Children's home run by Beaufort Care Group Ltd in Barnet

Good

The children’s home provides effective services that meet the requirements for good.

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The children’s home’s provision is good because:

 The children are cared for by dedicated, experienced and child-centred staff who are passionate about their work. They provide consistently good-quality care.  The children enjoy extremely positive, warm and nurturing relationships with their staff. The quality of these relationships has enabled the children to make good progress in all areas of their lives.  The children are fully engaged in the local community, and have been able to participate in usual childhood activities, such as having sleepovers with friends and having their parents visit the home to prepare a meal.  The children are very well supported to access educational resources, both inside and outside the home. They participate in a wide range of rewarding and stimulating activities, which contribute to their learning. One external professional said, ‘They are some of the best guys I have worked with in four years. I couldn’t praise them highly enough.’

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The children’s home’s provision is good because:

 The manager and her staff work hard to foster extremely positive relationships with education professionals and other external agencies, in order to promote good quality collaborative work with the children and young people.  The home provides a good quality, attractive environment, which includes an independence annexe. This provides a resource for young people who are ready to progress from living in a children’s home, while maintaining staff support.  The home is very well managed by a qualified, experienced registered manager. She is well supported by her deputy and her own line manager. Staff confirm that they are well supervised and that they always have access to helpful consultation.

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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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The quality and purpose of care standard

In order to meet the quality and purpose of care standard, with particular reference to:

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The quality and purpose of care standard

 ensuring that the home makes plans to admit only children and young people who fall within the terms of its registration and statement of purpose  ensuring that children do not have access to age-inappropriate social media sites 6: (1) the registered person must ensure that staff: ( a) understand the children’s home’s overall aims and the outcomes it seeks to achieve for children (b) use this understanding to deliver care that meets children’s needs and supports them to fulfil their potential. (2) In particular, the standard in paragraph (1) requires the registered person to: (a) understand and apply the home’s statement of purpose (b) ensure that staff: (i) understand and apply the home’s statement of purpose (ii) protect and promote each child’s welfare (iv) provide personalised care that meets each child’s needs, as recorded in the child’s relevant plans, taking account of the child’s background (vii) provide to children living in the home the physical necessities

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The quality and purpose of care standard

they need in order to live there comfortably. 30/11/2016

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Recommendations

To improve the quality and standards of care further, the service should take account of the following recommendations:

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Recommendations

 Children’s home staff should take reasonable precautions and make informed professional judgements based on the individual child’s needs and developmental-stage about when to allow a child to take a particular risk or follow a particular course of action. In particular, when a pet is brought into the home, safety factors recorded in the risk assessment should be adhered to. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 42, paragraph 9.7).

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Recommendations

 Some records may be kept electronically, provided that this information can be easily accessed by anyone with a legitimate need to view it and, if required, be reproduced in a legible form. In particular, ensure that fire safety and other important information is not partially recorded in different locations. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 61, paragraph 14.2).

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Recommendations

 Staff should be familiar with the home’s policies on record keeping and understand the importance of careful, objective and clear recording. Information about the child must always be recorded in a way that will be helpful to the child. In particular, ensure that complaints are recorded in full, including the outcome of the investigation. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 62, paragraph 14.4).

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Recommendations

 The (return home) interview should be carried out within 72 hours of the child returning to their home or care setting. This should be an in-depth interview and is normally best carried out by an independent person (that is, someone not involved in caring for the child) who is trained to carry out these interviews and is able to follow up any actions that emerge. ( ‘Statutory guidance on children who run away or go missing from home or care’, page 14, paragraph 32).

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Information about this children’s home

This children’s home is registered to provide care and accommodation for up to six children and young people who may have emotional and behavioural difficulties. It is operated by a private company that has several other homes in the same area of southern England. One of the bedrooms is situated in a self-contained independence flat, which shares the garden with the main home.

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Recent inspection history

Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement 18/03/2016 Interim Sustained effectiveness 11/12/2015 Full Good 23/02/2015 Interim Sustained effectiveness 24/11/2014 Full Good

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Good

The home provides good quality, nurturing care for the children and young people. The two children currently living in the home enjoy very positive relationships with the staff. Both children have developed attachments to some of the staff, and consequently they are making good progress in relation to their starting points.

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Good

A member of staff commented in their questionnaire, ‘The home is welcoming, and we care. This is evident when you walk into the home… we are a nurturing home and we have observed progress that young people make to reach their potential.’

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Good

Children’s individual differences are promoted and celebrated. An external professional said, ‘Relationships between the young people and the staff are continuously worked upon and nurtured. The staff are able to cope expertly with the young people and the complications that are faced by them, while treating them with respect and as individuals.’

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Good

Both children have a group of friends outside the home, and have been able to sustain these relationships now for several months. One child has completed a garden project with a member of staff, and has helped to make her bedroom a comfortable and relaxing space by purchasing homely items. She has been able to enjoy sleepovers with friends, as a child in any family would.

