Children's Home run by Next Step Residential Care Limited in Birmingham

Inspection report for children’s home: 2684458 1 Registered provider: Next Step Residential Care Limited Full inspection Inspected under the social care common inspection framework

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Information about this children’s home

This home registered with Ofsted in April 2023 and is privately owned. It provides care for up to four children who experience social and emotional difficulties.

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Information about this children’s home

The manager registered with Ofsted on 6 April 2023. She holds a level 5 qualification in leadership and management.

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Overall experiences and progress of

children and young people, taking into account

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inadequate

How well children and young people are helped and protected inadequate

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inadequate

The effectiveness of leaders and managers inadequate

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inadequate

There are serious and widespread failures that mean children and young people are not protected, their welfare is not promoted or safeguarded, and the care and experiences of children and young people are poor, and they are not making progress.

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inadequate

Overall judgement at last inspection: inadequate

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inadequate

Enforcement action since last inspection: none Inspection report for children’s home: 2684458 2

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

26/07/2023 Full Inadequate Inspection report for children’s home: 2684458 3

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inadequate

At the time of this inspection, two children were living in the home. The inspector found serious shortfalls in safeguarding practices and in the leadership and management of the home. These shortfalls compromise children’s safety and impact on their overall experiences.

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inadequate

Staff do not provide sufficient care, encouragement and support to engage children in learning or educational activities. When children do not attend education, they spend prolonged periods in their bedrooms. Staff do not provide children with any structure or routine during the school day and children often get up in the late afternoon to eat a meal.

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inadequate

Children have opportunities to take part in leisure activities and participate in games evenings and other activities in the home. However, staff do not proactively encourage children to have clear routines in place. This does not support children to feel motivated to achieve and make progress.

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inadequate

Staff understand the health conditions of children and the needs associated with these conditions. Staff encourage children to attend health appointments. However, for one child, whose independence is being promoted, staff do not have oversight of their medication and there are no records in place to indicate that medication is administered as prescribed. This is unsafe practice.

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inadequate

Parts of the home are not well maintained. Internal doors have not been repaired in a timely manner. As a result, fire safety has been compromised. The lounge and kitchen diner offer a comfortable and homely environment. However, despite children’s bedrooms being personalised, they were not clean and tidy. One room has a strong odour. In addition, staff do not support children to maintain good hygiene habits. This does not promote children’s self-esteem and confidence.

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inadequate

In the registered manager’s absence from the home, leaders and managers have not provided staff with access to essential documents. This includes placement and care plans and health and education documentation. This does not ensure that staff understand the specific care requirements that they need to implement in line with children’s care plans. As a result, staff have not been supported to provide continuity of care in line with children care plans.

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inadequate

The shortfalls highlighted in this inspection evidence that children have received inconsistent care. This has had a detrimental impact on their well-being and progress. Inspection report for children’s home: 2684458 4

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

Missing-from-home incidents have increased since the last inspection. One child goes missing and spends time with family members who they should not have unsupervised time with. Staff give the child money to travel despite knowing that they were visiting an area where they are at risk of exploitation.

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

Staff do not take effective action when children go missing from the home. Staff do not search for children when they go missing as they do not have a car. Staff have been told by a consultant working for the organisation that they should not search for children as it is not safe for staff. There is no consideration of how to mitigate risk and there are no clear plans in place for how to respond to incidents when children go missing from home. Consequently, children are left in potentially unsafe situations.

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

On one occasion, a child accessed the staff office and took some money. The child used the money to go missing from the home. Staff did not look for the child immediately, despite the child only being 14 years old. Records show a delay of six hours before staff went to look for them.

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

Managers’ oversight of staff practice is inadequate. Managers do not provide staff with support and guidance to respond to risks and keep children safe. Staff do not take effective action to address concerns, such as children smoking cannabis in the home or consuming alcohol when they are missing from the home. When incidents take place, information is not shared with children’s placing authorities to support a joint approach to safeguarding children.

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

Managers have failed to implement a safe and clear protocol to ensure that they have suitable oversight of children’s medication. As a result, medication administration practices do not ensure that medication is administered as prescribed.

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

Children are not always made aware of the outcome of the allegations or concerns they report. This does not reassure children that managers hear and understand their concerns and will take action to address them.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

Managers did not inform children’s social workers that the registered manager was away on holiday. Children’s social workers raised concerns with the inspector that they generally had difficulties getting in touch with the registered manager and their attempts to escalate these concerns to the responsible individual had not been responded to. As a result, children have not always received the coordinated care they require to meet their needs.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

Managers have failed to put systems in place to allow staff to access essential documents that support them to provide care in line with children’s care plans when managers are away from the home. Furthermore, no one is in day-to-day charge of the home during these times to support staff or monitor children’s care. Inspection report for children’s home: 2684458 5 Managers do not work effectively with partner agencies to improve the quality of care that children receive. For example, following an increase in incidents, the manager has not requested a meeting to review the children’s care. Managers do not have clear agreed strategies in place to support staff to safeguard children when incidents occur.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

Monitoring and review systems used by managers fail to identify shortfalls in the care that children receive and staff’s responses to keeping children safe. This has led to ineffective action being taken to address unsafe practice. In addition, managers fail to identify patterns and trends in staff’s poor practice. For example, the independent visitor raised concerns that food stored in the fridge was out of date. This was also a concern at this inspection.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

