“children's homes in West Lancashire”

West Lancashire · L39 6SX · Part of Care Assist Children’s Services Limited

Information about this children's home

This home provides care and accommodation for up to four young people with emotional and behavioural difficulties. The home is owned by a private organisation.

West Lancashire · L39 6SX · Part of Care Assist Children’s Services Limited

Information about this children's home

This home provides care and accommodation for up to four young people with emotional and behavioural difficulties. The home is owned by a private organisation.

West Lancashire · L39 6SX · Part of Care Assist Children’s Services Limited

Information about this children’s home

This home provides care and accommodation for up to four young people who have emotional and/or behavioural difficulties. The home is owned by a private organisation.

West Lancashire · L39 6SX · Part of Care Assist Children’s Services Limited

What the inspection judgements mean

An outstanding children's home provides highly effective services that contribute to significantly improved outcomes for children and young people who need help and protection and care. Their progress exceeds expectations and is sustained over time. A good children's home provides effective services that help, protect and care for children and young people and have their welfare safeguarded and promoted. In a children's home that requires improvement , there are no widespread or serious failures that create or leave children being harmed or at risk of harm. The welfare of children looked after is safeguarded and promoted. Minimum requirements are in place. However, the children's home is not yet delivering good protection, help and care for children and young people. A children's home that is inadequate is providing services where there are widespread or serious failures that create or leave children and young people being

West Lancashire · L39 6SX · Part of Care Assist Children’s Services Limited

What the inspection judgements mean

An outstanding children's home provides highly effective services that contribute to significantly improved outcomes for children and young people who need help and protection and care. Their progress exceeds expectations and is sustained over time. A good children's home provides effective services that help, protect and care for children and young people and have their welfare safeguarded and promoted. In a children's home that requires improvement , there are no widespread or serious failures that create or leave children being harmed or at risk of harm. The welfare of children looked after is safeguarded and promoted. Minimum requirements are in place. However, the children's home is not yet delivering good protection, help and care for children and young people. A children's home that is inadequate is providing services where there are widespread or serious failures that create or leave children and young people being

West Lancashire · L39 6SX · Part of Care Assist Children’s Services Limited

The children's home provision is inadequate because:

 Management review and evaluation of the home’s records are insufficient. This hinders improvements in how staff understand and respond to young people’s needs and behaviour.  Staff do not recognise or respond to potential or actual safeguarding concerns within the required timescales.  Safer recruitment procedures have not been adhered to and fail to safeguard the young people and to minimise any potential risks to them.  Health and safety have been compromised, as fire evacuations have not taken place on a regular basis, as required by the home’s own policies.

West Lancashire · L39 6SX · Part of Care Assist Children’s Services Limited

Inadequate

Care provision in this home is inadequate because the home does not adequately safeguard young people or promote their development and progress. This has an impact on their welfare and safety. Since the last inspection, one young person’s placement ended and the local authority supported the young person to move to another children’s home. Staff were unable to meet her individual needs and there were concerns about the number of missing from care episodes, which had significantly increased. Although the manager had informed the young person that her placement had ended, she remained at the home for two further months, which affected her relationships with staff and other young people. One staff member said, ‘It was sad as she had so much potential. What made it more difficult was she was told she was being moved, but nobody told us. She then would not engage with us. Her behaviour escalated, but she stayed with us for several more weeks. It wasn’t fair.’

West Lancashire · L39 6SX · Part of Care Assist Children’s Services Limited

Key findings from this inspection

 Poor recording fails to provide a factual record of young people’s care experience.  Staff are not sufficiently supervised, or skilled or competent to meet the needs of the young people.  The management review and evaluation of the home’s records lacks rigour. This hinders improvements in how staff understand and respond to young people’s needs and behaviour.  Safer recruitment procedures have not been adhered to and fail to safeguard the young people and to minimise any potential risks to them.  Parts of the home environment and the company’s vehicle are unsafe and this potentially affects the safety and well-being of young people.  Health and safety have been compromised, as fire evacuations have not taken place as required within the home’s own policies. In addition, fire risk assessments have not been fully complied with.

West Lancashire · L39 6SX · Part of Care Assist Children’s Services Limited

children and young people since the most recent full inspection

Since the last inspection, two young people have moved into the home. One young person only remained for a short period of time and due to concerns around his continued missing from care episodes, he was moved to another home within the company. This serves only to increase young people’s feelings of insecurity and disruption to their lives. There was no evidence of transition planning and how the young person had been appropriately supported.

