Children's Home run by Holibrook House Limited in Lewisham

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:

 Young people thrive in this home. They have positive experiences and achieve improved outcomes across different aspects of their development and welfare.  Trusting relationships between staff members and young people underpin good safeguarding. Young people develop a deep sense of security, safety and belonging.  Young people receive good help to develop an awareness of the risks to their well-being, and develop increasingly safer attitudes and behaviours.  Behaviour management is effective at promoting young people’s constructive behaviours. There have been no significant incidents in the home.  The staff team is stable, experienced, skilled and effective at providing high- quality, individually tailored care.  The managers and staff work in close, transparent and effective partnership with the placing authorities. They advocate well for young people in their care.

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Statutory requirements

This section sets out the actions that must be taken so that the registered persons meets 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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32 Fitness of workers

(2) The registered person may only (a) employ an individual to work at the children’s home if the individual satisfies the requirements in paragraph (3).

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32 Fitness of workers

(3) The requirements are that (b) the individual has the appropriate experience, qualification and skills for the work that the individual is to perform.

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32 Fitness of workers

(4) For the purposes of paragraph (3)(b), an individual who works in the home in a care role has the appropriate qualification if, by the relevant date, the individual has attained (a) the level 3 diploma for residential childcare (England) (‘the level 3 diploma’); or (b) a qualification which the registered person considers to be equivalent to the level 3 diploma.

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32 Fitness of workers

(5) The relevant date is (b) in the case of an individual who was working in a care role in a home on 1st April 2014, 1st April 2016 (Regulation 32(1)(2)(a)(3)(b)(4)(a)(b)(5)(b)). 1 January

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Information about this children's home

This privately owned home provides care and accommodation for up to six children, who may experience emotional and/or behavioural difficulties. The home aims to provide a therapeutic environment. The provider has two other children’s homes and also provides education.

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Recent inspection history

Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

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Recent inspection history

29 February 2016 Interim Improved effectiveness

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Recent inspection history

11 November 2014 Interim Declined in effectiveness

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Good

Young people thrive in this home. They have positive experiences. They achieve improved outcomes. They have a sense of pride. Their self-belief grows and they are ambitious about what they can achieve in life. A high-quality, individually tailored support enables young people to make good progress across different aspects of their welfare. They receive wide-ranging practical and emotional support. The support effectively fulfils their needs. They feel understood and well cared for. A young person said, ‘The staff very genuinely care. They are always there for you.’ Young people receive good support to engage in education and learning. Some young people’s school attendance has dramatically increased. Two young people, whose school attendance had been below 50% in the past, achieved over 90% attendance last term. A teacher said, ‘The young person comes to the school every day and arrives on time. She is well presented and ready to focus on her learning.

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Good

This was previously unheard of.’ Young people lead active and healthy lives. They enjoy eating tasty and nutritious food. Staff make sure that they receive good health support whenever they need it. Young people have easy access to health services, including specialist support. For example a young person was able to stop smoking. She said that stopping smoking cigarettes was one of the best things that she has done. Other young people have reduced harmful habits, such as alcohol and substance misuse. Young people have good opportunities to enjoy life to the full. They have access to a wide range of recreational activities. Young people have recently enjoyed a seaside holiday. By having shared, positive experiences, they develop social skills, confidence and self-esteem. An ex-resident said about the home, ‘I have so many nice memories of being there. The staff used to make me laugh. We had [a] good time together.’

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Good

Young people form personal attachments and strong feelings of belonging to the home. A young person wrote in the Ofsted online survey, ‘I like the staff here, they make me belong here.’ Staff successfully support young people to gain independence skills. A social worker made positive comments about working effectively together to support a young person to move on successfully. Reflecting on her year of life in this home, this young person said that what she experienced was really good. Another ex-resident recently visited the home. Since leaving the home, she has continued to make good progress. She has a job that she loves. She has recently obtained a full driving licence and visited during the inspection driving her new car. She said she is confident about her future. This is a clear example of the home supporting young person through a significant transition toward adulthood. In doing so the care provided has made a lasting positive impact on her life.

