Children's Home run by Assure Care Homes Ltd in Hampshire

Inspection report for children’s home: 2666995 1 Registered provider: Assure Care Homes Ltd Full inspection Inspected under the social care common inspection framework

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Information about this children’s home

The home provides care for up to two children with social and emotional difficulties. It is owned by a private organisation.

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Information about this children’s home

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

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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 inadequate

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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

Date of last inspection: 17 October 2022

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requires improvement to be good

Overall judgement at last inspection: good

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requires improvement to be good

Enforcement action since last inspection: none Inspection report for children’s home: 2666995 2

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

17/10/2022 Full Good 12/04/2022 Full Inadequate Inspection report for children’s home: 2666995 3

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improvement to be good

Children are looked after by a team of dedicated, caring staff. However, since the last inspection, managers have not been able to recruit enough staff. Consequently, the number of permanent staff in the home has significantly reduced.

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improvement to be good

Currently, there is a reliance on temporary staff to support and care for the children safely. New staff have been recruited to the home, and four staff are due to start imminently.

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improvement to be good

The staffing situation at the home has been compounded by failings at a leadership level. There has been no manager registered with Ofsted since April 2022. There have been two managers since this time, and a change in responsible individual. This has meant that care practice for the children has, at times, been inconsistent, and staff are not always working with up-to-date guidance.

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improvement to be good

Despite these challenges, the children appear happy. They enjoy a wide range of activities. Both children are keen cycle repairers, and leaders have created opportunities for them to be able to enjoy this activity safely. The children have also been on holidays. These were carefully risk assessed, and the children enjoyed these experiences.

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improvement to be good

The children are making progress in terms of their health and education. Both children attend school regularly, and there is good communication with relevant education professionals to make sure that the right plans are in place. Changes of school placements are carefully considered.

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improvement to be good

Staff understand the children’s health needs well. All appointments are attended with children having a good understanding of their own health needs.

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improvement to be good

The children’s overall progress is harder to identify. Targets that are set for the children to work towards are not consistently reviewed and updated. This means that, at times, the staff and children are unaware of what the aims of the placement are.

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improvement to be good

The children are confident about how to complain. Complaints are rare, but when they have occurred, leaders and staff have been quick to respond. The children talk positively about their trust in this process.

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improvement to be good

Plans for when children move into the home are well considered. There is good communication between staff and the relevant external professionals to ensure that all information that is needed is collated. This enables the right decisions to be made. Inspection report for children’s home: 2666995 4 The children’s views are not consistently considered in the running of the home. Historically, there have been weekly one-to-one sessions, supplemented by regular children’s meetings. These allowed children to describe how it felt to live at the home and to contribute to changes. As leadership and staffing have changed, this has resulted in a reduction in the one-to one sessions and children’s meetings. This has not enabled the children to contribute effectively to their day-to-day care. The new manager has met the children and has started to re-introduce these sessions and meetings.

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improvement to be good

Risks are well understood. Staff have a good understanding of local risks, and they shared this information well with the children. Detailed work with the children, including on topics such as road safety and stranger danger, has supported them to be able to take risks safely, such as having some unsupervised time.

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improvement to be good

However, guidance for staff has not been consistently updated, meaning that staff are not always working with up-to-date information. There have been periods when risk assessments and behaviour management strategies have not been updated for several months. These included a period after a child moved into the home, when the child displayed different behaviours. This lack of review meant that staff were unsure what strategy to adopt in some situations.

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improvement to be good

Staff manage the children’s challenging behaviour well, and de-escalation techniques support the children to calm down when they are upset. However, there are some occasions when restraint reports are not signed off by managers, and the children are not spoken to following the incident. This does not always allow the children to reflect on what happened. In addition, some restraint reports lack detail. For example, often just the name of the restraint technique is used without sufficient explanation of what happened. Words such as ‘heightened’ and ‘dysregulated’ are used. These do not give sufficient detail and may stigmatise children.

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improvement to be good

The children do not go missing from the home. When incidents occur that require reporting to external safeguarding professionals, this is done immediately. There is good communication with other agencies and the police when actions need to be taken.

