Children's Home run by Kattz (AH) Ltd in Enfield

home

The children's home is not yet delivering good help and care for children and young people. However, there are no serious or widespread failures that result in their welfare not being safeguarded or promoted.

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The children's home provision requires improvement because:

 The weaknesses in the home’s staff recruitment practice increase the risks of young people being looked after by people who are not suitable for the role. In addition, staff members do not always receive a timely induction or supervision for their role.  The arrangements for dealing with young people’s medication do not consistently promote their health.  The lack of good record-keeping regarding behaviour management undermines the robustness of monitoring. This limits any learning and refinement of the behaviour management practice. 

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The children's home provision requires improvement because:

 The monitoring of the service is not rigorous. The independent monitoring visits do not happen each month. The service is not self-sufficient at identifying and addressing shortfalls.

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The children's home strengths

 The manager and the staff team are highly motivated to provide a service for young people that is genuinely child-centred. They have a deep understanding of how previous experiences and traumas affect young people’s current behaviours and feelings.

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The children's home strengths

 The comprehensive risk management strategies that are planned jointly with the young people’s social workers make sure that any risks are identified and managed. The home works in effective partnership with other professionals to safeguard young people and protect their welfare.  The staffing levels demonstrate the high level of individual support provided to young people in line with their needs. Staff engage young people in a good range of recreational activities that reflect their interests and aspirations.

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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 (England) Regulations 2015 and the Guide to the children's homes regulations including the quality standards. The registered person(s) must comply with the given timescales.

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must make arrangements for the handling, recording, safekeeping, safe administration and disposal of medicines received into the children's home. (Regulation 23.(1)) 01/09/2015

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must recruit staff using recruitment procedures that are designed to ensure children's safety. (2) The registered person may only— (a) employ an individual to work at the children's home; if the individual satisfies the requirements in paragraph (3). (3) The requirements are that— (d) full and satisfactory information is available in relation to the individual in respect of each of the matters in Schedule 2. (Regulation 32.(1)(2)(3)(d) Schedule 2)) 01/09/2015

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must— (a) ensure that each employee completes an appropriate induction; (4) The registered person must ensure that all employees— (b) receive practice-related supervision by a person with appropriate experience. (Regulation 33.(1)(a)(4)(b)) 01/09/2015

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must ensure that— (a) within 24 hours of the use of a measure of control, discipline or restraint in relation to a child in the home, a record is made which includes— (i) the name of the child; (ii) details of the child's behaviour leading to the use of the measure; (iii) the date, time and location of the use of the measure; (iv) a description of the measure and its duration; (v) details of any methods used or steps taken to avoid the need to use the measure; (vi) the name of the person who used the measure (‘the user’), and of any other person present when the measure was used; (vii) the effectiveness and any consequences of the use of the 01/09/2015 measure; and (viii) a description of any injury to the child or any other person, and any medical treatment administered, as a result of the measure; (b) within 48 hours of the use of the measure, the registered person, or a person who is authorised by the registered person to

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Requirement Due date

do so (‘the authorised person’)— (i) has spoken to the user about the measure; and (ii) has signed the record to confirm it is accurate; and (c) within 5 days of the use of the measure, the registered person or the authorised person adds to the record confirmation that they have spoken to the child about the measure. (Regulation 35.(3))

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must ensure that an independent person visits the children's home at least once each month. (Regulation 44.(1)) 01/09/2015

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Requirement Due date

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

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Requirement Due date

Include arrangements for countering risks of self-harm and suicide in the home’s written policy for the protection and safeguarding of children. This will provide clear guidance to staff and aid consistency of practice regarding the management of these risks. (Guide to the Children’s Homes Regulations including the quality standards page 44, the protection of children standard, paragraph 9.19)

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Information about this children's home

The home is registered to provide care and accommodation for no more than four children who may have learning disabilities. The home is privately owned.

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Recent inspection history

Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

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people living in the home

Staff provide all young people with individualised support in line with their care plans and in line with the values expressed in the home’s Statement of Purpose. The impact of this service on the experiences and progress of young people has been varied.

