Children's Home run by After Care (NW) Limited in Sefton

Inspection report for children’s home: SC051947 1 SC051947 Registered provider: After Care NW Limited Full inspection Inspected under the social care common inspection framework

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Information about this children’s home

This is a privately owned children’s home. The provider states that they provide care for up to two children who may have emotional and behavioural difficulties.

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Information about this children’s home

The manager has been registered with Ofsted since October 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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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: 26 February 2020

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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: SC051947 2

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

26/02/2020 Full Good 01/11/2018 Full Good 22/11/2017 Full Good 05/01/2017 Interim Improved effectiveness Inspection report for children’s home: SC051947 3

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improvement to be good

The adults caring for children make efforts to set up formal education plans for children. However, when children struggle to engage with the plans, the adults do not always provide structured educational activities. This reduces opportunities for children to thrive educationally and overcome any barriers. There is also no knowledge of the special educational needs (SEND) local offer. This is a missed opportunity to access additional resources for children to inform their care and plans.

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improvement to be good

Children’s plans are accessible with language that is motivational. However, children do not always have specific and measurable goals that they are aiming to achieve. This has an impact on children’s day-to-day care, causing it to be unstructured with limited access to a range of social opportunities. This shortfall hinders children’s ability to develop their social and emotional skills.

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improvement to be good

Children have trusting relationships with the adults who care for them, as well as with their families. One parent said, ‘I could not wish for my child to be in a better place with better people.’ The trust that has been built has enabled children to work with adults to develop new life skills such as cooking and managing money.

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improvement to be good

Sometimes, children struggle to engage with specific events, and the approaches used by adults to help children overcome this are not always reflective and creative. The provider offers a bespoke therapeutic service to support children’s needs. This service is not being utilised fully to assist with children’s progress and to develop the skills of adults working with them. As a result, barriers for children remain in place.

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improvement to be good

Children are supported to spend time with people who are important to them. Distance is not a barrier, and this enables children to maintain meaningful relationships with their loved ones.

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improvement to be good

The home is personalised and is designed to meet the children’s needs. However, locks on internal doors mean that children do not have access to all areas of their home. This creates an institutionalised environment in the home.

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improvement to be good

The adults caring for children are aware of risks in the children’s lives. However, risk management plans do not always contain clear actions for staff to follow to ensure that risk is reduced. Although this has not resulted in any safeguarding issues for children, it has the potential to create inconsistent responses from the adults. Inspection report for children’s home: SC051947 4 The adults ensure that when a safeguarding issue arises, child protection procedures are followed. Regular multi-agency meetings take place to formulate safety plans to reduce risk. This practice ensures that all agencies provide their knowledge and expertise to inform holistic safety plans to keep children safe from harm.

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improvement to be good

The adults caring for children have worked with them to put in safe plans to spend time with their loved ones. This practice has reduced the incidents of children going missing from home. The adults also liaise with other agencies when children go missing to ensure that they get home safely. However, there have been some occasions when the adults have not searched for children in the areas where they have been sighted, and have not always been proactive in collecting children when they have been found. This practice does not provide a nurturing response to children who may be struggling.

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improvement to be good

Adults check children’s bedrooms like a good parent would. However, there have been some occasions when managers have later raised concerns around health and safety issues in children’s bedrooms. There appears to be a lack of professional curiosity from the adults, which results in risks not being reduced and boundaries not being consistent for children.

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improvement to be good

The adults do not always complete proactive work with children to educate them about risks in their lives or risks in society. Adults do not always utilise different resources, such as external services to engage with children. This results in responses to safeguarding issues being reactive instead of proactive. Children, therefore, are not always central to their own safety plans.

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good

The adults caring for children feel very well supported by their managers. Managers utilised formal structures such as team meetings and supervision to allow the adults to reflect and develop. Tasks are set to improve children’s care; however, these tasks are not always followed up. This can slow down progress and development for team members.

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good

Managers do challenge poor practice when it has been identified; however, on some occasions, it has not always been identified. There is a lack of monitoring systems in place. This reduces opportunities for managers to identify that the adults are following management direction and improving the quality of care to children.

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good

The registered manager’s assessment to establish if the team can meet children’s needs is not robust. The assessment does not analyse risks in the area, the skill base of the adults caring for children, and does not formulate a thorough plan to ensure that the children’s needs can be met. This has the potential to cause further disruption for children. Inspection report for children’s home: SC051947 5 The adults caring for children have engaged in a wide range of training to meet the individual needs of children. The manager has not always evaluated what the adults have learned and if the training is positively influencing children’s care.

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good

Managers have not always challenged and escalated in a timely way. Children have not always received external services that they are entitled to. The lack of escalation has resulted in children not receiving a positive outcome and situations drifting. This shortfall means that children with vulnerabilities have not always had someone advocating for what they need and deserve. Inspection report for children’s home: SC051947 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 education standard is that children make measurable progress towards achieving their educational potential and are helped to do so.

