Children's Home run by G B A Care Limited in Calderdale

Inspection report children’s home: SC462591 1 SC462591 Registered provider: GBA 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 run by a private company. It provides care for up to three children who may have social, emotional and/or behavioural difficulties.

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Information about this children’s home

There is no registered manager in post. An interim manager is overseeing the day- to-day running of the home. There were three children living at the home at the time of the inspection.

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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 requires improvement to be good

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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

Date of last inspection: 25 January 2022

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requires improvement to be good

Overall judgement at last inspection: improved effectiveness

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requires improvement to be good

Enforcement action since last inspection: none Inspection report for children’s home: SC462591 2

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

25/01/2022 Interim Improved effectiveness 19/10/2021 Full Requires improvement to be good 25/06/2019 Full Outstanding 17/07/2018 Full Outstanding Inspection report for children’s home: SC462591 3

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improvement to be good

Although a staff team of committed and nurturing carers look after the children, there are fundamental shortfalls in aspects of the team’s knowledge and practice. Key areas of the children’s care require improvement if carers are to support children to make progress.

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improvement to be good

The home environment lacks any sense of personalisation. Resources for children to enjoy are sparse throughout the home. Additionally, the furnishings and decoration in the home fail to create a homely feel for children and the carers to embrace. This is a barrier for the children and their carers to feel comfortable and inspired by their immediate surroundings.

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improvement to be good

Carers devise placement plans for children with the aim of highlighting each child’s individual care needs. Carers encourage children to read their placement plans so that children can better understand their support needs. However, children’s care plans lack crucial information. This absence of diligence and insight on the part of the carers has resulted in carers losing focus on important care-planning issues with which the children require support.

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improvement to be good

Children have experienced significant gaps in their education since living at the home. Carers have been ineffective in escalating concerns to the children’s respective schools. Carers have compounded the barriers that children have experienced around accessing school by not upholding children’s daily routines. These factors have contributed to children missing excessive periods of their education.

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improvement to be good

Carers do not routinely support children to maintain healthy lifestyles, particularly around sleep routines. Additionally, carers do not consistently arrange important medical appointments for children. In one instance, carers did not follow the recommendations in one child’s annual health assessment. Failure to address children’s health needs can prevent children from thriving and exposes them to avoidable risk.

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improvement to be good

Carers promote activities and hobbies that the children are passionate about. Children have enjoyed various thrilling experiences, such as climbing Mount Snowdon and cheering on their local football team at Wembley. However, the interim manager has not equipped carers with the facilities to provide children with photographs that capture these experiences. This would give children tangible images to reflect on such cherished moments from their childhood.

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improvement to be good

Carers work alongside a team of clinical practitioners, who take an active role in the children’s care. Children have access to sessions with their allocated therapeutic practitioners. Additionally, therapeutic practitioners attend care-team meetings and Inspection report for children’s home: SC462591 4 provide an overview of their work with the child. However, there is little evidence in the children’s care records to show that the carers have applied the therapeutic practitioner’s guidance. This dilutes the potential benefits for the children who have access to the therapeutic service offered.

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improvement to be good

Aspects of the children’s care is overly restrictive and adverse to risk, with no rationale to justify this. Children’s bedroom doors have alarms fitted to alert carers when children leave their bedrooms. Furthermore, one child has limited time alone in the community, with no credible risk to warrant this restriction. These measures are overly intrusive and deny children the opportunity to learn how to manage risk and to become more independent and responsible.

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improvement to be good

Children’s risk assessments are lengthy and complicated for carers to implement. Isolated incidents that carers have addressed remain on the children’s risk assessment. Additionally, parts of the children’s risk assessments use stigmatising language to describe children’s behaviours. Consequently, children’s risk assessments misrepresent the child and are not active working documents.

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improvement to be good

The organisation has struggled to balance the need to provide children with a homely environment while meeting relevant health and safety legislation. Children’s bedroom doors have industrial weight-bearing door closures, which increases the risk of harm to children, and fire signage attached. These factors, combined with the decoration of the home, have created an institutional feel that pervades the home.

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improvement to be good

The interim manager has undertaken a thorough risk assessment of the home’s location. This has enabled the interim manager to learn about the area and, in doing so, effectively assess and manage known risks in the locality of the home. This process has enabled effective working relationships with the neighbourhood police, who are frequent visitors to the home. Therefore, children can build trusting relationships with the police.

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improvement to be good

The interim manager has oversight of all incidents involving children, including the infrequent occasions when carers have had to physically intervene to keep children, and others, safe. The interim manager ensures that children are involved in debriefs following incidents. This practice decreases the likelihood of children becoming angry and aggressive as the carers are committed to teaching them alternative means of managing difficult emotions.

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good

The interim manager is committed to, and passionate about, his role. This has had a positive influence on the team. However, there are significant gaps in the interim manager’s working knowledge of children’s homes regulations and accompanying Inspection report for children’s home: SC462591 5 statutory guidance. Consequently, there are shortfalls in practice that inhibit the overall performance of the team. There is a lack of knowledge throughout the care team of what is meant by ‘delegated authority’. The interim manager seeks social work agreement for parental decisions that the local authority would usually delegate to the home. This shortfall has frustrated children as it has created unnecessary delay with day-to-day decision- making. The home’s children’s guide requires updating. There is the risk of the reader forming the view that carers condone children’s smoking. The language in the children’s guide is not child focused. The children’s guide misrepresents the interim

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good

manager’s vision for the home and does not accurately reflect the home’s statement of purpose. Team meetings are regular. This gives the carers frequent opportunities to discuss pertinent issues around the children’s care planning. However, the agreed outcomes do not filter into the children’s placement plans. Consequently, the care team does not complete all agreed meeting outcomes, which undermines the process of having meetings.

