Children's Home run by Kent County Council in Kent

Unique reference number SC037282 Inspector Melissa McMillan Type of inspection Interim Provision subtype Children's home

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Registered person Kent County Council Registered person address Kent County Council, Sessions House County Road MAIDSTONE Kent ME14 1XQ Responsible individual Philip Segurola Registered manager Gillian Elizabeth O'Reilly Date of last inspection 24/03/2014 2 of 6 Inspection date 24/03/2015

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Previous inspection good progress Enforcement action since last inspection none

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This inspection

This home was judged good at the last full inspection. At this interim inspection Ofsted judge that it has sustained effectiveness .

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This inspection

Young people are able to develop their daily living and independence skills. Staff work with young people and liaise closely with parents and other professionals to identify achievable goals for young people. Staff provide consistent support to aid young people to reach their targets building on their self-confidence and self- esteem. Staff provide good emotional and practical support to young people who are leaving the service. Staff support young people to visit their new service and share information with new staff to promote a successful transition.

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This inspection

The majority of young people’s care plans provide detailed guidance on their individualised needs to ensure young people receive personalised and consistent support. This enables young people to make good progress in their independence skills, social skills and behaviour. However, following medical appointments, care plans have not been routinely reviewed. This means not all care plans contain up to date information and may compromise the quality of care given although no negative impact was noted during the inspection.

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This inspection

Staff have a good understanding of young people’s behaviours and their triggers. They are adept at minimising risk and deescalating potentially harmful behaviour. Staff liaise closely with other professionals to devise new strategies to address persistently problematic behaviour. The emphasis on de-escalation techniques and the development of positive relationships with young people have resulted in the minimal use of physical interventions and sanctions since the previous inspection. However, it is not clear from the recordings in the physical interventions log what de-escalation techniques have been used. This compromises the managers monitoring of physical interventions when reviewing the effectiveness of positive handling plans.

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This inspection

Young people benefit from excellent safeguarding practice where staff take their 3 of 6 responsibilities to protect young people very seriously. Staff monitor young people closely to ensure their safety. The service’s safeguarding logs are comprehensive and demonstrate that staff react promptly and take appropriate action to protect young people. However, an ongoing child protection issue contained within the log was not included in any recent external monitoring reports submitted to Ofsted by the independent person. It is not clear how the independent person robustly monitors safeguarding concerns within the service to inform their judgement on whether young people are effectively safeguarded. The manager did not notify Ofsted of one event as required by regulation. Appropriate action was taken following this event; however, the regulator was not kept up to date.

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This inspection

Managers have taken action to address the majority of recommendations raised in a recent fire audit. However, some recommendations remain outstanding which means the home is not as fire safe as it could be. The Registered Manager and Responsible individual are aware of this and have arranged for work to take place next week to rectify these concerns.

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This inspection

The manager has taken action to address the recommendations made at the previous inspection. This includes keeping the learning and development of staff under review with staff recently completing refresher training in areas such as physical intervention, fire safety and supervision. Records are now clearer and accessible. The manager demonstrates a good understanding of safe recruitment procedures. Since the previous inspection, the staff team has remained stable. No new staff have been recruited. As a result, a previous requirement related to obtaining references cannot be appraised on this visit. 4 of 6

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Information about this children’s home

This children’s home is operated by a local authority and provides short break care for children and young people aged between 5 and 17 years, who have learning difficulties, physical disabilities and other associated complex needs.

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

24/03/2014 Interim good progress 04/11/2013 Full good 20/02/2013 Interim good progress 09/07/2012 Full good

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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 full and satisfactory information is available through the recruitment process in respect of each of the matters specified in Schedule 2 (regulation 26(3)(d), Schedule 2) 31/03/2015

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Reg. Requirement Due date

(2001) keep under review and revise the placement plans as necessary. In particular review plans after medical appointments (Regulation 12 (2)) 30/04/2015

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Reg. Requirement Due date

17B (2001) ensure that the record of restraints includes details of any methods used to avoid the need to use that measure. In particular record de-escalation techniques used by staff in the physical intervention log (Regulation 17B (4) (b)) 30/04/2015

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Reg. Requirement Due date

(2001) ensure if any of the event listed in column 1 of the table in schedule 5 takes place, the registered person shall without delay notify the persons 30/04/2015 5 of 6 indicated in respect of the event in column two of the table. This is in relation to notifying the regulator of any instigation or outcome of a child protection enquiry. (Regulation 30 (1)

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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 the home's design promotes children's health, safety and well- being by complying with all recommendations made by a recent fire safety audit. (NMS 10.2) Website: www.ofsted.gov.uk

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Recommendations

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What inspection judgements mean

At the interim inspections we make a judgement on whether the home has improved in effectiveness, sustained effectiveness, or declined in effectiveness since the previous full inspection. This is in line with the Inspection of children’s homes: framework for inspection.

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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.

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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.

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