Children's Home run by G B A Care Limited in Calderdale

Inspection report for children’s home: SC462593 1 SC462593 Registered provider: G B A Care Limited Full inspection Inspected under the social care common inspection framework

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Information about this children’s home

This privately owned home provides care for four children who may have social and emotional difficulties.

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Information about this children’s home

The manager registered with Ofsted in October 2016, and is currently on an extended period of leave from the home. There is an acting manager in place, who is supported by the responsible individual.

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Information about this children’s home

There were two children living in the home at the time of the inspection.

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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 requires improvement to be 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: good

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good

Enforcement action since last inspection: none Inspection report for children’s home: SC462593 2

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

18/05/2022 Full Good 26/04/2021 Full Good 17/07/2019 Full Outstanding 10/04/2018 Full Good Inspection report for children’s home: SC462593 3

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children make progress from their individual starting points in this home. They sometimes experience setbacks; however, staff support children to manage these and help them to move on. The children have complex needs, and the supportive staff ensure that these needs are met. The staff advocate for the children when they feel that changes need to be made in their best interests to help the children to reach their full potential.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

The staff have strong working relationships with children’s families and professionals who are involved with the children. The staff are invested in the care of the children and want the best for them. The children said that their relationships with staff vary, but the majority of the relationships are good. One child said, ‘Some of the staff are amazing, and are really caring.’

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children are encouraged to take part in activities both inside and outside the home. Staff proactively look for clubs, holidays and experiences for the children to enjoy, which will create lasting memories for them. These memories are documented in memory books and with photographs that are displayed in the home.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

The home and the provider have been through a significant period of change since the last inspection. This has seen changes at all management levels, and there have been several changes of staff who support the children. This has impacted on the consistency and quality of care provided. One child commented about how frustrating this can feel for them and how confusing it can be, especially when the messages that they are given by staff are not always the same.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

The home needs some maintenance so that it continues to be in good condition and is a homely environment for the children to live. There are also some areas of the home that the children are not permitted to access. The reasons for this are not recorded in the children’s risk assessments and therefore prevents them moving freely throughout their home.

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improvement to be good

Consequences are used as a way of managing behaviour in the home. The measures can be punitive and not restorative in nature. The effectiveness of consequences is not reviewed by the acting manager, which means that inappropriate consequences have been used several times. This does not help children to learn and is an ineffective way to manage children’s behaviours. The acting manager is implementing a more restorative approach to consequences; however, this is not yet embedded in staff practice. Inspection report for children’s home: SC462593 4 Children have individualised risk assessments and behaviour management plans. These are detailed and, generally, are up to date. However, one child’s risk assessment has not been updated to reflect the most-up-to-date measures needed to keep the child safe. There have been two situations where staff have not acted as they should to safeguard the child. This resulted in the child gaining access to

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improvement to be good

unsafe materials, which could have harmed them.

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improvement to be good

Physical interventions are used as a last resort to keep children safe and only when all other attempts to deescalate the situation have been unsuccessful. Overall, the recording of these measures is clear and completed appropriately. However, there are some examples where records are inaccurate and incomplete. There is also inconsistency across the children’s risk assessments, which means that it is not clearly stated which holds are permitted with individual children. This does not allow for effective management oversight of any holds, to assess if they were appropriate and proportionate.

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improvement to be good

The acting manager and staff can verbalise that they understand the risks to the children, and they are able to anticipate risks that are not current. Staff will dynamically risk assess situations when needed and take the necessary steps to try to keep children and themselves safe.

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improvement to be good

The staff search children’s rooms, when needed, as a safeguarding measure. When these searches are completed, they are done sensitively, and the child’s consent is sought wherever possible. If the child is not present when the search happens, staff will speak with the child afterwards so that they understand why the room search happened.

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improvement to be good

Children sometimes go missing from the home. When this happens, staff act in line with children’s risk assessments and the missing procedures to ensure that all appropriate steps are taken to locate missing children. When children return to the home, they are offered appropriate support. Work is then completed with them to try to minimise the risk of further missing episodes happening. Staff are confident in what to do when children go missing.

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good

The registered manager is currently on a period on extended leave from the home and an acting manager is in place. The responsible individual is supporting the acting manager in their role. Both the registered manager and acting manager are held in high regard by staff, professionals, and the children in the home. One child said, ‘I love [registered manager’s name], she is amazing.’ The child described the acting manager as ‘brilliant’.

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good

Due to some of the upheaval in the home’s current leadership arrangements, management oversight of the home is not thorough enough. This has led to shortfalls in the monitoring and evaluation of the effectiveness of staff practice in the home. There has been no quality of care report completed for an extended Inspection report for children’s home: SC462593 5 period. This impacts on leaders and managers being able to identify and make effective changes where they are required.

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good

The home’s managers have not ensured that all significant events that are notifiable to the regulator have been sent in a timely way. There have also been incidents when the event was serious enough that a notification should have been sent, but this has not happened. This means that the regulator does not have full oversight of these incidents.

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good

The home’s managers have not ensured that staff have specialised training to meet the needs of one child in the home. Support and guidance are provided from specialist agencies working with the child, and specialist training is planned for the staff. However, the child has been living in the home for several months now, and this has still not happened.

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good

There is one member of staff in the home who is working with a risk assessment in place while safe recruitment procedures are followed. However, this risk assessment is not being followed and, as such, this member of staff has not been supervised as they should. Immediate steps were taken by leaders and managers to ensure that this practice does not continue and effective supervision is in place.

