Family Assessment Centre

Unique reference number SC481062 Inspection date 12 August 2015 Inspector Ceri Evans Type of inspection Full

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Setting address 881 Chester Rd, Stretford, Manchester, M32 0RN

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Telephone number 01282 454576 Email kaleidoscopenw@aol.com Registered person kaleidoscopenw@aol.com Registered manager Vacant Post Responsible individual Peter Clinch Date of last inspection N/A Family Assessement Centre Kaleidoscope Care NW Inspection report for residential family centre

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Brief description of the service

This is a residential family center for up to two families. It is a large spacious house near to the city centre. The home is close to leisure services, health, transport and education.

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Brief description of the service

The centre provides residential assessments, which assist local authoritises and courts in making decisions which promote the welfare of children.

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The overall experiences of children and parents

The overall experiences of children and parents Good .

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The overall experiences of children and parents

A particular strength of the center is the staff team’s ability to build and sustain positive relationships with parents, children and external professionals. Staff are committed to helping parents make meaningful progress and overcome barriers that impact on their ability to care, bond and keep children safe. Relationships within the centre are based on respect, openness and transparency. This enables parents to feel secure throughout the assessment process.

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The overall experiences of children and parents

Professionals spoken with during the inspection confirm good working relationships with the service. One professional stated ‘staff are very pro-active with families and have a good working relationship with professionals. This ensures families needs are well met. Staff do not give up easily and work through difficulties with families, even when families are reluctant to engage. Staff are sensitive, open and respectful and provide families with clear guidance.’

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The overall experiences of children and parents

Staff have a clear understanding of their safeguarding responsibilities and take immediate steps to promote and protect children’s welfare. Parents also benefit from education around safety and protection. For example, the centre has effective links with specialist services that help improve parent’s understanding of domestic abuse. This has proved effective. Records indicate that parents have developed a greater understanding of the impact of abuse and a result they are more able to protect their child from harm.

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The overall experiences of children and parents

There are breaches in regulation and a number of recommendations have been made as a result of this inspection. These link to shortfalls in staff supervision, placement plans, the assessment, monitoring systems and the quality of the environment. The newly appointed senior manager has a good understanding of the centre’s strengths and weaknesses and is steadlily working through an improvement plan to address these matters. This is a good indication that new leadership structures are helping the centre move forward in order to promote best practice principles to all areas of work.

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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, Residential Family Centres Regulations 2002 and the National Minimum Standards. The registered person(s) must comply with the given timescales.

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Reg. Requirement Due date

13 The registered person must ensure that the conclusions or recommendations are made as a result of the assessment or monitoring are objective and based on verifiable evidence and the evidence on which they are based are capable of being presented in a manner that is clear, accessible and appropriate for the persons who will need to consider them. This specifically relates to ensuring that information on the placement file is presented in a coherent manner and links directly to the ongoing assessment of families (Regulation 13A (4)(a)(b)) 25/09/2015

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Reg. Requirement Due date

17 The registered person shall ensure that all persons employed by him receive appropriate training, supervision and appraisal. In particular, all staff receive supervision at regular intervals (Regulation 17 (5) (a)) 25/09/2015

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Reg. Requirement Due date

21 The registered person shall not use premises for the purposes of a residential family centre unless the premises are suitable for the purpose of achieving the aims and objectives set out in the Statement of Purpose. This is with particular reference to replacing damaged and unsuitable furniture within the centre (Regulation 21 (1)(a)) 25/09/2015

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Reg. Requirement Due date

21 The registered person shall ensure that all parts of the residential family centre are kept clean and reasonably decorated, in particular that household waste is promptly disposed of (Regulation 21 (2)(c)) 25/09/2015

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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

ensure that staff complete a written family placement plan. The plan should specify the objectives and intended outcomes of the placement, details of training, assistance, assessment, supervision and protection to be provided at the centre, and how the child’s welfare will be promoted (NMS 9.2) ensure that the manager regularly monitors, in line with the residential family centre regulations 2002, as amended; all the records kept by the centre to ensure compliance with the centre’s policies, to identify any concerns about specific incidents and to identify patterns and trends. Immediate action is taken to address any issues raised by this monitoring. This is with specific reference to the environment, staff files and the effectiveness of training and staff supervision (NMS 19.2)

