Children's Home run by London Borough of Barnet in Barnet

Unique reference number SC033805 Inspector Seka Graovac Type of inspection Full Provision subtype Children's home

p.1

Registered person London Borough of Barnet Registered person address The London Borough of Barnet, Building 4 North London Business Park, Oakleigh Road South LONDON N11 1NP Responsible individual Debbie Gabriel Registered manager Jane Anne Keep Date of last inspection 23/01/2014 2 of 10 Inspection date 14/07/2014

p.1

Previous inspection good progress Enforcement action since last inspection none

p.2

Overall effectiveness good

Outcomes for children and young people good Quality of care good Keeping children and young people safe good Leadership and management good

p.2

Overall effectiveness

Leaders, managers and staff have created an atmosphere in the home that is effective at facilitating positive outcomes for young people. The caring attitudes and comprehensive skills of the staff underpin the highly personalised care that young people receive. The good quality of this provision stems from the ability of staff to form trusting relationships with young people in their care. The proactive multi- agency risk management process robustly promotes the health and welfare of young people. They make good progress across physical, social, emotional and behavioural aspects of their development. They have been enabled to engage more in learning and in safer and more constructive behaviours. Being respected and being given more responsibility for their own lives have given young people the welcome feeling of increased confidence, control and freedom.

p.2

Overall effectiveness

Leaders and managers continue to stringently monitor the service and to work towards further improvements.

p.2

Overall effectiveness

Young people do not identify bullying as an issue in the home. However, they say that it sometimes happens. They say that in those situations, the staff members have appropriately dealt with it, enabling them to continue to feel safe and protected. The inspector recommends that the home explores further the anti- bullying strategies that are currently in place. The aim of this recommendation is to 3 of 10 see if the current strategies can be made more effective or if there is anything else that could be done in order to more consistently provide an environment that is completely free from intimidation or bullying. 4 of 10

p.2

Information about this children’s home

This is a local authority's children's home. The home is registered to accommodate and support up to six children and young people with emotional and/or behavioural difficulties.

p.4

Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

23/01/2014 Interim good progress 29/07/2013 Full good 13/02/2013 Interim good progress 16/08/2012 Full good

p.4

Recommendations

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

p.4

Recommendations

 review the anti-bullying strategies in the home in order to promote more effectively and more consistently sound relationships between the young peop (NMS 3) 5 of 10

p.4

Outcomes for children and young people good

Young people make good progress across different aspects of their welfare and development.

p.5

Outcomes for children and young people good

They understand the importance of education, learning, engagement and good behaviour. Their school attendance has very much improved. An example of this is a young person whose attendance increased from being 25% in the previous school term to almost 100% this term. Taking into account their starting points and previous educational gaps, young people achieve overall good educational progress.

p.5

Outcomes for children and young people good

They understand the key health risks and the importance of having a healthy lifestyle. Some young people came to the home with fully established smoking and drug-taking habits. They have made substantial progress in reducing these unhealthy habits. They are working towards completely stopping smoking and taking any harmful substances.

p.5

Outcomes for children and young people good

The young people who are overweight have explored with a nurse various weight- management programmes to help them achieve a healthier weight. Young people told the inspector that food in the home is really nice. They have good opportunities to prepare and cook healthy meals and to develop their cooking and other independent- living skills. Young people have been enabled to take on these increased responsibilities for their own lives. They very much appreciate the feeling of control and freedom that comes with those increased responsibilities.

p.5

Outcomes for children and young people good

Young people lead active lives. They engage in various hobbies, sports and other leisure and recreational activities in the home and in the community. Together with staff, they are planning their summer holidays. They have developed friendships and maintained positive contacts with their families.

