Children's Home run by Casterton Care Group Limited in Lancashire

Inspection report for children’s home: 2722566 1 Registered provider: Casterton Care Group Limited Full inspection Inspected under the social care common inspection framework

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Information about this children’s home

This home is owned and operated by a private company. The home provides care for up to four children who may experience social and emotional difficulties.

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Information about this children’s home

The home registered with Ofsted in May 2023. The responsible individual left their position on 31 August 2023, and the registered manager post became vacant on 4 November 2023.

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Information about this children’s home

At the time of this inspection, there was one child living in the home.

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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 or widespread failures that mean children and young people are not protected or 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

Date of last inspection: Not previously inspected

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inadequate

Overall judgement at last inspection: not applicable

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inadequate

Enforcement action since last inspection: not applicable Inspection report for children’s home: 2722566 2

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inadequate

The overall experiences and progress of children are compromised due to shortfalls in safeguarding practice, leadership and management, and oversight of the care provided to children.

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inadequate

Not all staff are confident in supporting the child when their emotions are dysregulated. Therefore, the child is not receiving consistent care and support to help develop the skills and strategies to manage their own feelings. However, the child has developed good relationships with the staff team.

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inadequate

The home lacks the warmth of a family home. The home is sparsely accessorised with wall decoration and soft furnishings due to incidents where the child has caused damage. The doors in one lounge and one bathroom have key locks to prevent access. This limits the child’s access to all areas of their home. However, the home is nicely furnished, and the child’s bedroom is personalised with posters of their choice.

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inadequate

The child is not currently attending school and is being supported to take part in educational activities in the home. Staff print educational worksheets for the child to complete as part of their education. However, during the inspection, the printer was broken, so the child was not provided with the worksheets. This meant that the child was unable to complete the agreed educational activity. The responsible individual and deputy manager are working with the child’s social worker to advocate for the right educational provision for the child.

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

Staff do not understand the child’s risks and behaviours, so they cannot support the child safely. Not all staff are confident in ensuring that there are clear boundaries in place to provide safe and effective care for the child. Some staff who lack confidence are concerned for their own safety when supporting the child in times of crisis.

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

At the time of this inspection, the home environment was unsafe. The handles on all upstairs windows had been removed to prevent the child from leaving the home via the upstairs windows. This poses a serious risk as there is no upstairs escape route in the event of a fire. Leaders and managers failed to identify the risk this poses, despite the child having a history of fire setting. The provider addressed this during the inspection. However, the removal of the window handles demonstrates poor risk management and decision-making that do not keep the child safe.

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

Staff recruitment processes do not ensure regular review of Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) checks. At the time of the inspection, it was unclear if one staff Inspection report for children’s home: 2722566 3 member had a clear DBS check. This lack of oversight potentially means that a child could be cared for by adults who pose a risk of harm to them.

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

Risk assessments do not include all known risks and vulnerabilities for the child or the strategies to safely manage these. Staff’s understanding of the child’s current risks is variable. Agency staff are reliant on risk assessments encompassing details of all the current risks for the child, so not having access to up-to date risk assessments compromises their management of risk. This does not support the staff in keeping the child safe and leaves the child at risk of harm.

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

At times, staff need to restrain the child to keep them safe. However, the child and staff involved do not always have the opportunity to reflect on these incidents. The lack of reflection and management evaluation of incidents means that there are missed opportunities to review practice to ensure that staff have clear expectations about how to keep the child safe. Furthermore, the child is not given the opportunity to share their views, wishes and feelings about any incidents of restraint.

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

There is an absence of key-work sessions or discussions with the child focused on harmful behaviours, including sexually harmful behaviours and racism. Therefore, the child is unable to develop the skills to manage this behaviour, which poses a risk to the child and others.

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

The risks to the child have increased despite the high staffing ratios. Furthermore, the child is not always safeguarded effectively. There is no understanding by managers and staff about how some safeguarding incidents happened. Consequently, there is no learning on how future incidents can be prevented.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

Since the home opened, the registered manager and responsible individual have left the organisation. There is a new proposed responsible individual in post, and the deputy manager is taking on some management tasks. However, responsibility for management tasks is unclear, which has led to a number of tasks not being completed.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

The arrangements for the monitoring and oversight of staff practice are not yet established and embedded. Those responsible for management oversight are not consistent or confident in their roles and responsibilities, which means that shortfalls in staff practice and case records are not identified. On one occasion, a breakdown in communication led to insufficient staffing levels for the child, which compromised the safeguarding of the child.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

Staff supervision does not take place regularly in line with the statement of purpose. One new member of staff who is in their probationary period is yet to receive supervision. When supervision takes place, the quality varies, and reflective discussions do not always take place. This does not ensure that managers and staff have the opportunity to reflect on practice and identify any learning and development needs. Inspection report for children’s home: 2722566 4 Staff have undertaken all mandatory training as specified in the home’s statement of purpose. Training specific to the child’s needs has been undertaken by the staff team. This includes training in relation to attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and attachment training.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

