Children's home run by Orchard Children Homes Ltd

Inspection report for children’s home: 2688690 1 Registered provider: Orchard Children Homes Ltd Full inspection Inspected under the social care common inspection framework

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Information about this children’s home

The home is operated by a private company. It provides care for up to four children with emotional and social difficulties.

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Information about this children’s home

The home is led by a manager who is registered with Ofsted.

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Overall experiences and progress of

children and young people, taking into account

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requires improvement to be good

How well children and young people are helped and protected requires improvement to be good

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requires improvement to be good

The effectiveness of leaders and managers requires improvement to be good

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requires improvement to be good

The children’s home is not yet delivering good help and care for children and young people. However, there are no serious or widespread failures that result in their welfare not being safeguarded or promoted.

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requires improvement to be good

Overall judgement at last inspection: requires improvement to be good

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requires improvement to be good

Enforcement action since last inspection: none Inspection report for children’s home: 2688690 2

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

09/01/2023 Full Requires improvement to be good Inspection report for children’s home: 2688690 3

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improvement to be good

Children living in this home have a range of complex needs and vulnerabilities. Staff and children have not yet developed trusting relationships. Children have struggled to respond to the care provided by staff, and this may take them some time. As a result, not all children are making progress.

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improvement to be good

One child has not participated in educational arrangements for some time. This child spends most of their time in their room and only responds to staff occasionally. The child has not engaged with staff in attempts to improve the situation with education, and consequently, the child continues to miss valuable education. This child’s daily experiences are impacting on the child’s emotional and physical health. The staff make efforts to support this child to develop skills and strategies to improve the quality of the child’s relationships, but this is proving difficult. The manager and staff have ensured that the child has an independent advocate to make sure that the child’s needs are met.

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improvement to be good

Staff have provided one child with some home education and structured activities while education arrangements are being secured. There is now an education timetable in place for the child, which is appropriate to meet their needs.

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improvement to be good

Staff have made dental appointments for a child who required assessment and treatment, unfortunately the child has refused to attend the appointments. Staff have not proactively contacted the dentist to seek advice and guidance regarding the impact on the child of not receiving treatment. This information may have influenced the child’s decision to respond to dental treatment.

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improvement to be good

One child is building positive relationships with staff and is responding well to how staff care for them. Staff are reinforcing positive behaviours in individual work with the child. As a result, this child has now established good routines and is making progress in developing independence skills.

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improvement to be good

A child’s health is now improving. They have improved sleep routines and diet and have received essential health screening. However, there is not an explicit smoking cessation plan in place to help the child decrease or stop smoking.

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improvement to be good

Staff support children to see their families so that children can maintain relationships with those who are important to them. This helps children keep in contact with those important to them and maintain their identity.

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improvement to be good

The manager and staff have implemented some important developments, such as child-friendly placement plans. Records from meetings with children have improved, now capturing children’s views, wishes and feelings. Records of individual work with children and meetings track the actions taken by staff in response to children’s Inspection report for children’s home: 2688690 4 requests. Children’s plans and other relevant documents include important information about children’s histories and needs. The staff demonstrate a thoughtful approach to meeting children’s individual diversity and cultural needs.

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improvement to be good

For one child, some risks have emerged and increased during their time at the home. Staff support the child, but interventions have been ineffective in preventing some risk-taking behaviours. There has been a potentially serious incident of self- harm by a child. There is a safety plan in response to concerns about this child’s physical and emotional health. Staff adhere to the plan and seek health advice and guidance and access healthcare in a timely way to help safeguard the child.

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improvement to be good

Room search records require improvement. They lack detail and do not routinely capture children’s views.

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improvement to be good

A vulnerable child has gone missing from care on two occasions. Both incidents happened during the night. The child travelled long distances to a known adult. Staff responded in a timely way and followed missing-from-care procedures. On both occasions, the child was returned home safely. However, lessons have not been learned after these safeguarding incidents, and effective actions have not been taken to prevent further incidents of this nature happening again.

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improvement to be good

During incidents of children going missing from care, staff on duty are often not permanent staff. For example, a member of staff who was not familiar to the child was sent to collect them following a missing-from-care incident. This child had previously expressed their view that having staff on duty they are not familiar with is difficult for them.

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improvement to be good

Staff’s responses to more challenging behaviour from children have not always been consistent. There have not been timely multi-agency meetings to consider what is known about this child’s needs, what requires further assessment or what services could be made available to support the child. This could have supported staff to provide effective interventions that reduce risks and help the child become safer.

