Children's Home run by Norwood Ravenswood in Barnet

Unique reference number SC010415 Inspection date 03/06/2011 Inspector Seka Graovac Type of inspection Full Provision subtype Children's home

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Date of last inspection 25/11/2010 Website: www.ofsted.gov.uk

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This document may be reproduced in whole or in part for non-commercial educational purposes, provided that the information quoted is reproduced without adaptation and the source and date of publication are stated.

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About this inspection

The purpose of this inspection is to assure children and young people, parents, the public, local authorities and government of the quality and standard of the service provided. The inspection was carried out under the Care Standards Act 2000 to assess the effectiveness of the service and to consider how well it complies with the relevant regulations and meets the national minimum standards.

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About this inspection

The report details the main strengths, any areas for improvement, including any breaches of regulation, and any failure to meet national minimum standards. The judgements included in the report are made against the Inspections of children’s homes – framework for inspection (March 2011) and the evaluation schedule for children's homes.

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The inspection judgements and what they mean

Outstanding : a service that significantly exceeds minimum requirements Good : a service that exceeds minimum requirements Satisfactory : a service that only meets minimum requirements Inadequate : a service that does not meet minimum requirements

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Brief description of the service

This home is registered to provide short-break respite care for up to nine children and young people under the age of 18 years who have a learning disability and/or a physical disability. On occasion, the home supports young people beyond the age of 18 until appropriate alternative services are available.

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Brief description of the service

One of the stated aims of the home is to work in partnership with parents and the wider professional network to develop a coordinated and accessible support for disabled children and their families. The home has one emergency bed available for children who meet the admission criteria.

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Overall effectiveness

The overall effectiveness is judged to be good .

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Overall effectiveness

All aspects of care support are highly personalised to meet the individual needs of each chid and young person during their short-break at this home. Children and young people enjoy having trusting relationships with staff and management. Their welfare is safeguarded and appropriately promoted while they are enabled to engage in a wide range of leisure activities. They have good opportunities to choose how to spend their time. Parents are highly appreciative of the service they and their children receive from this organisation.

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Overall effectiveness

Some records have shortfalls in their maintenance and there is no written development plan to fully support the continuing good practice within the home.

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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 Regulations 2001 and the National Minimum Standards. The registered person(s) must comply with the given timescales.

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Reg. Requirement Due date

17B (2001) ensure that within 24 hours of the use of any measure of control, restraint or discipline a written record is made in a volume kept for the purpose that includes all the details as specified in the regulation. (Regulation 17B.3.4) 24/06/2011

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Recommendations

To improve the quality and standards of care further the service should take account of the following recommendation(s):

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Recommendations

 write a development plan for the future of the home (NMS15.2)  maintain a summary of vetting checks for staff that reflects Schedule 2 of the revised regulations, in the home. (NMS 16, Ofsted guidance 100194.48)

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Outcomes for children and young people

Outcomes for children and young people are good .

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Outcomes for children and young people

Children and young people who use this service make good progress to grow in confidence, to develop a positive self image and to integrate with the wider community. They enjoy having good time with other children and young people while being involved in an extensive range of recreational activities. This involvement gives them good opportunities to widen their experiences and learn about themselves and the world they live in. They are actively helped to relax, enjoy and achieve to their maximum potential. After a short-break, they are well prepared to happily return to their parents, families and carers and attend their education.

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Quality of care

This is a listening and individually tailored service. Staff are competent at using different formal systems and ways of communicating non-verbally with children and young people with disabilities. Staff are able to empower children and young people to understand what is available to them and make informed choices. Staff create an atmosphere that is conducive for development of positive relationships and constructive behaviour patterns.

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Quality of care

The home works in effective partnership with parents and health, education and social care practitioners to ensure that children and young people receive consistent and highly individualised support. Arrangements for dealing with medication are safe and the promotion of health is good.

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Quality of care

The home is appropriately designed and equipped to accommodate children and young people with disabilities. The recently developed multi-sensory room adds to the range of interesting activities available on the premises.

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Quality of care

Equality and diversity issues are positively addressed in both daily living and care planning. Parents are highly satisfied with the quality of care provided to their child. They describe their experience of the service as lifesaver, godsend, fantastic and wonderful. They know how to raise any concerns or complaints if necessary, acting as appropriate advocates for the children and young people. The management is committed to providing a good service and uses the complaints procedure as a learning and improvement tool.

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Safeguarding children and young people

The service is good at keeping children and young people safe and feeling safe. Clear risk assessment and management strategies ensure that children and young people remain safe while being enabled to engage in activities of daily living and leisure. Individual care plans clearly identify children's needs and abilities and are supplemented by comprehensive written risk assessments. Communication with parents is good and all information kept on children's case records is regularly reviewed. This ensures that children and young people continue to receive support that fully addresses their needs.

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Safeguarding children and young people

Staff receive regular training on safeguarding children's welfare. This enhances their understanding of child protection and ability to implement the best safeguarding practice consistently. Staff also receive regular training on behaviour management and are effective at promoting children's constructive behaviour, helping them to begin to have some understanding of the consequences of their actions where possible. In line with the home's ethos, sanctions are not used. Staff physically intervene as the last resort when it is necessary to ensure the safety of any child, young person or adult. Those incidents are recorded and monitored by the management. However, the records of restraints are not kept in line with the regulations. The lack of comprehensive records undermines the monitoring process.

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Safeguarding children and young people

The environment is physically safe. Regular health and safety tests take place. Appropriate security arrangements and suitably high staffing levels ensure that children and young people do not go missing. They receive a very high level of individual attention at all times. Staff are robustly selected to ensure that they are suitable to work with children and young people. The staff recruitment records are kept in the organisation's head office but no summary of the range of vetting carried out is being kept at the home with the only evidence available at the home relating to the regularly updated Criminal Records Bureau checks.

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Safeguarding children and young people

Parents express confidence and trust in the home's management and staff. They know when they leave their child in this home that they are safe and well looked after.

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Leadership and management

The leadership and management of the children's home are good . The management is stable. The service fulfils its Statement of Purpose that has been comprehensively written. The service is flexibly tailored to respond to the needs of children with disabilities and their families. The service is effectively and efficiently managed.

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Leadership and management

The home is owned by a Jewish charitable organisation and Jewish religious laws and culture are observed. However, the service is provided for children and young people from different religious and cultural backgrounds. Staff are able to meet their individual religious and cultural needs as long as they do not conflict with the overall ethos of the home. The management is effective at motivating and enabling staff to provide a good quality of care to each child irrespective of their disability, ethnicity, faith, gender, language, religious belief or sexual orientation. Any differences are fully acknowledged, respected and celebrated.

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Leadership and management

Staff receive regular supervision and good support. An effective staff performance appraisal system and comprehensive training programme ensure that staff training needs are identified and met.

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Leadership and management

The home has a good track record with Ofsted. It was judged as good at the last inspection that took place in November 2010. At that time, the management was asked to be able to demonstrate that all conditions for the use of surveillance for each child are met, to ensure that children's case records are kept securely and to ensure that monitoring visits take place on a monthly basis. It was also recommended that the frequency of formal staff meetings is increased. The home has successfully addressed all the requirements and the recommendation demonstrating its capacity for continuing improvement.

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Leadership and management

Good internal and external monitoring that includes consultation with parents through satisfaction surveys help the management to understand the strengths and weaknesses of the service. The management is aware of the new standards and regulations associated with the children's homes. However, no development plan is in place to steer further improvement.

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Leadership and management

Equality and diversity practice is good .

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