Children's Home run by Grace Care Limited in Nottingham

Inspection report for children’s home: SC436818 1 SC436818 Registered provider: Grace Care Limited Full inspection Inspected under the social care common inspection framework

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Information about this children’s home

This privately owned children’s home provides care for up to three children with learning disabilities.

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Information about this children’s home

The manager is suitably qualified and is registered with Ofsted.

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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 widespread failures that mean children and young people are not protected or their welfare is not promoted or safeguarded.

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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: SC436818 2

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

05/01/2022 Full Good 03/04/2019 Full Good 09/05/2018 Full Good 19/07/2017 Full Good Inspection report for children’s home: SC436818 3

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inadequate

Despite some progress being made by the children, the home has been judged as inadequate in all areas due to safeguarding concerns.

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inadequate

Staff support children to maintain positive relationships with those who are important to them. Staff facilitate children seeing their family according to the children’s plans. These arrangements help children to maintain relationships with loved ones.

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inadequate

The inspectors observed that children have positive relationships with staff. Children are attending school full time and are supported to take part in a range of activities. This supports children to make educational progress and to have fun.

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inadequate

Staff do not support children after incidents. For example, following an incident in which a child took another child’s glasses in an aggressive manner, there is no record of staff speaking to the children to seek their views on the incident, to ensure that they feel supported and reassured.

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inadequate

All children have access to an advocate, who visits the home regularly to meet with children. However, there is no recorded evidence of outcomes of these meetings. This does not ensure that children’s views are being taken into consideration and that their voices are being heard.

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inadequate

Staff have not worked in line with one child’s personal care plans. They have completed intimate care routines at reduced staffing ratios during the night, against the risk assessments in place. The social worker was not aware of these arrangements. This is not safe practice and has the potential to place the child and staff at risk.

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

Significant shortfalls were identified in the home in relation to maintenance and health and safety. One child’s bedroom was in a poor state of repair. This was so poor that it led to the child having to stay away from the home until repairs were completed and the room was safe for them to return.

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

Risk assessments for staff are not managed effectively. A staff member with an out- of-date Disclosure and Barring Service certificate was left working unsupervised with two children. Despite the manager stating that this risk was managed by a ‘no lone working’ risk assessment, she did not have a copy of this. By not adhering to agreed risk-management plans, the manager has placed the children at increased risk of harm. Inspection report for children’s home: SC436818 4 Managers do not ensure adequate oversight of incidents. Children and staff do not regularly have debriefs following concerning incidents. This means that a prompt review of practice does not take place, which limits opportunities for staff and children to raise concerns or reflect on the incident. Leaders have not challenged ineffective behaviour-management strategies. There are limited opportunities to evaluate and learn from incidents to prevent children from coming to harm in the

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

Risk management in the home is inadequate. Children’s risk assessments are of poor quality and managers have failed to ensure that they are up to date. Duplicate risk assessments have led to inconsistencies in the approach to risk management by the staff team. For example, one child had two different risk assessments for the same activity (travelling in the car), stating different staffing ratios in each. Consequently, staff have not received clear, consistent guidance on how to manage risks and keep children safe.

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

A high proportion of information in relation to the home, staff and children is stored off site. This information includes local authority care plans, educational documents, referral documents and staff files. This prevents staff from having sight of all required information in relation to the children they support. This has the potential to impact on the care delivered to the children.

