Children's home run by Keys Education Ltd

Inspection report for children’s home: SC386502 1 SC386502 Registered provider: Keys Education Limited Full inspection Inspected under the social care common inspection framework

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Information about this children’s home

This privately run children’s home cares for up to three children. It is registered to provide care for children with emotional and social difficulties. At the time of the inspection, there were three children living in the home.

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Information about this children’s home

There has not been a registered manager since July 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/or widespread failures that mean children are not protected and their welfare is not promoted or safeguarded and the care and experiences of children are poor and they are not making progress.

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inadequate

Overall judgement at last inspection: good

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inadequate

Enforcement action since last inspection: none Inspection report for children’s home: SC386502 2

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

22/03/2022 Full Good 12/02/2020 Full Requires improvement to be good 05/06/2018 Full Good 02/05/2017 Full Good Inspection report for children’s home: SC386502 3

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inadequate

Children are cared for by staff who build positive relationships with them. However, shortfalls in safeguarding practice mean that children have not always been protected from harm.

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inadequate

Staff do not ensure that children’s health needs are met. On occasions, when children have missed medical appointments, managers and staff have not supported children to understand the importance of these appointments. This means that children cannot make informed choices about their health. Furthermore, children’s health may be at significant risk because they are not receiving recommended medical intervention.

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inadequate

Children have not had access to therapeutic approaches outlined in the home’s statement of purpose. This means that opportunities to support children to receive therapeutic input have been missed. Consequently, children have not received support for their emotional well-being.

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inadequate

Staff do not ensure that children’s bedrooms are maintained to an acceptable standard. Inspectors found children’s bedrooms were poorly maintained and required cleaning. This had not been identified by leaders, managers and staff as poor practice.

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inadequate

Despite the shortfalls identified, staff support children to attend and make progress in education, training and employment. Staff have worked with education providers to ensure that the education they receive is individualised and responsive to their needs. Family time is also supported.

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

Throughout the inspection, staff were not able to demonstrate an understanding of the organisation’s allegation policy. Furthermore, the organisation’s allegation policy had not been followed by the managers or staff on three separate occasions. In one incident, the manager failed to inform the local authority designated officer (LADO) of an incident when a child made an allegation about staff. This fails to safeguard all those involved.

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

When children go missing from the home, managers and staff have not demonstrated professional curiosity. On occasions when children have gone missing, staff have not responded sufficiently to indicators that children may have been subject to exploitation. The manager and staff failed to take any action in relation to this risk, including reporting this information to relevant professionals and updating risk assessments. Inspection report for children’s home: SC386502 4 Managers and staff have not robustly responded to children who have experienced poor mental health and suicidal ideation. Despite being aware of the risk, managers failed to put safeguards in place to ensure that children did not come to harm. Managers’ response to the concerns did not demonstrate an understanding of good safeguarding practices.

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

Records of physical restraints of children lack sufficient detail. Staff do not consistently record all required details. The manager’s oversight is, on occasion, poor and does not assess the effectiveness or proportionality of the intervention. The lack of adequate scrutiny of incidents may lead to unsafe care practices.

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

Risk assessments are not regularly updated, reflective of children’s current risks and understood by staff. Therefore, staff do not have current strategies to follow in practice, which leaves children at risk of harm. Furthermore, staff have not recognised potential opportunities to prevent risk for children and intervene appropriately to minimise risks.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

Leaders and managers have failed to oversee and monitor the home, to identify areas of weakness and to take decisive action to resolve these. As a result, the quality and standard of care at the home has fallen to an unacceptable level.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

Leaders and managers have failed to identify serious concerns in relation to safeguarding practice and ensure that these were responded to in line with the organisation’s policies. For example, allegations made by children were not identified as such and were responded to as complaints. Consequently, relevant information regarding allegations was not shared by the manager with a child’s social worker or the LADO. This compromises the safeguarding professional’s ability to make well- informed decisions about the protection of children and their welfare.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

Managers have failed to recognise serious safeguarding concerns or put plans in place to reduce the risk of harm to children. When children have experienced poor mental health and suicidal ideation, managers failed to put additional safeguarding measures in place. Furthermore, measures that were used were not done so consistently. For example, on one occasion, waking night staff were not made available despite this being identified as a risk reduction strategy.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

Staff have not received supervision in line with the organisation’s policy. This means that staff have not been supported to recognise and understand the individual needs of children, reflect on their practice and identify any requirements for further training. This has been further compounded by a lack of team meetings. This means that staff have not had the opportunity to share practice issues and receive guidance and developmental support to improve practice in the home.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

Rotas in the home do not consistently show which staff are on shift and the hours that they have worked. The lack of transparency of who is on duty potentially places children at risk. Inspection report for children’s home: SC386502 5 When there have been significant events involving children living at the home, not all notifications have been sent to Ofsted. This does not allow the regulator to have a clear overview of all safeguarding incidents and is in breach of the Children’s Homes Regulations 2015. Inspection report for children’s home: SC386502 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 health and well-being standard is that—

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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

that each child has access to such dental, medical, nursing, psychiatric and psychological advice, treatment and other services as the child may require. (Regulation 10 (1)(b) (2)(c)) 30 October 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;

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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

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 30 October 2022 Inspection report for children’s home: SC386502 7 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)(v)(vi)(b))

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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

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’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. (Regulation 13 (1)(a)(b) (2)(a)(b)(c)(e)(f)) 30 October 2022

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must ensure that all employees—

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Requirement Due date

receive practice-related supervision by a person with appropriate experience. (Regulation 33 (1) (4)(b))

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Requirement Due date

In particular, ensure that staff receive regular, high-quality supervisions in line with the organisation’s policy. 22 October 2022

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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— 22 October 2022 Inspection report for children’s home: SC386502 8 the effectiveness and any consequences of the use of the measure. (Regulation 35 (3)(a)(vii))

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Requirement Due date

In particular, ensure that each physical intervention is evaluated by a person with the skills to identify any areas of concern or improvement.

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Requirement Due date

Schedule 4 sets out the other information that the registered person must keep in relation to a children’s home.

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Requirement Due date

maintain in the home the records in Schedule 4;

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Requirement Due date

ensure that the records are kept up to date. (Regulation 37 (1) (2)(a)(b))

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Requirement Due date

In particular, ensure that rotas contain all details as set out in Schedule 4 of the Children’s Homes Regulations 2015. 22 October 2022

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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;

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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

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

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Requirement Due date

A notification made under this regulation—

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Requirement Due date

the matter. (Regulation 40 (4)(a)(c)(e) (5)(a)(i)

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Requirement Due date

In particular, leaders and managers must ensure that all notifiable events are submitted to Ofsted, within timeframes, and contain all relevant information. 22 October 2022

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Requirement Due date

* These requirements are subject to a compliance notice. Inspection report for children’s home: SC386502 9

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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: SC386502 10

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Children’s home details

Registered provider: Keys Education Limited

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: Maybrook House, Queensway, Halesowen, Worcestershire B63 4AH

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Inspectors

Amie Anders, Social Care Inspector Elaine Allison, Regulatory Inspection Manager Inspection report for children’s home: SC386502 11 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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Inspectors

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Inspectors

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Inspectors

T: 0300 123 1231 Textphone: 0161 618 8524 E: enquiries@ofsted.gov.uk W: www.gov.uk/ofsted

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