Children's home run by The Little Flower

Inspection report for children's home: SC462631 1 SC462631 Full inspection Inspected under the social care common inspection framework

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Information about this children’s home

The home provides residential and respite care for up to three children with physical and/or learning disabilities. At the time of this inspection, there were two children living in the home.

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Information about this children’s home

The home and manager registered with Ofsted in March 2013.

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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

Overall judgement at last inspection: good

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good

Enforcement action since last inspection: none Inspection report for children's home: SC462631 2

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

05/03/2020 Full Good 29/01/2019 Full Good 29/08/2017 Full Good 08/03/2017 Interim Sustained effectiveness Inspection report for children's home: SC462631 3

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

The home is suitably staffed and resourced to meet the needs of the children living there. Children are cared for by a consistent staff team. The ratio of staff to children is in line with children’s care plans. This means that staff are able to provide each child with the necessary care and attention to meet their individual needs.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children’s extremely complex health needs are met well. Staff attend health appointments with children and support them appropriately. Furthermore, staff ensure that children’s health plans are implemented.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

All children are in full-time education. Staff prepare children for their day by implementing good routines in the morning and welcome children back home at the end of the school day. As a result of being in education, children’s life chances and opportunities are improved.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children are supported to maintain family relationships and family members feel involved in their children’s day-to-day care. Children’s families, professionals and staff members report that children have improved behaviours and relationships with others and that living in this home has a positive impact on children’s lives.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff complete detailed risk assessments for activities. Staff have previously offered activities specific to children’s needs and interests. However, more recently, activities are mainly indoor and home based. Leaders and managers report that children’s health vulnerabilities must be carefully managed within the COVID-19 context, but there is a plan to offer children more outdoor stimulation and experiences.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children make steady progress living in this home. Staff plans for children consider the placing authority information and are comprehensive and detailed. However, lack of clarity on when information is reviewed and by whom makes it difficult to follow the children’s journeys. This will not help children in later life to remember and understand their experiences.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children are provided with a children’s guide. This uses a pictorial communication style to describe the routine and activities, although there is no information on how to make a complaint or that children can have access to an advocate.

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

Children and staff form positive relationships. Staff observations and knowledge of children allow them to understand children’s communication styles and behaviours. Children are praised and spoken to with warmth and affection. Children are settled and have improved health and behaviours. Children receive care from a staff team who are interested in them and know them well. Inspection report for children's home: SC462631 4 Leaders and managers advocate for children. For example, leaders and managers have raised the need for legal orders in relation to restriction of liberty practices. Staff ensure that children are positively encouraged to learn calming strategies. However, risk assessments, consent and review of restrictions for the use of bed, chair and arm equipment that restricts children’s movement are not in place. Consequently, specific behaviours that potentially place children or staff at risk of

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

harm are not fully considered and updated.

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

Children are supported by staff who understand their needs. Children’s behaviour plans incorporate family and professional views. These plans are also included in their holistic ‘This is me’ document that identifies individualised information about them, although this is not consistently dated and does not specify review dates. However, strong partnership working ensures that risks to children are identified, understood and managed.

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

Leaders and managers ensure that they know how to care for children. An education professional was impressed by the pertinent, detailed and relevant information sought prior to a child moving into the home, which included staff visits to the school. Despite this good practice, records do not demonstrate that the needs of children already living in the home are sufficiently balanced against those planning to move in. This could potentially cause disruption and be unsettling for children.

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

Children’s complex health needs require constant staff supervision. Consequently, children do not go missing from the home. However, children’s missing-from-home profiles do not include sufficient information, such as full contact details, an outline of their health needs and medication requirements. This potentially limits the response from staff and other professionals in the event of a child going missing from home.

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

Children are helped and protected while living in this home and are not exposed to unnecessary risk. Concerns identified by the inspector are in relation to the leadership and management monitoring and oversight.

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good

There is a positive culture in this home. There is a stable staff team who have worked hard to offer support and minimise the effect of COVID-19 on children, their families and each other. Leaders and managers are aware that the focus during the height of the pandemic was on children’s day-to-day needs and staff availability to work, and less on fulfilling management tasks. Consequently, a practice manager has been employed to identify and improve areas for development and to embed monitoring and learning practices.

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good

Staff receive regular supervision and have objectives outlined in annual appraisals. However, supervision documents do not show how staff are supported to understand their own backgrounds and experiences when caring for children. This potentially limits staff practice and responses to children. Inspection report for children's home: SC462631 5 Children are supported to participate in regular fire drills. However, when response times to the drills have increased, further learning through key-work sessions and team meetings has not taken place to attempt to reduce response times. The home’s fire documents state that staff should tackle fires and make decisions on whether the environment is safe. This potentially leaves children and staff vulnerable and at risk of harm.

