Children's Home run by The Cuckfield Care Consultancy Limited in West Sussex

Inspection report for children’s home: SC066466 1 SC066466

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Registered provider: The Cuckfield Care Consultancy 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 private children’s home is registered to care for up to six children. The home’s statement of purpose states that medium- to long-term placements are provided for vulnerable children with emotional, behavioural and psychological difficulties. At the time of inspection, there were six children living in the home.

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Information about this children’s home

This home currently has had no registered manager since 31 March 2024

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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; and the care and experiences of children and young people are poor.

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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: SC066466 2

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

03/05/2023 Full Good 28/06/2022 Full Requires improvement to be good 25/08/2021 Full Good 24/04/2019 Full Outstanding Inspection report for children’s home: SC066466 3

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inadequate

This service is judged inadequate because of poor management oversight of safeguarding practice; insufficient consideration being given as to how child’s needs are compatible when they move into the home and staff failure to identify and intervene effectively in response to risks to children.

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inadequate

When children come to live in the home, managers consider a range of information to help them decide whether they can effectively care for children and meet their individual needs. However, the decisions made to place children have not always been successful and have resulted in some complex dynamics and concerning relationships within the home. This has had a negative impact on the progress and experiences of children and resulted in some children leaving the home in an unplanned way.

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inadequate

Care planning in the home is not effective. A lack of up-to-date information hinders staff in relation to delivering good quality care. Children’s plans are not amended in response to children’s changing needs. This means that staff are not always clear what the needs of children are or how to meet them.

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inadequate

Staff work with the wider network to try and get children the support that they need, including specialist services such as child and adolescent mental health services and substance cessation services. However, staff have not worked effectively with children to help them to engage with these services. This means that some children are not supported to lead a healthy lifestyle.

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inadequate

Some children have made progress in relation to their individual starting points. For some children, this means that they have been able to attend education and complete some exams, having previously found it difficult to attend education. However, for other children, staff have not provided them the right level of support to help them engage in positive routines and make safe choices.

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inadequate

The quality of relationships between staff and children’s families and professional network is inconsistent. Some family and professionals, report positive, effective relationships, and comment that they feel that staff focus on supporting the needs of children but for one family member, they were concerned about a significant deterioration in their child’s behaviour and the impact this was having on his safety and well-being.

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inadequate

Children enjoy living in the home. They speak positively about their experiences and the care that they receive. Children report that they have positive relationships with staff and speak warmly about the support they have. They enjoy the range of activities offered and feel that they get to experience new and interesting things. Inspection report for children’s home: SC066466 4 Children are supported to spend time with family and friends. Staff try to manage this in a sensitive way that allows children to have positive experiences. For example, one child is supported to spend time staying with a friend.

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inadequate

Children are supported to talk about their experiences of living in the home and to help make decisions such as planning menus or deciding activities. Children feel listened to and can identify people that they trust that they can speak to regarding any concerns. However, staff do not make best use of this to help children make safer choices.

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

Managers have not been able to establish a culture in the home, where safeguarding arrangements and responsibilities are clear. As a result, staff do not respond with sufficient urgency and focus to promote children’s safety and welfare.

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

When children go missing from the home, staff work with professionals such as the police to support children to return. However, when children return to the home staff do not routinely speak to them to establish where they have been or that they are safe and well. This means that staff do not understand what has led to these episodes or what has happened while the child has been missing. Consequently, opportunities are missed to intervene in order to keep them safe and reduce the risks that they are exposed to by going missing.

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

When staff have concerns about children, they do not always take effective action to ensure that they are safe. On some occasions, managers were unable to confirm whether information relating to children’s safety had been shared with relevant professionals within the wider safeguarding network.

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

Records of safeguarding incidents are of a poor quality and do not clearly demonstrate actions that may have been taken or how staff are working to reach an appropriate outcome ensure that children are safe.

