Children's home run by Witherslack Group Limited

Inspection report for children’s home: 2585926 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 home is owned and managed by a private company. It is registered to provide care for up to seven children who may experience social and emotional difficulties.

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Information about this children’s home

The manager registered with Ofsted in January 2021.

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Information about this children’s home

There were seven children living at the home at the time of the inspection.

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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 good

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good

The children’s home provides effective services that meet the requirements for good.

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good

Date of last inspection: 15 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: 2585926 2

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

15/01/2024 Full Good 07/02/2023 Full Good 26/10/2021 Full Good Inspection report for children’s home: 2585926 3

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

One child has moved out of the home since the last inspection. The staff supported the child to move out of the home in a planned way after they were no longer able to meet the child’s needs. Staff worked with the child’s placing authority to support the child to move to a new home and stay in touch. This ensures the child can stay connected with familiar adults while they settle into their new living arrangements.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

A child received a well-supported move into the home. Staff made efforts to meet with the child and their family so that the child was familiar with them before they moved into the home. This helped the child settle into the home with ease.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children develop positive and trusting relationships with staff. Children were able to name staff who they can speak to and enjoy spending time with. The quality of children’s relationships has a significant impact on their experience of living in the home.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children make good progress from their starting points. This includes in their education, and most of the children are engaged in full-time education and are making progress. One child is not engaged in learning, skills or employment but is supported by staff to develop independence skills.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff work with children creatively to enhance their experiences. Children take part in projects to help them develop their understanding of the environment. The children’s achievements are rewarded and celebrated nationally. The impact of this work on one child could have lifelong benefits from everything they have learned.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children gain opportunities for roles and responsibilities in the home. Children apply for jobs advertised and are interviewed to secure roles that are rewarded financially. This helps children develop skills for life.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children are regularly engaged in activities in and out of the home. Children enjoy holidays and day trips as a group and individually. The staff keep memory books for children with photos of their experiences for children to access. Staff gave a digital album to a child as a memoir when they moved out of the home.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children and staff reflected that they have experienced a difficult period in the home. This is due to staff needing to provide a high level of support to a child to help keep them safer. Staff acknowledge that this led to other children not receiving the attention they would have wished for. Children, however, were positive about the changes in the home and the time staff spend with them. Inspection report for children’s home: 2585926 4

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improvement to be good

Allegations made against staff by children are not fully investigated. Safety plans for staff who remain working in the home while an investigation takes place do not consider risk management for all children in the home. In addition, although the manager works in collaboration with the local authority designated officer an internal investigation fails to further explore the allegations raised.

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improvement to be good

Children’s risk assessments and plans provide details of children’s known risks and vulnerabilities and the strategies for staff to support them. However, door sensors are used for all children who move into the home, and for one child, sensors were in use without the rationale being detailed in their risk assessment. Therefore, children are subject to monitoring systems when the reasoning for this is unclear.

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improvement to be good

Physical interventions take place in the home as a last resort when children need to be held to keep them or other people safe. One child experienced lengthy periods of being held by staff. Although staff and the child have engaged in a debrief to discuss what has happened, it is not always clear if a manager has spoken to the child or staff after the incident. In addition, children are not offered an advocate to speak to. This does not provide assurances that the manager has oversight of how children are being supported during and after incidents when staff physically intervene.

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improvement to be good

Not all negative consequences given to children are reviewed or have oversight by a manager. When a child is given a financial consequence, an opportunity for reparation to support their learning from what has happened is provided. However, when decisions are made to remove a child’s electronics, there are no systems in place for this to be reviewed by a manager. Therefore, children receive repeated consequences without oversight and review of the effectiveness by a manager.

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improvement to be good

Staff work with children to help them understand their feelings and reflect on their behaviours. A strength of the home is how they use their resources to better understand children’s presenting needs, considering their current behaviours and past experiences.

