Children's home run by Cambian Autism Services Limited in Hammersmith and Fulham

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 have made very good progress from their initial starting points since arriving at the home.  Staff are positive and proactive in their approach to young people, seeking to find solutions and work through the challenges that they face.  Young people were observed to be happy, relaxed and comfortable in their environment.  Staff and young people have good relationships, which promotes the progress that young people make. They identify factors which affect a young people’s presentation, and swiftly redirect and support them when they need this.  Young people are developing strategies which assist them to self-regulate and moderate their behaviour and emotions. Staff provide a consistent approach across all settings, creating seamless transitions between care and education.  Staff support young people to develop their life and social skills by offering a wide variety of activities, opportunities and experiences while integrating

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The children’s home provision is good because:

them into the community.  Staff support young people to address their health needs, with referral to external professionals when required to meet specific needs.  All young people are in full-time education and are making progress, within their own capabilities.  Young people are involved in the key decisions made in the home. Staff use a wide variety of communication aids and systems to support young people in their decision-making processes.  Safeguarding concerns have been well reported, referred and recorded, with clarity of investigation and outcomes.  Staff have high aspirations for each young person, supporting them to achieve their best.  Leaders and managers work effectively together as a multidisciplinary team, assessing and reviewing targets which are a focus throughout the waking day curriculum.  Staff have made good progress towards achieving their required qualifications. The upkeep of the premises and quality and frequency of

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The children’s home provision is good because:

supervision for staff are areas to improve and develop.

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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

In particular, the standard in paragraph (10 requires the registered person to ensure— that the premises used for the purposes of the home are designed, furnished and maintained so as to protect each child from avoidable hazards to the child’s health. (Regulation 12(2)(d)) 01/12/2016

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Requirement Due date

An individual who works in the home in a care role has the appropriate qualification if, by the relevant date, the individual has attained— the level 3 diploma for residential childcare (England) (‘the level 3 diploma’). The relevant date is— in the case of an individual who starts working in a care role in a home after 1 April 2014, the date which falls two years after the date on which the individual started working in a care role in a home. (Regulation 32(4)(a)(5)(a)) 01/12/2016

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must ensure that all employees— undertake appropriate continuing professional development; and receive practice-related supervision by a person with appropriate experience. (Regulation 33(4)(a)(b)) 01/12/2016

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Recommendations

To improve the quality and standards of care further, the service should take account of the following recommendation(s):  Where the placing authority or another relevant person does not provide the input and services needed to meet the child’s needs during their time in the home or in preparation for leaving the home, the home must challenge them to meet the child’s needs. Staff should act as champions for their children, expecting nothing less than a good parent would. The registered person should consider the use of an independent advocate if the child’s needs are not being met. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 12, paragraph 2.8)

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Recommendations

 Children should be able to maintain and develop their cultural or religious beliefs as far as practicable and where appropriate, through participation and instruction, and by observing religious requirements including dress and diet. Specifically, ensure that plans have more clarity and detail about how to address an individual’s specific beliefs and identity. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 17, paragraph 3.22)

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Recommendations

 All children must have access to appropriate advocacy support, and where possible this should be provided by a person that the child chooses. Looked after children are entitled to an independent advocate to advise them and ensure they have the support needed to express their views, wishes and feelings about their care and lives. Specifically, children should be advised and informed of their right to this. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 23, paragraph 4.16)

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Information about this children’s home

The home is registered to provide care and accommodation for up to 31 children and young people with learning disabilities and sensory impairment. The home forms part of a residential school specialising in care, education and therapy for young people with autism and associated behaviours.

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Recent inspection history

Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement 16/12/2015 Interim Sustained effectiveness 21/07/2015 Full Outstanding 12/02/2015 Interim Sustained effectiveness 17/10/2014 Full Good

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Good

Young people make good progress because of good-quality, nurturing relationships with staff. Staff are demonstrably concerned for young people’s well-being and welfare. They aspire for those in their care, constantly encouraging them to achieve more.

