Children's Home run by London Borough of Barnet in Barnet

Unique reference number SC033805 Inspection date 29/07/2013 Inspector Seka Graovac Type of inspection Full Provision subtype Children's home

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Date of last inspection 13/02/2013 Website: www.ofsted.gov.uk

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Brief description of the service

This is a local authority's children's home. The home supports up to six children and young people with emotional and/or behavioural 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

Young people receive highly personalised care from a very stable, experienced, skilled, caring and committed staff team. Young people report being well looked after. They benefit from having developed positive relationships with staff. They make overall good progress across different aspects of their development and are more confident about themselves and their future. Young people engage less in unhealthy habits and unsafe behaviours; they engage more in learning and positive activities in the community.

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Overall effectiveness

Leadership and management arrangements are strong. Comprehensive monitoring systems are in place and there is a driving commitment to continue improving the service for young people. The approach to individual young people's risk assessments is particularly thorough and robust.

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Overall effectiveness

The areas for development identified at this inspection relate to: improving further the quality of the records of physical interventions, ensuring more consultative periodical reviews of the quality of care and also, sending all required notifications to Ofsted. These weaknesses have not had any observable negative impact on the outcomes for young people, which remain good.

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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) improve the quality of records of the use of any measure of control, restraint or discipline and ensure that their content clearly covers all the points specified in the regulation (Regulation 17B (3) (b)(h)) 31/08/2013

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Reg. Requirement Due date

(2001) ensure that Ofsted is notified without delay, when any of the events listed in Schedule 5 takes place. This relates in particular to any serious complaint about the home or persons working there (Regulation 30 (1) Schedule 5) 31/07/2013

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Reg. Requirement Due date

(2001) ensure that the reports on the review of quality of care that are sent to Ofsted clearly demonstrate consultation with children, their parents and placing authorities. (Regulation 34 (3)) 31/10/2013

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Outcomes for children and young people

Young people's educational achievements are good, taking into account the attainment and progress they have made since living in this home. For example, some young people with a history of not engaging in learning now regularly attend schools and colleges, take exams and confidently plan their professional careers. They have been successfully reintegrated in full time, mainstream education.

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Outcomes for children and young people

Young people understand the various risks associated with being overweight, smoking cigarettes, drinking alcohol, taking drugs and misusing substances. They have made considerable progress at reducing their unhealthy habits. For example, a young person who was described as a chain-smoker at the point of admission to the home has reduced smoking to several cigarettes a day. Another young person reported that from being in an almost continually drunken state, now they only occasionally have an alcoholic drink. Young people's substance misuse has also lessened considerably.

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Outcomes for children and young people

Young people are health conscious. They are committed to maintaining and improving their health and adopting healthier lifestyles. Young people are more able to take responsibility for their own health and behaviour. They engage with staff in regular exercise, such as using the gym equipment, running, swimming or biking. They benefit from having action packed outings and holidays. Young people's participation and access to a full range of stimulating opportunities is excellent, regardless of the varying levels of abilities they have.

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Outcomes for children and young people

Subject to risk assessment, some young people have been gradually enabled to self- administer some of their medication, such as to apply creams. Some young people feel empowered to challenge their medical diagnosis and seek a second professional opinion based on a new health assessment.

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Outcomes for children and young people

Young people have made good progress in developing a positive self view, confidence in themselves, personal presentation and social skills. They have a better understanding of the reasons for being in care. Young people’s emotional resilience and the ability to make and sustain constructive attachments have increased. For example, some young people who left care several years ago still keep in contact with staff and visit the home. One of the current residents has arranged to go on a holiday with an ex resident with whom they developed a deep friendship. For some young people, contact with their families and the feeling of connectedness have also become more significant.

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Outcomes for children and young people

Young people's life skills have improved through cooking, eating together, and looking after the environment; bring a feeling of homeliness, belonging and community. Some young people have developed caring attitudes and enjoy helping younger children in an educational project. In line with their age and understanding, young people have become more mature and better prepared for independence and adult life. For example, a young person had done so well while on the community service, that they were offered a job.

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Quality of care

The well-being of individual young people is at the centre of the service. Young people know this and are appreciative of the help they receive from staff. They feel well looked after, listened to and enabled to contribute to their own care. A young person who responded to the on-line Ofsted survey wrote that they felt loved. Another young person said that being in this home was exactly what they needed. This person has requested to be in care and is very pleased how it all worked out.

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Quality of care

Young people recognise that it is the staffs’ help that has enabled them to change and make good progress. A social work professional said that they were extremely impressed with how effective the staff were at helping a young person to quickly settle into the new environment, after being admitted in crisis.

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Quality of care

Young people receive highly individualised care that fully addresses their needs including those stemming from their age, abilities, cultural background, beliefs, gender identity or sexual orientation. Equality and diversity are proactively addressed in daily living. Staff are skilled at communicating with young people and modelling respectful relationships.

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Quality of care

The home's internal individual care plans focus on measurable goals and fully involve young people. There is an effective link-working system that successfully facilitates appropriate relationships between young people and staff. It also contributes to the monitoring of young people's progress in line with the agreed targets and the aims of the placements. Staff ensure that young people receive comprehensive and consistent support they need through working in effective partnerships with other professionals, including those from health and education, The home is committed to facilitating young people's progress irrespective of any challenges they present or barriers they are experiencing. Good multi-agency support is always available to them when they need it. For example, various health and educational professionals have visited young people at the home and provided them with extra support. Staff follow through any

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Quality of care

advice given, such as safely managing young people's medication or assisting them with on-line learning.

