Children's Home run by Middlesbrough Borough Council in Middlesbrough

Inspection report for children’s home - monitoring visit: SC472374 1 SC472374 Registered provider: Middlesbrough Borough Council

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Inspection under the social care common inspection framework

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Information about this children’s home

The home is owned and manager by a local authority. It provides care for four children who may have special educational needs and/or disabilities.

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Information about this children’s home

The posts of registered manager and responsible individual are currently vacant. The current manager’s application to register is in progress and a new responsible individual has been appointed.

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This monitoring visit

Following a full inspection carried out on 17 and 18 June 2024, compliance notices were issued under Regulations 12 and 13. A monitoring visit took place on 29 July 2024. Insufficient progress had been made to meet the compliance notices and consequently they were reissued. This visit was undertaken to monitor the provider’s response to the compliance notices.

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This monitoring visit

Leaders have commissioned an agency team to take over the day-to-day care of the children. Some permanent staff remain working in the home to ensure children see a familiar adult in their home. These arrangements were made without consulting with the manager and staff who know the children. The children and staff had limited time to prepare for the changes.

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This monitoring visit

Leaders and managers do not provide staff with details about how to safely support children before and during restraint. This is because children’s safety plans do not provide direction for staff, leaving them to decide how to respond. This does not provide reassurance that leaders and managers are taking responsibility for how children in their care should be helped.

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This monitoring visit

Leaders and managers do not ensure that staff have the skills to care for and support children. Some agency staff working in the home have not had essential Inspection report for children’s home - monitoring visit: SC472374 2 training in restraint. Other staff have been trained in differing ways to de-escalate situations and hold children safely. This means that the way staff respond to children is not consistent.

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This monitoring visit

Children continue to experience a lack of continuity in their care. This is due to a further increase in the number of staff working in the home who are not known to the children. This does not provide reassurance that the children’s welfare and relationships have been central to decision-making.

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This monitoring visit

The manager does not have oversight of all injuries to children. Staff do not routinely complete body maps when children sustain an injury. When injuries are recorded, the manager does not have oversight of these in a timely manner. This delays the manager from being able to address any practice concerns and ensure that children get additional help if needed.

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This monitoring visit

A monthly audit designed to monitor and review children’s progress has recently been introduced. The audit identifies trends and patterns across the staff team, children and their records. Actions are clear and identify who should addressed them and when. The effectiveness of this has not yet been tested, and the manager’s oversight of children’s care remains poor.

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This monitoring visit

The quality of children’s daily records has declined. Records are not consistently completed, and there are some days when there are no entries to capture the children’s experiences or how their care has been managed. The introduction of additional agency staff to the home is contributing to this poor record-keeping, as training on systems and expectations for record-keeping have not been provided.

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This monitoring visit

Children continue to be cared for by staff who are not able to communicate effectively with them. Staff who had received training to use the Picture Exchange Communication System and were learning sign language have moved to other homes within the local authority. Managers are not aware if the agency staff possess these important skills. Therefore, two children in the home are restricted in how they can communicate and who with.

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This monitoring visit

A case review was held on 12 September 2024, where it was agreed that the compliance notices were not met and have therefore been reissued. The requirements and recommendations from the previous inspection have not been reviewed and are therefore re-stated along with two new requirements. Inspection report for children’s home - monitoring visit: SC472374 3

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

17/06/2024 Full Inadequate 20/02/2024 Full Inadequate 26/10/2022 Full Good 09/11/2021 Full Good Inspection report for children’s home - monitoring visit: SC472374 4

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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 with 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

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. (Regulation 12 (1) (2)(a)(i)(iii)(vi)) 6 October 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;

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Requirement Due date

ensure the home has sufficient staff to provide care for each child; 6 October 2024 Inspection report for children’s home - monitoring visit: SC472374 5 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

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

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Requirement Due date

In meeting the quality standards, the registered person must, and must ensure that staff—

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Requirement Due date

seek to involve each child’s placing authority effectively in the child’s care, in accordance with the child’s relevant plans;

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Requirement Due date

if the registered person considers, or staff consider, a placing authority’s or a relevant person’s performance or response to be inadequate in relation to their role, challenge the placing authority or the relevant person to seek to ensure that each child’s needs are met in accordance with the child’s relevant plans. (Regulation 5 (a)(c))

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Requirement Due date

This requirement was made at the last inspection and is restated. 6 October 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 the individual satisfies the requirements in paragraph (3). The requirements are that—

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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

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 6 October 2024 Inspection report for children’s home - monitoring visit: SC472374 6 a qualification which the registered person considers to be equivalent to the Level 3 Diploma.

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Requirement Due date

in the case of an individual who starts working in a care role in a home after 1st April 2014, the date which falls 2 years after the date on which the individual started working in a care role in a home. (Regulation 32 (1) (2)(a) (3)(d)) (4)(a)(b) (5)(a))

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Requirement Due date

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

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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.

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Requirement Due date

In order to complete a quality of care review the registered person must establish and maintain a system for monitoring, reviewing and evaluating—

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Requirement Due date

the quality of care provided for children;

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Requirement Due date

the feedback and opinions of children about the children’s home, its facilities and the quality of care they receive in it; and

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Requirement Due date

any actions that the registered person considers necessary in order to improve or maintain the quality of care provided for children.

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Requirement Due date

The system referred to in paragraph (2) must provide for ascertaining and considering the opinions of children, their parents, placing authorities and staff. (Regulation 45 (1) (2)(a)(b)(c) (5))

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Requirement Due date

This requirement was made at the last inspection and is restated. 6 October 2024

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must ensure that the employment of any person on a temporary basis at the children’s home does not prevent children from receiving such continuity of care as is reasonable to meet their needs. (Regulation 31 (1)) 6 October 2024 Inspection report for children’s home - monitoring visit: SC472374 7 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. (Regulation 35 (1)(a)(b)) 6 October 2024

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Requirement Due date

*These requirements are subject to a compliance notice.

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Recommendations

 The registered person should ensure that all staff receive practice-related supervision that allows them to reflect on their practice and the needs of the children assigned to their care. (Guide to the Children’s Homes Regulations, including the quality standards’ page 61, paragraph 13.2)  The registered person should gain consent for any monitoring or surveillance from the placing authority in writing at the time of placement. (‘Guide to the Children’s Homes Regulations, including the quality standards’ page 16. paragraph 3.16).

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Information about this inspection

The purpose of this visit was to monitor the action taken and the progress made by the children’s home since its last Ofsted inspection.

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Information about this inspection

This inspection was carried out under the Care Standards Act 2000. Inspection report for children’s home - monitoring visit: SC472374 8

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Children’s home details

Registered provider: Middlesbrough Borough Council

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: Middlesbrough House, 50 Corporation Road, Middlesbrough, Middlesbrough TS1 2RH

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Inspectors

Joanne Wallis, Social Care Inspector Lee Riley, Social Care Inspector Inspection report for children’s home - monitoring visit: SC472374 9 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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