Children's Home run by Norwood Ravenswood in Barnet

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:

 This is a child-centred service in which the well-being of children is the paramount. Caring and skilled staff provide children with highly individualised and meticulously planned care. Children have their needs fully met. They love having short-breaks in this home.  Behaviour and risk management strategies are effective at keeping children safe. Children have developed a deep sense of safety and trust. They respond positively to the clear and consistent boundaries that staff have created. Very few incidents occur.  Staff enable children to engage in an exceptionally varied range of activities in the home and in the local community. This has had a positive impact on their progress across many different aspects of their development and particularly on their communication skills and social integration.  Continuity of management and the clear commitment to collaborating with others have enabled strong relationships between the home and the families

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The children's home provision is good because:

and with the partner agencies.  Monitoring is rigorous. The manager is aware of the weaknesses regarding the environment and has already taken action to put things right.

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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

12.-(1)(2)(d) In order to meet the protection of children standard, the registered person must ensure that the premises used for the purpose of the home are maintained so as to protect each child from avoidable hazards to the child's health. This specifically relates to implementing a robust system for ensuring that gas- safety checks take place on a regular basis and at least once a year. 01/11/2015

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Recommendations

To improve the quality and standards of care further the service should take account of the following recommendation:  make the environment more welcoming and pleasant by improving the arrangements for: laundering clothes, checking the quality of bed-linen, disposing of broken items and keeping walls and radiators clean. (The Guide to the Quality Standards, page 15, paragraph 3.7)

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Information about this children's home

The home is registered to provide short breaks for up to nine children who have a learning disability, physical disability or sensory impairment. The breaks are provided on a rolling programme to over 45 children and young people with profound and complex needs. The home is owned by a charitable organisation that provides many other support and care services for children and adults.

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Recent inspection history

Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

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Recent inspection history

19/02/2015 Interim Sustained Effectiveness

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Recent inspection history

16/12/2013 Interim Satisfactory Progress

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Good

Children love having their short-breaks in this home. They receive highly individualised care of excellent quality from caring and skilled staff.

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Good

Working in effective partnership with the families, the service fully addresses children’s needs. This is the case even when those needs are very complex and require a multi-disciplinary approach to care. An example of this is that the staff have been working closely with a physiotherapist to consistently implement a mobility plan for a child recovering after surgery. This has had a great positive impact on the child’s mobility. Their parent says that the service was the paramount to the wonderful progress that her daughter has made.

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Good

The children have developed a deep sense of connection with some staff members. They know that the home is a safe place to be: highly attentive staff are always there to help them with anything they need.

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Good

Admissions to the service are gradual and managed sensitively. This approach ensures that that all relevant information has been shared and that a foundation for developing trust has been established. The care is planned meticulously and in close collaboration with the child and their parents, family members and other carers and professionals. This excellent planning underpins the high quality of the service that is delivered. A mother says that before her daughter started using the service, she, ‘couldn’t have dreamt of it being so good’. Another parent said, ‘Staff were so interested in every detail about my daughter,’ and added that she ‘would not send her anywhere else’.

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Good

Staff are passionately committed to identifying and listening to the voice of the child, regardless of the communication barriers caused by their disabilities. To help children to understand options that are available to them, staff use visual aids and prompts and constantly provide detailed commentaries about what is going on around them. Through having empathy and using insightful observations, staff understand where the children are coming from and enable them to make choices. This leads to their increased participation, having new experiences and the learning that comes from this. The children’s communication skills and the ability to express themselves improve.

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Good

Staff always treat children with dignity and respect. The practice that is consistently imbued with the values of equality and diversity helps children to strengthen their identity and self-esteem, and their own awareness of the importance of these values.

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Good

Staff enable children to engage in an exceptionally varied range of activities both in the home and in the local community. This has a positive impact on their enjoyment, confidence, communication, social skills and social integration. The service makes a strong contribution to the progress that children make across many different aspects of their well-being.

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Good

The environment is adapted and specially equipped to ensure that children’s mobility and other disability needs are met. There is a music garden that gives children many hours of joyful, creative experiences. Playing musical instruments also enhances their coordination, focus and listening skills. Newly-laid artificial grass and huge coloured shades in the shape of sails that are suspended high in the air in the garden add to the very positive quality of the children’s experience.

