Children's home in Hammersmith and Fulham

Requires improvement

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

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The children's home provision requires improvement because:

 Due to the lack of a permanent, full-time manager for several months, there has been no consistent oversight and monitoring of the quality of care at the home. Shortfalls in reviewing systems have led to a failure to identify weaknesses in practice and to support children in some areas of their progress.  Staff have not been receiving good-quality supervision to help them to reflect on their practice and enable professional development. As a result, they have not responded promptly to the changing needs of children at the home.  Admission procedures are not robust and do not ensure that full information is received in advance of a child’s arrival to the home. This means that staff do not tailor their care and intervention in a way that would contribute to a secure start.  Managers do not ensure that staff regularly review and update risk assessments or that records of key-working sessions are up to date and

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The children's home provision requires improvement because:

held on children’s files. The result is that accurate information held about a child is not shared among the staff group. This means that they do not systematically assess the progress made by children or respond to newly identified needs.  Managers do not ensure that staff meet regularly as a team to assess the quality of the service at the home, and to identify strengths and areas for improvement. Records of meetings lack structure, with no identified targets or reviews of past actions. This is a wasted opportunity to develop a sense of collective responsibility to drives improvement in the service.  Managers were not able to provide evidence that weekly and monthly fire safety checks had been carried out.

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The children's home strengths

 An interim manager has had a positive impact on the service at the home. Children’s behaviour has calmed down and there has been a significant reduction in the number of negative incidents.  All negative incidents have been reviewed robustly by the interim manager, along with senior colleagues in the organisation. Action has been taken to ensure that safeguarding arrangements have been strengthened and promote safe practice.  A new staff team is positive and upbeat about its ability to work with children, and commented on a recent improvement in behaviour and relationships. Consequently, children have been allowed some limited free time in the community and there are plans for a holiday.  Staff support and encourage contact with families. They work in partnership with agencies and other professionals, who commented on the improved service since the new management team has been in place.

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Statutory requirements

This section sets out the actions which must be taken so that the registered person(s) meets the Care Standards Act 2000, Children's Homes (England) Regulations 2015 and ‘Guide to the children's homes regulations including the quality standards’. The registered person(s) must comply within the given timescales.

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Requirement Due date

12: The protection of children standard In order to meet the protection of children standard, the registered provider must ensure that staff— (2)(a)(i) assess whether each child is at risk of harm, taking into account information in the child’s relevant plans, and, if necessary, make arrangements to reduce the risk of any harm to the child, with particular reference to ensuring that risk assessments are regularly reviewed and read by staff. (b) that the home’s day-to-day care is arranged and delivered so as to keep each child safe and to protect each child effectively from harm, with particular reference to making sure that daily routines are known and consistently followed by staff. 14/10/2016

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Requirement Due date

13: The leadership and management standard In order to meet the leadership and management standard, the registered person should—

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Requirement Due date

(2)(b) ensure that staff work as a team where appropriate; (h) use monitoring and review systems to make continuous improvements in the quality of care provided in the home. 14/10/2016

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Requirement Due date

14: The care planning standard In order to meet the care planning standard, the registered person must ensure— (2)(a) that children are admitted to the home only if their needs are within the range of needs of children for whom it is intended that the home is to provide care and accommodation, as set out in the home’s statement of purpose, with particular reference to ensuring that all information about a child, including any details of any health conditions, is clarified before the child arrives in the home. 14/10/2016 The registered person must ensure that the requirements of the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 (a) and any regulations made under it, except for article 23 (duties of employees), are complied with in respect of the home. This is with particular reference to ensuring that there are written records available for inspection which confirm that all checks, drills and practices have taken place as required under regulation.

