Children's Home run by Portsmouth City Council in Portsmouth

Inspection report for children’s home: 1239948 1 Registered provider: Portsmouth City Council Full inspection Inspected under the social care common inspection framework

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Information about this children’s home

This home is operated by a local authority. It provides accommodation for up to three children aged eight to 18.

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Information about this children’s home

The manager has been registered with Ofsted since October 2020.

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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.

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inadequate

Overall judgement at last inspection: good

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inadequate

Enforcement action since last inspection: none Inspection report for children’s home: 1239948 2

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

22/06/2021 Full Good 10/12/2019 Full Requires improvement to be good 06/09/2018 Full Good 15/08/2017 Full Good Inspection report for children’s home: 1239948 3

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inadequate

The overall experiences and progress of children are judged inadequate, primarily due to failures in safeguarding practice that placed children at risk of harm.

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inadequate

However, children have formed strong bonds with the staff who care for them. They are confident in engaging with staff, including those who are relatively new in the home, to take part in activities or to talk about their day. Staff have formed positive relationships with the children’s families, and work with the children to maintain relationships and to spend time with their families if it is safe to do so.

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inadequate

Children feel listened to, and their views are captured through one-to-one time, general discussion and responses to complaints. Staff support children to choose their leisure activities and to engage in their care planning meetings, so that their views can be taken into account.

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inadequate

Children attend school in accordance with their plans. Close liaison with education staff and the virtual school ensures that children are helped to overcome any barriers to learning. For those on reduced timetables, the day is set up in a manner that promotes readiness for learning. Additional activities, such as horse riding and trips to the beach, help children to develop their emotional and social skills.

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inadequate

Staff support children to attend all health appointments and they help them to overcome any anxieties about what the appointment may entail. This includes helping children to access sexual health services as needed. Joint work with child and adolescent mental health services is a particular strength, and plans are clear on how staff should respond in order to help children to understand their emotions.

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

Children have not been kept safe. Staff did not thoroughly explore concerns raised by a child relating to circumstances in which children were presenting a risk to each other.

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

Poor safeguarding practice was a contributory factor to children suffering harm. Staff missed opportunities to prevent harm from happening and reoccurring. They did not accurately assess the potential risks that children might pose to each other, and the supervision arrangements in place for children did not provide sufficient protection.

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

In addition, on at least two occasions, a child has been at risk of abuse and exploitation by children from outside the home who stayed undetected in the child’s room overnight. Staff did not act to prevent this, even though there was reasonable cause to suspect that there was a risk. The lack of supervision of children and the Inspection report for children’s home: 1239948 4 low levels of professional curiosity mean that some children have not been kept safe.

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

On occasion, staff have not been able to impose firm boundaries when these were necessary to implement safety plans. In one example, a child who is not allowed access to a mobile phone was easily able to take a staff member’s phone and has also taken the phone of a younger child on more than one occasion. There is evidence of staff being reluctant to challenge or to intervene to protect children, for fear of confrontation.

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

Bullying has been raised as a concern in the home by the independent visitor. While children did not raise it as a specific concern, a child was seen talking to another child in an aggressive manner and this was not challenged by the staff. The lack of challenge and boundaries, alongside other incidents of concern, indicates that staff do not intervene effectively to keep children safe from their peers.

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

As a result of recent action by managers, staff are now much clearer on their roles and responsibilities in protecting children and how to supervise and support them in the home. In more recent examples, staff have responded appropriately to concerns and worked effectively with partner agencies. For one child, incidents of going missing from the home have significantly reduced. Staff consistently implement the safety plans in respect of this child and this has helped the child to make safer choices.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

Leaders and managers have not provided sufficient leadership or oversight to ensure that care practice is safe. In some instances, there has been insufficient attention to the risks that children may pose to each other when deciding which children come to live in the home. Children with similar histories of harmful sexual behaviours have been placed together, despite this being outside of the statement of purpose for the home. Not all staff have had suitable training in this aspect of care. Care practice in the home has failed to meet the needs of the children and to keep them safe.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

Individual care plans do not capture the child’s journey into care, their progress or how staff should work with the child. Risks are assessed but there are no clear risk management strategies in place.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

Staff training does not provide the staff with the skills to meet the needs of the children. Much of the core training has not been refreshed and some staff have not received it at all. For example, not all staff have received safeguarding training, or training in meeting the needs of children who may have autism spectrum disorder. Insufficient numbers of staff have completed first-aid training.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

Leaders and managers have failed to identify some significant shortfalls and safeguarding concerns in the home. Records have, at times, been muddled, and notifications of significant events to Ofsted have been unclear and not consistent with reports from partner agencies. Inspection report for children’s home: 1239948 5 More recently, leaders and managers have taken steps to improve safeguarding practice in the home. Lessons have been learned from safeguarding failures and staff now follow agreed procedures in response to safeguarding concerns. Managers have reorganised staff deployment to ensure suitable supervision. Staff report that they are working more collaboratively as a team and the manager has been particularly supportive of them during this challenging time. Managers are making good use of the recommendations in the independent visitor’s reports. Inspection report for children’s home: 1239948 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 that staff—

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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

manage relationships between children to prevent them from harming each other;

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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

take effective action whenever there is a serious concern about a child’s welfare;

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Requirement Due date

ensure 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)(ii)(iii)(iv)(v))

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Requirement Due date

In particular, ensure that children’s needs and vulnerabilities are understood, and children are protected from all forms of harm. 5 June 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— 5 June 2022 Inspection report for children’s home: 1239948 7 helps children aspire to fulfil their potential and promotes their welfare.

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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

In particular, ensure that children are only admitted to the home if staff have the skills to meet their needs, and in line with the identified needs as set out in the statement of purpose. Children should only be placed after rigorous evaluation of pre-placement information, to avoid increasing risks.

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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 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 children are admitted to the home only if their needs are within the range of needs of children for whom it is intended that the home is to provide care and accommodation, as set out in the home’s statement of purpose;

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Requirement Due date

ensure the effective induction of each child into the home; 5 June 2022 Inspection report for children’s home: 1239948 8 manage and review the placement of each child in the home;

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Requirement Due date

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

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Requirement Due date

In particular, that children are only placed in the home if their needs can be suitably met and that children’s plans are clear on their needs, goals and targets and that children are cared for in line with these.

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must ensure that all employees undertake appropriate continuing professional development. (Regulation 33 (4)(a))

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Requirement Due date

In particular, that staff have the training required to meet the needs of the children and in order to keep children safe from avoidable risk. 5 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: 1239948 9

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Children’s home details

Registered provider: Portsmouth City Council

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: Portsmouth City Council, Head of Children and Young People’s Services, Civic Offices, Portsmouth PO1 2EA

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Inspector

Jennie Christopher, Social Care Inspector Inspection report for children’s home: 1239948 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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