Children's Home run by Homes for Support in Cheshire East

Inspection report children’s home: 2647770 1 Registered provider: Homes for Support Limited Full inspection Inspected under the social care common inspection framework

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Information about this children’s home

This short-stay home is operated by a private organisation and provides care for up to eight children. According to the home’s statement of purpose, the home can be accessed by children when a family is experiencing acute difficulty and needs help and support to stay together, including a plan for reunification. In addition, a short stay can be provided when a child’s current living situation has broken down and alternative care is required.

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Information about this children’s home

The manager registered in September 2021.

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Overall experiences and progress of

children and young people, taking into account

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requires improvement to be good

How well children and young people are helped and protected requires improvement to be good

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requires improvement to be good

The effectiveness of leaders and managers inadequate

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requires improvement to be good

The children’s home is not yet delivering good help and care for children and young people. However, there are no serious or widespread failures that result in their welfare not being safeguarded or promoted.

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requires improvement to be good

Overall judgement at last inspection: sustained effectiveness

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requires improvement to be good

Enforcement action since last inspection: none Inspection report children’s home: 2647770 2

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

16/03/2022 Interim Sustained effectiveness 14/12/2021 Full Requires improvement to be good Inspection report children’s home: 2647770 3

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improvement to be good

Care planning requires improvement. Plans do not identify how children are to be helped to reach their goals. Staff are unclear on what is needed to help children. When asked about their role, one member of staff said, ‘We take them out and do activities and help to make food.’ This means that the staff are not provided with guidance or strategies to help children understand why they are accessing the service and what future planning is required for their move home or to an alternative provision. Consequently, key-work sessions provide little evidence of any in-depth, planned conversations or work with children to address these areas.

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improvement to be good

The healthcare needs of children are not suitably assessed. Staff have not received training in caring for children who are diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder or attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, prior to their admission. This means that staff do not have the knowledge and skills required to help children in the most appropriate way.

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improvement to be good

Children’s attendance in education and their attainment are variable. The service has yet to establish a consistent approach to the management of children who do not have an education placement or who refuse to attend education. Consequently, the children do not have a consistent structure or routine. The failure to ensure that children’s plans include a positive transition into education serves to compromise the aims of the placement.

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improvement to be good

Assessments that consider the behaviours and risks of children who are moving into the home have been developed and are used to determine the abilities of staff to manage the needs of children who come to live in the home. This means that assessments are now considering the negative effect this might have on managing similar significant risk-taking behaviours that are already present. However, since the home has opened, several children have moved from the home because the staff were unable to keep them safe. Senior managers and the registered manager must consider the skills and experience of the team against the needs of children being cared for, to provide successful short stays for children.

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improvement to be good

Children are provided with a range of activities and are encouraged to add their ideas to the weekly activity planner. One child said, ‘I haven’t been here long, but I like it. Staff take me out every day.’ Children are supported to plan menus, cook, and use the laundry facilities as part of developing their independence skills.

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improvement to be good

The children who live in this home and access this service have a history of risk- taking behaviours. Intrinsically, risk assessments are carried out which emphasise Inspection report children’s home: 2647770 4 the individual and specific risks for each child. Likewise, the assessments include the potential triggers for children’s behaviours.

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improvement to be good

However, the management of children’s risks is ineffective. Individual crisis management plans, that aim to help guide the staff in the safe and effective management of risks, are completed inconsistently and do not provide effective strategies to manage behaviours. Therefore, there are no planned strategies for mitigating risks or a consistent approach to managing risks. This has led to over- reliance on the police to help manage behaviours. As a result, children’s safety is compromised because staff do not have the necessary guidance to protect and support the children.

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improvement to be good

Some children are regularly going missing from the home. The missing-from-home protocol is routinely actioned to support children’s safe return to the home. However, children are not consistently provided with an independent return home interview. This means that the potential for critical details regarding the missing-from-home episodes are missed. Consequently, pertinent information is not collated to help to support and develop the risk management strategies for children.

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improvement to be good

Most of the staff have undertaken the organisation’s training in the use of holding children to keep them safe. However, there has been one occasion where untrained staff have assisted in a hold, using techniques from their previous employment. Although the holds are similar, the hold used is contrary to the home’s restraint policy. The failure to ensure that only staff trained in the agreed organisational restraint strategies are involved in holding children compromises the safety of children.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

Staff have not received the necessary guidance and training to support the children accessing a short stay. This means that staff do not have the knowledge and skills necessary to provide consistent and safe care for children.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

Internal monitoring of the home is ineffective. The current checks lack awareness of how children are affected by staff’s inability to manage risks. The absence of an in- depth analysis of the issues arising relating to children means that patterns and trends in the cycle of children’s behaviour are not identified and assessed. The lack of effective monitoring allows children’s risks to continue.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

Furthermore, the registered manager has not identified the shortfalls in the quality of care provided by the staff. Although the registered manager recognises that the home still requires improvement, she is unable to demonstrate her forward planning to address the areas of weakness.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

The registered manager fails to ensure that the plans for children include the work to be undertaken to achieve the placement goals. Consequently, the registered Inspection report children’s home: 2647770 5 manager’s skills in identifying a package of care to meet the placement target remain weak.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

Audits undertaken by the provider have not identified shortfalls. In contrast, the independent visitor’s report identifies areas for development. However, the registered manager failed to demonstrate how these matters have been addressed. Consequently, the home has failed to take the required steps to develop the service to meet the needs of the children.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

The registered manager is not leading and managing the home in a way which is consistent with the home’s statement of purpose. The failure to train and support the staff to address placement plans and suitably manage risk-taking behaviours serves to exacerbate the cycle of risk. Therefore, outcomes for children are compromised. Inspection report children’s home: 2647770 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 protection of children standard is that children are protected from harm and enabled to keep themselves safe.

