Children's home run by The Senad Group Limited in Derby

Inspection report for children's home: SC020193 1 SC020193 Registered provider: The SENAD Group Limited Full inspection Inspected under the social care common inspection framework

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Information about this children’s home

This home provides care for up to 25 children with severe learning disabilities and autism spectrum disorder and who display associated challenging behaviour.

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Information about this children’s home

The manager is not yet registered with Ofsted.

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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 failures that mean children and young people are not protected and their welfare is not promoted or safeguarded. The care and experiences of children and young people are poor and they are not making progress.

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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: SC020193 2

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

24/08/2021 Full Good 21/01/2020 Interim Improved effectiveness 09/04/2019 Full Requires improvement to be good 23/10/2018 Full Requires improvement to be good Inspection report for children's home: SC020193 3

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inadequate

Children’s views, wishes and feelings are not fully considered. Children’s meetings do not take place regularly. For example, children are not asked about their menu choices or activities they may wish to take part in. Children are not given opportunities to make informed choices about their lives. Staff have failed to ensure the voice of the child is heard. Despite the children’s additional needs, not all children have independent advocates. This prevents the wishes and feelings and voice of the child being heard and means they do not have independent representation.

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inadequate

Several members of staff have recently left. This has impaired the children’s ability to form trusting relationships with staff. As a result of the home being short staffed, children are not being given the chance to take part in regular activities. For example, one child has had very few activities this year. This means that children become bored and frustrated, with very little stimulation.

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inadequate

Staffing difficulties have resulted in staff struggling to manage complex behaviours exhibited by the children. Leaders have given notice to end two children’s placements. Staff have struggled to meet these children’s needs, leaving the respective local authorities searching for alternative placements. This causes considerable disruption to children’s progress.

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inadequate

The children’s home is made up of five houses. The building is institutional in parts and does not provide a homely environment. Several health and safety issues have not been addressed and parts of the building are in a poor state of repair and maintenance. For example, inspectors found dead flies and dust on window sills, leaks in roofs and flaking paint. Health and safety checks have not been carried out at the set frequencies.

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inadequate

Inspectors found that a child’s pillow was stained and had not been changed. There was also a strong smell of urine in a lounge and hallway. This is unpleasant for children and not in keeping with a homely environment.

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inadequate

Children do not always have access to their bedrooms. Staff often keep these locked and children are having to ask to go to their bedrooms. This can be challenging for children, because not all are able to communicate their wishes.

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inadequate

Children’s dignity is not always protected. For example, in a child’s risk assessment, some behaviours were misrepresented; they were described as ‘challenging behaviour’, which was inaccurate. Additionally, inappropriate and derogatory language is used in some risk assessments. This means that staff do not fully understand the behaviour of children with complex needs, resulting in them not being able to appropriately support children. Inspection report for children's home: SC020193 4 Children’s care needs have not been met in a responsive and compassionate manner. For example, one child was left in a very uncomfortable situation for a long period of time. Their personal care needs were not met. The child’s care plan does not set out how staff should support and help the child. Additionally, this fails to identify how the child’s dignity will be protected.

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inadequate

Children have educational targets. The staff help children to work towards these targets and help them make progress. However, one child’s personal education plan was dated 2019 and does not reflect their current situation.

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

Risk assessments are poor. They fail to set out the actions staff should take in circumstances that pose a risk to children. For example, a child was able to climb up and rip down light fittings, this was in the child’s risk assessment. However, the assessment failed to provide staff with adequate guidance on the action to take should the child climb.

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

Staff were unclear about risks to children. For example, a child was taken on a trip and allowed to stand very close to a steep cliff edge. This had the potential to be very dangerous. The staff did not follow the child’s risk assessment. Staff did not recognise risks posed to the child, which is concerning. Leaders and managers took no action to address this serious shortfall in staff practice.

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

Children’s care plans and risk assessments lacked detail of how their intimate personal care needs should be met. For example, a child’s risk assessment stated that there should always be two staff looking after them. However, staff reported that this is not followed. Staff said there are times when the child has a lone male working with them. This leaves the child and member of staff vulnerable because the risk assessment was not followed in relation to staffing ratios.

