Children's Home run by Ethelbert Specialist Homes Limited in Kent

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:

 Children and young people make good progress across each area of their development. This includes improved attendance at school, improvements in behaviour and significantly reduced episodes of going missing. As a result, they are safer.

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The children's home provision is good because:

 Risk management is improved. Assessments are reviewed routinely after any event or change in order that progress is tracked or for any changes in practice to be considered.

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The children's home provision is good because:

 Effective multi-agency working is a key factor in keeping children and young people safe. The home works effectively with other agencies, such as private therapists. They are proactive in making contact with them to ensure children and young people get the help they need.

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The children's home provision is good because:

 The children and young people are readily engaging with their education. They are making real progress in line with their starting points and exceeding previous expectations.

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The children's home provision is good because:

 The majority of social workers, parents and carers are pleased with the care and support offered to their children and young people. Children and young people maintain strong attachments with family members and to others who are important to them. One parent stated that ‘ the home has helped her keep up contact with myself and her home area’.

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The children's home provision is good because:

 Staff said they feel very well supported by the manager who is working shifts alongside them in order to build relationships with the newly placed young people.

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The children's home provision is good because:

 The manager improved the quality of care at the home through completing the necessary actions for five of the previous six requirements made at the home’s last inspection visit.

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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.

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Requirement Due date

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

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Requirement Due date

(2) (d) ensure that the home has sufficient staff to provide care for each child. 30/09/2015

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Requirement Due date

6. The quality and purpose of care standard.

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Requirement Due date

In order to meet the quality and purpose of care standard the registered person must:

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Requirement Due date

(2) (b) (iv) ensure that staff provide personalised care that meets each child’s needs, as recorded in the child’s relevant plans, taking account of the child’s background. 30/09/2015

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Requirement Due date

In order to meet the health and well-being standard the registered person must:

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Requirement Due date

(1) (b) ensure that children receive advice, services and support in relation to their health and well-being. 30/10/2015

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Recommendations

To improve the quality and standards of care further the service should take account of the following recommendation(s): Staff need to have the knowledge and skills to understand each child’s education and training targets and their next steps for learning. Including setting learning objectives for each child for any educational visits. (The Guide to the Quality Standards, page 28, paragraph 5.11) Compile a workforce plan which can fulfil the workforce related requirements of Regulation 16, detailing in particular the process and agreed timescales for staff to receive any ongoing training and continuing professional development, such as training regarding Autism. (The Guide to the Quality Standards, page 53, paragraph 10.8) 

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Recommendations

Produce a children’s guide that must be age appropriate, in an accessible format and explained to each child to make sure they understand it. (The Guide to the Quality Standards, page 24, paragraph 4.21)

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Information about this children's home

This children’s home provides care for up to five children with emotional and behavioural needs. It is run by a private organisation.

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Recent inspection history

Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

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Recent inspection history

19/03/2015 CH - Interim declined in effectiveness

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Recent inspection history

14/03/2014 CH - Interim Satisfactory Progress

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good

All the children and young people who were present at the last inspection moved on quickly after the last visit. One with praise from the placing authority ‘we’d like to extend our thanks for all the support you and your staff have offered for this very challenging placement’. The other young person’s placing authority were not satisfied and stated that ‘The young person is doing brilliantly now. They were allowed to do anything at the home, which was appalling run’. Young people develop good relationships with staff. Staff engage closely with them and show appropriate levels of affection and concern for them. Staff complete comprehensive and personalised placement plans to ensure consistent practice. Staff are not always completing the home’s placement plans to a consistently high standard. This results in there being a lack of clarity in some areas, for example, within the communication sections. This does not impact upon the care provided as

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good

staff have a very good understanding of each child’s needs and are able to effectively demonstrate young people’s access to the health professionals they need.

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good

The manager is very clear that young peoples’ concerns are taken seriously and acted upon. Effective procedures are in place for investigating any worries young people may have. For example, one young person raised a matter regarding their school. The home thoroughly supported and resolved the issue to the satisfaction of the young person.

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good

Education outcomes are good. Some young people attend regularly and make progress in reaching educational goals despite previously having been out of school for over a year or previous attendance at lower than 20%. A Social Worker states that ‘the young person was engaging in school fully until last week’. This young person is awaiting a decision from their placing authority regarding their future and has recently stopped attending school consistently. Staff have been successful at re-engaging this young person in vocational learning, applying for and gaining a place for a vocational college course. Another young person is starting with a tutor. Staff have taken the young person on frequent educational visits. However, staff have not planned or recorded the learning objectives and achievements to ensure the visits have achieved the young person’s educational targets or next steps of learning.