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Recommendations

ensure the registered person has an effective procedure for considering complaints and responding to them in accordance with legal requirements. This includes making complaints to a person or organisation outside the centre. This is with specific reference to ensuring that complaints records provide a thorough overview of the action taken and subsequent outcome. (NMS 19.8)

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Quality of assessment

The quality of assessment requires improvement

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Quality of assessment

The majority of parents are positive about the quality of their assessment. One parent stated ‘This is a great opportunity for me. Staff have been so helpful and I have learnt a lot. I am kept fully informed at all times.’ Professionals are equally positive about the centre. Comments include ‘Nothing is too much trouble for staff. They are very knowledgeable and their assessments are very detailed and comprehensive. The assessment was very helpful and of a good quality. It certainly stood up in court.’

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Quality of assessment

Parents are given as much information as possible about the expectations of the centre prior to admission. This helps prepare parents and their children for their stay. They are provided with a detailed handbook that includes essential information regarding the centre. This ensures that families have a clear understanding of the process, rules and expectations. Staff also ensure families have appropriate information about the local area and the centre’s complaints procedure. Parents highlight that they were made to feel welcome upon their arrival and state that staff were ‘friendly’ and ‘very helpful’.

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Quality of assessment

The welfare and well-being of children is at the heart of each assessment. Currently assessments are completed over a 12 week period, as directed by the courts. The centre completes an initial baseline assessment of need. This highlights areas of risk, vulnerability and need. Parents receive lots of advice and guidance throughout their assessment. This helps them overcome factors that may impact on their parenting.

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Quality of assessment

Evidence is gathered from a variety of sources, such as daily observation, appraisals, feedback from professional and direct sessions. However, this information does not link well together and lacks evaluation. Placement files are not easily accessible and are poorly organised. This hinders the assessor’s ability to analyse information. Furthermore, there is no coherent flow to information throughout the file. For example, parent progression through each stage of the assessment is not presented in a format that is easily accessible. Records made in this way greatly hinder the assessor’s ability to evaluative information and weakens the overall assessment process.

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Quality of assessment

Parents spoken with during the inspection say they receive regular feedback from staff on how their assessment is going. They also have the opportunity to give their views and receive feedback during weekly appraisals. However, formal documentation to evidence their involvement is less clear. For example, feedback sheets are not incorporated into placement plans. Furthermore, placement plans are not updated on a regular basis and are not consistently signed by parents. This means that records fail to demonstrate that parents are able to exercise their rights and give their views to influence their assessment.

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Quality of assessment

Staff spoken with during the inspection demonstrated a good understanding of the assessment process and the individual elements explored with each family. The team offer a range of sessions to help parents learn, develop and overcome barriers. Sessions are specifically tailored to meet the individual needs of families. These include sessions on providing a safe and secure environment, attachment, play and and maintaining healthy lifestyles. There is a strong emphasis on helping parents reflect and change their behaviour. In doing so, parents are more able to maintain their child’s welfare.

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Quality of assessment

The final assessment report is completed by a qualified social worker. The report is of a good standard and offers an account of how the assessment was completed. The assessment is realistic about the parents’ capacity to change. Clear recommendations are made within the report and this enables the court and placing authority to make the necessary decisions in the best interests of the child.

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How well children and parents are protected and helped

The service is good at how well children and parents are protected and helped.

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How well children and parents are protected and helped

There is a constant presence of staff around the centre. They strike a good balance between monitoring and ensuring children’s safety and protection during assessments. Staff closely monitor parental interactions and offer support when needed. An agreement is made to reduce the level of observation when parents demonstrate they are able to offer appropriate levels of care. This forms an essential part of the assessment to evaluate the parents ability to protect and promote their child’s safety and welfare.

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How well children and parents are protected and helped

The team have a good understanding of child and adult protection practices and operate within clear safeguarding procedures. Staff have taken appropriate action to safeguard and protect children when concerns have emerged. For example, successfully challenging behaviour presented by parents. This demonstrates that children’s safety and wellbeing is given paramount consideration.

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How well children and parents are protected and helped

Records indicated that no allegations have been made since the home opened in October 2014. The centre has clear procedures to ensure that should any allegations or suspicions of child abuse arise, prompt action is taken including referral to the appropriate safeguarding agency’s. Staff interviewed during the inspection demonstrated a clear understanding of protective strategies and the home’s safeguarding policies and procedures.