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improvement to be good

Safe recruitment arrangements are in place. This ensures that adults who come to work in the home have had the necessary safeguarding checks to ensure they are safe to work with children.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The manager has systems in place to monitor and assess the quality of care children receive. This includes the manager identifying changes in children’s behaviours and evaluating how they can better support the child. In addition, the manager builds positive working relationships with professionals to share information about children to lead to better outcomes. Inspection report for children’s home: 2585926 5 Staff feel well supported by leaders and managers. The manager and staff receive regular opportunities to reflect on their practice and focus on children. Supervision takes place regularly and is valued by staff.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The manager ensures that staff meet to discuss the children. Regular team meetings take place that focus on children, learning and developing practice. In addition, consultations with a clinical team take place to focus on children. These consultations help staff to reflect on how they support and work with children and develop learning from this.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Staff attend training so they have the skills to meet children’s needs. The manager ensures that staff are provided with new learning opportunities to help them support children’s changing needs.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The manager does not ensure that Ofsted is notified when an allegation is made against a member of staff or that notifications are made in a timely manner. This prevents scrutiny of an incident at an earlier stage to understand what steps are being taken by the manager and how they are responding to the concern.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Staff are not provided with a private and separate sleep room from the rooms accessed by children. A sleeping area has been made in the children’s games room, which is a separate annexe in the home’s garden. In addition, there are minimal arrangements for the storage of their personal belongings. Inspection report for children’s home: 2585926 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, 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

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; and

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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)(vi)(vii)(e))

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Requirement Due date

In particular, the registered person must ensure that any allegations made by children about staff practice are fully investigated and a record of any decisions and outcomes is retained. 11 April 2025

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Requirement Due date

within 24 hours of the use of a measure of control, discipline or restraint in relation to a child in the home, a record is made which includes—

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Requirement Due date

details of the child’s behaviour leading to the use of the measure;

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Requirement Due date

the date, time and location of the use of the measure;

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Requirement Due date

a description of the measure and its duration; 11 April 2025 Inspection report for children’s home: 2585926 7 details of any methods used or steps taken to avoid the need to use the measure;

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Requirement Due date

the name of the person who used the measure ("the user"), and of any other person present when the measure was used;

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Requirement Due date

the effectiveness and any consequences of the use of the measure; and

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Requirement Due date

a description of any injury to the child or any other person, and any medical treatment administered, as a result of the measure;

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Requirement Due date

within 48 hours of the use of the measure, the registered person, or a person who is authorised by the registered person to do so ("the authorised person")—

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Requirement Due date

has spoken to the user about the measure; and

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Requirement Due date

has signed the record to confirm it is accurate; and

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Requirement Due date

within 5 days of the use of the measure, the registered person or the authorised person adds to the record confirmation that they have spoken to the child about the measure. (Regulation 35 (3)(a)(i)(ii)(iii)(iv)(v)(vi)(vii)(viii)(b)(i)(ii)(c))

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Recommendations

 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 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. In particular, the registered person should ensure that bedroom door sensors for children are only used when assessed, as necessary. (‘Guide to the Children’s Homes Regulations, including the quality standards’, page 42, paragraph 9.5)  The registered person should ensure that the design of the home provides staff who sleep in the home overnight with appropriate accommodation and facilities to do so. (‘Guide to the Children’s Homes Regulations, including the quality standards’, page 17, paragraph 3.26)  The registered person should ensure that they notify Ofsted and other relevant

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Recommendations

persons if one of the situations specified in Regulation 40(4)(a)-(d) occurs, or if there is an incident relating to the protection, safeguarding or welfare of a child living in the home that the registered person considers to be serious (40(4)(e)). In particular, the registered person must notify Ofsted if there is an allegation against a person working Inspection report for children’s home: 2585926 8 in the home and must ensure that there are systems in place for all serious events to be notified within 24 hours. (‘Guide to the Children’s Home Regulations, including the quality standards’, page 63, paragraphs 14.10 and 14.13)

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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: 2585926 9

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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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Inspector

Joanne Wallis, Social Care Inspector Inspection report for children’s home: 2585926 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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