2615342.

Inspection report for children’s home: 2615342 1 Registered provider: Witherslack Group 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

The children’s home is privately owned. The home provides care for up to seven children who have experienced childhood trauma and display social and emotional difficulties.

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Information about this children’s home

The manager registered with Ofsted in December 2020.

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Overall experiences and progress of

children and young people, taking into account

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good

How well children and young people are helped and protected requires improvement to be good

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good

The effectiveness of leaders and managers requires improvement to be good

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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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good

Date of last inspection: 23 January 2024

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good

Overall judgement at last inspection: good

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good

Enforcement action since last inspection: none Inspection report for children’s home: 2615342 2

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

23/01/2024 Full Good 16/01/2023 Full Good 03/08/2021 Full Good Inspection report for children’s home: 2615342 3

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improvement to be good

There were seven children present during the inspection. The inspectors saw all of the children and spent time talking and playing with them.

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improvement to be good

The home is mostly well decorated and inviting. Children’s photos are proudly displayed in photo frames. Children’s bedrooms are personalised and reflect their interests and hobbies. One child’s bedroom contained broken furniture. The damage occurred during an incident and was not immediately replaced due to the likelihood of further damage, which indicates a lack of understanding of the child’s behaviour. Some features detract from the homely environment and are indicative of institutional practice, for example window restrictors, the locked pantry to enable snack rationing and the locked utility room.

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improvement to be good

Children say they like their home because they like staff. They are supported to make choices and decisions about their lives, for example designing their bedrooms, activities and meal planning. Children find staff approachable; they talk to them about their worries and are able to ask for help. However, when children raise concerns about school, they do not feel listened to and do not always know the outcome of their complaints.

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improvement to be good

Staff help children to stay healthy. They have been proactive in helping one child to reduce their medication in conjunction with health professionals. Staff suspect that another child has undiagnosed learning needs, and they are helping them to access specialist input by making referrals for them. Staff advocate for children to have choice and to have a say in their healthcare.

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improvement to be good

Staff encourage children to develop their independence skills, supporting healthy moves on to adulthood. They support children with budgeting, cooking and personal hygiene. The provider offers children the opportunity to access their bespoke ‘futures programme’, which enables them to seek employment support, both now and when they have moved on.

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improvement to be good

Children participate in activities and hobbies that they enjoy, for example ice skating, football clubs, artwork, photography and gaming. Staff promote children’s interests by ensuring that they have the right equipment for their chosen hobbies. Children’s artwork and photography are hung around the house to demonstrate that their interests and skills are valued.

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improvement to be good

The provider has a ‘wraparound care’ approach, which means that children live in its homes and attend its schools. Therefore, the children spend lots of time together across both environments, which contributes to some strained relationship dynamics in the home. This tension is noticeable to both staff and parents. Some children’s Inspection report for children’s home: 2615342 4 relationships have deteriorated, but staff make efforts to help them re-establish respect and tolerance towards each other.

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improvement to be good

Staff aim for children to have good school attendance, despite children voicing that they feel unsafe at school. Children have expressed concerns about being physically harmed by school staff, experiencing bullying and feeling intimidated by the unpredictable environment. While children have positive experiences at home, their negative experiences at school impact on their emotional well-being and feelings of safety.

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improvement to be good

Children talk to staff about their negative school experiences, sharing their views and feelings towards incidents. Children have disclosed that school staff have restrained them on their front, put them in a headlock and punched them. One child was injured after a physical intervention at school, and this was investigated by the police, who took no further action. The registered manager liaises with the headteacher regarding the children’s disclosures and relies on him to make referrals to the local authority about teaching staff, seeking updates about the outcome of investigations.

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improvement to be good

When children make disclosures to staff, they respond appropriately by listening to them and showing empathy. In one instance, staff offered to telephone the police, but the child declined so staff refrained from making a police report. On another occasion, the registered manager supported a parent to make a referral about school staff to the local authority. The registered manager felt unable to take this action herself because of company policy, created by the head of safeguarding, which stipulates that registered managers cannot make referrals about school staff.

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improvement to be good

The registered manager recognises that school staff struggle to help children when they show signs of distress. Consequently, she has regular meetings with school staff and the clinical team to discuss children’s support needs and to share strategies, encouraging them to adapt their approach towards the children. The registered manager directs some challenge towards the headteacher when children’s recollections differ from school incident reports. However, this challenge is not robust enough. When children are significantly unsettled at school, the registered manager arranges for home staff to support them on school grounds, hoping their presence will reassure the children.

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improvement to be good

While home staff have not observed children being physically harmed at school, some believe the environment is chaotic and detrimental to the children’s well-being. They notice a deterioration in the children’s behaviour at school. This coincides with school staff informing the registered manager that a large percentage of their physical interventions are for children living at the home. These observations and unhealthy dynamics have become normalised. The registered manager has not questioned the suitability of the school. However, she has highlighted concerns in her Inspection report for children’s home: 2615342 5 supervisions with the responsible individual, but this does not result in meaningful change for the children.

