Children's Home run by Worcestershire Children First in Worcestershire

Inspection report children's home: 2548569 1 Registered provider: Worcestershire Children First Full inspection Inspected under the social care common inspection framework

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Information about this children's home

This home was previously owned by the local authority. It re-registered in October 2019 when the local authority moved to be a holding company. The home is registered to provide care for up to four children who have suffered adverse childhood experiences that have led to associated trauma and presenting complex behaviours.

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Information about this children's home

A manager is in post and has recently 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 and/or widespread failures that mean children and young people are not protected or their welfare is not promoted or safeguarded and/or the care and experiences of children and young people are poor, and they are not making progress.

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inadequate

Overall judgement at last inspection: Declined in effectiveness

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inadequate

Enforcement action since last inspection:

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inadequate

This children’s home was judged as declined effectiveness at the interim inspection on 29 March 2022. The provider was issued with three compliance notices under regulations 7, 12 and 13 of the Children’s Homes (England) Regulations 2015. A notice restricting accommodation at the home was also issued. Inspection report children's home: 2548569 2 A monitoring visit was undertaken on 10 May 2022. The Provider had complied with the restriction of accommodation. The provider had met the compliance notice in relation to regulation 7. The notices relating to regulations 12 and 13 were issued again. The restriction on accommodation remained in place.

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

29/03/2022 Interim Declined in effectiveness 09/02/2022 Full Requires improvement to be good Inspection report children's home: 2548569 3

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inadequate

There are significant shortfalls in the leadership and management of the home and in the safety and protection of children. Consequently, despite some measurable progress for some children, their overall experiences are inadequate.

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inadequate

There are currently three children living in the home. Relationships between children and staff are mostly positive, and one child told the inspector that she felt safe living in the home. There has been a reduction in behavioural incidents since the last inspection, which has contributed to a more settled environment for children. However, the frequency and severity of one child’s missing episodes has, at times, dominated staff’s time and resources.

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inadequate

Name calling and threatening behaviour was displayed between two children. Although children were spoken to following the incident, they did not receive effective support to explore their understanding of expectations of behaviour and bullying within the home. Staff have not received training in peer abuse or bullying which limits them from proving children with effective support in this area.

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inadequate

Children are encouraged to attend health appointments and helped to understand the importance of this. However, staff are not provided with clear written guidance in relation to the support that should be provided to children who smoke. Another child has not received support around healthy relationships and sexual health. As a result, children’s health is not always supported effectively.

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inadequate

One child has been supported well with his emotional health. Medical attention was sought following incidents of self-harm. A safety plan was implemented, with the involvement of professionals working with the child to support his safety. Staff have completed some thoughtful work with the child to help him explore and understand his thoughts and feelings. The child is now engaging in therapeutic support for the first time. This helps him make sense of and process his traumatic childhood experiences, and build effective coping strategies for the future.

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inadequate

Two children are regularly engaging in education. Staff attend children’s educational progress meetings. Despite previously having long periods of absence and non- engagement with school, they have both now completed GCSE exams. Staff have worked hard to encourage another child, who has recently been excluded from school to participate in his GSCE exams. This involved staff transporting the child a long distance to enable this to happen. This demonstrates staff’s commitment to children.

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inadequate

The registered manager has reflected on previous care planning for children and identified learning. As a result, regular care planning and safeguarding meetings have taken place in response to concerns that the home cannot keep one child safe. Inspection report children's home: 2548569 4 The manager has escalated concerns about the child’s care planning and is working in close partnership with external agencies to ensure a review of his needs and safety takes place.

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inadequate

Improvements to the home make it a more welcoming environment for the children. It is spacious and has a warm and homely feel.

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

There are serious and widespread failures in safeguarding practice. Managers have failed to respond appropriately to serious incidents, and this has the potential to place children at risk of harm.

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

Managers have failed to ensure that risk assessments contain up-to-date information and clear guidance for staff. For example, a child’s risk assessment was not clear about the level of staff needed to support the child when he spends time in the community and needs collecting at night. This led to confusion for staff who requested that the police collect the child at 11pm stating that they did not have enough staff to do so safely.

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

Managers and staff do not take all reasonable steps to follow up on safeguarding matters. For example, staff undertaking a room search for one child found items of concern including a BB gun, alcohol and an empty packet that had possibly contained drugs. Despite this and the increasing risk of exploitation in relation to the child, the manager did not consider, and so did not undertake, additional room searches to reduce the risk of harm. Neither did the manager or staff talk to the child openly and honestly about all that they had found in his bedroom.

