Children's Home run by Theracare Homes Limited in Lancashire

Inspection report for children’s home: 2673338 1 Registered provider: Theracare Homes Limited Full inspection Inspected under the social care common inspection framework

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Information about this children’s home

The home is operated by a private company. It currently provides care and accommodation for up to two children irrespective of gender.

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Information about this children’s home

The manager was registered with Ofsted on 6 April 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 and the care and experiences of children are poor.

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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: 2673338 2

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

Not previously inspected Inspection report for children’s home: 2673338 3

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inadequate

There was one child residing in this home at the time of the inspection who was spoken to as part of this visit. The child has positive relationships with managers and staff. As a result, the child feels cared for and enjoys living in this home. Widespread failures found in the home mean that children have not had positive experiences and that they have not been protected from harm.

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inadequate

Necessary, up-to-date documentation such as local authority plans and health assessments were not available for the child living in the home. Key information that is available has not been read or understood. This has resulted in a lack of recognition and understanding of the child’s significant needs, including assessed disabilities and vulnerabilities. This means that children’s needs are not being met. Furthermore, failure to recognise and identify the information and documentation required has led to a lack of escalation to the local authority and other relevant professionals.

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inadequate

Children’s individual health and educational needs are not recognised or understood. Information held about the child living in the home clearly states the child has recognised learning needs. Leaders, managers and staff were not aware of this. Staff could not demonstrate that they understand what this means for the child, that they understand learning disabilities or what additional support the child may need because of this.

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inadequate

A lack of information gathering in respect of the child’s health, such as vaccination history, previous health needs and the outcomes of previous medical assessments, means that health plans do not sufficiently address or identify children’s physical and emotional needs.

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inadequate

Staff are ill-prepared to manage the behaviours exhibited by children moving into the home because of a lack of information gathered about the children prior to moving into the home. This necessitated an emergency placement move for one child. As a result, one child had a negative experience of moving out of the home and, subsequently, moved to a bed and breakfast two days after moving in. This does not represent careful, considered placement planning or assessment for children.

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inadequate

Positively, the work completed with children is of a good quality. This demonstrates that staff hold meaningful discussions with children about issues that affect them.

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inadequate

Additionally, the child living in the home is provided with support to spend regular, structured time with family members. The child benefits from this quality time and routine. Inspection report for children’s home: 2673338 4

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

Pre-placement planning and assessment has not sought to understand children’s histories or risks. Known risks and vulnerabilities presented by children, such as sexually harmful behaviour, violence and aggression, and disabilities, were not considered when placing children together. This has led to poor and unsafe matching of children, and has resulted in emotional harm to one child and the immediate placement breakdown of another.

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

Obvious and immediate risks presented by the location of the home are not adequately assessed. For example, the road with a 60 mph speed limit directly accessible to children from the property has not been considered or recognised as a risk to children. As such, one child has been allowed to regularly cycle on this road both with staff and alone, without any safety equipment or attempted intervention. This leaves children at increased risk of serious accident and/or injury.

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

Children’s individual risk assessments do not include all known and significant risks, including those arising from alleged sexually harmful behaviour. Furthermore, the child living in the home has recently been found to be in possession of cannabis. Both these concerns were not included within the child’s risks assessment. Failure to identify and assess these risks hinders staff’s ability to respond and mitigate risk and does not provide children with effective help and protection.

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

Staff working with children do not have the necessary experience, training or qualifications in areas related to children’s risk-taking behaviours. This includes, but is not limited to, sexually harmful behaviour, substance misuse, online safety, and missing-from-home behaviours.

