Children's home run by Pathways Care Group Limited

Inspection report for children’s home: 2633127 1 Registered provider: Pathways Care Group Full inspection Inspected under the social care common inspection framework

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Information about this children’s home

This privately owned home provides care for up to four children aged between seven and 18 with a range of complex needs.

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Information about this children’s home

The home registered with Ofsted on 13 July 2021. The current registered manager is absent from the home. An interim manager has been overseeing the home since February 2022. They have not submitted an application to register.

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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 and young people are poor and they are not making progress.

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inadequate

Date of last inspection: 12 January 2022

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inadequate

Overall judgement at last inspection: requires improvement to be good

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inadequate

Enforcement action since last inspection: none Inspection report for children’s home: 2633127 2

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

12/01/2022 Full Requires improvement to be good Inspection report for children’s home: 2633127 3

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inadequate

Two children live in the home. One child has moved out since the last inspection; this was not in line with his plans. Staff reported they felt they were not experienced or trained in meeting his needs. Consequently, this had a poor impact on the experiences he received while living at the home.

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inadequate

A requirement was made at the last inspection regarding effective planning and matching of new children moving into the home. This has not been reviewed at this inspection as no new children have moved in.

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inadequate

The home has undergone some redecoration and children say they like the new colour scheme. However, the games room is locked and children no longer have access to this space. The inspector observed it being used for storage and as an additional staff meeting room. Consequently, children miss having additional space to use and it impacts negatively on a homely environment.

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inadequate

There is an office-based culture in the home. Managers and staff spend much of their time in the office, even when this is not in line with children’s plans and they require one-to-one staffing. Children told the inspector staff spend a lot of time in the office and they feel staff do not always have time for them. As a result of this, children do not feel valued, which impacts negatively on positive relationships.

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inadequate

Staff do not always give children an appropriate degree of freedom and choice. For example, one child asked to go on an outdoor activity. His request was dismissed and he was directed to take part in an indoor activity instead. He felt he was not listened to and this impacted negatively on his behaviours.

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inadequate

There are instances of staff swearing at children. Children recognise this behaviour is inappropriate and have made complaints. Consequently, some staff are not building positive relationships, respect and trust with children. Managers have taken complaints seriously and investigated shortfalls in staff practice.

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inadequate

When children make complaints, they are taken seriously. Managers write to children to acknowledge their complaint and update them on the outcome. However, there is no restorative practice to help rebuild relationships and support children to have confidence the issue will not happen again.

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inadequate

Managers fail to ensure that children’s care plans accurately reflect their needs. They do not ensure they have all the relevant local authority plans for children. Staff are therefore unable to provide individualised care that helps children to make progress.

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inadequate

Staff have recently taken photos of children enjoying activities. However, managers were unable to show the inspector photos of children from the time they moved into Inspection report for children’s home: 2633127 4 the home, including on special occasions such as birthdays and Christmas. Managers are unsure if photos were taken or they do not know where they are stored. As a result, children are not supported to have memories to look back on as part of their journey and life story.

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

There has been a serious medication issue that has left one child at risk of harm. Staff failed to take quick action to seek emergency medical advice to check the welfare of the child. They did not ascertain how much medication the child had taken. Managers failed to review the incident or seek advice from health professionals and consider any further potential risk to the child. This lack of action and professional curiosity puts children at risk.

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

Children’s plans do not include newly identified risks to enable staff to respond to them appropriately. It is unclear whether staff read updated risk assessments. Therefore, they may not respond to situations appropriately or consistently.

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

There has been one occasion when a child has been missing from home. When children go missing, staff respond appropriately, search the local area and work collaboratively with others, including police and social workers, to help find children as quickly as possible. However, managers have failed to follow their own protocol ensuring that a missing-from-care strategy meeting has taken place. This is a missed opportunity for professionals to review procedures and make further safety plans together. This shortfall was also raised at the previous inspection.

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

Children attend education. However, managers and staff do not place emphasis on supporting children to attend consistently. For example, when the home’s car was unavailable, an alternative means of travel was not thoroughly planned or discussed with the child. Consequently, the child did not attend his education that day.

