Children's home run by Castle Homes Care 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 enjoy being at the home. They feel safe and are positive about the staff that care for them.  Young people understand their health needs, how to maintain a healthy lifestyle and how to make informed decisions about the own health.  Most young people achieve their educational goals. This is because they accept the support of staff, which enables them to maximise their learning. However, this has not been achieved for one young person.  Young people feel listened to and have access to advocacy services. This has included one young person being supported to share their views with a member of parliament.  Since the last inspection, there has been a decrease in young people going missing, levels of restraint and safeguarding incidents. Staff have developed positive strategies to support young people who display concerning behaviours.  Social workers are positive about the high level of communication and joint

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The children's home provision is good because:

working to support young people when child protection concerns are raised.  The home has a strong manager who challenges services to support the young people.  Staff are positive about their support, their training and the work that they are completing with the young people.

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Recommendations

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

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Recommendations

 Ensure that children are in full-time education while they are of compulsory school age, unless their personal education plan, contained within the care plan or other relevant plan, states otherwise. The home must aim to support full-time attendance at school unless the child's relevant plan indicates that this is not in their best interests. (‘Guide to the children's homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 28, paragraph 5.14)

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Information about this children's home

The home is part of a large private organisation. The home offers care for up to three children, primarily who have emotional and behavioural difficulties, in an age range from eight to 18.

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Recent inspection history

Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

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Recent inspection history

10/03/2016 Interim Improved effectiveness

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Recent inspection history

23/03/2015 Interim Improved effectiveness

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Good

Young people enjoy being at the home and have developed in different ways while they have been there. One young person told the inspector, ‘It’s not like a children’s home. It’s my actual home, with people around me that feel like family.’ Staff offer consistently caring approaches towards the young people, who can highlight specific staff that they feel comfortable with. Relationships observed are relaxed, and young people enjoy being in the company of staff. Activities are tailored towards the interests of young people. Young people enjoy many trips out, including visits to the beach and a recent daytrip to London. Activities help to develop young people’s self-esteem and to promote healthy lifestyles. For example, the young people have regular opportunities to go on bike rides with staff. Staff support and promote contact arrangements, understanding the importance of family and young people’s backgrounds. Visits to family members are given a high

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Good

priority. These arrangements help young people to maintain positive relationships with people who are important to them. The staff ensure that they have good links with health agencies, including specialist mental health services, and they use these links to enhance young people’s physical, emotional and psychological health. Young people have improved their attendance at school and college. Some have attempted mainstream school and others have consistently improved their academic ability, due to regular attendance. At the time of the inspection, one young person was not attending school. However, arrangements are in place to resolve this. Staff engage well with education providers. This includes attending parents’ evenings and all relevant meetings, to ensure that education providers are maximising each young person’s potential achievement. The staff ensure that the house is pleasant and homely. Redecoration has been

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Good

completed since the last inspection, and a social worker told the inspector, ‘It is a really warm place, where you are able to just relax.’ Young people are listened to, and their views are responded to well. Staff ensure that key-work sessions are recorded well. These show that staff give young people the time to talk about a range of issues, relating to both the home and their own plans. Complaints from young people are rare, but when they are raised, the manager ensures that they are promptly addressed. This highlights the manager’s diligence towards listening to young people and ensuring that they are happy. Young people are involved with advocacy services. This has led to their visiting the houses of parliament and to their views being listened to by significant decision- makers. Young people consistently develop in their independence skills, although none of the young people is of an age to move into their own accommodation.

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Good

Young people can put themselves at risk, despite some significant work being completed by staff in an attempt to decrease such behaviour. When safeguarding events occur, staff work very well with partner agencies, such as placing local authorities, social workers and the police, to ensure that young people’s immediate safety is secured. Staff make positive contributions to required strategy meetings. This helps to ensure that the views of young people are considered when key decisions are made regarding their safety. Incidents of young people going missing have decreased significantly since the last inspection, due to one young person moving to a different placement and increased work being completed with young people to highlight the dangers. This has helped to make young people safer. The staff ensure that social workers take an active role in young people’s return, allowing young people to talk about the

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Good

home and examine how instances could decrease further. Innovative systems for searching young people’s belongings have been created by the staff, with young people being part of any concerns relating to what they have in their rooms. This has developed a positive response from young people towards staff searching their belongings when necessary. Staff consistently promote positive behaviour and use a range of strategies to decrease the need to restrain young people when they display aggressive and destructive behaviours. When sanctions are used, staff use restorative justice principles. This approach helps young people to consider their behaviours. Strong recruitment processes help to keep young people safe. Young people are involved in the interview process, by passing on their observations to staff, following the applicants spending time with them. This process ensures that young people are an integral part of deciding which staff are to work with them.