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good

The interim manager has completed a workforce development plan that shows his vision for the home. As part of this, the interim manager is working through the relevant modules to achieve the necessary level of qualification for his role. Completion of this qualification will better equip the interim manager for the role of registered manager. Inspection report for children’s home: SC462591 6

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Statutory requirements

This section sets out the actions that the registered person 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 must comply within the given timescales.

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Requirement Due date

The quality and purpose of care standard is that children receive care from carers who—

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Requirement Due date

understand the children’s home’s overall aims and the outcomes it seeks to achieve for children;

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Requirement Due date

use this understanding to deliver care that meets children’s needs and supports them to fulfil their potential.

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Requirement Due date

ensure that the premises used for the purposes of the home are designed and furnished so as to—

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Requirement Due date

enable each child to participate in the daily life of the home; (Regulation 6 (1)(a)(b) (2)(i)(ii)) 3 October 2022

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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—

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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; 3 October 2022 Inspection report for children’s home: SC462591 7 help each child to understand the importance and value of education, learning, training and employment;

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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 to attend education or training in accordance with the expectations in the child’s relevant plans; and 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)(vi)(vii)(viii)(x)(b))

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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; and

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Requirement Due date

children are helped to lead healthy lifestyles.

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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;

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Requirement Due date

understand the child’s health and well-being needs and the options that are available in relation to the child’s health and 3 October 2022 Inspection report for children’s home: SC462591 8 well-being, in a way that is appropriate to the child’s age and understanding;

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Requirement Due date

take part in activities, and attend any appointments, for the purpose of meeting the child’s health and well-being needs; and

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Requirement Due date

understand and develop skills to promote the child’s well- being; and

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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)(a)(b)(c) (2)(a)(i)(ii)(iii)(iv)(c))

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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 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 3 October 2022 Inspection report for children’s home: SC462591 9 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)(e)(f)(g)(i)(ii)(h))

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Requirement Due date

the privacy of children is appropriately protected;

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Requirement Due date

any limitation placed on a child’s privacy or access to any area of the home’s premises—

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Requirement Due date

is kept under review and, if necessary, revised; and

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Requirement Due date

allows children as much freedom as is possible when balanced against the need to protect them and keep them safe. (Regulation 21 (a)(c)(ii)(iii)(iv) 3 October 2022

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Recommendations

 The registered person should understand the importance of having a strong working relationship between the home and the authority, with parental responsibility for a child placed with the home. This is with particular reference to the manager applying the delegation of authority for day-to-day decisions that affect the child. (‘Guide to the Children’s Homes Regulations, including the quality standards’, page 11, paragraph 2.5)  The registered person should provide a nurturing and supportive environment that meets the needs of their children, and that will, in most cases, be homely, domestic environments. Children’s homes must comply with relevant health and safety legislation (alarms, food hygiene and so on); however, in doing so, homes should seek as far as possible to maintain a domestic rather than ‘institutional’ impression. This is in reference to the children’s bedroom doors, where there are

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Recommendations

alternative options that will better fulfil the concept of a homely environment while meeting the home’s fire regulations. Advised manager to consult with Calderdale Housing Officer regarding the access to the loft. (‘Guide to the Children’s Homes Regulations, including the quality standards’, page 15, paragraph 3.9)  The registered person should review and revise where appropriate the home’s statement of purpose (Regulation 16(3)(a)). The registered person should review and update the children’s guide as necessary, and make sure that children are given an explanation of any changes. Particular reference should be made to the Inspection report for children’s home: SC462591 10 need for child-friendly language and not using language that could be interpreted as condoning smoking. (‘Guide to the Children’s Homes Regulations, including the quality standards’, page 24, paragraph 4.23)  The registered person should actively assess the risks to each child and the

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Recommendations

arrangements in place to protect them. In particular, the home’s risk assessments should be concise for staff to retain the information and apply the agreed care practices to safeguard the child. The language used in risk assessments should also be carefully considered so as to avoid stigmatising the child. (‘Guide to the Children’s Homes Regulations, including the quality standards’, page 42, paragraph 9.5)  The registered person should ensure that records that are kept electronically (Regulation 38) can be easily accessed by anyone with a legitimate need to view them and, if required, be reproduced in a legible form. Electronic records should be held at the individual home in accordance with data protection principles. Information technology systems should ensure the safe storage of these records, and business continuity planning should be in place to prevent loss or damage to them. The manager needs a system that will enable digital photos of children to

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Recommendations

be stored on the home’s devices as opposed to personal devices. (‘Guide to the Children’s Homes Regulations, including the quality standards’, page 61, paragraph 14.2).

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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: SC462591 11

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: 3 Victoria Street, Greetland, Halifax HX4 8DF

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Inspector

Steve Guirey, Social Care Inspector Inspection report for children’s home: SC462591 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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