Children's Home run by Bess Solutions Limited in Leicestershire

Assurance inspection report for children's home: 2652672 1 Registered provider: Bess Solutions Limited

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Inspected under the social care common inspection framework

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Information about this children’s home

A private company owns this home. The home is registered to provide care for up to two children aged between eight and 17. Children may have emotional, and social difficulties or autism spectrum disorder.

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Information about this children’s home

The home is led by a registered manager.

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Information about this children’s home

Judgement at last inspection: requires improvement to be good

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Information about this children’s home

Enforcement action since last inspection: none

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Information about this inspection

At these inspections, the inspector evaluated:

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Information about this inspection

 the care of children  the safety of children  the effectiveness of leaders and managers. Inspectors have looked closely at the experiences and progress of children, using the social care common inspection framework. This assurance 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’. Assurance inspection report for children's home: 2652672 2

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Findings from the inspection

We identified the following serious and/or widespread concerns in relation to the care or protection of children at this assurance inspection:

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Findings from the inspection

 The registered person has failed to address clearly identifiable shortfalls relating to hygiene, risks to children and the capacity of staff to provide good and safe care.  The registered persons have failed to ensure that staff have the experience and knowledge to meet the complex needs of all children.  The registered persons have failed to provide safer recruitment checks for any staff who have access to children.  The registered person has failed to ensure that leaders and managers match children to the home in a way that does not put younger children at risk of harm.

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The care of children

Children’s social, physical and emotional care needs are not being met. This is due to a lack of monitoring by the manager and the inexperience of staff. A child’s bedroom has been allowed to become dirty and unkempt. This poor environment means that the child has not felt cared for or valued. Additionally, staff have not provided positive role modelling to an older child to help her gain the important independence skills needed for later in life.

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The care of children

Children are not looked after by experienced staff. Children have, at times, received a poor standard of care, attributable to the inexperience of staff. For example, children were able to lock staff out of the home. On another occasion, an older child encouraged a younger child to put themselves at significant risk in the community. Staff and managers have not adequately challenged children about smoking cannabis. This is a risk to their health and well-being.

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The care of children

Leaders and managers have failed to ensure that children maintain good school attendance. When children who are on a reduced timetable refuse school, staff do attempt to encourage them to learn at home. However, staff struggle to ensure that children have a good daytime routine. Children are often allowed to spend their time unstructured with no challenge by staff.

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The care of children

Children have access to the children’s guide and the complaints procedure, should they have any grievances. These are easily accessible, and children say they know how to make a complaint if they need to. Assurance inspection report for children's home: 2652672 3

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The safety of children

Leaders and managers have failed to have an effective system to monitor all aspects of children’s care. This has meant that children have lived in a neglectful environment, and health and safety has been compromised. For example, in one of the children’s bedrooms, there was medication that did not belong to the child. In the same bedroom, obscene messages had been written on a wall and not removed.

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The safety of children

Leaders and managers have not ensured that all staff that work with children have been through robust, safer recruitment processes. Staff commissioned to provide psychological support for children had not been adequately checked. This means children have been left potentially vulnerable.

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The safety of children

When children make serious allegations about staff, leaders and managers do not take the appropriate action to keep children safe. On one occasion, staff have been able to continue working with children even though allegations have been made against them. This means children have been left at an increased risk of harm.

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The safety of children

Younger children’s care has been significantly affected by older children. The younger child has been encouraged to take part in behaviours that have put them at risk. The staff team lacks the experience and confidence to challenge the older child. This has led to negative behaviour, and children have been placed at increased risk.

