Children's home run by Action for Children in Watford

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 excellent management support from the area manager and the charitable organisation.

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The children's home provision is good because:

 Staff provide a dynamic, welcoming and highly personal service for the young people.

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The children's home provision is good because:

 All young people, including those with communication difficulties, enjoy making choices about many aspects of their care and living experience in the home.

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The children's home provision is good because:

 The home has excellent communication with parents, who feel supported by the service, trust the staff and believe that their children benefit from being there. One parent said, ‘This is a brilliant place, it is really fantastic with amazing staff.’

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The children's home provision is good because:

 Staff are highly creative in their approach to managing children’s behaviours. This results in good boundaries in a setting where young people are having fun.

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The children's home provision is good because:

 Staff ensure that children from diverse cultural and religious backgrounds enjoy a service which meets all of their needs in an inclusive manner.

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The children's home provision is good because:

 Training, supervision and appraisal are effective in supporting staff development. A particular strength of the setting is the excellent and innovative internal training in communication, relationships and behaviour management.

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The children's home provision is good because:

 Young people make tracked progress in meeting personal targets agreed with them, parents and social workers. These targets are appropriately challenging and continuously reviewed, providing effective assistance to young people’s development.

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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 with the given timescales.

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must keep the statement of purpose under review and, where appropriate, revise it; notify HMCI of any revisions and send HMCI a copy of the revised statement within 28 days of the revision. Subject to paragraph (6), the registered person must ensure that the home is at all times conducted in a manner which is consistent with its statement of purpose (Regulation 16(3)(a)(b)(5)). 30 September

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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 that the home’s policies and procedures around the protection of children reflect requirements of other relevant legislation. In particular, to include guidance on the Prevent agenda (‘Guide to the children's homes regulations including the quality standards, page 44, paragraphs 9.22).  Explore making access to appropriate advocacy support available to all children and, where possible, provide a person that the child chooses (‘Guide to the children's homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 23, paragraph 4.16).  Ensure that all staff are familiar with the home’s policies on record keeping and understand the importance of careful objective and clear recording. In particular, ensure that life space interviews and feedback on targets are consistently completed (‘Guide to the children's homes regulations including the quality

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Recommendations

standards’, page 62, paragraph 14.4).  Ensure that the supervisor has access to previous appraisal targets when staff have their annual appraisal (‘Guide to the children's homes regulations including the quality standards, page 61, paragraph 13.5).  Review the provision for staff sleeping in the house to ensure that the home provides staff with appropriate accommodation and facilities to do so (‘Guide to the children's homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 17, paragraph 3.26).

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Information about this children's home

This is a short-break home run by a charitable organisation. It offers residential short breaks for young people with learning disabilities, sensory impairment and physical disabilities. It may only provide care and accommodation for up to five young people at any one time.

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Recent inspection history

Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

p.5

Good

Staff are confident and relaxed with the young people, showing them respect and affection. They meticulously plan young people’s visits, and ensure that they cater for the individual needs of each person. They record shifts appropriately and provide feedback to parents following this. Parents praise the staff, describing them as amazing, wonderful, special people’. One parent said, ‘They are devoted to the young people. They go above and beyond for us.’ Detailed and effective staff planning enhances the positive experiences for young people during their short breaks in the home.

p.6

Good

The staff plan new admissions meticulously, ensuring that the home can meet all health, cultural, religious, communication and social needs of the young person. One parent said, ‘The admission process was excellent and well planned, with visits to us and a staged entry. They took masses of notes and focused on small details like food preferences, toys and bedtime routines. I was really impressed. Then they adjusted things once he was there to get food just right.’ Good admissions planning ensures that the home maintains a safe mix of young people whose needs they can cater for.

p.6

Good

Young people enjoy their time in the home, and have warm and affectionate relationships with staff. Staff maintain good boundaries with them, intervening at early points to avoid situations escalating. Staff focus strongly on creating a fun atmosphere and giving the young people a good time when they are in the home. One young person said, ‘It is like a giant sleepover.’

p.6

Good

Staff are knowledgeable about all young people, and consult their well-maintained files before each shift. They are skilled at meeting the cultural and religious needs of the young people through both meeting personal care plan targets and collective celebrations of a wide range of religious or cultural events. On some occasions, parents have requested that their young people do not take part in these activities and staff handle this sensitively, ensuring that the individual young person has a positive experience.

