Children's Home run by New Forest Care Limited in Hampshire

Good

The children's home provides effective services that meet the requirements for good.

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The children's home provision is good because:

 The home and organisation are successfully committed to ensuring young people receive the support they require in order to thrive.  Young people benefit from care provided by an extremely skilled and engaged staff team.  Staff provide extremely high quality support to young people.  Young people make significant progress in all areas.  Young people are being well prepared for the opportunities and challenges of adult life.

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What does the children’s home need to improve?

 Some risk assessments need to be developed further to ensure staff have sufficient information on how to safeguard young people and themselves.  The policies for the protection of children require updating.  Records of physical intervention require further detail to evidence young people’s behaviours prior to the use of physical intervention and the reasoning behind the actions staff took.  The registered manager’s audits have not been effective in identifying weaknesses or in bringing about improvements.  The environment is not ‘homely’ in places.  The independent visitors report does not sufficiently challenge the service to improve and or form an opinion to whether the home safeguards and promotes the welfare of young people using the service.

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What does the children’s home need to improve?

 Young people using the service or others linked to the home are not actively involved in defining and measuring the quality of the service

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What does the children’s home need to improve?

 The registered manager did not inform Ofsted of two incidents seriously affecting the welfare of a young person as required by regulation.

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What does the children’s home need to improve?

 The home is not following all aspects of ‘safe recruitment’ or effectively establishing the integrity of all its new employees.

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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

In order to meet the leadership and management standard the registered person is required to:

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Requirement Due date

demonstrate that practice in the home is informed and improved by taking into account, and acting on feedback on the experiences of children, including complaints received; and use monitoring and review systems to make continuous improvements in the quality of care provided in the home. (Regulation 13 (2) (g) (ii) (h)) 28/08/2015

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Requirement Due date

In order to meet the Policies for the protection of children regulation the registered person is required to:

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Requirement Due date

(2) ensure the procedure to be followed in the event of an allegation of abuse or neglect must, in particular— (c) provide for the prompt referral of an allegation about past abuse or neglect in relation to a child to the placing authority and, if different, the local authority in whose area the alleged abuse or neglect occurred; (e) describe the measures which may be necessary to protect children following an allegation of abuse or neglect; and (4) The registered person must prepare and implement a policy ("the missing child policy") setting out— (a) the steps taken, and to be taken, to prevent children from being absent without permission; (Regulation 34 (2) (c) (e) (4) (a)) 28/08/2015

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Requirement Due date

To meet the Behaviour management policies and records regulation the registered person is required to: ( 3) 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— (ii) details of the child's behaviour leading to the use of the measure; 28/08/2015 (v) details of any methods used or steps taken to avoid the need to use the measure; (Regulation 35 (3) (a) (ii) (v))

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Requirement Due date

To meet the other records regulations the registered person is required to: (2) The registered person must— (a) maintain in the home the records in Schedule 4; (b) ensure that the records are kept up to date; (Regulation 37 (2) (a) (b)) 28/08/2015

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Requirement Due date

To meet the notification of a serious event regulation the registered person is required to: (4) The registered person must notify HMCI and each other relevant person without delay if— (b) an incident requiring police involvement occurs in relation to a child which the registered person considers to be serious; (Regulation 40 (4) (b)) 28/08/2015

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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

 The registered manager should ensure the children's home provides a homely, domestic environment. (Guide to the Children's Homes Regulations including the quality standards, April 2015, page 15 paragraph 3.9)  The registered person should ensure that children are offered a wide range of activities both inside and outside of the home (where appropriate) and are encouraged to participate in those activities. (Guide to the Children's Homes Regulations including the quality standards, April 2015, page 31 paragraph 6.5)  Children's homes staff should encourage children to take a proactive role in looking after their day-to-day health and well-being, in particular by providing education and support to reduce young people smoking. (Guide to the Children's Homes Regulations including the quality standards, April 2015, page 34 paragraph 7.10)  The registered manager should ensure a child's records contain details about

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Recommendations

planned and agreed approaches to restraint or restraint techniques to be applied in the day-to-day routine of the child. In particular the reasons from preventing a child accessing the kitchen at night. (Guide to the Children's Homes Regulations including the quality standards, April 2015, page 47 paragraph 9.43)  The registered person should ensure that all staff consistently follow the home's policies and procedures for the benefit of the children in the home's care. This specifically refers to staff providing young people with their personal mobile phone numbers. (Guide to the Children's Homes Regulations including the quality standards, April 2015, page 54 paragraph 10.20)  Any individual appointed to carry out visits to the home as an independent person must make a rigorous and impartial assessment of the home's arrangements for safeguarding and promoting the welfare of the children in the home's care. (Guide to the Children's Homes Regulations including the quality