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

When children experience difficult emotions that lead them to harm themselves, staff respond promptly to get children any immediate treatment that they need. However, the records of these incidents are poor and safety plans do not demonstrate how children have been supported to find more positive ways to deal with these feelings. Consequently, staff may not fully understand the risk to children or how to intervene to keep them safe.

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

Consequences are used in the home in response to risk taking behaviours or incidents of concern. However, the consequences used are not always reparative in nature and do not support children to learn about the expected behaviours. When concerns are highlighted, these have not been dealt with effectively to support children to become safer. For example, when a child was involved in fire setting, they were not educated to understand these risks or fire safety. Inspection report for children’s home: SC066466 5 Recruitment practices are not always effective. Not all appropriate vetting is undertaken by managers to ensure that staff are suitable. On one occasion when a reference detailed concerns about the applicant, these were not explored to determine the staff members suitability for the role.

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

When children experience difficult emotions, staff do not always intervene effectively to ensure that children are safe. In one instance, a child was harmed by another child in the home, sustaining injuries as a result. The action taken by staff did not appropriately deal with this and information was not shared with the relevant agencies.

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

When restraint is used, it is used for a short period of time to try and keep people safe. However, records of these incidents do not evidence the actions taken by the manager to ensure that children or staff are spoken to, or to ensure that the use of restraint was effective and appropriate.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

Leadership and management in the home is not effective. Managers are well intentioned and passionate about children’s care. However, managers oversight of the quality of care provided to children is ineffective. They did not identify the concerns highlighted in this inspection and some serious incidents were not notified to Ofsted as required by regulations.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

The new independent visitor for the home is the previous registered manager. Because of this recent connection to the home and the children, they are not suitably independent. As a result, the independent visitor has not provided sufficient challenge and has not identified the safegaurding concerns in relation to care practice.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

When managers have concerns regarding the responses of other agencies, they do not challenge other professionals effectively. As a result, children do not always get the support and responses needed from those best placed to help them.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

Staff have access to a range of training. However, as evidenced by the shortfalls found during this inspection, they are not supported to put their training into practice. In addition, staff do not receive any training to help them to understanding significant areas of children’s needs, such as mental health.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

Staff receive regular supervisions. These supervisions are not always effective in supporting staff to focus on safeguarding children or to reflect on their practices and to learn from these reflections. Inspection report for children’s home: SC066466 6 I relation to celebrating diversity and promoting equality, children are supported to be who they want to be. This is managed sensitively by staff and is led by children, who have confidence in talking about their identity. Inspection report for children’s home: SC066466 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 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 ensure that staff—

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Requirement Due date

understand and apply the home’s statement of purpose;

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Requirement Due date

protect and promote each child’s welfare.

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Requirement Due date

(Regulation 6 (1)(a) (b)(2)(a)(b)(i)(ii)) 19 September

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Requirement Due date

The health and well-being standard is that— the health and well-being needs of children are met;

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Requirement Due date

children receive advice, services and support in relation to their health and well-being; and

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Requirement Due date

children are helped to lead healthy lifestyles.

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Requirement Due date

In particular, staff must ensure that sufficient efforts are made to overcome the barriers to children accepting support in the cessation of drug taking and smoking. 19 September

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Requirement Due date

The positive relationships standard is that children are helped to develop, and to benefit from, relationships based on—

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Requirement Due date

an understanding about acceptable behaviour; and 19 September Inspection report for children’s home: SC066466 8 positive responses to other children and adults.

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Requirement Due date

In particular, the standard in paragraph (1) requires the registered person to ensure that staff—

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Requirement Due date

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

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Requirement Due date

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

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Requirement Due date

communicate to each child expectations about the child’s behaviour and ensure that the child understands those expectations in accordance with the child’s age and understanding.

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Requirement Due date

(Regulation 11 (1) (a) (b) (c ) (2) (a) (iii) (iv) (v))

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Requirement Due date

In particular, staff must ensure that the use of any consequences are reparative in nature and help children to learn from concerns. In addition, staff must take appropriate action to address concerns regarding bullying between children and help children find more positive ways to resolve conflicts.

