Children's Home run by McRae Residential Care Services Limited in Croydon

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:

 It has an enthusiastic, effective and highly motivated management team.  Staff are caring, skilled communicators with a clear child focus in their work.  The management team make good use of feedback from inspections and independent visitor reports to aid their drive for improvement.  The home is a vibrant, welcoming and nurturing environment for young people.  The management team have completed and implemented a highly effective workforce development plan which underpins the professional development of the staff team.  Young people contribute to the development of the home and gain a sense of ownership through this.  Young people develop a sense of community responsibility and citizenship through their voluntary work.

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Recommendations

To improve the quality and standards of care further the service should take account of the following recommendations:  Review the home, against the Quality Standards, focusing on the circumstances of the home and any areas of high risk for young people during that period. In particular provide a clear analysis of areas considered and the actions stemming from this and how the home will address these over the following six months. (The Guide to the Quality Standards, page 65, paragraph 15.4)

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Recommendations

 Ensure that young people's records are up to date and provide an accurate description of the work done with them. In particular ensure that: staff update risk assessments and that health care plans clearly show who is responsible for tasks, when they are completed and that they evidence young people's progress. (The Guide to the Quality Standards, page 62, paragraph 14.3)

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Recommendations

 Ensure that if young people's rooms are searched this is done in a way to respect the young person's privacy and should only be searched without their permission if there is a risk to the child's or another person's safety or well- being. In particular ensure that there is written guidance for staff to ensure that the search is risk assessed and appropriately recorded. (The Guide to the Quality Standards, page 16, paragraph 3.20)

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Recommendations

 Ensure that where staff have offered young people an independent return home interview they record this and the young person's response. (The Guide to the Quality Standards, page 45, paragraph 9.30)

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Recommendations

 Ensure that the recruitment of staff safeguards children and minimises potential risks to them. In particular record telephone checks of references and who has completed them. (The Guide to the Quality Standards, page 61, paragraph 13.1)

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Recommendations

 Ensure that any sanctions used to address poor behaviour are restorative in nature, to help children to recognise the impact of their behaviour on themselves, other children, and staff caring for them, and the wider community. In some cases it will be important to make reparation in some form to anyone hurt by their behaviour. (The Guide to the Quality Standards, page 46, paragraph 9.38)

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Information about this children's home

This privately owned home can care for up to six young boys who may have emotional and/or behavioural difficulties or learning disabilities.

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Recent inspection history

Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

p.5

Good

Young people receive good quality care from knowledgeable and caring staff. The care is as detailed in the statement of purpose particularly in how staff meet young people’s cultural, religious and linguistic needs. Young people make progress in their personal relationships and in developing confidence in social situations with this staff support. Staff successfully encourage the development of positive social skills through regular key working and informal discussions with young people. They skilfully engage young people in discussions and utilise activities such as cooking to engage in discussions and reinforcement of positive attitudes. Young people make significant progress in gaining confidence and positive social skills. This has helped young people in repairing previously damaged family relationships. One young person says, ‘That member of staff was saying I should try to get on with my family and we talked a lot about it. I realised they were right so I am

p.6

Good

doing that and it has worked out really well. It is because of the staff encouragement that I was confident to put things right.’

p.6

Good

Young people live in a high quality environment which they love. Staff ensure that they maintain the home and grounds immaculately. They learn how to maintain their own living spaces and undertake chores in the house. They have a good sense of ownership of the home and are particularly proud of their excellent bedrooms. They progress through to virtual independence in the luxurious, preparation for independence flats. One young person said of this, ‘My room is good, but my new room is great! I think it is brilliant, fantastic.’

p.6

Good

Staff encourage and support young people to engage in educational and vocational programmes. Most young people make significant progress with this support. Where they are not engaging positively, staff are persistent in their support and are constantly reviewing their programmes to endeavour to find other ways of successfully engaging them. Staff are knowledgeable about the educational needs of the young people, enabling them to provide appropriate support to assist progress. With this support from staff most young people make good progress from their starting points.

p.6

Good

Young people have good relationships with staff. Interactions between them are amicable and positive. All young people say they like the staff with one saying, ‘The staff are really helpful. I can trust them and talk to them about personal stuff’ Staff maintain online care plans which are suitably detailed and clearly identify targets for young people’s progress. However, these plans do not include health care targets. Health care plan are included in the behaviour management plans but lack sufficient detail about how staff and young people are to meet targets. This information is included in the newly instituted progress trackers and monthly summaries. Young people do make progress in addressing health issues including their mental health. However, the mixed recording of health care targets and outcomes is potentially confusing for staff and young people. This has not had a negative impact on young people who as noted show tracked progress with health

p.6

Good

care targets. In particular individuals have made significant progress in addressing serious and deeply entrenched drug taking problems.

p.7

Good

Young people develop a sense of community responsibility and compassion for others through their community work. This is particularly evident at Christmas where they all help at local food banks. In addition, the home seeks to have informal relationships with local community support officers who staff invite to drop in for tea and cakes. Young people are developing their understanding of citizenship and a less negative view of police through these engagements.

p.7

Good

Young people progress gradually in acquiring life skills and preparing for independence. All are encouraged to progress to living independently within the home, with reduced staff support. Young people learn a range of skills including budgeting, doing laundry, food shopping and preparation, negotiating applications for courses and benefits and other supports, personal care and a range of personal skills such as increased confidence and improved social skills. Staff are skilled at working with young people in achieving independence and acquiring the skills and confidence necessary to make the gradual move away from the home. One parent said, ‘Our son has made so much progress. He is mature and has changed a lot, and all for the better. Now, he can look after himself.’