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How well children and parents are protected and helped

The recruitment process generally operates well. The necessary checks and references, which are also verified by the manager, are undertaken. However, recruitment files are disorganised and information is disjointed. To date, this has not impacted in practice. However, it has the potential to seriously weaken their safer recruitment practices. Newly appointed leaders and manager are in the process of auditing staff files. This will greatly assist in embedding new systems that ensure information is recorded correctly.

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How well children and parents are protected and helped

In the main the home offers a safe and comfortable environment for families. However, some of the accommodation’s furniture is showing signs of wear and tear. Furthermore, household waste is not being disposed of promptly. As a result external bins are overflowing and this has the potential to impact on the health and safety of residents. While action has been taken, these shortfalls demonstrate that the standard of accommodation is not meeting the expectations of the Statement of Purpose, which comments that the centre offers high quality accommodation.

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Working with partners to improve outcomes

The service is good at working with partners to improve outcomes.

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Working with partners to improve outcomes

Staff have built effective relationships with a number of supporting agencies, including health professionals, local authorities, guardians and safeguarding agencies. Professionals confirmed that they are kept well informed through regular communication of how assessments are progressing. These include telephone conversations, emails, meetings and written reports. Professionals state that they highly value the working relationship with staff and feel they are pro-active in their communication with them. The health visitor commented ‘communication is brilliant; they ensure health services are kept informed at all times and we are notified of new families before they arrive.’ A social worker stated ‘I had regular updates by telephone and weekly chronologies as well as reports and assessments.’

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Working with partners to improve outcomes

Since opening, the centre has established effective working relationships with the local police and safeguarding agencies. Staff are aware of their role and responsibilities and have appropriate processes for reporting concerns for both child and adult protection. This demonstrates that safeguarding is understood by staff and given optimum priority at all times.

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Working with partners to improve outcomes

Children and their families benefit greatly from the positive links made within the local community. These resources include local groups, clubs, places of worship, community learning and specialist services. Staff assist parents with researching the area and identifying things they would like to do. They help parents to make the necessary arrangements in order to access these provisions. Staff are sensitive to the fact that families are often placed a long way from their home area and make best use of these resources to promote a sense of belonging and security whilst living away from home. This helps families to settle in, make links within the community and develop a positive routine.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers

The effectiveness of leaders and managers requires improvement

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers

There has been no registered manager at this centre since April 2015. However, appropriate interim arrangements have been made. A newly appointed Senior Manager is currently overseeing the day to day operation of the home. His appointment has provided visible leadership within the centre. Greater emphasis is now being placed on staff roles and responsibilities and work is underway to embed new systems to improve the overall experiences for parents and children. There is evidence that in the short time the senior manager has been in post, he is making good effort to improve the service. He is determined to drive improvements and is clear about how these can be achieved.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers

Families receive good support from a competent staff team. The team have a range of qualifications and are experienced social care professionals. Good staffing ratios means that families are well supported throughout their assessment.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers

Staff receive mandatory training and new care staff have or are undertaking the Level 3 Diploma. This ensures the team have the necessary knowledge and skills to work with children and families. The vast majority of training has been conducted online. Currently the manager does not have a system to monitor the effectiveness of such training. This means that the manager is unable to demonstrate the impact this has had on professional practice.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers

Not all staff receive regular supervision. This means they have not had the opportunity to formally reflect upon their practice. Lack of professional supervision greatly hinders the manager’s ability to routinely monitor staff performance, competency and conduct. This shortfall is being addressed by management and new systems are in place to ensure staff receive quality supervision.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers

Self-evaluation is completed through monthly visits undertaken by the organisation. These visits monitor the quality of the assessment and often include the views of families. It is less effective in ensuring that recommendations raised are appropriately addressed. Changes in the centres management has undoubtedly impacted on the effectiveness of monitoring. As a result, there have been missed opportunities to impalement improvement to the overall service.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers

Parents confirm that their complaints or concerns are investigated and resolved. The centre holds records in relation to complaints. However these do not provide a clear audit trail of the steps taken to resolve the matter, the outcome and whether parents are satisfied with how it was dealt with. This is not good practice as records made in this way lack clarity and do not stand up to scrutiny in the event of further complaints.

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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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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 inspection framework and the evaluation schedule for the inspection of residential family centres.

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