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Recommendations

standards, April 2015, page 65 paragraph 15.5)  The registered manager must ensure that recruitment procedures safeguards children and minimises potential risks to them. (Guide to the Children's Homes Regulations including the quality standards, April 2015, page 62 paragraph 13.1)

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Information about this children's home

This children's home accommodates a maximum of four young people who have complex emotional, behavioural and educational difficulties. The home is privately owned and also includes a local educational establishment that resident young people attend. Young people also have access to the organisation’s therapeutic services.

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Recent inspection history

Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

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Recent inspection history

11/12/2014 CH - Interim sustained effectiveness

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good

Young people benefit from care provided by an extremely skilled and committed staff team. Staff provide consistency and clear boundaries enabling young people to develop strong trusting relationships with them. Staff have high aspirations for the young people in their care and always ensure the best interest of the young person comes first. There is currently one young person using the service. This is a result of the organisation assessing that a single occupancy placement is needed for the young person to develop. This demonstrates the extraordinary commitment and flexibility of the organisation to ensure young people receive the support they require in order to thrive.

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good

Staff have an excellent understanding of young people’s histories, traumas and resulting needs. They also work closely with a range of professionals including education staff and a team of therapists to provide an integrated approach. This enables them to provide extremely high quality support to young people. As a result, young people make significant progress in all areas. From the young person's starting point, they have made substantial progress with their education. Prior to his admission, the young person was not receiving the minimum 25 hours however, they are now in full-time education and have just completed several exams for a variety of qualifications. Through regular therapy sessions and key sessions with staff, he has been able to reflect on past events and current behaviours and make links between the two. This has enabled him to recognise feelings and vent frustrations in a constructive manner resulting in a reduction of

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good

The young person attends regular appointments with health professionals and is developing an understanding of how to keep himself fit and healthy. The young person currently living in the home smokes. Staff do not condone this, however, there is no evidence of staff providing education or support to try to reduce smoking by the young person.

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good

The home has been instrumental in promoting family contact which is aiding the young person’s sense of identity, and self-esteem. Staff also support him to maintain regular contact with people important to him. This promotes a sense of belonging.

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good

Young people are able to pursue their interests and hobbies: this has included playing the guitar and attending a motocross experience. However, records do not demonstrate if the young person has been offered a choice in activity or has been able to take part in new opportunities on a regular basis. This is important when a young person’s targets includes attending more activities. The young person is making considerable improvement in daily living and self-care skills, for example, by cooking meals and tidying his room. He has also learnt to use public transport independently and shop for food. This enables him to make a positive contribution to the home whilst learning valuable life skills for the future.

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good

Young people are prepared for work through staff support with writing CVs and applying for apprenticeships. When ready staff assist young people to move to semi-independent living or their own accommodation. Staff provide good emotional and practical support to enable a successful transition.

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requires improvement

The young person currently using the service advised that they ‘feel safe’ and are able to ‘trust staff’. They explained that when things are ‘bothering them’ they feel confident in approaching staff to discuss how they feel. There have been no complaints since the previous inspection. The majority of young people’s risk assessments are detailed and provide in depth evaluation of the risks and strategies to minimise them. However, some risk assessments need to be developed further to ensure staff have sufficient information on how to safeguard young people and themselves. This includes assessing and evidencing the risks of a young person accessing the kitchen at night and the reasons for preventing them from doing so. Staff are currently providing their personal mobile telephone numbers to young people to use when they are off-site or as another avenue to request emotional support. Although there is a policy, with regard to the use of

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requires improvement

mobile phones, staff have not been given clear direction in this area to ensure a consistent approach or advice on how to safeguard themselves and the young person. It is not clear how this method of communication is monitored to ensure professional boundaries are maintained.

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requires improvement

The home’s safeguarding policy only refers to allegations made against members of staff. It does not advise staff on what to do if a young person makes an allegation against others. It does not provide guidance on what to do if a young person discloses information about a past abuse or neglect. The policy also does not provide information to staff on how to protect young people following an allegation. This may result in staff becoming confused about when to make a referral or in staff not taking the appropriate action to safeguard young people when necessary.