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improvement to be good

When the children are collected from school, they are sometimes crying and visibly stressed. Coincidently, most incidents occur when the children return home from school. They tease, mock and goad each other, and this can quickly escalate to verbal threats and, sometimes, physical altercations. Staff intervene to help children manage their relationships and to keep everyone safe. The transmission of school behaviours into the home environment causes some children to feel unsafe at times. However, with staff support, children usually begin to settle from 6pm onwards.

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improvement to be good

Children have noticed a difference between the way they are treated by home staff and school staff. The use of physical intervention in the home is moderate and proportionate to the presenting risk. However, during two incidents, staff were not in control and needed to improvise to keep everyone safe. This is a rare occurrence, and staff were able to regain control and help the children to understand appropriate boundaries.

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improvement to be good

Staff are mindful of children’s views and feelings and talk with them after incidents, giving them space to vent and express their feelings. Staff are mindful that children spend lots of time together across home and school and therefore understand that their tolerance towards each other can sometimes dwindle. They show empathy towards the children while also reiterating the importance of healthy boundaries. They help the children to reflect on what they could do differently in the future.

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improvement to be good

When children move into the home, they automatically have door alarms turned on for the first three months, irrespective of their vulnerabilities and the risk this presents. This blanket approach is institutional and fails to take account of children’s individual needs. Some children continue to have door alarms after the initial three- month period; the threshold for this is low. The identified risks appear static because they are not regularly reviewed, which means children’s progress is not properly explored or understood. Furthermore, staff guidance relating to door alarms is inconsistent across some children’s risk assessments, which is confusing.

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good

The registered manager has made efforts to challenge the school and senior leaders about the children’s detrimental school experiences. However, this challenge has not been robust enough, and the absence of tangible change means children feel unheard. Most children continue to attend school, despite feeling unsafe. However, one child has refused to return to school, and their social worker has agreed that they can attend an alternative learning provision for 10 hours per week. This reduction in learning hours reduces the child’s educational opportunities.

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good

The registered manager has failed to challenge the company’s policy, which prohibits her from making referrals to the local authority about school staff. This policy directly Inspection report for children’s home: 2615342 6 conflicts with the home’s statement of purpose and The Children’s Homes (England) Regulations 2015. The registered manager has not identified that the policy curtails her professional autonomy, impacting on her safeguarding responsibilities.

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good

Outside of concerns relating to school staff, the registered manager responds appropriately to safeguarding concerns. For example, she consults with the local authority when children share concerns about adults working in the home. She ensures that investigations are completed and that outcomes are understood by staff and children. She helps them to rebuild their relationships and draws learning from incidents, which is shared during individual supervisions and team meetings. For example, she helps staff to understand the importance of timeliness when responding to children’s behaviours.

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good

Professionals shared positive feedback about the home. They highlighted that staff support children to share their views, help them to see their families and respond appropriately when children go missing. Parents spoke positively about the care their children received, although they acknowledged that tension sometimes exists between the children.

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good

The registered manager has experienced several challenges since the last inspection. For example, eight staff have left the home for various reasons, and her former manager has also left the organisation.

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good

There is some indication of cultural deficits in the company, and this is impacting on the manager’s performance and the children’s experiences. Inspection report for children’s home: 2615342 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 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

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

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 effectiveness of the home’s child protection policies is monitored regularly. (Regulation 12 (1) (2)(a)(i)(iii)(v)(vi)(b)(e))

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Requirement Due date

In particular, the registered person should ensure that they fulfil their safeguarding duties when children make disclosures of harm, regardless of the adults’ occupation or connectedness with the company.

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Requirement Due date

In particular, the registered manager should ensure that they identify and address any inconsistencies between their safeguarding duties and the company’s internal policies. They 7 February Inspection report for children’s home: 2615342 8 should also highlight to leaders when policies contradict each other and provide misleading information, which puts children at risk of harm.

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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—

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Requirement Due date

provide personalised care that meets each child’s needs, as recorded in the child’s relevant plans, taking account of the child’s background. (Regulation 6 (1)(a)(b) (2)(b)(iv)(v))

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Requirement Due date

In particular, the registered person should ensure that children’s risk assessments for door alarms are personalised and reflect their needs, vulnerabilities, risks, background and progress. 7 February

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Recommendation

 The registered person should ensure that the home is a nurturing and supportive environment that meets the needs of the children. It should be a homely, domestic environment. The home must comply with the relevant health and safety legislations, such as installing alarms and following food hygiene. However, in doing so, the home should seek as far as possible to maintain a domestic rather than ‘institutional’ impression. (‘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 Inspection report for children’s home: 2615342 9 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: 2615342 10

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Children’s home details

Registered provider: Witherslack Group Limited

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: Lupton Tower, Lupton, Carnforth, Lancashire LA6 2PR

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Inspectors

Tara Webb, Social Care Regulatory Inspector Martin Brown, Social Care Regulatory Inspector Inspection report for children’s home: 2615342 11 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

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