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Outstanding

The registered manager is an exceptional leader who ensures that the staff team is dedicated to providing a caring and professional service. She has completed her level 5 diploma in management of residential childcare and has been manager at the home for over 10 years. She has a high awareness of the strengths and weaknesses of the home, and of the young people, having both a formal and informal development plan of her vision for the home. No recommendations or requirements were made at the last inspection. Nevertheless, the manager and the staff team have continued to improve the care provided by the service. Effective monitoring systems are in place. These further enhance the manager’s awareness of the home and the performance of her staff team. External monitoring also helps her to develop an awareness of how well the home is doing. This includes discussions being regularly held with social workers, parents and young

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Outstanding

people, to gain insight into the effectiveness of the staff. The manager’s ability to challenge services is outstanding. She is vociferous in supporting young people’s welfare and rights. The poor practice of a placing authority was responded to through an escalation of concerns and a subsequent meeting with a team manager, observed during the inspection. She also met with a young person’s college to challenge college staff members’ views relating to a recent incident, securing the right educational placement by the end. A high level of consideration is given to placing the ‘right’ young people at the home. Placement matching documentation highlights this and ensures that the staff team is able to meet their needs before a new young person is admitted. Consistently positive comments from placing authorities show the effectiveness of the staff team. One social worker told the inspector, ‘The home shows brilliant joint

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Outstanding

working. The whole placement has been amazing for [young person]. The home is responsive to action plans. They never make decisions in isolation. We have good transparent discussions and sometimes we disagree with some things but we always find a common ground.’ Care planning is well organised. A clever system of regular updates to young people’s placement plans means that staff are constantly aware of any changes. Review information is recorded swiftly, linking to targets expected by placing authorities. This results in a staff team that is working in line with the young person’s social workers from the point of admission and throughout the time they are at the home. Staff state that they feel well supported by the manager and management team. One staff member told the inspector, ‘There is a real feel of managers always being there for you. They don’t just say there is an open door policy. She constantly

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Outstanding

invites you in to talk and is always there for the young people.’ Supervisions are regularly completed, with appraisals linking to them in terms of staff targets for personal development. Staff receive regular training, including mandatory courses, through a well-organised training department that helps to keep staff up to date with current care practice. New staff members complete a detailed induction competency record. One new staff member told the inspector, ‘Considering I never worked in residence before, this place has given me the best start I could have.’ There has been a variety of staffing changes since the last inspection, including a recent change in deputy and two new staff members. The home no longer has waking night staff, due to the settled nature of the home, resulting in sleeping-in staff increasing their awareness of young people’s behaviour overnight. The staff team has responded well to these changes, with no detrimental effect on care

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Outstanding

provided. This is due to a strong core of experience and professionalism in the staff team. The manager takes appropriate action following significant events, contacting all appropriate authorities and providing detailed information about the event and the home’s response. This allows all involved to be informed of the situation regarding the young person.

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What the inspection judgements mean

The experiences and progress of children and young people are at the centre of the inspection. Inspectors will use their professional judgement to determine the weight and significance of their findings in this respect. The judgements included in the report are made against ‘Inspection of children's homes: framework for inspection’.

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What the inspection judgements mean

An outstanding children's home provides highly effective services that contribute to significantly improved outcomes for children and young people who need help and protection and care. Their progress exceeds expectations and is sustained over time. A good children's home provides effective services that help, protect and care for children and young people and have their welfare safeguarded and promoted. In a children's home that requires improvement , there are no widespread or serious failures that create or leave children being harmed or at risk of harm. The welfare of children looked after is safeguarded and promoted. Minimum requirements are in place. However, the children's home is not yet delivering good protection, help and care for children and young people. A children's home that is inadequate is providing services where there are widespread or serious failures that create or leave children and young people being

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What the inspection judgements mean

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

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Information about this inspection

Inspectors have looked closely at the experiences and progress of children and young people living in the children's home. Inspectors considered the quality of work and the difference that adults make to the lives of children and young people. They read case files, watched how professional staff work with children, young people and each other and discussed the effectiveness of help and care given to children and young people. Wherever possible, they talked to children, young people and their families. In addition, the inspectors have tried to understand what the children's home knows about how well it is performing, how well it is doing and what difference it is making for the children and young people whom 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

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

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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