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Quality of care

A clear complaints procedure protects young people and helps them to be confident about their rights. The complaints process has also been used effectively by the home to hear young people's views and promote their contribution to the development of the service. For example, the arrangements for access to the computer have recently changed to be more flexible and responsive to the individual needs of young people. This happened following a complaint from young people in which they successfully reasoned in support of their case for change.

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Safeguarding children and young people

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

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Safeguarding children and young people

Excellent individual written risk assessments are in place to promote young people's safety. Staff recognise young people's vulnerabilities, while ensuring that their choice, individuality and drive for independence remain protected. Those documents demonstrate an exceptionally thorough and robust safeguarding approach to risk assessment. They are clear, comprehensive and updated on at least quarterly basis.

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Safeguarding children and young people

Staff receive regular training updates on the best safeguarding practice. This has recently included training on dealing with allegations against staff, sexual exploitation of children, understanding disability, the sharing of information and behaviour management.

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Safeguarding children and young people

The home favours positive behaviour management strategies and is effective at implementing them successfully. Young people are consistently praised and rewarded for constructive behaviours. The behavioural aims and rewards for achieving them are individually tailored. The rewards have recently included an exercise bench and a subscription to a membership of a club for train collectors.

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Safeguarding children and young people

Staff use every opportunity to remind young people to be courteous and behave in ways that facilitate good relationships. Decent behaviour is also promoted through young people's written behavioural contracts and sparingly used sanctions. Young people report being more careful in their relationships and not getting into trouble any more. They are more open about themselves. After realising that they have done something wrong, young people are more willing to apologise and say that they were sorry. Physical interventions are appropriately used only to prevent injury. Records are kept. However, they are not consistently of a high quality. The information included under the effectiveness of the use of the measure is at times, unclear. The records are not always easy to follow and monitored, as the relevant information is included in different forms. For example, the details of the event leading to the physical

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Safeguarding children and young people

intervention is included in the incident report, but not in the interventions log. Any subsequent discussions with the staff involved are also not recorded in the log. This information is not systematically recorded anywhere.

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Safeguarding children and young people

Young people report feeling safe at the home and do not experience any intimidation or bullying; they do not bully anyone. One young person has been nominated to be a bullying mentor at the school. Staff are working hard with other professionals to promote young people's safer behaviours and to enable them to have a realistic sense of safety when outside of the home. Staff take great care to explain the consequences of certain behaviours to young people. Some young people who used to self-harm or engage in sexualised behaviour have stopped doing that.

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Safeguarding children and young people

Proactive relationships with the police and the council's safeguarding team promote young people's safety when missing from home and engaging in unsafe behaviours. Some young people do not go missing at all. Some young people now go missing less frequently. For example, a young person who had 13 missing episodes in the first quarter of 2012 was missing on three occasions, during the same period this year. The young people who still occasionally go missing are now more inclined to keep in touch with the staff.

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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

A strong management team is confidently led by an experienced manager. This person has been registered with Ofsted for a number of years. The relationships between the management and the staff team are open, positive and supportive. Staff say that they love coming to work. They appreciate the diversity of the team and everybody's commitment to make a difference in young people's lives. They describe themselves as flexible and always willing to help each other.

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Leadership and management

Young people are looked after by staff who are highly experienced and passionate about their work. All staff are appropriately qualified and committed to their professional development, as well as to the development of the service for young people. Staff training and development needs are identified through on-going performance reviews and annual appraisals. The council's comprehensive training programme enables staff to keep up to date with practice developments. This includes being supported to gain a degree in social work.

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Leadership and management

The exceptional stability of the home's team and working in effective partnership with other professionals successfully promote continuity and consistency of support provided to young people. Comprehensive records kept on the young people's files demonstrate clearly the positive impact that the home has had on their lives.

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Leadership and management

Young people's progress is closely monitored and appropriate actions are taken to address any identified trends. For example, when noted that a young person missed going to school always on the same day of the week, this was further explored. Additional support was provided to help them to overcome the difficulty they experienced, but initially were not willing to talk about it.

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Leadership and management

The home's internal audits and six-monthly reviews of the quality of care are complemented by monthly visits carried out by a senior social work professional who is independent from the running of the home. Management seeks feedback and consults with young people about the quality of care provided by the home. However, it is not always clear how the information received is integrated in the home's periodical reviews of the service and how it informs the plans for future development. This inspection has also identified the inconsistencies in the quality of the records kept relating to physical interventions, also indicating that the monitoring is not the most robust.

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Leadership and management

Ofsted receives notifications of significant events, such as when the police have been called to the home. When one of these incidents led to a young person making a complaint, the home has taken appropriate actions including taking and following the advice from the council's safeguarding team. However, Ofsted was not kept up to date with this information.

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Leadership and management

The management has continued to make improvements to the service. The main focus has been on improving the record keeping in line with the recommendations made at the interim inspection. There is a good level of data protection awareness and high commitment to ensure that good practice in this respect is consistently followed.

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Leadership and management

The physical environment has been kept safe, well maintained and comfortable. All the doors and washing facilities on the first floor have been upgraded; young people also have new beds. This is part of the major refurbishment programme that is progressing through its various stages.

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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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