Children's home run by The Beeches UK limited in Redbridge

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:

 Some children are engaging with a personalised curriculum which means that the staff can be flexible to meet their needs. As a result, children who live in this home are achieving in line with their educational targets and sometimes better.  Observations of staff interacting with the children demonstrate good positive relationships built on sound assessments and care plans. Staff are alert to the children’s needs and they are able to look for indicators from the children that their needs are being met.  Staff spend time reflecting on the children’s behaviours and any incidents. They are encouraged to look for alternative ways to manage these. This has been particularly helpful in minimising these events.  The children have access to a range of caring adults working in partnership who ensure that safe-care practices are followed. Staff use effective updated risk assessments. These ensure that staff have the most up-to-date

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The children's home provision is good because:

information to complete their work.  Staff are mindful of the risks in the community for this vulnerable group of children. The children are supported one-to-one with staff which ensures maximum observation, and minimises the risks in the community. As a result, the children are safeguarded.  The original location risk assessment lacked detail. This meant that staff did not have the most useful information about the local area to promote the children’s welfare needs. Individual risk assessments are robust enough to reduce the risk.  Some health and safety checks were incomplete at the commencement of inspection. The manager ensured that these were completed during the inspection. The risks to children were reduced because of the positive personal risk assessments.  A lack of consistency in the way that the home and the school record incidents of physical intervention means that staff are not able to reflect

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The children's home provision is good because:

appropriately on the use of restraint. Routine reviews of the records of incidents ensure that the interventions are appropriate and that children are safeguarded.

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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

The registered person may only employ an individual to work at the children's home if the individual has the appropriate experience, qualification, and skills for the work that the individual is to perform. 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 the level 3 diploma for residential childcare (England) ('the level 3 diploma') or a qualification which the registered person considers to be equivalent to 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, or in the case of an individual who was working in a care role in a home on 1 April 2014, 1 April 2016. (Regulation 32 (2)(a)(3)(b)(4)(a)(b)(5)(a)(b))

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Recommendations

To improve the quality and standards of care further, the service should take account of the following recommendations:  Children's homes must comply with relevant health and safety legislation. In particular, ensuring the recording of cleaning equipment and ensuring that all risks are identified. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 15, paragraph 3.9)  The behaviour management strategy should be understood and applied at all times by staff and must be kept under review and revised where appropriate. In particular, this is with respect to the consistency of recording and the level of detail regarding the intervention. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 46, paragraph 9.34)  The registered person should review the appropriateness and suitability of the location and the premises at least once a year. The review should include the

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Recommendations

identification of any risks and opportunity presented by the home’s location and strategies for managing these. In particular, the assessment should be explicit in the detail of the potential risk factors in the location. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 64, paragraph 15.1)

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Information about this children's home

The home is operated by a private company. It is registered to accommodate up to five young people with learning difficulties, and emotional and behavioural difficulties.

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Recent inspection history

Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement 09/03/2016 Interim Improved effectiveness 27/10/2015 Full Good 23/03/2015 Interim Improved effectiveness 21/01/2015 Full Good

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Good

Children who live in this home have special educational needs and/or disabilities. They are achieving in line with their educational targets and sometimes better. As a result, they are learning functional and life skills. This will help them to prepare for transition into adult provision and towards developing further social and educational skills. Local authority workers comment on the appropriate individualised package of education provided at the on-site school. One local authority worker said, ‘The school and the home are doing a great job. He had an unsuccessfully placement in a “therapeutic school”. Here he has a bespoke curriculum which means that the staff can be flexible to meet his needs. They have developed a good knowledge of how to work with him, they know his triggers and when he needs a change of stimulus. The school and the home listen to him and they are prepared to change to work with him and provide a 24-hour 7 day a week environment that he can

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Good

develop his emotional and social needs alongside his educational needs.’ As a result, outcomes for children who live in this house are good and they are making positive progress. Staff from the home support the work within the school. There is good communication between the school and the home, supported by a positive handover and records which ensure the sharing of important information between the home and the school setting. This means that successes are celebrated and achievements noted by all staff. It also means that staff provide a consistency of care, as they are alert to any issues or concerns. Children have good relationships with staff. Observations of staff interacting with the children show a calm and thoughtful approach. Some children make their needs known through non-verbal communication tools such as symbols and using sign language such as Makaton. Staff are keenly alert to the children’s needs and

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Good

using their experience, skill and confidence they are able to look for indicators from the children that they are settled and that their needs are being met. Stakeholders, including parents, report that the work of the staff helped in the initial planning and early part of the placement. One stakeholder commented, ‘They have settled in to the routine of the home. We are confident that the staff can meet their needs. The staff have worked well to manage the children’s behaviour in partnership with the health staff who monitor their medication.’ As a result, some children’s personal care needs have improved and others have been able to manage their behaviour more appropriately. Children enjoy a range of activities in the local area that help them to make and keep a friendship group outside the home. For example, one child attends a hand cycling club. This supports her meeting other children who share this interest and

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Good

helps her to keep fit and active. Children are involved in day-to-day decisions such as the activities that they are interested in. They also contribute to decisions about decorating their rooms. Staff help and support the children to maintain contact with health professionals who play an important role in maintaining their health and well-being. Staff play an active role in supporting and maintaining the children’s ongoing relationships with extended families. Parents are welcomed into the home and staff assist with successful, regular contact sessions through their understanding of the children’s needs. Risk assessments are up to date and staff use these assessments in their day-to- day work with the children. They are also an integral part in care plans and in behaviour plans. This ensures that staff have the most up-to-date information to complete their work, and as a result, children’s needs are understood. Staff who

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Good

value the importance of the time that they spend with the children meet these needs sensitively. This gives children the support that they need and a consistently good standard of care. Children at this home are in the early stages of their pathway plan. Staff are included in the children’s care plan activities of daily living such as helping the children with tidying their room and with some laundry. These skills are further developed through ongoing key work and direct work with the children.

