Children's Home run by Hertfordshire County Council in Hertfordshire

Inspection report for children’s home: SC379199 1 SC379199

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Registered provider: Hertfordshire County Council

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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 managed by a local authority. 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

There were three children living in the home at the time of the inspection.

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Information about this children’s home

The manager registered with Ofsted in November 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: 11 November 2024

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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 for children’s home: SC379199 2

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

11/11/2024 Full Good 04/12/2023 Full Good 07/06/2022 Full Good 28/07/2021 Full Good Inspection report for children’s home: SC379199 3

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improvement to be good

Children have mixed experiences of living at the home and are not currently making good progress. The children’s experiences and progress have been limited by shortfalls in their care, safeguarding and the leadership of the home.

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improvement to be good

Children are not provided with a sense of permanence at the home. Two children have moved on in difficult circumstances with a third child due to move. This does not provide children with stability and shows other children that their place in the home may not be secure. This makes it difficult for children to engage with staff.

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improvement to be good

Children’s progress in education is mixed. One child took GCSE exams and is proud of this achievement. However, children’s progress is not sustained. Currently, children are struggling to attend school or are not in any education provision. Ultimately, the difficulties that children face mean that they cannot have meaningful engagement in their learning.

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improvement to be good

Staff are not always effective in ensuring that children have their health needs met. One child has missed several dentist appointments and has been discharged from the surgery. Staff have not made any plans to find a new dentist. Furthermore, children are not supported to routinely take their medication and there are no recorded strategies or direct work being provided to address this.

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improvement to be good

The children do not have structure or routine to their day. Staff do not engage children in activities or support them with opportunities for learning new skills. This means that children lack a sense of purpose, which in turn leads to negative behaviours in the home and children being involved in unsafe activities in the community.

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improvement to be good

The manager and staff understand the risks to children in their care. There are multi- agency teams around each child and regular meetings take place to discuss them. However, the children’s risk assessments and plans do not fully reflect what staff are worried about or provide staff with guidance on how to keep children safer.

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improvement to be good

The manager and staff do not have an effective working relationship with the police. There is a mixed response from police when children are missing from the home or when staff need support at the home. For example, police are not responding when staff inform them that a child is not complying with bail conditions. This lack of response does not keep children safe and does not reinforce to them that there are real consequences to their actions. Inspection report for children’s home: SC379199 4 Children regularly go missing from the home and are subject to criminal and sexual exploitation. The response to these risks has not been effective in reducing the risk of harm to children. The responses from staff are inconsistent. This is because there is a lack of coordinated planning to manage risk and implement consistent boundaries. Staff have said that they would benefit from further training in relation to the contemporary

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improvement to be good

risks associated with the exploitation of vulnerable children.

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improvement to be good

Rules and boundaries are not in place to provide children with clear guidance on how they should behave. For example, children are allowed to vape in the home and staff do not take any proactive measures to prevent this. Children have openly stated that they will not listen to staff when they are asked to stop. This makes it difficult for staff to enforce clear boundaries when children are at risk of harm.

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improvement to be good

Children have been subjected to bullying behaviour from their peers. This has not been effectively addressed by staff and children have not been well supported. The recording of these incidents minimises the severity and impact of these events and the does not reflect the experiences of children. Furthermore, bullying is not documented in the children’s risk assessments or plans so that staff can recognise and respond to any signs of this happening.

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improvement to be good

The children are not all offered an independent interview following being missing from the home. The manager raises this with the local authority, but the lack of capacity in the social work teams means this does not always happen. In these circumstances, the manager or staff will speak with the child and share any relevant information with professionals.

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

The home is managed by an experienced registered manager. She knows the children well and can discuss their needs and risks fluently. It is positive that the manager understands the shortfalls in practice and is making plans to address this and improve the children’s experiences. The manager is not getting the level of support that she requires from leaders, and this is leaving the manager in a position where she is finding it difficult to manage the home effectively.

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

Leaders and managers do not always make child-centred decisions on who moves into or out of the home. There is disagreement in the decision-making from those involved, and this has a negative impact on the children. Decisions for children to move out of the home have been made in contrast to their care plans. This means that children feel rejected and unprepared for their next home. This does not show children that leaders and managers have their best interests at heart.

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

Staff like working at the home and speak about the children with warmth and affection. Staff said that they feel supported by the manager but that this has been a difficult time. The manager understands that relationships need to be rebuilt, and that staff need to understand how to move forward in a positive way. The current ambivalence of the staff Inspection report for children’s home: SC379199 5 team is impacting on their resilience and ability to consistently meet the needs of the children.

