Children's Home run by Benjamin UK Ltd in Buckinghamshire

Unique reference number SC062317 Inspection date 14/02/2014 Inspector Barbara Davies Type of inspection Interim Provision subtype Children's home

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Date of last inspection 19/09/2013 Website: www.ofsted.gov.uk

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Brief description of the service

This is a private children's home providing care and accommodation for up to four young people with 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

A full inspection of the home took place in September 2013 when the overall effectiveness was judged as being good. In the interim period the home is judged to have made satisfactory progress. It has demonstrated the capacity to improve its practice by having addressed the requirements made following that inspection.

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Progress

The Statement of Purpose has been reviewed and updated to include details of the home's staffing arrangements. As a result, interested parties, such as placing social workers, parents and young people, are now better informed of the qualifications, experience and skills of the staff team.

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Progress

A report of the review of the quality of care completed just before the previous inspection has been forwarded to Ofsted. A further review has just been undertaken and only recently forwarded to the responsible individual for approval. It is therefore reasonable that a copy of this has not yet been forwarded to Ofsted but the organisation is aware of the need for this to occur.

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Progress

This is a relatively new staff team with significant changes having taken place. The current manager has submitted an application to be registered with Ofsted and the application is currently being considered. The manager, along with more experienced members of staff, has effectively inducted new members of staff into the team and, despite their relative inexperience, they display confidence in their roles.

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Progress

Currently staff are managing a relatively new group of young people well. Young people's placement plans provide a good steer on the needs of the young people and the methods being used by staff to meet these. However, the strategies being used are not sufficiently specific and do not include measurable targets against which to assess outcomes for young people. For instance a young person's plan in relation to reducing smoking indicates that staff will address this by encouraging engagement with a specific organisation but does not specify the frequency or give consideration to other measurable targets. However, in practice staff have a good understanding of the individual needs of young people and are applying individualised strategies.

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Progress

Young people generally engage well with staff and enjoy their company. Staff provide good levels of support to young people and because of this they are slowly being helped to slowly come to terms with their personal circumstances. Despite not having any training in loss and bereavement, staff support young people well with these issues. Young people say they trust the staff and one commented ‘this home is 100% better than my last. The staff really care. The manager is really nice. You have to trust the people who look after you and I trust these.'

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Progress

Risks that young people may present to each other are managed through increased supervision and this does not appear oppressive because young people enjoy engaging with staff. Staff are mostly successful in de-escalating heightened behaviour without the use of physical restraint. However, there have been some instances where the police have been called to the home and also young people's placements have been terminated prematurely for reasons of safety, or because of continued substance abuse which the home was unable to address fully. Wherever possible, disruption meetings are called ahead of such moves taking place and this enables the move to a new placement to be planned.

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Progress

During some incidents, some of the home's records such as the sanctions record and the visitor's record, which is kept in a communal area of the home, have been obtained by young people and ripped up. In the case of the sanctions record this happened when young people were asked to sign it. While this information was salvageable current practice does not ensure that a record of sanctions is placed on young people's files as required by regulations. There is therefore no additional safeguard to ensure that this information is included within the young person's file and young people therefore do not have full access to information recorded about them.

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Progress

With regard to smoking older young people make informed choices about smoking as a result of literature distributed around the home and by engaging with external support agencies and participating in workshops. The expectations around younger children who smoke are not clear and they do sometimes smoke in the house. It is acknowledged that these young people have only recently been admitted and plans to address this are still being formulated.

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Progress

There have been some concerns expressed by neighbours about issues such as the rubbish bins and children riding on scooters. The home has responded to these and has been proactive in arranging a community meeting in an endeavour to improve relationships.

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Progress

The organisation is currently updating its safeguarding procedures in respect of young people who go missing. The current safeguarding policy does not make reference to child sexual exploitation or the procedures to be followed in this instance. There is no evidence that the policy has been submitted to the local authority designated officer for approval. Although staff are aware that child protection referrals need to be made to the local social work office in which the home is located, they did not know the contact details or the name of the person with overall responsibility. This could lead to unnecessary delay. Subsequent to the inspection, the managers have been asked by the organisation's child protection consultant and responsible individual to secure this information. In contrast, the procedure for referring any allegations against staff to the local authority designated officer (LADO) are well known.

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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 young people's files contain the date and circumstance of any measure of control, restraint or discipline used on the child (Regulation 28 (1)(13)) 31/03/2014

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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 children live in a healthy environment where their physical and emotional and social developmental needs are promoted. In particular ensure that the expectation with regards to younger children smoking are clear and consistently reinforced (NMS 6)  ensure that each child's placement plan is monitored by a keyworker within the home to ensure that requirements of the plan are implemented, in particular, that strategies being used to support young people are more specific and that targets are measurable (NMS 25.2)  ensure that staff have the relevant skills and experience to meet the health needs of young people; in particular in relation to smoking and loss and bereavement (Statutory guidance vol. 5, para 2.5)  update the organisation's safeguarding policy and procedure to include information about child sexual exploitation and the contact details to which child protection concerns should be referred. Also forward a copy of the updated policy

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Recommendations

to the local authority designated officer (LADO) for approval (Statutory guidance, vol 5, para 2.67)

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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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