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requires improvement

There have been incidents of young people leaving the home without permission. Each young person has an individual protocol in place to be followed if they go missing. Staff respond quickly to inform the appropriate authorities and to take action to find the young person. On return to the home, the young people are offered 'return' interviews with their social workers. This ensures that they can speak to an external person about the reasons for running away. However, the home’s missing persons policy does not advise staff of the actions they should take to prevent a young person from going missing. A recent review of a missing incident commented that this incident could have been prevented if two members of staff had intervened instead of one. It is also not clear in the young person’s individual protocol or risk assessment if this should be the case. This has led to confusion and inconsistencies in staff’s response, affecting their ability to prevent

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requires improvement

or promptly manage missing incidents and safeguard young people.

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requires improvement

Staff have a good understanding of the individual’s unique needs and are adept at using de-escalation and distraction techniques to manage incidents of heightened anxiety. Staff’s excellent knowledge of the young person’s behaviour has enabled them to support him to develop coping strategies to manage feelings and frustrations constructively. As a result, there has been limited use of physical intervention. However, records of physical intervention require further detail to evidence young people’s behaviours prior to the use of physical intervention and the reasoning behind the actions staff took.

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requires improvement

Staff carry out regular health and safety audits to ensure there are measures in place to protect young people and staff from the risk of harm. All checks are up to date, appropriate fire safety measures are in place and risk assessments identify potential hazards and risk reduction processes.

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requires improvement

Recruitment practice is broadly sound, however, in one instance there is no evidence to confirm that the registered manager has investigated concerns regarding a staff member’s application and previous employment. Therefore the home is not fully following all aspects of ‘safe recruitment’ or effectively establishing the integrity of all its new employees.

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requires improvement

The registered manager holds a NVQ level four childcare qualifications and has managed this setting since 2010. He leads a committed staff team who provides effective care to the young person currently using the service. As a result, the young person has made significant progress in all areas. The manager and staff work closely with the organisation’s therapists, educational setting and registered mental health nurse to provide a holistic approach to meet the individual needs of the young person in placement. Staff regularly monitor the young person’s progress in areas such as ‘being healthy’, ‘staying safe’ and ‘enjoying and achieving’ and provide additional support when he is struggling. The registered manager and organisation put the needs of the young person first and challenge the placing authority and other professionals to ensure they act in the young person’s best interests.

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requires improvement

The registered manager carries out regular audits of all aspects of the service. However, these have not been effective in identifying weaknesses or in bringing about improvements. This included not identifying that the statement of purpose referred to another home in places and did not provide the ages of the young people the home intends to support. As a result stakeholders have not been provided with accurate information about the service and what it intended to provide. The manager has since rectified this. The quality assurance process did not identify that the young people’s dates of discharge had not been recorded. It had also not identified concerns regarding the environment. Conversely, the registered manager’s quality assurance audits had identified deficits in areas such as young people’s support plans and risk assessments but action has not been taken to address these. The home’s development plan is over a year old and has

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requires improvement

not been updated. This means that leaders and managers are not aware of the all the weaknesses of the home and young people are not receiving an improving service.

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requires improvement

Staff make regular referrals to the maintenance team to address shortfalls in the home’s environment. However, these are not always addressed quickly. This includes a young person who did not have curtains in their room, preventing them from maintaining their privacy. The manager or staff had not identified other areas for improvement. This included the young person’s bedroom window, which did not have a handle and resulted in them having to use a coat hanger to manipulate it to close. As a result, the environment is not ‘homely’ in places.

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requires improvement

The independent visitor completes regulation 44 visits monthly and submits them to Ofsted within the required timescales. The reports provide good descriptions of what the visitor observed during the inspection however provides limited evaluation of practice within the home and their opinion as to whether children are effectively safeguarded and to whether the conduct of the home promotes children’s well-being. There has been one recommendation made in the previous six reports. This is not challenging of the service and does not support the manager to improve and develop the home.

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requires improvement

At the previous inspection, one recommendation was made to ensure the management obtains feedback from young people and other key parties. This has not been achieved. This means that those using the service or linked to the home are not actively involved in defining and measuring the quality of the service. The leaders and managers are not informed of the weaknesses of the service or where improvements could be made. The registered manager did not inform Ofsted of two incidents seriously affecting the welfare of a young person as required by regulation.

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requires improvement

Staff are enthusiastic and committed to the young people in their care. They report feeling supported by management and they receive regular supervision. This provides staff with an opportunity to reflect on their practice and the experience of young people. It also provides a forum to discuss development needs or raise concerns. Staff receive regular training to provide skilful care.

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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

The National Archives, Kew, London TW9 4DU, or email: psi@nationalarchives.gsi.gov.uk .

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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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