Children's Home run by Destiny House in Harrow

Unique reference number SC038906 Inspection date 17/12/2012 Inspector Janet Hunnam Type of inspection Full Provision subtype Children's home

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Date of last inspection 20/02/2012 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 is privately run by the provider, who also manages the service on the day-to-day basis. The home offers care and accommodation for children and young people who may have emotional and behavioural needs. It is registered for up to eight children and young people of either sex.

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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

Young people receive good levels of care, support and guidance resulting in them making considerable progress at the home. They develop positive relationships with staff resulting in significant improvement in their behaviour, education and personal development. In response to the nurturing environment and clear boundaries, young people’s risk-taking behaviour is reducing. Highly individualised care enables staff to focus on young people’s specific needs and cultural identity.

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Overall effectiveness

Staff value young people’s views and through trusting relationships with staff, young people increase their confidence and self-esteem and accept the support offered by staff to overcome their difficulties. Young people’s safety and well-being are central to practice at the home. Staff understand the specific vulnerabilities of young people and appropriate measures are in place to protect them.

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Overall effectiveness

Areas of weakness relate to shortfalls by leaders and managers in understanding the strengths and weaknesses of the home and having plans to develop the service to achieve continuous improvement. Improvements are required in recording measures of discipline and control, ensuring that restraint is carried out in line with current requirements, recording supervision sessions of staff and implementing a written risk assessment for staff working alone with young people. A recommendation made at the previous inspection relating to the system for vetting new staff has been carried over as no staff have recently been recruited. No development plan is in place to identify weaknesses in the service and highlight the strategies and action required to achieve improvement and sustain a high quality of care for young people.

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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 the effectiveness and any consequences of the use of sanctions are appropriately recorded. (Regulation 17B(3)(f)) 08/02/2013

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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 restraint is not used as a punishment nor to force compliance with instructions where significant harm or serious damage to property are not otherwise likely. Use of restraint is set out in the home's behaviour management policy and is in line with any relevant government guidance on restraint and approved approaches to the application of physical intervention and restraint (NMS 3.14)  ensure that all people working in or for the children’s home are interviewed as part of the section process and have references checked to assess suitability before taking on responsibilities. Telephone enquiries are made as well as obtaining written references (NMS 16.1 )  ensure that a written development plan, reviewed annually, is in place (NMS 15.2)  ensure that where only one member of staff is on duty at any time, a risk assessment has been carried out and recorded in writing, identifying any likely

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Recommendations

risks to children, staff and members of the public (NMS 17.9)  ensure that a written or electronic record is kept detailing the time and date and length of each supervision held for each member of staff, including the registered person and the record is signed by the supervisor and the member of staff at the end of the supervision. (NMS 19.5)

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Outcomes for children and young people

Outcomes for children and young people are good . Young people make good progress at the home, particularly in relation to their starting points at the time of admission. A young person’s family member stated that the young person, ‘Has settled really well, improved since being there and there couldn’t be a better place.’ Highly individualised support helps young people develop trusting relationships with members of staff, which builds their confidence and self- esteem so they feel valued and respected.

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Outcomes for children and young people

Young people receive consistent support to address their high risk-taking behaviours resulting in significant improvements. Professionals commented that the current profile of a young person after some time at the home reads as if they are a completely different person, in relation to the immense change and reduction in their high-risk behaviour. In a nurturing environment, staff provide continuous opportunities for young people to build on positive relationships and allow them to act age appropriately. High-risk behaviours such as being absent without permission, criminal activity and anti-social behaviour are reducing over time.

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Outcomes for children and young people

Staff encourage and support young people to lead as healthy a lifestyle as possible. Close liaison with the looked-after nursing team allows young people to gain appropriate advice and guidance. Young people have worked with staff to devise a healthy, nutritious menu with food they enjoy. Key work sessions focus on a healthy lifestyle addressing alcohol use and smoking to raise young people’s awareness of health risks and enable them to make informed choices. Staff foster young people’s emotional and psychological well-being and seek specialist support if required.

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Outcomes for children and young people

Young people make significant progress with their education. School attendance and the value of education are embedded in the culture of the home. With intense staff support and from poor starting points on admission to the home, young people engage fully with their education, have excellent school attendance and make considerable improvement. Their achievements at school are celebrated and rewarded giving young people increased self-esteem and confidence in their own abilities and aspirations for their future.

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Outcomes for children and young people

Young people participate in activities in the community such as church groups and the cinema. Additionally young people engage constructively with peer mentors with shared interests to extend their experience, for example, visits to museums and exhibitions.

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Outcomes for children and young people

Promoting contact and working positively with young people’s family is a strength of the home. Young people benefit from the input from staff in supporting, maintaining and in some cases re-establishing contact with family members. Family members are welcome at the home and report improved relationships and better communication.

