Children's Home run by Pathways Care Group Limited in Walsall

Inspection report for children's home: 2622077 1 Registered provider: Pathways Care Group Full inspection Inspected under the social care common inspection framework

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Information about this children’s home

The home is owned and operated by a private company. It is registered to provide care for up to four children with social and emotional needs.

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Information about this children’s home

The registered manager post is currently vacant.

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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 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

Overall judgement at last inspection: outstanding

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good

Enforcement action since last inspection: none Inspection report for children's home: 2622077 2

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

02/08/2022 Full Outstanding 06/12/2021 Full Inadequate Inspection report for children's home: 2622077 3

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Two children were living at the home at the time of this inspection. Since the last inspection, two children have moved out of the home. One child lived at the home for eight days. The child was well supported by staff to move from the home when staff were unable to safely meet her needs. A second child lived at the home for two years and successfully moved on to semi-independent living.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children are sensitively supported by staff to move into and out of the home. Visits to the home are planned with the involvement of relevant professionals, family members and the children. Staff advocate on behalf of the children to ensure that their voices are heard throughout. This helps children to settle quickly into their new home.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

The staff introduce the children to age-appropriate, stable routines. The children learn to cook nutritious meals. Children develop an understanding of the importance of good personal hygiene and they establish healthy sleep patterns. Good routines enable children to make steady progress with their education, hobbies and independence. For example, one child is slowly re-engaging with school on a reduced timetable. Another child has successfully completed a college course and placement that has helped them gain employment.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

There are occasions when the provider is slow to involve partner and specialist agencies in care planning for the children. For example, a child with a diagnosis of enuresis has been living at the home for four months without any specialist advice or a referral to a specialist. This is a missed opportunity to ensure that staff practice is well informed for the benefit of the child.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

The home is in the progress of being decorated and there are plans underway to redesign the garden. The manager has concentrated on completing work in communal areas and the bedrooms of the two children currently living at the home. These areas are now welcoming and very homely. As the two children are settling in, the house is becoming increasingly personalised. Both children are involved in choosing the decor and furniture in readiness for them to move into their new bedrooms over the summer holiday.

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

Staff focus on reducing risks to children as a priority. Staff use the positive relationships that they have developed with the children to encourage them to make safe choices that reduce risk. Educational discussions between children and staff help to positively influence children’s decision-making at times when they are upset.

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

When a child moved into the home and exhibited unexpected behaviours that placed her and the staff team at high risk, managers were quick to act. They supported the Inspection report for children's home: 2622077 4 staff team, increased staffing ratios and involved other professionals to inform risk management strategies. After a decision was made that the child would move, staff supported the child to stay at the home until another placement was found. During this time, the diligence of the staff team meant that the child did not go missing from care and did not come to harm.

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

The manager makes prompt referrals to other agencies when there are safeguarding concerns and follows up to ensure that appropriate action is taken. For one child, where online safety is a safeguarding concern, this has resulted in direct work being undertaken by a specialist team to increase her safety.

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

Since the last inspection, there have been two occasions where a child has needed to be held by staff. In both cases, the person who held the child then debriefed with the child after the event. This did not provide the child with the opportunity to recount their version of events or raise any concerns with a person independent of the incident.

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good

The registered manager’s post is vacant, but has been successfully appointed to. An experienced manager has been overseeing the home in the interim.

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good

The staff team is new and is developing. Team meetings and supervision sessions are regular and reflective. Staff have access to a range of online and face-to-face training. Overall, staff are positive about their work and say that the manager provides good support. The responsible individual and manager are aware that team dynamics are not yet resulting in a cohesive staff team with confident and consistent practice. Clear plans are in place to further develop the team.

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good

External professionals are generally positive about their working relationship with the manager. One social worker told inspectors that there had been a delay in the manager relaying back the findings of a recent investigation into a serious incident. The manager has since scheduled a meeting with the social worker to address this concern.

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good

The provider has a policy for the safe storage, administration and handling of medication. However, the manager’s auditing system has not identified that staff are not always following the policy. For example, although there have been no medication errors, medication is not stored neatly, records of medication administered are not clear and procedures for taking medication with food are not being implemented.

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good

The home’s care plans for children are not always of good quality. Some of the children’s plans are clear and reflect established practice. Other plans lack information about partnership working and how staff should support children to help them make good progress. Inspection report for children's home: 2622077 5 During the inspection, paper records were in the process of being migrated onto a new electronic recording system. There were occasions when required documents were not easily accessible in either format. This hinders staff from having quick access to important information relating to the care of the children.

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good

The responsible individual and manager have an overview of the service. They use internal and external quality assurance tools to monitor practice, and there is a plan for the development of the home. However, a lack of analysis in the manager’s quality of care review means that managers are not making best use of the available information to help them fully understand the home’s strengths and weaknesses. Inspection report for children's home: 2622077 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, The 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

In meeting the quality standards, the registered person must, and must ensure that staff—

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Requirement Due date

seek to develop and maintain effective professional relationships with such persons, bodies or organisations as the registered person considers appropriate having regard to the range of needs of children for whom it is intended that the children’s home is to provide care and accommodation. (Regulation 5 (d))

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Requirement Due date

This specifically relates to ensuring that the home’s staff team works in partnership work with external professionals to meet children’s needs. 31 August 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; and

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Requirement Due date

have a positive experience of arriving at or moving on from the home. (Regulation 14 (a)(b))

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Requirement Due date

This specifically relates to ensuring that the home’s care plan clearly describes how a child will be supported to meet their needs, including any partnership work with internal and external professionals. 31 August 2023

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must make arrangements for the handling, recording, safekeeping, safe administration and disposal of medicines received into the children’s home. (Regulation 23 (1))

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Requirement Due date

This specifically relates to ensuring that medication is stored, administered and recorded in line with the home’s policy. 31 August 2023 Inspection report for children's home: 2622077 7

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Recommendations

 The registered person should ensure that any child who has been restrained should be given the opportunity to express their feelings about their experience of the restraint as soon as is practicable, ideally within 24 hours of the restraint incident, taking the age of the child and circumstances of the restraint into account. This specifically relates to having someone who was not involved in the restraint conduct the discussion. (‘Guide to the Children’s Homes Regulations, including the quality standards’, page 49, paragraph 9.60)  The registered person is responsible for deciding what each review should focus on, based on the specific circumstances of the home at that particular time and any areas of high risk to the children that the home is designed to care for, such as missing or exploitation. They will also consider what information or data recorded in the home will form part of the evidence base for their analysis and

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Recommendations

conclusions. The review should enable the registered person to identify areas of strength and possible weakness in the home’s care, which will be captured in the written report. The whole review process and the resulting report should be used as a tool for continuous improvement in the home. (‘Guide to the Children’s Homes Regulations, including the quality standards’, page 65, paragraph 15.4)  Some records may be kept electronically (regulation 38) provided that this information can be easily accessed by anyone with a legitimate need to view it and, if required, be reproduced in a legible form. (‘Guide to the Children’s Homes Regulations, including the quality standards’, page 61, paragraph 14.2)

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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: 2622077 8

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Children’s home details

Registered provider: Pathways Care Group

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: 1st Floor, Minton Place, Victoria Street, Windsor SL4 1EG

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Inspectors

Dawn Bennett, Social Care Inspector Glenis Staiger-Grant, Social Care Inspector Inspection report for children's home: 2622077 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 looked after children, safeguarding and child protection.

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Inspectors

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Inspectors

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Inspectors

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