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improvement to be good

Recruitment procedures are generally robust, with comprehensive checks being undertaken prior to new staff starting. However, when there are issues raised through pre-employment checks, the rationale for decision-making is not always clearly recorded. For example, in one case, an issue was raised about an applicant’s references. This was adequately assessed. However, there was no record of this. Inspection report for children’s home: 2666995 5

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

There have been significant gaps in leadership and management. These have resulted in staff not being adequately supported and key guidance on how best to care for children not being updated. The home does not have a manager who has had their suitability assessed by Ofsted. This has been the case since April 2022. The requirements set at the last inspection have not been responded to effectively, and two of them have been repeated at this inspection.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

Children’s progress is not always understood. Staff and leaders can refer to anecdotal successes. However, progress has not been recorded in a way that allows leaders to fully assess the achievements that children make.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

Staff report that they have received some supervision sessions since the last inspection. However, records show significant gaps. New staff received supervision sessions in their initial month of working at the home, but for the following six months did not have any. There has also been no appraisal for staff to ensure that their performance is reviewed effectively. A lack of supervision and appraisal has meant that staff have not been supported when working through a challenging time at the home. There have been no opportunities for staff to reflect on the impact of the work, or space to identify any support that could be needed. There has only been one team meeting since the last inspection.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

The changes of manager have led to inconsistent oversight and guidance of staff. In recent weeks, there is evidence of change. However, prior to this, there were several months when no monitoring took place. The lack of monitoring also extended to a lack of required reporting to Ofsted.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

The current manager and director have high aspirations for the home and hope to be able to continue to develop the service that is being offered to the children. The new manager has worked hard in recent weeks with both staff and children. She has made an immediate positive impact.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

There are positive plans to stabilise the management of the home moving forward. A new experienced responsible individual has been employed as well as a new director of care. Inspection report for children’s home: 2666995 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

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

use monitoring and review systems to make continuous improvements in the quality of care provided in the home. (Regulation 13 (1)(a)(b) (2)(h))

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Requirement Due date

In particular, there should be arrangements in place to ensure that the monitoring and reviewing systems are consistently implemented in the absence of the manager.

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Requirement Due date

This is a repeated requirement. 31 October 2023

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Requirement Due date

The registered provider must appoint a person to manage the children’s home if—

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Requirement Due date

there is no registered manager in respect of the home. (Regulation 27 (1)(a))

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Requirement Due date

This is a repeated requirement. 31 October 2023

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must ensure that all employees—

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Requirement Due date

receive practice-related supervision by a person with appropriate experience; and

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Requirement Due date

have their performance and fitness to perform their roles appraised at least once every year. (Regulation 33 (4)(b)(c)) 31 October 2023 Inspection report for children’s home: 2666995 7 The children’s views, wishes and feelings standard is that children receive care from staff who take their views, wishes and feelings into account in relation to matters affecting the children’s care and welfare and their lives. (Regulation 7 (1)(c)) 31 October 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—

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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 requires the registered person to—

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Requirement Due date

lead and manage the home in a way that is consistent with the approach and ethos, and delivers the outcomes, set out in the home’s statement of purpose;

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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. (Regulation 13 (1)(a)(b) (2)(a)(d)(f)) 31 October 2023

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Requirement Due date

within 48 hours of the use of the measure, the registered person, or a person who is authorised by the registered person to do so (“the authorised person”)—

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Requirement Due date

has spoken to the user about the measure; and

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Requirement Due date

and has signed the record to confirm it is accurate; and

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Requirement Due date

within 5 days of the use of the measure, the registered person or the authorised person adds to the record confirmation that they have spoken to the child about the measure. Regulation 35 (3)(b)(i)(ii)(c)) 31 October 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. (Regulation 45 (1)) 31 October 2023 Inspection report for children’s home: 2666995 8

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Recommendations

 As set out in regulations 31-33, the registered person is responsible for maintaining good employment practice. They must ensure that the recruitment, supervision and performance management of staff safeguard children and minimise potential risks to them. (‘Guide to the Children’s Homes Regulations, including the quality standards’, page 61, paragraph 13.1)  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. (‘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 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: 2666995 9

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Children’s home details

Registered provider: Assure Care Homes Ltd

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: Unit 4, Northbrook Industrial Estate, Hollybrook Road, Shirley, Southampton, Hampshire SO16 6PB

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Inspector

Mark Newington, Social Care Inspector Inspection report for children’s home: 2666995 10 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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