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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

take effective action whenever there is a serious concern about a child’s welfare.

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Requirement Due date

(Regulation 12 (1) (2) (a) (i) (ii) (iii) (vi)) 01 September Inspection report for children’s home: SC066466 9 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

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

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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.

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Requirement Due date

(Regulation 12 (1) (2) (a) (iv) (b)) 19 September

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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 promotes their welfare.

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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

use monitoring and review systems to make continuous improvements in the quality of care provided in the home.

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Requirement Due date

In particular, the registered person must ensure that there is a positive culture of safeguarding in the home, which at the heart of it demonstrates professional curiosity.

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Requirement Due date

Additionally, the registered person must ensure that effective systems and processes are established to enable them to have effective oversight of the home and make improvements when these are identified. 19 September

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Requirement Due date

The care planning standard is that children— receive effectively planned care in or through the children’s home; and 19 September Inspection report for children’s home: SC066466 10 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 children are admitted to the home only if their needs are within the range of needs of children for whom it is intended that the home is to provide care and accommodation, as set out in the home’s statement of purpose;

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Requirement Due date

plan for, and help, each child to prepare to leave the home or to move into adult care in a way that is consistent with arrangements agreed with the child’s placing authority.

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Requirement Due date

(Regulation 14 (1) (a) (b) (2) (a) (b) (iii))

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Requirement Due date

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

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Requirement Due date

full and satisfactory information is available in relation to the individual in respect of each of the matters in Schedule 2.

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Requirement Due date

In particular, the registered person must ensure that when concerns are provided during the recruitment process, that these are suitably explored to evidence whether or not the person is suitable to work with children. In addition, managers must ensure that they seek to verify the reasons why relevant employments ended, as far as is reasonable practicable. 19 September

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must ensure that all employees— receive practice-related supervision by a person with appropriate experience.

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Requirement Due date

In particular, the registered person must ensure that staff are provided with supervision that enables them to reflect upon their own practices, including the safeguarding culture of the home. 19 September Inspection report for children’s home: SC066466 11 The registered person must prepare and implement a policy (“the missing child policy”) setting out—

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Requirement Due date

the steps taken, and to be taken, to prevent children from being absent without permission; and

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Requirement Due date

the procedures to be followed, and the roles and responsibilities of persons working at the home, in relation to a child who is, or has been, so absent.

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Requirement Due date

In particular, the registered person must ensure that following a child being missing from the home, that all reasonable effort is made to understand the circumstances to them going missing and what can be done to try and prevent recurrence. 19 September

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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 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

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Requirement Due date

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.

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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. 19 September Inspection report for children’s home: SC066466 12 (Regulation 35 (3) (a) (v) (vi) (vii) (b) (i) (ii) (c))

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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.

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Requirement Due date

(Regulation 40 (4) (c ) (e)) 19 September

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Requirement Due date

The registered provider must appoint, at the registered provider’s expense, a person (“the independent person”) to visit and report on the children’s home carried on by the registered provider.

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Requirement Due date

Subject to paragraphs (4) and (5), the registered provider may not appoint the following as an independent person—

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Requirement Due date

a person who has, or has had, a connection with—

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Requirement Due date

(Regulation 43 (1) (3) (g) (i) (ii) (iii)) 19 September

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Requirement Due date

*These requirements are subject to a compliance notice.

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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: SC066466 13

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Children’s home details

Registered provider: The Cuckfield Care Consultancy Limited

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: Ashburnham, Cuckfield Road, Ansty, Haywards Heath, West Sussex RH17 5AG

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Inspectors

Jay Shekleton, Social Care Inspector Louise Webling, Social Care Inspector Inspection report for children’s home: SC066466 14 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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Inspectors

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Inspectors

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Inspectors

T: 0300 123 1231 Textphone: 0161 618 8524 E: enquiries@ofsted.gov.uk W: www.gov.uk/ofsted

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