Children's Home run by TS Children Services Ltd in Dudley

Inspection report for children’s home: 2726003 1 Registered provider: TS Children Services 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 is registered to provide care for up to four children with social and emotional difficulties.

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Information about this children’s home

The home registered with Ofsted in November 2023.

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Information about this children’s home

The registered manager left shortly after registration in December 2023. A new manager started in January 2024; he is in the process of registering with Ofsted.

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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 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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Date of last inspection: 13 March 2024

Overall judgement at last inspection: not applicable

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Enforcement action since last inspection:

At the assurance inspection on the 13 March 2024, Ofsted identified serious and widespread concerns in relation to the care and protection of children. Poor leadership and management practice and a lack of ability to take effective action to improve the quality of care in the home have compromised the safety, experience Inspection report for children’s home: 2726003 2 and progress of the children living in the home. As a result, Ofsted issued a notice to restrict accommodation to prevent any new children from moving into the home.

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Enforcement action since last inspection:

During the assurance inspection on the 13 March 2024 Ofsted requested that the provider completes an action plan to address some of the shortfalls identified. The quality of the plan provided was poor and did not provide reassurance that they understood the risks and the improvements that are needed to be made to mitigate the risks to children. As a result, it was decided that a full inspection of the home was completed to gain more understanding about the experiences and progress of children and their welfare and safety. Inspection report for children’s home: 2726003 3

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

13 March 2024 Assurance Inspection Serious and widespread concerns Inspection report for children’s home: 2726003 4

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inadequate

At the time of the inspection, two children were living in the home. Both children’s experiences and progress have been significantly affected by shortfalls in how children are cared for, helped and protected, as well as in the leadership and management of the home. There are immediate risks to the safety and well-being of children currently living in this home. As a result, Ofsted decided to suspend the homes registration because children were at risk due to serious and widespread failings to provide safe and effective care.

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inadequate

Managers have failed to fully assess the potential impact of the needs, risks and behaviours of children moving into the home on those already living there. They do not ensure that they have all the information about the children and their potential risks and vulnerabilities before they move into the home. In addition, when the manager assessed that staff should have specific training to meet children’s needs, this was not provided.

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inadequate

Children do not receive effectively planned care as managers do not have their most up-to-date plans from the local authority. Managers fail to effectively escalate requests to the local authority for the children’s most up-to-date plans. This disorganised approach to the care planning arrangements for children has contributed to the children’s needs not being fully understood by staff and managers.

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inadequate

Not all children have had appropriate support, advice and guidance in regard to their education. One child living in the home has not engaged in education and has poor attendance. The manager does not place sufficient emphasis on supporting children to attend consistently. They have not ensured that there is a consistent plan for staff to follow to ensure that all children are supported to regain confidence to return to school. This does not support children’s learning needs.

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inadequate

Most of the home is well furnished and maintained. This presents a welcoming environment. However, one child’s bedroom was observed to be dirty, with a huge pile of washing on the floor: their belongings remain in holdalls, unpacked after 6 weeks living in the home. This child told the inspector that they do not have hangers to hang up their belongings. This does not provide children with a hygienic, nurturing and comfortable place to sleep.

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inadequate

Children have built some good relationships with the staff who care for them. This helps children to build trust and to feel safer and relaxed in their surroundings.

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inadequate

Children take part in activities with staff that they enjoy. This provides children with the opportunity to gain new experiences and have fun. For example, one child Inspection report for children’s home: 2726003 5 regularly attends a local studio where they record music. Another child has been go karting and visited their favourite football club for a stadium tour.

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

There are significant shortfalls in the assessment and management of risks for children. Risks are not well known, documented or understood. Strategies for staff to follow to keep children safe are not identified. Significant risks such as gangs, knives and risky associates are absent from one child’s plan. Another child’s risk assessment is not informed by information from their placing authority because the home has not obtained key documents such as risk assessments and care and placement plans from the placing authority. The child has lived at the home since January 2024. Despite the placing authority providing some plans to the home on 14 March 2024, these have not yet been used to inform the child’s risk assessments. A member of staff spoken to was not aware of a child’s significant risks.