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people living in the home

Out of three placements that have been made since the last visit, one was not effective. This young person’s placement was terminated by the home, due to the staff not being able to effectively meet this person’s needs while keeping everybody safe. Another young person was reunited with his family following episodes of running away towards his family. The manager and staff have been working successfully with other professionals to maintain a placement of the young person who lives a long distance from her family.

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people living in the home

Staff engage young people in a good range of recreational activities that reflect their interests and aspirations. Staff use those shared positive experiences to form relationships with young people and to help them build confidence and social skills.

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people living in the home

The quality of the relationships between staff and young people is often good, but there have been situations when this was not the case. For example, a young person assaulted staff members and on one occasion, a staff member slapped a young person.

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people living in the home

Staff encourage young people to engage in learning and education, but have had limited success with this; some young people refused to engage. After disrupted schooling, one young person has recently started making progress, attending a hair-academy once a week. Clear plans are in place to help this young person to return to full-time education.

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people living in the home

Staff encourage young people to lead healthy lifestyles and to eat a balanced diet. However, the weaknesses in the arrangements for dealing with young people’s medication mean that the young people’s health is not consistently promoted.

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people living in the home

The manager and staff closely monitor young people’s progress. They appropriately seek and listen to the views of young people their parents and professionals involved in their care. Judgement grade

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people are helped and protected

Social workers recognise the home’s approach to managing challenging behaviours and looking beyond the behaviour to be the main strength of the service. The manager and staff view challenging behaviours as expressions of the young people’s underlying emotional needs. They take steps to help young people to recognise those needs and to find more constructive ways of expressing themselves. In addition to using a therapeutic approach to promoting better behaviour, staff are committed to a restorative justice approach to care. A mother and a social worker are appreciative that the home does not unnecessarily criminalise young people. Staff maintain clear and consistent boundaries with young people and aim to form trusted relationships with them

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people are helped and protected

However, weaknesses in record-keeping regarding behaviour management undermine the home’s ability to consistently demonstrate good practice. For example, written positive handling plans do not consistently include information on physical interventions. These plans are not always reviewed and updated after physical interventions and they lack detail. They do not consistently include a clear description of the hold and the exact location, duration and effectiveness of the restraint. Information about any injuries sustained by the young person, and if they and the staff involved had opportunities to talk about it afterwards is also sometimes missing. The lack of good record-keeping undermines the robustness of monitoring and limits any learning and refinement of the practice.

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people are helped and protected

The insufficiencies in the home’s staff recruitment practice increases the risk of young people being looked after by people who are not suitable for the role. The provider is unable to evidence that all staff have been thoroughly vetted before they started working with young people and were put in a position of trust. Some staff recruitment information contains only one reference. Other weaknesses include the lack of the recorded explanations of the gaps in employment and the lack of risk assessments in relation to the DBS (Disclosure and Barring Service) checks when there are issues.

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people are helped and protected

To meet the requirement raised at the last inspection, the policy on safeguarding and child protection has been updated to include a procedure for dealing with any allegation about the registered person. However, the home does not have a policy regarding arrangements for countering risks to self-harm and suicide. This is an area for further improvement. These risks have been identified in relation to some young people in their care and are covered in the individual risk management plans.

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people are helped and protected

The home works in effective partnership with other professionals to safeguard young people and protect their welfare. Staff are aware of what to do if an allegation is made or if they suspect or have witnessed abuse. They understand the crucial importance of making timely referrals to the Local Authority Designated Officer and liaising with that person regarding any further steps.

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people are helped and protected

Due to high staffing levels, the vigilance of staff and positive relationships within the home, the incidents of young people missing are rare. Staff are also very clear about the actions to take when a young person is missing. During her visit to the home, a local police officer complimented the staff for having contact details of the young person’s friends and family and for being proactive in obtaining social media information and travel-card details.

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people are helped and protected

The home’s well-planned and comprehensive risk management strategies ensure that any risks are identified and that young people are effectively helped and protected in relation to those risks. Individual key-working sessions enable young people to begin to understand the risks, to make safer choices and to adopt safer behaviour.

