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

Unique reference number SC425786 Inspection date 18/03/2014 Inspector Helen Lee Type of inspection Interim Provision subtype Children's home

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Date of last inspection 08/10/2013 Website: www.ofsted.gov.uk

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Brief description of the service

This children's home provides care and accommodation for up to three children under short-break arrangements and to a further six 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

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

This interim inspection has focused on the progress made by the home since their last full inspection in October 2013, at which they were judged to be good. One requirement and four recommendations were made. The service demonstrates its capacity to improve because it has met the requirement and two of the recommendations made at the full inspection. The two unmet recommendations are remade at this visit. Additionally one requirement and two further recommendations have been made as a result of this inspection.

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Progress

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. The human resources department undertake identity and qualification checks, and these are now consistently recorded and verified by the manager. Telephone enquiries are being consistently undertaken but with varying recorded information as to what is being asked or confirmed. Therefore there is a shortfall in the quality of the records relating to any previous work with vulnerable adults or children. Details are recorded in different documents as well as formats, with some being illegible. This makes it difficult to track any action taken. This shortfall has limited impact upon young people but a recommendation is made to streamline the way these records are kept.

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Progress

Staff undertake sufficient mandatory training regularly. In-depth training courses to meet the more complex health needs of the young people including safeguarding training for deaf and disabled children as well as an awareness of the autistic spectrum has now been provided. The manager and staff have used other resources and materials such as reading relevant literature to learn and cascade information on other complex health needs such as Cystic Fibrosis and Makaton communication. However, the learning and development programme remains unevaluated to ensure it is effective and beneficial to all staff.

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Progress

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. Currently the home is working with a production company to film a video version of the guide and therefore this recommendation is remade at this inspection.

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Progress

Recordings of physical intervention follow the detail required by the regulation. These are carefully monitored and explored for any patterns, trends or practice learning. There has been one physical intervention incident since the home’s last inspection. The log used to record these is now numbered to prevent possible tampering with after the event.

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Progress

The manager has an established system for monitoring the matters required for internal monitoring and in addition sends out frequent questionnaires to children's families and social workers. However, within the submitted report to Ofsted there is not any reference or analysis of this consultation. Therefore, a requirement is set at this visit for the internal monitoring system to include consultation with the children, their parents and placing authorities, in order to improve the quality of the care provided.

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Progress

Young people have good attendance levels at school and this has resulted in clear progress towards achievement levels. A range of certificates are awarded for incremental goals. All young people have care plans in place which staff have knowledge of. Therefore, young people are aware of their background and are involved in plans for their future. Young people are very happy at the home. Relationships between young people and staff are positive, warm and friendly. Staff set clear boundaries and young people know what is expected of them. As a result, young people continue to receive structured planned care which meets their individual needs. This is also reflected in the minimal use of sanctions and rare use of physical intervention. The home is operating in accordance with its conditions of registration and the registered persons remain fit for registration.

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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) provide for consultation with children accommodated, their parents and placing authorities within the system set up to improve the quality of care (Regulation 34 (3)) 30/05/2014

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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

 produce the children's guide where appropriate through suitable alternative methods of communication (NMS 13.6)  evaluate the learning and development programme to ensure its effectiveness (NMS 18.2)  ensure that all personnel responsible for recruitment are trained in, understand and operate good practises (NMS 16.2)  monitor the quality and adequacy of the home's record keeping and take action when needed, in particular the verification of staffs previous work with vulnerable adults and children. (NMS 22.1)

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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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