Children's Home run by Little Acorns London Beach Farm Limited in Kent

Unique reference number SC023651 Inspection date 15/05/2013 Inspector Janet Hunnam Type of inspection Full Provision subtype Children's home

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Date of last inspection 14/02/2013 Website: www.ofsted.gov.uk

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Brief description of the service

This children's home provides care for up to eight children, aged between 4 and 15 years. The home only accepts admissions under the age of 10 years. The home caters for children with emotional and behavioural difficulties who have a wide range of needs which can be best met in a therapeutic style community.

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Brief description of the service

The home's independent school operates from two classrooms within the grounds. The provider of this service also operates another children's home and other provision for adults with mental health and learning difficulties.

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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 good .

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Overall effectiveness

Children receive high quality care, support and guidance resulting in them making significant progress in their personal development and behaviour. Detailed and comprehensive assessment and care planning promotes children’s individual needs and promotes positive outcomes.

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Overall effectiveness

Children develop meaningful, trusting relationships with staff within a nurturing and supportive environment. This enables them to make substantial progress in their social and emotional development.

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Overall effectiveness

Children’s safety and well-being are central to practice at the home. Consistent implementation of individual strategies within a structured environment keeps children safe.

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Overall effectiveness

Strong, effective leadership and management is implementing robust monitoring to maintain high standards of care and focus on areas for development to improve children’s outcomes and maximise their progress.

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Overall effectiveness

Shortfalls identified relate to evaluating the effectiveness of specific sanctions for children and ensuring comprehensive individual risk assessments are in place to protect children. These shortfalls are not having a negative impact on the welfare or safety of the children.

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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 which includes the effectiveness and any consequences of the use of sanctions. (Regulation 17B(3)(f)) 28/06/2013

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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 staff actively promote the welfare of children living in the home and in particular, ensure comprehensive risk assessments for children are in place. (NMS 4.2)

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Outcomes for children and young people

Children make good progress at the home, especially when taking into account their starting points at the time of admission. Children’s experience of the home is positive and they recognise their personal growth. One child stated ‘I am now able to talk about how I feel but I couldn’t when I first came.’ Professionals involved in the children’s care acknowledge the progress children are making as a result of staff being very knowledgeable of children’s needs and their efforts to meet their needs in all respects. Such highly individualised support helps children develop trusting relationships, which builds their confidence and self-esteem so they feel valued and respected.

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Outcomes for children and young people

Excellent health plans, close monitoring and thorough attention by staff to each child’s health needs, ensure they meet children’s health requirements. Children’s emotional and psychological health has a high priority. Detailed assessment, individual therapy sessions and skilled support from staff enable children to begin to develop emotional resilience and coping mechanisms and thus improve their future life prospects.

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Outcomes for children and young people

The value of education is embedded in the culture at the home. All children attend the organisation’s school on site and have excellent attendance. School and care staff work closely together to ensure children have the individual support they require to make progress. Children with poor education histories are making significant progress from their starting points on admission.

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Outcomes for children and young people

Children participate in positive activities in the community. They are encouraged to pursue interests to widen their social experiences and have opportunities to socialise with other children. Within the home, children engage in a wide range of games, toys and activities appropriate to their age and stage of development. Consequently, children are making good progress developmentally.

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Outcomes for children and young people

The home recognises the importance of children maintaining contact with their family, friends and people who are important to them. Children benefit from the high priority given to promoting and sustaining positive contact in accordance with their agreed placement plan. Staff provide sensitive and thoughtful support for children to gain from improved family relationships.

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Quality of care

Children receive a good quality of care. Children’s relationships with staff are friendly, good humoured and positive. They develop trust in the adults who consistently care for them allowing them to benefit from making attachments. A social worker commented that there are ‘very good relationships between children and staff and with other children’ and another reported that there are ‘good relationships within the home’. Key working is particularly strong with a focus on meeting children’s individual needs. A social worker commented that the child’s key worker had ‘left no stone unturned’ in their efforts to meet the child’s needs. Such good relationships help children to have a sense of belonging within the home.

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Quality of care

Staff value children’s views and opinions. They are encouraged to put forward their feelings and thoughts individually and in daily community meetings which are an integral part of the home’s therapeutic approach. These meetings help children focus on specific issues and concerns. They also provide space and time for children to feel their views are important and staff are listening to them. Children are involved in day-to-day matters, choosing meals for menus and deciding what activities they would like to do.

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Quality of care

Staff respond promptly to children’s concerns and there have been no formal complaints made by children. Children state that they can always talk to staff if there is anything bothering them. A formal complaints procedure is in place with forms on display and readily available if they choose to write their concerns. Staff write care plans from the child’s point of view. They are excellent, vibrant documents, which highlight all key areas of care ensuring staff address each child’s specific needs. Individual support strategies help children develop and make progress. Managers regularly monitor these plans to ensure they are current, regularly reviewed and guide staff in how best to meet children’s needs. Children are involved in their care planning identifying their own likes, dislikes and fears. They are aware of their individual targets for which they receive reward points as part of positive behaviour management.