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

Shortfalls identified during this visit indicate that staff do not fully understand their roles and responsibilities in keeping children safe. Staff had failed to escalate concerns about a child’s bedroom, which was hazardous and placed the child at risk.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

Leaders and managers fail to have adequate oversight of the running of the home. Internal and external quality assurance and monitoring are ineffective. These combined systems fail to identify failures or provide plans to promote the needs and well-being of the children. Poor recording and files being kept away from the home make it difficult for the manager to track incidents and assess the quality of care provided.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

Staff do not currently have the required training to meet children’s complex needs. For example, less than half of the staff have completed training around autism spectrum disorder and no staff have completed training on a child’s particular health need. The lack of training for staff fails to provide them with the skills and knowledge they need to care for children and manage associated risks.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

One child’s care plan makes reference to the use of a communication tablet being used to support the child to communicate. However, staff informed inspectors that they do not feel confident using the communication tablet with the child. This forms a barrier to the child’s wishes and feelings being sought and acted on. Inspection report for children’s home: SC436818 5 Staff do not receive good-quality, reflective supervision with their manager, or regular updates of individual development plans in line with the home’s own policy. This is a missed opportunity to ensure that professional development is identified, and that concerns of practice are addressed and managed effectively.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

One child’s case file does not contain all the information required from the placing authority. For example, staff do not have a copy of the child’s most recent care plan. This shortfall has not been addressed by managers. This means that staff do not have all the information they need to provide good care that meets the needs of the child. Inspection report for children’s home: SC436818 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 children’s views, wishes and feelings standard is that children receive care from staff who—

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Requirement Due date

take their views, wishes and feelings into account in relation to matters affecting the children’s care and welfare and their lives.

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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

help each child to express views, wishes and feelings; (Regulation 7 (1)(c) (2)(a)(ii))

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Requirement Due date

This specifically relates to the registered person ensuring that children are spoken to following incidents and records made to ensure that their views, wishes and feelings are sought. 28 February 2023

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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

have the skills to identify and act upon signs that a child is at risk of harm; 28 February 2023 Inspection report for children’s home: SC436818 7 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

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Requirement Due date

are familiar with, and act in accordance with, the home’s child protection policies;

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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;

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Requirement Due date

that the effectiveness of the home’s child protection policies is monitored regularly. (Regulation 12 (1) (2)(a)(i)(iii)(v)(vi)(vii)(b)(d)(e))

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Requirement Due date

This specifically relates to ensuring that children live in a safe and suitable environment free from hazards and risk. It also relates to risk assessments providing guidance to staff on how to manage risks. Managers must also ensure that staff work in line with the assessments to manage specific risks.

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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

(2) 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 the home has sufficient staff to provide care for each child;

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Requirement Due date

ensure that staff have the experience, qualifications and skills to meet the needs of each child; 28 February 2023 Inspection report for children’s home: SC436818 8 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

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)(c)(d)(e)(f)(h))

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Requirement Due date

This specifically relates to managers using monitoring systems in the home to improve the quality of care provided, and ensuring that staff receive training in line with the needs of the children.

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Requirement Due date

The care planning standard is that children—

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Requirement Due date

receive effectively planned care in or through the children’s home.

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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

manage and review the placement of each child in the home. (Regulation 14 (1)(a) (2)(b)(ii))

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Requirement Due date

This specifically relates to the registered person ensuring that children’s local authority care plans are up to date. 28 February 2023

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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 care is provided which meets each child’s needs and promotes their welfare, taking into account the child’s disability, their assessed needs and any relevant plans. This specifically relates to ensuring that the children’s guide is completed in a way that is tailored to each child’s communication needs. (‘Guide to the Children’s Homes Regulations, including the quality standards’, page 14, paragraph 3.2)  The registered person should ensure that records are kept in the children’s home. All children’s case records (regulation 36) must be kept up to date and stored securely while they remain in the home. Case records must be signed and dated Inspection report for children’s home: SC436818 9 by the author of each entry. (‘Guide to the Children’s Homes Regulations, including the quality standards’, page 62, paragraph 14.3)  The registered person should ensure that 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. (‘Guide to the Children’s Homes Regulations, including the quality standards’, page 62, paragraph 14.4)

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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: SC436818 10

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: 77 Boundary Road, West Bridgford, Nottingham NG2 7DB

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Children’s home details

Responsible individual: Beverley Russell

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Inspectors

Linda Mason, Social Care Inspector Zoey Lee, Social Care Inspector Inspection report for children’s home: SC436818 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

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