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Quality of care

Young people’s welfare is central to practice at the home. A stable and committed staff team focus on developing trusting relationships within a nurturing environment enabling young people to develop, make excellent progress resulting in significant changes to their behaviour. Young people report they can talk to any member of staff and they enjoy the relaxed, family atmosphere, which gives them continuous support. The staff team value young people’s views and opinions and are responsive, giving young people confidence to trust staff, develop constructive relationships and react positively to the support offered to them. In addition to on-going consultation, key work sessions allow young people to put forward their views and discuss issues affecting their daily lives. Staff actively support young people to articulate their wishes and advocate on their behalf to ensure that young people’s views are considered in decisions affecting their lives. Young people know how to make a

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Quality of care

complaint and use the process to good effect to highlight their concerns. Staff respond appropriately, managing complaints effectively to achieve a positive outcome. They explain and discuss with young people why it may not be possible to act on their wishes immediately.

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Quality of care

Care plans identify young people’s individual needs and strategies to enable them to make progress. Detailed and comprehensive monthly monitoring of their progress in all areas enables staff to review strategies, and link individual work with young people through key working and informal discussion to their specific development needs. Young people have relevant and constructive support to help them overcome their difficulties and make progress. A social worker reported that staff are very actively involved with young people resulting in a young person ‘doing really well’ at the home.

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Quality of care

Young people live in an environment that supports their physical and psychological well-being. A comprehensive approach to addressing their health needs ensures they receive health care appropriate to their needs. Young people register with local doctors and staff assist them to attend health appointments as and when required. Staff pay close attention to young people’s emotional health and provide nurturing support to assist them in understanding their feelings and developing resilience.

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Quality of care

Staff are proactive and committed in supporting young people to attend school and make good progress to fulfil their potential. They advocate on young people’s behalf to ensure they receive education at the most appropriate level. Staff provide high levels of additional support with homework to give young people the best possible opportunity to catch up on work they may have missed through past turbulent education experiences or non-attendance. The culture of the home supports and encourages learning. Staff encourage young people to participate in activities, to extend their social experiences and develop their understanding, based on their individual interests and cultural identity such as attending church groups.

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Quality of care

Young people live in a homely environment. A maintenance programme is in progress at the home. Staff support young people to personalise their bedrooms, which are well decorated and furnished, enabling them to have a sense of belonging and express their personal identity.

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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

A culture of safety protects young people. Structure and boundaries enable young people to feel safe at the home with strong relationships between young people and staff underpinning their safety. Staff understand the specific vulnerabilities of young people and appropriate measures are in place to protect them. A young person’s family member stated that, 'The young person is very safe at the home’ and a social worker confirmed that a young person’s high-risk behaviours have significantly reduced since being at the home. Effective strategies are in place to support young people to break previous patterns of frequently being absent without permission resulting in significant reduction in such behaviour.

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Safeguarding children and young people

Within an ethos of establishing trusting relationships, role modelling and nurturing, staff promote positive behaviour. Consequently, no physical intervention has been necessary since the last inspection. However, the policy relating to physical intervention does not reflect current requirements, as it states that restraint may be used to prevent a criminal offence. Staff have training in managing challenging behaviour and effectively use de-escalation techniques to avert potentially difficult situations. Staff use sanctions appropriately as a response to unacceptable behaviour. The recording of sanctions has improved but the home does not record the effectiveness of the measure resulting in incomplete information for monitoring by management.

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Safeguarding children and young people

Health and safety measures are in place to protect young people and staff from the risk of harm including fire checks and regular fire drills. A recommendation to review the vetting of new staff to ensure the process is rigorous and robust made at previous inspections remains. This is because no staff have been recruited and therefore the home is unable to demonstrate that good practice is implemented. Staff receive good standards of training in safeguarding and child protection.

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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

Young people benefit from experienced managers and a stable, strong staff team who clearly understand the individual needs of young people resulting in good standards of care. A positive managerial approach enables the home to improve levels of care wherever possible. Improvements include increased staff consistency in applying boundaries and routines, more meaningful shift handovers and more in- depth work with young people’s families. Monthly review reports are more comprehensive and staff are actively challenging barriers impeding young people’s education progress. These improvements have had a positive impact on outcomes for young people.

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Leadership and management

One requirement and one recommendation were made at the last inspection when there were no young people resident at the home. The requirement to ensure appropriate records are kept of the use of any measure of discipline has been partially met. The recommendation that the practice of vetting new staff is reviewed has not been demonstrated as no new staff have been recruited since the last inspection.

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Leadership and management

An effective process is in place to deal with matters of complaint and there has only been one since the last inspection, which staff managed effectively.

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Leadership and management

Monitoring systems are in place to review periodically the standards of care. These systems include the input of a consultant and an audit on a monthly basis of the required matters and young people’s records. The home seeks feedback from young people's family members and their social worker relating to their progress enabling the manager to assess the impact of the quality of care. However, there is no clear identification of the strengths and weaknesses of the home and no written development plan in place that specifically addresses the issues raised through monitoring and previous inspections.

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Leadership and management

Staffing levels are appropriate to meet the needs of young people to ensure they receive support to make progress and feel safe. During the night, one member of staff is on duty at the home but there is no written risk assessment in place to identify risk and thus minimise the potential for harm. Staff receive regular training so that they have the skills, knowledge and confidence to work with young people living at the home. Staff receive supervision to support them in providing care for young people but records of supervision do not fully document these sessions in accordance with current standards.

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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 and the evaluation schedule for children's homes.

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