Children's home in Lambeth

Unique reference number SC027252 Inspector Patrick Sullivan Type of inspection Full Provision subtype Children's home

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Registered person Ebonycare Limited Registered person address Ebonycare 41 Valley Road London SW16 2XL

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Responsible individual Kevin Cadogan Registered manager Lisa Louise McKenzie Date of last inspection 13/01/2015 2 of 9 Inspection date 30/03/2015

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Previous inspection adequate Enforcement action since last inspection none

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Overall effectiveness adequate

Outcomes for children and young people adequate Quality of care adequate Keeping children and young people safe adequate Leadership and management inadequate

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Overall effectiveness

At the last inspection this home was judged as being adequate. At this inspection the home remains adequate. While the requirements and recommendations set at the last inspection have been met this inspection has identified a number of additional shortfalls in the home.

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Overall effectiveness

Shortfalls have been identified in: the adequacy of staffing levels, the electronic recording system, and risk assessments.

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Overall effectiveness

At the last inspection there was a stable staff team in place and progress was being made across all areas. Recent changes to staffing have had a destabilising impact on the service. The current staffing levels are not adequate and require staff to work excessive hours in order for the home to be covered.

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Overall effectiveness

The progress of young people has been mixed with an increase in notifications to Ofsted with several incidents where staff have been threatened or physically assaulted.

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Overall effectiveness

Young people are generally positive about living in the home and have good relationships with most staff. Parents are very positive about the home and the difference that it is making to their child. 3 of 9

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Information about this children’s home

This children's home is registered for up to four children with emotional or behavioural difficulties. It is owned and managed by a private organisation, which has five other children's homes in the local area.

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

13/01/2015 Full adequate 25/03/2014 Interim satisfactory progress 23/04/2013 Full adequate 07/11/2012 Interim good progress

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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 Regulations 2001 and the National Minimum Standards. The registered person(s) must comply with the given timescales.

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Reg. Requirement Due date

4 (2001) compile in relation to the children's home a statement of purpose which shall consist of a statement as to the matters listed in Schedule 1 (Regulation 4(1)) 29/05/2015

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Reg. Requirement Due date

(2001) ensure that there is at all times, a sufficient number of suitably qualified, competent and experienced persons working at the children's home (Regulation 25(1)(a)&(b)) 29/05/2015

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Reg. Requirement Due date

(2001) maintain in respect of each child who is accommodated in a children's home a record in permanent form the information, documents and records specified in Schedule 3, this information 29/05/2015 4 of 9 may be kept in electronic form, provided the information so recorded is capable of being reproduced in a legible form (Regulation 28(1)&(4))

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Reg. Requirement Due date

(2001) provide HMCI with such information as it may require for the purpose of considering the financial viability of the children's home, including the annual accounts of the home certified by an accountant; a reference from a bank expressing an opinion as to the registered provider's financial standing; information as to the financing and financial resourcing of the home (Regulation 36(3)(a-c)) 29/05/2015

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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 where only one member of staff is on duty at any time, a risk assessment has been carried out and recorded in writing, identifying any likely risks to children, staff and members of the public (NMS 17.9)  ensure that all staff have attained a minimum level 3 qualification or be working towards the Diploma within 6 months of confirmation of employment (NMS 18.5)  ensure that the annual formal appraisal of staff takes into account any views of children the service is providing for (NMS 19.6) 5 of 9

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Outcomes for children and young people adequate

Young people continue to have mixed educational achievement with home tuition being the only available option. Engagement with this is variable and can be impacted by external factors such as missing episodes. At times young people are actively engaged and speak of their future educational aspirations with enthusiasm.

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Outcomes for children and young people adequate

The home has tried to engage placing authorities in transition plans and Pathway Plans for young people but at times this has been a difficult task, Where young people have pathway plans there is often sporadic engagement with the plan. More specific objectives within the plans would assist in measuring progress.

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Outcomes for children and young people adequate

Staff try hard to help young people to reduce offending behaviour and address this topic in key work sessions. To an extent they have succeeded as engagement in criminal behaviour outside the home has decreased but this has been counterbalanced by an increase in incidents involving assaults on staff within the home.

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Outcomes for children and young people adequate

Young people are encouraged to maintain contact with their family. Staff have often acted as intermediaries between young people and their parents in order to try and maintain fragile relationships. Young people are encouraged to reflect upon the impact their behaviour can have on their families and offered possible alternative strategies.

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Outcomes for children and young people adequate

Young people have health care plans and are making progress in improving their general health. Staff work hard to get young people to overcome fears and phobias around certain health professionals such as dentists and opticians.

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Quality of care adequate

Young people living in the home have two key workers. They benefit from the positive effect that this close relationship offers them. Young people are not always willing to engage in formal key work sessions and staff have been flexible in terms of when and where these sessions now take place.

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Quality of care adequate

Staff produce a monthly key work report which is sent to the placing social workers who find these reports helpful. The reports are not completed to a set format and at 6 of 9 times lack structure which makes it difficult to assess progress. They are often not signed or dated.

