Children's Home, Residential special school run by Kisimul Group Limited in Lincolnshire

Inspection report children’s home: SC044562 1 SC044562 Registered provider: Kisimul Group Ltd Full inspection Inspected under the social care common inspection framework

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Information about this children’s home

This privately owned service is registered as a children’s home and a residential special school. The inspectors only inspected the social care provision.

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Information about this children’s home

The setting currently cares for 23 disabled children and young people.

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Information about this children’s home

The manager is registered and has been in post since July 2020.

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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 requires improvement to be good

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good

The effectiveness of leaders and managers good

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good

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

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good

Overall judgement at last inspection: good

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good

Enforcement action since last inspection: none Inspection report children’s home: SC044562 2

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

09/06/2021 Full Good 26/11/2019 Full Good 26/02/2019 Full Good 24/10/2017 Full Outstanding Inspection report children’s home: SC044562 3

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children are happy and there are lots of smiles and laughter. The relationships between children and staff are good, with some very good interactions. Staff communicate with children in a calming and soothing manner. This helps the children to relax. The children are comfortable with the nurturing approach that staff use. Staff have a clear understanding of the children’s needs, including those children that are new to the home.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Managers and staff understand the importance of careful transitions for children, and the careful matching of new children coming to live at the home. Staff use their skills and experience to ensure these transitions are child centred. When children start their move to the home, careful planning takes place. This includes providing information in a format that children can understand. Children make several visits to the home, meaning that they are more likely to settle. Children start to make progress quickly because of a carefully planned and considerate approach to what can be a difficult transition for the children.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children make good progress. For example, one child who had been out of school for several years started at the on-site school immediately. With careful planning and tenacity, this has been a success. The child is now attending school regularly and making progress, both academically and socially. This will enable the child to reach the aims of their care plan.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

The staff have a very good understanding of children’s complex health needs. On two occasions staff intervened when children have become seriously unwell. Staff administered emergency first aid and called emergency services. Because of the quick and responsive intervention of staff the children made full recoveries. This was because staff know the children’s emergency health care plans well and being confident to intervene.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children get the opportunity to try new and exciting activities. This is irrespective of ability or disability. For example, one child struggled to be around their peers, but now their confidence to socialise with others is much better. This means they are more likely to make friends and enjoy the company of others. Another child now enjoys a more varied diet and meals. One of the children has been to the theatre to see their favourite show. For some children this progress is life changing.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff have extensive knowledge of children’s communication needs. They ensure that communication does not become a barrier to the voice of the child being heard. Children have their say about the day-to-day running of the home. Their wishes and feelings are sought and acted on wherever possible.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

The home is generally clean and tidy, although lacking a family feel in some areas. For example, some walls in communal areas are bare and need improvement. Some Inspection report children’s home: SC044562 4 bedrooms need improvement, one child’s bedroom had no privacy screening on windows. In another bedroom, there was a cracked windowpane. This means that some children are not yet living in a homely and inviting environment.

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improvement to be good

Some children are at increased risk because of self-injurious behaviour. Specialised equipment that could assist the staff to manage this is not yet available. However, the high ratio of staff caring for the children ensures that they are closely monitored, and these risks are reduced. The staff understand the needs, risks and vulnerabilities of children and remain vigilant and take quick action to keep children safe.

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improvement to be good

The manager’s oversight of health and safety has not always been effective. For example, in one bedroom there were nails in walls, a broken window and holes in the flooring. Additionally, the medication cabinet was unclean. Several of these areas had been identified through maintenance audits. This work has not always been completed in a timely manner. Leaders and managers accept this and are putting this right.

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improvement to be good

The location risk assessment does identify the main risks to children, including the location of the home. However, one child was able to leave the grounds while outside home and entered a neighbour’s house. Staff remained close to the child and consequently risks were minimal. The child was supported back to the home and at no time was the child at risk. Changes to the perimeter fencing have yet to be actioned as a means of keeping children safer.

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improvement to be good

The children’s individual risk assessments and behaviour support plans are comprehensive. They provide thorough guidance to staff on how to support children when they begin to display anxious behaviours. The plans explain how to support children at each stage of escalation and include the strategies to enable children to regulate themselves to become less anxious. This includes distraction and changing the child’s environment. For example, one child became calmer when a different and familiar staff member intervened in an incident and took the child for a drink. Staff understand and know children well and this helps them prevent incidents from escalating.

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improvement to be good

Staff try several de-escalation techniques before resorting to physical restraint. The manager is rigorous in their scrutiny of all physical interventions. This assures the manager that the physical interventions were required and were conducted appropriately. This ensures that restraints are necessary, proportionate, and effective in reducing behaviours that are difficult to manage, and that they are used only as a last resort. Overall, there has been a decrease in the numbers of restraints and the use of restraints is monitored closely by leaders and managers and reviewed by the external and independent visitor. Inspection report children’s home: SC044562 5 When there are allegations about staff practice, the leaders and managers share information effectively with safeguarding agencies. Leaders and managers ensure that allegations are investigated, and any learning is identified to improve safeguarding practice. However, on one occasion, staff waited before sharing their

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improvement to be good

concern with a manager. This meant that staff did not follow the provider’s safeguarding procedures. Following this the leaders and managers undertook a detailed fact-finding exercise to learn lessons. Children remained safeguarded throughout.

