Children's Home run by Benjamin UK Ltd in Bedford

Inspection report children's home: SC412953 1 SC412953 Registered provider: Benjamin UK Ltd

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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 privately run and offers therapeutic support, education and care for up to four children who may have experienced neglect, abuse or trauma that has left them vulnerable.

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Information about this children's home

Education is offered at a linked provision on a different site. The inspector only inspected the social care provision.

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Information about this children's home

The manager registered with Ofsted in May 2023.

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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: 25 September 2023

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requires improvement to be good

Overall judgement at last inspection: Good

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requires improvement to be good

Enforcement action since last inspection: none Inspection report children's home: SC412953 2

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

25/09/2023 Full Good 16/08/2022 Full Good 26/01/2022 Full Good 01/08/2019 Full Good Inspection report children's home: SC412953 3

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improvement to be good

The overall experiences and progress of children requires improvement to be good. The staff are unable to contain children leading to incidents and risk. Initial assessments do not adequately consider the needs of residing children. Risks between children are not kept under continued review by the manager. Consequently, some children have experienced bullying and some children have been moved from the home without sufficient notice. There has been a reliance on police to manage behavioural incidents.

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improvement to be good

One child was living at the home at the time of this inspection. Five children have moved out of the home and four children have moved in since the last inspection. The child living at the home was spoken to and the manager was present during the inspection.

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improvement to be good

Children have not had consistently good overall experiences at the home. Staff do not always encourage children to engage in learning independence skills. The child living at the home had an independence plan in place to cook for themselves. However, the manager said, ‘Sometimes they just refuse,’ and did not elaborate on what further action staff take to engage the child in their independence programme.

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improvement to be good

The child has made some progress in education. However, this is not sustained, due to engagement being sporadic. Staff said, ‘Incentives work sometimes and sometimes they don’t.’ However, staff did not provide any further examples of what is being done to support the child to engage more frequently. Another child did not engage in education at all during their time at the home.

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improvement to be good

There have been a high number of police callouts to the home to manage children’s behaviour. Some of these incidents involved assaults on staff, damage to property and children gaining access to the office and to vehicles. A social worker said that their child’s relationships with staff broke down beyond repair due to the number of police callouts.

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improvement to be good

Children have not always had positive endings to their time living at the home. Some children had sudden endings to their time at the home. Consequently, children have suffered relationship breakdowns and lost their home.

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improvement to be good

Children have good relationships with some staff. The staff meet with the children regularly. Records show a good level of engagement from children. The child said that they enjoy the activities provided by the staff.

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improvement to be good

Leaders and managers do not always ensure that staff understand the risks posed to children and the actions required to keep children safe. When children are assessed Inspection report children's home: SC412953 4 before moving into the home, leaders and managers have not always considered the impact that children will have on each other, given their individual needs and risks. This has contributed to a significant bullying incident. There have been several incidents of bullying between three children. One incident resulted in a child being moved with immediate effect to another home in the organisation to keep them safe.

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improvement to be good

After children move into the home, their individual risk assessments are thorough. However, staff do not always understand what these contain. These gaps hinder staff’s ability to keep children safe.

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improvement to be good

When children have been missing from the home, they have been offered return home interviews. However, opportunities to understand why children go missing and to help them to reduce incidents and the risks posed to them are sometimes missed.

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improvement to be good

Allegations against staff are managed well.

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improvement to be good

Physical interventions are rare and managed well. When these do occur, children are talked to following the incident and they can give their views. The staff reflect on what happened with the manager.

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improvement to be good

The child said that they felt safe at the home and identified staff they could speak to should they have any worries or concerns.

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

Leaders and managers have not identified the shortfalls identified at this inspection. They lack an awareness of the weaknesses of the home. The manager’s oversight does not lead to effective plans to address factors that lead up to incidents. Although the responsible individual has some oversight this has not formed part of an effective monitoring system.

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

The manager is suitably experienced and working towards a relevant level 5 diploma.

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

Leaders’ and managers’ systems for monitoring care are not effective. Leaders and managers do not provide consistent oversight of incidents at the home and the consequences given to children. This means that opportunities to evaluate staff practice for future learning and the effectiveness and impact of consequences on children may be missed.

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

A small proportion of staff are qualified to level 3. The home has recently lost some experienced members of staff, diluting the overall experience of the staff team. The manager acknowledges this and is in the process of recruiting staff. The home’s development plan does not identify staff experience, qualifications and continuing development needs, to support staff to meet children’s needs in line with the statement of purpose. Inspection report children's home: SC412953 5 Permanent staff have one-to-one supervision sessions with the manager or the deputy manager. However, the records lack detail and supervisions are not reflective of staff practice. The home uses agency staff to cover staff shortages. There were no supervision records for these staff. This does not provide all the staff with all the guidance that they need.