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

Positively, incidents of missing from home for this child have significantly reduced since living in this home, as has the child’s substance misuse. This is because the child is benefiting from routine, activities and the one-to-one attention provided at this home.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

Monitoring and review in the home is poor. The inspector found shortfalls across several areas in the home including children’s risk assessments, care planning, staff training and general record-keeping. These shortfalls have not been identified prior to the inspection. This does not demonstrate that monitoring and review processes in the home are sufficient to identify and rectify weakness.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

The inspector was unable to find evidence that consequences are discussed with children, evaluated, or considered by the manager for effectiveness and appropriateness. This has led to money being taken from the child’s weekly earnings to contribute to the cost of fixing a wardrobe door. This door was not replaced or repaired at the time of the inspection several weeks later. This does not demonstrate Inspection report for children’s home: 2673338 5 effective monitoring and review, or effective behaviour management that supports children to understand and improve their behaviours.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

The manager has not notified Ofsted of all significant and serious incidents in the home. This has prevented external monitoring and review required by regulation. A requirement has been made to address this.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

Leaders and managers have accepted the shortfalls found at this inspection and were working to rectify them at the time of the inspection. Inspection report for children’s home: 2673338 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;

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Requirement Due date

if the registered person considers, or staff consider, a placing authority’s or a relevant person’s performance or response to be inadequate in relation to their role, challenge the placing authority or the relevant person to seek to ensure that each child’s needs are met in accordance with the child’s relevant plans; and

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Requirement Due date

seek to develop and maintain effective professional relationships with such persons, bodies or organisations as the registered person considers appropriate having regard to the range of needs of children for whom it is intended that the children’s home is to provide care and accommodation. (Regulation 5 (a)(b)(c)(d)) 11 September

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Requirement Due date

The health and well-being standard is that—

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Requirement Due date

the health and well-being needs of children are met;

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Requirement Due date

children receive advice, services and support in relation to their health and well-being.

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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

achieve the health and well-being outcomes that are recorded in the child’s relevant plans; 11 September Inspection report for children’s home: 2673338 7 understand the child’s health and well-being needs and the options that are available in relation to the child’s health and well-being, in a way that is appropriate to the child’s age and understanding;

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Requirement Due date

understand and develop skills to promote the child’s well- being. (Regulation 10 (1)(a)(b) (2)(a)(i)(ii)(iv))

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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

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)(ii)(iii)(iv)(v)(b)) 11 September

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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— 11 September Inspection report for children’s home: 2673338 8 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

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)(h))

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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 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

manage and review the placement of each child in the home; and

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Requirement Due date

plan for, and help, each child to prepare to leave the home or to move into adult care in a way that is consistent with arrangements agreed with the child’s placing authority;

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Requirement Due date

that each child’s relevant plans are followed;

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Requirement Due date

that staff help each child to access and contribute to the records kept by the registered person in relation to the child. (Regulation 14 (1)(a)(b) (2)(a)(b)(ii)(iii)(c)(f)) 11 September Inspection report for children’s home: 2673338 9 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

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

the effectiveness and any consequences of the use of the measure; and

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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; and

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Requirement Due date

has signed the record to confirm it is accurate. (Regulation 35 (1)(a)(b) (3)(a)(vii)(b)(i)(ii))

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Requirement Due date

In particular, review consequences to ensure that those given are proportionate, effective and in line with the children’s needs and level of understanding. 11 September

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must maintain records ("case records") for each child which—

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Requirement Due date

include the information and documents listed in Schedule 3 in relation to each child;

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Requirement Due date

are signed and dated by the author of each entry. (Regulation 36 (1)(a)(b)(c)) 11 September

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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

a child is involved in or subject to, or is suspected of being involved in or subject to, sexual exploitation; 11 September Inspection report for children’s home: 2673338 10 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 an allegation of abuse against the home or a person working there;

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Requirement Due date

a child protection enquiry involving a child —

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Requirement Due date

concludes (in which case, the notification must include the outcome of the child protection enquiry); or

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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)(a)(b)(c)(d)(i)(ii)(e))

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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 for children’s home: 2673338 11

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Children’s home details

Registered provider: Theracare Homes Limited

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: 10 Ambassador Place, Stockport Road, Altrincham, Cheshire WA15 8DB

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Inspector

Natalie Bennett, Social Care Inspector Inspection report for children’s home: 2673338 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 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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