p.6

Good

Young people make progress during their stays. Thy all have targets which staff monitor on an easy-to-follow 10-point scale. Targets are completely personal to each young person. Staff set them following consultation with young people, their parents and sometimes social workers. Young people show progress in a range of areas including social skills, self-help skills, decision making and life skills. Parents commented during the inspection that they do not receive feedback on progress with these targets. Staff accept that this would be helpful in allowing parents to follow targets. They commenced redrafting the visit feedback form during the inspection.

p.6

Good

Young people develop friendships in the home, experiencing shared activities and social events which their parents say they cannot do at home. One mother explained that her son had great difficulty in leaving home, leading to his social isolation. She said of his experiences in the home, ‘He is making fantastic progress in relationships. He has no friends elsewhere, but sees the other young people here as his friends.’

p.7

Good

The home shares the building with another provider, and the two groups cannot remain in the house at the same time. During holiday periods, the effect is that young people have to leave the building in the morning. Staff have been creative in addressing this issue, developing a wide range of activities outside the home. The young people benefit immensely from this greater engagement in the community and experience trips to places that they have not been able to attend with their families. It does remove the choice of having a lie in during the holiday, but staff compensate by ensuring that the young people get to choose the activities. Young people say that they love the trips out. They benefit from the inclusion in community-based activities, and develop awareness of risks and how to manage them.

p.7

Good

The young people enjoy time in the house with staff, playing games, baking or following hobbies. During the inspection, young people enjoyed a range of activities including playing with action figures, knitting, cooking, Lego play, computer games and general chat with staff. Staff enthusiastically join in activities with the young people. They are vigilant with them, ensuring safe boundaries and that they can exercise choice whenever possible. Staff ensure that they consult regularly with the young people, affording hem multiple opportunities to make choices and control their environment. Young people are learning how to take responsibility for areas of their lives with good support from caring and sensitive staff.

p.7

Good

Staff have excellent links with the schools that the young people attend. They share information and ways of working with the young people, ensuring consistency in approach to communication and boundaries. Staff attend each young person’s school at least once a year, unless the young person asks them not to. Staff support young people’s learning and ensure that they complete any work and are ready for school each day. There is excellent communication between parents, school and the home, ensuring better continuity of care, consistency in boundary setting and use of communication methods.

p.7

Good

The home has a positive approach to young people’s health. Many young people have complex health and care needs, which the home meets in full. Staff accurately record and receipt the issue and return of medicines. They safely store medicines, ensuring young people’s safety. Staff follow themes in the home with the young people, and this month’s is healthy eating. It featured in discussion with the young people and in imaginative play, making fruit pictures which young people then ate. Young people have good healthcare and learn about healthy life choices.

p.7

Good

Young people are able to keep in touch with their parents during their stay. Staff encourage them to talk to parents if they are upset or miss home. Staff strictly control access to cameras or mobile telephones which can take pictures, ensuring respect for each young person’s dignity and privacy. Staff operate a national policy which gives broad guidelines on this approach. However, the policy in use was not clear on the local practice. A new policy outlining the approach was completed and actioned with staff during the inspection. Young people enjoy the choice of whether to speak to their parents or not, ensuring that they and their parents are confident in their safe care.

p.8

Good

All young people have a key worker who completes a monthly key-worker session with them. These sessions allow young people to comment on their care and make choices about their time in the home. Many of the young people have communication difficulties and physical disabilities which hinder their ability to verbalise requests. Staff have developed excellent pictorial choice sheets for them. In addition, staff provide electronic tablets which young people increasingly use to communicate. Young people can make choices about all aspects of their stay in the home, for example who they want to be with, what room they will stay in and what they will have to eat. Staff enhance young people’s enjoyment and learning from their stays, by increasing their range of effective choice and control over their personal experience.

p.8

Good

The home has an independent visitor who meets with young people when he visits. However, there is no access to an independent advocacy service. Staff in the home, particularly the previous registered manager, often act as advocates for young people or their families. They aid parents in filling out complex forms and support young people in their search for future placements or schools.

p.8

Good

Parents are unhappy at the local authority. It was working in partnership with the provider to rebuild a larger and better resourced previous setting, but has recently informed all parties that this rebuild will not go ahead. Parents say that the local authority has not accurately or uniformly informed them of proposed options, leaving them worried that they will lose this much-loved resource. A council representative described the consultation process and the communications sent to all relevant parties, including social workers. However, one social worker of a young person using the home was not aware that the rebuild was not going ahead. Parents all say that the staff at the setting have been fantastic, managing the move and addressing the many anxieties of the young people with complex needs. Judgement grade

p.8

Good

Parents are confident in staff and say that their children are safe in the home. Young people are relaxed and confident with staff. Young people who are verbal say that they love coming there, and feel safe and well cared for.

