Children's Home run by PIC Children’s Services in St Helens

Inspection report for children’s home: SC022464 1 SC022464 Registered provider: PIC Children’s Services 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 home’s statement of purpose states that it provides care for one child with social and emotional difficulties.

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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: 27 October 2021

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requires improvement to be good

Overall judgement at last inspection: requires improvement to be good

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requires improvement to be good

Enforcement action since last inspection: none Inspection report for children’s home: SC022464 2

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

27/10/2021 Full Requires improvement to be good 30/06/2021 Full Inadequate 07/08/2019 Full Requires improvement to be good 30/05/2018 Full Good Inspection report for children’s home: SC022464 3

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: requires

One child lives at this home. Since the last inspection, staff have worked hard to improve the quality of care provided and progress is evident for the child. For example, there has been some improvement in the child’s educational outcomes.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: requires

The high use of agency staff has created instability in the staff team. Inconsistencies are preventing the child from developing trusting relationships with the adults caring for her. Consequently, the child is not provided with consistent support to help her manage her feelings safely.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: requires

Staff have worked hard to ensure that the child continues to receive specialist support to help with her emotional and mental health difficulties. The child is supported by a psychotherapist. The registered manager arranged for the child’s psychotherapist to attend staff meetings to provide guidance and support for staff. Staff say that this input is helpful and that the psychotherapist helps staff understand the child’s behaviour and think about different strategies to help her.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: requires

Since the previous inspection, staff have struggled to engage the child in any activities. Therefore, she has limited opportunities to socialise with other children.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: requires

The child’s social worker is positive about the staff and the care that they provide for the child. She described the child as making progress. The social worker was positive about the communication systems in place and she described an effective working relationship with the registered manager.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: requires

Staff support the child to see her family members. The child’s parents visit the home and staff take the child to visit her grandmother. This helps the child maintain a relationship with people who are important to her.

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improvement to be good

Risk assessments now include clear strategies for the staff team to follow to minimise risks. However, shortfalls remain because risk assessments do not include all the child’s vulnerabilities. This is in relation to substance misuse and time spent in the community.

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improvement to be good

The approach to managing risk is not consistently strong and proactive. Staff practice is often reactive rather than proactive, and although staff act to protect the child when an incident occurs, there is little work in respect of proactive risk management. Therefore, incidents continue, involving self-injurious behaviour and substance misuse. Inspection report for children’s home: SC022464 4 There was a serious incident of physical intervention when the child and two members of staff were hurt. Records of this incident are contradictory and confusing and staff did not use approved methods to hold the child. Furthermore, the incident has not been robustly evaluated for effectiveness and any lessons learned.

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improvement to be good

The child told the inspector that she can speak to some staff is he has any concerns. These relationships help safeguard the child. However, there are missed opportunities for staff to enhance their safeguarding practice by using their close relationships to talk consistently to the child about her feelings and how to keep safe.

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good

The registered manager has a close relationship with the child. The manager works hard to understand how she and the staff team can improve the child’s outcomes. Staff spoken to at the inspection were positive about the manager and describe her as supportive.

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good

The registered manager does not consistently review incidents to understand what happened, and if anything can be learned from the incident, to continually improve the care that staff provide for the child. The registered manager recognises that this needs to improve and she has implemented new systems to help her do this. However, these systems are not fully embedded into practice. This reduces the true analysis and evaluation of the care provided for the child.

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good

The registered manager has effective relationships with the child’s social worker and other professionals involved in her life. The headteacher at the child’s school is positive about the support that staff provide.

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good

The quality of the child’s records is inconsistent. For example, there are gaps in missing-from-home records. Therefore, there is not an accurate account of what happened. This means that it is difficult for the registered manager to review and evaluate information accurately. The registered manager recognises that this is an area that needs to improve.

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good

Staff do not consistently receive practice-related supervision in line with the home’s statement of purpose. This includes inexperienced staff and staff in their probationary period. Therefore, staff do not have opportunities to reflect on their practice and the child’s progress. There are also gaps in staff training, particularly in relation to agency staff who have covered shifts at the home without any training in self-injurious behaviour.