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Good

Staff offer young people wide-ranging activities to explore, experience and integrate with the local community. They are creative and confident, providing opportunities which young people may have never previously had.

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Good

Staff listen to young people, enabling them to make choices about aspects of their daily care. Staff do not routinely inform them about how to make a complaint or access an independent person.

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Good

Young people are involved in many key aspects of decision making in the home, including choosing the decor and wall colour of the home. Young people are supported to personalise their bedrooms, if they wish. Staff encourage young people to choose activities and make decisions about food choices.

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Good

Staff enable and support young people to have a voice and have their views listened to through a variety of communication systems. A strength of the home is the communication systems, including the use of social stories, visual timetables, food choices, activities, emotions and other methods used to prepare and support young people with aspects of daily life. They have enabled young people, and prepared them for changes and transitions.

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Good

All young people attend the education provision, which is on the same site as the home. There are excellent links with education providers. Staff support young people with transitions between the home and education. They provide and follow a consistent, seamless approach in all settings.

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Good

Staff encourage the development of life skills with the use of a structured, recognised programme. This supports young people to develop their key life skills while achieving a recognised qualification. Young people have recently learned how to behave in a restaurant, make food choices, order a meal, pay for it and sit with a group to share the meal. This is a big achievement for the young people involved.

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Good

Staff are proactive in seeking the required support to meet young people’s health and emotional well-being needs. Joint working with speech and language therapy, psychology and psychiatry, has a positive impact on holistic plans. Staff ensure that basic health needs are addressed. During our visit, a dentist visited the home, and several young people received treatment including some who had previously not been able to access a community dentist, due to anxiety. The support provided by staff has enabled them to address long-standing health needs. Young people are encouraged to lead a healthy lifestyle and have a balanced diet. A young person has made fantastic progress by losing weight and establishing a healthy weight. There has been a positive impact on their well-being. Staff follow clear, detailed protocols for those with complex health conditions and needs.

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Good

Care plans are detailed and thorough, with regular reviews and updates as required. They detail basic information about culture, religion and identify. Specific details are lacking about the young person’s individual beliefs and preferences and that of their families.

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Good

Staff support young people to maintain contact with family and friends. Staff plan, prepare, facilitate and create situations, ensuring that all concerned have a positive experience and fun during these sessions. They support young people to prepare through social stories and enable the family to feel welcome, safe and secure at the setting. They provide additional staff, transport and an escort for young people to a variety of destinations, some of which are at a distance from the home. They reassess, as required, and request a review of plans when needed.

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Good

Young people are observed to be happy, relaxed and settled in their environment. They seek support and guidance from staff for reassurance, interaction and engagement with staff.

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Good

The home environment is not consistently well maintained, with areas poorly presented. The quality of cleanliness is not always to an acceptable standard, for example a dirty oven, and mould and mildew on tiles in a bathroom. Areas of damage that present a high risk are attended to swiftly, but low-level damage is not repaired expediently. There are aspects of delay for some items, due to the need for specialist items which are out of the home’s control. The overall impact creates an environment that is not homely or attractive.

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Good

During the inspection, several fire doors were propped open, and some were damaged or did not close properly. There is a culture in the home of propping doors open.

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Good

Young people are supported to manage their risk-taking behaviours with individual risk assessments and behaviour support plans detailing triggers, behaviours, strategies for de-escalation and intervention. Risk assessments identify individual risk factors and allow young people to take assessed age-appropriate risks within their ability. Staff have good knowledge and understanding of individual risk factors and vulnerabilities.

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Good

Young people learn how to express their emotions and self-regulate their behaviour through a consistent approach from staff. Staff follow a positive multidisciplinary approach to behaviour management, accessing and utilising the support from therapists who have an input into the support plans.