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

The manager has submitted their internal monitoring report to Ofsted as required. The report includes feedback from one external professional. However, it does not include feedback from parents and children. Therefore, the report does not evaluate feedback to understand the views of others on the quality of care provided.

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

Staff undertake the organisation’s mandatory training. Staff say they are supported by the managers.

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

Leaders and managers have developed good relationships with external professionals. Feedback from professionals is positive. A social worker said, ‘I can’t fault the home for keeping us up to date.’ Feedback from the child is also positive about the manager, and they named the manager as one of their favourite staff. Inspection report children's home: SC412953 6

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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, Children's Homes (England) Regulations 2015 and the 'Guide to the children's homes regulations including the quality standards'. The registered person(s) must comply within the given timescales.

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Requirement Due date

The protection of children standard is that children are protected from harm and enabled to keep themselves safe.

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Requirement Due date

In particular, the standard in paragraph (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

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

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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. (Regulation 12 (1) (2)(a)(i)(ii)(iii)(iv)(v)(vi)(vii))

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Requirement Due date

In particular, ensure that staff understand the risks posed to children, including risks children pose to each other, and their roles in relation to safeguarding children.

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Requirement Due date

In particular, ensure that the group dynamics and proximity of the home are fully considered before children move to the home. 1 August 2024 Inspection report children's home: SC412953 7 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

use monitoring and review systems to make continuous improvements in the quality of care provided in the home. (Regulation 13 (1)(a)(b) (2)(h))

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Requirement Due date

In particular, ensure that all incidents at the home are reviewed to evaluate staff practice and all consequences are reviewed to evaluate their effectiveness and impact on children. 1 August 2024

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Requirement Due date

The leadership and management standard is that the registered person enables, inspires and leads a culture in relation to the children’s home that—

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Requirement Due date

helps children aspire to fulfil their potential; and

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Requirement Due date

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

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Requirement Due date

ensure that staff have the experience, qualifications and skills to meet the needs of each child. (Regulation 13 (1)(a)(b) (2)(a)(c))

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Requirement Due date

This requirement was raised at the last inspection and is restated.

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Requirement Due date

In particular, ensue that children are familiar with night staff and that children needs are fully considered prior to coming to the home and that this is balanced with the needs of the children living at the home. 1 August 2024

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must complete a review of the quality of care provided for children (“a quality of care review”) at least once every 6 months. In order to complete a quality of care review the registered person must establish and maintain a system for monitoring, reviewing and evaluating— the quality of care provided for children; 1 August 2024 Inspection report children's home: SC412953 8 the feedback and opinions of children about the children’s home, its facilities and the quality of care they receive in it; and any actions that the registered person considers necessary in order to improve or maintain the quality of care provided for children. (Regulation 45 (1) (2)(a)(b)(c)) In particular, the registered person must carry out a review that focuses on the quality of the care provided by the home, the experiences of children living there and the impact that the care is having on outcomes and improvements for the children. The

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Requirement Due date

report must also include an evaluation of the feedback. The registered person must ensure that all employees—

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Requirement Due date

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

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Requirement Due date

In particular, ensure that all employees, including agency staff working at the home, receive practice-related supervision. 1 August 2024

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Recommendations

 When a child returns to the home after being missing from care or away from the home without permission, the responsible local authority must provide an opportunity for the child to have an independent return home interview. Homes should take account of information provided by such interviews when assessing risks and putting arrangements in place to protect each child. In particular the registered person should ensure that children are routinely offered return home interviews are missing from care incidents. The interview should be carried out within 72 hours of the child returning to their home or care setting. ('Guide to the Children's Homes Regulations, including the quality standards', page 45, paragraph 9.30)

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Recommendations

 The registered person should ensure the homes workforce plan updated to include any new training and qualifications completed by staff while working at the home, and used to record the ongoing training and continuing professional development needs of staff – including the home's manager. In particular the registered person should ensure the workforce plan contains accurate information. ('Guide to the Children's Homes Regulations, including the quality standards', page 53 paragraph 10.8) Inspection report children's home: SC412953 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 children's home: SC412953 10

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Children's home details

Registered provider address: Coach House, White House Court, Hockliffe Street, Leighton Buzzard LU7 1FD

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Children's home details

Responsible individual: Claudette Rudman

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Inspectors

Anver Rose, social care inspector Natalie Day, social care inspector Inspection report children's home: SC412953 11 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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