A MANAGEMENT at a York children's home has come under criticism after a visit from inspectors.

Ofsted inspectors visited the City of York Council home in the city for the first time since it opened that overall it 'requires improvement to be classified as good' and that the effectiveness of leaders and managers is inadequate.

The report, which does not name the home because of child protection issues, says that, though the home is not yet delivering good help and care for children and young people, there are however no serious or widespread failures that result in their welfare not being safeguarded or promoted.

City of York Council say they dispute some of the findings in the report and they are talking to Ofsted about the inspection as, at the time of their visit, the home had only been open for six weeks.

In her report social care inspector, Jane Titley, said: "The arrangements for fire safety are not effective. Fire drills have not taken place since the home opened. Fire alarm tests are not carried out in line with the home’s own fire risk assessment. Managers were unable to explain this gap in essential practice, which was only identified during the inspection. Managers undertook to rectify this situation as a matter of urgency."

And in terms of the management at the home she said: "The quality of management oversight of the home is ineffective. The registered manager does not spend significant time in the home, although he sometimes does residential shifts when the needs of the rota require it.

"The registered manager does not monitor the quality of paperwork. He does not evaluate the impact on children of the care they receive. The registered manager has a poor understanding of many of the processes in the home, which means shortfalls relating to these are not rectified. The arrangements for the day-to-day oversight of the home have not been appropriate. The registered manager also manages another home. This affects his ability to provide effective management of this home.

"The person in day-to-day control was not given adequate support or training. However, recent changes have been well received by staff. Senior managers understand the reasons for these shortfalls, but they have taken too long to put in place more suitable arrangements."

Jamaila Hussain, corporate director of adult services and Integration (DASS), said: "We are disappointed with aspects of accuracy in the report and therefore are currently in dialogue with Ofsted because, at the time of the inspection, the home had been open for less than six weeks, the manager was on leave and was unable to contribute or comment on the findings. The report does however, highlight that the inspector found no care, support or safeguarding issues and that the young person was positive about living at the home.

"We have taken action including ensuring that robust leadership and oversight is in place, and appointing additional senior care staff. We have recently had two other similar Ofsted and CQC inspections where we were rated good in all areas.”