Children's home run by North East Lincolnshire Council

Inspection report for children’s home: 2775104 1 Registered provider: North East Lincolnshire Council

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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 and managed by a local authority. It provides care for one child who may experience social and emotional difficulties, a learning disability or a sensory impairment.

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Information about this children’s home

This is the first inspection since the home was registered with Ofsted in May 2024. The manager also registered in May 2024.

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Information about this children’s home

One child lives in the home and the inspector spoke with them during the inspection.

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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 inadequate

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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: 2775104 2

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improvement to be good

The significant shortfalls in the leadership and management have had an impact on the overall experiences and progress of the child living at the home.

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improvement to be good

The child currently living in the home has been there for approximately five weeks. This is a temporary arrangement. Staff support the child while a search is ongoing for a more suitable home. A mixture of local authority and temporary staff work in the home. This hinders the child from forming trusting relationships with staff as they know that this is not their long-term home.

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improvement to be good

The home’s current statement of purpose does not reflect what is provided at the home, nor staffing levels and training, use of rooms in the building or restrictions in place. This prevents children, families and professionals from understanding what should be in place in the home.

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improvement to be good

The home is clean, modern and welcoming and decorated to a good standard; however, damage caused has been left unrepaired. Some repairs, such as broken windows and a boarded window, affect the security of the building. This leaves the child and staff at risk of harm.

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improvement to be good

Staff care about and listen to the child. The child says that they like the home, the staff and living without other children. Since a change of staff team, the child has made some progress in the past few weeks. It is too early to say if this will continue.

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improvement to be good

Staff are committed to helping the child and recently supported them to return to school after they had not been attending for several weeks. Staff support the child to see their family regularly; this is important to the child and promotes their sense of belonging. Staff help the child to build positive relationships with professionals and encourage them to engage with supportive services. This includes attendance at health appointments.

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improvement to be good

Not all staff follow the child’s care plans. This contributes to staff not being able to de-escalate situations safely when the child has been in crisis. This results in the child being distressed for a prolonged period and puts both the child and staff at risk of harm. As a result, staff need support from the police to help manage these situations. Inspection report for children’s home: 2775104 3 Fire extinguishers have been relocated for safety in the home. However, staff were not able to locate the extinguishers in the main building. Given the need for restrictions because of a court order, this means that doors are locked and places a greater need on staff quickly locating fire extinguishers. The manager recognised this risk and rectified this during the inspection.

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improvement to be good

Safer recruitment checks have been completed for permanent staff. However, the information about agency workers does not include whether checks have been completed to look at gaps in employment. This does not reassure the manager that agency staff are safe to care for the child.

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improvement to be good

Staff have not always followed the child’s plans. Staff have left windows and doors unlocked, which meant that the child could go missing for prolonged periods of time. For the past two weeks, because of the new staff team providing consistent care, the child has gone missing less frequently. If they do try to go missing, the child now returns with staff without the need for police support.

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improvement to be good

The records show that there have been no occasions when staff have needed to physically guide or hold the child. However, one report indicates that staff had physically intervened to remove a fire extinguisher from the child. The failure to record this as a physical intervention means that the incident was not properly reviewed for the manager to reflect and help staff learn from what had happened.

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improvement to be good

Staff are resilient and most staff continue to support the child even at the most challenging times when they are concerned about how they can keep the child and themselves safe. This reflects their care for the child and staff’s understanding of the child’s need for consistent and caring relationships. The recent change in staffing arrangements has contributed towards this.