p.5

Outcomes for children and young people good

Young people report that staff always ask them about their wishes and feelings. They feel listened to and respected. They have developed highly positive relationships with staff members. They have also become more willing and able to engage with other professionals, such as their social workers, teachers, doctors and mental health professionals. Their self-awareness and acceptance of themselves and their life- situations have grown. They have many good opportunities to achieve positive outcomes for themselves. They are confidently moving forward in their lives. They are making great strides in their development in all its aspects including their physical, social, emotional and behavioural development. 6 of 10

p.5

Quality of care good

Young people understand the importance of engagement and participation in the home and in the wider context. They know that their views count. They are able to voice their views and choices at statutory meetings, house meetings and in individual discussions with their social workers and staff members. They make strong contributions to the planning and review of their care arrangements, as well as to the day-to-day life in the home.

p.6

Quality of care good

They understand that various arrangements and procedures are there to empower them and to protect them. They are aware of the complaints procedure and have used it effectively. They are involved in the manager's periodic reviews of the quality of care in the home and have made contributions to the improvement of the service.

p.6

Quality of care good

All young people responded to an Ofsted on-line survey on the quality of the service they receive. Their responses were positive overall. In their discussions with the inspector, they unanimously judged the quality of care to be excellent and gave it '10 out of 10' marks. A young person explained to the inspector that the home is good because staff help young people to turn their lives around. Young people talk about the staff members in the most positive terms. They described the staff as very nice, gentle, kind people, who are always there to help them. They said that this applied equally to all the staff who work at the home.

p.6

Quality of care good

A parent who responded to the Ofsted on-line survey stated that 'staff are extremely good and have a very strong understanding of our child'. At one of the statutory reviews of the care arrangements, a parent stated that they were 'impressed by staff' and that they were 'doing an excellent job'. The home works in effective partnership with parents.

p.6

Quality of care good

In their conversation with the inspector, an independent reviewing officer highlighted the staff's 'gentle perseverance' in building trusting relationships with the young people as one of the most significant factors that underpin the good quality care in this home. Staff do not give up on young people. Regardless of the complexities and challenges the young people present at times, staff continue to have high aspirations for them. They support young people effectively to achieve positive outcomes and to be proud of themselves and of their achievements. Staff are creative at finding ways to engage with young people. An example of this is having key-working sessions in a gym with a young person who enjoys exercising.

p.6

Quality of care good

Staff work in close partnership with other professionals, such as from education, health and youth support services. They advocate decisively for the young people in their care to ensure that all professionals work together to address any barriers to the progress of young people. Young people have access to a range of educational opportunities and apprenticeship-schemes that suit their learning needs and talents, such as in football or music. Some young people have particularly benefited from the home's good links with mental health professionals. 7 of 10 When young people need specialist care, staff ensure that they receive it. When a young person was diagnosed having a highly contagious disease, appropriate actions were taken in the home to stop the spreading of the disease. As a result, nobody else has been infected.

p.6

Quality of care good

The support that young people receive is individually tailored and effective at securing positive outcomes.

p.7

Keeping children and young people safe good

Young people have a clear sense of what is right and wrong. They know that they have a right to be respected and safe at all times. Their growing awareness of the risks to their safety has at times impacted on how confident they feel. However, they fully trust the staff and are able to raise with them any concerns they have.

p.7

Keeping children and young people safe good

The home has a clear anti-bullying policy and procedure for dealing with any incidents of this nature. Young people know that bullying is unacceptable. They are able to talk to staff when they feel intimidated by anyone. They trust the staff in the home and know that the robust anti-bullying procedure is rigorously reinforced. They report that their welfare is fully protected by staff. They do not identify bullying as a problem in the home. However, there have been some incidents of bullying amongst some young people. Those incidents have been appropriately followed up and resolved. Young people have built on their confidence and resilience.

p.7

Keeping children and young people safe good

The home's written risk assessments are detailed and regularly reviewed to facilitate good safeguarding and protection of young people. The risk assessment process is robust and starts when the home receives the initial referral information. Young people's trial-visits give all sides the opportunities to get to know each other in person, before a decision is made regarding the admission. Those visits also provide opportunities for the staff to test in the home's own environment the information previously received and the social workers' risk assessments. The introductory visits are flexibly tailored. An example of this is that the home recently increased the number of these visits for a particular young person and asked about the availability of additional resources before making a decision.

