Children's Home run by Strode Park Foundation for People with Disabilities in Kent

Unique reference number SC425786 Inspection date 08/10/2013 Inspector Helen Lee Type of inspection Full Provision subtype Children's home

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Date of last inspection 04/02/2013 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 care and accommodation for up to four children under short-break arrangements and to a further five children who live at the home. Facilities are in place to meet the needs of children who either have physical disabilities, learning disabilities or both. It is operated by a local charitable foundation.

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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 and young people make good progress as they benefit from a home which recognises and provides for their unique and individual needs. The complex needs of children and young people are understood, planned for and consistently met. Working together with families and external agencies, managers and staff consistently improve the lives and experiences of children and young people. As one parent states, ' My son is extremely happy here and I feel very confident leaving my precious son with all his complex needs, in the capable hands of the staff and manager.'

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Overall effectiveness

The service actively seeks the views and opinions of the children, their parents and carers to directly impact upon care planning and service delivery. Consultation methods are creative and specifically tailored to ensure everyone has a say. Children are effectively and patiently supported to achieve their goals and targets. Children achieve and develop socially, behaviourally and emotionally as a direct result of the efforts and skills of the staff team.

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Overall effectiveness

The quality of the care provided remains good. Strengths include the choices promoted for the young people day to day as well as for the future, the depth of knowledge held by the staff not only about the children who live in the home but also about the vast number of children who use the service. Improvements have been made within the home to address a safeguarding shortfall. This was monitored, supported and closed by the Local Area Designated Officer. Improvements to safeguarding practices and procedural guidance for staff, including training, means safer practice is being delivered to the children. The use of restraint is rare and one sanction has been used since the last inspection; this bears testament to the strength of relationships and the promotion of positive behaviour by staff.

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Overall effectiveness

Leaders and managers have responded positively to the requirements and recommendations made from the previous inspection. However, some gaps are found with regards to recruitment practices and a requirement is made to address this. Shortfalls relating to certain aspects of safeguarding and leadership and management have been highlighted through this inspection. These have the effect of limiting the inspection judgements for these areas, but have little impact upon the quality of care and the outcomes for children and 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

(2001) ensure the registered person does not- (a) employ a person to work at the home unless that person is fit to work at a children's home and for the purposes of paragraph (1), full and satisfactory information is available to him in respect of each of the matters specified in Schedule 2. (Regulation 26 (3)(d) Schedule 2) 31/12/2013

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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

 evaluate the learning and development programme to ensure its effectiveness (NMS 18.2)  produce the children's guide where appropriate through suitable alternative methods of communication (NMS 13.6)  ensure that recruitment checks are recorded showing the date and who carried out the check. This recommendation is made within the context of identity and qualification checks (NMS 16.4)  ensure that restraint records are in formats that cannot be tampered with after the event, for example, bound numbered records. (Volume 5, statutory guidance, paragraph 2.91).

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Outcomes for children and young people

Children and young people using this service enjoy positive experiences during their stays. Those for whom this is their home make meaningful progress to develop positively, as one social worker states, ' This is the right place for the young person, their experiences and behaviours such as sleep, physical improvements and communication show significant progress.' Their growth and development is actively encouraged through the pursuits they enjoy; such as messy play, table top games, imaginative play, outdoor games and exploring their wider world by using public transport to visit places of interest. The most recent example of this included a trip ice skating and west end shows.

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Outcomes for children and young people

Routines and consistent approaches teach children to practise good hygiene, such as hand washing and maintaining their own personal hygiene needs as independently as possible. There has been a reduction in some behaviour which impacted on health such as sickness which has reduced due to the homes work with the young person. A good number of children make great progress in terms of developing a more adventurous approach to mealtimes as well as eating out socially. This impacts positively upon their nutritional needs.

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Outcomes for children and young people

Social workers for those placed permanently say that education outcomes have improved for children and young people. Young people achieve friendships at school which are supported and encouraged by the home.

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Outcomes for children and young people

Young people benefit from regular and appropriate contact with their families and friends. This enables them to develop and sustain positive relationships with those people who are important to them. Staff work exceptionally hard to ensure young people enjoy their time with their family. They are acutely aware of young people's vulnerabilities and make sure they are effectively and sensitively supported.

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Outcomes for children and young people

Children and young people develop independence and life skills because staff feed their confidence. Praise and encouragement sees positive results such as certificates. Children and young people are frequently able to participate in decisions about their lives as the home enables them to communicate in a variety of ways which is reviewed and tested as well as expanded. Therefore young people are realising and achieving their targets and goals. As one Social Worker stated, 'The strong point of this home is the communication and choice of the young people.'

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Quality of care

Children and young people know that they are highly valued by the staff. Relationships are solid. Children and young people engage in much fun and laughter. Signs of anxiety and upset are very well read by staff who know children well and intervene quickly. This results in happy and confident children taking full advantage of the wide and stimulating activities which are routinely on offer. Staff do not allow the disabilities of children and young people to restrict them from taking part in a diverse range of activities.

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Quality of care

Children and young people have a very real say in terms of service delivery. Consultation mechanisms are creative, targeted and reflect the unique communication needs of the children and young people. Staff give children the time and resources they need to make their views and opinions known. Feedback from individual and groups of children directly influences care delivery. Examples include activity provision, meal choices, and how individuals prefer to be supported with their own unique care needs.

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Quality of care

Staff take the time to get to know the children and young people they care for, allowing them to identify and meet their individual needs. For some this in-depth knowledge is built up over many years. Young people receive exceptional individualised support, which means they are able to provide effective guidance. Equality and diversity is integral to the care delivered; this enables the young people to develop an awareness of cultural differences, exploring through using maps of the earth, art, food and education.