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

Risks are not always clearly understood and acted upon by managers and staff. For example, a child sometimes sleeps in the lounge. It is not clear what the implications of this are, how this has been reviewed and is being managed, given the issues between this child and another child at the home.

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

Staff do not have the training to keep children safe. In particular, staff have not had training in county lines and exploitation. This is despite one child having increasing risks in this area. This limits staff’s ability to respond adequately to risk.

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

Managers have failed to adequately explore a serious incident between two children. The manager did ensure additional safeguarding measures were implemented. How- ever, staff did not use their professional curiosity to explore the incident and chil- dren’s safety, or whether safeguarding measures were helping them to feel safer. The manager has not notified Ofsted of this incident. Children’s safety and wellbeing is compromised because managers and staff have not taken appropriate action to respond to risk.

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

The inspector also found that leaders and mangers had failed to explore all vulnera- bilities of children and ensure effective strategies were in place to keep them safe. Inspection report children's home: 2548569 5 For example, all children living in the home are exposed to risks of online safety. However, leaders and managers have failed to ensure children are educated about risks online. On another occasion, the manager identified that one child required ed- ucational work around relationships. This piece of work has not taken place. As a re- sult, ineffective action is taken to prevent incidents and ensure children are kept safe.

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

Notwithstanding the shortfalls identified, professionals are positive about the efforts made when one child goes missing from home. One professional stated that man- ager and staff had been a good advocate for the child and have tried hard to keep him safe.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

The registered manager genuinely cares about the children living in the home and wants the best for them. However, issues associated with staff retention and recruit- ment have resulted in the manager being more involved in the children’s day to day care. This impacts his management oversight and quality of leadership within the home. Internal monitoring is ineffective, and the manager has failed to ensure a rig- orous review of responses to safeguarding concerns. This lack of effective oversight results in systems and practice that do not ensure or promote children’s welfare.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

The registered manager has not taken effective action to address the shortfalls iden- tified at the last inspection. For example, the registered manager was unable to pro- duce evidence about how he had reviewed the skills and experience of staff. He pro- vided one email within which he had requested that staff enrol on a course to de- velop their knowledge and skills of exploitation. This email was sent two days before the compliance notice was due the end. As a result, it is unclear if children are being cared for by staff who do not have the skills and knowledge to keep them safe.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

The registered manager’s oversight of safeguarding arrangements to protect chil- dren is inadequate. For example, the registered manager stated that a serious inci- dent between two children to be ‘not far from normal’. This prevented the manager from seeing the risk as serious and reviewing the incident rigorously. As a result, he did not ensure that all reasonable actions were taken to respond to this incident and did not have a sense of urgency to follow up on a request for a meeting to review what had happened.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

Managers have failed to ensure that all staff working with children have adequate training to meet the needs of children. Some staff have still not had training in im- portant areas such as self-harm, bullying and exploitation. Managers say they imple- ment a PACE model of care, however staff are not trained to use this model. This means that staff have not yet been able to develop all the knowledge and skills they need to support the children. Inspection report children's home: 2548569 6 Training records are not up to date and the managers were unable to provide evi- dence of training that staff have completed. This does not enable managers to plan for and review staff development effectively to improve the quality of care provided to children.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

The registered manager has failed to notify Ofsted of serious incidents that have occurred at the home. This lack of information-sharing, as required by regulation, does not enable Ofsted to evaluate the quality of practice and assess if the correct actions have been taken to safeguard children.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

The responsible individual does not have the capacity to effectively oversee the service. This is the second inspection within which compliance notices have not been met. Senior leaders have failed to ensure robust monitoring of the registered managers progress to meet regulatory requirements. The responsible individual identified shortfalls during the inspection relating to the response of leaders and managers to a safeguarding concern. This reactive response to safeguarding practice leaves children at risk of harm.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

In response to the serious failings found in respect of safeguarding children and the leadership and management of the home, a second notice restricting the accommodation of this home’s registration was issued on the 23 June 2022. Two compliance notices have been re-issued in relation to regulation 12 and regulation 13 of the Children’s Homes (England) Regulations 2015. An additional compliance notice was issued in relation to regulation 40 of the Children’s Homes (England) Regulations 2015. Ofsted will continue to monitor this home. Inspection report children's home: 2548569 7