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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 development of safe, stable and secure relationships with staff in the home is central to the ethos of the home and supports the development of secure attachments that, where appropriate, persist over time, with particular reference to regular, recorded key-working sessions. (‘Guide to the children's homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 39, paragraph 8.11)  Continually and actively assess the risks to each child and the arrangements in place to protect them. Where there are safeguarding concerns for a child, their placement plan, agreed between the home and their placing authority, must include details of the steps that the home will take to manage any assessed risks on a day-to-day basis, with specific reference to ensuring that all activities,

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Recommendations

including those in the community, are assessed for risk and balanced with management strategies. (‘Guide to the children's homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 42, paragraph 9.5)  Ensure that staff regularly receive good-quality, clearly-recorded supervision which allows them sufficient time to reflect on their practice and discuss matters relating to the children assigned to their care. (‘Guide to the children's homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 61, paragraph 13.2)

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Information about this children's home

This home is run by a large independent organisation and is registered to provide care for up to two children and young people with complex social emotional and/or behavioural difficulties. Children and young people can benefit from direct access to therapeutic support.

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Recent inspection history

Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

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Recent inspection history

21/12/2015 Interim Improved effectiveness

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Recent inspection history

11/02/2015 Interim Sustained effectiveness

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Requires improvement

Staff and managers place a high value on the importance of building relationships with children. Each child is allocated a key worker as soon as they arrive, and the expectation is that the key worker will spend time regularly with the child. Staff and managers have agreed with children at the home that planned sessions are too formal, so there is an emphasis on unplanned work when the key worker and child can discuss issues in a more natural way. In practice, this is not always successful. Key-working sessions are not regular and there can be long periods between sessions. This is a wasted opportunity to build up a close understanding of the child and their progress.

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Requires improvement

When key-working sessions have taken place, the quality is sound. Children have engaged well and staff have proved skilful in raising difficult issues and helping children to reflect on their behaviour and learn to accept responsibility for their actions. For instance, one child had refused to comply with a fire drill. Her next key-working session focused on this and helped her to understand the importance of fire drills, so that she knows what to do in the event of a fire. This has helped to keep her safe.

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Requires improvement

Children have access to activities, both in the home and in the community, but weekly records are not kept up to date. Children have daily routines that cover personal care for both school time and holidays, but staff do not promote these consistently, with the result that children lose motivation.

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Requires improvement

Staff meetings are not held regularly, and therefore opportunities to review and improve the quality of service are missed. Meetings, when they do occur, do not consider feedback from children, their families and professionals, or the information from incidents and events to assess the progress of children and to identify strengths and areas for improvement. Records of meetings lack structure, with no identified targets or reviews of past actions. This means that staff are not being encouraged to develop a sense of collective responsibility.

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Requires improvement

While children continue to present with challenging behaviours, there is evidence that they have benefited from their time at the home. The social worker for one child said: ‘She has staff with her and responds well to the consistency. She has told me that she likes it there.’ The staff and managers are clear that children have built up relationships of trust through balancing firm boundaries with spending time with them. On occasion, this can lead to striking results. For instance, one child has built up free time in the community with staff in the vicinity, but essentially they are independent. Staff are also planning to take a child on holiday, following a robust assessment that their behaviour has improved and that they can be trusted. This has enhanced the child’s self-esteem. One child said: ‘This place is rubbish’ but she was smiling as she said it and had been observed interacting with staff

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Requires improvement

naturally and happily throughout the inspection.

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Requires improvement

Both staff and managers place a high priority on children receiving education in the community. Routines in the home support regular school attendance and attendance is good. On occasion children present with challenging behaviours in school, which has led to exclusion. Staff from the home advocate for them vigorously, working with the virtual head and other professionals so they maintain their placements. Children have mixed results in English and Maths with some attaining GCSE results while others have been assessed to reach functional levels in the core subjects. Nevertheless, children have responded well to consistent routines and have gained confidence in their ability.

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Requires improvement

Children are in good health physically but can often demonstrate volatile and rejecting behaviour. Staff are insightful and do not take hurtful comments at face value, understanding that the comments may reflect a child’s inner turmoil. Children have been the subject of specialist psychiatric assessments and are encouraged to take advantage of bespoke therapeutic support. However, this work can take time and children generally prefer to talk to their key workers.

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Requires improvement

Contact takes place between children and their families, according to very clear plans set out in the children’s files. Both staff and families appreciate the importance of maintaining these relationships. Children and their families confirm that contact is regular and predictable. Children benefit from seeing their parents working in partnership with staff, and this enhances their sense of security.

