Children's home run by Duty of Care Limited in County Durham

Inspection report for children’s home: SC476602 1 SC476602 Registered provider: Duty of Care Limited Full inspection Inspected under the social care common inspection framework

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Information about this children’s home

This home is owned and managed by a private provider. The home provides care for up to three children who may have emotional and/or social difficulties.

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Information about this children’s home

The inspector spoke with both of the children living in the home during the inspection.

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Information about this children’s home

The manager registered with Ofsted in August 2021.

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Overall experiences and progress of

children and young people, taking into account

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good

How well children and young people are helped and protected good

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good

The effectiveness of leaders and managers requires improvement to be good

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good

The children’s home provides effective services that meet the requirements for good.

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good

Date of last inspection: 21 December 2021

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good

Overall judgement at last inspection: sustained effectiveness

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good

Enforcement action since last inspection: none Inspection report for children’s home: SC476602 2

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

21/12/2021 Interim Sustained effectiveness 16/08/2021 Full Requires improvement to be good 16/10/2019 Full Good 11/07/2019 Full Inadequate Inspection report for children’s home: SC476602 3

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

The appointment of a new manager has had a positive impact on all aspects of the home, including the children’s care. As a result, the children are making good progress. The children enjoy trusting relationships with the staff, who know them well and how to respond to their specific needs.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children undertake a range of home-based activities with staff that appeal to their specific interests. Staff also take the children on outings and activities in the community. One child spoke enthusiastically about being able to go and meet friends without the need for staff to be present and to have sleepovers in the home. This provides the children with the same opportunities provided to their peers and encourages them to socialise in the wider community.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff understand the need for children to spend time with the people who are important to them. Staff ensure that they build appropriate relationships with family members. The staff promote family time and transport and supervise children when seeing friends and family. This enables the children to maintain important links and helps them retain a sense of identity.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Key-work sessions take place with the children on a regular basis. While some are planned in response to the children’s identified needs, unplanned sessions take place following all incidents. Staff are creative in these sessions, using questionnaires, quizzes, videos and literature to raise the children’s awareness about issues, thus keeping them increasingly safe.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff use various forums to seek the views of the children, including monthly consultations and children’s meetings. However, when the children do express a view, it is not clear what the staff have done to respond to the children’s requests. This means that children do not develop an understanding that their views are important and will be listened to.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

The home is furnished and decorated to a good standard. There are photos of the children enjoying activities with the staff throughout the home. However, while the bathroom has now been refurbished, maintenance work in the both the garden and on the roof remains outstanding.

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

Children say they feel safe living in the home and feel confident to speak to the staff if they have any worries. This is a view shared by family members and professionals who work with the home. They feel that the children are effectively safeguarded and are cared for by a staff team whose members are committed to them. The manager ensures that the appropriate safeguarding procedures are followed when incidents Inspection report for children’s home: SC476602 4 occur. Documents are updated to reflect the risks, and safety plans are then implemented to reduce the risk of incidents reoccurring.

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

The quality of children’s documents has improved since the last inspection. Risk assessments and behaviour support plans are comprehensive, well written and easy to understand. These identify all known risks affecting the children as well as strategies which are in place to mitigate those risks. The inclusion of the children’s views on how they want the staff to manage their behaviour in these documents is helpful.

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

Safer recruitment processes are followed, and the appropriate checks are made prior to staff working with the children. This helps to ensure the children’s safety.

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

Not all staff have a robust understanding of the home’s missing-from-care policy. While this has not adversely affected any child, as there have been no occasions when children have been missing from care, this lack of knowledge potentially places the children at risk.

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

Rewards far outweigh the use of sanctions. However, the recording of sanctions are not completed as required. Staff debriefs are not carried out. The measures taken by staff to prevent the use of the measure are not recorded. There is also a lack of analysis in the management oversight of the documents. The sanctions are also not restorative in nature. This means that it cannot be established whether the use of these measures is fair and proportionate.

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good

The home is managed by a permanent, suitably experienced and qualified registered manager. There continues to be difficulties in recruitment of staff. This results in the manager and the deputy manager covering shifts regularly to ensure that a safe level of care is provided to the children. This is affecting the management of the home.

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good

The responsible individual is aware of the shortfalls in the management of the home due to staffing difficulties but has failed to take effective action to address these. There is a lack of presence from the responsible individual in the home, and he is not consistently available to the management team.