West Lancashire · L39 6SX · Part of Care Assist Children’s Services Limited

The children's home provision requires improvement because:

 Some of the records in the home are variable in quality and lack sufficient detail. This hinders the formal processes needed to monitor young people‟s progress and to properly address how identified needs are met.  Medication records in the home are confusing and do not demonstrate that medication is administered safely to young people.  Staff are not adequately trained to meet the needs of the young people in the home.  Supervision of staff does not take place regularly.  Monitoring and review of the quality of care in the home are not routinely carried out.  Independent reports have not been provided to HMCI.  The statement of purpose and children‟s guide are currently being updated. They should reflect the ethos and objectives of the home and provide key stakeholders and young people with all the information that they need to know.

West Lancashire · L39 6SX · Part of Care Assist Children’s Services Limited

How well children and young people are helped and protected: inadequate

When there have been significant events involving young people living at the home, including requests for police assistance or hospital treatment, not all notifications have been sent to Ofsted. This does not allow the regulator to have a clear overview of all safeguarding incidents, and is in breach of the Children’s Homes Regulations 2015.

West Lancashire · L39 6SX · Part of Care Assist Children’s Services Limited

Statutory Requirements

This section sets out the actions which must be taken so that the registered person/s meets the Care Standards Act 2000, 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.

West Lancashire · L39 6SX · Part of Care Assist Children’s Services Limited

The children's home strengths

 Young people are supported with their education to ensure that they achieve successful outcomes.  Young people are safeguarded due to the good safeguarding practices in place at the home.  The number of times that young people go missing from the home has significantly reduced. The home now has appropriate strategies in place, and direct work sessions are now complete with young people in respect of risks.  Staff morale has improved and staff are working together to ensure that consistent practice is in place in the home.

West Lancashire · L39 6SX · Part of Care Assist Children’s Services Limited

Statutory requirements

This section sets out the actions that must be taken so that the registered persons meet the Care Standards Act 2000, 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.

West Lancashire · L39 6SX · Part of Care Assist Children’s Services Limited

Requires improvement

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.

West Lancashire · L39 6SX · Part of Care Assist Children’s Services Limited

This monitoring visit

four compliance notices issued under section 22A of the Care Standards Act 2000. These relate to Regulation 10 the health and well-being standard, Regulation 12 the protection of children standard, Regulation 13 the leadership and management standard and Regulation 14 the care planning standard, of the Children’s Homes (England) Regulations 2015. During the monitoring visit inspectors, found that the organisation has secured effective temporary management of the home, which has enabled improvements in the quality of care practice and consequently more settled and positive relationships between staff and young people. A registered manager from one of the providers other homes had supported the deputy manager and staff team in implementing new ways of working. A clear and concise action plan was devised and provided to inspectors. This included evidence of the work undertaken to update all policies and procedures, introducing internal

West Lancashire · L39 6SX · Part of Care Assist Children’s Services Limited

children and young people since the most recent full inspection

Parts of the home’s environment were poor. Young people’s bedrooms were unclean and had clothes strewn across the floor, and dirty plates with food left in corners of the rooms. Curtains had been pulled down and En-suite bathrooms were unclean. Staff report that they had been told ‘they (staff) are not allowed in young people’s bedrooms, it’s their responsibility’. During the inspection, the inspector brought to staff’s attention drug paraphernalia on the sideboard of a young person’s bedroom and the room smelled strongly of cannabis. While staff took immediate action to remove the equipment, the home’s daily routine had not enabled staff to notice this sooner.

West Lancashire · L39 6SX · Part of Care Assist Children’s Services Limited

Statutory requirements

This section sets out the actions which must be taken so that the registered person(s) meet(s) the Care Standards Act 2000, 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.

West Lancashire · L39 6SX · Part of Care Assist Children’s Services Limited

Statutory requirements

This section sets out the actions that must be taken so that the registered person(s) meets the Care Standards Act 2000, 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.

West Lancashire · L39 6SX · Part of Care Assist Children’s Services Limited

Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: inadequate

The registered manager had developed transition plans for young people moving into and out of the home. One young person said, ‘I’m ready to go and live on my own now. The manager has helped me have taken me to visit a flat and then helped me fill in the forms.’ Another young person said, ‘Although it was a bit scary as I have not been in a Inspection report children's home: SC461787 10 children’s home before, (Name of manager) talked to me about the home and what I could expect, this helped.’ This ensures that young people receive support throughout the transition process.