Children's Home run by Esland South Limited in Hertfordshire

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 manager provides good leadership of the home and provides professional and ambitious practice.   The home has a committed staff group who feel positive about working there and the changes they make to children’s lives.   The skilled staff support young people to find their own solutions to situations and difficulties.   There has been a significant reduction of harmful behaviours displayed by young people.   Young people are supported to access appropriate educational settings and attain high levels of attendance.   Young people are supported to take up voluntary work to enhance their skills levels.   Young people feel safe, supported and well cared for.   The wider professional team and young people’s families believe the home has significantly contributed to young people’s positive progress and better outcomes.   The manager operates sound monitoring of the service and has a clear

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The children's home provision is good because:

improvement and development plan.   In order to improve further, the home should ensure there is a full quota of permanent staff and that all staff have the specialist training they need to support all young people’s individualised needs. 

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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

13: The leadership and management standard: In order to meet this standard the registered person must ensure that: (2) (c) staff have the skills to meet the needs of each child, in particular undertaking training to gain specific knowledge to meet the individual needs of young people in placement; (2) (d) the home has sufficient staff to provide care for each child. 01 Sept 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

Keep a record of supervision for staff to provide evidence that supervision is being delivered. (The Guide to the Quality Standards, page 61 paragraph 13.2)

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Information about this children's home

This home provides care and accommodation for up to four young people with emotional and behavioural difficulties. A private organisation owns and operates this setting.

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Recent inspection history

Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

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Recent inspection history

29/07/2014 CH - Interim Declined in effectiveness

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Recent inspection history

05/12/2013 CH - Interim Inadequate Progress

p.5

Good

Over time, the home has transformed to become a comfortable environment. Young people benefit from large open living spaces where there is room to work alongside staff on independence skills and more enclosed areas where activities and dining take place. Young people have a personalised bedroom, which reflects their likes and interests. Young people report that they like living in the home and the support they receive from staff. One young person reported that he gets on with staff ‘super-duper well’ and that ‘they are awesome’.

p.5

Good

The manager has a development plan that clearly sets out a plan of continued improvement. Plans aim to ensure the home provides young people with an ever more homely environment and to improve the working environment for staff.

p.5

Good

Staff are both committed and highly motivated to deliver a service that makes a difference to the young people. They understand their needs and vulnerabilities and work through the challenges presented. This perseverance and dedication has offered a consistent home environment for young people, some of whom have experienced multiple placement moves prior to arriving at this home. One social worker said: ‘This is by far the young persons, longest placement. The resilience and consistency of staff and the manager’s background is the reason I chose this placement.’

p.5

Good

The home has aspirations for young people and meets their educational needs to a high standard. Young people have entered the home having been out of school or having received one to one tuition. Within a short time of arriving, staff have supported young people to attend full time education within a classroom setting. Young people’s attendance is very high. This has resulted in them becoming more able to learn within a social environment and to catch up on missed education. These opportunities have helped to complete gaps in learning and maximise potential. One teacher reported: ‘Staff are clearly interested in the young person and he has a good relationship with them. They support his education and are very interested in what and how he is doing.’

p.6

Good

Staff have supported a young person in securing a college place. To enhance the young person’s learning prior to the start of term, staff sourced and accessed a practical learning opportunity. This has resulted in the young person securing a voluntary work placement, which will afford increased knowledge and practical experience in which to begin their college course. The young person is rightly, very proud of their achievements.

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Good

Staff regularly offer young people an opportunity to learn about and engage in wider social issues. For example, they sent a box of aid to assist the community following the Nepal earthquake and one young person submitted artwork to Epilepsy week.

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Good

Suitable arrangements for medication are in place. Medical advice and agreement is sought for all conditions, including minor illness, when non-prescribed medication is offered to relieve symptoms. Therefore, young people maintain good general health and any medical intervention is at the approval of a trained medic.

p.6

Good

The team support young people with their family contact. They have an open and inclusive relationship where they facilitate direct contact in line with the placement plan. This ensures family ties are sustained, are strengthened and the young person’s identity is preserved. A family member reports having very good communication with the home. They say staff know their child well and through determination and endurance have ensured a stable home from which the young person has been supported to settle and achieve. A parent said: ‘If my child cannot live at home, this is the next best thing.’

p.6

Good

The home contributes to a record of the life story of young people; staff capture memories in picture form. An individual photo library or scrapbook holds this visual information. Young people complete ‘I see you’ books, which are a record of a specific period of time. Key worker sessions and comprehensive placement plans include young people’s wishes and feelings and capture a record of their childhood and the time spent at the home.