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Requires improvement

Children who are referred to the home have very complex needs. The management team reviews documentation to ensure that they have full background and history from previous placements. However, this process is not robust. For instance, the managers do not seek expert advice about medical conditions, over and above what is already recorded in the initial papers, before the child arrives. Consequently, staff are not able to know accurately what to expect or to tailor care and intervention in a way that will contribute to a secure start. The interim manager does complete an assessment of the likely impact of a new arrival on the household, but significant gaps in the admission papers mean this is not comprehensive.

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Requires improvement

Risk assessments are written to cover major aspects of a child’s care. They are of a good standard, including any known triggers for negative behaviour and possible warning signs. Nevertheless, managers do not regularly review them, with the result that they are not always up to date. This means that it is not possible to measure their success against a child’s starting points and, consequently, they are not as effective as they might be in providing evidence of how any risks are managed.

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Requires improvement

Staff do not consistently demonstrate an awareness of the need to consider the safety of children to be at the heart of their practice. For instance, they do not routinely sign to confirm that they have read and understood an individual child’s risk assessment. On occasion, staff allowed community-based activities to take place without first adequately assessing them. Managers have taken this extremely seriously and carried out a full review so that they could learn from these episodes and prevent reoccurrence. As part of this work, they have now established sound working relationships with the local police, who comment on their commitment to safe practice. One officer said about their work with one child: ‘I think they are doing absolutely everything in their power to try to keep her safe. I would really sing their praises, actually.’ There are now robust protocols in place and this has helped to improve children’s safety.

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Requires improvement

Fire safety records are held online, and there is no contingency for recording these manually in the event that internet access is unavailable. During the inspection, managers were not able to provide evidence that weekly and monthly checks had been carried out. This does not enable managers and staff to assure themselves of the safety of the home. There is no indication that this has placed any child at risk.

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Requires improvement

Staff and managers are insightful and stoic, and understand that a child’s volatile responses can reflect past trauma. Their success in promoting positive behaviour is reflected in the drop in incidents of negative behaviour, including incidents of young people going missing and the need for restraint. While children continue to present with challenging behaviours, staff and managers work hard to help them to feel secure. The mother of one child said: ‘ We have noticed some real improvements. She is much calmer. Now you can have a conversation with her.’

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Requires improvement

Any allegations are dealt with promptly and thoroughly, giving support to both the person making the complaint and the subject of the allegation. This means that any disagreement is resolved in a transparent manner, and this gives children a sense of security about the home.

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Requires improvement

There has been no registered manager at this home since February 2016. In the interim, the manager of another home from the same provider has offered oversight and support. A new permanent manager is scheduled to start in October 2016. The interim manager has worked hard to raise standards and improve morale within the team, and this has supported a process of positive change. However, the lack of a consistent full-time leader driving forward improvement has contributed to a judgement of ‘requires improvement’ in leadership and management.

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Requires improvement

There have been significant staff changes since the last inspection and, although the team is now permanent and stable, most members of staff are new to this home. Both the current interim manager and new permanent manager are completing their national vocation qualification (NVQ) level 5 training, with an expected finishing date of April 2017.They both have over two years’ experience of working at managerial level at other children’s homes. Of the current team, half are already trained to NVQ level 3 while the remaining staff will start the course once they have completed their probationary period. There is a reasonable level of experience among team leaders, but residential care workers, although enthusiastic and committed, are new to the challenges of working in a children’s home. Staff report feeling generally supported and enabled by managers, and maintain that things have improved for children and staff as a consequence. One

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Requires improvement

member of staff said that the staff had ‘been through a very difficult time, but think that we worked very closely together, which made all the difference. We are a work in progress and I like that – I feel that I am part of making the changes.’

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Requires improvement

Supervision does take place, but not as often as staff or managers aspire to. Minutes and action points record supervision sessions, but they are brief and without detail. They do not currently evidence a reflective approach that encourages and enables professional development. As a result, staff are not clear on exactly what is expected of them in order to develop relationships with children, reduce negative behaviour and sustain improvement.

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Requires improvement

Managers and staff are of the opinion that children are benefiting from living at this home and are making progress. They are able to give individual examples of positive improvements in children’s behaviour and well-being, but currently there are no robust systems in place to evidence this. Managers cannot demonstrate that monitoring and review systems are used to make continuous improvements to the quality of care offered.

