Children's Home run by Essex County Council in Essex

Unique reference number SC044975 Inspection date 20/07/2012 Inspector Gwen Buckley Type of inspection Full Provision subtype Children's home

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Date of last inspection 13/03/2012 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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Brief description of the service

This children's home provides respite care and accommodation for up to 12 children with learning difficulties or disabilities and with emotional and behavioural difficulties aged between five and 18 years; it is managed by the local authority.

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Brief description of the service

Twelve children are currently residing at the home of which six were present during the inspection.

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The inspection judgements and what they mean

Outstanding : a service of exceptional quality that significantly exceeds minimum requirements Good : a service of high quality that exceeds minimum requirements Adequate : a service that only meets minimum requirements Inadequate : a service that does not meet minimum requirements

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Overall effectiveness

The overall effectiveness is judged to be adequate .

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Overall effectiveness

The home is going through a time of change with regards to staffing arrangements. Due to restructuring, a number of staff have been employed from other homes belonging to the provider. Changes to the staff duty rota and organisation of senior posts are planned.

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Overall effectiveness

The staff team consists of dedicated caring staff who work effectively with young people some of whom may have complex health needs or challenging behaviour. Young people have very good relationships with the care staff and they feel safe in the home.

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Overall effectiveness

Young people look forward to attending the home for respite care and those able to voice an opinion talk positively about the staff within the home. Staff use every opportunity to encourage young people to develop their independent living skills. Young people take part in a wide range of activities in the home. Parents and visiting professionals are extremely positive about the standard of care provided.

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Overall effectiveness

There are areas for improvement that include medication management, care planning, fire plan with an emphasis on the use of fire doors and external management monitoring does not ensure the views of young people are consistently sought.

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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

(2001) ensure the monitoring visits interview, with their consent and in private, such children accommodated, their parents, relatives and persons working at the home as appears necessary in order to form an opinion of the standard of care. This specifically relates to visits taking place when children are present (Regulation 33 (4) (a)) 31/08/2012

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Reg. Requirement Due date

(2001) supply a copy of the report produced as a result of the review of Schedule 6 matters to Ofsted (Regulation 34 (2)) 31/08/2012

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Reg. Requirement Due date

(2001) ensure that at all times there are a sufficient number of suitably qualified, competent and experienced persons working at the home to meet the needs of the children. (Regulation 25(1)) 30/09/2012

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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

 develop management monitoring systems to ensure compliance with the home's policies to identify any concerns. This specifically relates to the monitoring of homely medication records (NMS 21.2)  develop further the home’s risk assessment to identify any potential sources of harm. This specifically relates to adequate fire safety risk assessments that include the marking and use of fire doors as well as emergency evacuation plans for all people likely to be in the premises, including disabled people (NMS 10.8)  ensure individual needs are met as specified in the placement plan. This relates to the need to ensure placement plans are updated following reviews in a timely manner. (NMS 2.3)

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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 build their confidence and self-esteem through the support provided by staff on a daily basis. Staff respect young people and understand their needs. A compliment received by a social worker states ‘The Registered Manager works extremely well with the school and family members to ensure the emotional and practical support is provided to young people and their family’. Parents consider the care provided is outstanding and the young people look forward to and are happy to go to the home.

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Outcomes for children and young people

Young people attend school every day and were observed coming back from school and receiving a warm welcome. The staff are very good at working with family members, school staff and other professionals to ensure the care needs of young people are met and that any individual health care or behaviour management plans are followed. This practice supports young people and ensures consistency of care between, home, school and their time in respite care.

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Outcomes for children and young people

Young people have access to a wide range of activities, both in the garden, the home and on occasions within the local community. The activities within the garden area are being developed further to include the care of chickens and plans are in place to change the use of rooms in order to enable more use of a soft play area. To meet individual needs, different communication methods are used including, symbols and pictorial information which helps young people make choices and understand the routines in the home.

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Outcomes for children and young people

Young people assist with tasks around the home, and develop their levels of independence according to their age and ability. Staff encourage young people to develop their individual interests such as, all things military or cooking and baking whenever possible which supports young people to build confidence around daily living skills.

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Quality of care

Staff provide consistency of care. Each flat within the home has a stable staff group and they ensure young people have staff caring for them that they know and trust. Staff who young people know are used to cover for staff who are absent.

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Quality of care

Young people's needs are set out in detailed placement plans. These show how specific needs will be addressed and the work being done by staff to meet these needs. In one instance a placement plan was not updated after a month with the changes agreed in the review and records of bed checks for some young people were not consistently recorded. Parents report. 'I have nothing but good reports for the staff, they keep me well informed, staff make feel welcome. * is on an intense behaviour programme, they have taken on board and exceeded all expectations and are working with school and me and provide excellent care and communication is very good. They keep me informed about my son’s progress and he looks forward to going to the home’. Visiting professionals state that ‘the quality of care is outstanding’ and ‘the Registered Manager is proactive in ensuring the needs of the young people are met and shares information with others. She develops individual

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Quality of care

strategies, which are followed, to meet all the needs of young people and the reports staff provide for reviews are informative and helpful’.

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Quality of care

The health care needs of young people are managed by their parents and staff follow parents' wishes while the young people are on respite care. Prescribed medication administration is generally well managed. When medication changes from one stay to the next and is not reflected on the label on the medication provided by parents, staff liaise with the child’s General Practitioner or consultant ensuring the correct medication is administered. However, monitoring of homely medication is not robust. Administration recording for one homely remedy was incorrect.