p.6

Good

Young people feel settled in the home and have become increasingly safe and secure as staff support them to manage their own feelings and behaviours. Weekly key worker sessions offer a structured approach to look at specific areas, such as, how young people are feeling, their relationships with others and a review of activities. Skilled workers deliver the sessions. They offer discussion time using a caring and nurturing style to ensure productive and meaningful engagement where young people are offered space to find their own solutions to problems, difficulties they face and how they interact in the world around them.

p.7

Good

A core, consistent staff group have enabled young people to form trusting relationships with adults who work in their best interest. A social worker commented how staff’s tolerance, resilience and empathy helps to get alongside young people at difficult times and help them through. Young people placed can exhibit highly complex behaviours, most significantly, these relationships have contributed to a notable reduction in dangerous levels of self-harm ensuring young people are safe, out of harm and remain in good mental health.

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Good

Episodes of missing from care have significantly reduced. The lead missing from care professional has worked closely with the home and undertaken staff training to ensure they are skilled at reducing missing episodes and deliver well co- ordinated responses in accordance with policy and procedure, should a young person go missing.

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Good

Staff work with young people to establish routines and boundaries that offer a consistent and predictable home environment. Young people receive both positive and negative consequences for behaviour, these are recorded and comments made by all. Staff use de-escalation techniques to diffuse potentially aggressive or harmful behaviour. This helps young people recognise and manage their own emotions. The manager robustly monitors incidents of physical intervention. Firstly, to ensure their appropriate management and secondly to consider what presenting factors contribute to the young person’s behaviours. This information is used to update individual placement plans in order to reduce the need for such intervention.

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Good

When considering a young person as a potential new resident, a robust pre- admission impact assessment is completed. This assessment tool has recently been developed by the manager to ensure all information about the young person is considered, alongside the situations and presenting behaviours of those young people already in placement. This is a long-term provision and is very much recognised as the young person’s home; as such, any new resident will not compromise the safety and cohesion of those already living in the home.

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Good

The manager brings a wealth of experience to the post, having worked across both child and adult social care. He is appropriately qualified holding a level five qualification in leadership and management. He has been in post for 10 months. Since coming into post, the manager has made significant strides in implementing improved systems and processes. He recognises and appreciates the skills, strengths and resilience of the staff group. He is driven to create a solid staff team who will execute the new processes and working practices to enhance the care experience of young people and demonstrate their progress.

p.8

Good

Young people are at the centre of practice. The manager and staff know each of them and their individual needs very well. Each young person has clear and robust placement and behaviour management plans, which are reviewed monthly. This ensures that staff work with the most up to date information and on identified areas of work deemed significant to the young person’s development and progress.

p.8

Good

Risk assessments consider presenting behaviours and strategies are used to reduce risk to the young person and those around them. As young people placed present with varying degrees of risky behaviours, staff take a proportionate approach to ensure other young people are not unnecessarily disadvantaged in an attempt to safeguard another.

p.8

Good

Good working relationships between the home and the wider professional team are established. Commissioners of placing authorities are impressed with the outcomes the home offers their young people. They report strong leadership and a genuinely caring team that make a difference to young people’s lives.

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Good

The manager has updated all policies, procedures and paperwork to conform to the 2015 regulations and quality standards. An independent visitor carries out robust independent visits in line with regulation to ensure the effective safeguarding of young people.

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Good

Currently the home does not have a full complement of permanent staff. A young person made a complaint that on one occasion unfamiliar staff had made her feel unsafe. The manager noted this vulnerability and acted quickly to redress the matter. A recruitment drive is underway to rectify the staffing shortfall. Staff receive good induction and core training to assist them in understanding the policies and processes that the home operates. Further to this, training in core childcare subjects offers staff introductory knowledge into working with young people. The home cares for young people with a high complexity of need due to a specific disability and/or experiencing early life trauma. This specialised area of work within a childcare setting requires staff with a high level of specific knowledge and competence. To further understand and meet the very individualised needs of the young people in placement, further staff training is required.

p.8

Good

Staff supervision is not always recorded appropriately. However, the manager delivers good quality, effective supervision. Staff report that they find supervision very beneficial, a supportive environment where they raise issues for discussion, debrief about experiences, receive feedback and consider personal development. This results in staff feeling valued members of a team where they can contribute to service development and delivery. This management style also retains skilled staff that know the young people and how to meet their needs.

p.9

Good

The wider professional team recognise and highly praise the contributions that the manager and staff team have made to the significantly improved outcomes for the young people. One said: ‘There is nothing that could be improved.’

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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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