p.7

Keeping children and young people safe good

When it is known that a young person has a history of making unfounded allegations against staff members, the risk assessment clearly specifies that regardless of that, any allegations will be taken seriously and the child protection procedures will be rigorously followed. No child protection concerns have been raised since the last inspection.

p.7

Keeping children and young people safe good

The service is able to demonstrate having a proactive and multi-professional approach to safeguarding and the management of risks. The risks are well managed. Complex cases with safeguarding concerns are presented at the council's multi- 8 of 10 agency panels. The manager attends the panels that consider the management of the risks of sexual exploitation and gangs to particular individual people. The membership on these panels enables her to keep up to date with the concerns in the locality and to continue to build on the home's extensive links with the police, youth offending teams and other professionals.

p.7

Keeping children and young people safe good

In addition, the manager meets with the local police officers responsible for missing young people, on a regular basis. The aims of these meetings are to review the episodes of young people missing from the home, to see if there are any emerging patterns and to agree collaborative strategies for protecting young people.

p.8

Keeping children and young people safe good

The frequency with which young people go missing from the home has reduced dramatically. The professionals have worked together to achieve this, but the home's contribution to the improvement is tangible. A young person who used to go missing on a regular basis in the past is now very much involved in a highly structured programme of activities and does not go missing at all. This young person acknowledges that a fear of going to prison is a strong motivating factor. However, they also say that it is the staff in the home who enable the young people to be positive and to continue to stick to the structured way of life. In this young person's view, one of the best things about the home is how the staff members relate to young people and particularly how they are able to calm them down when they start feeling angry and start becoming aggressive.

p.8

Keeping children and young people safe good

There have been no major incidents in the home. Staff are very effective at de- escalating challenging situations by talking to people, acknowledging their feelings and showing understanding and care. There have been no physical interventions since the last inspection. Rewards and sanctions are used effectively to reinforce clear boundaries and expectations.

p.8

Leadership and management good

The manager is appropriately qualified both in social care and in management. She registered with Ofsted in 2009 but had been working in this role for a while prior to that. She continues to keep up with the changes in legislation and with the development of good residential social care practice. Up-to-date good practice is shared through regular meetings on different levels and through effective staff supervision, appraisal and the council's comprehensive training programme.

p.8

Leadership and management good

The staff have been working together for many years. The low staff turnover is a real strength of the service. It secures the consistency of approach to caring for young people and the consistency of relationships amongst the staff members and between staff and young people. A staff member told the inspector: 'This is not just a job for us; it is a way of life. We are like a family and would do anything to make a difference in the lives of young people'. Young people respond positively to the atmosphere that has been created in the home. One young person told the inspector 9 of 10 that they do not go missing simply because they 'love being in the home and spending time with staff who are such nice people'.

p.8

Leadership and management good

The management and staff are highly dedicated to their jobs and to supporting positive outcomes for young people. They flexibly mould the service around young people's needs to ensure that it has a positive impact on their lives. Young people's information is appropriately maintained electronically and in paper files and gives a good picture of their progress.

p.9

Leadership and management good

The service has a history of good inspection judgements and no requirements or recommendations were given at the last inspection. Regular internal and external monitoring takes place to ensure that the development of the service is based on a realistic assessment of the strengths and weaknesses in the service provision. Some opportunities for improvement have been identified. Leaders and managers have continued to drive the quality of the service forward. A new format for the home's internal care plans has been introduced recently. The changes have been implemented to make those documents more specific and outcome-focused, to facilitate more incisive monitoring of the young person's progress and to build on the home's evidence regarding the depth and quality of the care provided. Website: www.ofsted.gov.uk

p.9

Leadership and management good

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.

p.10

Judgement Description

Outstanding A service of exceptional quality that significantly exceeds minimum requirements.

p.10

Judgement Description

Good A service of high quality that exceeds minimum requirements.

p.10

Judgement Description

Adequate A service that only meets minimum requirements.

p.10

Judgement Description

Inadequate A service that does not meet minimum requirements.

p.10

Information 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.

p.10

Information 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 framework of inspection for children's homes.

p.10