Children's Home run by Lancashire County Council in Lancashire

Inspection report for children’s home: SC359836 1 SC359836 Registered provider: Lancashire County Council Full inspection Inspected under the social care common inspection framework

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Information about this children’s home

This is a local authority home. It provides care for up to six children. At the time of the inspection, there were six children living at the home.

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Information about this children’s home

There is a manager in post who registered with Ofsted in November 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 andwidespread failures that mean >children and young people are not protected or their welfare is not promoted or safeguarded< and/or >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: 9 November 2021

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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: SC359836 2

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

09/11/2021 Full Good 08/07/2019 Full Requires improvement to be good 28/11/2018 Full Outstanding 09/08/2017 Full Good Inspection report for children’s home: SC359836 3

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inadequate

Children’s progress and experiences have been variable. Some children have had positive experiences and are making good progress. For other children, poor safeguarding practice is having a negative effect on their safety and welfare and limiting their progress.

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inadequate

Some children are making good progress academically. One child is being supported to prepare for their GCSE exams. Another child is regularly attending work and showing excellent commitment to their job responsibilities. For most children, their school attendance has improved since they moved to the home. The manager and staff place a high importance on children’s education and encourage children to reach their academic potential.

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inadequate

Children’s health needs are not being consistently met by staff in the home. Children are attending routine health appointments. However, staff have failed to act on information about the health needs of some children and there have been delays in children receiving appropriate advice and support.

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inadequate

Children enjoy a variety of different hobbies and activities. Staff encourage them to engage in different groups and sporting activities and this is helping them to develop their social skills. Children were excited to talk about the plans for their summer holidays, which include some children having the opportunity to visit different countries.

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inadequate

Relationships between children and staff are positive. One child said of the staff team, ‘They are here for the right reasons. They are here because they care.’ Relationships between children who live at the home have not always been positive. Children have experienced bullying and there has been conflict between children in the home. When conflict arises, the manager and staff try to help children resolve this positively.

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inadequate

Ineffective decision-making in relation to admissions to the home has meant that some children have had negative experiences and some children have moved into the home whose needs could not be met. One child was moved into the home despite all professionals agreeing that this was not an appropriate home for them. This child’s family member told the inspector that they were worried and confused by this decision and that they were unclear about the plans to keep this child safe.

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inadequate

Children live in a home that is maintained to a high standard of decoration and cleanliness. Children’s bedrooms are well furnished and personalised, and children were proud to show the inspector their bedrooms. Inspection report for children’s home: SC359836 4

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

Safeguarding practice in this home is not supporting children’s safety and welfare. The inspector identified serious concerns in relation to the quality of children’s individual risk assessments, safeguarding practice and staffing arrangements.

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

The inspector identified a number of concerns in relation to a significant incident, which was notified to Ofsted on 31 March 2022. These concerns related to the quality of impact risk assessments for the children who were involved in the incident and concerns in relation to the management of risks following the children being placed together in the home.

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

Impact risk assessments for the children involved in this significant incident did not contain the necessary detail about their known risks and behaviours. Therefore, the potential for children to be adversely affected by one another was not explored in sufficient detail during the assessment process. This resulted in the children being placed together in the home without a robust plan for staff to follow to mitigate the risks. Ineffective decision-making in relation to these admissions resulted in children being harmed.

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

Before the incident, leaders, managers and staff did not take effective action in response to a number of concerns relating to the children. These failures were missed safeguarding opportunities, which led to children being harmed.

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

Furthermore, leaders and managers did not review the staffing arrangements in the home to ensure that children were safe and protected from harm. Staff continued to go to sleep at night, which meant that children were not supported or supervised throughout the night.

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

Managers and staff have failed to accurately record and respond to two disclosures that were made by children living in the home. Failing to listen to and respond to children who have made safeguarding disclosures does not keep children safe.

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

Children’s risk assessments do not contain full information about the risks to children or the action that staff must take to reduce these risks. Full information about the risks to children who go missing from the home was not available to staff. Risk assessments also lacked clarity about the risks that the internet may pose to children, despite this being a relevant and significant risk for some children.

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

Staff use positive reinforcement to support children’s behavioural development. Children are invested in their individual reward schemes and the behaviour of some children has improved as a result of this. However, some children’s behavioural needs are not well understood by the staff team. One child did not have an up-to- date and relevant behaviour support plan. Furthermore, staff had recorded information about this child’s behaviour in an unhelpful and stigmatising manner. This does not evidence an understanding of the child’s behaviour or their individual needs. Inspection report for children’s home: SC359836 5

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

The home is managed by an experienced and qualified manager, who registered with Ofsted in November 2020. Professionals praise the communication from the manager and staff team and there are examples of good practice in relation to multi-agency working.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

There is low staff turnover and the manager does not use agency staff. This means that the children are cared for by a consistent team of staff who know them well.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

Management monitoring arrangements are not robust. Despite monitoring children’s individual plans and records in relation to significant incidents, the manager has failed to identify shortfalls in the quality of these recordings. Ineffective safeguarding practice has continued due to the poor quality of these records, and this has placed children at risk of harm.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

Not all staff have received good-quality supervision which is helping them to develop their practice. Some supervision records were brief and contained duplicated information. This does not evidence high-quality and individualised support for staff. Furthermore, reflection on a recent significant incident was limited, which does not evidence that practice in the home is informed and improved upon, based on the experiences of children living in the home.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

Staff have not received training on matters that are specific to the needs of the children living in the home. This means that staff do not understand the risks and vulnerabilities for some children and do not know how to respond appropriately to their needs. Inspection report for children’s home: SC359836 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

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; and

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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)(iii)(iv)(v)(vi)(b)) 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—

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Requirement Due date

helps children aspire to fulfil their potential; and

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Requirement Due date

promotes their welfare. 5 June 2022 Inspection report for children’s home: SC359836 7 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

ensure that the home has sufficient staff to provide care for 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)(a)(c)(d)(h))

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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

ensure the effective induction of each child into the home. (Regulation 14 (1)(a)(b) (2)(b)(i)) 5 June 2022

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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)) 5 June 2022

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Requirement Due date

*These requirements are subject to a compliance notice.

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Recommendation

 The registered person should record information on individual children in a non- stigmatising way that distinguishes between fact, opinion and third-party Inspection report for children’s home: SC359836 8 information. Information about the child must always be recorded in a way that will be helpful to the child. (‘Guide to the Children’s Homes Regulations, including the quality standards’, page 62, paragraph 14.4)

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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: SC359836 9

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Children’s home details

Registered provider: Lancashire County Council

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: PO Box 78, County Hall, Fishergate, Preston PR1 8XJ

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Inspector

Emma Thornton, Social Care Inspector Inspection report for children’s home: SC359836 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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