Children's home run by ARC Adventure (Sussex) Ltd in Sutton

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 benefit from a warm, nurturing environment with staff who work consistently as a team. Children feel that they are listened to and that staff genuinely care about their progress and welfare.  The home is warm and friendly. It is well maintained and provides several areas for children to mix as a group or spend time alone. It has a ‘lived in’ feel and has art work and photographs, consistent with a family home.  Children and young people make excellent progress while living in the home. Incidents of children or young people being missing or of substance misuse have dramatically reduced and in many cases ceased since their placements. Young people who move on to independent living manage well and have learned the skills to succeed as an adult.  Children demonstrate that they feel safe in the home. They are confident in their interactions with staff and approach them for support when they are

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The children’s home provision is good because:

anxious or worried, but also for company or to play games. Staff make sure that they spend time with each child at the end of their school day to hear how their day has been, encourage them to continue when they have had a positive day, and support them when it has not gone so well.  Staff and managers in the home champion the children’s views and act as advocates for them. They challenge practice by partner agencies which is not deemed to be in the child’s best interest. When necessary, external advocates are sought to support children in expressing their views to their placing authority.  The registered manager has an excellent understanding of the strengths and weaknesses in the home. She has worked tirelessly since being in post to improve the care and outcomes for children and young people.  Areas noted as requiring further improvement as a result of this inspection are: improving records, policies and the statement of purpose to ensure that

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The children’s home provision is good because:

they are reflective of the home and contain reference to current regulations and professional bodies; ensuring that records are available in a central location within the home; ensuring that checks are maintained for staff who have dual residency; ensuring that in-house care plans are consolidated and expanded and checks of controlled medication are documented.

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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 the ‘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

13: The leadership and management standard

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Requirement Due date

In order to meet the leadership and management standard, the registered person must:

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Requirement Due date

(2)(h) use monitoring and review systems to make continuous improvements in the quality of care provided in the home.

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Requirement Due date

This relates to ensuring that all records are available in central locations, such as staff induction and recruitment checks; and reviewing policies and the statement of purpose to ensure that they refer to current regulations, guidance and professional bodies. 19/08/2016

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Recommendations

To improve the quality and standards of care further the service should take account of the following recommendations:  Refer to ‘Managing medicines in care homes’ (March 2014) guidelines that apply across both health and social care to determine procedures for recording and monitoring controlled medication (‘The guide to quality standards’, page 35, paragraph 7.17).  Children should be encouraged by staff to see the home’s records as ‘living documents’ and supported to view and contribute to the records on a regular basis in a way that reflects their voice. This relates to developing in-house care plans to reflect children’s and young people’s views and ideas as well as their culture and identity (‘The guide to quality standards’, page 58, paragraph 11.19).  The registered person is responsible for maintaining good employment practice. They must ensure that recruitment, supervision and performance management

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Recommendations

of staff safeguards children and minimises potential risks to them. This relates to carrying out checks on staff who spend long periods of time out of the country. (‘The guide to quality standards’, page 61, paragraph 13.1).

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Information about this children’s home

The home provides care and accommodation for up to five children and young people with emotional and/or behavioural difficulties. It is owned by a private organisation who has another home in the local area.

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Recent inspection history

Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

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Recent inspection history

19/01/2016 Interim Improved effectiveness

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Recent inspection history

26/01/2015 Interim Declined in effectiveness

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Good

Children form very strong relationships with the staff in the home. They progress as a result of the nurture and consistency of care that staff provide. Children feel listened to and that staff are genuinely concerned for their well-being. Staff, including home mangers, take time each day to hear about each child’s day and their experiences when they return from school. There is a genuine sense that children view this as their home and feel valued by those who care for them. Children have the opportunity to share their views, ideas and feelings on a range of topics, from what foods are available and the activities they can engage in, to how they feel staff should best support them when they are anxious or upset. Children are actively encouraged to engage in their statutory and education reviews. The staff within the home champion the children’s voice and support them to share their wishes and views with a range of other professionals. Equally, staff

