Children's Home run by Pinnacle Care Provisions Ltd in Lancashire

Assurance inspection report for children’s home: 2653112 1 Registered provider: Pinnacle Care Provisions Limited

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Inspected under the social care common inspection framework

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Information about this children’s home

This home is operated by a private provider. It is registered to provide care for up to three children who may experience social and emotional difficulties.

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Information about this children’s home

At the time of the inspection, there were two children living in the home.

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Information about this children’s home

There is no registered manager. The manager in post has submitted an application to register with Ofsted.

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Information about this children’s home

Date of last inspection: 7 September 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 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: 2653112 2

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Findings from the inspection

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

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Findings from the inspection

 The leaders, manager and staff do not adequately respond to safeguarding incidents. These shortfalls are significantly compromising the children’s welfare and safety.  The leaders, manager and staff have failed to provide a safe home for children to live in.  Staff have not had relevant training and therefore lack the skills to support the specific needs of children.  Poor relationships between children have a significant negative effect on children’s daily experiences.  Leadership and management arrangements in the home are poor and ineffective.

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The care of children

There have been significant incidents of aggressive behaviour between the two children who live in the home. This has resulted in poor relationships between the children and created a challenging group dynamic. These challenges have resulted in poor daily experiences for children, which is having a significant impact on their emotional health and well-being.

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The care of children

One child has raised several complaints with the support of an advocate. The manager has responded to these complaints; however, this has not led to a satisfactory resolution of the child’s concerns. The child reports that staff and the manager have not listened to them. Failing to listen to children does not support trusting and secure relationships.

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The care of children

Children are not receiving help and support in relation to their health needs. Children who smoke or have misused substances have not received support from relevant agencies. Furthermore, not all staff are trained in these matters so that they can offer appropriate guidance to children.

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The care of children

Children do not live in a well-maintained home. There has been a recent refurbishment of the bathrooms in the home; however, this has not improved the home conditions sufficiently. There is evidence of damages caused by one child, including graffiti on the walls, which have not been addressed. Living in an unpleasant environment does not help children to feel well cared for and valued.

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The care of children

Children are supported to attend education. One child has made a successful transition to a mainstream school and is making good academic progress. Assurance inspection report for children’s home: 2653112 3

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The safety of children

Leaders, managers and staff do not adequately respond to or implement appropriate strategies to protect the children living in the home. As a result of this, safeguarding incidents do not receive an appropriate response to reduce risks. These shortfalls are compromising the children’s welfare and safety.

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The safety of children

There has been an escalation of fire-setting incidents with one child. Staff are not provided with clear guidance to manage and reduce these risks. Ineffective staff practice and poor management oversight of these incidents place both children at risk of significant harm.

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The safety of children

Ongoing maintenance work in the home is not thoroughly risk assessed. Despite a significant incident where a child suffered harm from using a contractor’s tool, the leaders and manager did not implement a safe and effective plan to safeguard children. Numerous hazards in the home environment were identified by the inspector during the visit.

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The safety of children

Children who display self-injurious behaviours are not protected from harm. On one occasion, an untrained staff member failed to deliver safe and effective first aid to the child. Despite this, leaders and managers did not review the training needs of staff to ensure that there are appropriately trained staff available each day to meet children’s needs.

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The safety of children

Staff do not understand the risks that the internet may pose to children. They have not had training to improve their knowledge in this area. Children have been exposed to risk due to unsafe practice and an absence of appropriate safeguards around the use of the internet and social media.

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The safety of children

There are inconsistent routines and boundaries in the home. This is not supporting children to reflect on or improve their behaviour.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers

The registered manager post is vacant. There is a newly appointed manager who has submitted an application to register with Ofsted.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers

Leadership and management arrangements in the home are poor and ineffective. Leaders and managers do not demonstrate any learning from safeguarding incidents. There is no reflection with staff or robust evaluation of safeguarding incidents to improve the welfare of children and the practices of staff.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers

Not all staff have had training in supporting the specific needs of children, including training on internet safety, alcohol and substance misuse and first aid. Therefore, staff lack the skills and knowledge to meet children’s complex needs. Assurance inspection report for children’s home: 2653112 4 Management monitoring arrangements are ineffective. Shortfalls in care planning and safeguarding practice have not been addressed. Therefore, the quality of care provided to children is not improving.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers

Leaders and managers have not made sufficient progress towards the requirements and recommendations that were made at the last inspection.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers

