Children's Home run by North East Lincolnshire Council in North East Lincolnshire

Assurance inspection report for children’s home: 2594189 1 Registered provider: North East Lincolnshire Council

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Inspected under the social care common inspection framework

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Information about this children’s home

A local authority owns and manages this home. The home provides care for up to four children who may have social or emotional difficulties and/or learning disabilities.

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Information about this children’s home

The registered manager has not been in day-to-day charge of the home since December 2021. A new manager has been in post during this period. The new manager has applied to register with Ofsted.

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Information about this children’s home

There were three children living in the home at the time of the inspection.

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Information about this children’s home

Date of last inspection: 21 November 2022

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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 this inspection, the inspectors 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: 2594189 2

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Findings from the inspection

We did not identify any serious or widespread concerns in relation to the care or protection of children at this assurance inspection.

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The care of children

The children have good relationships with those staff who they know well. There are now new staff working in the home who the children are getting to know. Children enjoy participating in activities with these staff, which helps them to develop their relationships. The relationships between children and temporary night staff from an agency are often poor. To mitigate this, the manager tries to make sure that there are always some staff working in the home who the children know.

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The care of children

The children’s needs are not well matched. The staff try and manage the children’s relationships to prevent them from negatively impacting on each other. The staff’s efforts are not always successful. Due to the dynamics of these relationships, the children do not have consistently positive experiences of living in the home. For one child, there are no clear plans for reviewing the suitability and safety of this placement. This causes anxiety for the child and for staff trying to meet the child’s needs.

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The care of children

Most children go to school and make good progress with their education. Their attendance in education helps them to develop the skills they need for later life. For one child not attending education, their non-attendance leads to a lack of structure to their day.

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The care of children

The children are supported to attend routine health appointments. Where additional or more-specialist health support is required, the staff make sure that children have easy access to these services. The staff receive advice from a local specialist mental health agency. The advice helps them to understand the children’s mental health needs and how best to meet these.

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The safety of children

The staff have knowledge of the risks to individual children’s safety. However, the risk assessment for one child does not clearly detail all known risks. For some risks, there is no breakdown of the specific actions that staff must take to keep the child safe. This lack of clarity may cause confusion for staff and does not help them to consistently manage risks effectively.

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The safety of children

The staff have a good knowledge of missing-from-home procedures. They know the individual missing-from-home protocol for each child. When children go missing from the home, staff respond quickly and go out and search for them. They make telephone calls to the child and visit well-known places and addresses where the Assurance inspection report for children’s home: 2594189 3 child may be. The staff work closely with the police to help locate the child as quickly as possible.

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The safety of children

Some work is done to try to educate the children about the potential risks to their safety. For some children, the record of this positive work is not consistent. Staff are effective in engaging some children more than others. As a result, risks for one child are not reducing.

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The safety of children

The staff try and use their relationships with the children to support any difficulties with behaviour. The staff try and put clear boundaries in place. This is successful for some children but not for others. Work is ongoing by the manager to promote a positive approach to supporting children in crisis. As part of this approach, she uses a reward system. Some children respond well to this and view it as a celebration of their achievements.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers

The manager has applied to register with Ofsted. She is providing stability to the home and responds to the needs of the children. The manager recognises that the children currently need more support. To provide this extra help, she has increased staffing on every shift, including throughout the night.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers

The independent visitor’s reports do not reach Ofsted on time, and, on occasion, the information included in these reports is factually inaccurate. This delay and the inaccuracies hinder the regulator’s oversight of safeguarding practice in the home.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers

The registered manager submits six-monthly quality of care reviews. These reviews do not fully reflect on safeguarding incidents or the actions taken to keep the children safe. They lack focus and do not include feedback from children about the care that they receive. This is a missed opportunity to develop practice.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers

At the last inspection, not all staff had completed the relevant residential childcare qualification in line with regulations. The manager has a plan in place to help the staff keep on track to complete the course.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers

Ofsted is not always notified of significant incidents. The lack of information hinders Ofsted’s oversight of safeguarding practice.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers

The staff are receiving formal supervision, which meets the requirement set at the last inspection. These supervision sessions give staff the chance to talk about their role. New staff report they are experiencing a good induction and they feel supported by the manager and the staff team. Assurance inspection report for children’s home: 2594189 4

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

21/11/2022 Full Requires improvement to be good 22/09/2021 Full Good Assurance inspection report for children’s home: 2594189 5

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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

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. (Regulation 12 (1) (2)(a)(i)(ii)) 1 April 2023

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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

that the child’s placing authority is contacted, and a review of that child’s relevant plans is requested, if—

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Requirement Due date

the registered person considers that the child is at risk of harm or has concerns that the care provided for the child is inadequate to meet the child’s needs;

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Requirement Due date

the child is, or has been, persistently absent from the home without permission. (Regulation 14 (1)(a) (2)(e)(i)(ii)(iii)) 1 April 2023

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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

The registered person may only— 1 April 2023 Assurance inspection report for children’s home: 2594189 6 employ an individual to work at the children’s home; or

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Requirement Due date

if an individual is employed by a person other than the registered person to work at the home in a position in which the individual may have regular contact with children, allow that individual to work at the home,

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Requirement Due date

if the individual satisfies the requirements in paragraph (3).

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Requirement Due date

the individual has the appropriate experience, qualification and skills for the work that the individual is to perform.

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Requirement Due date

For the purposes of paragraph (3)(b), an individual who works in the home in a care role has the appropriate qualification if, by the relevant date, the individual has attained—

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Requirement Due date

the Level 3 Diploma for Residential Childcare (England) (“the Level 3 Diploma”); or

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Requirement Due date

a qualification which the registered person considers to be equivalent to the Level 3 Diploma.

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Requirement Due date

in the case of an individual who starts working in a care role in a home after 1st April 2014, the date which falls 2 years after the date on which the individual started working in a care role in a home; or

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Requirement Due date

in the case of an individual who was working in a care role in a home on 1st April 2014, 1st April 2016. (Regulation 32 (1) (2)(a)(b) (3)(b) (4)(a)(b) (5)(a)(b))

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Requirement Due date

The independent person must provide a copy of the independent person’s report to—

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Requirement Due date

HMCI. (Regulation 44 (7)(a)) 1 April 2023

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must complete a review of the quality of care provided for children (“a quality of care review”) at least once every 6 months. 1 April 2023 Assurance inspection report for children’s home: 2594189 7 In order to complete a quality of care review the registered person must establish and maintain a system for monitoring, reviewing and evaluating—

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Requirement Due date

the feedback and opinions of children about the children’s home, its facilities and the quality of care they receive in it; and

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Requirement Due date

any actions that the registered person considers necessary in order to improve or maintain the quality of care provided for children.

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Requirement Due date

The system referred to in paragraph (2) must provide for ascertaining and considering the opinions of children, their parents, placing authorities and staff. (Regulation 45 (1) (2)(b)(c) (5)) Assurance inspection report for children’s home: 2594189 8

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Children’s home details

Registered provider: North East Lincolnshire Council

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: Civic Offices, Knoll Street, Cleethorpes, Lincolnshire DN35 8LN

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Children’s home details

Responsible individual: John Branchflower

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Inspectors

Jamie Richardson, Social Care Inspector Shirin Khan Mahmandi, Social Care Inspector Assurance inspection report for children’s home: 2594189 9 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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Inspectors

T: 0300 123 1231 Textphone: 0161 618 8524 E: enquiries@ofsted.gov.uk W: www.gov.uk/ofsted

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