The responsible individual’s oversight of the home is poor. They do not have access to the home’s systems and do not carry out audits so do not have a good understanding of the quality of care that children receive or where improvements need to be made. As a result, managers have failed to make improvements to the quality of care that children receive since the home was first graded inadequate on 26 and 27 July 2023.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

As a result of this inspection, a notice restricting accommodation in relation to Regulation 12 (the protection of children standard) has been issued. Inspection report for children’s home: 2684458 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 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 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;

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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

are familiar with, and act in accordance with, the home’s child protection policies;

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Requirement Due date

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;

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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)(v)(vi)(vii)(b)(d)) 23 November Inspection report for children’s home: 2684458 7 In particular, the registered person must ensure that staff understand their role in keeping children safe.

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Requirement Due date

They must ensure that children’s risk assessments and relevant plans are up to date, accurate and available to staff to inform their practice to keep children safe.

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Requirement Due date

They must ensure that staff follow the guidance set out in children’s plans to promote their safety and welfare.

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Requirement Due date

In addition, they should ensure that the fire safety assessment is kept up to date and any maintenance work required is carried out in a timely manner to ensure that the home continues to meet health and safety standards.

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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

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

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

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

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Requirement Due date

In particular, the registered manager should ensure that systems are in place to monitor, review and update practice as required to improve the quality of care needed to meet children’s needs.

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Requirement Due date

The provider must take effective action to address any shortfalls in managers’ or staff’s practice. 23 November Inspection report for children’s home: 2684458 8 The registered manager should support staff to provide care that supports children to have aspirations and make progress.

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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;

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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

each child’s relevant plans are followed;

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Requirement Due date

that the child’s placing authority is contacted, and a review of that child’s relevant plans is requested, if—

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Requirement Due date

the registered person considers that the child is at risk of harm or has concerns that the care provided for the child is inadequate to meet the child’s needs;

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Requirement Due date

the child is, or has been, persistently absent from the home without permission. (Regulation 14 (1) (2)(a)(b)(c)(e)(i)(ii))

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Requirement Due date

In particular, the registered person should ensure that when they are away from the home, each child’s plan is accessible to staff so that care is provided in line with children’s plans.

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Requirement Due date

In addition, the registered person should work with the placing local authority to review plans of children who frequently go missing from care, to put in place strategies to mitigate risks and to ensure that the care provided continues to meet children’s needs. 23 November

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must ensure that staff—

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Requirement Due date

seek to involve each child’s placing authority effectively in the child’s care, in accordance with the child’s relevant plans;

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Requirement Due date

seek to secure the input and services required to meet each child’s needs;

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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. 23 November Inspection report for children’s home: 2684458 9 (Regulation 5 (a)(b)(d))

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Requirement Due date

The education standard is that children make measurable progress towards achieving their educational potential and are helped to do so.

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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 achieve the child’s education and training targets, as recorded in the child’s relevant plans;

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Requirement Due date

support each child’s learning and development, including helping the child to develop independent study skills and, where appropriate, helping the child to complete independent study;

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Requirement Due date

understand the barriers to learning that each child may face and take appropriate action to help the child to overcome any such barriers;

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Requirement Due date

help each child to understand the importance and value of education, learning, training and employment;

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Requirement Due date

promote opportunities for each child to learn informally;

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Requirement Due date

raise any need for further assessment or specialist provision in relation to a child with the child’s education or training provider and the child’s placing authority;

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Requirement Due date

help each child who is above compulsory school age to participate in further education, training or employment and to prepare for future care, education or employment;

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Requirement Due date

help each child to attend education or training in accordance with the expectations in the child’s relevant plans. (Regulation 8 (1) (2)(a)(i)(ii)(iii)(iv)(v)(vii)(ix)(x))

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Requirement Due date

In particular, the registered person should ensure that staff encourage and support children to develop routines that support their education and encourage them to take part in educational activities that develop their interests. 23 November

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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. 23 November Inspection report for children’s home: 2684458 10 In particular the registered person must ensure that—

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Requirement Due date

medicine which is prescribed for a child is administered as prescribed to the child for whom it is prescribed and to no other child; and

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Requirement Due date

a record is kept of the administration of medicine to each child. (Regulation 23 (1) (2)(b)(c))

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Requirement Due date

In particular, the registered manager and staff should have oversight to ensure that children take medication as prescribed and that records are available.

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Requirement Due date

have the capacity, experience, and skills to supervise the management of the home, or the homes, in respect of which the responsible individual is nominated. (Regulation 26 (7)(b))

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Requirement Due date

In particular, the responsible individual must ensure that they have the necessary skills to oversee the management of the home effectively to identify shortfalls and ensure that action is taken to improve practice and the quality of care provided. 23 November

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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: 2684458 11

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Children’s home details

Registered provider: Next Step Residential Care Limited

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: 3 Wetherly Court, High Gate, London N6 4DP

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Inspectors

Sharon Bourne, Social Care Inspector Joanne Vyas, Regulatory Inspection Manager Inspection report for children’s home: 2684458 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 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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