Due to the serious safeguarding concerns, Ofsted took immediate action and suspended the registration of the home. Consequently, there are now no children living in the home. Assurance inspection report for children’s home: 2653112 5

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

07/09/2022 Full Requires improvement to be good 21/06/2022 Full Inadequate Assurance inspection report for children’s home: 2653112 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

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

manage relationships between children to prevent them from harming each other;

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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;

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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

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)(a)(i)(ii)(iii)(iv)(v)(vi)(d))

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Requirement Due date

In particular, leaders and managers must ensure that children’s risk assessments provide sufficient detail about the risk and the strategies that staff must follow to reduce risks. 1 May 2023 Assurance inspection report for children’s home: 2653112 7 Further to this, leaders and managers must ensure that staff take effective action to reduce risks to children, including action to prevent children from harming each other.

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Requirement Due date

Leaders and managers must also provide children with a safe home to live in.

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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

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;

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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

demonstrate that practice in the home is informed and improved by taking into account and acting on—

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Requirement Due date

feedback on the experiences of children, including complaints received; and

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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)(c)(d)(f)(g)(ii)(h))

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Requirement Due date

Specifically, leaders and managers must ensure that staff receive training in first aid, substance misuse and online safety.

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Requirement Due date

Further to this, leaders and managers must ensure that they improve monitoring and review systems in the home to improve the quality of care provided to children. 1 May 2023 Assurance inspection report for children’s home: 2653112 8 The health and well-being standard is that—

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Requirement Due date

the health and well-being needs of children are met;

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Requirement Due date

children receive advice, services and support in relation to their health and well-being; and

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Requirement Due date

children are helped to lead healthy lifestyles.

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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 each child has access to such dental, medical, nursing, psychiatric and psychological advice, treatment and other services as the child may require. (Regulation 10 (1)(a)(b)(c) (2)(c))

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Requirement Due date

Specifically, leaders and managers must ensure that children receive advice from relevant agencies in relation to substance misuse. 1 May 2023

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Requirement Due date

The positive relationships standard is that children are helped to develop, and to benefit from, relationships based on—

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Requirement Due date

an understanding about acceptable behaviour; and

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Requirement Due date

positive responses to other children and adults.

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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

help each child to develop socially aware behaviour;

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Requirement Due date

encourage each child to take responsibility for the child’s behaviour, in accordance with the child’s age and understanding;

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Requirement Due date

help each child to develop and practise skills to resolve conflicts positively and without harm to anyone;

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Requirement Due date

communicate to each child expectations about the child’s behaviour and ensure that the child understands those expectations in accordance with the child’s age and understanding; 1 May 2023 Assurance inspection report for children’s home: 2653112 9 help each child to understand, in a way that is appropriate according to the child’s age and understanding, personal, sexual and social relationships, and how those relationships can be supportive or harmful;

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Requirement Due date

help each child to develop the understanding and skills to recognise or withdraw from a damaging, exploitative or harmful relationship;

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Requirement Due date

strive to gain each child’s respect and trust;

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Requirement Due date

de-escalate confrontations with or between children, or potentially violent behaviour by children;

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Requirement Due date

understand and communicate to children that bullying is unacceptable; and

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Requirement Due date

have the skills to recognise incidents or indications of bullying and how to deal with them. (Regulation 11 (1)(a)(b)(c) (2)(a)(ii)(iii)(iv)(v)(vi)(vii) (viii)(xi)(xii)(xiii))

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Requirement Due date

the privacy of children is appropriately protected;

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Requirement Due date

children can access all appropriate areas of the children’s home’s premises; and

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Requirement Due date

any limitation placed on a child’s privacy or access to any area of the home’s premises—

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Requirement Due date

is intended to safeguard each child accommodated in the home;

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Requirement Due date

is kept under review and, if necessary, revised; and

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Requirement Due date

allows children as much freedom as is possible when balanced against the need to protect them and keep them safe. (Regulation 21 (a)(b)(c)(i)(ii)(iii)(iv))

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Requirement Due date

This relates specifically to the third floor of the home. 1 May 2023 Assurance inspection report for children’s home: 2653112 10 The registered person must ensure that—

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Requirement Due date

at all times, at least one person on duty at the home has a suitable first aid qualification. (Regulation 31 (2)(a)) 1 May 2023 Assurance inspection report for children’s home: 2653112 11

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Children’s home details

Registered provider: Pinnacle Care Provisions Limited

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: Suite 507, 275 Deansgate, Manchester M3 4EL

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Inspector

Emma Thornton, Social Care Inspector Assurance inspection report for children’s home: 2653112 12 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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