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Good

Parents have visited their children at the home, and one parent has prepared a weekend meal for their child and the rest of the household. This has had a very positive impact on their child. Children have continued to participate in family life by saving pocket money to take their mother out for a meal on her birthday, and to buy surprise football tickets for their brother. Both children have made personal items as gifts for family members. Some children have been able to renew contact with and visit their siblings, who live a long distance from the home.

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Good

Some children have returned to school and are engaging with education. Others are in alternative education for part of the week, but have made very good progress. There is no current and updated personal education plan, nor any education reports, for one of the children, but the home has actively sought this information.

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Good

Staff have worked very effectively with education providers to promote the children’s attendance and attainment. A staff member commented, ‘We work hard to ensure that all children have access to a wide range of experiences and support to realise their potential. The team has worked exceptionally hard to support our young people to make educational progress.’

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Good

Some children have learned to engage positively with healthcare professionals, and have requested additional contact with them for advice and support. They keep healthy through a well-balanced diet, and some have joined a gym.

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Good

One child attends trampoline classes twice a week, and has achieved ‘elite’ status in this sport, he also started a boxing class. The other resident attended a full week of summer drama school, leading to a performance in a show

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Good

The staff team works hard to challenge discrimination and promote multicultural events within the home, including international food nights.

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Good

The children have shown a major reduction in the number and seriousness of incidents over the past few months. The staff commented, ‘We work well together as a team and support each other. When there are incidents, we move on quickly, providing an opportunity for a fresh start.’ Another member of staff said, ‘(The home) has a sense of family, and everyone works together to support each other, team members and young people.’

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Good

The children currently in the home help with food preparation and do their own baking. Staff commented, ‘Children are supported well to develop age-appropriate independence skills, including finances, personal hygiene, food preparation and laundry.’ They are also learning important independence skills through their education, particularly sessions which take place at a local farm.

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Good

The home comprises a large family house in a suburban part of a large town. The home is attractive and, for the most part, extremely homely and nicely decorated. It benefits from its own independence annexe, which can be used for a single young person to help them prepare for life beyond the home, or for younger residents who require additional space and privacy. The annexe has a double bedroom, staff sleeping-in room, lounge/dining area and small kitchenette.

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Good

A total of one requirement and four recommendations have been made as a result of this inspection. Judgement grade

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Requires improvement

The home requires improvement in how well it safeguards children and young people, because further work is necessary to promote internet safety.

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Requires improvement

The manager and staff were unaware that there is a lower age restriction of 13 on a popular social media site. A child arrived in the home several months ago with an unauthorised account already set up. There are other social media sites that children under 13 can legally use to keep in touch with family members and friends, but the unauthorised account for this child has been allowed to continue.

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Requires improvement

There have been two occasions when adults from outside the home have made inappropriate contacts with this child. Fortunately, the child has trusting relationships with the staff and made a good decision to tell them what had happened. Staff acted correctly in both cases, by showing the child how to block the adults concerned, and no harm was done, but still they did not terminate the unauthorised account.

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Requires improvement

Because some children access the internet on personal devices, as opposed to the home’s own children’s computer, which has been set up with appropriate security, staff cannot easily monitor online activity. Despite receiving some training in e- safety as part of their annual safeguarding updates, some staff are not sufficiently knowledgeable or confident in this field. This shortfall did not lead to a child protection incident, but it had the potential to do so. This matter has been included in the requirement made under the quality and purpose of care standard.

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Requires improvement

A recommendation has been made with regard to managing pets brought into the home. One child has a hamster that lives in the family home for most of the time, but visits the children’s home. The manager and staff have agreed very clear boundaries around how the hamster is handled while he is in the home, but during the inspection, these were not being adhered to. This places the animal at risk of harm, and if this happened, it would have a huge impact on the child.

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Requires improvement

Between April and July of this year, there were a number of serious incidents in the home, contributing to two unplanned placement endings. Incidents included bullying, physical targeting and going missing. Some of the children told the Regulation 44 visitor that they did not like the behaviour of some of their peers, and the damage that they did to the home.

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Requires improvement

The home’s managers emphasised that they do complete impact risk assessments, but stated that there has been difficulty in obtaining accurate pre-placement information from the local authority. Staff and managers confirmed that since the young people whose behaviour was incompatible with other young people’s needs moved on, the situation has become much calmer. From a peak of 34 incidents in April, there were only three in September. This shows that the managers’ decisions were sound in moving these young people on.

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Requires improvement

The instances of going missing have also reduced considerably, and the main cause of the very few ‘missing’ episodes still taking place is one child staying out later than agreed to play with his friends in the skate park. The younger child no longer goes missing now that her former peer has moved out.

