Children's Home run by Pinnacle Care Provisions Ltd in Lancashire

Inspection report for children’s home: 2653112 1 Registered provider: Pinnacle Care Provisions Limited Full inspection Inspected under the social care common inspection framework

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Information about this children’s home

This home is registered to provide care for up to three children. At the time of the inspection, there were two children living in the home.

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Information about this children’s home

This is the first inspection since the home was registered in February 2022.

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Information about this children’s home

There is a manager in post who also registered with Ofsted in February 2022.

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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 are not protected or their welfare is not promoted or safeguarded and the care and experiences of children are poor and they are not making progress.

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inadequate

Overall judgement at last inspection: not applicable

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inadequate

Enforcement action since last inspection: not applicable Inspection report for children’s home: 2653112 2

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

Not previously inspected Inspection report for children’s home: 2653112 3

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inadequate

This is a newly registered children’s home. Children’s progress and experiences have been variable due to ineffective care planning. Managers and staff are not delivering good-quality care that is line with children’s relevant plans. Furthermore, poor safeguarding practice is not ensuring that children are safe and protected from harm.

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inadequate

Conditions in the home environment are poor. Managers and staff have failed to maintain the home to an acceptable standard of hygiene and decoration and have allowed children to live and sleep in conditions that are neglectful. Although some steps have now been taken to address hygiene standards, further action is required to address all maintenance issues.

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inadequate

Staff have struggled to implement routines and boundaries in the home. Incidents of challenging behaviour have escalated due to inconsistent and inappropriate staff practice. On some occasions, staff have required police involvement to manage children’s behaviour.

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inadequate

Relationships between children and staff are varied. Some children referred to staff who they like and are ‘nice’, but other children said that staff ‘do not listen, help or care’. When conflict between children has arisen, staff have not supported mediation between the children. This is a missed opportunity for staff to help children to develop the skills to resolve conflicts positively.

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inadequate

Educational outcomes for children are variable. One child attends school daily and it is reported that they are making progress. Another child has struggled with school attendance and was not in education or training at the time of the inspection. Records in the home do not consistently demonstrate the actions that staff take to support children to return to full-time education or training.

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inadequate

Children know how to complain. When children have made formal complaints, these have been responded to appropriately and in line with the home’s policy.

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inadequate

Children’s health needs have been consistently met by staff. Children are attending routine health appointments and receiving help and advice in relation to some of their health needs. Staff do not delay in referring children to specialist agencies when there is an identified need for additional support.

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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 and safeguarding practice. Inspection report for children’s home: 2653112 4 Risk management plans lack clarity about the risks to children and the steps that staff should take to reduce these risks. Managers are therefore failing to provide staff with sufficient clear information that enables them to manage children’s risk and vulnerabilities safely and effectively.

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

There are shortfalls in the manager’s oversight of significant incidents, which means that poor staff practice has continued. Furthermore, leaders and managers do not review documentation in the home effectively to understand what happened during incidents to prevent these from reoccurring. This poor practice, together with ineffective management oversight, means that staff practices are not challenged in a timely way to ensure that appropriate care and support are provided to children.

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

Physical intervention practice is not safely supporting children who are experiencing crisis in their lives. Records do not contain the detail that is required by regulation and the manager has failed to address the shortfalls in behaviour management practice.

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

Processes for storing and administering medication are not robust. Some medication was stored incorrectly in the home’s refrigerator. There have also been a number of medication errors and some medication could not be accounted for.

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

Staff use positive reinforcements to support children’s behavioural development. However, some children’s behavioural needs are not well understood by all the staff team. One child did not have a comprehensive 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.

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

Staff have received training in food hygiene; however, they have not implemented this training in practice. Food items were not stored safely in the refrigerator, which was hazardous to children’s health. Furthermore, the standards of hygiene in food preparation areas and in the refrigerator were unacceptable. This was rectified during the inspection.

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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 February 2022.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

The manager does not have a good understanding of the strengths and weaknesses of the home and has failed to understand the impact that the quality of care provided in the home is having on the progress and experiences of children.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

The manager has developed relationships with key professionals. However, one professional raised a concern about staff practice in the home and raised concerns that the actions staff took to support a child were not in line with the local authority plan for the child’s care. Inspection report for children’s home: 2653112 5 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 and inconsistent staff practice has continued due to the poor quality of children’s records. Furthermore, the manager’s oversight in the home is negatively affected by poor organisation of records.

