Abbeyfield

Abbeyfield Inspection report for residential family centre

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Unique reference number SC050043 Inspection date 01/10/2013 Inspector Michelle Moss / Debbie Foster Type of inspection Full

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Setting address 38 Christchurch Road, Sheffield, South Yorkshire, S3 9HN

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Telephone number 0114 252 5230 Email Registered person Progressive Care Limited Registered manager Jane Holmes Responsible individual Mohammad Shabir Ali Date of last inspection 08/07/2011 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 residential family centre is part of an organisation that can accommodate up to 12 families. Parents that are referred to the centre complete up to a 12-week residential assessment process, either directed by the courts, or by a referring authority. The centre has specific facilities to also take families with disabilities.

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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

Good quality assessments are undertaken to enable parenting capacity to be assessed. Families are offered guidance and support by a staff team who are committed to helping parents make meaningful progress to overcome any difficulties that impact on their ability to care for, bond with and safeguard their children. Parents are afforded opportunities to develop self-esteem, modify risk taking behaviour, build confidence and enhance parenting skills.

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Overall effectiveness

The quality of the relationship between staff, parents and children is mutually respectful and enables children and their parents to feel safe and secure throughout the assessment. Partnership working generates substantial benefits, by making sure children’s welfare remains the centre’s primary concern.

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Overall effectiveness

The social worker is skilful in evaluating objectively the quality of the assessment and produces reports for courts and local authorities in the best interests of the child. The Registered Manager also has the ability to evaluate objectively the quality of provision and to use a development plan to set targets for driving forward improvement.

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Overall effectiveness

There are breaches in regulations and a number of recommendations arising from this inspection. These link to shortfalls in training, family placement plans, the decoration of the premises, the use of surveillance, recruitment procedures, complaints procedures, the Statement of Purpose, residents’ guide and lastly self- evaluation.

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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, Residential Family Centres Regulations 2002 and the National Minimum Standards. The registered person(s) must comply with the given timescales.

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Reg. Requirement Due date

21A (2002) ensure that any use of surveillance is subject to the following condition. Its use is no more intrusive than necessary (Regulation 21A (2)(b) 30/11/2013

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Reg. Requirement Due date

(2002) ensure all parts of the residential family centre are kept clean, reasonably decorated and is in a good state of repair internally (Regulation 21 (2) (b) and (c)) 31/12/2013

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Reg. Requirement Due date

(2002) ensure where a person has previously worked in a position whose duties involved work with children or vulnerable adults, so far as reasonably practicable, verification of the reason why the employment or position ended is obtained (Regulation 17, Schedule 2 (4)) 31/12/2013

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Reg. Requirement Due date

(2002) ensure that a written record is made of any complaint including the action taken and the outcome of the investigation. Also, produce a statement containing a summary of complaints over a 12 month period which shows the action that was taken (Regulation 20 (6) and (7)) 30/11/2013

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Reg. Requirement Due date

21A (2002) ensure staff are appropriately trained and understand the requirements imposed by regulations on the use of surveillance. This includes data protection (Regulation 21A (4)) 31/12/2013

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Reg. Requirement Due date

(2002) ensure the resident's guide includes the address and telephone number of the Children's Rights Director.(Regulation 4 (3)(d) 30/11/2013

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Recommendations

To improve the quality and standards of care further the registered person should take account of the following recommendation(s):

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Recommendations

 ensure the Statement of Purpose includes a summary of how families can find out about their rights, how to contact the Children’s Rights Director and how to secure access to an independent advocate (NMS 8.4)  ensure staff have received sufficient training on health and hygiene issues, with particular emphasis on health promotion and communicable diseases (NMS 6.9)  ensure all new care staff have the minimum level 3 children and young people’s workforce Diploma (NMS 16.5)  ensure staff complete a written family placement plan which details the assessment, supervision and protection to be provided at the centre. In particular, ensuring the plan is written at the start of placement and not only identifies risks but also assesses risk (NMS 9.2)  ensure suitable arrangements exist for professional supervision of the registered manager (NMS 17.3)  ensure action is taken to address any issues of concern that are identified in

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Quality of assessment

All staff have a clear understanding of their roles and responsibilities, are vigilant in their observations to keep children safe and ensure parenting capability is assessed. The assessment model is clearly matched against the needs of families with staff monitoring progress in a way that ensures the assessment is based on reliable evidence. Each stage of the assessment is monitored by the Registered Manager and social worker, to make sure the assessment remains fair, balanced and always evidence based. Areas of risk are recognised and inclusive of the family placement plan. Risk assessments support the family placement plan and are good at identifying the different areas of risk; however, there is an absence of control measures to show how these risks are to be effectively managed to safeguard children.

