Children's home run by Leicester City Council

Inspection report for children’s home - monitoring visit: SC039001 1 SC039001

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Registered provider: Leicester City Council

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Inspected under the social care common inspection framework

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Information about this children’s home

This home is run by a local authority. The home provides care for up to seven children who may have social and emotional difficulties. Five children were living at the home at the time of this monitoring visit.

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Information about this children’s home

The registered manager has been in post since June 2018 and is suitably qualified.

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This monitoring visit

This children’s home was judged to require improvement at the full inspection on 3 and 4 May 2023. At an assurance inspection carried out on 28 November 2023, serious and widespread failings were identified in safeguarding, in the care provided for children and in leadership and management. Children were not adequately safeguarded. Consequently, compliance notices were issued in relation to the protection of children and the leadership and management standards respectively.

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This monitoring visit

Managers have devised an action plan to address the shortfalls identified at the assurance inspection. Leaders and managers are making progress with this. Managers have assigned a staff member to lead on developing children’s participation in the day-to-day operation of the home. Preparatory work has been completed on a new system for children’s meetings. Managers have not fully implemented their planned monitoring and quality assurance systems in line with the statement of purpose. They plan to introduce monthly quality assurance case file audits to ensure improved oversight. This will lead to a strengthening of the quality assurance processes.

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This monitoring visit

Some children continue to be vulnerable to risks in the community. However, improvements to safeguarding practice have been made. Managers have reviewed all the children’s risk assessments. Managers have amended the guidance to staff about completing risk assessment in line with the information received from external Inspection report for children’s home - monitoring visit: SC039001 2 professionals. This is helping staff to understand the changing risks that children may face and how to respond to these risks and keep children safe.

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This monitoring visit

Children receive support from staff and other professionals to help them understand why family members and involved professionals worry for their safety. Managers recognise when the work that staff undertake with children is not helping children to understand the risk attributed to some behaviours. They are working with other professionals to develop different plans to help children become safer.

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This monitoring visit

Managers have more robust oversight with increased management capacity in the home. A manager from another home in the organisation has been allocated time to support staff with the day-to-day running of this home. Managers use this time to focus on management tasks and improve quality assurance tasks.

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This monitoring visit

Managers are now reviewing risk assessments more systematically. The managers are more able to spend time reviewing any incidents that might have taken place to learn valuable lessons that might prevent reoccurrence. They are better able to complete reflective debriefs with staff after significant incidents. They identify shortfalls in practice and take action to improve care practice.

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This monitoring visit

Managers are taking steps to achieve a more-consistent approach to care practice by staff. They have developed new expectations for recording what is happening in children’s daily lives. Managers have introduced group supervision sessions to develop staff practice. They have used these opportunities to ensure a shared focus on providing children with the help they need with any current challenges they are facing. Managers are investigating where new concerns or complaints arise to ensure that children’s needs are being met and that they are safeguarded.

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This monitoring visit

At this monitoring visit, the compliance notices were found to be met. The statutory requirements that were set at the full inspection have not been considered at this monitoring visit, and so they remain in place. Inspection report for children’s home - monitoring visit: SC039001 3

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

03/05/2023 Full Requires improvement to be good 13/02/2023 Full Inadequate 21/11/2022 Full Inadequate 19/07/2021 Full Good Inspection report for children’s home - monitoring visit: SC039001 4

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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 with the given timescales.

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Requirement Due date

The quality and purpose of care standard is that children receive care from staff who—

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Requirement Due date

understand the children’s home’s overall aims and the outcomes it seeks to achieve for children;

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Requirement Due date

use this understanding to deliver care that meets children’s needs and supports them to fulfil their potential.

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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

understand and apply the home’s statement of purpose;

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Requirement Due date

understand and apply the home’s statement of purpose;

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Requirement Due date

protect and promote each child’s welfare;

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Requirement Due date

treat each child with dignity and respect;

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Requirement Due date

provide personalised care that meets each child’s needs, as recorded in the child’s relevant plans, taking account of the child’s background;

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Requirement Due date

help each child to understand and manage the impact of any experience of abuse or neglect;

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Requirement Due date

provide to children living in the home the physical necessities they need in order to live there comfortably;

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Requirement Due date

make decisions about the day-to-day arrangements for each child, in accordance with the child’s relevant plans, which give the child an appropriate degree of freedom and choice. (Regulation 6 (1)(a)(b) (2)(a)(b)(i)(ii)(iii)(iv)(v)(vii)(ix)) 29 June 2023 Inspection report for children’s home - monitoring visit: SC039001 5 This specifically relates to ensuring that the children’s home environment is in keeping with a family home. This also relates to ensuring that the children’s care plans are individualised and that children’s views, wishes and personal preferences, such as sexuality and gender, are supported.

