Children's Home run by Hampshire County Council in Hampshire

Inspection report for children’s home - monitoring visit: SC033174 1 SC033174

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Information about this children’s home

The home is owned and managed by a local authority. It is registered to provide care for up to five children aged between 10 and 17 years. Sixteen is the maximum age on admission. At the time of the inspection, two children were living in the home.

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Information about this children’s home

The provider states that they offer residential care with therapeutic emphasis and multi-agency involvement to help children recover from experiences that have left them vulnerable and which have disrupted their primary relationships.

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Information about this children’s home

The home has been without a registered manager since March 2021.

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This monitoring visit

This monitoring visit took place to ascertain the safety and well-being of children following a significant increase in incidents in the home and community.

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This monitoring visit

Children have not been kept safe and the police have been called to the home on a number of occasions. Children have moved in to the home without staff having a good understanding of how the children will get on with each other. Staff are not proactive in ensuring that the identified risks are understood and managed.

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This monitoring visit

Assessments of the risks that children face and pose to others are not comprehensive. Strategies detailed in the assessments to reduce the risk of harm are ineffective and inconsistently applied. For example, following sharp knives being found in children’s bedrooms, daily room searches were authorised. These were not completed and knives were again found in a bedroom. As a result, children and staff remained vulnerable to harm and serious injury.

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This monitoring visit

Work done to educate children on risks does not reduce the likelihood of further incidents. Staff failed to prevent a child accessing knives when on holiday and they needed police assistance to manage the incident. Inspection report for children’s home - monitoring visit: SC033174 2 Children are, at times, cared for by staff who are not familiar with their needs and risk-taking behaviours. Plans for children’s care are inconsistent and, at times, inaccurate in their detail. Furthermore, not all staff have read the plans or shown curiosity about the inaccuracies.

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This monitoring visit

Staff have not been appropriately supervised. Poor performance from staff is not managed effectively and the support strategies agreed for some staff have not been implemented.

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This monitoring visit

Inspectors identified a significant backlog in the recording and reviewing of incident reports by the management team. Therefore, staff do not have up-to-date information to care for children, and plans do not take into account any learning.

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This monitoring visit

Senior managers do not visit the home and there is poor oversight by covering managers in the absence of a registered manager. Leaders and managers have not ensured that monitoring systems are effective. The major shortfalls found at this inspection had not been identified and addressed. Inspection report for children’s home - monitoring visit: SC033174 3

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Recent inspection history

Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement 02/08/2022 Full Good 26/04/2022 Full Inadequate 26/04/2021 Full Good 30/10/2019 Interim Sustained effectiveness Inspection report for children’s home - monitoring visit: SC033174 4

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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. 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

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. (Regulation 12 (1) (2)(i)(ii)(iv)(v)) 15 October 2022

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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; promotes their welfare.

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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 the staff work as a team where appropriate; 15 October 2022 Inspection report for children’s home - monitoring visit: SC033174 5 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)(b)(f)(h))

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Requirement Due date

*These requirements are subject to a compliance notice.

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Recommendations

 The registered person should ensure that staff are familiar with the home’s policies on record-keeping and understand the importance of careful, objective and clear recording. Staff should record information on individual children in a non-stigmatising way that distinguishes between fact, opinion and third-party information. Information about the child must always be recorded in a way that will be helpful to the child. (Guide to the Children’s Homes Regulations, including the quality standards; Page 62 paragraph 14.4)

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Information about this inspection

The purpose of this visit was to monitor the action taken and the progress made by the children’s home since its last Ofsted inspection.

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Information about this inspection

This inspection was carried out under the Care Standards Act 2000. Inspection report for children’s home - monitoring visit: SC033174 6

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Children’s home details

Registered provider: Hampshire County Council

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: 3rd Floor, Elizabeth II Court North, The Castle, Winchester, Hampshire SO23 8UG

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Inspectors

Jill Sephton-Wright, Social Care Inspector Vevene Muhammad, Social Care Inspector Inspection report for children’s home - monitoring visit: SC033174 7 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

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