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improvement to be good

Managers have not ensured that all staff who are recruited through an employment agency go through an effective safer recruitment process. Specifically, there is a lack of scrutiny over employment references. This means that staff who work infrequently are not afforded the same thorough level of checks as established staff.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The home is managed by an experienced and appropriately qualified manager. The manager is supported by a small team of committed deputy managers. Together, they are focussed on improving outcomes for children. They have high expectations for the children. However, quality assurance monitoring systems have not always been effective in identifying areas for improvement.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Staff are supervised in line with the provider’s supervision policy. Staff say they feel supported and receive thorough and reflective supervision sessions. Staff are encouraged to progress to more senior roles. However, agency care workers do not always have access to regular and formal supervision sessions with a manager. Staffing levels continue to be a challenge for managers and leaders. They continue to recruit staff and retain existing staff to provide continuity of care for children. Leaders and managers have taken steps, at times, to stop admitting children if staffing levels drop. This ensures safe levels of staffing are maintained.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Staff who work at night say they feel supported. They are trained to meet the children’s care needs. Night-time staff have built positive relationships with children. They encourage a calm environment so children can settle. This includes reading children’s stories and other calming activities.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Staff receive a wealth of mandatory training, and more specific training to equip them to meet the individual children’s complex needs. A multi-agency approach is used to identify and then provide bespoke training by the therapy team. However, training for staff to support children with self-injurious behaviours would further increase the staff team’s knowledge and approaches to interventions. This would further bolster the approaches used by the staff to safeguard the children.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Team meetings are held regularly, and staff handovers are completed daily, both morning and night. These provide a forum to exchange key information about children. However, sometimes the handovers lack content and only provide brief details about the children’s day. Inspection report children’s home: SC044562 6 Stakeholders, including placing authorities, are positive about the care that this home provides for their children. They say that children’s health, education, and care needs are integrated well. When extra training is needed to meet a specific care need, this is provided. However, managers have not ensured that all children have an up-to-date care plan from their placing authority.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The manager benefits from good quality, and in-depth monthly visits and reports from an independent visitor. These visits help the manager to identify areas working well and those requiring further strengthening. Additionally, these reports help track crucial patterns and trends, such as the prevalence of physical interventions required to manage behaviour.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Leaders and managers have created an environment where staff work together as a team. The staff team works flexibly to meet the needs of children, and staff routinely adapt their shift patterns. Children have enjoyed many activities, both at the home and away from the home. At times, because of staffing levels, activities have taken place more on site, utilising the extensive grounds including animal care, and play areas. Inspection report children’s home: SC044562 7

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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 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 the need for all staff to complete ligature training.

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Requirement Due date

This also relates to the perimeter fencing not being adequate to safeguard all children.

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Requirement Due date

This also relates to some areas of the children’s bedrooms have potential health and safety risks.

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Requirement Due date

This also relates to staff not sharing safeguarding concerns without delay. 18 January 2023

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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

use monitoring and review systems to make continuous improvements in the quality of care provided in the home. (Regulation 13 (1)(a)(b) (2)(h)) 18 January 2023 Inspection report children’s home: SC044562 8 This relates to the registered manager’s systems for the monitoring of the home not being effective in identifying shortfalls. This also relates to registered managers not receiving local authority care plans for all children.

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must recruit staff using recruitment procedures that are designed to ensure children’s safety.

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Requirement Due date

Full and satisfactory information is available in relation to the individual in respect of each of the matters in schedule 2.

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Requirement Due date

This relates to new staff, including temporary staff undergoing full and detailed pre-employment checks to ensure they can work with children. 18 January 2023

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Recommendations

 The registered person is responsible for ensuring that each child’s day-to-day health and well-being needs are met. Staff should work to make the children’s home an environment that supports children’s physical, mental and emotional health, in line with the approach set out in the statement of purpose. This relates to the cleanliness of the medication cabinet. (‘Guide to the Children’s Homes Regulations, including the quality standards’, page 33, paragraph 7.3)  The registered person should ensure that recruitment practice, particularly relating to the scrutiny of agency staff members’ work history, safeguards children and minimises potential risk to them. This relates to safer recruitment checks for agency staff. (‘Guide to the Children’s Homes Regulations, including the quality standards’, page 61, paragraph 13.1)

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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 children’s home: SC044562 9

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Children’s home details

Provision sub-type: Residential special school

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: Kisimul School, The Old Vicarage, High Street, Swinderby, Lincoln, Lincolnshire LN6 9LU

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Inspector

Simon Hunter, Social Care Inspector Zoey Lee, Social Care Inspector Linda Mason, Social Care inspector Inspection report children’s home: SC044562 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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Inspector

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Inspector

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