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good

Leaders and managers clearly identify the strengths and weaknesses of the home. They feel that now they have the right management and staff in place, work can be done to improve practice. They plan to improve systems and are keen to embed new ways of working, such as an electronic recording system to make practice more efficient and straight forward. Inspection report for children’s home: SC462593 6

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Statutory requirements

This section sets out the actions that the registered person 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 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 (1) requires the registered person to ensure— that staff—

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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

manage relationships between children to prevent them from harming each other;

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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. (Regulation 12 (1) (2)(a)(i)(ii)(iii)(iv)(v)(vi)(vii))

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Requirement Due date

In particular, risk assessments need to be updated regularly to reflect any identified risks to a child to ensure that staff take the appropriate steps to safeguard children.

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Requirement Due date

In addition, risk assessments should include appropriate physical intervention methods for each individual child. 23 February 2024 Inspection report for children’s home: SC462593 7 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

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)(f)(h))

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Requirement Due date

In particular, the registered manager must ensure that the use of consequences is restorative in nature, thus supporting the quality of care provided to children.

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Requirement Due date

In addition, the registered manager should ensure that they have sufficient oversight of all areas of staff practice in the home. 23 February 2024

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Requirement Due date

The registered person may permit an individual to start work at the home despite the fact that the requirement in paragraph (3)(d) has not been met if—

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Requirement Due date

the registered person has taken all reasonable steps to obtain full information about each of the matters in Schedule 2 in respect of the individual, but the enquiries in relation to any of the matters in paragraphs 3 to 6 of Schedule 2 are incomplete;

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Requirement Due date

full and satisfactory information in respect of the individual has been obtained in relation to the matters in paragraphs 1 and 2 of Schedule 2;

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Requirement Due date

the registered person considers that the circumstances are exceptional; and

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Requirement Due date

the registered person ensures that the individual is appropriately supervised while carrying out the individual’s 23 February 2024 Inspection report for children’s home: SC462593 8 duties, pending receipt of any outstanding information on the matters in paragraphs 3 to 6 of Schedule 2, which is then considered satisfactory by the registered person.

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must take reasonable steps to ensure that any individual who is working at the home and who does not fall within paragraph (2)(a) and (b) is appropriately supervised while carrying out the individual’s duties. (Regulation 32 (7)(a)(b)(c)(d) (8))

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must notify HMCI and each other relevant person without delay if—

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Requirement Due date

a child is involved in or subject to, or is suspected of being involved in or subject to,

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Requirement Due date

an incident requiring police involvement occurs in relation to a child which the registered person considers to be serious;

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Requirement Due date

there is an allegation of abuse against the home or a person working there;

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Requirement Due date

a child protection enquiry involving a child —

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Requirement Due date

is instigated; or concludes (in which case, the notification must include the outcome of the child protection enquiry); or

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Requirement Due date

there is any other incident relating to a child which the registered person considers to be serious. (Regulation 40 (4)(a)(b)(c)(d)(i)(ii)(e))

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Requirement Due date

In particular, the registered manager must ensure that they notify Ofsted of all notifiable events within the required timescale. 23 February 2024

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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.

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Requirement Due date

In order to complete a quality of care review the registered person must establish and maintain a system for monitoring, reviewing and evaluating—

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Requirement Due date

the quality of care provided for children; 23 February 2024 Inspection report for children’s home: SC462593 9 the feedback and opinions of children about the children’s home, its facilities and the quality of care they receive in it; and

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Requirement Due date

any actions that the registered person considers necessary in order to improve or maintain the quality of care provided for children.

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Requirement Due date

After completing a quality of care review, the registered person must produce a written report about the quality of care review and the actions which the registered person intends to take as a result of the quality of care review ("the quality of care review report").

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Requirement Due date

supply to HMCI a copy of the quality of care review report within 28 days of the date on which the quality of care review is completed; and

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Requirement Due date

make a copy of the quality of care review report available on request to a placing authority, if the placing authority is not the parent of a child accommodated in the home.

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Requirement Due date

The system referred to in paragraph (2) must provide for ascertaining and considering the opinions of children, their parents, placing authorities and staff. (Regulation 45 (1) (2)(a)(b)(c) (3) (4)(a)(b) (5))

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Requirement Due date

In particular, the registered manager must ensure that they supply a copy of the quality of care report to Ofsted within 28 days of it being completed.

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Recommendations

 The registered person should ensure that the children’s home is a nurturing and supportive environment that meet the needs of the children. The home should seek to maintain a domestic feel, and all maintenance tasks should be completed in a timely way. This ensures a homely and welcoming environment for the children to live in. (‘Guide to the Children’s Homes Regulations, including the quality standards’, page 15, paragraph 3.9)  The registered person should ensure that children have access to all areas of the home. Any decisions to limit a child’s access to an area of the home must only be made where this is intended to safeguard the child’s welfare. All decisions should be informed by a rigorous assessment of the individual child’s needs and should Inspection report for children’s home: SC462593 10 be kept under regular review. (‘Guide to the Children’s Homes Regulations, including the quality standards’, page 15, paragraph 3.10)

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Recommendations

 The registered person should ensure that specialised training is completed by staff that would support them to meet the needs of the children in their care. (‘Guide to the Children’s Home Regulations, including the quality standards’, page 53, paragraph 10.11)

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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: SC462593 11

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: 2nd Floor Brian Royd Mills, Saddleworth Road, Halifax HX4 8NF

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Inspector

Gail McGann, Social Care Inspector Inspection report for children’s home: SC462593 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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Inspector

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Inspector

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Inspector

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