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Requires improvement

Despite the change in management arrangements, the recommendations made at the last inspection have been implemented. Historical records are now appropriately stored, and work has taken place and is ongoing with staff around appropriate case recording.

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Requires improvement

The interim manager prioritises the needs of the children and encourages staff to look beyond presenting behaviour in an attempt to gain a better understanding of individual children. The interim manager knows the children well and, in the short time that she has offered management support, this has enabled staff to begin to effect some positive change.

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Requires improvement

The home’s statement of purpose has been recently updated. Staff know and understand the aims and objectives of the home and are clear as to how this informs and shapes their practice. Staff work hard to ensure that children know that they are important and cared about, at the same time maintaining consistent routines, rules and boundaries.

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Requires improvement

Professional relationships are positive. Social workers and colleagues from other agencies say that communication is effective and efficient. They speak highly of the manager and the difference that she has made. The manager is willing and able to advocate on behalf of children when responses from other services are not effective and has done so in order to improve outcomes for children. For instance, she advocated vigorously with other professionals so that a child could access education at a local community school. This has improved the relationship between staff and children, as children feel valued and know that managers will promote their interests.

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Requires improvement

The home has been through a period of change and inconsistency, particularly in relation to staffing. This has had an effect on those who live and work there. Staff and managers believe that they have come through the worst and are now well positioned to drive forward improvement. There is a clear plan of succession for the new manager, who is scheduled to take over shortly. Managers are aware of the challenges ahead and are formulating plans to improve the quality of care offered and to continue to improve outcomes for children living at the home.

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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’. An outstanding children's home provides highly effective services that contribute to significantly improved outcomes for children and young people who need help and protection and care. Their progress exceeds expectations and is sustained over time. A good children's home provides effective services that help, protect and care for children and young people and have their welfare safeguarded and promoted. In a children's home that requires improvement , there are no widespread or serious failures that create or leave children being harmed or at risk of harm. The welfare of looked after children is safeguarded and promoted. Minimum requirements

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What the inspection judgements mean

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 harmed or at risk of harm or result in children looked after not having their welfare safeguarded and promoted.

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Information about this inspection

Inspectors have looked closely at the experiences and progress of children and young people living in the children's home. Inspectors considered the quality of work and the difference adults make to the lives of children and young people. They read case files, watched how professional staff work with children, young people and each other and discussed the effectiveness of help and care given to children and young people. Wherever possible, they talked to children, young people and their families. In addition the inspectors have tried to understand what the children's home knows about how well it is performing, how well it is doing and what difference it is making for the children and young people who it is trying to help, protect and look after. This inspection was carried out under the Care Standards Act 2000 to assess the effectiveness of the service and to consider how well it complies with the Children's

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Information about this inspection

Homes (England) Regulations 2015 and ‘Guide to the children's homes regulations including the quality standards’. the guidance, ‘Raising concerns and making complaints about Ofsted’, which is available from Ofsted's website: www.gov.uk/government/organisations/ofsted . If you would like Ofsted to send you a copy of the guidance, please telephone 0300 123 4234, or email enquiries@ofsted.gov.uk .

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Information about this inspection

achieve excellence in the care of children and young people, and in education and skills for learners of all ages. It regulates and inspects childcare and children's social care, and inspects the Children and Family Court Advisory and Support Service (Cafcass), schools, colleges, initial teacher training, work- based learning and skills training, adult and community learning, and education and training in prisons and other secure establishments. It inspects services for looked after children and child protection. If you would like a copy of this document in a different format, such as large print or Braille, please telephone 0300 123 4234, or email enquiries@ofsted.gov.uk . You may reuse this information (not including logos) free of charge in any format or medium, under the terms of the Open Government Licence. To view this licence, visit www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/doc/open-government-licence , write to the Information Policy Team,

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Information about this inspection

The National Archives, Kew, London TW9 4DU, or email: psi@nationalarchives.gsi.gov.uk .

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Information about this inspection

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Information about this inspection

Store Street Manchester M1 2WD T: 0300 123 1231 Textphone: 0161 618 8524 E: enquiries@ofsted.gov.uk W: www.gov.uk/government/organisations/ofsted

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