Children's home in Lambeth

Requires improvement

The children's home is not yet delivering good help and care for children and young people. However, there are no serious or widespread failures that result in their welfare not being safeguarded or promoted.

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The children's home provision requires improvement because:

 The manager’s work with other agencies requires improvement. She has not sufficiently challenged the lack of educational provision for one young person. In addition, reports about young people’s accidents are not routinely sent to social workers, and the police have not been consulted about the home’s missing children policy.

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The children's home provision requires improvement because:

 The frequency of restraint on one young people is high and has increased recently. The manager is aware of the reasons for this increase and is attempting to identify strategies to reduce the use of physical intervention. Further work is required.

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The children's home provision requires improvement because:

 The home is not decorated and maintained to a good standard throughout.

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The children's home provision requires improvement because:

 The manager has not seen and verified the employment references for all agency staff.

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The children's home provision requires improvement because:

 The manager does not keep a written record of the complaints received and their outcome.

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The children's home strengths

 Young people make many personal achievements because of living in this home. They try new opportunities and are supported well to maintain close relationships with their family.  Young people develop their communication skills and most learn skills to help to control their own behaviour.

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The children's home strengths

 Staff help young people. They listen to them and spend time playing together.

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The children's home strengths

 The care plans for young people are of good quality.

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The children's home strengths

 The manager has met the requirements from the previous inspection.

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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 ‘Guide to the children's homes regulations including the quality standards’. The registered person(s) must comply within the given timescales.

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Requirement Due date

6: The quality and purpose of care standard

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Requirement Due date

(2)(b)(vii) In order to meet the quality of care standard the registered person must ensure that staff provide to children living in the home the physical necessities they need to live there comfortably. 30 June 2016

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Requirement Due date

(2)(a)(vi) In order to meet the education standard the registered person must ensure that staff maintain regular contact with each child’s education and training provider, including engaging with the provider and the placing authority to support the child’s education and training and to maximise the child’s achievement. 30 June 2016

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Requirement Due date

(2)(b) In order to meet the protection of children standard the registered person must ensure that the home’s day-to-day care is arranged and delivered so as to keep each child safe and to protect each child effectively from harm;

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Requirement Due date

This is with particular reference to reducing the frequency with which staff perform restraint on young people. 30 June 2016

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Requirement Due date

(2) The registered person may only— (a) employ an individual to work at the children’s home; or (b) if an individual is employed by a person other than the 30 June 2016 registered person to work at the home in a position in which the individual may have regular contact with children, allow that individual to work at the home, if the individual satisfies the requirements in paragraph (3). (3) The requirements are that— (d) full and satisfactory information is available in relation to the individual in respect of each of the matters in Schedule 2 (Regulation 32(3)(d)).

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must ensure that a record is made of any complaint, the action taken in response, and the outcome of any investigation (Regulation 39(3)). 30 June 2016

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Recommendations

To improve the quality and standards of care further, the service should take account of the following recommendation(s):  Ensure the local authority’s Runaway and Missing From Home and Care (RMFHC) protocols agreed with the local police and other partners are in place. The protocols should be agreed and reviewed regularly with all agencies and be scrutinised by the Local Safeguarding Board (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 45, paragraph 9.23).

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Recommendations

 Regulation 5(a) requires the registered person to 'seek to involve' the placing authority that places a looked-after child in the home, which in practice means working primarily with their statutory social worker. The requirement to work with social workers and other relevant people is repeated at other places in the Regulations and Guide, but in this instance the duplication is a justifiable reinforcement in light of the crucial importance of a strong working relationship between the home and the authority with parental responsibility for a child placed there.

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Recommendations

This is with particular reference to ensuring that all accident forms are referred to the social worker (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 11, paragraph 2.5).

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Information about this children's home

The home is operated by a charity. It is registered to provide care and accommodation for five children and young people who may have a learning disability.

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Recent inspection history

Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

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Recent inspection history

26 November 2015 Full Requires improvement

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Recent inspection history

26 January 2015 Interim Declined in effectiveness

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Requires improvement

The arrangements for one young person’s education require improvement. He was not enrolled in any formal education for the first six months of his placement and since then, he has received four hours of education a week. The manager has not sufficiently challenged this lack of provision. As a result, the young person is not receiving his entitlement to a full education programme. He is missing out on important developmental and social opportunities.

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Requires improvement

The current young person benefits from living at the home and overall he is making good progress in his personal development. He is now more confident to leave the home and to try new activities. The young person enjoys walks in the park, visiting the beach and going swimming. He also has learnt many skills around the home, such as baking food and cleaning up after himself.

