Children's Home run by Shropshire Council in Shropshire

Inspection report for children’s home: 2534215 1 Registered provider: Shropshire Council Full inspection Inspected under the social care common inspection framework

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Information about this children’s home

This local authority home is registered for one child who has social and/or emotional difficulties or learning disabilities. This is the home’s first full inspection since registration in June 2019.

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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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Information about this children’s home

We last visited this setting on 16 November 2021 to carry out a monitoring visit. The report is published on the Ofsted website.

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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 inadequate

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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: not applicable

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requires improvement to be good

Enforcement action since last inspection: none Inspection report for children’s home: 2534215 2

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

Not previously inspected Inspection report for children’s home: 2534215 3

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improvement to be good

Since the monitoring visit, three children have left the home and three have moved in. Staff work closely with children’s social workers and, where appropriate, adult services, so that children are prepared both practically and emotionally when moving.

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improvement to be good

The core staff team recently moved with a child who went to live in another Shropshire local authority home. This was a planned move, and this child-centred approach enabled the child to quickly settle. However, difficulties in recruitment means that the home does not currently have a permanent core team of staff. This has affected the quality of care for the current child who, at the time of the inspection, had lived at the home for five days.

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improvement to be good

The current child moved from another Shropshire local authority home. Although the child was able to visit the home before moving, planning has been poorly managed. As a result, staff have been without information about a child’s needs, and routines and boundaries have not been established.

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improvement to be good

Areas of the home need attention which affects the homely feel of the home. A rug in the communal living room needs cleaning or replacing. Fasciae and drainpipes on the outside of the building need painting, and communal areas generally lack the personal touch of the child who currently lives in the home. This stark environment risks impacting on a child’s self-esteem and sense of self-worth. Staff say that encouraging the child to personalise the home is a priority.

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improvement to be good

Staff support children’s health needs. They work closely with health professionals to ensure that children receive the help they need when they need it. This includes working closely with a local hospital trust and mental health services. A social worker for a child with complex needs praised staff for their dedication and care of her child. The social worker said that staff ‘kept that emotional availability all the time. They were always there to support the child emotionally.’

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improvement to be good

Staff support children’s hobbies and interests, such as horse riding, baking and crafting. Staff are creative in suggesting interests they can share with children to develop meaningful relationships and to build children’s self-esteem. This enables children to feel loved and valued. A child, who had recently moved from the home, told the inspector that he was cared for by adults that he liked, and had a close relationship with. Inspection report for children’s home: 2534215 4

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improvement to be good

Staff are vigilant of children who are at risk from self-harm and act quickly to keep them safe. Staff use their knowledge of children and their strong relationships to calm them and to help them to relax. Staff talk with children and give them strategies to help them to manage their emotions. Staff then ensure that children receive the care and support that responds to their individual needs. This means that children feel confident about asking staff for help when they need it.

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improvement to be good

Managers work effectively with safeguarding agencies to keep children safe. They take part in multi-agency meetings, and they implement agreed protocols. When a child’s risks are escalating, managers continually review a child’s plans with the child’s social worker, independent reviewing officer and health professionals. Managers also consider the skills and resilience of the staff team. As a result of this joined-up approach, staff have kept a child with complex needs and challenging behaviours safe.

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improvement to be good

Managers ensure that there are detailed risk assessments that describe children’s behaviours and which give staff guidance about how to keep children safe. When children go missing from the home, or are absent without authority, staff look for them and try to contact them. However, staff do not always follow children’s risk assessments. For example, a child was absent from the home for 12 hours. Although staff kept in contact with the child, the child’s risk assessment advised that police should be contacted after four hours. This means that children’s risks are potentially unmanaged and increase over time.

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improvement to be good

Managers do not ensure that staff have guidance about a child’s use of electronic devices. As a result, staff do not always show professional curiosity and are not inquisitive enough about a child’s mobile phone use. This lack of action makes children more at risk to coming to harm online.

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improvement to be good

Daily health and safety checks are not always effective in identifying risks to children. For example, food is not stored safely. Radiators in the home are extremely hot and a child is at risk of being burnt. This lack of vigilance has potentially serious consequences for a child’s health. More positively, managers ensured that the temperature of the radiators was made safe during the inspection.

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improvement to be good

Managers usually ensure that all new children take part in a fire drill. At the time of the inspection, the manager had not completed a fire drill for the current child. Additionally, although a fire risk assessment completed by an independent person was still in date, managers had not updated the annual internal fire risk assessment. This lack of attention to fire safety places children at serious risk of harm.