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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— develop positive relationships with them; engage with them; and take their views, wishes and feelings into account in relation to matters affecting the children’s care and welfare and their lives. In particular, the standard in paragraph (1) requires the reg- istered person to— ensure that staff— ascertain and consider each child’s views, wishes and feel- ings, 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; help each child to express views, wishes and feelings; 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; (Regulation 7 (1)(a)(b)(c)(2)(a)(i)(ii)(iii)) In particular, this relates to ensuring children have opportu-

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Requirement Due date

nities to express their views, wishes and feelings. 03 August 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— mutual respect and trust; an understanding about acceptable behaviour; and positive responses to other children and adults In particular, the standard in paragraph (1) requires the reg- istered person to ensure— that staff— 03 August 2022 Inspection report children's home: 2548569 8 communicate to each child expectations about the child’s be- haviour and ensure that the child understands those expec- tations in accordance with the child’s age and understanding; understand and communicate to children that bullying is un- acceptable; and have the skills to recognise incidents or indications of bully- ing and how to deal with them; and that each child is encouraged to build and maintain positive relationships with others. (Regulation 11 (1)(a)(b)(c)(2)(a)(v)(xii)(xiii)(b))

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Requirement Due date

In particular, ensure that children are supported to under- stand acceptable behaviours.

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Requirement Due date

*The protection of children standard is that children are pro- tected from harm and enabled to keep themselves safe. In particular, the standard in paragraph (1) requires the reg- istered person to ensure— that staff— assess whether each child is at risk of harm, taking into ac- count information in the child’s relevant plans, and, if neces- sary, make arrangements to reduce the risk of any harm to the child; help each child to understand how to keep safe; have the skills to identify and act upon signs that a child is at risk of harm; manage relationships between children to prevent them from harming each other; take effective action whenever there is a serious concern about a child’s welfare;

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Requirement Due date

(regulation 12 (1)(2)(a)(i)(ii)(iii)(iv)(vi)) In particular, ensure that safeguarding concerns are identi- fied and responded to. In addition, ensure that each child has a risk assessment which provides staff with strategies to follow to keep children safe. 17 July 2022 Inspection report children's home: 2548569 9 *The leadership and management standard is that the regis- tered person enables, inspires and leads a culture in relation to the children’s home that helps children aspire to fulfil their potential; and promotes their welfare. In particular, the standard in paragraph (1) requires the reg- istered person to 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; ensure that staff have the experience, qualifications and skills to meet the needs of each child; understand the impact that the quality of care provided in

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Requirement Due date

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; use monitoring and review systems to make continuous im- provements in the quality of care provided in the home. (Regulation 13 (1)(a)(b)(2)(a)(c)(f)(h))

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Requirement Due date

In particular, the provider must ensure that managers and staff have the skills to meet the individual needs of children. In addition the manager must review and evaluate the qual- ity of care to ensure that shortfalls are identified and recti- fied. 17 July 2022

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Requirement Due date

have the capacity, experience and skills to supervise the management of the home, or the homes, in respect of which the responsible individual is nominated.

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Requirement Due date

A person may only manage a children’s home if—

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Requirement Due date

the person has the appropriate experience, qualification and skills to manage the home effectively and lead the care of children; and

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Requirement Due date

(Regulation 28 (1)(b)(i)) 03 August 2022 Inspection report children's home: 2548569 10 *The registered person must notify HMCI and each other rel- evant person without delay if—

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Requirement Due date

there is any other incident relating to a child which the regis- tered person considers to be serious.

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must review the appropriateness and suitability of the location of the premises used for the pur- poses of the children's home at least once in each calendar year taking into account the requirement in regulation 12(2)(c) (the protection of children standard).

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Requirement Due date

When conducting the review, the registered person must consult, and take into account the views of, each relevant person.

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Requirement Due date

* These requirements are subject to a compliance notice.

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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 children's home: 2548569 11

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Children's home details

Registered provider: Worcestershire Children First

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Children's home details

Registered provider address: County Hall, Spetchley Road, Worcester, WR5 2NP

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Inspector

Natasha Skinner, Social Care Inspector Inspection report children's home: 2548569 12 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 looked after children, safeguarding and child protection.

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Inspector

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Inspector

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Inspector

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