p.7

Good

Managers have revised safeguarding and child protection policies and procedures and include a hyperlink to them in the statement of purpose. All staff have recently completed training in aspects of radicalisation and have a practical understanding of how to reduce risks to young people. They have a good awareness of the Prevent agenda, e-safety, and child protection policies and of warning signals and actions they can take to safeguard young people. Managers have a comprehensive programme of safeguarding training planned throughout the coming year to build upon staff competency in safeguarding young people. There are risk assessments on all young people. Staff produce well laid out plans with clear identifications of all risk areas. These include protective measures and review dates for all targets. The risk assessments provide helpful guidance and structure for staff interventions with young people and provide evidence of

p.7

Good

reducing risk. However, risk assessments are not current and managers have not reviewed them in line with target dates, reducing their effectiveness as evidence of young people’s progress. Staff conduct searches as part of risk assessments or to address any known issue such as a missing knife. Staff record searches appropriately, using the online recording system and there is a description in the young people’s guide about how searches will be conducted and when and by whom. However, there is no written guide for staff on search procedures including permission, recording and engagement of young people. This has had no impact on young people as staff follow the procedure as outlined in the young people’s brochure and in national guidance. Staff manage behaviour through the quality of their relationships with young people. They build good attachments and use these and a range of diversionary skills to defuse challenging situations. Consequently, there has been no use of

p.8

Good

restraint in the year since the home reopened. Young people say that there is no bullying in the home and that they feel safe and well cared for. Staff say that there has been bullying but this is dealt with immediately and effectively, leaving young people feeling safe. Records show staff interventions and regular key working address bullying when it has occurred. Effective staff interventions with challenging behaviours ensures that young people feel safe in the home and protected from bullying. As a support to the behavioural plans for young people the home run a rewards system. In addition, where young people misbehave there is a sanctions system. Many sanctions involve some form of reparation from the young people; others are financial sanctions where staff seemingly use the removal of bonus payments as a sanction. In some circumstances this is appropriate. For example, where young people fail to earn a bonus. However, it is not clear from records that staff

p.8

Good

consistently and fairly apply sanctions. Despite this, young people make good progress in their behaviour and are proud of their success. The home maintains all appropriate health and safety checks. There is a fire risk assessment which the home complied with and addressed all actions listed as high risk. There are very regular fire drills and all staff and young people have completed successful evacuations of the building. The comprehensive health and safety checks ensure that young people live in a safe environment. Staff have a good practical knowledge of the missing person’s procedures and apply these in practise with young people. Most young people significantly reduce their absences form the home and all build an awareness of the risks in the community and how to stay safe. Staff diligently apply the home’s own guidelines and support these with regular key work sessions, to aid young people in reducing

p.8

Good

their absences. Police always debrief young people following any absence, as do care staff. However, there is no evidence that staff have provided young people an opportunity to have an independent return interview. This weakens the effective safeguarding of young people. The independent visitor does interview young people offering them an opportunity to raise issues with someone completely unattached to the home reducing the impact of this. Staff recruitment is in line with safe recruitment guidelines. Young people are positively involved in recruitment, improving their ownership of the home and the safe recruitment of appropriate people. There is some evidence that the manager checks the validity of references but he does not accurately record this.

p.9

Good

The Registered Manager is the manager of this home and a sister home located within a five-minute drive. He has a social work qualification and has been the Registered Manager of this children’s home since 2007. Each home has an experienced manager in place to supplement his daily management. This arrangement is currently providing adequate support to the management of the home. The deputy manager has a level 5 qualification and extensive experience of working in children’s homes. The manager submitted a revised statement of purpose and children’s brochure to HMCI a week before this inspection. These documents outline how staff meet the needs of the young people with a particularly strong focus on meeting their cultural, religious and linguistic needs. The managers ensure that they suitably staff the home to meet the aims and objectives of the service, as described in the statement of purpose. Where additional staff are required, the managers use

p.9

Good

suitably skilled and safely recruited bank staff. The management team have completed an audit of staff skills and training. They have evaluated this information, combining it with national and local priorities, to construct a comprehensive training programme. Managers have clearly identified individual as well as group priorities in training with a strong focus on safeguarding and providing staff with a comprehensive knowledge of current and emerging threats to young people. Managers support the training programme with a skilfully structured workforce development plan. This provides a clear professional pathway for new and established staff, including bank staff. The plan clearly identifies the training priorities for managers and all staff to enhance the delivery of good quality childcare. The independent visitor supplies reports on the conduct of the home directly to HMCI. The reports contain a detailed review of the activity of the home and include

p.9

Good

interviews with young people, social workers and occasionally family members. The visitor sets targets for the manager and routinely checks progress against these driving improvement in the care of the young people. The report format now includes a helpful final summary linked directly to the Quality Standards. The manager has completed a review of the home which focuses on the experiences of the young people living there. The report contains some analysis of their behaviour and sets extensive and detailed targets for the following six-month period. However, the report does not Standards fully explore or explain patterns of behaviour and the impact staff actions have on these. The manager uses a format not linked adequately to the Quality to give a clear understanding of the quality of care provided. The managers provide regular reflective supervision and appraisal to all staff including bank staff. Staff value these supports which assist them in their

p.10

Good

continuous improvement and in delivering good care to young people. The management team ensure that the home is a superbly maintained, excellently resourced, family environment. First impressions are of a lovely, welcoming and homely environment. The home has been operational for exactly a year and is in immaculate condition inside and out. Managers make sure that they do repairs speedily, reinforcing for young people the sense of being looked after by caring adults. One young person said, ‘I love this home and I love the staff.’

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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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