Kids care home concerns include restrain incidents

A notice has been served on a Merseyside children's home after inspectors raised "serious concerns" about the protection of the children in its care.

An Ofsted visit found widespread failures relating to the care of young people, issues with the home's management, and not recording when children were restrained.

The children's home, in the borough of Knowsley, is not named in the Ofsted report, but the facility is operated by a private company called Jupiter Child Care Services Limited (JCCS), according to the watchdog.

It rated the overall experiences of children at the home "inadequate" in all areas as well as the effectiveness of its "leadership and management".

The home provides care for up to two children who may experience "social and emotional difficulties", the Local Democracy Reporting Service said.

The company registered with Ofsted in May and was subject to its first full inspection in October.

Despite having no registered manager in post, inspectors confirmed two children were living there during the visit.

In relation to the overall experiences of children at the JCCS home, and taking into account how well they are helped and protected, inspectors rated the facility as "inadequate" in all areas.

Similarly, in the report's analysis on the effectiveness of its "leadership and management", JCCS also received an "inadequate" rating.

Ofsted inspectors noted that while there has been some measurable progress for children, their overall lived experiences are "extremely poor", and that shortfalls in management have resulted in "some poor safeguarding practices".

Under the evaluation section dealing with the levels of "help and protection", the report stated: "Children are not safeguarded effectively and there are significant shortfalls in staff responding to allegations of harm as appropriate, and swift action is not taken."

It also noted staff "do not record all incidents when children are restrained as required by regulation".

"There are delays in sharing safeguarding information with professionals and the regulator. This does not ensure that children are safeguarded effectively or enable the regulator to have oversight of all concerns relating to the care and support of children," the report added.

Due to the serious concerns raised during this inspection, the regulator issued JCCS with compliance notices in respect of regulation 12, the protection of children, regulation 13, leadership and management and regulation 36, children's case records.

Ofsted confirmed it would undertake regular monitoring of the home to ensure these notices are met within agreed timescales.

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