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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.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

Staff are not receiving regular supervision, including the registered manager, who has only had one supervision since the home was registered in February 2022. This is not supporting the development of good practice or improving the quality of care provided to children.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

Staff have not been recruited in line with safer recruitment processes. Some staff records did not have their full employment history or an explanation for gaps in employment. Failing to adhere to these processes does not safeguard children.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

Due to the safeguarding concerns, Ofsted is of the view that if further children move into the home this would compromise the safety of the children already living in the home as well as any new children moving in. Based on the information outlined above, Ofsted issued a notice of restriction of accommodation at the home. Inspection report for children’s home: 2653112 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 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;

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Requirement Due date

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

strive to gain each child’s respect and trust;

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Requirement Due date

understand how children’s previous experiences and present emotions can be communicated through behaviour and have the competence and skills to interpret these and develop positive relationships with children;

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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; 31 July 2022 Inspection report for children’s home: 2653112 7 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)(viii)(ix)(x)(xi)(xii)(xiii)(b))

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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

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 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. 31 July 2022 Inspection report for children’s home: 2653112 8 (Regulation 12 (1) (2)(a)(i)(ii)(iii)(iv)(v)(vi)(vii)(d))

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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

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

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

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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)(c)(f)(g)(ii)(h)) 31 July 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; 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

that children are admitted to the home only if their needs are within the range of needs of children for whom it is intended 31 July 2022 Inspection report for children’s home: 2653112 9 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

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

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Requirement Due date

Specifically, ensure that children’s local authority care plans are received and implemented in the home. Further to this, ensure that other relevant plans, such as education, health and care plans, are also implemented in the home.

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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;

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Requirement Due date

a record is kept of the administration of medicine to each child. (Regulation 23 (1) (2)(a)(c)) 31 July 2022

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Requirement Due date

The registered person may only use devices for the monitoring or surveillance of children if—

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Requirement Due date

the monitoring or surveillance is for the purpose of safeguarding and promoting the welfare of the child concerned, or other children;

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Requirement Due date

the child’s placing authority consents in writing to the monitoring or surveillance;

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Requirement Due date

so far as reasonably practicable in the light of the child’s age and understanding, the child is informed in advance of the intention to do the monitoring or surveillance; and

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Requirement Due date

the monitoring or surveillance is no more intrusive than necessary, having regard to the child’s need for privacy. (Regulation 24 (1)(a)(b)(c)(d))

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Requirement Due date

Specifically, ensure that there is written consent for the use of door sensors and that this is risk-assessed and used for the purpose of safeguarding children. Further to this, ensure that tracking applications installed on children’s mobile 31 July 2022 Inspection report for children’s home: 2653112 10 phones are only done so with the correct written authority and that this is regularly reviewed.

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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

the individual is of integrity and good character;

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Requirement Due date

the individual has the appropriate experience, qualification and skills for the work that the individual is to perform;

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Requirement Due date

the individual is mentally and physically fit for the purposes of the work that the individual is to perform; and

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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)(a)(b)(c)(d))

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Requirement Due date

Specifically, ensure that staff records contain a full employment history. 31 July 2022

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Requirement Due date

ensure that each employee completes an appropriate induction;

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must ensure that all employees—

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Requirement Due date

undertake appropriate continuing professional development;

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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. 31 July 2022 Inspection report for children’s home: 2653112 11 (Regulation 33 (1)(a) (4)(a)(b)(c))

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Requirement Due date

Specifically, ensure that the registered manager receives regular supervision from an appropriately qualified individual. Further to this, ensure that staff receive regular supervision that is in line with the home’s supervision policy.

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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;

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Requirement Due date

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; 31 July 2022 Inspection report for children’s home: 2653112 12 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)(b)(i)(ii)(c))

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Requirement Due date

Specifically, ensure that financial sanctions clearly state the duration of the sanction and how this must be repaid. Further to this, ensure that records of sanctions include the effectiveness of the sanction used.

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Requirement Due date

Specifically, ensure that records of restraint contain all of the detail required by legislation, particularly when there are multiple restraints in one incident.

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must notify HMCI and each other relevant person without delay if—

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Requirement Due date

an incident requiring police involvement occurs in relation to a child which the registered person considers to be serious;

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Requirement Due date

there is any other incident relating to a child which the registered person considers to be serious. (Regulation 40 (4)(b)(e)) 31 July 2022

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Recommendations

 The registered person should ensure that staff 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 should ensure that any sanctions used to address poor behaviour should be restorative in nature, to help children recognise the impact of their behaviour on themselves, other children, the staff caring for them and the wider community. (‘Guide to the Children’s Homes Regulations, including the quality standards’, page 46, paragraph 9.38) Inspection report for children’s home: 2653112 13

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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: 2653112 14

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Children’s home details

Registered provider: Pinnacle Care Provisions Limited

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: Suite 507, 275 Deansgate, Manchester M3 4EL

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Inspector

Emma Thornton, Social Care Inspector Inspection report for children’s home: 2653112 15 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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