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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

help each child to achieve the child’s education and training targets, as recorded in the child’s relevant plans;

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Requirement Due date

support each child’s learning and development, including helping the child to develop independent study skills and, where appropriate, helping the child to complete independent study;

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Requirement Due date

understand the barriers to learning that each child may face and take appropriate action to help the child to overcome any such barriers;

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Requirement Due date

help each child to understand the importance and value of education, learning, training and employment;

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Requirement Due date

promote opportunities for each child to learn informally; and

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Requirement Due date

raise any need for further assessment or specialist provision in relation to a child with the child’s education or training provider and the child’s placing authority. (Regulation 8 (1)(2)(a)(i)(ii)(iii)(iv)(v)(vii))

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Requirement Due date

This specifically relates to children being supported to overcome educational barriers through structured educational timetables.

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Requirement Due date

It also relates to the adults caring for children having a knowledge of the resources available to them through the special educational needs (SEND) local offer. 31 March 2022 Inspection report for children’s home: SC051947 7 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;

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Requirement Due date

have the skills to identify and act upon signs that a child is at risk of harm;

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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

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;

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Requirement Due date

that the premises used for the purposes of the home are located so that children are effectively safeguarded; and

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Requirement Due date

that the premises used for the purposes of the home are designed, furnished and maintained so as to protect each child from avoidable hazards to the child’s health. Regulation 12 (1) (2)(a)(i)(ii)(iii)(v)(b)(c)(d))

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Requirement Due date

This specifically relates to children’s safety plans, including all steps that need to be taken to keep children safe when a risk arises.

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Requirement Due date

It relates to ensuring that the adults caring for children consistently follow safety plans to reduce risk to children.

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Requirement Due date

It relates to proactive work being completed with children to develop their knowledge about how to keep themselves safe.

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Requirement Due date

It also relates to the team developing further knowledge about complex safeguarding risks. 31 March 2022 Inspection report for children’s home: SC051947 8 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

lead and manage the home in a way that is consistent with the approach and ethos, and delivers the outcomes, set out in the home’s statement of purpose;

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Requirement Due date

ensure that staff work as a team where appropriate;

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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

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

use monitoring and review systems to make continuous improvements in the quality of care provided in the home. Regulation 13 (1)(a)(b) (2)(a)(b)(f)(g)(i)(h))

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Requirement Due date

This relates to ensuring that there are monitoring and review systems in place to make improvements in the quality of care provided to children.

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Requirement Due date

This includes ensuring management oversight and evaluation identifies poor practice, and addressing it.

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Requirement Due date

This also relates to the team understanding its role in working together to provide a consistent level of care. 31 March 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 31 March 2022 Inspection report for children’s home: SC051947 9 have a positive experience of arriving at or moving on from the home. (Regulation 14 (1)(a)(b))

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Requirement Due date

This relates to ensuring that children have routines in place that help them thrive.

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Requirement Due date

It relates to utilising therapeutic services outlined within the statement of purpose to assist the adults in helping children achieve their potential.

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Requirement Due date

It relates to children having relevant plans that have common, specific and measurable goals.

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Requirement Due date

It relates to an assessment taking place to establish if the adults caring for the child can meet their needs before they move into the home. This assessment should consider the skills of the adults and also the location of the home.

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Requirement Due date

children can access all appropriate areas of the children’s home’s premises; and

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Requirement Due date

any limitation placed on a child’s privacy or access to any area of the home’s premises—

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Requirement Due date

is intended to safeguard each child accommodated in the home;

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Requirement Due date

is kept under review and, if necessary, revised; and

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Requirement Due date

allows children as much freedom as is possible when balanced against the need to protect them and keep them safe. (Regulation 21 (a)(b)(c)(i)(ii)(iii)(iv)) 31 March 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.

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Requirement Due date

In particular the registered person must ensure that—

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Requirement Due date

medicines kept in the home are stored in a secure place so as to prevent any child from having unsupervised access to them; 31 March 2022 Inspection report for children’s home: SC051947 10 medicine which is prescribed for a child is administered as prescribed to the child for whom it is prescribed and to no other child; and

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Requirement Due date

a record is kept of the administration of medicine to each child. (Regulation 23 (1) (2)(a)(b)(c))

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Requirement Due date

This relates to ensuring that medication policies and procedures are robust for the handling, recording, safekeeping and safe administration of medicines.

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Requirement Due date

It also relates to ensuring that the manager has oversight of medication recording errors and addresses them.

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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: SC051947 11

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Children’s home details

Registered provider: After Care NW Limited

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: 45 Kensington Road, Southport, Lancashire PR9 0RT

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Children’s home details

Responsible individual: Timothy Blundell

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Children’s home details

Registered manager: Natalie Hamilton-Ryszka

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Inspector

Carly Quinn, Social Care Inspector Inspection report for children’s home: SC051947 12 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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