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improvement to be good

Although managers have ensured that agency staff have received good-quality face- to-face training in first aid, safeguarding and behaviour management, systems are not yet in place to monitor other mandatory training. This is a potential shortfall in agency staff’s knowledge and their ability to keep children safe. Inspection report for children’s home: 2534215 5

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

The home was not operational between 17 January 2022 and 17 March 2022. The inspector received extremely positive comments about the excellent support of managers from staff who worked at the home before it closed. They say that, despite the challenges of caring for a child with extremely complex needs, staff morale remained high. Staff praised managers’ child-centred approach and the support they gave.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

Despite positive comments from social workers and staff, there are too many shortfalls in the effectiveness of leaders and managers, which makes this inadequate. This is because managers have focused their efforts on day-to-day support for a child and overlooked important management responsibilities.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

The home is currently without a core team of staff. Despite their best efforts, managers have failed to recruit sufficient staff to ensure the current child has continuity of care. There is a reliance on staff from other homes, and on agency staff. Plans are in place to ensure the same cover staff are used regularly. Despite this, the child is being cared for by 19 staff in a two-week period. Some staff have worked with the child on only one or two occasions. This compromises the child’s ability to form trusting relationships.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

Staff have not received regular practice-related supervision. This is a missed opportunity to formalise and review staff development and the impact this is having on the care that children receive.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

The managers’ monitoring is weak. During the pandemic, independent monitoring has been managed remotely. Managers do not always enable the independent person to effectively monitor the quality of care, and they do not promptly rectify identified shortfalls in practice. Additionally, the manager has not completed a quality-of-care review. This shortfall was identified at the monitoring visit in November 2021 and the requirement is reissued. Weak monitoring has impacted on managers’ understanding of the strengths and weaknesses of the home and their ability to improve the quality of care for children.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

Although managers routinely monitor incidents, they do not critically evaluate staff actions or the quality of recording. When restraint is used to calm a child, staff do not always record incidents with sufficient accuracy. Systems are not in place to ensure debriefs of staff and children are written up. This is a missed opportunity for managers to continuously review staff practice, and to reflect on a child’s wishes and feelings. Inspection report for children’s home: 2534215 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

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

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. (Regulation 12 (1) (2)(a)(i)(v)(b))

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Requirement Due date

This specifically relates to managers ensuring that strategies agreed with a child’s social worker to manage online risks are available to staff. Also, that managers ensure that daily health and safety checks take place and identify risks in the home. 23 April 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— 23 April 2022 Inspection report for children’s home: 2534215 7 ensure that staff have the experience, qualifications and skills to meet the needs of each child;

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Requirement Due date

ensure that the home has sufficient staff to provide care for each child;

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Requirement Due date

ensure that the home’s workforce provides continuity of care to each child;

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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)(c)(d)(e)(h))

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Requirement Due date

This relates to managers ensuring that training for agency staff is monitored and that there are sufficient staff permanently employed at the home. This also relates to managers ensuring that systems are in place to effectively monitor the quality of care.

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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

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Requirement Due date

have a positive experience of arriving at or moving on from the home.

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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 each child’s relevant plans are followed. (Regulation 14 (1)(a)(b) (2)(c))

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Requirement Due date

This specifically relates to managers ensuring that when children move into the home, staff are guided by a placement plan that has sufficient information to ensure a child experiences well-planned care. 23 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

ensure, by means of fire drills and practices at suitable intervals, that persons working at the home and, so far as reasonably practical, children are aware of the procedures to be followed in case of fire. (Regulation 25 (d)) 23 April 2022 Inspection report for children’s home: 2534215 8 This relates to managers ensuring that when a child moves into the home, the child takes part in a fire drill and that this is recorded.

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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))

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Requirement Due date

This specifically relates to managers ensuring that employees receive supervision in line with the organisation’s policy. 23 April 2022

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must ensure that an independent person visits the children’s home at least once each month.

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Requirement Due date

When the independent person is carrying out a visit, the registered person must help the independent person—

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Requirement Due date

to inspect the premises of the home and such of the home’s records (except for a child’s case records, unless the child and the child’s placing authority consent) as the independent person requires. (Regulation 44 (1) (2)(a)(b))

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Requirement Due date

This relates to managers ensuring that the independent visitor is given access to information to enable effective monitoring of the home. 23 April 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

After completing a quality of care review, the registered person must produce a written report about the quality of care review and the actions which the registered person intends to take as a result of the quality of care review (“the quality of care review report”).

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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) (3) (4)(a)) 23 April 2022 Inspection report for children’s home: 2534215 9

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Recommendations

 The registered person should ensure that the children’s home is a nurturing and supportive environment that meets the needs of the child. In most cases, they will be homely, domestic environments. Children’s homes must comply with relevant health and safety legislations (alarms, food hygiene etc.); however, in doing so, homes should seek as far as possible to maintain a domestic rather than ‘institutional’ impression. (‘Guide to the Children’s Homes Regulations, including the quality standards’, page 15, paragraph 3.9)

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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: 2534215 10

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: Shirehall, Abbey Foregate, Shrewsbury, Shropshire SY2 6ND

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Inspector

Karen Gillingwater, Social Care Inspector Inspection report for children’s home: 2534215 11 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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