Children's Home run by Platinum Services for Children (Residential Care) Ltd in Staffordshire

Inspection report for children’s home: SC378187 1 SC378187 Registered provider: Platinum Services for Children (Residential Care) Ltd Full inspection Inspected under the social care common inspection framework

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Information about this children’s home

The home is run by a small independent organisation and has been registered since 2008. The home provides care for up to two children who need support with their emotional and behavioural needs.

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Information about this children’s home

The registered manager has been registered with Ofsted since February 2019. They are registered to manage both this home and another home within the organisation.

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Overall experiences and progress of

children and young people, taking into account

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inadequate

How well children and young people are helped and protected inadequate

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inadequate

The effectiveness of leaders and managers inadequate

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inadequate

There are serious and widespread failures that mean children and young people are not protected or their welfare is not promoted or safeguarded and the care and experiences of children and young people are poor and they are not making progress.

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inadequate

Date of last inspection: 30 November 2021

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inadequate

Overall judgement at last inspection: inadequate

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Enforcement action since last inspection:

The children’s home was judged inadequate at the full inspection on 30 November and 1 December 2021. Two compliance notices were issued, under regulation 12 and regulation 13. Inspection report for children’s home: SC378187 2 A monitoring visit was carried out on 17 January 2022 to review these notices. The compliance notices were not met. A further two compliance notices were issued, under regulation 12 and regulation 13. Inspection report for children’s home: SC378187 3

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

30/11/2021 Full Inadequate 26/11/2019 Full Good 02/10/2018 Full Good 07/12/2017 Full Good Inspection report for children’s home: SC378187 4

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inadequate

Two children currently live in the home. Children’s progress is hindered by poor safeguarding practice and leadership and management. This inspection found that the two compliance notices issued at the last inspection were not met. They have been reissued, alongside an additional compliance notice under regulation 29.

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inadequate

The home environment does not fully consider the children’s needs. For example, repairs have been needed in the home’s garden since June 2021. A requirement was made about this at the previous inspection and is restated. Some kitchen cupboards have padlocks to prevent children accessing them. Specific risks identified with the home’s fire doors in the fire risk assessment completed in November 2021 have not been rectified by senior leaders. This impacts on children’s immediate safety, and the extent to which they are shown they are valued.

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inadequate

Children do not receive sufficient support from staff to help them overcome difficulties in their relationships with one another. Managers fail to address this lack of support to children. As a result, one child is spending less and less time at home, and when they are at the home they spend most of their time in their bedroom. This prevents staff from fulfilling the care plan and supporting children to make progress.

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inadequate

Children’s experiences are poor. One child no longer attends education and their health needs have not been met. Another child is subject to punitive approaches to their care, which impacts negatively on their experiences. For example, in one incident, when a child became increasingly distressed staff continued to impose sanctions on them rather than using a therapeutic approach to help them. This undermines the efforts that staff are making in their work with other professionals to help them meet children’s emotional needs.

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inadequate

There is some positive work with other agencies in an attempt to meet children’s needs. Staff are clear that they want the best for the children they care for. In one example, a social worker describes one member of staff having a positive relationship with their child. However, this is not consistent, and children do not always receive safe and nurturing care.

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

Leaders and managers fail to provide children with day-to-day care that keeps them safe and promotes their well-being. When children are away from the home, staff do not know what children are doing, check on them in person or have plans to keep them safe. In addition, when children are involved in some risky behaviours, managers fail to review their plans or engage the wider professional network in light of this new information. This leads to missed opportunities to offer children good care and means children’s well-being is not promoted. Inspection report for children’s home: SC378187 5 Staff do not follow safeguarding procedures when children make allegations of harm. Managers do not demonstrate an understanding of safeguarding procedures or follow statutory guidance. As a result, one member of staff remained working with children without a proper assessment of potential risk to children. Similar

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

concerns in safeguarding practice were raised at the last full inspection in December 2021. Despite work done by leaders and the manager with staff to understand safeguarding, there has been insufficient improvement. This leaves children vulnerable and at potential risk of harm.

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

Staff do not keep children safe from the risks posed to them online. This shortfall was identified at the monitoring visit in January 2022. Managers have failed to take sufficient action to improve. Known potential risks for one child are still not carefully considered or managed. The registered manager has not taken action to put clear plans in place to guide staff on how to ensure the child’s safety online.