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Good

Staff use physical intervention as a last resort, in its least restrictive form for the shortest time possible. Staff continue to aspire and aim to avoid physical intervention, utilising a variety of de-escalation strategies as agreed in individual, detailed, robust behaviour support plans. Post-incident debriefing of young people and staff is thorough. It is a strength of the home, with all utilising and learning from interventions. Staff are trained in the home’s method of behaviour management, with staff needing to update and refresh their training.

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Good

Staff are calm and consistent in their approach to supporting young people in times of high anxiety. Young people have awareness of the boundaries and have good understanding of their routines, knowing what is expected of them.

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Good

There have been no episodes of going missing. Staff have a clear policy and procedure to follow, if the need arises. Those considered to present a risk of absconding have clear intervention plans. The local police have details and information regarding these young people to support them in their management, if an incident was to occur.

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Good

Managers have explored and investigated all complaints with an evidence trail to show the investigation through to an outcome, with a detailed response to the complainant.

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Good

Staff have acted according to the home’s policy and procedure with regard to allegations against staff. They have reported, recorded and referred as required. Records detail investigations, outcomes and actions.

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Good

Staff have reviewed and updated their e-safety policies and risk assessments, ensuring that all young people are safeguarded and the risks minimised. There are individual risk assessments for each young person.

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Good

Staff follow the home’s policy and procedure when administering medication. Staff access training and are observed and assessed in their performance of and compliance with the procedure. Medication is stored as required, with regular review and audit occurring.

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Good

Staff apply comprehensive procedures to recruitment processes, ensuring that young people are less likely to be at risk of harm.

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Good

Leaders and managers are effective in managing the home. They are committed to driving it forward to improve the quality of care provided.

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Good

The registered manager holds the required qualification. They use a variety of systems and processes to assess and evaluate the quality of care provided in the home. They use the reports from the independent visitor, internal monitoring in the home, multidisciplinary team feedback and the three-monthly reviews of the home.

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Good

The home is appropriately staffed, meeting the needs of young people. There has been turnover in staff, but the home has recruited to these posts and employed more staff to complement the staff team. Leaders complete exit interviews, gaining an insight into and understanding of staff’s views and reasons for exiting. Staff have been promoted within both the home and the organisation which owns the home.

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Good

The home’s development plan details aspects identified to improve its lack of clarity and timescales for aspects to be achieved.

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Good

Leaders and managers regularly review young people’s plans. They highlight progress in reviews and through graded target setting in plans. Data is used to reflect behaviour patterns, change, decline and improvement. While the majority of detailed information and records are stored on the home’s electronic system, the home’s paper file system does not contain all required information and creates confusion.

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Good

There are positive relationships with those outside of the home, including professionals, voluntary groups and families. There needs to be more challenge to placing authorities to ensure that the home receives all the documentation about young people that it needs.

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Good

Staff have supervision but its frequency and formality are not consistent for all staff. Some have regular monthly sessions and others do not. Managers and staff explore training and development needs in supervision sessions, with action plans and reviews at the following. This was identified as an area requiring improvement at the last visit. Work has been completed to improve this, but it has not yet been embedded.

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Good

Staff access a good variety of training which is specific to their job role. Inducted staff complete a two-week block of training which is complimented by shadowing staff and supplementary training.

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Good

Staff are all trained in the home’s preferred method of behaviour management; and some staff are overdue completion of refresher training. Staff have also completed thorough safeguarding training which has included modules detailing risks associated with radicalisation and child sexual exploitation.

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Good

Staff have achieved a relevant level 3 qualification or are working towards achieving it. Leaders and managers have a robust plan in place to address this with a new assessor in post who has a proven record of accomplishment. Staff have made significant progress since enrolment.

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Good

The homes statement of purpose reflects the ethos and approach used in the home. The young people’s guide is presented in a child friendly manner. It is available in a variety of forms so that all young people can access it.

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Good

There have been some improvements to aspects of the home creating a homely environment this is not consistent throughout 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

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

T: 0300 123 1231 Textphone: 0161 618 8524 E: enquiries@ofsted.gov.uk W: www.gov.uk/government/organisations/ofsted

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