Children's Home run by Clearwater Care (Hackney) Ltd in Essex

Inspection report for children's home: 2614508 1 Registered provider: Clearwater Care (Hackney) Ltd 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 up to two children with social, emotional and/or mental health difficulties.

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Information about this children’s home

The inspector was aware during this inspection that serious child protection allegations were being investigated by the appropriate authorities. While Ofsted does not have the power to investigate allegations of this kind, actions taken by the setting in response to the allegations were considered where appropriate alongside other evidence available at the time of the inspection to inform the inspector’s judgements.

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Information about this children’s home

The manager has been registered with Ofsted since 13 October 2023.

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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 and their welfare is not promoted or safeguarded.

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inadequate

Date of last inspection: 20 September 2022

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inadequate

Overall judgement at last inspection: good

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inadequate

Enforcement action since last inspection: none Inspection report for children's home: 2614508 2

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

20/09/2022 Full Good 05/10/2021 Full Good Inspection report for children's home: 2614508 3

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inadequate

Two children were living at this home at the time of the inspection. Two children have moved on since the last inspection. One of these moves was planned, with a child successfully moving back to their family. Another child moved on to services that were better placed to safely meet their needs. Although the current children are reasonably settled and making some progress, there are serious concerns about staff practice which has led to harm and increased the risk of harm to a child. Poor individual staff practices and weaknesses identified in the leadership and management of the home have undermined children’s experiences. This has resulted in an overall judgement of inadequate.

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inadequate

One child has been reintroduced to formal learning after a gap in their education and receives home tutoring. The other child does not have suitable education arrangements in place. Staff encourage educational activities at the home. However, the child’s engagement and the records relating to these activities are variable in quality, making the extent of staff’s support in this area unclear. The child has said that they wish to return to formal schooling. The manager has shared concerns with the child’s placing authority and the virtual school. However, the manager has failed to escalate these concerns or explore other options, such as independent advocacy. This means that not all routes to support the child’s reintroduction to education have been fully explored and gaps remain.

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inadequate

Children generally provided positive feedback about their experiences and said they enjoyed spending time with most of the staff. However, children said they find it difficult establishing relationships with some agency staff, who make up a significant proportion of the staff working at the home.

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inadequate

Children are supported to improve their emotional well-being. One child is having regular meetings with the in-house therapist. Staff provide regular one-to-one sessions with children to help them to reflect on their feelings and wishes.

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inadequate

Staff encourage children to participate in important life-skills work, including cooking, shopping, cleaning and budgeting. Leaders and managers have implemented a new monitoring system to capture this progress. This work helps children to prepare well for adult life.

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inadequate

Children have enjoyed a range of activities that meet their interests and support their hobbies. These include swimming, ice skating and visiting an escape room and one child has joined a local gym. Inspection report for children's home: 2614508 4

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

On at least two occasions, staff have not followed risk assessments in place to protect and safeguard children.

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

In one instance, staff not following agreed strategies led to a child receiving a serious burn. Following this injury, appropriate medical attention was not sought until the next day when staff were prompted by the child’s parent and a social worker. The failure of staff to act in accordance with agreed risk-reduction strategies and the subsequent delay in seeking appropriate medical attention led to the child being placed at harm and at risk of further harm.

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

On another occasion, staff have not followed agreed strategies relating to protective measures that were put in place around a member of staff’s night-time duties. The failure of staff to follow agreed strategies was not reported promptly by other staff and has increased the risk of harm to a child.

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

Not all safeguarding procedures have been suitably actioned by leaders and managers. The manager was aware of serious staff practice concerns but did not refer these concerns to the local authority designated officer for nine days, until they were prompted to do so by the responsible individual on their return from leave. Interim leadership arrangements had not identified this oversight. This meant that appropriate protective measures and external oversight were not in place to take swift action to safeguard children and others.

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

Safe recruitment processes for staff directly employed by the provider are thorough. However, leaders and managers have not ensured through monitoring that recruitment records for agency staff contain the required information. Leaders and managers’ failure to monitor and be assured that all required employment checks have been completed could lead to unsuitable people working at the home.

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

Staff have not had the essential training to safely meet one child’s assessed needs. Despite specific risks being known and assessed when the child moved into the home in April 2023, the necessary training has not been provided to the staff. Training had been scheduled for 30 January 2024. However, the significant delay in the provision of the necessary training has increased the risk of harm to the child during this time.