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Good

Young people receive good help to develop safer attitudes and behaviours. The manager and staff are highly skilled at forming close relationships with young people and keeping them safe. Those relationships underpin good safeguarding practice. While showing deep care and emotional warmth towards young people, staff keep consistent and firm boundaries. They provide a highly structured environment and ensure the promotion of appropriate expectations of behaviour. Young people see the home as a safe and supportive place. They have developed a deep sense of security and safety. They trust that the staff members genuinely care for them. They feel comfortable to approach staff for help, support and information. They are open to accepting the advice that the staff members give them. A school’s safeguarding lead said that the home taught a young person to make right choices. For example, instead of going missing, she now regularly

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Good

comes to school. The risk management practice is effective at preventing young people from coming to harm. Detailed and regularly updated written risk management plans and behaviour management plans for each young person enable an individually tailored approach. The consistency of team practice ensures young people receive the same levels of support at all times. Staff know young people in their care really well. They understand the young people’s vulnerabilities. They are able to predict young people’s behaviours. They are vigilant at identifying any signs of increased risks to young people. They effectively take pre-emptive actions to minimise those risks. Examples include offering activities that the young person particularly enjoys doing to prevent a highly likely episode of them going missing. Another example is starting meaningful conversation on the safeguarding topics that are pertinent for the young person at the right time.

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Good

To contribute to the safety of young people, the managers and staff work closely together with partner agencies and families. Their well-coordinated actions mean that young people receive consistent and robust responses, including when young people are missing from care. Staff have successfully helped young people to go missing less often than they used to. This makes young people safer. It minimises their exposure to other risks, such as sexual or other forms of exploitation. The young people who are vulnerable to sexual exploitation receive effective support to develop increased awareness of the risks. They learn how to be more resilient to those risks. A nurse has recently delivered a workshop on sexual health to young people. The workshop also covered some aspects of online safety. One parent said that she trusted that her daughter was, ‘very safe at this children’s home. Instead of going missing, she goes to school every day. She does no drugs

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Good

anymore.’ The behaviour management is effective at promoting young people’s more constructive behaviours. By keeping young people engaged in positive activities, staff protect them from engaging in destructive and harmful behaviours. The young people’s behaviour in the home is almost always positive. There have been very few incidents of poor behaviour. The young people who were involved in the criminal justice system have not reoffended. The staff members have appropriately used a low number of well-targeted sanctions to help young people to stop some inappropriate behaviours. Examples include being on a supervised spending plan or undertaking fire-safety training as consequences for smoking. Regular fire and health and safety checks ensure that the physical environment remains safe. A robust staff recruitment procedure ensures that the staff members are safe to be in their roles.

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Good

The leaders and managers have created a culture in which young people always come first. The home s efficiently managed and appropriately resourced to deliver high-quality support to young people. Managers provide a service that makes a tangible, positive difference in young people’s lives. Some professionals described the home as impressive. A placement authority’s commissioning officer commented on how the manager and staff, ‘moved heaven and earth’ to help a young person who was not engaging with the help offered. The leaders and managers confidently lead an experienced and stable staff team. Through good training opportunities, supervision, support and ongoing performance reviews, they enable the staff to fulfil the home’s statement of purpose. The relationships between the staff and the management are very positive. The team also benefits from having regular meetings with an analyst/ therapist. These

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Good

meetings give team members another opportunity to reflect on the underlying emotions and group dynamics within the team and in relation to the young people. While thoughtful, focused and serious work effectively takes place, the home maintains a lovely, calm, warm, relaxed and at times, bubbly atmosphere. The physical environment is maintained to a very high standard. The staff and young people have helped to decorate it beautifully. They have made it into a real home. The home has continued to improve. The registered manager has taken the two recommendations from the interim inspection seriously. The records relating to sanctions and when young people are absent without authority or go missing are now much clearer. This makes them easier to monitor. The registered manager, who was appointed in September 2015, has introduced tighter monitoring of the practice and records. This has had a positive impact on

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Good

the home’s ability to consistently demonstrate good practice, young people’s more positive outcomes and ongoing improvement work. Through regular monthly visits, an independent visitor adds further scrutiny to the evaluation of the safeguarding practice and the quality of care in the home. The manager thoughtfully uses any feedback received to improve the experiences and care of young people. There is a wide range of opportunities for young people to express their views, such as structured weekly young people’s ‘chats’, one-to- one meetings with their key workers and an effective complaints procedure. The managers and staff make effective contributions to the young people’s care plans. They work in close and transparent partnership with the placing authorities. They carefully monitor the impact of care on the young people’s progress and outcomes, across all aspects of their welfare and development. They effectively

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Good

advocate for young people. They are prepared to challenge other professionals appropriately, to make young person-focused decisions at all times. They also make sure that young people have access to specialist advocacy services. The information on young people’s files provides a clear and detailed picture of their journey. This includes the support that they have received, the progress that they have made and an optimistic direction of travel for the future. The manager and staff demonstrate that the service is delivered in line with good practice. The only breach of regulations relates to the staff qualifications. Two staff members are still to commence working towards obtaining an appropriate qualification. These staff are experienced, well trained and skilled at their work. The lack of appropriate qualifications of some staff within the team has not had a negative impact on young people or the quality of support that they receive.

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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 that 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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