Children's Home run by Oakley House Kent in Kent

Inspection report for children's home: 2625170 1 Registered provider: Oakley House (Kent) Limited Full inspection Inspected under the social care common inspection framework

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Information about this children’s home

The home is owned and run by a private organisation and can provide care for up to four children with social, behavioural and emotional difficulties.

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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: 19 October 2021

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inadequate

Overall judgement at last inspection: good

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Enforcement action since last inspection:

A compliance notice was issued under regulations 12 and 13. Inspection report for children's home: 2625170 2

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

19/10/2021 Full Good Inspection report for children's home: 2625170 3

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inadequate

Children are not protected from harm or the risk of further harm. Children have made limited progress in their health and social development since their admission to the home. The provider has failed to fully meet the compliance notices issued at the last inspection, and this has led to the judgement of inadequate.

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inadequate

Children receive ineffective and poorly planned care. This is because staff are not provided with sufficient and effective care plans to guide them in supporting the children’s needs. For example, staff are unaware of one child’s ‘safe word’ used during times of danger. Consequently, this leaves this child at risk when accessing the community should she need to communicate with staff for help when in danger.

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inadequate

Children have experienced bullying while living in the home. One example included a child being excluded by other children during an activity and made to sit on her own, followed by verbal insults and violent threats from peers. Restorative work and education for children who are the perpetrators of this bullying are insufficient. Consequently, children continue to experience bullying.

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inadequate

Children’s health needs are not consistently met. One child openly admits to having regular unprotected sexual intercourse, using alcohol and taking drugs. There is a lack of educational work undertaken around this and support for this child to understand the risks associated with these behaviours. Furthermore, the staff have not been able to build a relationship with this child to engage her in discussion around these risks.

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inadequate

Medication storage and management are insufficient to keep children safe. One child was able to gain access to the staff office and remove a large amount of medication, and this went undetected for several hours. Furthermore, the provider’s response in taking action and reporting this to the local authority safeguarding team was delayed. Consequently, this placed the child at a significant risk of harm.

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inadequate

Most children are attending an educational setting and making progress in their studies.

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

Risk mitigation plans for children going missing who are also at risk of child sexual exploitation do not give staff sufficient guidance. Therefore, staff’s response to children going missing is inconsistent and unsafe. For example, staff do not always look for children or make efforts to contact them regularly when they are missing. On one occasion, children who were missing called the home and asked to be collected, but staff did not collect them. The children were left to walk home, returning in the late hours of the night after being given money by members of the Inspection report for children's home: 2625170 4 public for food and travel. This approach is not consistent with the provider’s statement of purpose and leaves children at risk of harm.

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

One child at risk of self-harm does not have sufficient risk management plans to keep her safe. Plans for this child state that she displays suicidal ideation; however, there are no strategies in place to guide staff to support her when she experiences low mood or thoughts.

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

Sleeping arrangements for staff have placed them at risk. The staff sleep on a pull- out sofa bed provided in the attic space. The provider’s external fire risk assessment deemed the attic an unsafe space for sleeping accommodation. Furthermore, fire doors throughout the property do not fully close. Staff have identified this issue during checks. While the provider has made some attempts to have this remedied, this has not been done in a timely fashion, nor have risk measures been put in place to ensure the occupants’ safety in the event of a fire.

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

The provider has taken action on some of the previous concerns regarding staffing levels for one child which left her exposed to risk. However, children who are assessed as needing a one-to-one staffing ratio have not received this level of care. On one occasion, a staff member took three children on an activity alone, following an altercation the previous evening. During the activity, there was an altercation between the children that resulted in the staff member and the children travelling in a vehicle being placed in danger by the dangerous behaviour of one child. There were insufficient risk plans in place to support this activity and a reduced staffing level.

