Children's Home run by Essex County Council in Essex

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 are cared for to a high standard by staff that fully understand their complex needs.  Individual care plans are of a high standard and accurately reflect the needs of each child.  A robust system for the administration of medication, with appropriate checks and balances, is in place.  Relationships between staff and children are warm and nurturing.  Staff are proactive and creative in sourcing and obtaining resources and activities that children request.  Staff know the children well and are skilled in developing methods of communication that enable the child’s voice to be heard.  Good and regular communication with professional colleagues enables strong working relationships to be established.  Staff have a solid understanding of safeguarding and are proactive in flagging up and tracking concerns.  Staff manage behaviour consistently in a non-punitive way appropriate to each child’s level of understanding.

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The children's home provision is good because:

 Risk assessments are in place for all children but are not sufficiently individualised to reflect the specific needs of each child.  Staff do not consistently identify aims and objectives of short-break stays or record relevant information to evidence children’s progress.  Activities outside of the home are limited at times.  The environment, fixtures and fittings of the home look old and in need of upgrade and replacement, in places.  Some areas of the home are not maintained to a high enough standard of cleanliness.

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Statutory requirements

This section sets out the actions which must be taken so that the registered persons meet 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 persons 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

In order to meet the quality and purpose of care standard, the registered provider must: 2(c)(i) ensure that the premises used for the purposes of the home are designed and furnished as to meet the needs of each child. 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 recommendations:

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Recommendations

 Ensure that staff assess continually the risks to each child and the arrangements in place to protect them, with particular reference to ensuring that risk assessments and management plans are sufficiently personalised and reflective of the individual needs of each child (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 42, paragraph 9.5).  Ensure that staff are familiar with the home's policies on record-keeping and understand the importance of careful, objective and clear recording, particularly with reference to information about aims and objectives and progress that children make against these (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 62, paragraph 14.4).  Ensure that children are offered a wide range of activities both inside and outside of the home, where appropriate, and are encouraged to engage in these activities (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality

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Information about this children's home

This home provides respite care and accommodation for up to 12 children with learning disabilities, learning difficulties and associated emotional and behavioural difficulties. Young people are cared for in three separate flats. The home is managed by the local authority.

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Recent inspection history

Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

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Recent inspection history

6 January 2016 Interim Improved effectiveness

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Recent inspection history

17 March 2015 Interim Improved effectiveness

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Good

Children enjoy short breaks spent in this home. They are offered opportunities to socialise with peers in an environment where staff know them well and understand their complex needs. Care plans are clear, simple and individualised, ensuring that staff are able to access easily and understand each child’s specific requirements.

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Good

Children appear to be comfortable and relaxed with staff, who in turn are warm and responsive. Some children have significant health needs requiring specialist training. Staff undertake such tasks with skill and confidence, supported by regular input and advice from expert health colleagues. Parents speak very highly of staff and of the quality of care offered. One parent said, ‘Hand on heart, there isn’t anything they wouldn’t do for my boys’, and another said, ‘It truly is a home from home, I would say they treat her like one of the family.’

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Good

Staff work hard to engage and encourage young people to communicate in a way that is appropriate for them. Their views are sought and listened to and influence how the home is run. Children are consulted about activities, and staff are proactive in sourcing and arranging activities that meet their requests, wherever possible. Staff are creative in obtaining activities and resources for children, in a way that is cost effective and imaginative. A new sensory garden is under development, with the majority of equipment having either been recycled or donated from local businesses.

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Good

Children have access to activities within the home, and there are photographs of them enjoying a wide range of pastimes and themed events. Some parents and social workers said that they would like to see children given greater access to social opportunities within the wider community.

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Good

Staff work with children to prepare them well for transitions. Introductions are planned and managed in a way that is right for each individual. Changes to stays take place in a planned and gradual way, appropriate to need. Some children recently moved flats, and staff undertook detailed preparatory work, using social stories, to ensure that they understood and were prepared accordingly. Staff also ensure, whenever possible, that they are involved and consulted when young people move on to adult services. One parent said that he thought that this would be essential in the success of his daughter’s new placement.

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Good

Links with education are good, and staff maintain regular contact with teaching colleagues. Staff visit school prior to admission in order to ensure consistency of care and behaviour management.

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Good

Staff, carers and colleagues say that young people benefit from, and make progress directly linked to, accessing short stays at this home. They are able to give individual examples of positive change effected. However, staff are not always clear about individual aims and objectives for children and, thus, case records do not consistently record where and how progress is made.

