Children's Home run by Keys Direct Care Limited in Lincolnshire

Inspection report for children’s home: SC419429 1 SC419429 Registered provider: Keys Direct 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 privately run and provides care for up to four children who experience social and emotional difficulties.

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Information about this children’s home

The home is led by a suitably experienced registered manager.

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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 requires improvement to be good

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good

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

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good

Date of last inspection: 17 January 2022

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good

Overall judgement at last inspection: good

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good

Enforcement action since last inspection: none Inspection report for children’s home: SC419429 2

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

17/01/2022 Full Good 21/11/2019 Full Good 23/10/2018 Full Good 12/12/2017 Full Good Inspection report for children’s home: SC419429 3

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Overall, children receive good-quality care from staff who know them well. Children and staff regularly spend time together. Children say they like living in the home and that it feels like home . Children’s bedrooms are personalised according to their interests, tastes and hobbies.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children make good progress in many aspects of their development. They have formed positive relationships with staff, which has supported to them to become settled in the home and start making progress.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children benefit from good daily routines. The staff support children to develop their independence and age-appropriate self-care skills. One external professional stated, ‘The support provided to children is outstanding.’ These comments are testament to the good care and support that children receive.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children are encouraged to express their individuality. They receive individualised care and support to ensure that their identity and cultural needs are promoted and met. As a result, one child has been supported to develop an awareness of their identity and this focus has been embedded throughout care practices.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children are supported to keep in contact with people who are important to them. However, children’s plans for their family meeting arrangements are not consistently followed by staff. This has the potential to adversely affect these important relationships that children have with those who are close to them.

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improvement to be good

Children are not aware of the formal complaints procedure. Children say that if they are unhappy, they will speak to staff. Leaders and managers do not deal with children’s concerns effectively. Concerns from children have not been acted on. For example, leaders and managers were aware of ongoing concerns regarding staff practice and the impact on a child. This lack of responsiveness undermines trust and makes children, and sometimes staff, feel unsafe.

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improvement to be good

The manager and staff do not always fully understand the risks to children. Children’s individual risk assessments lack clarity and do not always contain the correct information. The manager did not demonstrate professional curiosity and take timely and effective steps to address a concern that emerged during this inspection. This led to a delay in communication with a placing local authority. This undermines the ability of the relevant local authorities to take any necessary action in relation to safeguarding children. Inspection report for children’s home: SC419429 4 The manager and staff work closely with a psychotherapist to better understand children’s vulnerabilities. This has enabled staff to provide children with problem- solving strategies, which has helped children to become safer. However, staff do not always follow revised safety plans for the children. Staff recording does not always align, which causes confusion. Additionally, risks are not consistently responded to,

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improvement to be good

which increases children’s vulnerabilities.

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improvement to be good

Children do not go missing from care because staff are always available to them. One child, who has gone missing numerous times from previous placements, has not gone missing for several months. This child has become far more settled.

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improvement to be good

Staff understand children’s needs and do not restrain children to manage their behaviours. They use less-restrictive measures, such as talking to children to understand their behaviour and prevent incidents escalating.

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good

The manager does not always have strong oversight of children’s plans and safeguarding. There are no systems in place to ensure that this crucial area is monitored effectively. For one child, this has resulted in a delay in establishing a multi-agency approach to ensuring that their needs are met.

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good

Staff have regular formal supervision meetings with the manager. The discussions and plans emanating from these discussions are not always reflective in nature. At times, the supervision records conflict with other information that is held. For example, if senior managers have concerns about the relationships between staff and children, leaders do not always provide appropriate guidance. This has resulted in staff having positive supervision which conflicts with concerns that have been raised.

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good

Leaders and managers do not challenge staff to support them to make progress and develop. As a result, some staff are not motivated to improve their interactions with children or approaches to care practice. This stifles staff and service development. Inspection report for children’s home: SC419429 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 quality and purpose of care standard is that children receive care from staff 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

In particular, the standard in paragraph (1) requires the registered person to—

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Requirement Due date

treat each child with dignity and respect. (Regulation 6 (1)(a) (2)(b)(iii))

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Requirement Due date

This specifically refers to ensuring that robust monitoring of staff’s relationship with children is carried out. 1 June 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

help each child to understand how to keep safe;

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Requirement Due date

have the skills to identify and act upon signs that a child is at risk of harm;

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Requirement Due date

understand the roles and responsibilities in relation to protecting children that are assigned to them by the registered person; 1 June 2023 Inspection report for children’s home: SC419429 6 take effective action whenever there is a serious concern about a child’s welfare. (Regulation 12 (1) (2)(a)(i)(ii)(iii)(v)(vi))

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Requirement Due date

This relates to the responsible person making certain that managers and staff understand children’s risk assessments and the actions staff must take to carry out these assessments.

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Recommendations

 The registered person should ensure that staff encourage children to share any concerns about their care or other matters as soon as they arise. Children must be able to raise issues or make a complaint with support and without fear that this will result in any adverse consequences. Regulation 39 sets out the requirements on the registered person to have a complaints procedure. Children must be aware of this procedure and be reminded of it as necessary. (‘Guide to Children’s Homes Regulations, including the quality standards’, page 22, paragraph 4.13)  The registered person should ensure that staff are familiar with the home’s policies on record-keeping and understand the importance of careful, objective and clear recording. Staff should record information about 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

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Recommendations

will be helpful to the child. (‘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: SC419429 7

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Children’s home details

Registered provider: Keys Direct Care Limited

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: Maybrook House, Second Floor, Queensway, Halesowen, Worcestershire B63 4AH

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Inspector

Corline Parker, Social Care Inspector Inspection report for children’s home: SC419429 8 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 looked after children, safeguarding and child protection.

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Inspector

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Inspector

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Inspector

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