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

There have been some significant safeguarding incidents when children have been at risk of harm. The manager and staff do not demonstrate that they have the skills and experience to keep children safe. Incidents have not always been reported, recorded and responded to appropriately by staff and managers. Staff are not alert to risk and fail to share concerns with the relevant people. For example, one child is at risk of exploitation and is prevented from entering certain localities. Staff are transporting the child to some of these areas to enable him to have time in the community. This keeps neither the child, nor the community, safe. Staff also drop one child off at bus stations for time in the community when they are not allowed to use public transport. Staff do not make efforts to know who the children are associating with when they are out in the community, despite them having known risks relating to those they associate with.

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

Staff do not show professional curiosity. Serious concerns have arisen when multiple alarming items have been found in one child’s bedroom. For example, a ‘wad of money’, a designer bag and a balaclava and rubber gloves. Staff have not shown the required level of curiosity to understand why the child has these items in their possession, how the child obtained them or how this might increase risk for the child, particularly given that the child had risks of criminality and gang involvement. Information about these items were not shared with other agencies such as the child’s social worker. This lack of oversight and follow-up action does not promote children’s safety.

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

One child has been missing from the home on three occasions, including, on one occasion, overnight. The child’s missing from home risk assessment has been updated since the inspection on the 13 March 2024 to include the dates the child was missing from the home. However, the risk assessment still fails to give staff clear guidance about what steps to take should the child be missing. When children do go missing, staff do not always report them as missing to the police immediately. Inspection report for children’s home: 2726003 6 The manager does not provide a sufficiently detailed notification to Ofsted when there are serious incidents. The lack of detail reduces the regulators oversight of the home. This weakens the safety net for children.

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

The manager does not monitor, review and evaluate consequences given to children effectively. Managers lack professional curiosity and fail to identify shortfalls in staff recording and practice. Consequences given are not restorative in nature or in line with the home’s ethos.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

Managers fail to identify and address shortfalls in practice and make improvements. The home’s manager does not have the right skills and experience to manage the home safely and effectively. For example, incident records do not contain any management oversight and do not identify any follow-up work to be undertaken with children following incidents when they are at risk of harm. This means that patterns and trends in behaviours and incidents are not identified, and children are not helped to learn about positive behaviour. Senior leaders are not providing the manager with the required level of support to improve the management of the home.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

Staff do not have the required skills to keep each child safe and protect them from harm. For example, staff do not act when children share information which is of concern, nor do they always share this information with children’s placing authorities. Staff have not had training in key areas such as children who go missing from home, gangs, knife crime and criminal exploitation of children. This is despite these being key risks for one child living at the home. Staff are also not trained in the model of care that the home states that it offers to children living there. Online training that has been provided only provides basic knowledge and skills to care for children and does not provide staff with extensive knowledge around specific areas that are important to working with children at the home.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

The responsible individual for the home provided Ofsted with an action plan to address some of the shortfalls identified on 13 March 2024. The quality of this plan was poor and did not provide any reassurance that they understand the risks and the improvements that need to be made to mitigate risks to children. None of the urgent actions, they said would be completed by 15 March have been addressed. This means that they have not taken action to reduce the level of risk since Ofsted served a notice restricting accommodation at this home. The responsible individual was on annual leave at the time of the inspection on 15 March and was not supporting improvement and risk management in the home, despite there being no registered manager in post.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

Current staffing arrangements fail to provide the children with consistent care. Since the home was registered in December 2024, four staff including the previous manager and deputy manager have left. The manager has highly relied on relief staff to cover the home. This does not help children to develop positive and healthy relationships with a familiar adult who knows them well. Inspection report for children’s home: 2726003 7 Recruitment of staff is not safe. Checks on staff suitability to work with children have not been undertaken before staff have worked in the home. This means that the provider has not assured themselves that employed staff are safe to work with, and care for children.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

The shortfalls highlighted at the visit are serious and widespread and demonstrate that safeguarding practice is not sufficiently robust and does not promote the safety and welfare of children. Poor leadership and management practice and a lack of ability to take effective action to improve the quality of care in the home have compromised the safety, experience and progress of the children living in the home. The provider has not taken sufficient action to safeguard the children in respect of the concerns identified at the assurance visit. As a result, a notice of suspension has been served on the home. Inspection report for children’s home: 2726003 8

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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 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

ensure that the premises used for the purposes of the home are designed and furnished so as to—

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meet the needs of each child. (Regulation 6 (1)(a)(b) (2)(c)(i))

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Requirement Due date

The registered provider must ensure that children’s bedrooms are well maintained and provided with necessities to live comfortably in the home. 19 May 2024

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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

help each child to understand the importance and value of education, learning, training and employment; 19 May 2024 Inspection report for children’s home: 2726003 9 maintain regular contact with each child’s education and training provider, including engaging with the provider and the placing authority to support the child’s education and training and to maximise the child’s achievement;

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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)(iv)(vi)(x))

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Requirement Due date

The registered provider must ensure that education is promoted in the home, that children have suitable education provisions identified and children’s relevant plans are followed.