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improvement to be good

Recent changes in temporary staffing have helped the child to feel safer. Staff also report feeling safer now as the agency staff working at the home are following plans and working collaboratively with the team. The child has very recently started to respond to clear boundaries in a positive way. This is not yet embedded but staff and managers are hopeful that the child will feel more settled in the home.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

The current management structure of the home is not sufficient to support and manage the team. The manager is trying to manage a large staff team and an evolving and complex situation in the home alongside having oversight of two other homes. This has affected the manager’s ability to fulfil her management responsibilities and has resulted in significant shortfalls in the leadership and management of the home. Inspection report for children’s home: 2775104 4 When the manager is absent from the home, the staff team is unclear whom to contact if support is needed. This leads to staff’s reliance on each other and senior staff when making complex decisions around the safety management of the child.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

Staff are not always supported after distressing incidents. Staff do not receive the chance to have a conversation with the manager to offer them the chance to reflect or offload. Some staff say that they have not felt listened to by leaders and managers around risks and injuries that they face at work. Some staff have been absent from work in relation to this. Recently, this has been discussed in a team meeting with senior managers, and staff say that things have started to improve over a two-week period.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

There are not enough suitably experienced permanent staff to safely care for the child living at the home. This results in a reliance on agency staff to support permanent staff. Staff sickness has also affected the support provided. The manager could not produce a training matrix to demonstrate which staff had received training. This means that not all staff have the skills, knowledge and experience to support the child.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

The manager understands the needs of the child and works hard to promote consistency for them. She ensures that all staff now follow the care plans and staff challenge each other to do this. This is a positive step forward but has only recently been happening and still needs embedding in practice.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

Managers listen to and work collaboratively with the child. The child is actively involved in their care planning. The manager is helping the child to take ownership of their plans. They are also supporting them to learn to respect and respond to all staff through a consistent approach. Inspection report for children’s home: 2775104 5

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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 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 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;

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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

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; and

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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)(b)(c)(d)(e)(f)(h)) 10 September 2024 Inspection report for children’s home: 2775104 6 In particular, managers should review any incidents and unplanned physical interventions that take place.

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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

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

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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; and

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Requirement Due date

that the premises used for the purposes of the home are designed, furnished and maintained so as to protect each child from avoidable hazards to the child’s health. (Regulation 12 (1) (2)(a)(vi)(b)(d))

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Requirement Due date

In particular, the registered manager should ensure that repairs to the home are carried out in a timely manner to ensure the safety of the child and staff. 10 September 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;

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Requirement Due date

or 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 individual has the appropriate experience, qualification and skills for the work that the individual is to perform; 10 September 2024 Inspection report for children’s home: 2775104 7 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

For the purposes of paragraph (3)(b), an individual who works in the home in a care role has the appropriate qualification if, by the relevant date, the individual has attained—

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Requirement Due date

the Level 3 Diploma for Residential Childcare (England) (“the Level 3 Diploma”); or

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Requirement Due date

a qualification which the registered person considers to be equivalent to the Level 3 Diploma. (Regulation 32 (1) (2)(a)(b) (3(b)(d) (4)(a)(b))

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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

The registered person must provide a copy of the statement of purpose to HMCI and make a copy of it available upon request to—

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Requirement Due date

a child, or a child for whom accommodation in the home is being considered;

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Requirement Due date

a parent of a child, or a parent of a child for whom accommodation in the home is being considered;

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Requirement Due date

and in the case of a qualifying school, the Secretary of State.

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Requirement Due date

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

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Requirement Due date

and notify HMCI of any revisions and send HMCI a copy of the revised statement within 28 days of the revision. (Regulation 16 (1) (2)(a)(b)(c)(d)(e) (3)(a)(b)) 10 September 2024 Inspection report for children’s home: 2775104 8

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Recommendation

 The registered person should ensure that they comply with relevant health and safety legislations, including fire safety regulations. (‘Guide to the Children’s Homes Regulations, including the quality standards’, page 15, paragraph 3.9)

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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: 2775104 9

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Children’s home details

Registered Provider: North East Lincolnshire Council

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: Civic Offices, Knoll Street, Cleethorpes DN35 8LN

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Inspector

Carol Jagger, Social Care Inspector Inspection report for children’s home: 2775104 10 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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Inspector

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