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

The provider has made some improvements around recruitment practice. However, agency staff are not vetted to the same degree as the staff appointed permanently. Leaders and managers have not sufficiently satisfied themselves that checks carried out by the agency meet the required processes for safe recruitment, and they do not verify this themselves. This has left children exposed to staff who may not be suitably vetted as safe to work with children.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

Leaders have failed to take effective action when local authorities have been unable to find alternative homes for children. The provider has served notice on two children’s placements when it recognised that it could no longer safely care for them, but it failed to escalate this when the placing authority did not find safe alternative placements for the children. During the inspection, the responsible individual re-served immediate notice on their placements.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

There is insufficient staffing to support children. This is partly due to the impact of COVID-19 and a recognised national shortage of staff in the profession. This has resulted in the registered manager and responsible individual undertaking shifts, which has led to records and plans lacking oversight, monitoring and review. Inspection report for children's home: 2625170 5 The statement of purpose is not reflective of the provider’s ethos, values and what support it provides. Furthermore, essential information was missing that should have been included. The provider has failed to recognise this and to maintain effective oversight of the document.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

Supervision records for staff demonstrate that some are feeling overwhelmed, that there is low team morale and that they have concerns regarding each other’s performance. This includes concerns about inconsistent practice, a lack of boundaries and a failure to ensure continuity of care for children. While the registered manager has started to make plans to address this, due to the lack of sufficient staff to cover shifts, this work has not yet started.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

Some staff lack the necessary skills, confidence and training to manage the challenging behaviour that occurs in the home. Training around the implementation of boundaries for staff is planned but is yet to be delivered. The lack of this training has led to an escalation in incidents for some children.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

Managers have failed to meet the steps in the compliance notices issued at the last visit. As a result, further compliance notices have been issued regarding regulations 12 and 32.

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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; and

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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)(c)) 15 April 2022

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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. 15 May 2022 Inspection report for children's home: 2625170 6 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

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;

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Requirement Due date

help each child to develop the understanding and skills to recognise or withdraw from a damaging, exploitative or harmful relationship;

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Requirement Due date

de-escalate confrontations with or between children, or potentially violent behaviour by children; and

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Requirement Due date

understand and communicate to children that bullying is unacceptable. (Regulation 11 (1)(b) (2)(a)(v)(vi)(vii)(xi)(xii))

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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; 15 May 2022 Inspection report for children's home: 2625170 7 take effective action whenever there is a serious concern about a child’s welfare; and

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Requirement Due date

are familiar with, and act in accordance with, the home’s child protection policies;

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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)(vii)(b))

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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

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 work as a team where appropriate;

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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

ensure that the home’s workforce provides continuity of care to 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)(b) (2)(a)(b)(c)(d)(e)(f)(h)) 15 May 2022

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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. (Regulation 14 (1)(a)) 30 June 2022 Inspection report for children's home: 2625170 8 The registered person must compile in relation to the children’s home a statement ("the statement of purpose") which covers the matters listed in Schedule 1. (Regulation 16 (1)) 30 June 2022

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must make arrangements for the handling, recording, safekeeping, safe administration and disposal of medicines received into the children’s home.

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Requirement Due date

In particular the registered person must ensure that—

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Requirement Due date

medicines kept in the home are stored in a secure place so as to prevent any child from having unsupervised access to them. (Regulation 23 (1) (2)(a)) 15 April 2022

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Requirement Due date

If the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005(a) applies to the home—

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Requirement Due date

the registered person must ensure that the requirements of that Order and any regulations made under it, except for article 23 (duties of employees), are complied with in respect of the home. (Regulation 25 (2)(b)) 15 April 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

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)(d)) 15 May 2022

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Requirement Due date

* These requirements are subject to a compliance notice. Inspection report for children's home: 2625170 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: 2625170 10

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Children’s home details

Registered provider: Oakley House (Kent) Limited

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: 3rd Floor, 86-90 Paul Street, London EC2A 4NE

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Inspector

Sara Stoker, Social Care Inspector Inspection report for children's home: 2625170 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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