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Requires improvement

Since the previous inspection, there have been seven instances, out of 15 episodes of children and young people going missing, where they have not received a return interview from their social worker or another trained professional outside the home, although latterly these have taken place. The placing authority did have an arrangement with a charitable organisation to conduct these interviews, but this is no longer the case. The police’s ‘safe and well’ checks are sometimes logged as return-home interviews, but they are not sufficient to meet the criteria in the statutory guidance. A recommendation has been made.

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Requires improvement

Alongside serious incidents, physical interventions and aggression within the home have also reduced massively. One member of staff said, in their questionnaire provided to Ofsted, ‘I have been trained in (the home’s chosen method of physical intervention) and received a refresher recently. Over the previous few months we have observed a drop in the incidents at the home. The team understands the children well and often prevents incidents from escalating with use of non-verbal calming techniques and using verbal prompts and reassurance. Each child has an individual behaviour management plan that team members follow.’

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Requires improvement

The home has a coherent and meaningful system of rewards and consequences, to help the young people to manage their behaviour and learn from any poor choices that they may make.

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Requires improvement

The company recruits staff through a competent, equal opportunities process. There has been one new staff appointment since the previous inspection. This person’s file was not available in the home to inspect. A senior manager said that checks had been completed, application documents have been professionally translated and that a certificate of good conduct has been obtained from the employee’s country of origin. This will be followed up at the interim inspection.

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Requires improvement

When serious safeguarding concerns arise, the home now ensures that a multi- agency risk management meeting takes place promptly. This was a recommendation at the interim inspection. External professionals say, ‘Members of staff are open and honest with residents when discussing personal safety. They attend multi-agency meetings, many of which they have called as a need arises.’ Another professional said, ‘It is clear from spending time in the home that the young people’s safety and happiness is of paramount importance to the staff.’ Judgement grade

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Good

The home is generally very well managed by an experienced, qualified registered manager. She is extremely well supported by her deputy and her line manager, both of whom participated in the inspection. The managers and staff are united in their common purpose, to deliver high quality care. One staff member commented, ‘Management and team members work together to move our services forward and put the young people’s needs first.’

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Good

Management monitoring is robust, with a range of internal and external checks in place to ensure a high quality of service. Regulation 44 reports are received regularly and are put to good use in helping to drive improvement. The regulation 44 visitor is particularly perceptive and skilled in obtaining the children’s and young people’s views about their care.

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Good

Staff members are very well supported and supervised. New staff receive a thorough induction and are made to feel welcome in the home. The home also receives social work students, which is very positive, and the young people appear to cope with this well. A new team member commented, ‘The strong sense of family at (the home) helped me to settle in and find my role within the team,’ and an experienced member of staff said, ‘We make many decisions as a team collectively, and have regular team meetings to support this.’

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Good

Staff training is comprehensive, and supports the team very well in its work. One staff member said, ‘In the last 12 months I have completed first aid training, attachment theory refresher training, training with education psychology and safer internet training.’ Another member of staff said: ‘The training I have received while at (this company) is massive. I feel that (the company) invests time and money into their teams to ensure the best for the young people.’

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Good

The home has extremely good relationships with other professionals. One external professional said, ‘Communication is excellent between not only the team members, but also the young people and outside agencies as well.’ The home does not call the police for spurious reasons, only when absolutely necessary, and this has helped to foster positive relationships with this agency.

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Good

The home’s recording is generally of a very good standard. Many records relating to the young people and to management monitoring are on the home’s electronic system. This is a good system, which produces reliable and helpful monitoring information, but some records are divided between the electronic system and a paper log. This makes it appear that some management monitoring has been missed, when this is not the case. For example, it appears that some fire alarm tests have been omitted, but they are on the computer system. A recommendation has been made.

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Good

The home does not always record the outcomes of concerns and complaints raised in the complaints log. This means that it is not always clear how the matter was resolved. A further recommendation has been made.

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Good

The home does risk-assess the impact of prospective new admissions. Managers say that they were not always fully informed about the nature and extent of some young people’s risk factors when they were presented with referral information. Managers informed the inspector that they reject hundreds of prospective admissions and it is clear that they do assess risk as well as they can, but they can only go on the information provided. Since the previous inspection, two placements have been ended due to new behaviours emerging after admission.

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Good

The home has recently embarked on a well-intentioned, comprehensive and detailed planning process to admit a third young person. Multi-agency planning meetings and introductions have taken place. The young person has visited the home and the existing residents are aware of the plans.

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Good

Discussions took place during and after the inspection to advise the home’s managers that this admission, were it to take place, would place that young person and others at potential risk, because the staff are not trained or qualified to work with a young person with these needs. The admission would have put the home in breach of its conditions of registration.

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Good

This admission had not taken place at the time of the inspection, and so it has not had an impact on the overall inspection judgement. Because the home has already engaged with the young person concerned, this matter has been included in the requirement made under the quality and purpose of care standard.

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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 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, work- based 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

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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