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

The staff do not all receive regular supervision sessions, and for some staff, there are significant gaps. Supervision records have improved, with a clear opportunity for reflective practice to be recorded. However, the quality of recording is not consistent and varies depending on the supervisor. This impacts on the manager’s ability to maintain oversight of her team’s progress and their development needs. Therefore, the manager does not always recognise and address shortfalls in staff practice.

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

Staff and the manager participate in regular meetings with a therapist to discuss the children and reflect on the effectiveness of their work. This is a valuable opportunity for staff to consider the needs of children, their behaviour and how they can better respond to those behaviours. This is not having an immediate impact on children’s safety or well- being. However, there is a clear understanding that this will provide children with resilience and tools for managing themselves that they can use in the future.

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

The manager works well with other professionals and feedback in terms of her communication is positive. Staff are good at attending meetings and are strong advocates for children. Inspection report for children’s home: SC379199 6

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Statutory requirements

This section sets out the actions that the registered persons 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 persons must comply within the given timescales.

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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

understand and apply the home’s statement of purpose;

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Requirement Due date

protect and promote each child’s welfare;

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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;

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Requirement Due date

help each child to develop resilience and skills that prepare the child to return home, to live in a new placement or to live independently as an adult;

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Requirement Due date

make decisions about the day-to-day arrangements for each child, in accordance with the child’s relevant plans, which give the child an appropriate degree of freedom and choice. (Regulation 6 (1)(a)(b) (2)(b)(i)(ii)(iv)(vi)(ix)) 2 January 2026

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Requirement Due date

The health and well-being standard is that—

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Requirement Due date

the health and well-being needs of children are met; 2 January 2026 Inspection report for children’s home: SC379199 7 children receive advice, services and support in relation to their health and well-being; and

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Requirement Due date

children are helped to lead healthy lifestyles.

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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

achieve the health and well-being outcomes that are recorded in the child’s relevant plans;

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Requirement Due date

that each child is registered as a patient with a general medical practitioner and a registered dental practitioner; and

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Requirement Due date

that each child has access to such dental, medical, nursing, psychiatric and psychological advice, treatment and other services as the child may require. (Regulation 10 (1)(a)(b)(c) (2)(a)(i)(b)(c))

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Requirement Due date

The positive relationships standard is that children are helped to develop, and to benefit from, relationships based on—

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Requirement Due date

an understanding about acceptable behaviour; and

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Requirement Due date

positive responses to other children and adults.

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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

communicate to each child expectations about the child’s behaviour and ensure that the child understands those expectations in accordance with the child’s age and understanding;

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Requirement Due date

help each child to understand, in a way that is appropriate according to the child’s age and understanding, personal, sexual and social relationships, and how those relationships can be supportive or harmful;

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Requirement Due date

de-escalate confrontations with or between children, or potentially violent behaviour by children; 2 January 2026 Inspection report for children’s home: SC379199 8 understand and communicate to children that bullying is unacceptable; and

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Requirement Due date

have the skills to recognise incidents or indications of bullying and how to deal with them. (Regulation 11(1)(a)(b)(c) (2)(a)(v)(vi)(xi)(xii)(xiii))

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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

understand the roles and responsibilities in relation to protecting children that are assigned to them by the registered person; and

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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)(ii)(iii)(v)(vi)) 2 January 2026

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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

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

ensure that staff work as a team where appropriate; 2 January 2026 Inspection report for children’s home: SC379199 9 ensure that the home’s workforce provides continuity of care to each child; and

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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)(b)(e)(f))

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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

ensure the effective induction of each child into the home;

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Requirement Due date

manage and review the placement of each child in the home; and

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Requirement Due date

plan for, and help, each child to prepare to leave the home or to move into adult care in a way that is consistent with arrangements agreed with the child’s placing authority. (Regulation 14 (1)(a)(b) (2)(b)(i)(ii)(iii)) 2 January 2026

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Recommendation

 The registered person should ensure that a record of the content and/or outcomes of supervision sessions is to be kept and to ensure that both the person giving the supervision and staff member have a copy of the record. In particular, the registered person must ensure that the quality of that record captures those discussions accurately in order to be helpful to the manager in maintaining oversight. (‘Guide to the Children’s Homes Regulations, including the quality standards’, page 61, paragraph 13.4) Inspection report for children’s home: SC379199 10

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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: SC379199 11

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Children’s home details

Registered provider: Hertfordshire County Council

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: Farnham House, Six Hills Way, Stevenage SG1 2ST

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Inspectors

Deb Duffy, Regulatory Inspection Manager Lisa Gordon, Social Care Inspector Inspection report for children’s home: SC379199 12 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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