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leaders and managers

The Registered Manager owns this service. She is a qualified social worker and is working towards obtaining a management qualification. She has been managing the home since its registration in February 2014. This is the home’s first full inspection.

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leaders and managers

All staff have been recruited recently and are still under probation. They are highly motivated to provide a service to young people that is genuinely child-centred and effective at making a positive difference in young people’s lives. They have a shared commitment to the values expressed in the home’s Statement of Purpose. They are complimentary about the support and guidance that they receive from the manager. Frequent team meetings help staff to share information and review young people progress. These meetings are also instrumental in developing consistency of practice. The cohesion of the newly formed team is growing.

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leaders and managers

The staffing levels demonstrate the high level of individual support provided to young people in line with their needs. However, staff do not always receive timely induction and supervision for their role. The examples do not include records of induction and supervision for a new staff member and no records of the Registered Manager’s supervision.

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leaders and managers

Although monitoring of young people’s progress is good, the monitoring of the whole service is not thorough. No visits by an independent person took place during two months. Through her own monitoring, the manager has failed to identify and address the shortfalls identified in this report.

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leaders and managers

The manager has effectively addressed the requirements from the previous interim inspection and has devised a plan to aid future development and improvement of the service. She has started to develop relationships with the professional network that works around looked after children. This is a new home at the beginning of its journey and with a potential for development.

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What the inspection judgements mean

The experiences and progress of children and young people are at the centre of the inspection. Inspectors will use their professional judgement to determine the weight and significance of their findings in this respect. The judgements included in the report are made against Inspection of children's homes: framework for inspection.

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What the inspection judgements mean

An outstanding children's home provides highly effective services that contribute to significantly improved outcomes for children and young people who need help and protection and care. Their progress exceeds expectations and is sustained over time. A good children's home provides effective services that help, protect and care for children and young people and have their welfare safeguarded and promoted. In a children's home that requires improvement , there are no widespread or serious failures that create or leave children being harmed or at risk of harm. The welfare of looked after children is safeguarded and promoted. Minimum requirements are in place, however, the children's home is not yet delivering good protection, help and care for children and young people. A children's home that is inadequate is providing services where there are widespread or serious failures that create or leave children and young people being

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What the inspection judgements mean

harmed or at risk of harm or result in children looked after not having their welfare safeguarded and promoted.

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Information about this inspection

Inspectors have looked closely at the experiences and progress of children and young people living in the children's home. Inspectors considered the quality of work and the difference adults make to the lives of children and young people. They read case files, watched how professional staff work with children, young people and each other and discussed the effectiveness of help and care given to children and young people. Wherever possible, they talked to children, young people and their families. In addition the inspectors have tried to understand what the children's home knows about how well it is performing, how well it is doing and what difference it is making for the children and young people who it is trying to help, protect and look after. This 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 Children's

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Information about this inspection

Homes (England) Regulations 2015 and the Guide to the children's homes regulations including the quality standards. the guidance raising concerns and making complaints about Ofsted, which is available from Ofsted's website: www.gov.uk/government/organisations/ofsted . If you would like Ofsted to send you a copy of the guidance, please telephone 0300123 4234, or email enquiries@ofsted.gov.uk .

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Information about this inspection

achieve excellence in the care of children and young people, and in education and skills for learners of all ages. It regulates and inspects childcare and children's social care, and inspects the Children and Family Court Advisory and Support Service (Cafcass), schools, colleges, initial teacher training, workbased learning and skills training, adult and community learning, and education and training in prisons and other secure establishments. It inspects services for looked after children and child protection. If you would like a copy of this document in a different format, such as large print or Braille, please telephone 0300 123 4234, or email enquiries@ofsted.gov.uk . You may reuse this information (not including logos) free of charge in any format or medium, under the terms of the Open Government Licence. To view this licence, visit www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/doc/open-government-licence , write to the Information Policy Team,

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Information about this inspection

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Information about this inspection

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Information about this inspection

Store Street Manchester M1 2WD T: 0300 123 1231 Textphone: 0161 618 8524 E: enquiries@ofsted.gov.uk W: www.gov.uk/government/organisations/ofsted

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