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Good

explain unambiguously why something may not be able to happen. Children are confident in approaching staff and observations showed them asking different staff to support them with varying aspects of their lives. For example, a child who was feeling anxious approached a member of staff for help, but later approached another to play games and chat to. When appropriate, children have access to independent visitors and external advocates. Recently, two children made effective use of advocates to ensure that their views were heard regarding their future placements. All children are engaged in some form of educational activity. However, of the four in placement, only one is in full-time education. Staff and managers are proactive and will support children in school to promote positive behaviour and joint working. The registered manager is also in close liaison with the virtual school and social workers in order to identify more appropriate placements for those who are

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Good

currently struggling to attend full time. When necessary, they also liaise with the virtual school and social workers to challenge school decisions over reduced attendance times and exclusions. Additionally, they will challenge special schools who state that they cannot manage individuals’ behaviour, while providing them with strategies used in the home. An educational professional from one school commented, ‘The staff consult with us all the time. They are always ready to step in where we have needed their expertise and are all very pleasant and helpful folk’. Children who are not able to attend school full-time engage in supplementary education with tutors, or with staff using work sent home from school. In addition, they engage in a range of socially and emotionally stimulating activities, such as mixed martial arts, horse riding and accessing the gym. A varied range of leisure activities are also available, both within the home and the community.

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Good

The children currently living in the home do not require pathway plans or targeted preparation for independence. However, they are encouraged to learn life skills, such as having independent time in the community and the skills related to this, such as road sense, stranger danger, places of safety and accessing public transport. Within the home, children help with basic household chores. A young person has recently successfully moved on to live independently. She is managing well with her flat in the local community and contacts staff often. Children are supported to understand healthy lifestyles and what this means for them. Within the home, they learn about keeping fit and eating a balanced diet. They are further supported to understand positive emotional well-being and how they can keep positive. All have access to medical professionals for routine appointments and more complex needs. Staff liaise closely with each child’s

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Good

therapist to adopt consistent strategies to help children to cope with their stress and anxiety, but also to develop appropriate responses to anger, distress and self- injurious behaviour. Medication is stored securely and staff are trained in safe administration. Records of controlled medication do not indicate how often staff check the amount in stock, despite checks happening daily. Children who are new to the home benefit from transitions tailored to their induvial needs. They are treated with dignity and respect throughout their placement and are encouraged to remember who they are as an individuals, but are also encouraged to make new memories while living in the home. Staff make memory books full of photographs of activities and special events. Children are supported to continue to see their families, in line with contact arrangements, with staff supervising contacts and transporting children to ensure their relationships are

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Good

maintained. A child’s grandparents expressed how well their grandson has done since living in the home and how positive contact now is. They also commented that staff were always polite when collecting or dropping him off to them.

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Good

Children are extremely positive about the home and the relationships that they have with staff. Their demeanours suggests that they feel comfortable and they all have staff who they would go to if they were worried or upset. Staff have a good understanding of the vulnerabilities of each child they care for, and understand their roles in protecting them from exploitation and harm. Staff are confident in procedures to follow should they be concerned for a child’s safety or welfare and have exercised this appropriately, through reporting issues in line with the home’s safeguarding and child protection policy. Staff have had training in relation to safeguarding, exploitation and radicalisation, among other things. They also have a strong understanding of the risks that the internet can pose and protective measures are in place in the home.

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Good

The managers in the home respond robustly to any suspicions or allegations of harm, reporting issues swiftly to local child protection professionals. They have a close working relationship with the local designated officer, although no incidents have needed to be reported to them since the last inspection.

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Good

Incidents of children being in situations which have placed them at risk have significantly reduced while they have been living in the home. Examples include a child at extreme risk of sexual exploitation, and with prolonged periods of being missing and using class A drugs, not being missing from the home and her substance misuse ceasing. She has also engaged with substance misuse professionals and a smoking cessation nurse. Those who self-injure benefit from a consistent approach and support and, again, incidents of this have reduced.

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Good

Children are encouraged to consider their behaviour and identify what their triggers may be. They have helped formulate their behaviour management plans and post-incident debriefs allow them to reflect and consider how they can respond differently in the future. Consistency in approach to behaviour management has led to very few restraints being required, and the reflective and restorative approach has led to a reduction in sanctions.