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

Staff have implemented sanctions without the knowledge and oversight of the manager. On one example, a sanction was punitive and required a 50% repayment of the child’s pocket money. This sanction was not implemented within the parameters of the home’s own procedures. Additionally, while the sanction was implemented due to the child’s behaviours, these behaviours were a direct response to poor staff communication and the child receiving mixed messages.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

The registered manager has been absent from the home since January 2022. There have been several interim managers in day-to-day charge of the home, and Ofsted have not been made aware of all these changes. The current manager has been in day-to-day charge of the home since February 2022. He has not applied to Ofsted to be the registered manager, despite overseeing the home for more than 90 days.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

The manager has poor insight into the home’s shortfalls. The systems he has implemented do not support him to have a good overview of the care children are Inspection report for children’s home: 2633127 5 experiencing. This means he cannot meaningfully implement effective change and improvement.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

There is poor communication between the manager and the deputy manager. As a result, the manager does not know information pertinent to his role. This includes not being aware of the medication incident and sanctions in place for children. Consequently, a lack of management oversight impacts on the quality of care children receive and the staff working cohesively to ensure children receive consistency.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

Managers have failed to keep the statement of purpose up to date. Staff who have left the home are included and new staff are not. This does not give a true representation of staffing and the level of staff’s experience and qualifications.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

Staff report morale in the home has improved since the previous inspection, and they support one another. However, the manager fails to ensure regular practice- based supervision is undertaken with staff. This is a missed opportunity to support staff in their roles and formally review their practice.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

Since the last inspection, the storage of medication is vastly improved and is now safe. However, there continue to be errors in the recording of controlled medication. Although this has been picked up through managers’ audits, there was a lapse in this being identified and the staff member having their training refreshed.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

Managers and staff are not sufficiently trained to meet the needs of the children. There are gaps in training including mandatory training for first aid and safeguarding children. This means staff do not have the knowledge and skills to support them to provide good quality care to children.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

The independent person has identified shortfalls each month. These are often repeated the following month, indicating a failure by managers to swiftly implement improvements.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

Managers have written messages on children’s records that relate to poor staff practice. Managers do not understand that these documents belong to children and therefore comments about poor staff practice are not helpful to the children.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

Due to the significant concerns regarding safeguarding and the leadership and management of the home, two compliance notices have been raised, under regulation 12 and regulation 13. A restriction of accommodation notice has been issued to prevent any new children moving into the home. Inspection report for children’s home: 2633127 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

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;

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Requirement Due date

seek to secure the input and services required to meet each child’s needs. (Regulation 5 (a)(b))

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Requirement Due date

This specifically relates to ensuring strategy meetings are held for children who go missing three times or more in 90 days. 2 August 2022

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Requirement Due date

The quality and purpose of care standard is that children receive care from staff who—

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Requirement Due date

understand the children’s home’s overall aims and the outcomes it seeks to achieve for children;

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Requirement Due date

use this understanding to deliver care that meets children’s needs and supports them to fulfil their potential.

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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

make decisions about the day-to-day arrangements for each child, in accordance with the child’s relevant plans, which give the child an appropriate degree of freedom and choice. (Regulation 6 (1)(a)(b) (2)(b)(ix))

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Requirement Due date

This specifically relates to staff ensuring children are able to access a variety of activities outside of the home. 1 July 2022

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Requirement Due date

The education standard is that children make measurable progress towards achieving their educational potential and 1 July 2022 Inspection report for children’s home: 2633127 7 are helped to do so.

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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

understand the barriers to learning that each child may face and take appropriate action to help the child to overcome any such barriers. (Regulation 8 (1) (2)(a)(iii))

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Requirement Due date

This specifically relates to staff making alternative arrangements for children to attend education when the usual plans change.

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Requirement Due date

The positive relationships standard is that children are helped to develop, and to benefit

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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— that staff—

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Requirement Due date

strive to gain each child’s respect and trust. (Regulation 11 (1)(a)(c) (2)(viii))

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Requirement Due date

This specifically relates to staff ensuring they use appropriate language when talking to children. 1 July 2022

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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; 24 July 2022 Inspection report for children’s home: 2633127 8 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

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)(v)(b))

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Requirement Due date

This specifically relates to risk assessments detailing new risks and staff reading updated documents.