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Good

Some areas in and outside of this home do not look well maintained or cared for. Some fixtures and fittings look old and worn, and some rooms require upgrade and redecoration. There are areas in the kitchens and bathrooms, particularly, that are not clean enough and appear somewhat run-down and neglected. Although staff try to manage the upkeep and maintenance of the home, they are unable to ensure that it is kept to a high enough standard to offer young people a sufficiently warm and welcoming environment.

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Good

Children do not go missing from this home, due to the high level of supervision and support. One child is identified as being likely to try to leave the home and, due to his particular needs, as extremely vulnerable within the wider community. In this instance, staff are well aware of the risks to this child and robust plans are in place to ensure that he does not have the opportunity to leave the home.

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Good

Staff have a good understanding of safeguarding and of the particular vulnerabilities of children accessing this service. The manager is proactive in identifying and taking appropriate action if and when staff identify child protection concerns. Staff receive training and support to ensure that they are confident and competent about such matters.

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Good

Staff manage behaviour in a consistent and non-punitive way. Because they know the children so well, they understand the likely triggers to behaviours. Thus, they are able to reduce the possibility of situations occurring, by managing the environment accordingly. They also endeavour to ensure that young people are offered the means and opportunities to communicate how they are feeling. When children exhibit negative behaviour, staff can normally diffuse incidents through de-escalation and distraction. Very occasionally, agreed sanctions may be necessary and, whenever possible, a restorative approach is used. Staff use physical intervention rarely, and only when there is a risk of someone being harmed through the behaviour. Staff record each incident in detail, and records are subject to management oversight. De-briefs follow and incidents are reflected on and lessons learnt discussed as practice issues.

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Good

Each child has a risk assessment focusing on some areas of concern and offering strategies to manage and mitigate. However, records do not consistently detail satisfactorily how staff identify, quantify or manage risk on an individual basis. Some assessments are too generic and not sufficiently personalised, nor reflective of children’s specific needs. The impact on children is currently minimal, as core staff know children so well.

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Good

An experienced registered manager has been in post since 2006. She holds a relevant national vocational qualification level 4 and is currently undertaking the national vocational qualification level 5 diploma in leadership and management.

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Good

The manager, assisted by an able deputy, is energetic and involved in the day-to- day running of the home. She leads the staff team by example, and is passionate about and committed to offering children an enjoyable and positive short-break stay. The manager encourages staff to develop new and innovative ways to work with children and is proactive in developing practice. Parents speak highly of her and of the personal commitment and care that she shows to their children.

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Good

The manager acknowledges that staff could more clearly identify and record against aims and objectives for individual children. However, she maintains that they make considerable progress, across all areas of development, as a result of accessing this service. She is able to give examples of children who, as a result of work undertaken, are now able to interact with peers, make simple choices and better manage aspects of their personal care. Staff celebrate with children, acknowledging their successes and providing rewards and certificates designed to encourage further achievement.

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Good

Most staff say that they feel supported and enabled to undertake their roles with confidence and clarity. They receive regular supervision, which is appropriate to their needs and both practical and reflective. New staff have a full and detailed induction, sufficiently equipping them to begin to take on the role. Training is well managed with a robust system in place that ensures that staff access all appropriate training within required timescales. Staff receive regular updates and sign off from health colleagues with regards to handling specialist medical equipment. The manager is aware of the strengths and weaknesses of the home and is working on a full home and staff development plan, clearly highlighting areas requiring development and improvement. Feedback is proactively sought from children, carers and colleagues, and this informs and updates the development plan. The quality of professional relationships is high. Parents spoken to say that

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Good

they feel informed and consulted. They describe communication as ‘excellent’ and appreciate the monthly review of care and daily contacts. In addition, they are regularly invited to coffee mornings in the home hosted by the manager and staff. Social workers, too, are complimentary about the quality and clarity of communication. One had recently written to compliment an individual worker on their shared recording, which they described as ‘consistent and proactive communication, constantly showing respect. Detailed and very good.’ A health colleague echoed this saying, ‘My experience of working in partnership with this home is fantastic. When you see what they do, it is amazing. I am a children’s nurse but I am still in awe of them when I see how they deal and cope with the children, especially given some of the challenging behaviours.’

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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 children looked after 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 that 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 whom 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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