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

The recording of physical intervention lacks the required detail and clarity. For example, a number of records did not identify what led to a child being on the floor before they were held by staff. As a result, managers are not able to satisfy themselves that children are safe during physical interventions.

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

Children are not always properly supervised. For example, one child’s risk assessment stated they should not be left alone. This was not followed, and as a result medical attention was required for the child. This was a failure of staff to provide the child with adequate supervision and to adhere to the risk assessment. Additionally, leaders and managers did not undertake a lessons-learned exercise to make sure that this does not happen again.

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

There have been several medication errors. Leaders and managers have not undertaken work to learn lessons from these errors. Staff are confused as why children are taking medication. This prevents staff from being able to monitor children’s health and any effects of medication. Inspection report for children's home: SC020193 5

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

Management monitoring systems are poor. The manager has not identified shortfalls in practice and has not thoroughly evaluated incident records and risk management strategies. For example, managers have approved risk management plans which lack the required information. In addition, physical intervention records have not been reviewed by managers. There is a failure to identify and challenge potentially poor practice by staff.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

Staff do not receive regular and reflective professional supervision. There was no evidence of senior management oversight of staff supervision. This has failed to ensure that serious and specific incidents are discussed and reflected on in individual supervision meetings. There have been incidents where staff’s performance has been poor and this has not been adequately addressed.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

High staff turnover and staff vacancies have led to children’s specific staffing ratios not being maintained. This has placed children at risk and has impacted their quality of care.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

Staff are working increased hours to support children while vacancies are being filled. Staff report that they feel tired and overwhelmed by covering additional shifts. This is negatively impacting on staff morale. Staff say that the induction process for new staff is not robust. The induction lacks clarity over the behaviour exhibited by children and what staff will have to manage.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

Staff do not all have the required training in communication, Makaton and picture exchange communication systems. For example, staff were not aware of a child’s communication aids, despite their use in the child’s education. This lack of training prevents the voice of the child from being heard fully because not all staff understand children’s communication methods.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

Managers do not deal with complaints effectively. For example, following an incident when staff placed a child at risk during an activity, the child’s mother made a complaint. Although this was responded to, the mother did not receive a formal written response to the complaint.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

Managers have failed to identify staff’s inability to professionally challenge one another. This emerged from an investigation undertaken by leaders following a member of staff’s complaint involving concerns over the failure of staff to challenge each other’s care practice. This is a missed opportunity to further improve the quality of care. Inspection report for children's home: SC020193 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 children’s views, wishes and feelings standard is that children receive care from staff who—

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Requirement Due date

develop positive relationships with them;

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Requirement Due date

take their views, wishes and feelings into account in relation to matters affecting the children’s care and welfare and their lives.

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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

ascertain and consider each child’s views, wishes and feelings, and balance these against what they judge to be in the child’s best interests when making decisions about the child’s care and welfare;

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Requirement Due date

help each child to express views, wishes and feelings;

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Requirement Due date

help each child to understand how the child’s views, wishes and feelings have been taken into account and give the child reasons for decisions in relation to the child;

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Requirement Due date

regularly consult children, and seek their feedback, about the quality of the home’s care;

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Requirement Due date

help each child to understand how the child’s privacy will be respected and the circumstances when it may have to be limited;

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Requirement Due date

help each child to prepare for any review of the child’s relevant plans and to make the child’s views, wishes and feelings known for the purposes of that review; and 29 June 2022 Inspection report for children's home: SC020193 7 make each child aware of and, if necessary, remind them of each of the matters in sub-paragraph (d)(i) to (iii);

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Requirement Due date

is enabled to provide feedback to, and raise issues with, a relevant person about the support and services that the child receives;

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Requirement Due date

keep the children’s guide and the home’s complaints procedure under review and seek children’s comments before revising either document;

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Requirement Due date

ensure that an explanation is given to each child as soon as reasonably practicable after the child’s arrival about—

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Requirement Due date

what advocacy support or services are available to the child, how the child may access that support or those services and any entitlement the child may have to independent advocacy provision; and

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Requirement Due date

ensure that the views of each relevant person are taken into account, so far as reasonably practicable, before making a decision about the care or welfare of a child. (Regulation 7 (1)(a)(b)(c) (2)(a)(i)(ii)(iii)(iv)(v)(vi)(vii)(b)(i)(iii)(c)(d)(iii)(e))

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Requirement Due date

This specifically relates to managers and staff seeking the views of children and using these views to inform their care.