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

Leaders and managers ensure risk management plans are regularly updated. Staff focus on proactive interventions to de-escalate difficult incidents without recourse to physical intervention. This approach has contributed to one child’s risks reducing, to the extent that a deprivation of liberty order was no longer necessary.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

The registered manager is qualified and has the experience and skills to manage the home. However, the manager is working additional hours and has recently been over-stretched. This has resulted in reduced managerial monitoring and oversight. Inspection report for children's home: 2614508 5 Several shortfalls were identified in the wider leadership and management of the home.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

There are weaknesses in staff handover systems and staff’s use of the emergency on-call arrangements. Leaders and managers’ monitoring systems are not strong enough to identify staff practice concerns within a reasonable timeframe. These shortfalls have led to delayed responses by leaders and managers to recent safeguarding concerns, which has increased the risk of harm to children.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

Poor staff retention and difficulties in staff recruitment have meant that there is a reliance on agency staff and permanent staff working additional hours to cover staffing gaps. While leaders and managers regularly review staffing trends, resulting strategies have not been effective. This means that children have not always been supported by staff who have the experience to meet their individual needs.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

Leaders and managers have been ineffective in supporting, monitoring and overseeing staff practice to enable them to deliver consistent and safe care. Agency staff consistently make up to half the staff on duty at any one time. Despite this high deployment of agency staff, leaders and managers have not ensured that these agency staff are provided with training in line with the home’s model of care. Furthermore, regularly used agency staff do not have access to formal supervisory support and debriefing opportunities to reflect on their practice and the children’s needs and experiences. Not all agency staff feel well supported. The failure of leaders and managers to provide an appropriate level of training and supervisory support to agency staff further reduces the continuity of care to children.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

Leaders and managers have not ensured that all records required by regulation are completed and kept securely. A record relating to a health emergency for a child was not completed, which has hindered an investigation into staff practice concerns. On another occasion, records were not kept securely, which led to a child accessing information on a staff member’s laptop and deleting it. This has reduced efficient monitoring and oversight of a potential staff practice concern.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

Leaders and managers’ systems for identifying and responding to maintenance works at the home are mostly effective. The home’s two detached bungalows are in good decorative condition and are personalised to children’s preferences. However, there has been a delay in repairing a fault on the self-closing mechanism on one fire door. This issue was addressed by leaders and managers during the inspection.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

Generally, leaders and managers have ensured notifications are made to Ofsted when required. However, one safeguarding concern relating to a staff member’s poor practice was not notified without delay. This meant that Ofsted’s capacity to monitor safeguards on this one occasion was reduced.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

Leaders and managers have sustained positive relationships with parents and professionals, who mostly provided positive feedback in respect to effective communication and the progress children have made in managing their emotions since moving into the home. Inspection report for children's home: 2614508 6 Leaders and managers have ensured that permanent staff receive regular supervision, annual appraisals and well-planned staff meetings. This enables permanent staff to suitably reflect on their professional development and discuss children’s needs. Inspection report for children's home: 2614508 7

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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

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

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)(iii)(v)(vi)(b)) 3 March 2024

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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

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; 3 March 2024 Inspection report for children's home: 2614508 8 ensure that the home has sufficient staff to provide care for each child;

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Requirement Due date

ensure that the home’s workforce provides continuity of care to each child;

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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)(b)(c)(d)(e)(h))

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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

have the skills to identify and act upon signs that a child is at risk of harm. (Regulation 12 (1) (2)(a)(iii))

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Requirement Due date

In particular, leaders and managers must ensure safe ligature removal training is delivered and is attended by all staff. 30 January 2024

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Requirement Due date

In meeting the quality standards, the registered person must, and 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

if the registered person considers, or staff consider, a placing authority’s or a relevant person’s performance or response to be inadequate in relation to their role, challenge the placing authority or the relevant person to seek to ensure that each child’s needs are met in accordance with the child’s relevant plans. (Regulation 5 (a)(c))

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Requirement Due date

In particular, leaders and managers must escalate their concerns to placing authorities when children’s education needs are not being met. 3 March 2024

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Requirement Due date

The children’s views, wishes and feelings standard is that children receive care from staff who—

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Requirement Due date

develop positive relationships with them;

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Requirement Due date

engage with them; and 3 March 2024 Inspection report for children's home: 2614508 9 take their views, wishes and feelings into account in relation to matters affecting the children’s care and welfare and their lives.

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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

is given appropriate advocacy support. (Regulation 7 (1)(a)(b)(c) (2)(b)(iii))

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Requirement Due date

*These requirements are subject to a compliance notice.

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Recommendations

 The registered person should ensure that children are supported to regain their confidence in education and be engaged in consistent structured activities. In particular, records relating to children’s educational activities should be clear and detailed. (‘Guide to the Children’s Home Regulations, including the quality standards’, page 28, paragraph 5.15)  The registered person should ensure systems for monitoring and addressing shortfalls in fire protection measures are prompt and effective. (‘Guide to the Children’s Homes Regulations, including the quality standards’, page 42, paragraph 9.5)  The registered person should have a system in place so that all serious events are notified, within 24 hours, to the appropriate people. (‘Guide to the Children’s Homes Regulations, including the quality standards’, page 63, paragraph 14.13)

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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: 2614508 10

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Children’s home details

Registered provider: Clearwater Care (Hackney) Ltd

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: 1st Floor, Minton Place, Victoria Street, Windsor SL4 1EG

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Inspector

Mark Anderton, Social Care Inspector Inspection report for children's home: 2614508 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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