Team meetings take place monthly. However, these are not used as an opportunity for team training or for reflection and learning from practice. This compromises the staff’s ability to care for the child effectively.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

Due to the significant shortfalls in safeguarding practice and leadership and management, compliance notices have been issued under Regulation 12, the protection of children standard and Regulation 13, the leadership and management standard. Inspection report for children’s home: 2722566 5

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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

After consultation with the fire and rescue authority, the registered person must—

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Requirement Due date

provide adequate means of escape from the home in the event of fire. (Regulation 25 (1)(b))

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Requirement Due date

In particular, the registered person must ensure that no fire exit points are restricted. 9 November 2023

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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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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; and

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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. (Regulation 12 (1) (2)(a)(i)(ii)(b))

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Requirement Due date

In particular, the registered person must ensure that children’s risks and the strategies identified to reduce these risks are included in risk assessments. 17 December

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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 17 December Inspection report for children’s home: 2722566 6 promotes their welfare.

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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

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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research and developments in relation to the ways in which the needs of children are best met; and

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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)(a)(d)(f)(g)(i)(ii)(h))

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Requirement Due date

In particular, the registered person must ensure that they have oversight of staff practice. They should ensure that incidents and work are reviewed and evaluated to identify patterns, trends and areas of learning to make continuous improvements.

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Requirement Due date

Ensure that the deputy manager or responsible individual is present in the home and has oversight of staff practice.

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Requirement Due date

Ensure that practice is informed by research and that team meetings are an opportunity for staff learning and development.

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Requirement Due date

Ensure recommendations by independent monitoring services are actioned in a timely manner.

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must recruit staff using recruitment procedures that are designed to ensure children’s safety. 30 November Inspection report for children’s home: 2722566 7 The requirements are that—

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Requirement Due date

full and satisfactory information is available in relation to the individual in respect of each of the matters in Schedule 2. (Regulation 32 (1) (3)(d))

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Requirement Due date

In particular, the registered person must ensure that all staff employed in the home have an up-to-date enhanced DBS and references.

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Requirement Due date

within 24 hours of the use of a measure of control, discipline, or restraint in relation to a child in the home, a record is made which includes—

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details of the child’s behaviour leading to the use of the measure;

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the date, time and location of the use of the measure;

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a description of the measure and its duration;

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details of any methods used, or steps taken to avoid the need to use the measure;

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the name of the person who used the measure ("the user"), and of any other person present when the measure was used;

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the effectiveness and any consequences of the use of the measure; and

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a description of any injury to the child or any other person, and any medical treatment administered, as a result of the measure;

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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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has spoken to the user about the measure; and

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Requirement Due date

has signed the record to confirm it is accurate; and 30 November Inspection report for children’s home: 2722566 8 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 (1) (3)(a)(i)(ii)(iii)(iv)(v)(vi)(vii)(viii)(b)(i)(ii)(c))

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Requirement Due date

In particular, the registered person must ensure that those involved in a restraint, including children, are spoken to following the restraint and that incidents of restraint are reviewed and evaluated by someone who was not involved in the intervention.

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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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an understanding about acceptable behaviour; and

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positive responses to other children and adults.

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In particular, the standard in paragraph (1) requires the registered person to ensure—

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help each child to develop socially aware behaviour;

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

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

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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; and

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that each child is encouraged to build and maintain positive relationships with others. (Regulation 11 (1)(a)(b)(c) (2)(a)(ii)(iii)(iv)(v)(b))

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Requirement Due date

In particular, the registered person must ensure that children receive advice and guidance that supports them to understand the impact of their behaviour on others. 31 December Inspection report for children’s home: 2722566 9 The registered person must—

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Requirement Due date

ensure that each employee completes an appropriate induction.

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must ensure that all employees—

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Requirement Due date

undertake appropriate continuing professional development; and

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Requirement Due date

receive practice-related supervision by a person with appropriate experience. (Regulation 33 (1)(a) (4)(a)(b))

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Requirement Due date

In particular, the registered person must ensure that all staff, including those on probation, receive supervision in line with the statement of purpose. 30 November

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Requirement Due date

*These requirements are subject of a compliance notice.

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Recommendations

 The registered person should ensure that children have access to resources for learning at all times. (‘Guide to the Children’s Homes Regulations, including the quality standards’ page 29, paragraph 5.18)  The registered person should ensure that children live in a warm and welcoming environment with a homely feel. In particular, they should consider the use of colour, photos and ornaments to ensure that the home does not have an institutional feel. (‘Guide to the Children’s Homes Regulations, including the quality standards’ page 15, paragraph 3.9)

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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: 2722566 10

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Children’s home details

Registered provider: Casterton Care Group Limited

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: 13 Montpelier Avenue, Bexley, Kent DA5 3AP

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Inspector

Sarah Jackson, Social Care Inspector Inspection report for children’s home: 2722566 11 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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