Children's home run by Almond Care Children’s Services Ltd

Assurance inspection report for children’s home: 2567607 1 Registered provider: Almond Care Children’s Services Limited

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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. It offers care for up to five children who experience social and emotional difficulties.

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Information about this children’s home

At the time of this inspection, no children were living at the home. However, two children have been cared for in the home since the last inspection.

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Information about this children’s home

The home is run by a registered manager. The manager was unavailable for this inspection.

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Inspection date: 20 January 2025

Enforcement action since last inspection: none

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Information about this inspection

At this inspection, the inspectors evaluated:

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Information about this inspection

 the care of children  the safety of children  the effectiveness of leaders and managers. Inspectors have looked closely at the experiences and progress of children, using the social care common inspection framework. This assurance 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’. Assurance inspection report for children’s home: 2567607 2

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Findings from the inspection

We identified serious and widespread concerns in relation to the care and protection of children at this assurance inspection. Consequently, Ofsted acted and suspended the service on 21 January 2025. Additionally, three compliance notices have been issued under Regulation 12 (the protection of children standard), Regulation 36 (children’s case records) and Regulation 26 (fitness of registered provider).

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Findings from the inspection

The organisation temporarily closed the home in September 2024, and two children who were living at the home moved out. This was due to extensive property damage and associated risks in the environment. The organisation moved one child back into the property following some improvements to the condition. In recent weeks there was further and extensive damage to the home, which has rendered it unsafe, and the organisation ended the child’s placement and commenced extensive repairs. When Ofsted visited, both children had moved out.

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Findings from the inspection

Several windows and doors, internal and external, have been boarded up as a temporary measure. These are unsightly and present a fire and safety risk to children and staff. The provider had ordered new windows, but these were not yet in place.

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Findings from the inspection

The communal kitchen is no longer operational. There is a broken kitchen cupboard with screws protruding. This poses a risk to children and staff. Some electrical wiring is exposed and requires further assessment to ensure that it is safe. Overall, the property is unwelcoming and in its current condition is not a fit place for children to live.

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Findings from the inspection

The responsible individual and manager have not given due consideration to the risks posed by some children at the point of them coming to live at the home. One child joined the home with known risks of property damage and subsequently a second child joined the home who also had risks of damaging property. This resulted in an escalation of challenging behaviour between the children.

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Findings from the inspection

Senior leaders have made some attempts to repair the damage. However, due to staff being unable to manage children’s behaviours, there has been ongoing repetition, resulting in the property damage.

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Findings from the inspection

Children’s records are not stored safely, and these records contain private information. The records are stored in piles on the floor. This is not respecting children’s private documents. There is a risk of children’s documents getting lost and misplaced. The information relates to different children who no longer live at the home.

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Findings from the inspection

Staff have been unable to manage children’s risk-taking behaviours. Restraint practice by staff to manage children’s behaviour has not been effective. This has led to staff getting injured and the home becoming an unsafe place for children to live. Assurance inspection report for children’s home: 2567607 3 Senior leaders have been ineffective in escalating concerns strongly enough to wider safeguarding partner agencies. For example, there were significant delays in arranging a disruption meeting for one child. This hampered any efforts to put services in place which the child and staff needed.

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Findings from the inspection

There has been a lack of management oversight and review of the quality of care provided. This is necessary to recognise when care is not effective and when situations become unsafe. Although the child’s placement was at a point of crisis, the manager did not receive timely individual supervision or oversight of their management of the home. This shortfall prevents leaders understanding how the home is being managed and the manager being able to discuss their own needs.

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Findings from the inspection

Despite the shortfalls, there have been some positives in the care being provided to children. The provider recognised that the home was not in a suitable condition and notified Ofsted that children would not be admitted to the home until the damage could be repaired.

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Findings from the inspection

The staff are committed to children and the organisation. Staff and senior leaders have persevered to try and support children where possible. For example, one child made some progress in their education. Staff developed an effective working relationship with one child’s parent, which helped the child to make some progress.

