Children's Home run by Ethelbert Specialist Homes Limited in Kent

Unique reference number SC023740 Inspection date 27/07/2011 Inspector Mark Blesky Type of inspection Full Provision subtype Children's home

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Date of last inspection 03/02/2011 Website: www.ofsted.gov.uk

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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 children's home is privately owned and is registered for three young people with emotional and or behavioural difficulties.

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Overall effectiveness

The overall effectiveness is judged to be good .

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Overall effectiveness

This is a good service in most aspects with some satisfactory features. The strengths in this home are focused on planning and primary care. Young people receive good standards of individualised care that meets assessed needs as well as the more diverse aspects of the young people's needs. Policies, procedures and planning, evidence an awareness of diversity and this is clear in care practices and outcomes for the young people.

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Overall effectiveness

Relationships are valued and much time and effort is placed on the importance of establishing and sustaining effective relationships with the young people. Young people are consulted and canvassed for their opinions and views, which influence staff decisions and considerations. Young people are respected and their views are important to staff.

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Overall effectiveness

Young people feel safe in this home and say they are well looked after by staff that care for them. The manager and staff are aware of their roles and responsibilities and young people benefit from the nurturing and supportive care practices.

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Overall effectiveness

It was noted that the home has more recently undergone significant change to the staff team, where many new and less experienced staff have taken up post. While these staff are motivated and enthusiastic to develop, this does appear to have led, if not wholly, then partly to some areas of shortfall identified during this inspection. These shortfalls have however not overly impacted on care outcomes and the home's own quality assurance systems have acknowledge areas for improvement. It is also acknowledged that this was already being addressed but at the time of the inspection appropriate progress was not evident in some areas.

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Recommendations

To improve the quality and standards of care further the service should take account of the following recommendation(s):  ensure that the home provides a comfortable and homely environment and is well maintained and decorated and kept clean (NMS 10.3)  ensure that all staff are aware of and alert to any signs or symptoms that might indicate that a child is at risk of harm (NMS 4.3)  ensure all sanctions and rewards for behaviour are clear, reasonable and fair and are understood by all staff and children (NMS 3.8)  ensure all staff’s work is consistent with these Regulations and National Minimum Standards, the home’s policies and procedures (NMS 21.3)

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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

Young people demonstrate confidence and an ability to be able to express themselves and raise concerns and to speak their minds. Young people are motivated towards self-expression and readily engage with staff and visitors. Placement plans, along with reviews and assessments, demonstrate progress in meeting and in some areas young people exceeding goals and targets.

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Outcomes for children and young people

All young people have healthy living programmes and these are comprehensive and individualised. This has resulted in young people gaining an understanding of both their diet and general health, but also behaviours and habits that can impact on health. This supports young people to understand their health needs and understand their responsibilities when making lifestyle choices. Young people maintain good health and by receiving core health services from their doctor, dentist and optician and more specialist interventions. Some of the young people favour more diverse lifestyles and make alternative choices with appropriate guidance from staff.

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Outcomes for children and young people

Young people benefit from the close working between teaching staff and the home resulting in disruptions and exclusion been avoided. Young people are provided with levels of support and guidance which offers them the greatest opportunity to progress educationally and reports demonstrate that this is effective.

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Outcomes for children and young people

The age of the young people does not yet command formal pathway planning, however all young people are encouraged to consider independence skills such as planning and cooking meals. In addition other skills such as understanding how to secure housing and employment are practiced by staff with young people. Progress is achieved by allowing young people increasing and appropriate levels of trust and responsibility. This has installed greater levels of confidence and enabled them to develop some coping skills. Young people are therefore carrying out tasks and learning essential skills to support their progression to adulthood.

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Quality of care

The quality of the care is good . Young people are supported by staff to develop effective and beneficial relationships with them. Staff spend time learning about the young people, their needs, views and individual personalities. This results in typically successful management of the young people.

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Quality of care

Relationships are supportive and respectful and staff demonstrate an understanding of young people's rights and wishes. Young people are actively consulted in a meaningful way, by being encouraged to express their views about their care and the manner in which the home provides for them. Young people's meetings demonstrate the value placed in their views and one to one key working sessions seek to develop young people's self-esteem and confidence. Staff are aware of the importance of supporting young people to make choices and to gain insights into both their own and the more diverse needs and choices of others

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Quality of care

Complaints are uncommon in this home and staff and young people believe this is as a result of close relationships and early intervention into situations that may lead to disagreements.

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Quality of care

Well managed planning is provided and each young person benefits from a very detailed and comprehensive placement plan. Plans are regularly updated providing dynamic insights into development and emerging needs. Young people's health needs are assessed and the home employs a qualified nurse and health advisor to monitor and promote healthy living.

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Quality of care

Schooling is provided for all young people and they benefit from attending the company's own schools or mainstream education. Staff are aware of the importance of promoting learning and effective relationships have been established between the home and the education providers, with staff meeting and liaising regularly with teachers. Effective and regular monitoring is maintained by daily education diaries and progress reports.

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Quality of care

To ensure young people develop outside hobbies and interact with the wider community, staff encourage young people to join clubs and gain membership to activities, such as Scouts, football and youth clubs.

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Quality of care

The home is generally well maintained and maintenance and repair procedures are effective. However, while most areas are clean and tidy, the kitchen is not as clean or as well maintained as the rest of the house.