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Requirement Due date

It also relates to staff understanding that when children are at risk of harm through taking too much medication, they need to take action to seek medical advice and safeguard the child. Steps should be taken to review the incident to reduce the likelihood of it occurring again.

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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 promotes their welfare.

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Requirement Due date

In particular, the standard in paragraph (1) requires the registered person to—

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Requirement Due date

lead and manage the home in a way that is consistent with the approach and ethos, and delivers the outcomes, set out in the home’s statement of purpose;

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Requirement Due date

ensure that staff have the experience, qualifications and skills to meet the needs of each child;

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Requirement Due date

ensure that the home has sufficient staff to provide care for each child. (Regulation 13 (1)(a)(b) (2)(a)(d)(c)(f)(h))

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Requirement Due date

This specifically relates to staff being trained to support the individual needs of children, in addition to completing all mandatory training.

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Requirement Due date

The provider should ensure a manager applies to Ofsted to become the registered manager of the home to provide continuity of care for children.

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Requirement Due date

Managers must have systems in place to identify shortfalls in 24 July 2022 Inspection report for children’s home: 2633127 9 staff practice in the home to enable them to be addressed quickly.

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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

In particular, the standard in paragraph (1) requires the registered person to ensure—

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Requirement Due date

that children are admitted to the home only if their needs are within the range of needs of children for whom it is intended that the home is to provide care and accommodation, as set out in the home’s statement of purpose (Regulation 14 (1)(a) (2)(a)(d))

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Requirement Due date

This specifically relates to ensuring a robust matching of children to the skills and experience of the staff team to provide care to meet children’s individual needs, particularly when there are known diagnoses which impact on children’s communication and behaviours.

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Requirement Due date

This also relates to children’s local authority plans being readily available at the home and that they are followed.

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Requirement Due date

This requirement was made at the previous inspection and is restated. 02 August 2022

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Requirement Due date

keep the statement of purpose under review and, where appropriate, revise it; and

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Requirement Due date

notify HMCI of any revisions and send HMCI a copy of the revised statement within 28 days of the revision. (Regulation 16 (3)(a)(b))

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Requirement Due date

This specifically relates to the statement of purpose being up to date in relation to who works in the home. 1 July 2022

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Requirement Due date

No measure of control or discipline which is excessive, unreasonable or contrary to paragraph (2) may be used in relation to any child. (Regulation 19 (1))

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Requirement Due date

This specifically relates to the appropriate use of sanctions, in line with the home’s policies and procedures, and being fair, taking into consideration the reason for the child’s 1 July 2022 Inspection report for children’s home: 2633127 10 behaviour and any mitigating circumstances such as staff practice. The registered person must ensure that—

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Requirement Due date

children can access all appropriate areas of the children’s home’s premises. (Regulation 21(b))

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Requirement Due date

This specifically relates to ensuring children have access to the games room. 24 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 also as to prevent any child having unsupervised access to them

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Requirement Due date

a record is kept of the administration of medication to each child. (Regulation 23 (1) (2)(c))

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Requirement Due date

This specifically refers to the correct recording and signing process for controlled medication. 24 June 2022

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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. (Regulation 33 (4)(b))

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Requirement Due date

This specifically relates to staff having regular supervision that is practice related. 2 August 2022

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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 the importance of understanding who we are and where we come from is recognised in good social work practice, for example, through undertaking life-story work or other direct work. Staff in children’s homes should play a full role in work of this kind. (‘Guide to the Inspection report for children’s home: 2633127 11 Children’s Homes Regulations, including the quality standards’, page 16, paragraph 3.14)  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

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Recommendations

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: 2633127 12

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Children’s home details

Registered provider: Pathways Care Group

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: Minton Place, Victoria Street, Windsor SL4 1EG

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Inspector

Jodie Lewis, Social Care Inspector Inspection report for children’s home: 2633127 13 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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