p.9

Good

The staff maintain suitable risk assessments on the home and on young people. Activities are all risk assessed, with personal risk assessments completed on each child. Staff use these to enable young people to experience a wide range of fun, but often challenging, activities such as sailing.

p.9

Good

The home has identified a number of common actions used to detect night-time seizures and contain a range of behaviours including going missing from the home, removing vehicle seatbelts on trips and other issues common to the young people. These are often linked to their disability or learned behaviours. The home works closely with the schools, families and social workers to put in place shared measures to protect the young people and provide them with consistency in care. These include locking doors, and using harnesses and restrictive clothing. The measures are used only where necessary, and not with all young people. The home ensures a personalised approach to ensuring a safe environment and safe working practices with the young people. The home regularly reviews these measures, ensuring that they recognise, reward and communicate young people’s progress to parents. However, measures are not included in the statement of

p.9

Good

The home has comprehensive and appropriate risk assessments in place to cover all health and safety matters. All checks are current, providing a safe environment for the young people. Fire safety measures are comprehensive and supported by staff’s application of fire safety or fire marshal training. All staff have been trained in evacuations, including the use of equipment. Staff enhance the safety of young people with their individual personal emergency evacuation plans. Staff continuously review these plans, ensuring that they match the current needs of the young people.

p.9

Good

The home has safe recruitment practices which managers rigorously apply to all new appointments. In addition to the home’s checks, the actual interview process is thorough and benefits from the involvement of young people, either as panel members or as participants in observed and assessed activities with candidates. The positive and meaningful involvement of young people in the recruitment process enhances the panel’s effectiveness in selecting appropriate people.

p.9

Good

Staff are innovative in their approach to behaviour management. They recognise that one of their primary functions is to give the young people a fun time in the home and to communicate with them. Staff do good work in preparing young people for change, known as transitions, and planning their time spent away from home. This allows young people to reduce their anxiety and settle in the home. When there are incidents, staff record these and track them on a central database. This allows the home to do detailed analyses to identify patterns or emerging trends. This aids in the identification of recurring issues, environmental factors or even staff in need of additional support. The records of life space interviews with young people following incidents are not always made, reducing the quality of some of this information. The young people enjoy excellently managed transitions in the home, with skilled and creative interventions to support them when they are

p.9

Good

All staff are trained in dealing with challenging behaviour, and focus on engaging young people and dealing with difficult behaviour without recourse to restraint. Innovative approaches include happiness training, getting staff to look at emotions, encouraging an understanding of what makes young people happy and helping to pre-empt or defuse situations. Recently, the in-house trainers in managing challenging behaviour have provided staff with guidance on a positive behaviour approach. This focuses on observations and reinforcement of positive behaviours, and increasing young people’s independence and decision making in the home. Good communication and providing young people with predictable timetables is crucial in making this approach successful. Staff use their observations to collectively review and change behaviour support plans for young people, to reflect what is successful with them. The success of these measures means that there

p.10

Good

have been no restraints since the last inspection. In addition, young people have experienced more control over their immediate environment and make decisions in the home, such as what programme to watch or who to play with.

p.10

Good

No young people have gone missing from the home or from activities. Staff risk assess all trips out and ensure that staffing levels are appropriate to the identified risks. Within the home, staff are vigilant and apply internal security. The management team constantly reviews control measures to ensure that they are only as restrictive as necessary for the individual young people. Staff consult parents and social workers about any restrictions used to keep their child safe, for example locking doors. If these measures impact on other young people, staff explain this to them and seek to balance their attendance at the home with young people presenting similar risk profiles to theirs. Measures ensure that young people enjoy safe care with friends in an appropriately secure setting.

p.10

Good

Staff have recently completed training in safeguarding and further training in the Prevent agenda. Staff apply this training in their work and are knowledgeable about how to identify threats to the safety of young people in their care. However, the provider has not updated the safeguarding policy and guidance to staff to reinforce this training. Staff’s application of their training provides a safe care routine for young people and additional safeguards to potential abuse or exploitation in other settings. Judgement grade

p.10

Good

The acting manager has nine years’ experience in care settings. She has an appropriate level 5 qualification and experience as a registered manager of a Care Quality Commission regulated setting. She has relevant experience of working with young adults with the same profile as young people in this setting, although she has not managed a short-breaks setting. She is in the process of making an application to Ofsted to register as the manager of this setting. Her interview for this post involved assessed activities with some young people from the home, strengthening the effectiveness of the appointment process.