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Quality of care

Personal achievements are celebrated in the home. Staff are aware of the varying needs of young people and continually give praise for good behaviour, any progress made and when achieving things they have previously found difficult. Staff take an active interest in the lives of young people. They are encouraged to share events and photos from their own home with the staff, for example, photos of them ready for the end of term dance. Young people have scrap books that hold photographs of different events that take place during their stay so that they have memories they can share with their family.

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Quality of care

Communication is outstanding and young people are given information, in different formats, on how to complain. Parents report that they know how to complain, but do not feel the need. Parents state the staff take action to help them ensure young people receive support to access the services they need. Compliments about the quality of care provided are regularly received from the parents of young people who no longer access the service.

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Quality of care

The different cultural, racial or religious needs of young people are known and meals provided ensure special dietary needs are met.

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Safeguarding children and young people

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

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Safeguarding children and young people

Staff have a sound knowledge of child protection issues and reporting procedures should they have any concerns. Child protection practice is good. Visiting professionals state that young people are kept safe, there is no bullying and young people enjoy their time at the home. Posters displayed and actions taken by staff ensure the young people know that staff will take action to protect them and bullying will not be tolerated at the home.

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Safeguarding children and young people

Young people have individual behaviour management strategies in place when required. These are agreed by school staff, social workers, parents and health professionals and are followed by the home’s staff. This ensures a consistency of boundaries and care. Visiting professionals state the staff manage the very challenging behaviour of young people very well and keep everyone up to date with events and any progress made.

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Safeguarding children and young people

Restraint and sanctions are seldom used and when used they are not part of behaviour management. Records kept by the home capture all the required information as stated in regulation. When restraint does occur actions taken following these incidents show they are sensitively and appropriately followed up. Each young person has structured time to reflect on each incident, according to their individual understanding and their views are recorded. Should a young person not be able to say what they felt about an incident, staff observe the young people and record the interactions observed following the event.

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Safeguarding children and young people

No new staff have been employed at the home since the last inspection. Therefore the recruitment process has not been inspected. However, a new format is in place to ensure the checks undertaken are all signed-off and the induction of staff meets expected standards. No young person has gone missing from the home. However, staff have appropriate guidance on what to do should a young person go missing.

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Safeguarding children and young people

The home is well decorated and young people bring items from home to personalise their rooms during their stay. Equipment is tested and checked at regular intervals and beds are designed to meet specific needs. Bathrooms are being upgraded to provide better showering facilities and more privacy when in use. The manager took action during the inspection to request that a cooker and grill found to be dirty was cleaned.

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Safeguarding children and young people

A risk assessment is in place on the use of internal and external door locks to ensure young people are safe. However, doors marked as fire doors are at times wedged open. This was reported to enable night staff see along corridors and keep young people safe. The manager is aware of the need for some young people to have personal emergency evacuation plans in place. It is intended that for all young people that may need these, they will be put in place the next time young people visit the home.

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Leadership and management

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

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Leadership and management

The home is going through a period of change. Staff from different homes have been employed at the home and the staff rota and staffing structure have been reviewed. Although the home has no written development plan in place, the manager is clear about the future of the home and has plans in place for changes to the home and staffing to improve the service provided. These include changes to the senior staff structure and related roles and responsibilities. The recruitment of more residential workers and improvements to the garden facilities and bathrooms are underway.

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Leadership and management

There are insufficient staff on duty at times. Due to staffing levels and the time needed to care for individual young people with physical disabilities, the needs of young people although met, may not be met as quickly as they could be. For example, after coming in from school and having a snack, young people have to wait some time for staff to get them out of their wheelchair as staff are busy seeing to the needs of other young people in the group. The manager is aware of the need for more staff and has interviewed staff for new posts. However, due to the time it is taking to undertake checks, some prospective staff who were interviewed and thought suitable are no longer available and the recruitment process has had to be started again.

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Leadership and management

The Statement of Purpose sets out the aims and objectives for the home. A children’s guide in picture formats provides information about the different flats young people may be staying in. According to individual needs the young person’s guide will be explained to help them understand what their stay will entail.

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Leadership and management

The admission process is very good. The Registered Manager visits all young people in their own home to get to know them and assess if their needs can be met by the service prior to agreeing to their admission. This helps staff have a good understanding of the young people’s needs and enables relevant training to be put in place prior to the admission date. When young people leave the home staff ensure there are positive actions taken when the young people are due to leave, all young people are given a party.

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Leadership and management

All staff in the home are well trained to care for young people and meet their individual needs. The staff work well with the local health professionals to ensure specific training is provided to staff for those young people who have specific health needs or conditions. A first aid trained member of staff is always on duty and all care staff have the National Vocational Qualification at level 3 in childcare as a minimum.

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Leadership and management

Staff receive regular supervision, although planned monthly it is not always occurring monthly. The manager attends breakfast meetings with staff enabling her to get an overview of the care provided and giving staff the opportunity to bring issues to her daily.

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Leadership and management

Significant events are reported to Ofsted and placing authorities. Records are stored securely and contribute to a history of the young person’s life at the home.

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Leadership and management

External Regulation 33 visits take place. Although they occur every month they seldom occur during times when young people are in the home. This does not enable young people to have a voice or provide an opportunity for the visitor to observe the interactions and care provided. A Regulation 34 report was available this reflects the management review of practice in the home. However, a copy of this had not been sent to Ofsted.

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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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