Children's Home run by Calcot Services for Children Limited in West Berkshire

Unique reference number SC011185 Inspection date 06/02/2014 Inspector Barbara Davies Type of inspection Interim Provision subtype Children's home

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Date of last inspection 14/06/2013 Website: www.ofsted.gov.uk

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Brief description of the service

This home is registered for up to seven young people. This service is accredited as a registered therapeutic community. The home is owned and managed by a private organisation. This is a small therapeutic foundation which caters for young people who may have a range of emotional and behavioural difficulties.

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The inspection judgements and what they mean

Good progress The children’s home has demonstrated continued improvement in quality of care and outcomes for children and young people and where appropriate has addressed all requirements and the large majority of recommendations that were raised at the previous inspection. Satisfactory progress The children’s home has maintained quality of care and outcomes for children and young people and where appropriate has addressed all requirements and the majority of recommendations that were raised at the previous inspection. Inadequate progress The children’s home has failed to address one or more requirements and/or has not met the majority of recommendations and/or the quality of care and outcomes for children and young people have declined since the last full inspection.

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Progress

Since their previous inspection the service is judged to be making satisfactory progress .

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Progress

The last full inspection of the home took place in June 2013 when the overall effectiveness of the home was judged as outstanding. This interim inspection has found that progress since that time has been satisfactory.

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Progress

The recommendation made at the previous inspection has been addressed with the home's manager having commenced a level five qualification appropriate to the role she performs. However, that manager has transferred to another setting and the new manager already holds an appropriate qualification.

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Progress

The majority of young people have continued to make steady progress; maintain their college and school attendance and participate in activities in the community. Some young people have aspirations to go to university and are supported in this. Other young people have not engaged in the education on offer. While missing from care incidents have, for some, reduced considerably; in one instance, despite the young person having established positive and meaningful relationships with staff, they remain frequent.

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Progress

The continuing suitability of their placement has been considered for those young people who do not engage fully. In one instance plans made through the statutory review process enabled a positive move to a new placement. In another instance, the home issued a notice to terminate the placement because it could not keep the young person safe within the local community.

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Progress

Behaviour is managed well most of the time and sanctions and restraints are not used often. Records show that when sanctions are used they are usually appropriate. However, there has been one instance of a fine being issued to a young person for a misdemeanour which is a breach of regulations. There have also been some issues of bullying behaviour, in which young people have been hurt by others.

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Progress

Staffing rotas had not been updated for the dates on which these incidents occurred which made it difficult to track the composition, experience and qualifications held by staff on duty at the time of these incidents. By using other records, it was possible to determine that on at least one occasion the experience of the staff team was lacking when an incident occurred. In recognition of this, some changes have been made to the staffing arrangements; a more experienced manager has been appointed and other staff with qualifications and experience have joined the team.

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Progress

Monitoring of the home's records by the manager and the home's line manager has failed to comment on these issues. The quality assurance monitoring reports produced only comment on the number of sanctions and restraints and do not provide a qualitative analysis of practice. For instance, they do not evaluate the appropriateness of sanctions or comment on any patterns and trends noted. The section on placement plans is often repeated each month and describes the system in place rather than commenting on the content of individual placement plans and whether they are up to date.

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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 that no financial penalty is imposed, other than a requirement for the payment of a reasonable sum (which may be by instalments) by way of reparation (Regulation 17 (2)(g)) 15/03/2014

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Reg. Requirement Due date

(2001) ensure that the record of the home's duty rosters is kept up to date and that there is a record of the actual hours worked (Regulation 29 (1); Schedule 4 (11) 15/03/2014

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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 visits to the home under Regulation 33 include relevant checks set out in regulations and guidance and checks of any disciplinary measures and use of restraint and records of missing person’s reports. In particular ensure that the home's records are subject to frequent review and that pattern, trends and practice issues are evaluated and reported on. (NMS 21.7)  maintain written records detailing all individual incidents when children go missing. In particular maintain a central log of missing from home incidents. (Volume 5, stat guidance, paragraph 2.82)

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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 progress made by the provider since the last full inspection, identifies any further strengths, any areas for improvement and makes judgements as outlined in the Inspection of children’s homes – framework for inspection.

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