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Quality of care

Staff are proactive in ensuring children’s health needs are met. All children receive weekly, individual therapy sessions with a psychotherapist to help them recover from the trauma they have experienced following early childhood experiences. Staff base their therapeutic work with children at the home on comprehensive assessment to identify and understand the reasons for their challenging behaviour. Consequently, they ensure that children undertake appropriate medical and psychological assessments to provide an accurate picture of individual children’s difficulties and the causes of these difficulties. Staff receive on-going training and support from a child psychotherapist and consultant psychodynamic therapist to work therapeutically with children to address their emotional and psychological needs.

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Quality of care

Staff have appropriate training in areas such as first aid and food safety to provide a healthy environment for children. The home provides healthy, home cooked meals, which children and staff enjoy. Children have opportunities to exercise and have fun in the spacious grounds. They are also encouraged to participate in activities in the local community such as scouts, youth club, musical theatre group and gymnastics according to their specific interests. This enables them to extend their social experiences, gain confidence and develop their self-esteem.

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Quality of care

Children attend the organisation’s school on site and one of the key strengths of the home is how closely the home’s staff work with school staff to provide opportunities for children to make progress with their education. Care staff ensure that school staff have a detailed handover before the start of the school day so that school staff are fully aware of any issues that may affect a child’s learning during the day. Another handover to school staff occurs at the end of the lunch break and school staff handover to care staff at the end of the school day. Such close communication ensures children have the support they require and consequently they enjoy school and make good progress in relation to their starting point in the context of turbulent past education experiences.

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Quality of care

Children live in a home that offers a spacious, well-maintained, high standard of accommodation. Each child’s bedroom is personalised and reflects their individual personalities and interests giving them a sense of identity and the feeling that they are valued as individuals.

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Safeguarding children and young people

The service is good at keeping children and young people safe and feeling safe. The home provides a safe, nurturing environment where children feel safe, secure and protected from harm. High staff ratios provide children with close supervision and monitoring. A child stated that they know ‘there are adults to protect to me.’ Social workers confirmed that children are safe at the home. Bullying is not an issue due to the high levels of staff supervision. Children are confident that staff will promptly address any issues and keep them safe. Individual risk assessments identify children’s specific vulnerabilities and these are being reviewed to strengthen measures to protect children.

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Safeguarding children and young people

Consistent structure and boundaries together with positive relationships underpins a positive approach to behaviour management. Each child has a detailed positive behaviour support plan identifying difficult behaviour, triggers and warning signs and strategies and guidelines for staff to support the child through difficult periods. These support plans have resulted in a decrease in the use of physical intervention as staff successfully intervene without the need for restraint. Each child also has an individual physical intervention plan detailing the appropriate holds for specific children. Photographs of staff simulating an incident of physical intervention illustrate these holds. This ensures staff are clear on how to intervene safely if necessary and demonstrates excellent forethought to protect children in difficult situations. Staff have regular training in physical intervention and de-escalation strategies and record

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Safeguarding children and young people

incidents comprehensively. Sanctions are part of behaviour management but staff do not consider the effectiveness of sanctions in evaluating their impact on children’s behaviour.

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Safeguarding children and young people

Children do not leave the home without permission but procedures are in place to ensure staff take appropriate action if a child does leave the home to protect the child and ensure their safe return.

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Safeguarding children and young people

The home adopts robust recruitment practices to safeguard children from unsuitable adults working with them. All checks on prospective employees are undertaken before they commence work.

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Safeguarding children and young people

Matters of health and safety are routinely checked. Risk assessments relating to the home are in place to identify potential hazards and risk-reduction measures to protect children and staff. Appropriate fire safety measures are routinely applied. Children thus benefit from a safe environment, which has a positive impact on their welfare.

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Leadership and management

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

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Leadership and management

The current manager, appointed in March 2013, is in the process of applying to register with Ofsted. He is committed to providing high quality care for children to enable them to make progress in all areas of their lives. Together with an enthusiastic deputy manager and dedicated staff team, he is implementing improvements to develop the service in line with the home’s Statement of Purpose. Staff acknowledge this positive influence and the impact on improving outcomes for children. Social workers report that the home is effectively managed with very good communication, excellent written reports and prompt response to queries and issues affecting children. Social workers stated they are ‘very impressed with the home’, it is ‘absolutely amazing’ and one stated they are ’very pleased that the child is placed there’. Children are positive about living at the home and those spoken to did not give any negative feedback on the home.

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Leadership and management

Staff say they receive valuable support and supervision ensuring they can effectively support children to develop and make progress. High staff ratios allow children to benefit from close supervision and support to meet their complex needs. The committed staff team ensure each child’s needs are central to their practice. Staff receive good levels of training and undertake a thorough induction when they are employed ensuring they have the skills, knowledge and confidence to support children.

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Leadership and management

Recent developments include a robust approach to monitoring the service to identify and analyse patterns and trends relating to children’s progress and the subsequent implementation of different strategies to support them through their difficulties. The manager has a clear vision for improving the service demonstrated by a forward- looking written development plan. The plan outlines areas for development such as staff training, improved monitoring and greater consultation with children. In addition, plans for improved multi-disciplinary working to support children leaving the home and refurbishment of parts of the home are areas for development.

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Leadership and management

The home maintains accurate records, ensures they are of a high standard and are up to date. One requirement and one recommendation were made at the previous inspection and these have been met. The home maintains a register of admissions and discharges and staff are working towards the Level 3 Diploma in working with children.

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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 the inspection of children's homes.

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