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The safety of children

Managers ensure that fire procedures are followed. They act on advice from fire safety professionals. Fire doors are no longer propped open. All children have opportunities to leave the building regularly as part of an evacuation test. However, managers do not have clear oversight of this process. This prevents them being aware of potential problems.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers

Leaders and managers do not have effective systems to monitor the progress and experiences of children. For some children, there has been no identifiable progress since the last inspection. For other children, managers are not clear about their plans.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers

Leaders and managers have not ensured that when admitting new children, they have fully assessed the impact on children already living at the home. Staff do not have the required experience and training to keep all children safe. Children have not been prevented from negatively impacting their peers.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers

The home’s statement of purpose has not been updated to reflect the changes to the staff team. For example, the psychologist is listed as a member of staff. However, managers remain unclear if the psychologist is still employed. This makes it difficult to ascertain an accurate staffing structure. Assurance inspection report for children's home: 2652672 4 Managers have not ensured that all staff have access to the required training opportunities. This means that staff do not have the skills and confidence to work safely with complex children that can display behaviours that challenge. Leaders and managers have failed to take sufficient action to make sustained improvement since the last inspection. Consequently, the statutory requirements set at the last inspection have not been met. Two of these requirements are reset.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers

Managers now have formal supervision with the responsible individual. These are regular and signify an improvement. Staff also receive regular supervision. Staff say their supervision is effective and provides them with the opportunity for individual discussions with the manager. Assurance inspection report for children's home: 2652672 5

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

24/05/2022 Full Requires improvement to be good Assurance inspection report for children's home: 2652672 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

that the premises used for the purposes of the home are designed, furnished and maintained so as to protect each child from avoidable hazards to the child’s health. (Regulation 12 (1) (2)(d))

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Requirement Due date

This relates to children living in a bedroom that neglects their health and well-being. 21 December

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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

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)(b))

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Requirement Due date

This relates to children having access to medication that is not prescribed for them.

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Requirement Due date

This also relates to leaders and managers not seeing commissioned staff’s Disclosure and Barring Service checks to ensure they are safe to work with children. 21 December

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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

promotes their welfare. 21 December Assurance inspection report for children's home: 2652672 7 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 has sufficient staff to provide care for each child; and

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Requirement Due date

ensure that the home’s workforce provides continuity of care to each child. (Regulation 13 (1)(a)(b) (2)(a)(b)(c)(d)(e))

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Requirement Due date

This relates to leaders and managers matching children to the home in a way that puts younger children at risk of harm.

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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. (Regulation 16 (1) Schedule 1. Point 14 and 19)

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Requirement Due date

This relates to commissioned staff’s skills and experience not being identified in the statement of purpose. 21 December

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Requirement Due date

*These requirements are subject to a compliance notice.

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Recommendations

 The registered person should be skilled in anticipating difficulties and reviewing incidents. They are responsible for proactively implementing lessons learned and sustaining good practice. (‘Guide to Children’s Homes Regulations, including the quality standards’, page 55, paragraph 10.24)  The registered person should support staff to be ambitious for every child in the home and to gain skills and experience that enable them to actively support each child to achieve their potential. To ensure staff can understand and meet each child’s needs in line with their responsibilities, the registered person themselves will need to have a high level of understanding of the needs of the children in their care. (‘Guide to Children’s Homes Regulations, including the quality standards’, page 52, paragraph 10.5) Assurance inspection report for children's home: 2652672 8  The registered person should ensure that all staff are familiar with the home’s

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Recommendations

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 is helpful to the child. (‘Guide to Children’s Homes Regulations, including the quality standards’, page 62, paragraph 14.4)  The registered person should ensure that where children placed in a home are not participating in education because they have been excluded or are not on a school roll for some other reason, the registered person and staff must work closely with the placing authority so that the child is supported and enabled to resume full-time education as soon as possible. In the interim, the child should be supported to sustain or regain their confidence in education and be engaged in

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Recommendations

suitable structured activities. If no education place is identified by the placing authority, the registered person must challenge them to meet the child’s needs under regulation 5 (engaging with the wider system to ensure children’s needs are being met). (‘Guide to Children’s Homes Regulations, including the quality standards’, page 28, paragraph 5.15) Assurance inspection report for children's home: 2652672 9

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Children’s home details

Registered provider: Bess Solutions Limited

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: 194 Narborough Road South, Leicester LE3 2LD

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Children’s home details

Responsible individual: Jason Darbyshire

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Inspector

Simon Hunter, Social Care Inspector Assurance inspection report for children's home: 2652672 10 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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