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Quality of care

The service routinely canvasses parents and placing authorities for their views about the quality of the service provision. The feedback received is largely very positive and has resulted in a culture whereby informal resolution usually prevents the need to formally complain. As one parent states, 'The manager is always very approachable and very quick to deal with any concerns or issues.'

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Quality of care

Children and young people regularly attend their current school while staying at the service. Indeed, absences are extremely rare and only occur in understandable circumstances, such as ill health. Strong links exist between the service and the schools attended. Care plans demonstrate how the school and the service work together in terms of targets and goal setting. This ensures children and young people are focusing on the same areas and such consistency brings positive measurable results.

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Quality of care

An open kitchen is separated from communal areas by a low wall. This allows children and young people to engage with the cook who prepares their meals and enjoy the pleasant smells as mealtimes approach. Children and young people are able to view menus which are displayed at eye level for wheelchair users and can listen to the menu choice by pressing a button. These always include an element of choice, although the likes and dislikes of children and young people are well known and catered for. There is now also a second lounge providing a separate space for the permanent young people to enjoy with their families.

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Safeguarding children and young people

The service is adequate at keeping children and young people safe and feeling safe. Children and young people present as happy, confident and relaxed within the home. Their relationships with staff are comfortable and openly affectionate; children confidently approach staff members to make requests, to engage in activities and to ask for assistance when they need it. Staff know how each child or young person communicates or reacts if they are distressed or uncomfortable. They are sensitive to any changes in the demeanour of children and young people and are prompt to respond to individual needs. Parents are confident that their children are safe while they are in the home.

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Safeguarding children and young people

The positive behaviour of children and young people is promoted through praise and encouragement. Because staff know them so well, small changes are noticed and celebrated. There is minimum use of physical restraint and of the three incidents since the last inspection two of these related to a guided walk intervention. These are carefully monitored and explored for any patterns, trends or practice learning. However, the log used to record these is not securely bound or numbered.

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Safeguarding children and young people

There have been no incidents of children being absent or missing. High staffing ratios provide excellent supervision levels and the building is appropriately secure. The service is signed up to written protocols with the police and local authority in the event of children going missing. The service's guidance is explicitly clear in the event that any child deemed to be missing would be viewed as extremely vulnerable and given top priority in terms of the action to take.

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Safeguarding children and young people

The Registered Manager adopts a robust approach towards reflective practice and implementing lessons learned. A safeguarding incident which occurred earlier this year has resulted in a review of the recording systems of the home as well as the reporting channels. The service's own safeguarding policy and procedure has been reviewed for accuracy by the Local Authority Designated Officer. Safeguarding training for staff has been revisited and increased with a further body mapping element to ensure everyone is up-to-date and records are being tightly monitored. The manager liaises regularly with the local safeguarding team to improve and test out practice and keep abreast of current guidance and legislation. This has resulted in the investigation being closed with no further action and the systems judged as now addressing the previous weaknesses.

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Safeguarding children and young people

The recruitment practice of the service is generally sound and serves to protect the children and young people. Staff do not begin to work at the service until all of the required checks and references are returned. Currently, the human resources department undertake identity and qualification checks, however, these are not consistently recorded. One example was also found where an applicant's work history was not robustly verified. Such shortfalls present potential risks to the reliability and safety of the recruitment procedure.

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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

A Registered Manager is in post. She has completed the Level 5 Diploma in Leadership for Health and Social Care and Children and Young People's Services ensuring she is appropriately qualified for her role. Feedback from stakeholders is positive about communication systems and the commitment of staff to the children and young people. The Registered Manager is able to evidence the progress that the young people make and has a good understanding of the home's strengths and areas for improvement. The development plan is regularly reviewed. Consequently, the effectiveness of this approach ensures young people make progress in all areas of their lives and the outcomes for young people are good.

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Leadership and management

The service responded swiftly and openly to the shortfalls identified from the safeguarding matter. The service took immediate appropriate action following identified weaknesses in the reporting and recording systems and responsibilities. Robust internal investigations, including input from the Local Area Designated Officer has resulted in a review of paperwork, provision of specific training and a greater emphasis placed upon tighter monitoring. Its communication with Ofsted, in terms of notifications and information sharing is open and transparent.

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Leadership and management

Social workers and family members express their clear understanding of the aims and objectives of the service. These are accurately described within the Statement of Purpose. The children's guide, although includes photographs is not suitable for children who have communication difficulties. The Registered Manager recognises that this is not accessible for all children and young people who use the service.

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Leadership and management

Young people are cared for by a very motivated staff team who have a wide range of experience. The numbers of staff on duty are sufficient to meet the needs of the young people. Staff undertake sufficient mandatory training regularly. In-depth training courses to meet the more complex health needs of the young people such as the autistic spectrum and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder have not been provided. However, the manager and staff have used other resources and materials such as reading relevant literature to learn and cascade this information. However, the learning and development programme has not been evaluated to ensure it is effective and beneficial to staff.

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Leadership and management

Staff receive regular and relevant supervision which focuses on personal growth and development, improving outcomes for young people as well as reflecting on their own practice. This means they are able to reflect upon their performance and consider ways of further enhancing this. This is supported by excellent handover sessions and regular team meetings which also reflect on current work practices and consider new ways of working with or supporting young people. Consequently, staff state that they feel very well supported. As one member of staff states, 'This is about seeing the young people develop because of the support we offer and this is due to an open culture within the team.'

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Leadership and management

The service works well with associated external agencies. It enjoys a very positive relationship with children's social workers and maintains particularly strong links with health care professionals and colleagues in the education sector. As one parent comments, 'Our daughter receives 1st class care from the excellent staff and enjoys her respite care there to the full. We have an excellent relationship with all the staff and work together to ensure that all her needs are met at home, at the shortbreak and at school.'

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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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