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good

Staff receive regular supervision. However, while supervision focuses in detail on the individual needs of the children in the home, there is no opportunity for reflection on practice. This means that the staff do not have the opportunity to reflect on their experiences of caring for the children and make changes to their practice.

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good

The statement of purpose does not include all the necessary information. Changes made to the document have not been received by Ofsted within the required timescale. This means that parents, Ofsted and other professionals do not have the Inspection report for children’s home: SC476602 5 correct information available to them in order to ensure that the children are cared for in line with the statement of purpose.

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good

The independent visitor does not consistently consult with the children, staff, professionals and family. Some visits are undertaken during school time, which prevents the children from raising any issues with the visitor. By not regularly consulting, the visitor cannot accurately evaluate whether children are effectively safeguarded.

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good

The location risk assessment does not provide evidence of consultation and feedback from professionals and the wider community. This means that the manager has not effectively evaluated all the available information and the effect this may have on vulnerable children.

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good

Some key documents are not up to date in the children’s files. This means that the staff do not have all the necessary information to provide consistent care for the children. Many documents are not signed or dated by either the staff or the manager. The lack of consistency means it is confusing for staff to understand what is expected of them.

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good

Feedback from the children and the staff about the manager is overwhelmingly positive. They can clearly identify the progress that has been made since the manager’s appointment. Staff feel supported and clearer about their roles and responsibilities. Inspection report for children’s home: SC476602 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 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

ensure that the home has sufficient staff to provide care for each child;

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Requirement Due date

ensure that the home’s workforce provides continuity of care to each child; 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)(d)(h)) 16 November 2022

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must compile in relation to the children’s home a statement ("the statement of purpose") which covers the matters listed in Schedule 1.

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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 (1) (3)(a)(b)) 16 September 2022

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must prepare and implement a policy (“the behaviour management policy”) which sets out—

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Requirement Due date

how appropriate behaviour is to be promoted in the children’s home; and 16 September 2022 Inspection report for children’s home: SC476602 7 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

details of any methods used or steps taken to avoid the need to use the measure;

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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. (Regulation 35 (1)(a)(b) (3)(a)(v)(b)(i)).

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Requirement Due date

This specifically refers to the registered person ensuring that the home’s use of sanctions is in line with regulations.

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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)) 16 September 2022

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must ensure that an independent person visits the children’s home at least once each month.

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Requirement Due date

When the independent person is carrying out a visit, the registered person must help the independent person—

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Requirement Due date

if they consent, to interview in private such of the children, their parents, relatives and persons working at the home as the independent person requires. (Regulation 44 (1) (2)(a)) 16 September 2022

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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 purposes of the children’s home at least once in each 16 September 2022 Inspection report for children’s home: SC476602 8 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. (Regulation 46 (1) (2))

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Recommendations

 The registered person should ensure that the home is maintained to a good standard. (‘Guide to the Children’s Homes Regulations, including the quality standards,’ page 15, paragraph 3.9)  The registered person should ensure that children are consulted regularly on their views about the home’s care, to inform and support continued improvement in the quality of care provided. Due consideration should be given to the child’s cognitive ability in the development and implementation of any consultation processes. Children should be able to see the results of their views being listened to and acted upon. (‘Guide to the Children’s Homes Regulations, including the quality standards,’ page 22, paragraph 4.11)  The registered person should ensure that the staff understand the procedures to be followed and their roles and responsibilities when a child is missing from care or away from the home without permission and how the staff should support the

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Recommendations

child on return to the home. (‘Guide to the Children’s Homes Regulations, including the quality standards,’ page 45, paragraph 9.28)  The registered person should ensure that there are systems in place so that all the staff, including the manager, receive regular supervision so that they can reflect on their practice and the needs of the children assigned to their care. (‘Guide to the Children’s Homes Regulations, including the quality standards,’ page 61, paragraph 13.2)

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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: SC476602 9

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Children’s home details

Registered provider: Duty of Care Limited

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: 13 Front Street, Staindrop, Darlington, County Durham DL2 3LZ

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Children’s home details

Responsible individual: David Heartfield

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Inspector

Paula Shepherd, Social Care Inspector Inspection report for children’s home: SC476602 10 regulates and inspects 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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