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good

The registered manager has not met all the requirements from the previous inspection and some requirements are repeated. Inspection report for children’s home: SC022464 5

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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 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; and

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Requirement Due date

help each child to understand, in a way that is appropriate according to the child’s age and understanding, personal, sexual and social relationships, and how those relationships can be supportive or harmful. (Regulation 11 (1)(a)(b)(c) (2)(a)(v)(vi))

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Requirement Due date

This is particularly in relation to challenging the child if she is verbally abusive to staff. Staff should help the child use acceptable language. 27 June 2022

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Requirement Due date

The protection of children standard is that children are protected from harm and enabled to keep themselves safe.

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Requirement Due date

In particular, the standard in paragraph (1) requires the registered person to ensure—

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Requirement Due date

that staff— 27 June 2022 Inspection report for children’s home: SC022464 6 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 understand how to keep safe. (Regulation 12 (1) (2)(a)(i)(ii))

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Requirement Due date

In particular, the registered manager should ensure that all known risks are assessed with clear actions for staff to manage and reduce the risk of harm to the child. Staff should help the child understand and reduce her risk-taking behaviour and learn how to keep herself safe.

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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

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; 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)(c)(f)(h))

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Requirement Due date

This is particularly in relation to ensuring that all staff have the relevant training so that they can meet the child’s needs. Furthermore, the registered manager should ensure that she consistently uses effective monitoring and review systems that show how she is continually improving the quality of care. 27 June 2022

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Requirement Due date

keep the statement of purpose under review and, where appropriate, revise it; and 27 June 2022 Inspection report for children’s home: SC022464 7 notify HMCI of any revisions and send HMCI a copy of the revised statement within 28 days of the revision. (Regulation 16 (1) (3)(a)(b))

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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; and

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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)(a)(b)(c)) 27 June 2022

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must prepare and implement a policy (“the behaviour management policy”) which sets out—

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Requirement Due date

how appropriate behaviour is to be promoted in the children’s home; and

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Requirement Due date

the measures of control, discipline and restraint which may be used in relation to children in the home.

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must keep the behaviour management policy under review and, where appropriate, revise it.

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Requirement Due date

within 24 hours of the use of a measure of control, discipline or restraint in relation to a child in the home, a record is made which includes—

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Requirement Due date

details of the child’s behaviour leading to the use of the measure;

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Requirement Due date

the date, time and location of the use of the measure;

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Requirement Due date

a description of the measure and its duration;

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Requirement Due date

details of any methods used or steps taken to avoid the need to use the measure;

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Requirement Due date

the name of the person who used the measure (“the user”), and of any other person present when the measure was used; 27 June 2022 Inspection report for children’s home: SC022464 8 the effectiveness and any consequences of the use of the measure; and

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Requirement Due date

a description of any injury to the child or any other person, and any medical treatment administered, as a result of the measure;

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Requirement Due date

within 48 hours of the use of the measure, the registered person, or a person who is authorised by the registered person to do so (“the authorised person”)—

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Requirement Due date

has spoken to the user about the measure; and

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Requirement Due date

has signed the record to confirm it is accurate; and

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Requirement Due date

within 5 days of the use of the measure, the registered person or the authorised person adds to the record confirmation that they have spoken to the child about the measure. (Regulation 35 (1)(a)(b) (2) (3)(a)(i)(ii)(iii)(iv)(v)(vi)(vii)(viii)(b)(ii)(c)

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must maintain records (“case records”) for each child which—

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Requirement Due date

include information and documents listed in Schedule 3 in relation to each child;

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Requirement Due date

are signed and dated by the author of each entry. (Regulation 36 (1)(a)(b)(c)) 27 June 2022

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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: SC022464 9

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Children’s home details

Registered provider: PIC Children’s Services Limited

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: 2 North Street, Haydock, St Helens, Merseyside WA11 0TW

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Inspector

Catherine Fargin, Social Care Inspector Inspection report for children’s home: SC022464 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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