Children's Home run by The Beeches UK limited in Lincolnshire

Inspection report for children’s home: 2755786 1 Registered provider: The Beeches UK limited

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Full inspection Inspected under the social care common inspection framework

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Information about this children’s home

This home is owned by a private provider and is registered to provide care for up to three children who may have social and emotional needs.

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Information about this children’s home

The registered manager’s post has been vacant since March 2024. There is an allocated manager who was absent for this inspection. The responsible individual and deputy manager were both present and supported this inspection.

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Information about this children’s home

Two children currently live at the home and their views were sought.

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Overall experiences and progress of

children and young people, taking into account

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requires improvement to be good

How well children and young people are helped and protected requires improvement to be good

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requires improvement to be good

The effectiveness of leaders and managers requires improvement to be good

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requires improvement to be good

The children’s home is not yet delivering good help and care for children and young people. However, there are no serious or widespread failures that result in their welfare not being safeguarded or promoted.

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requires improvement to be good

Date of last inspection: not previously inspected

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requires improvement to be good

Overall judgement at last inspection: not applicable

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requires improvement to be good

Enforcement action since last inspection: not applicable Inspection report for children’s home: 2755786 2

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improvement to be good

This is the home’s first inspection since registering in January 2024. The manager resigned and left the home with immediate effect in March 2024 and a new manager has been appointed. Two children have moved in since the home opened and they both remain living here. One child is due to leave soon, after the decision was made that the home could no longer meet their needs.

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improvement to be good

This home has been slow to establish effective care to children. This is partly due to the manager leaving shortly after the home opened and a new and inexperienced team of staff. Children’s progress and experiences are impacted on because they are not provided with structure, boundaries and routines. Staff do show care towards the children, but lack the skills, knowledge and confidence needed to provide children with a stable and consistent environment. Staff do not provide children with clear expectations of their behaviour in their day-to-day routines and are not confident in re-enforcing boundaries. This means that children have not yet settled in the home and are not making notable progress.

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improvement to be good

Neither child has any meaningful or structured education in place, and they do not attend education provisions external to the home. External agencies are not providing any support with education, which means the staff team is having to source its own educational activities for the children. Staff’s knowledge and understanding in this is limited and staff are reliant on accessing information online to try and get children to engage. This means children are not making any educational progress and their attainment is declining.

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improvement to be good

Children do not have clear or detailed care plans. These are not regularly reviewed and updated. Some health needs around substance and alcohol misuse are not included within health plans, which limits staff understanding of what support a child may need. Children have attended appointments with local doctors and dentists and their basic health needs are being met. There is some additional advice available through the therapy team, although this is not reflected within children’s plans, and it is not clear how this guidance is used to support children.

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improvement to be good

Children are supported to maintain their relationships with their families and people who are important to them. One child has started to make some friendships in the local area.

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improvement to be good

A new child is due to move into the home imminently and came to visit as part of a transition plan. Impact risk assessments were not available to view as these are on the manager’s computer, which couldn’t be accessed. This meant the child visited the home without a clear plan and risk assessment in place. Staff did not follow agreed staffing levels to support the children during this visit. This could have placed children at risk of harm. Inspection report for children’s home: 2755786 3

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improvement to be good

An increased number of missing from care incidents have been well managed. The staff actively look for the child when they go missing and work well within a multi-agency team reporting these incidents. The child does sporadically stay in touch with the home when they are missing, which is positive. Risk assessments are not regularly updated and reviewed, which means not all risk factors have been considered or shared with staff.

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improvement to be good

Children are not being given the opportunity to express their views in return home interviews, as these are not routinely undertaken. This limits opportunities for children to discuss their reasons for going missing and how staff could support them to reduce such events.

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improvement to be good

Physical interventions, including the use of restraint, have been regularly used to manage behaviour. However, the proportionality of these has not been considered for a young child in the home. There has not been consideration given to the size and age of a child when looking at the best way to support them to manage their emotions and in keeping them safe. Two-person restrictive holds have regularly been used and the manager’s evaluation has failed to consider why this was necessary. Managers have failed to seek advice from behaviour management trainers to implement an individual plan for the child.

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improvement to be good

Staff lack the confidence, experience and skills to manage some behaviours that may challenge. As a result, staff are not consistently re-enforcing boundaries or supporting children to reflect and learn from incidents. Some staff are overreliant on more experienced staff, which is disempowering for the team and does not contribute to children feeling safe if staff are not able to support them appropriately.

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improvement to be good

The staff team lacks awareness on how to keep children safe online or in imposing boundaries around this. One young child was observed to be accessing inappropriate and racist media without staff intervening to prevent this. This does not provide assurances that children are being kept safe when online.

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improvement to be good

Children are receiving consequences that are not appropriate, particularly when they return home after going from missing from care. Children are losing privileges such as the use of the internet and activities as a result of them going missing from the home. This means children are being punished rather than staff supporting them in trying to understand their reasons for going missing and responding to their views. This does not provide children with nurturing care.