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Good

The staff work with well-written risk assessments. This ensures that they understand the children’s needs and enables them to work safely with the children. A number of professionals also work directly with these children in the home and in the community. Consequently, the children have a circle of caring adults who can ensure that safe-care practices are followed. Placing social workers have no concerns regarding the safety of these children. The home’s manager has notified the regulator of one incident. This followed an allegation made by a previous resident about a restraint. The registered manager reported this to the designated officer for safeguarding within the local authority and to the child’s social worker. The designated officer informed the inspector that there was no evidence to support this allegation. The designated officer is satisfied with the way that the home managed this situation and the liaison between the

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Good

home and the local authority. Children do not go missing from this home. The staff work one-to-one with the children to ensure that they are not unsupervised. Staff are aware of the risks in the community for this particularly vulnerable group of children. As a result of this consistent care and observation, the risk of exploitation is minimised. Staff are aware of the whistle-blowing process, including the need to record and report any concerns that they may have about the care provided to the children. Suitably trained staff carry out restraint. There has been a lack of consistency in the way that the home and the school record these incidents. As a result, staff may not always have the most recent records of incidents or be able to reflect together on the incident to learn if there are more suitable ways of managing behaviours. Reviews of the records completed during this inspection show that restraint is only

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Good

used when diversion tactics have not been successful. The registered manager and teaching staff review the records of incidents to ensure that the interventions are appropriate and that children are safeguarded. Behaviour management plans and processes are monitored regularly and children are encouraged to behave well through rewards and encouragement. Staff rarely use sanctions but try to talk through incidents and support children appropriately. Children’s placements have been stable and behaviour that challenges the staff has reduced. The manager updated the location risk assessment during the inspection. The original assessment lacked the detail of the unique aspects of the home and the locality. As a result, staff did not have the most useful information to promote the children’s welfare needs in the community. The updated version is to be shared with the staff to ensure that they are also aware of the distinctive features of the

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Good

home. Also, the manager had not fully completed some health and safety checks in line with the home’s policy. This meant that some risks had not been fully explored and detailed. However, the children’s individual risk assessments and care plans were detailed and minimised the impact of this shortfall.

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Good

A manager with a level 4 national vocational qualification supports and supervises the team well. She has been in post for twelve years and has the experience required to hold the position as registered manager. The staff speak highly of the open and caring approach used by the manager. They are supported to follow her confident and considerate approach with the children. Regular supervision ensures that the manager can promote a good standard of care. It also helps to focus the workers of safe-care practice. She encourages staff to reflect on behaviours and incidents that have occurred to look for alternative ways to manage these. These supervision sessions also help staff to consider how they have recorded these events to ensure clarity. As a result, staff’s practice is reviewed. The manager will also spend time with the children observing the staff. This gives her the opportunity to praise positive care and act to prevent poor practice from

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Good

developing. The manager monitors the care plans and recording by staff. This is particularly important for those children who are non-verbal. The manager checks that issues and interventions have been suitably recorded to reflect the child’s needs. Recent reflection by the manager with the independent visitor has led to refresher training on appropriate recordings and key work. Working with the independent visitor has provided support for the manager to ensure that the targets set in care plans are achieved. This also enhances the ongoing internal and external monitoring of the home. Consequently, the home is delivering the standard of care detailed in the statement of purpose. The home has supported one child to make a complaint about the number of social workers that have been allocated to her. This is a particularly important and crucial time as they plan towards the early stages of transition to adult service provision.

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Good

Placing authorities are pleased with the work completed. The home updates them with reports which support the completion of care plan targets. If they are not achieved, plans are in place to amend the management of children to achieve the agreed objectives. Because of this scrutiny, some children have progressed with better self-help and improvement in personal care needs, while others have engaged in education. Staff have received induction training which prepares them for meeting the complex needs of these children. Some staff have not completed the relevant national vocational training within the required timescale. As a result, they may not have developed the range of skills that are needed to work successfully with these children. These staff are currently attending a relevant course which will be completed by April 2017. The manager is alert to the needs of these most vulnerable children and ensuring

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Good

that they are protected. She constantly reviews the care plans to ensure that the staff are supported to meet their needs and help the children to reach their potential. She cites the dedication of staff, their commitment to meeting the children’s individual care needs and working at addressing these as a significant strength of the service. The homeliness and lack of any institutionalisation of the environment is another key area. She has identified the ongoing improvement in staff skills and evidencing the consistency of care as potential areas for development.

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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 looked after children is safeguarded and promoted. Minimum requirements are in place. However, the children's home is not yet delivering good protection, help and care for children and young people. 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 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 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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