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Findings from the inspection

Senior leaders have responded quickly to Ofsted’s concerns. They recognise that the property, in its current state, is unsafe, and builders have started to repair the home. However, there is no manager in post to drive these improvements forward and therefore this task will need to be actioned by the responsible individual

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Findings from the inspection

The recommendations from the previous inspection have not been reviewed at this inspection. Assurance inspection report for children’s home: 2567607 4

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

21/08/2024 Full Good 14/02/2024 Full Good 13/12/2022 Full Outstanding 29/06/2021 Full Outstanding Assurance inspection report for children’s home: 2567607 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 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

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

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)(b)(d))

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must ensure that the home is repaired to a safe standard and is a comfortable family home for children. 28 March 2025

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Requirement Due date

*The registered person must maintain records (“case records”) for each child which—

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Requirement Due date

securely in the children’s home during the period when the child to whom the case records relate is accommodated there; and

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Requirement Due date

in a secure place after the child has ceased to be accommodated in the home. (Regulation 36 (1) (2)(c)(d))

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Requirement Due date

Senior leaders must organise and store children’s records safely. This storage should consider children’s need for privacy. 28 March 2025 Assurance inspection report for children’s home: 2567607 6 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

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. (Regulation 13 (1)(a)(b) (2)(a)(f))

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Requirement Due date

The registered person should ensure that care for children is met as outlined in the statement of purpose. 28 March 2025

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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

seek to secure the input and services required to meet each child’s needs;

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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)(b)(c))

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Requirement Due date

The manager and responsible individual must take effective action to ensure children are well cared for and safe. 28 March 2025 Assurance inspection report for children’s home: 2567607 7 If the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005(30) applies to the home—

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Requirement Due date

the registered person must ensure that the requirements of that Order and any regulations made under it, except for article 23 (duties of employees), are complied with in respect of the home. (Regulation 25 (2)(a)(b))

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Requirement Due date

The registered person should ensure that the home complies with fire safety regulations. 28 March 2025

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Requirement Due date

have the capacity, experience and skills to supervise the management of the home, or the homes, in respect of which the responsible individual is nominated. (Regulation 26 (7)(b))

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Requirement Due date

Senior leaders must carry out a learning review to assess how this situation got to this point of crisis.

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Requirement Due date

The responsible individual should take steps to recruit a manager. 28 March 2025

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Requirement Due date

The care planning standard is that children—

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Requirement Due date

receive effectively planned care in or through the children’s home; and

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Requirement Due date

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, asset out in the home’s statement of purpose. (Regulation 14 (1)(a)(b) (2)(a)) 28 March 2025

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Requirement Due date

*These requirements are subject to a compliance notice. Assurance inspection report for children’s home: 2567607 8

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Recommendations

 The registered person should ensure that staff have the skills and confidence to communicate easily and understand the importance of listening to, involving and responding to the children they care for. Staff should understand that they have a responsibility to observe, notice and respond to children who are expressing their views, acknowledging that it is not the sole responsibility of the child to ‘tell’. They should also understand how children might communicate their feelings through their behaviour, or nonverbally, especially where the child has a disability which does not allow them to communicate as others might. (‘Guide to the Children’s Homes Regulations, including the quality standards’, page 22, paragraph 4.10)  The registered person should ensure that staff continually and actively assess the risks to each child and the arrangements in place to protect them. Where there are safeguarding concerns for a child, their placement plan, agreed between the

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Recommendations

home and their placing authority, must include details of the steps the home will take to manage any assessed risks on a day-to-day basis. (‘Guide to the Children’s Homes Regulations, including the quality standards’, page 42, paragraph 9.5)  The registered person should ensure that staff can access appropriate facilities and resources to support their training needs and should understand the key role they play in the training and development of staff in the home. (‘Guide to the Children’s Homes Regulations, including the quality standards’, page 53, paragraph 10.11)  The registered person should ensure that staff are familiar with the home’s policies on record-keeping and understand the importance of careful, objective and clear recording. Staff should record information about individual children in a non-stigmatising way that distinguishes between fact, opinion and third-party information. Information about the child must always be recorded in a way that

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Recommendations

will be helpful to the child. (‘Guide to the Children’s Homes Regulations, including the quality standards’, page 62, paragraph 14.4) Assurance inspection report for children’s home: 2567607 9

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Children’s home details

Registered provider: Almond Care Children’s Services Limited

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: Almond Care Ltd, 4 Barling Way, Nuneaton CV10 7RH

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Inspectors

Andi Lilley-Tams, Regulatory Inspection Manager Becky Thompson, Social Care Inspector Assurance inspection report for children’s home: 2567607 10 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 children looked after, safeguarding and child protection.

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Inspectors

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Inspectors

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Inspectors

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Inspectors

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