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Quality of assessment

The majority of children and parents have family placement plans which are set out in a way that focuses not only on parenting skills, but also how parents are recognising and minimising risks, forming attachments and promoting their child’s development. Nevertheless, there are a small number of families’ initial plans which are incomplete. This shortfall hinders the assessment process having a clear focus on the starting point of assessing each parent’s capacity to meet their child’s needs, including their health, safety and welfare.

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Quality of assessment

As assessments become established, parents are actively encouraged to become partners in their assessment. This includes parents receiving weekly feedback, which they value. This is set out in a friendly, yet informative format to enable parents to receive clear feedback on their level of progress. This helps parents to be well informed about where improvements are still needed and to equally recognise achievements made. The process also ensures parents are clear about the following stages and the expectations of them to achieve set goals. This level of openness enables parents to remain focused and to utilise the full range of opportunities offered by the centre to enhance their abilities to parent and safeguard their children. This can for example, include baby massage sessions, play groups, behaviour management, lifestyle training through to education.

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Quality of assessment

Culture and language, disability, gender, race, religion, sexual orientation and identity are all respected by staff. This includes staff being skilful in using diverse methods of communication to meet each parent’s differing needs and abilities. This ensures all families are afforded the same level of opportunity to demonstrate their capacity to meet their child’s needs.

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Quality of assessment

Consideration is given to the rights of parents to privacy during the period of assessment, although the paramount importance of the child’s welfare remains the main priority of the centre. Nevertheless, surveillance can sometimes become intrusive on the parents' relationships. For example, sometimes monitoring logs record parents sleeping habits at night. Although parents are offered private time, this is not fully explored or explained in documentation provided on the use of surveillance. As a consequence, the practice of using surveillance is not sufficiently transparent to ensure actions taken by the centre are consistently based on balancing risk against the rights to privacy.

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Quality of assessment

The needs and concerns of children and parents are dealt with sensitively, taking into account parental rights, confidentiality, dignity and privacy most of the time. However, some of the stages of the observation are not clearly explained to parents. For instance, based on need and risk, the centre will undertake a staged reduction of the level of surveillance used. This includes moving parents who have been on full observation which involve 24-hours surveillance, to an intermittent level during which the surveillance is used some of the time. The clarification of what is meant by ‘some of the time’ is not accurately explained to ensure practice on the use of surveillance remains balanced with risk and completed in a totally transparent way to both parents and other professionals.

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Quality of care, support and guidance

The quality of the care, support and guidance is adequate .

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Quality of care, support and guidance

Children and parents are supported by staff who work tirelessly to create a climate where mutual respect underpins every aspect of practice. Professionals comment positively on how well staff communicate to ensure health and welfare needs are consistently addressed. Parents are afforded a range of opportunities to develop skills that enable them to build their parenting capacity. This can include budgeting, understanding healthy eating, building up healthy lifestyles and developing parenting skills, which all help in enhancing their child’s development.

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Quality of care, support and guidance

Children and parents are made welcome from the moment they arrive. The majority of parents feel that they are well informed about what they can expect during their assessment. Relationships between staff, parents and children are positive and parents say they value the support and guidance provided.

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Quality of care, support and guidance

There are well established links with partnership agencies including health, social care, education and welfare. These partnerships ensure the welfare of children remains central to the assessment process.

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Quality of care, support and guidance

Parents are given information which informs them about the set expectations of the centre. This is often provided prior to admission, so that parents and children can prepare for their stay. However, the level of detail given in the residents’ guides does not extend to informing parents and children about the Children’s Rights Director, including their contact details, or about how they can secure access to an independent advocate. This hinders parents and children having full access to independent advice and guidance on rights.

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Safeguarding children and parents

The service is adequate at keeping children and parents safe and feeling safe.