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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

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. (Regulation 12 (1) (2)(a)(i)(ii)(iii)(v)(vi)(vii)(b)) 19 May 2024 Inspection report for children’s home: 2726003 10 The registered provider must ensure that risk assessments and children’s plans are in line with local authority plans and give clear guidance to staff to help them manage risk. Additionally, the registered provider must ensure that safeguarding procedures must be followed in line with the homes policies and that safeguarding records are comprehensive and include any actions or outcomes.

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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

ensure that staff have the experience, qualifications and skills to meet the needs of each child;

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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

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)(a)(c)(d)(e)(h))

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Requirement Due date

The registered provider must ensure they have sufficient staff, with skills and experience to meets the children’s needs. They must also ensure they have effective oversight of the home to improve the quality of care provided in the home. 19 May 2024

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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 19 May 2024 Inspection report for children’s home: 2726003 11 have a positive experience of arriving at or moving on from the 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

that each child’s relevant plans are followed. (Regulation 14 (1)(a)(b) (2)(c))

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must compile in relation to the children’s home a statement (“the statement of purpose”) which covers the matters listed in Schedule 1.

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Requirement Due date

keep the statement of purpose under review and, where appropriate, revise it; and

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Requirement Due date

notify HMCI of any revisions and send HMCI a copy of the revised statement within 28 days of the revision. (Regulation 16 (1) (3)(a)(b)) 19 May 2024

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Requirement Due date

An individual may only carry on a children’s home if the individual satisfies the requirements in paragraph (5).

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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 27 (1) (7)(b)) 19 May 2024

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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

employ an individual to work at the children’s home; or

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Requirement Due date

if an individual is employed by a person other than the registered person to work at the home in a position in which the individual may have regular contact with children, allow that individual to work at the home,

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Requirement Due date

if the individual satisfies the requirements in paragraph (3).

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Requirement Due date

The requirements are that— 19 May 2024 Inspection report for children’s home: 2726003 12 the individual is of integrity and good character;

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Requirement Due date

the individual has the appropriate experience, qualification and skills for the work that the individual is to perform;

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Requirement Due date

the individual is mentally and physically fit for the purposes of the work that the individual is to perform; and

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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) (2)(a)(b) (3)(a)(b)(c)(d))

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must prepare and implement a policy (“the behaviour management policy”) which sets out—

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Requirement Due date

how appropriate behaviour is to be promoted in the children’s home; and

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Requirement Due date

the measures of control, discipline and restraint which may be used in relation to children in the home.

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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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Requirement Due date

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

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Requirement Due date

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

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Requirement Due date

a description of the measure and its duration;

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Requirement Due date

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

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Requirement Due date

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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Requirement Due date

the effectiveness and any consequences of the use of the measure; and 19 May 2024 Inspection report for children’s home: 2726003 13 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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Requirement Due date

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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Requirement Due date

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

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Requirement Due date

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)(a)(b) (3)(a)(i)(ii)(iii)(iv)(v)(vi)(vii)(viii)(b)(i)(ii)(c)(iv))

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Requirement Due date

Schedule 4 sets out the other information that the registered person must keep in relation to a children’s home.

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Requirement Due date

maintain in the home the records in Schedule 4;

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Requirement Due date

ensure that the records are kept up to date; and

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Requirement Due date

retain the records for at least 15 years from the date of the last entry. (Regulation 37 (1) (2)(a)(b)(c)) 19 May 2024

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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

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

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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)(c)(e)) 19 May 2024 Inspection report for children’s home: 2726003 14

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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: 2726003 15

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Children’s home details

Registered provider: TS Children Services Limited

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: 11 Waterloo Road, Wolverhampton, West Midlands WV1 4DJ

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Inspectors

Marianne Grandfield, Social Care Inspector Alison Cooper, Regulatory Inspection Manager Inspection report for children’s home: 2726003 16 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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