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improvement to be good

Room searches are routinely undertaken. However, these searches are not recorded and there is no management oversight of the reasons for these room searches. This means the children’s right to privacy is not always respected, as there is no clear rationale for these searches recorded. Inspection report for children’s home: 2755786 4

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: requires improvement to be good

Leadership and management of the home are ineffective. There has been a change to the management team, which has impacted on management oversight and quality assurance. Systems and processes in place have not identified shortfalls or where improvement is needed. There is a lack of leadership and support in the development of the new staff team.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: requires improvement to be good

The independent visitor to the home has not provided sufficient scrutiny and the report does not accurately reflect documents that the visitor has stated they have seen. For example, one child has never had a care plan since moving into the home in January 2024. However, the independent visitor has stated they have seen and reviewed this document. This does not provide the regulator with assurances that these visits and reports are an accurate representation of the home .

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: requires improvement to be good

None of the staff have the required childcare qualification and this impacts on their knowledge and skills. They are provided with additional training; however, the majority of this is online. Essential training, such as first aid, is also provided online, which means that staff’s practical skills are not assessed, and the content is limited. This means that staff may not be able to provide appropriate first-aid support in line with children’s needs.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: requires improvement to be good

Staff do not have regular supervision discussions or development plans. This limits opportunities to support staff to develop their skills and knowledge and reflect on their working practice. Team meetings are of a poor quality and the agenda does not include discussions about the children. This is another missed opportunity for staff to develop and reflect on practice to provide stability and consistency to the children.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: requires improvement to be good

Some information in the home is not easily accessible or available. Both paper and online systems are used and the manager stores information on their laptop, which is not accessible to anyone else. This prevents leaders and managers from being able to access essential information during any absences of the manager. This prevents oversight and scrutiny and there is a risk that information could be permanently lost if the manager left their position. Inspection report for children’s home: 2755786 5

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Statutory requirements

This section sets out the actions that the registered person(s) must take to meet the Care Standards Act 2000, The Children’s Homes (England) Regulations 2015 and the ‘Guide to the Children’s Homes Regulations, including the quality standards’. The registered person(s) must comply within the given timescales.

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Requirement Due date

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 a child who is excluded from school, or who is of compulsory school age but not attending school, to access educational and training support throughout the period of exclusion or non-attendance and to return to school as soon as possible;

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Requirement Due date

that each child has access to appropriate equipment, facilities and resources to support the child’s learning. (Regulation 8 (1) (2)(a)(viii)(b))

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Requirement Due date

In particular, this relates to education in the home being undertaken in a planned and structured way, and evidence of work being completed being recorded and shared if necessary with education providers. 1 June 2024

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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 understand how to keep safe; 1 June 2024 Inspection report for children’s home: 2755786 6 have the skills to identify and act upon signs that 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

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)(b))

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Requirement Due date

In particular, this relates to the manager regularly reviewing and updating risk assessments to ensure they accurately reflect children’s needs. This also relates to ensuring that staff have training to develop their knowledge and awareness of keeping children safe online and that practice in the home reflects this.

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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 full 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 the 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’s workforce provides continuity of care to 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 the 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 1 June 2024 Inspection report for children’s home: 2755786 7 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)(e)(f)(g)(i)(h))

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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;

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Requirement Due date

receive practice-related supervision by a person with appropriate experience. (Regulation 33 (4)(a)(b)) 1 June 2024

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must ensure that an independent person visits the children’s home at least once each month.

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Requirement Due date

The independent person must produce a report about a visit ("the independent person’s report") which sets out, in particular, the independent person’s opinion as to whether—

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Requirement Due date

children are effectively safeguarded; and

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Requirement Due date

the conduct of the home promotes children’s well-being.

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Requirement Due date

The independent person’s report may recommend actions that the registered person may take in relation to the home and timescales within which the registered person must consider whether or not to take those actions. (Regulation 44 (1) (4)(a)(b)(5))

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Requirement Due date

In particular, this relates to the manager ensuring that the independent person’s report reflects accurate information. 1 June 2024

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Recommendations

 The registered person must ensure that any consequences used should be restorative and appropriate and not used as a consequence when children go missing from care. (‘Guide to the Children’s Homes Regulations, including the quality standards’, page 46, paragraph 9.38)  The registered person must ensure that staff are recording when they are undertaking room searches and that there is appropriate oversight by the registered person when this occurs. (‘Guide to the Children’s Home Regulations, including the quality standards,’ page 16, paragraph 3.20)  The registered person must ensure that the use of restraint takes into consideration the size and age of the child whenever used. (‘Guide to the Children’s Home Regulations, including the quality standards,’ page 48, paragraph 9.53) Inspection report for children’s home: 2755786 8

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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: 2755786 9

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Children’s home details

Registered provider: The Beeches UK limited

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: S B C H House, 212 Ballards Lane, London N3 2LX

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Children’s home details

Responsible individual: Michelle Robinson

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Inspector

Sarah Orriss, Social Care Inspector Inspection report for children’s home: 2755786 10 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

T: 0300 123 1231 Textphone: 0161 618 8524 E: enquiries@ofsted.gov.uk W: www.gov.uk/ofsted Inspection report for children’s home: 2755786 11

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