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good

Maintaining contact with young people’s families is a key strength of the provision. Parents and carers said they feel they are fully involved in the care the young people receive as staff keep in regular contact with them. This means family enjoy quality time when they are together and are able to maintain positive relationships.

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good

The manager ensures that the necessary physical and environmental checks of the premises are carried out at the appropriate intervals. As such, young people are protected from avoidable risks. Young people are proud of their home. The young people live in a homely building. The manager has begun adapting the decoration of the home to reflect the interests of the young people which presently include butterflies. The young people like their bedrooms, which they are encouraged to personalise according to their tastes. They are given support and encouragement linked to rewards to take responsibility for keeping their own room clean, changing their bed linen, so they learn useful skills as well as maintaining a reasonable environment.

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good

Staff receive training in safeguarding young people and are knowledgeable about how to apply this in practice. Young people receive appropriate support within the home and from other professionals to assist them in addressing behaviours such as the risk of sexual exploitation. Staff have a sound knowledge of how to respond to high risk behaviours and in responding to the sharing of information or disclosures to keep young people safe and ensure appropriate supports are provided. Young people do occasionally go missing. The incidents of this have significantly decreased since residing in this home. A Social Worker states that the home ‘is doing a good job in dealing with the missing episodes to reduce the risks’. Young people know that staff will actively search for them and are aware of the dangers when they go missing. A Police Officer states that ‘this home has put in the strategies needed to reduce missing episodes for a young person deemed high

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good

risk’. Missing from care risk assessments are in place. These provide sufficient information as to where a young person may be or how high the perceived risk is for the young person. Staff demonstrate that they have a secure understanding of the individual risks associated with each young person and the action they are taking to reduce this. Staff have a clear understanding of the issues around child sexual exploitation. They are aware how this can affect girls and talk openly with the young people about how to keep themselves safe. Recent training on child sexual exploitation has been valuable to staff. The manager has enabled a young person to state their whereabouts by involving her wider family in contact agreements. This has effectively decreased the instances of the young person going missing. The risks are reduced and the young person is being kept safe. The manager assesses from the referral information whether a young person

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good

requires therapeutic support and makes a referral to the in-house therapy team as part of her initial matching risk assessment. This team had identified for one young person an appropriate therapist and this work was due to commence after the young person’s holiday. Therefore young peoples’ health is promoted by quick actions to ensure that they have access to a provision which can often have long waiting times. Staff carry out a good number of key-working sessions with the young people. Staff now undertake these more frequently and record them. However, staff are not always linking the discussion with the areas of need identified in the placement plan. This therefore does not provide a clear review or demonstration of progress. The staff manage critical incidents well and provide safe care to the young people during their times of distress. The staff do not use sanctions and only use physical interventions in the best interests of keeping the young people safe from harm.

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good

The staff have a good understanding of the young peoples’ needs, they can recognise when the young people are in distress and upset. This helps staff provide early interventions and reduce challenging behaviours and for some the risk of self-harming. Young people state ‘I’ve never been restrained’. The staff also provide assistance which helps the young people understand how to keep themselves safe while using social media. All staff appointments are subject to safer recruitment guidelines ensuring appropriate measures are taken to appoint appropriately qualified and suitable staff. The manager involves young people in staff recruitment which reinforces their sense of responsibility and ownership of their home.

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requires improvement

The leadership and management of this home are safe but requires improvement. The manager has been managing this children’s home since February 2015. She is registered to start her Level 5 Diploma in leadership and management. She has submitted her application to become registered with Ofsted. The manager regularly reviews the quality of care at the home and has a good development plan to improve the staff practice. This includes completed actions around the maintenance and decoration of the home, completion of her first internal monitoring audit, holding regular supervision with the staff and getting a stable staff team. The manager has thus met five of the six previous requirements made at the last inspection visit.

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requires improvement

The manager has a clear statement of purpose, which is easy for staff to implement. They understand the statement of purpose and run the home in-line with its stated aims and objectives. However, there is presently no completed workforce plan. A requirement was made at the last inspection and is remade regarding sufficiency of staff. Presently the manager and three other full time workers staff the home. Staff state that ‘we need more staff in the home’. Team meeting records notes staff agreeing that ‘it was important for us to get new staff so that they can develop within their roles whilst the home is more settled’. The manager provides all new young people to the home with a children’s guide. This is clear and informative, however is only in one format which doesn’t allow all young people with differing needs to fully access it.

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requires improvement

Staff receive regular supervision with a strong focus on ensuring they are appropriately skilled and informed, to meet the needs of the specific young people in the home. Independent monitoring takes place at the required intervals. The manager uses the recommended actions from the independent visits to review systems to make improvements in the quality of care provided. The manager works well with other agencies and the professionals involved in the young peoples’ care. She can demonstrate the difference living at the home has made to the young peoples’ lives.

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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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