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Requires improvement

The young person maintains regular contact with his family, which is very important to him. His mum observes that he is calmer when he comes home and that his communication has improved. She reports that ‘staff are great’ and that they young person ‘likes living at the home’.

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Requires improvement

The young person has good support to maintain his physical health. The staff ensure that the young person attends medical appointments and sees external specialists for medication reviews. Staff support certain aspects of his personal care, while being mindful to promote his independence as much as possible. Staff also make efforts to introduce new foods to the young person’s limited diet without causing him distress.

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Requires improvement

Staff are attentive to the young person’s needs. They engage the young person through play, song and dance, as well as taking him on activities in the local community. An advocate for the young person has observed him being very happy living at the home.

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Requires improvement

Staff implement good-quality person-centred care plans. The plans provide detailed information for staff on how best to support the young person in all areas of his life. As a result, staff are clear about the young person’s individual goals and ensure that his time living at the home is used productively.

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Requires improvement

A young person recently moved back into their family home as a result of developing their skills and capabilities in this home. Another young person who has lived at the home for seven years now remains living here as a young adult, while staff are securing an adult placement for her. She is in full-time education, and has benefited from the stability and input that the staff have provided for her.

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Requires improvement

The frequency of staff using physical interventions on one young person is high. The regularity of challenging behaviour incidents have increased for this young person in recent months, as a result of him currently feeling anxious. Staff had previously achieved good success at identifying helpful strategies to support this young person with managing his anxieties and obsessive behaviours. As a result of this work, incidents and the use of physical intervention had decreased. The manager is aware of the reason for the current increase in incidents and is attempting to find additional strategies to help the young person. Additional work is required to reduce the use of physical intervention further. Physical intervention holds used are documented clearly and records demonstrate they are used to keep the young person safe.

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Requires improvement

The recruitment and selection of agency staff requires improvement. The manager does not obtain and verify references for all agency staff who work in the home. She is reliant on these necessary checks being completed by the agency. As a result, the manager is not assured that all staff working in the home have been carefully vetted.

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Requires improvement

Sharing of important information about the welfare of young people requires improvement. The manager does not routinely send young people’s injury reports, following accidents, to their social worker. Consequently, this omission limits the opportunity for independent oversight of the injuries that they sustain.

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Requires improvement

Young people are not recorded as going missing from the home. The manager has a missing from home protocol that staff are aware of. However, this protocol has not been approved by the police to ensure that, in the event that young people go missing from staff’s care, they can be quickly located and returned safely.

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Requires improvement

Staff follow detailed risk assessments to ensure that young people are managed safely when they are together. Staff use communications aids to help the young people understand what is expected of them. Young people respond using picture exchange communications symbols to show staff how they are feeling.

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Requires improvement

The necessary physical and environmental checks of the premises are carried out at the appropriate timescales. The manager has undertaken a review of the location of the home. This detailed assessment takes into account the dangers, crime and access to services in the local area.

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Requires improvement

The impact and effectiveness of the leaders and managers requires improvement, because the manager does not ensure that the home is maintained to a high standard. In addition, the manager does not keep a record of the complaints received from neighbours with the resolutions that were agreed.

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Requires improvement

The manager has dealt with all of the requirements from the previous inspection. However, two recommendations have not been implemented. As a result of the requirements and recommendations that have been met, staff engage the young person better and, as a result, have an improved relationship with him. Also, the manager now regularly monitors the quality of care provided, and ensures that all incidents of restraint are reviewed and recorded properly by staff. A local authority care plan is now in place for the young person.

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Requires improvement

The manager has been registered with Ofsted since 2012. She has the necessary qualifications for the role. The manager has made improvements to the service provided to young people since the previous inspection. She has a development plan which addresses the weaknesses in the home and identifies ways to make improvements.

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Requires improvement

Staff feel well supported and listened to by their managers. They appreciate the managers working alongside them and the increase in staffing levels to support the young people. Staff are regularly supervised to guide them in their role. They receive annual appraisals, which review their performance and determines professional development objectives for the forthcoming year.

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Requires improvement

Staff access good training opportunities. The manager ensures that the staff’s skills are compatible with the current young person’s emotional and medical needs.

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Requires improvement

An independent visitor conducts monthly visits to the home. The manager finds the independent visitors reports informative and uses them as an audit of the home’s procedures. The manager works collaboratively with the young person’s family. The independent reviewing officer reports that staff meet the current young person’s needs and that he has made progress over the last year.

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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 ‘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 0300 123 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

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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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