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Good

However, there are some features that make the environment less welcoming. For example, staff put children’s wet clothes on radiators throughout the building, including the communal areas, to let them dry. This makes the environment looking untidy. The bed-linen cupboard and the laundry-room are highly disorganised. Staff sometimes use heavily creased duvet covers and also those that are torn and have lost buttons to make children’s beds. Some duvets and pillows have lost their shape. In one bedroom, staff have put parts of a bed that has been marked for disposal, behind the wardrobe. This is unsightly. There are some stains on the walls and particularly, above the radiators. The radiators themselves have gone dark on the top.

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good

Robustly recruited and well-trained staff have developed high safeguarding awareness in relation to children with complex disabilities. Their work follows comprehensive risk management strategies that have been agreed for each child with their parents, carers, social workers and other professionals who work around them.

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good

Highly individualised behaviour management and care plans contribute further to the consistency of the staffs’ effective safeguarding practice. Positive behaviour and constructive engagement are consistently promoted. Effective behaviour management negates the need for physical interventions or sanctions. Self- harming behaviour is managed well. There have been no incidents of children going missing and there are no concerns regarding child sexual exploitation, on- line grooming or misuse of substances. The manager works in close partnership with the children’s social care services and the Local Authority Designated Officer to swiftly follow-up on any safeguarding concerns or allegations.

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good

Children have developed a deep sense of safety. They trust the staff members. Their parents also have full confidence in the home. They say that when they leave their child in this home, they can relax in the knowledge that their child is in safe hands, well looked after and having a good time.

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good

In order to secure a safe physical environment, the organisation has made arrangements for a variety of health and safety checks to take place on a regular basis. However, the annual gas-safety check is overdue by several months. However, the check had started before the inspection and was completed during it. There has been no negative impact of this failure. All other required checks are completed at the required frequency and swift action taken whenever a risk is identified. An example of this is that the organisation has taken appropriate steps to minimise the risk of legionella that has been identified in one of the recent water-safety checks.

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good

A highly experienced and suitably qualified Registered Manager has been in her role for approximately 10 years. Parents and professionals identify the continuity of leadership and stability of the key staff as the most important factors that underpins the service’s high effectiveness. They also highlight that the managers and staff genuinely care for children and have developed high levels of expertise in the field of working with children with complex disabilities.

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good

This is a child-centred service in which the well-being of children is the number one priority for everyone. The values expressed in the home’s statement of purpose are fulfilled in the staff’s excellent care practice. A head of short-break services from one of the placing authorities that regularly use the service comments that the care provided in this home is of outstanding quality; she regularly received exceptionally positive feedback from parents.

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good

Children tend to use the service for many years and respond very well to the stability of the team. Through effective communication and sharing of the practice with the parents, schools, social and health services, the home has made significant contributions to the children’s good progress across different aspects of their health and welfare. The home supports well any changes in children’s lives, including their move to adult care services. In line with its clear statement of purpose, the home has effectively supported some children over an extensive period of time to help them in time of need, for examples following a child or their main carer’s surgery. This is a service that flexibly responds to the needs of children and their families and has made a positive difference in their lives.

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good

The manager and staff members receive regular supervision, support, training and appraisal of their performance. These systems keep them motivated and enable them to continue to develop and improve their practice. The professional development of individual staff has a positive impact on the improvement of the service as a whole. The managers and staff always look for ways to make the service better for children.

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good

The Registered Manager very much leads by exemplifying their values through direct practice. She is closely involved in all aspects of the service and has clear understanding of its strengths and weaknesses. She effectively uses complaints as a constructive tool for identifying any areas for improvement. Through monthly visits, an experienced and highly observant independent visitor strengthens the home’s internal monitoring processes.

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good

The quality of records kept on the children’s files has significantly improved. This shows the high commitment that the service places on evidence-based practice. In line with requirements, the manager has completed a location risk assessment. The document demonstrates that the service is appropriately located.

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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, work based 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

Interested in our work? You can subscribe to our monthly newsletter for more information and updates: http://eepurl.com/iTrDn .

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Information about this inspection

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

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