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good

Safer recruitment practices for permanent staff are not consistently followed. Senior managers have undertaken safer recruitment training. Interview questions for prospective employees have become more challenging and include safeguarding questions and tasks. However, for one employee, only character references were on their file although there was provision to seek a reference from a former employer and an academic reference. For another employee in a new role, there was no evidence of the recruitment and induction process. Consequently, opportunities for pre-emptive checks and planning to ensure that staff can safely undertake their roles are missed.

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good

In contrast, managers ensure that agency staff are suitable for the role. Senior managers have met with recruitment agencies to ensure that safer recruitment checks are carried out. Managers verify all agency references before agency staff work at the home. Agency staff are given relevant information about children in their care to ensure that they have a good understanding of their needs. This practice means that children are suitably cared for by staff.

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good

Leaders and managers do not ensure consistency in the medication information that is documented. Medication risk assessments, medication daily sheets, daily logs and ‘This is me’ documents are not always aligned. Remaining amounts and disposal of medication are not clearly evidenced. However, children do receive the right medication and the right dosage at the right time. Staff members are aware of changes to medication, although this is not always clearly documented. If not addressed, inconsistencies could lead to medication errors which are potentially harmful for children.

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good

Documents about and for the service do not have sufficient leadership and management oversight. Staff training records do not include expiry and refresher dates; the statement of purpose does not have an updated organisational chart and does not include information relating to deprivation of liberty practices that might be used to safeguard and protect children. Staff do not evidence that they have read key messages and the shift planner does not clarify areas of responsibility and tasks. There is no cohesive approach to collating feedback and documenting compliments and complaints. However, leaders and managers are aware of these issues and have begun to address and improve practice. Inspection report for children's home: SC462631 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 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

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)(f)(g)(ii)(h))

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Requirement Due date

This refers to ensuring that reviews of all children’s plans and paperwork, including missing-from-home profiles, take place regularly and that they are signed and dated by the manager and inform practice in the home. 4 April 2022

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must compile in relation to the children’s home a statement (“the statement of purpose”) which covers the matters listed in Schedule 1.

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must— 4 April 2022 Inspection report for children's home: SC462631 7 keep the statement of purpose under review and, where appropriate, revise it. (Regulation 16 (1) (3)(a))

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Requirement Due date

This refers to including deprivation of liberty information in the statement of purpose and updating the organisational structure to include the practice manager role.

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Requirement Due date

This requirement was made at the last inspection and is restated.

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Requirement Due date

Restraint in relation to a child must be necessary and proportionate.

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Requirement Due date

These Regulations do not prevent a child from being deprived of liberty where that deprivation is authorised in accordance with a court order. (Regulation 20 (2) (3))

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Requirement Due date

This refers to ensuring that thorough risk assessments inform deprivation of liberty practices, are properly recorded, have clear consent and are kept under regular review. 4 April 2022

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must make arrangements for the handling, recording, safekeeping, safe administration and disposal of medicines received into the children’s home. (Regulation 23 (1))

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Requirement Due date

This refers to ensuring that medication information is regularly updated, clearly aligned across different documents and that staff sign to confirm their awareness of changes. 4 April 2022

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Requirement Due date

After consultation with the fire and rescue authority, the registered person must—

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Requirement Due date

make arrangements for persons working at the home to receive suitable training in fire prevention; and

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Requirement Due date

ensure, by means of fire drills and practices at suitable intervals, that persons working at the home and, so far as reasonably practicable, children are aware of the procedure to be followed in case of fire. (Regulation 25 (1)(c)(d))

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Requirement Due date

This refers to having appropriate fire safety measures in the home, and that all learning is used to improve fire evacuation procedures. 4 April 2022 Inspection report for children's home: SC462631 8

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Recommendations

 The registered person should include in the children’s guide information which helps children to understand how to make a complaint and their rights to an advocate. (‘Guide to the Children’s Homes Regulations, including the quality standards’, page 24, paragraphs 4.21 and 4.22)  The registered person should ensure that children are offered a wide range of activities, both inside and outside of the home (where appropriate), and are encouraged to participate in those activities. (‘Guide to the Children’s Homes Regulations, including the quality standards’, page 31, paragraph 6.5)  The registered person should appropriately balance and match the needs of children coming into the home with those already living in the home. (‘Guide to the Children’s Homes Regulations, including the quality standards’, page 56, paragraph 11.4)  The registered person should maintain good employment practice. They must ensure that recruitment, supervision and performance management of staff

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Recommendations

safeguard children and minimise potential risks to them. (‘Guide to the Children’s Homes Regulations, including the quality standards’, page 61, paragraph 13.1)

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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: SC462631 9

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Children’s home details

Registered manager: Cheridah Caesar-Mejias

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Inspector

Tolulope Sawyerr, Social Care Inspector Inspection report for children's home: SC462631 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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