p.11

Good

Supervision is regular and reflective in nature. Internal monitoring of compliance with the quality and regularity of supervision is effective, ensuring the continuous development and support of staff. The charitable organisation as well as the acting manager of the home, ensuring compliance with the standard of once a month. Staff accept responsibility for areas of activity within the home, which senior staff carefully monitor in supervision. Staff’s professional and personal development is aided by this good-quality support of devolved responsibility.

p.11

Good

The records of last year’s appraisals are not available in the home. This information became centralised during the move from the previous setting. The home has changed the format of staff appraisals to a more efficient and user-friendly system. Where staff have not completed tasks, this is picked up in supervision and reinforced in the appraisal process, for example ensuring that all school visits take place. However, the lack of previous appraisals restricts the effectiveness of this year’s appraisal and does not produce a clear picture of each member of staff’s ongoing development.

p.11

Good

The home has an effective workforce development plan which provides the necessary guidance and structure for the management of the home. The plan provides good information on the induction programme. However, this does not include all the training mentioned in the statement of purpose. The manager has commenced a review of the statement of purpose to ensure that it shows the current training needs of the home rather than its previous priorities. The home work closely with the line manager and the charitable trust to evaluate the effectiveness of training and to set national and local training priorities for the coming year. It maintains a training matrix which tracks training needs, aiding in providing regular and timely updates where required. The meticulously constructed training plan ensures that staff develop the skills, competency and knowledge to work with the young people in their care.

p.11

Good

The home has monthly visits from an independent visitor. He produces good- quality reports which clearly evaluate the effectiveness of care in the home. The reports give a judgement on how well the home safeguards young people and comment on how it promotes their welfare. The reports benefit from the meticulous recording of interviews and interactions with young people. The visitor displays a good sensitivity to the young people having planned interventions with those who have restricted communication skills. The home has used these reports positively to aid its drive for continuous improvement. The provider changed the independent visitor, and this month she undertook her first visit to the setting. The safe care of young people is enhanced by the home’s positive use of these challenging reports.

p.11

Good

The previous registered manager completed a review of practice in the home before departing in April. The report shows a satisfactory understanding of the service. However, the manager has not consistently presented the data, so many areas lack sufficient detail to evidence the success or failure of management actions. The report covers many areas of significant activity in the home, but lacks a focus on quality standards. The report has a helpful summary, creating an action plan for the next six months. However, the lack of focus on the area of quality standards results in the report not identifying all areas for improvement that were noted during this inspection.

p.12

Good

The previous registered manager completed a review and update of the statement of purpose in April 2016. The statement provides an easy-to-read and highly detailed description of much of the service. It includes an innovative visual presentation of the way that the setting seeks to achieve the quality standards for the young people in their care, which the manager was using to embed the quality standards in practice. In addition, it includes a detailed description of the approach to managing difficult behaviour. However, the statement does not contain a description of how the home assesses staff’s competency in the use of restraint, and still describes core training which the home does not provide. It does not contain any reference to agreements made with social workers and parents for a range of suitable but restrictive measures to monitor young people’s movement and contain certain high-risk behaviours. Examples of these circumstances are

p.12

Good

night-time seizures, going missing or unfastening seat belts in vehicles. The home commenced a review of the statement of purpose during the inspection and has already updated information on how it assesses staff competency in the use of restraint.

p.12

Good

The provider maintains the environment appropriately, ensuring that staff undertake any repairs speedily. For example, actions identified in the recent independent visitor’s report were actioned during the inspection. Staff have aided young people to adapt to the smaller setting, and made it more homely than the previous location. However, the sleep-in facility for staff is poor, due to the lack of suitable space in this setting. It is important that the home keeps this under review, seeking to improve it when possible.

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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.

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What the inspection judgements mean

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.

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What the inspection judgements mean

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.

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What the inspection judgements mean

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 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.

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Information about this inspection

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 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

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 Textphone: 0161 618 8524 E: enquiries@ofsted.gov.uk W: www.gov.uk/government/organisations/ofsted

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