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Safeguarding children and parents

The centre operates agreed policies and procedures which support parents to protect their children from harm, abuse and neglect. The staff have a good level of understanding about their roles and responsibilities to safeguard children and remain vigilant in their observations, to ensure children’s welfare remains their paramount consideration.

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Safeguarding children and parents

Children and parents are informed about the set expectations of behaviour and staff are trained and skilful in de-escalation techniques and anger management, to enable them to manage conflict safely.

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Safeguarding children and parents

Multi-agency partnerships are well established to ensure child protection is at the heart of the assessment process. This extends to having all the appropriate processes for reporting and responding to both child and adult protection concerns, matched against local safeguarding procedures.

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Safeguarding children and parents

Recruitment procedures generally operate well to ensure a high threshold is secured, to deter abusers gaining access to children and to protect vulnerable adults. However, where a person has previously worked with children and vulnerable adults, there is no consistency in ensuring verification is secured for the reason why the employment ended. This leave gaps in recruitment procedures which weakens safeguarding practices.

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Safeguarding children and parents

The accommodation and facilities mainly provide a safe environment, but some of the fixtures, fittings and general decoration in parts of the centre are showing signs of general damage and wear and tear. As a consequence, the quality standard of accommodation is not meeting the expectations of the Statement of Purpose, which comments on the centre offering children and parents high quality accommodation.

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Safeguarding children and parents

Parents feel safe at the centre and feel the staff show genuine concern for their welfare. Staff have a good understanding of the emotional needs of children and parents and have skills and access to resources to help parents. In particular, to address risk taking behaviour which can compromise parents’ ability to meet their child’s needs. This includes parents being able to complete sessions on anger management, to having opportunities to undertake sessions with the social worker that evaluate the impact of historical risks.

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Leadership and management

The leadership and management of the residential family centre are adequate . Children and parents are afforded a good balance of experienced staff with individual members holding wide ranging professional qualifications that enable them to undertake detailed assessments. However, although qualifications across the staff team provide a wealth of expertise, some areas of training are limited to a few staff rather than all staff. For example, not all staff are trained in data protection, health promotion, health and hygiene issues. Also not all staff have the workforce diploma in working with children and young people. As a consequence, there are some gaps in key areas of knowledge, relevant to the core work of the centre and in ensuring the health of families is promoted.

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Leadership and management

Children and parents are able to make complaints. Logs are managed to show these have been addressed and resolved. However, there are occasions where logs fail to show the outcome. Furthermore, there is no summary made to evaluate the complaints received in the last 12 month. These shortfalls limit the robustness of the complaints procedure.

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Leadership and management

Self-evaluation is completed through monthly visits undertaken by the organisation. These visits assess the quality of assessment, including seeking the views of parents to help form a judgement. However, there is less effectiveness in ensuring recommendations raised in reports are addressed. For example, concerns have been raised on the premises and also over the limited supervision offered to the Registered Manager. These create missed opportunities to implement improvements both in the quality of assessment and in enhancing the accommodation for families. On a more positive level, the Registered Manager understands the strengths and weaknesses of the centre which is best illustrated in a carefully written development plan. This demonstrates a capacity for continuous improvement with realistic timescales to ensure the quality assessment increasingly strengthens.

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Leadership and management

The Registered Manger actively follows up on new legislation and through established links with other professionals, ensures they remain up to date on practice issues. This includes following up on serious case reviews and undertaking research into different models of assessing parenting capacity. The Registered Manager uses this intelligence to inform staff practice and to ensure safeguarding practice remains in line with current best practice guidance.

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Leadership and management

Staff rotas take into account the needs of children and parents and, where applicable, for the need of additional supervision. If 24-hour CCTV (surveillance) monitoring is required, the deployment of staff is increased. This ensures the centre can maintain the appropriate levels of safeguarding in which the best interest of the child is not compromised.

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Leadership and management

Prospective commissioners, social workers and parents have access to information about the centre in a form of a Statement of Purpose. This is generally an informative document. However, like the residents’ guide it is missing information which is aimed at helping children and parents to practice their rights.

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Leadership and management

Requirements and recommendations from the last inspection have in the main been met. This includes complaints being recorded, parents receiving key information to help them prepare for their assessment and the Statement of Purpose being kept under review to ensure key information is up to date. However, there are new shortfalls which relate to these areas.

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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 inspection framework and the evaluation schedule for the inspection of residential family centres.

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