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

Despite the shortfalls, the staff team has improved in their responses to some safeguarding incidents with children. For example, in recent incidents when children have made disclosures and when they have gone missing staff have followed procedures. However, those with parental responsibility for children are still not consulted when important decisions are made by the home relating to children’s safety. This was raised as part of the compliance notice under regulation 12 and this remains an issue.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

Leadership and management remains inadequate. Managers have failed to meet compliance notices for a second time. In addition, they have failed to make improvements to promote children’s safety and well-being. As a result, this home is judged inadequate for a second consecutive time.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

Leaders and managers have still not implemented an effective monitoring and review system. As a result, the manager does not understand the quality of care provided to children and how this impacts on their progress and experiences. For example, managers have failed to consider patterns in children’s decisions or the reasons behind these and have failed to engage with other professionals to support any review of care.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

Managers do not check incident records and there are no systems to oversee practice in the home. Following allegations, the manager fails to complete any investigations into staff practice despite advice from statutory agencies. Managers have also failed to identify weaknesses in staff’s approach to children with regard to sanctions and supporting behaviour. Despite the recent serious concerns highlighted, the responsible individual is not completing any oversight or audits of practice in the home to bring about the required improvement.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

Staff are now up to date with all their mandatory training. They have also completed additional training specific to the needs of children. Despite this training, staff are Inspection report for children’s home: SC378187 6 not confident in demonstrating their learning in practice. For example, there have still been concerns about how staff act on allegations and that at times they fail to provide emotional support to children. The registered manager identifies that they are not confident to model and embed new models of care.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

The manager completes regular and child-focused supervisions with staff. However, these do not consistently link to the findings in managers’ monitoring. As a result, staff practice is not fully developed and children continue to have variable care.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

Senior leaders do not safely recruit staff. One staff member has several unexplained gaps in their employment history and a previous role in which they describe working with children or vulnerable adults has not been verified. This means that potentially inappropriate individuals may be working with children. Inspection report for children’s home: SC378187 7

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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

seek to involve each child’s placing authority effectively in the child’s care, in accordance with the child’s relevant plans;

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Requirement Due date

seek to secure the input and services required to meet each child’s needs;

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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(a)(b)(c))

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Requirement Due date

This specifically relates to the registered manager ensuring that any safeguarding incidents are referred to other professionals if there are concerns for the safety of children.

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Requirement Due date

It also relates to ensuring that the registered manager challenges the local authority when necessary if return home interviews are not completed for children, and that they promptly share information with wider agencies such as the local authority designated officer if an allegation has been made.

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Requirement Due date

This requirement was made at the last inspection and is restated. 1 May 2022

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Requirement Due date

The quality and purpose of care standard is that children receive care from staff who—

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Requirement Due date

understand the children’s home’s overall aims and the outcomes it seeks to achieve for children; 1 May 2022 Inspection report for children’s home: SC378187 8 use this understanding to deliver care that meets children’s needs and supports them to fulfil their potential.

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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 the premises used for the purposes of the home are designed and furnished so as to—

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Requirement Due date

enable each child to participate in the daily life of the home. (Regulation 6 (1)(a)(b) (2)(c)(i)(ii))

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Requirement Due date

This specifically relates to the registered person ensuring that the home environment is clean and tidy and homely for children and that children have free access to all areas of the home including the garden.

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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

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

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Requirement Due date

are familiar with, and act in accordance with, the home’s child protection policies. (Regulation 12 (1) (2)(a)(i)(iii)(vii))

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Requirement Due date

This specifically relates to the registered manager ensuring that staff understand safeguarding procedures and take effective action to protect children when children make disclosures or allegations, or where the staff may have concerns about a child’s safety.

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Requirement Due date

It also relates to the registered manager ensuring that risk assessments give staff clear guidance to help them 3 April 2022 Inspection report for children’s home: SC378187 9 understand risks for individual children and what to do to keep a child safe when a risk arises.

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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

*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 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;

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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)(c)(f)(h))

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Requirement Due date

This specifically relates to the registered manager ensuring that staff receive regular practice-related supervisions and appraisals of their skills, in line with the home’s policies.

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Requirement Due date

It also relates to the registered manager ensuring that they have a system in place to be able to monitor the quality of care and have a clear understanding of how to improve the care offered to the children in the home.

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Requirement Due date

It also relates to the registered manager ensuring that they have a good understanding of the care children are receiving in the home and that this should feed into their quality of care review. 3 April 2022 Inspection report for children’s home: SC378187 10 The registered manager should also ensure that staff have had the training they need to adequately meet the needs of the children in the home.

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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

The positive relationships standard is that children are helped to develop, and to benefit from, relationships based on—

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Requirement Due date

an understanding about acceptable behaviour; and

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Requirement Due date

positive responses to other children and adults.

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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

communicate to each child expectations about the child’s behaviour and ensure that the child understands those expectations in accordance with the child’s age and understanding;

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Requirement Due date

understand how children’s previous experiences and present emotions can be communicated through behaviour and have the competence and skills to interpret these and develop positive relationships with children; and

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Requirement Due date

that each child is encouraged to build and maintain positive relationships with others. (Regulation 11 (1)(a)(b)(c) (2)(a)(v)(ix)(b))

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Requirement Due date

This specifically relates to the registered person ensuring that staff understand children’s complex needs based on their experiences and that they support them with their behaviour based on this understanding, using a nurturing approach to their care.