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improvement to be good

One child is responding well to advice, nurturing care and individual work with staff and specialist services. Concerns about peers influencing the child’s behaviour have reduced. The child is now making better decisions and, as a result, is safer.

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improvement to be good

There are safe recruitment processes that managers adhere to. One allegation of harm has been made by a child since the previous inspection. Managers followed procedures and liaised with the local authority designated officer, and this has now been concluded.

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good

Inspection report for children’s home: 2688690 5 The home is led by a qualified and experienced manager. The staff team is small, but it is experienced and qualified to work with children in residential care. The team is supplemented by staff working for the provider in other children’s homes and a small number of agency staff. This ensures that there are sufficient staff to care for the number of children in the home. Staff have recently been appointed to the home and are in the process of completing safe recruitment checks before starting work.

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good

There has been some impact on children from unfamiliar staff caring for them. This arrangement also means that, at times, permanent staff are supporting new staff. The current arrangements are not ensuring consistency of care for children, and this is unsettling.

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good

Leaders and managers have not always taken effective action when there are concerns for children, for example when children new to the home are not settling, when children are not making progress or in response to concerns about a child’s safety. Records do not demonstrate effective management oversight of safeguarding incidents or that there has been an evaluation and lessons learned exercise to prevent further incidents.

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good

One child’s progress and experiences are being negatively affected by events outside of the home. Managers have liaised with the relevant local authority but have not sufficiently escalated their concerns. A multi-agency meeting has not been requested to form plans that can help the child. This child is not yet fully benefiting from the care being provided.

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good

Managers have considered the need for waking night staff in response to one child’s behaviour and risks. There is not a clear audit trail of decision-making in response to this matter. There needs to be a review of the monitoring systems in place to ensure that there is robust oversight of the quality of care the home is providing.

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good

Staff and managers receive regular supervision that covers staff performance and staff welfare. This would benefit from effective quality assurance to ensure there are consistent approaches to enhance the focus on children’s needs and progress.

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good

The manager does respond to the independent visitor reports, which are detailed and support improving practice.

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good

Handover information for staff starting their work has been improved to ensure that essential information is shared about children’s needs and risks. They have also improved shift planning.

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good

The staff would benefit from further training and development in caring for children who are reluctant to accept staff support and help. They would also benefit from further training in the methodology that the home uses in working with children, considering recent experiences and incidents for children living in the home. Inspection report for children’s home: 2688690 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

take effective action whenever there is a serious concern about a child’s welfare;

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Requirement Due date

ensure 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)(a)(i)(ii)(iii)(vi)(b))

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Requirement Due date

This relates to ensuring that there are robust, accurate risk assessments for children and that the assessments are evaluated and reviewed.

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Requirement Due date

In addition, the registered person should consider arrangements for night-time care for children when there are known risks for children at this time. 30 June 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— 30 June 2023 Inspection report for children’s home: 2688690 7 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

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)(h))

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Requirement Due date

This relates to ensuring that staff complete the necessary training to have the skills and knowledge to meet the needs of children, including children who do not engage with or respond to the care being provided. Additionally, this relates to ensuring there are effective monitoring systems in place to improve the quality of care the home is providing. This includes staffing to help children become settled and make progress.

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Recommendations

 The registered person should ensure that when children are not participating in education, they are supported to sustain or regain their confidence in education and be engaged in suitable structured activities. (‘Guide to the Children’s Homes Regulations, including the quality standards’, page 28, paragraph 5.15)  The registered person should ensure that staff have the relevant skills and knowledge to help children understand and, where necessary, change negative behaviours in key areas of health. This is in relation to staff proactively seeking advice regarding a child’s dental health needs and the impact on the child of poor dental health, to influence their decisions. This is also in relation to staff ensuring there is a smoking cessation plan in place for a child to support them to stop smoking. (‘Guide to the Children’s Homes Regulations, including the quality standards’, page 35, paragraph 7.18)

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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) Inspection report for children’s home: 2688690 8 Regulations 2015 and the ‘Guide to the Children’s Homes Regulations, including the quality standards’. Inspection report for children’s home: 2688690 9

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Children’s home details

Registered provider: Orchard Children Homes Ltd

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: 2nd Floor, 118 Calais Road, Burton-on-Trent DE13 0UW

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Inspector

Cathey Moriarty, Social Care Inspector Inspection report for children’s home: 2688690 10 regulates and inspects 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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