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Good

There have been no incidents of children being missing from the home since the last inspection. On two occasions where children have walked off staff have remained in close proximity and allowed the child to calm before returning with them. Staff are confident in processes to follow should a child be missing, and the home maintains close links with the local specialist police officer for missing and exploited children and young people.

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Good

Children are protected from avoidable risks through thoughtful risk assessments and planning. They are enabled to take age-appropriate risks in line with their abilities and understanding. The physical environment is free of avoidable hazards and is maintained to a good standard.

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Good

Safer recruitment is practised in the home, although the registered manager identifies that she would benefit from refresher training in this area. A range of pre-employment checks, including exploration of pre-existing medical and emotional conditions, ensure that staff are fit to work with vulnerable children and young people. However, records of these checks are not consistently held in one place. An area of improvement is to seek information from other countries’ disclosure and barring service (DBS) equivalent when staff have dual residency.

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Requires improvement

The manager was registered with Ofsted in January 2016. She holds qualifications relevant to the role and is undertaking further professional qualifications. She has been in post since April 2015 and has worked tirelessly to improve the quality of care and outcomes for children and young people. Children are now matched prior to placement and considerable thought is given to the impact a new child or young person may have on the group and whether they will affect the current dynamics. Her focus has been on stabilising and increasing the skills of staff in order to create a calm and nurturing environment for children and young people. She has succeeded in this. Her focus is now turning to maintaining this, but also improving policies, plans and records within the home.

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Requires improvement

The responsible individual is now based within the home several days a week. This has provided the extra support needed, but has also given the home the oversight required to ensure that the service is running as it should. The manager has an excellent understanding of the strengths and weaknesses within the home, and the development plan is reflective of how the service can improve further. She utilises independent monitoring visits in line with Regulation 44 in addition to her own managers’ monitoring and six-monthly evaluations to determine how the service can continue to progress and improve.

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Requires improvement

The home is fully staffed with a consistent team, who benefit from regular supervisions and appraisals of their practice. Staff say that they feel well supported and can approach the managers with any worries or concerns they have. They feel that the current registered manager is much more approachable than the former manager and that she is enabling them to learn new skills through practice within the home and extra external training. Those who are new to the home complete an induction package tailored to the home, although evidence they have completed in the first six months is not clearly available within the home.

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Requires improvement

The views of children and young people are central to practice in the home, and they are regularly consulted on any changes they feel would improve their experience. The manager has yet to formally consult with parents, family or external agencies, however. The manager regularly engages with the placing authorities and will challenge social work practice if they deem it necessary. An example was the lack of notification of a child’s statutory review until the day it was due to take place. The registered manager requested a telephone meeting with the placements team manager immediately, to raise their concerns and those of the child who this had an impacted on.

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Requires improvement

Children’s plans within the home are concise and identify the goals and purpose of placement. The information within these plans requires further development to ensure that young people’s individual culture and identity is further explored and to provide greater detail. The information is available across a range of documents, and is not consolidated in one easy-to-access place.

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Requires improvement

The staff and managers within the home form effective working relationships with partner agencies to ensure that children have the best possible care and outcomes. On the rare occasion that a child or young person is not progressing, the staff are swift to raise this with the placing authority and convene meetings to determine how they can best support the child or young person through their crisis or identify a placement more suited to their needs. Further, managers liaise with local agencies in order to formulate a locality risk assessment to ensure that they are aware of all risks that the home’s location may pose, including its proximity to the sea.

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Requires improvement

The statement of purpose mostly reflects the services provided by the home, and staff understand their roles in meeting this. The document in place is inaccurate or uses outdated language or references to partner agencies. For example, it talks of supporting young people with emerging personality disorders rather than attachment disorders and references now defunct professional bodies. Other policies within the home, while containing up-to-date information, have not been proofread and again refer to outdated regulations and the national minimum standards. This does not impact directly on young people though.

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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 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 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 children looked after 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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