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Requirement Due date

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

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Requirement Due date

assess whether each child is at risk of harm, taking into account information in the child’s relevant plans, and, if necessary, make arrangements to reduce the risk of any harm to the child;

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Requirement Due date

help each child to understand how to keep safe;

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Requirement Due date

have the skills to identify and act upon signs that a child is at risk of harm;

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Requirement Due date

manage relationships between children to prevent them from harming each other;

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Requirement Due date

understand the roles and responsibilities in relation to protecting children that are assigned to them by the registered person;

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Requirement Due date

take effective action whenever there is a serious concern about a child’s welfare; and

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Requirement Due date

are familiar with, and act in accordance with, the home’s child protection policies;

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Requirement Due date

that the home’s day-to-day care is arranged and delivered so as to keep each child safe and to protect each child effectively from harm. (Regulation 12 (1) (2)(a)(i)(ii)(iii)(iv)(v)(vi)(vii)(b)) 16 September Inspection report children’s home: 2647770 7 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 work as a team where appropriate;

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Requirement Due date

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

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Requirement Due date

ensure that the home’s workforce provides continuity of care to each child;

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Requirement Due date

understand the impact that the quality of care provided in the home is having on the progress and experiences of each child and use this understanding to inform the development of the quality of care provided in the home;

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Requirement Due date

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

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Requirement Due date

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

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Requirement Due date

feedback on the experiences of children including complaints received; and

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Requirement Due date

use monitoring and review systems to make continuous improvements in the quality of care provided in the home. (Regulation 13 (1)(a)(b) (2)(a)(b)(c)(e)(f)(g)(i)(ii)(h)) 16 September

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Requirement Due date

The education standard is that children make measurable progress towards achieving their educational potential and 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— 16 September Inspection report children’s home: 2647770 8 that staff—

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Requirement Due date

help each child to achieve the child’s education and training targets, as recorded in the child’s relevant plans;

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Requirement Due date

support each child’s learning and development, including helping the child to develop independent study skills and, where appropriate, helping the child to complete independent study;

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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;

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Requirement Due date

help each child to understand the importance and value of education, learning, training and employment;

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Requirement Due date

promote opportunities for each child to learn informally;

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Requirement Due date

maintain regular contact with each child’s education and training provider, including engaging with the provider and the placing authority to support the child’s education and training and to maximise the child’s achievement;

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Requirement Due date

raise any need for further assessment or specialist provision in relation to a child with the child’s education or training provider and the child’s placing authority;

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Requirement Due date

help a child who is excluded from school, or who is of compulsory school age but not attending school, to access educational and training support throughout the period of exclusion or non-attendance and to return to school as soon as possible;

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Requirement Due date

help each child who is above compulsory school age to participate in further education, training or employment and to prepare for future care, education or employment;

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Requirement Due date

help each child to attend education or training in accordance with the expectations in the child’s relevant plans; and

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Requirement Due date

that each child has access to appropriate equipment, facilities and resources to support the child’s learning. (Regulation 8 (1) (2)(a)(i)(ii)(iii)(iv)(v)(vi)(vii)(viii)(ix)(x)(b))

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Requirement Due date

The care planning standard is that children— 16 September Inspection report children’s home: 2647770 9 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

ensure the effective induction of each child into the home;

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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. (Regulation 14 (1)(a)(b) (2)(a)(b)(i)(iii))

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Recommendations

 The registered person should ensure that only staff trained in physical intervention techniques approved by the home are involved in physical interventions. (‘Guide to the Children’s Homes Regulations, including the quality standards’, page 49, paragraph 9.55)  The registered person should ensure that staff understand how effective care planning and strong working relationships between the staff of the home and the placing authority are essential to the success of placements. (‘Guide to the Children’s Homes Regulations, including the quality standards’, page 56, paragraph 11.2)  The registered person should ensure that where there is a possibility that a child will run away or go missing from home, their placement plan includes a strategy to minimise this risk. If the child is looked after, their care plan (arranged by the placing authority) should include such a strategy. (‘Guide to the Children’s Home

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Recommendations

Regulations, including the quality standards’, page 45, paragraph 9.24)  The registered person should ensure that when a child returns to the home after being missing from care or away from the home without permission, the responsible local authority provides an opportunity for the child to have an independent return home interview. The home should take account of the information provided by such interviews when assessing risks and putting arrangements in place to protect each child. (‘Guide to the Children’s Home Regulations, including the quality standards’, page 45, paragraph 9.30) Inspection report children’s home: 2647770 10

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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: 2647770 11

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Children’s home details

Registered provider: Homes for Support Limited

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: 1st Floor, Cloister House, Riverside, New Bailey Street, Manchester M3 5FS

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Inspector

Maria McGranaghan, Social Care Inspector Inspection report children’s home: 2647770 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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