Children's Home run by Esland South Limited in Kent

Unique reference number SC059037 Inspection date 21/11/2012 Inspector Angus Mackay Type of inspection Interim Provision subtype Children's home

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Date of last inspection 24/04/2012 Website: www.ofsted.gov.uk

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Brief description of the service

This is a privately owned registered children's home offering care and accommodation to four young people experiencing severe emotional and behavioural difficulties.

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The inspection judgements and what they mean

Good progress The children’s home has demonstrated continued improvement in quality of care and outcomes for children and young people and where appropriate has addressed all requirements and the large majority of recommendations that were raised at the previous inspection. Satisfactory progress The children’s home has maintained quality of care and outcomes for children and young people and where appropriate has addressed all requirements and the majority of recommendations that were raised at the previous inspection. Inadequate progress The children’s home has failed to address one or more requirements and/or has not met the majority of recommendations and/or the quality of care and outcomes for children and young people have declined since the last full inspection.

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Progress

Since their previous inspection the service is judged to be making satisfactory progress .

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Progress

The inspection judgement was adequate at the last full inspection on 24 April 2012, with three requirements and three recommendations for improvement. The home has positively addressed two requirements and one requirement is repeated as it has not been successfully addressed. All recommendations have been successfully met therefore improving the service provided to young people.

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Progress

Young people say that the staff are friendly and look after them well. Young people say they enjoy living in the home. This is despite the locality, which they feel is not able to provide them with a suitably diverse community to meet their needs. One young person said, 'this is a racist area.' There have been no overt acts of racism and staff say the area is not as the young people perceive it, although it is not as multi-cultural as the areas the young people come from. Young people say that staff are good at meeting their cultural needs and keep them safe. Young people confirm that staff assist them to keep in touch with friends and family to assist them in maintaining their own particular cultural needs. Staff provide young people constant reassurance about their safety in the community and encourage them to engage in activities designed to increase their confidence. Young people confirm that there are

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Progress

lots of activities on offer and they do enjoy these with support from staff.

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Progress

The home has established regular monitoring of the matters set out in Schedule 6 of the regulations, as required at the last inspection. The manager has a clear understanding of the conduct of the home, events leading to incidents within the home and actions taken to improve outcomes for young people. There is, however, limited evidence of the evaluation of this information and no review of this information has been supplied to HMCI. Young people accommodated in the home, since the last inspection, have been accommodated for short periods of time, minimising the impact on them of this poor analysis of events.

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Progress

Young people say that staff help them meet their health care needs. Files show evidence of staff interventions to address health care needs and improvements are evidenced in various sections of the young people's files. The requirement relating to young people's health is largely met. However, the repetitive lay out of the file and lack of a distinct outcomes section on each area, make tracking and analysis of progress with young people's health difficult. Young people are fully involved in commenting on their health plans and agree or comment on all the actions. This better engagement of young people in their own care is enabling them to access appropriate health services.

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Progress

The manager has implemented an assessment process with all new admissions, which checks that the home is able to meet that individual’s needs. In addition the admissions policy is more robustly applied by the manager, reducing the risk of disruption to the placements of children accommodated in the home.

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Progress

The home has a behaviour management policy but has not reviewed it in relation to minimising criminal activities and high risk behaviours inside and outside of the home; young people have continued to be involved in criminal activities. Staff are well trained in dealing with difficult behaviour and the home has a strong focus on de-escalation and minimal use of restraint. Staff use restraint rarely but there have been a high number of incidents where police have been called to the home. Decisions on calling police are discussed with managers and are generally used to aid staff to de-escalate incidents, often to prevent situations where young people would risk committing serious offences. There is a reward system operated to encourage children to modify their behaviour, however, the system is not clearly linked to reinforcing children’s positive behaviour and therefore is not always meaningful to them. Due to the behaviour management policy not having a clear focus on

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Progress

minimising children’s more risky behaviours and the reward system not fully supporting children to develop appropriate coping strategies the requirement to review the behaviour management strategy is restated and a recommendation has been made.

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Progress

Records of restraint do not evidence that young people are routinely offered the opportunity to be examined by a registered nurse or medical practitioner following a restraint, although this has occurred whenever there is an evident injury. The manager ensures that all children and all staff are offered a comprehensive debriefing following any use of restraint. The manager uses de-briefing sessions to address unsuccessful interventions and those that have not been applied in line with the normal practice in the home. The manager is working to ensure that all staff have a clear understanding of what are, or are not, appropriate interventions, for example through providing them with further training.

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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) prepare and implement a written policy (referred to as the behaviour management policy in the regulation) which sets out the way that appropriate behaviour is to be promoted in the home; in particular with regard to minimising criminal activities and high risk negative behaviours (Regulation 17 (1)(b)) 20/02/2013

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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

 ensure that an evaluation of the monthly monitoring of matters set out in Schedule 6 is sent to HMCI at six monthly intervals (Volume 5, statutory guidance, paragraph 3.14)  ensure that where there has been a physical restraint children are always given the opportunity to be examined by a registered nurse or medical practitioner (NMS 3.16)  ensure that the written policy on managing behaviour contains clear guidance on permissible controls and restraint and is understood by all staff (NMS 3.3)  ensure that information about the child is recorded clearly and in a way which is helpful to them when they access their files, in particular with regard to health care records. (NMS 22.5)

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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 progress made by the provider since the last full inspection, identifies any further strengths, any areas for improvement and makes judgements as outlined in the Inspection of children’s homes – framework for inspection (March 2011).

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