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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

meet each child’s behavioural and emotional needs, as set out in the child’s relevant plans; 29 June 2022 Inspection report for children's home: SC020193 8 help each child to develop socially aware behaviour;

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Requirement Due date

encourage each child to take responsibility for the child’s behaviour, in accordance with the child’s age and understanding;

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Requirement Due date

help each child to develop and practise skills to resolve conflicts positively and without harm to anyone;

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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

strive to gain each child’s respect and trust;

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Requirement Due date

are provided with supervision and support to enable them to understand and manage their own feelings and responses to the behaviour and emotions of children, and to help children to do the same;

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Requirement Due date

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

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Requirement Due date

understand and communicate to children that bullying is unacceptable; and

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Requirement Due date

have the skills to recognise incidents or indications of bullying and how to deal with them; and

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Requirement Due date

that each child is encouraged to build and maintain positive relationships with others. (Regulation 11 (1)(a)(b)(c) (2)(a)(i)(ii)(iii)(iv)(v)(vi)(vii)(viii)(x)(xi)(xii)(xiii)(b)

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Requirement Due date

This specifically relates to developing improved relationships between children and improved behaviour. Inspection report for children's home: SC020193 9 *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

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; 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;

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Requirement Due date

that the premises used for the purposes of the home are located so that children are effectively safeguarded;

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Requirement Due date

that the premises used for the purposes of the home are designed, furnished and maintained so as to protect each child from avoidable hazards to the child’s health; and

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Requirement Due date

that the effectiveness of the home’s child protection policies is monitored regularly. (Regulation 12 (1) (2)(a)(i)(ii)(iii)(iv)(v)(vi)(vii)(b)(c)(d)(e)) 29 June 2022 Inspection report for children's home: SC020193 10 *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 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 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;

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Requirement Due date

demonstrate that practice in the home is informed and improved by taking into account and acting on—

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Requirement Due date

research and developments in relation to the ways in which the needs of children are best met; and

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Requirement Due date

feedback on the experiences of children, including complaints received; 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)(a)(b)(c)(d)(e)(f)(g)(i)(ii)(h)) 29 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 29 June 2022 Inspection report for children's home: SC020193 11 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

a description of the measure and its duration;

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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. (Regulation 35 (1)(a)(b) (3)(a)(iv)(b)(i))

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Requirement Due date

This specifically relates to the accurate recording of incidents of physical intervention and oversight from managers of these records.

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Requirement Due date

*These requirements are subject to a compliance notice.

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Recommendations

 The registered person should ensure that staff are familiar with the home’s policies on record-keeping and understand the importance of careful, objective and clear recording. Staff should record information on individual children in a non-stigmatising way that distinguishes between fact, opinion and third-party 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)  The registered person is responsible for ensuring that each child’s day-to-day health and well-being needs are met. Staff should work to make the children’s home an environment that supports children’s physical, mental and emotional health, in line with the approach set out in the home’s statement of purpose. (‘Guide to the Children’s Homes Regulations, including the quality standards’,

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Recommendations

page 33, paragraph 7.3) Inspection report for children's home: SC020193 12

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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: SC020193 13

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Children’s home details

Provision sub-type: Residential special school

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Children’s home details

Registered provider: The SENAD Group Limited

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: Senad Group Ltd, 1 St Georges House, Vernon Gate, Derby DE1 1UQ

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Inspectors

Pradip Panchmatia, Social Care Inspector Zoey Lee, Social Care Inspector Caroline Brailsford, Social Care Inspector Inspection report for children's home: SC020193 14 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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Inspectors

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Inspectors

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Inspectors

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