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Safeguarding children and young people

The service is satisfactory at keeping children and young people safe and feeling safe.

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Safeguarding children and young people

Young people say that they feel looked after and safe in the home and trust the staff that look after them. Young people are confident and have appropriate expectations of the manner in which they are cared for and protected. Formal safeguarding procedures are in place and all staff undertake both mandatory induction training and refresher training. The home employs a safeguarding coordinator with a wealth of experience in this area. All matters of safeguarding are managed appropriately and promptly. Effective referral and consultation is maintained with both the placing authority and local authority. Any investigation is carried out robustly and is well managed.

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Safeguarding children and young people

Anti-bullying procedures are in place and staff receive training to gain an understanding and insight into signs and symptoms of bullying. Staff discuss issues of bullying in one to one meetings with young people and in children's house meetings. This creates a culture where bullying is understood but not tolerated.

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Safeguarding children and young people

Risk assessments are appropriately maintained for all young people and based on historic and emerging behaviours. Environmental and more specific, situation risk assessments are also conducted. It was however noted that in one area the identified risk was not as clear and did not aid the understanding of the risk.

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Safeguarding children and young people

The home has recently taken on many new and less experienced staff. The Registered Manager acknowledged that insight into the complex and diverse behaviour of the young people, present greater challenges to this current staff group.

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Safeguarding children and young people

It is uncommon for young people to become missing or absent without permission from the home and staff deploy successful resources to achieve this. Any young person likely to absent themselves is supported by a staff member and negotiation and discussions often prevent occurrences of absence. Formal missing person procedures are in place. Protocols have been set up with the local police along with the home’s out of hours and on call services to safeguard young people.

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Safeguarding children and young people

Positive behaviour is encouraged more often by discussion and negotiation and sanctions are not generally favoured. When behaviour does become more concerning, a range of approved sanctions can be used to encourage both more positive behaviour and reflection. Sanctions are not overly punitive and young people are often encouraged to 'choose' the most appropriate and effective response from staff. It was noted that recording for one young person, indicated that a somewhat muddled approach to sanctioning had developed.

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Safeguarding children and young people

While physical intervention is typically low, a significant rise had very recently occurred. Restraints are rigorously recorded, detailed and appear appropriate. Some of the recording of behaviour where behaviour escalated lacked detail in some areas and it was not always possible to follow events clearly. However, when physical intervention had resulted, it was clear that behaviour had necessitated this response, and the restraint deployed was appropriate to the situation and managed appropriately.

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Safeguarding children and young people

Regular fire evacuation drills and testing of fire equipment and appliances ensures that young people are protected. Environmental risks in the home are reduced by prompt and effective management. All visitors to the home are required to identify themselves and no visitor is allowed unsupervised access to the young people or the home. The home has a well managed employment and recruitment panel and no staff member is deployed into the home before all statutory checks and reference checks have been completed.

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Leadership and management

The leadership and management of the children's home are satisfactory .

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Leadership and management

The home maintains an insightful and comprehensive Statement of Purpose. This document is reviewed regularly and updated to reflect changes within the staff team or the services and provisions within the home. The statement makes clear the ethos of the home and the manner in which young people are cared for. Equality, diversity and the importance of understanding individuality are introduced in this key document and provide clear messages and expectations of staff performance.

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Leadership and management

The management of the home is generally effective and staff feel well supported by the manager. Supervision procedures are in place and all staff receive regular supervision of a good quality. This is performed within the frequencies of the national minimum standards and enables staff to carry out their roles effectively.

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Leadership and management

Services and appropriate care in the home is not limited by finances and it is clear that the home has ample funds to operate effectively.

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Leadership and management

The manager operates a ‘hands on’ style, and as such, possesses significant knowledge and understanding of the young people within the home. This allows the manager to understand the more subtle aspects of the young people's needs and this is of clear benefit to the young people.

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Leadership and management

Many of the staff are new in the home and understandably lack experience in some areas of their role. While management is strong and effective in many areas, it appears that the impact of the new staff has not been fully planned for. While some 'lead in' time is inevitable for new staff, the young people's needs are complex and demanding and more experienced staff have been taken away from their supervisory roles and diverted to managing the young people’s day to day care. This appropriately has put children's primary needs first, however, supervisory roles and the management of procedures have suffered but this has not adversely effected the outcomes for young people. The manager is aware of this and a plan is being developed to better manage this situation.

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Leadership and management

Regulation 33 and 34 monitoring and reporting is well managed and resulting plans to address shortfalls have been initiated by this process. Regulation 33 inspections and reports are very detailed and comprehensive and exceed the expectations within the national minimum standards. Improvement is clear in a number of areas and the manager demonstrates commitment to continued improvement. All significant events are reported appropriately to the relevant agency and consultation with other agencies is conducted effectively. The home is made safe and risks are reduced by robust safety systems. Action to address shortfalls and areas for development is in the main are prompt and well managed. Records are clear, up to date and stored securely, and these contribute to an understanding of the child’s life.

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Leadership and management

All staff receive mandatory training to equip them to meet the known needs of the young people accommodated. There is also regular refresher training and more specialist training to meet emerging and developing needs. Training is appraised to ensure that it supports the staff member’s development and supervision is appropriately focused on assessing the benefit of the training in the caring role.

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Leadership and management

Equality and diversity practice is good .

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