 14 March 2022

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Recommendations

 The registered person should ensure that the responsible local authority provides an opportunity for a child who has been missing from care to have an independent return home interview. (‘Guide to the Children’s Homes Regulations, including the quality standards’, page 45, paragraph 9.30)  The registered person should ensure that staff clearly understand that restraint may only be used to stop a child leaving the home where there is imminent risk to their safety. (‘Guide to the Children’s Homes Regulations, including the quality standards’, page 48, paragraph 9.52)  The registered person should ensure that children’s case records are kept up to date and signed and dated by the author when amended. (‘Guide to the Children’s Homes Regulations, including the quality standards’, page 62, paragraph 14.3)  The registered person should ensure that staff understand the importance of careful, objective and clear recording, using language that avoids stigmatising

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Recommendations

children. (‘Guide to the Children’s Homes Regulations, including the quality standards’, page 62, paragraph 14.4)  The registered person should ensure that the appointed independent person is supported to make a rigorous and impartial assessment of the home. (‘Guide to Inspection report children’s home: SC480422 8 the Children’s Homes Regulations, including the quality standards’, page 65, paragraph 15.5)

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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: SC480422 9

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Children’s home details

Registered provider: Witherslack Group Limited

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: Witherslack Group, Lupton Tower, Lupton, Carnforth LA6 2PR

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Inspectors

Gillian Walters, Social Care Inspector Mandy Nightingale, Her Majesty’s Inspector, Social Care Inspection report children’s home: SC480422 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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Inspectors

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Inspectors

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Inspectors

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