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Requirement Due date

This requirement was made at the last inspection and is restated.

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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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Requirement Due date

an understanding about acceptable behaviour;

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Requirement Due date

and positive responses to other children and adults.

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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 develop socially aware behaviour;

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Requirement Due date

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

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Requirement Due date

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

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Requirement Due date

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;

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Requirement Due date

help each child to understand, in a way that is appropriate according to the child’s age and understanding, personal, sexual and social relationships, and how those relationships can be supportive or harmful;

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Requirement Due date

help each child to develop the understanding and skills to recognise or withdraw from a damaging, exploitative or harmful relationship; 29 June 2023 Inspection report for children’s home - monitoring visit: SC039001 6 understand how children’s previous experiences and present emotions can be communicated through behaviour and have the competence and skills to interpret these and develop positive relationships with children;

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Requirement Due date

are provided with supervision and support to enable them to understand and manage their own feelings and responses to the behaviour and emotions of children, and to help children to do the same;

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Requirement Due date

understand and communicate to children that bullying is unacceptable; and

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Requirement Due date

have the skills to recognise incidents or indications of bullying and how to deal with them; and

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Requirement Due date

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)(vi)(vii)(ix) (x)(xii)(b))

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Requirement Due date

This specifically relates to ensuring that children are supervised and supported to build positive relationships with peers and staff.

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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

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. (Regulation 12 (1) (2)(a)(vi)(vii))

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Requirement Due date

This relates to ensuring that all staff respond to, report and document all incidents of concern. 29 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— 29 June 2023 Inspection report for children’s home - monitoring visit: SC039001 7 helps children aspire to fulfil their potential;

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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 staff work as a team where appropriate;

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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

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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Requirement Due date

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

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)(b)(c)(f)(g)(i)(h))

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Requirement Due date

This specifically refers to ensuring that robust quality assurance and monitoring systems are in place, used regularly and recorded to improve the care provided to children. It also relates to staff having up-to-date training and, therefore, improved skills, and staff working more cohesively.

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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. 29 June 2023 Inspection report for children’s home - monitoring visit: SC039001 8 In particular, the standard in paragraph (1) requires the registered person to ensure—

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Requirement Due date

manage and review the placement of each child in the home. (Regulation 14 (1)(a)(b) (2)(b)(ii))

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Requirement Due date

This specifically relates to ensuring that children have planned and considered admissions into the home and that key paperwork is put in place quickly enough to be effective.

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Requirement Due date

This requirement was made at the last inspection and is restated.

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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

take adequate precautions against the risk of fire, including the provision of suitable fire equipment in the children’s home;

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Requirement Due date

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

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Requirement Due date

This specifically refers to fire extinguishers being readily available, as per the home’s fire risk assessment. It also refers to bedroom windows being able to open, to allow for escape in the event of a fire. 29 June 2023

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must recruit staff using recruitment procedures that are designed to ensure children’s safety.

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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

This specifically refers to ensuring that all staff have up-to- date Disclosure and Barring Service certificates. 29 June 2023

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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; receive practice-related supervision by a person with appropriate experience; and 29 June 2023 Inspection report for children’s home - monitoring visit: SC039001 9 have their performance and fitness to perform their roles appraised at least once every year. (Regulation 33 (4)(a)(b))

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Requirement Due date

This specifically relates to staff receiving supervision which is of good quality, is reflective and enables staff to develop their skills in improving the care they provide to children.

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Requirement Due date

This requirement was made at the last inspection and is restated.

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Recommendations

 The registered person should ensure that where children placed in a home are not participating in education because they are refusing to, the registered person and staff must work closely with the placing authority so that the child is supported and enabled to resume full-time education as soon as possible. In the interim, the child should be 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 medication is accessible to children, including when on activities. Suitable arrangements should be made to ensure that medication is managed effectively. (‘Guide to the Children’s Homes Regulations, including the quality standards’, page 35, paragraph 7.15)

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Information about this inspection

The purpose of this visit was to monitor the action taken and the progress made by the children’s home since its last Ofsted inspection.

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Information about this inspection

This inspection was carried out under the Care Standards Act 2000. Inspection report for children’s home - monitoring visit: SC039001 10

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Children’s home details

Registered provider: Leicester City Council

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: City Hall, 115 Charles Street, Leicester LE1 1FZ

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Inspector

Helen Gronhaug, Social Care Inspector Inspection report for children’s home - monitoring visit: SC039001 11 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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