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Quality of care adequate

The home produces an internal care plan which has improved since the last inspection. Targets are now being set but would benefit from being more specific. The home also has a 'positive handling and behaviour management plan' which lacks clear targets.

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Quality of care adequate

Young people benefit from having health care plans that are reviewed and updated on a regular basis For one young person this has resulted in attending the dentist for the first time. Arrangements for the storage and dispensing of medication are clear and comply with regulations. Young people are encouraged to make use of specialist health services such as the local Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service. Many young people chose not to avail themselves of this service.

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Quality of care adequate

Parents are happy with the service provided to their child and feel that they are kept informed of any issues. One parent thinks its 'the best home X has been in'. Parents feel that staff are dedicated and are trying to do the best for their children.

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Quality of care adequate

Young people know how to raise concerns. No formal complaints have been received by the manage since the last inspection.

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Keeping children and young people safe adequate

There has been a significant increase in challenging behaviour since the last inspection. There have been a number of incidents where staff have been the victims of assault and threats. The lone working policy has potentially placed staff and young people at risk. In one incident a member of staff was sprayed in the face with a carbon dioxide fire extinguisher. Despite suffering from irritations to his skin and eyes he was unable to leave the home to seek medical treatment.

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Keeping children and young people safe adequate

The home uses lone worker risk assessments but these tend to be generic in format and are not specific to the young person kin placement and have not been updated to take into account any increase in risks. The lone worker risk assessments on file in the home predate the admission of the current residents.

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Keeping children and young people safe adequate

The risk assessment on one young person has recently been updated and contains a very detailed account of the new risks that he now poses in a number of areas. They contain meaningful targets for risk reduction in each area but the assessment doe not collate this information and generate an analysis of the level of overall risk that the young person now poses. Nor does it identify any additional resources that might be required to reduce the level of risk.

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Keeping children and young people safe adequate

The home is physically safe and secure. The fire extinguishers have all been replaced, fire checks and drills are undertaken on a regular basis. A location risk 7 of 9 assessment has been completed by the manager

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Keeping children and young people safe adequate

Restraints are rare and staff do manage to maintain positive relationships with the young people most of the time. Young people say that they get on with most of the staff but have highlighted that recent changes in the staff team have not helped these relationships.

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Keeping children and young people safe adequate

Missing episodes have increased for one young person. While the majority of them are for short periods of time more recently the episodes have become longer and more frequent. Meetings have been held with the placing social worker to develop a plan to reduce this behaviour. To date this plan has not been successful. The home has completed a pre incident risk assessment form for missing episodes which very detailed and contains useful information.

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Keeping children and young people safe adequate

Sanctions are recorded on the organisations on line system and it is not easily accessible. Some sanctions do not contain the name of the member of staff imposing the sanction, sometimes it is just staff initials and at other times it is just the initials for the home.

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Leadership and management inadequate

Leadership and management in this home is inadequate because the home is inadequately resourced to meet the needs of the young people who live there. The staff on duty in the home do not match the staff listed as being the 'core staff team' in the homes statement of purpose. In addition the current rota does not have enough staff to safely cover the unit without staff working excessive hours. The manager of the home has to cover gaps in the rota which detracts from her ability to manage the unit and to bring about improvements. Staff meetings occur on a regular basis but are poorly attended due to the fact that staff are not routinely due to be on shift for staff meetings.

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Leadership and management inadequate

Not all staff have commenced their appropriate level award in childcare despite some staff having being employed by the organisation for a number of years. The current staff appraisal format does not contain any space for feedback from the young people as part of the process.

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Leadership and management inadequate

The manager of the home had not completed her registration with Ofsted at the start of the inspection. This was due to outstanding references. Attempts were made to resolve this during the course of the inspection and the reference was finally submitted however this was not in time to complete the registration and so the leadership and management judgement would be inadequate as a result of this issue by itself.

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Leadership and management inadequate

The statement of purpose still fails to address all the areas required by regulation. It is a combination of the old and current schedules and needs to be revised to bring it 8 of 9 in line with regulations.

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Leadership and management inadequate

External monitoring of the home had improved in recent months with a change of independent visitor. These reports were detailed and contained action plans and recommendations that assisted the manager in moving the home forward. The most recent report has been completed by the previous independent visitor and is not as detailed and is of little assistance to the manager in helping her to progress the unit.

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Leadership and management inadequate

Internal monitoring via quality of care reports is improving with the most recent report containing appropriate levels of detail and analysis.

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Leadership and management inadequate

Records maintained in the home are kept on an electronic recording system which is not fit for purpose. It is not possible to see all the information on the screen form some parts of the system. Staff are not routinely able to print off records and when they are printed off they are not reproduced in a clear, legible and accurate format. Website: www.ofsted.gov.uk

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Leadership and management inadequate

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Judgement Description

Outstanding A service of exceptional quality that significantly exceeds minimum requirements.

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Judgement Description

Good A service of high quality that exceeds minimum requirements.

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Judgement Description

Adequate A service that only meets minimum requirements.

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Judgement Description

Inadequate A service that does not meet minimum requirements.

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Information 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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Information 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 framework of inspection for children's homes.

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