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must also ensure that positive relationships between children in the home are actively encouraged. 1 May 2022

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Requirement Due date

The health and well-being standard is that—

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Requirement Due date

the health and well-being needs of children are met; 1 May 2022 Inspection report for children’s home: SC378187 11 children receive advice, services and support in relation to their health and well-being; and

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Requirement Due date

children are helped to lead healthy lifestyles.

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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

achieve the health and well-being outcomes that are recorded in the child’s relevant plans;

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Requirement Due date

understand the child’s health and well-being needs and the options that are available in relation to the child’s health and well-being, in a way that is appropriate to the child’s age and understanding;

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Requirement Due date

take part in activities, and attend any appointments, for the purpose of meeting the child’s health and well-being needs; and

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Requirement Due date

understand and develop skills to promote the child’s well- being. (Regulation 10 (1)(a)(b)(c) (2)(a)(i)(ii)(iii)(iv))

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Requirement Due date

This specifically relates to the registered person ensuring, as far as possible, that children receive regular dental, optical and other health checks as required, and that where there are gaps in meeting this need for children, medical advice and other ways of meeting children’s health needs are sought to support them.

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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 necessary and proportionate. (Regulation 21(b)(c)(ii))

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Requirement Due date

This specifically relates to the registered person ensuring that any locks on doors, including kitchen cupboards, are removed to allow children free access to their home. 3 April 2022 Inspection report for children’s home: SC378187 12 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

This specifically relates to the registered person ensuring that actions required by fire experts to manage the risk of fire in the home are taken, to ensure the environment is safe from the risk of fire. 1 May 2022

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Requirement Due date

*If the registered provider is an organisation, the organisation must ensure that the responsible individual undertakes such continuing professional development as is necessary to ensure that the responsible individual has the skills needed for supervising the management of the home.

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Requirement Due date

The registered manager must undertake such continuing professional development as is necessary to ensure that the registered manager has the skills needed for managing the home. (Regulation 29 (2) (4))

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Requirement Due date

This specifically relates to the registered provider ensuring that both the responsible individual and the registered manager have had the necessary continued professional development and training to enable them to have the skills to effectively oversee the care of the children in the home and the practice of the registered manager. 1 May 2022

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must recruit staff using recruitment procedures that are designed to ensure children’s safety.

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Requirement Due date

employ an individual to work at the children’s home; or

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Requirement Due date

if an individual is employed by a person other than the registered person to work at the home in a position in which the individual may have regular contact with children, allow that individual to work at the home,

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Requirement Due date

if the individual satisfies the requirements in paragraph (3).

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Requirement Due date

The requirements are that— 1 May 2022 Inspection report for children’s home: SC378187 13 the individual is of integrity and good character;

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Requirement Due date

the individual has the appropriate experience, qualification and skills for the work that the individual is to perform;

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Requirement Due date

the individual is mentally and physically fit for the purposes of the work that the individual is to perform; and

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Requirement Due date

full and satisfactory information is available in relation to the individual in respect of each of the matters in Schedule 2. (Regulation 32 (1) (2)(a)(b) (3)(a)(b)(c)(d))

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Requirement Due date

This specifically relates to the registered person ensuring that there is written explanation for all gaps in staff employment and that where any staff member has previously worked with children or vulnerable adults, verification of their reasons for leaving such employment is sought.

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must ensure that all employees—

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Requirement Due date

have their performance and fitness to perform their roles appraised at least once every year. (Regulation 33 (4)(c))

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Requirement Due date

This specifically relates to the registered person ensuring that staff have appraisals of their performance completed at least annually. 1 May 2022

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must review the appropriateness and suitability of the location of the premises used for the purposes of the children’s home at least once in each calendar year taking into account the requirement in regulation 12(2)(c) (the protection of children standard). (Regulation 46 (1))

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Requirement Due date

This specifically relates to the registered person ensuring that the risk assessment relating to the location of the premises considers and mitigates for the risk posed by the adjacent children’s home. 1 May 2022

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Requirement Due date

*These requirements are subject to a compliance notice. Inspection report for children’s home: SC378187 14

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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: SC378187 15

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Children’s home details

Registered provider: Platinum Services for Children (Residential Care) Ltd

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: The Apex, 2 Sheriffs Orchard, Coventry, Warwickshire CV1 3PP

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Children’s home details

Responsible individual: Leonard Pattinson

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Inspector

Fiona Roche, Social Care Inspector Inspection report for children’s home: SC378187 16 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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