Children's Home run by Action for Children in Hertfordshire

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:

 This specifically designed home gives children with additional needs the chance to engage in a range of family and community activities, expanding their life opportunities.

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

 Children receive predictable care from the familiar staff team. Staff genuinely care about the children’s welfare and work in their best interests.

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

 Children can identify staff with whom they have developed a trusting and dependable relationship.

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

 Staff have creatively employed the services of an ex-resident to work alongside particular children to build self-confidence and self-esteem.

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

 Children are safe, and the experienced staff team ensures their continued safety through its safeguarding practices and processes.

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

 The staff team expertly manages the transitions of children joining the service and those leaving, as they transition into adult care.

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

 Both the professional team around the child and the children’s parents recognise and praise staff skills and expertise in knowing each child individually and how best to meet their needs.

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

 The inspection also identified some shortfalls, which mainly rest within the leadership and management responsibility of the home. These include omissions in the home’s statement of purpose and the children’s guide, lack of consultation to inform the quality of care review, shortfalls in supervision practice, omissions in the workforce plan and a lack of recording resulting in missed opportunities to celebrate some of the children’s achievements.

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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

6: The quality and purpose of care standard:

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Requirement Due date

In order to meet the quality and purpose of care standard, the registered provider must ensure that: (1)(a) children receive care from staff who understand the children’s home’s overall aims and objectives and the outcomes it seeks to achieve for children. 04/11/2016

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Requirement Due date

7: The children’s views, wishes and feelings standard:

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Requirement Due date

In order to meet the children’s views, wishes and feelings standard, the registered person must ensure that: (2)(c) they keep the children’s guide and the home’s complaints procedure under review. 04/11/2016

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must compile in relation to the children’s home a statement (‘the statement of purpose’) which covers matters listed in Schedule 1, with particular regard to keeping the content up to date with current practice. (Regulation 16 (1)) 04/11/2016

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must ensure that all employees receive practice-related supervision in line with organisational policy and that each supervision includes the needs of children assigned to their care. (Regulation 33 (4)(b)) 04/11/2016

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Requirement Due date

In order to complete a review of the quality of care provided for children, the registered person must ascertain and consider the opinions of children, their parents, placing authorities and staff. (Regulation 45 (5)) 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 recommendation:  Ensure that the registered person has a workforce plan and that the plan is updated to include any new training and qualifications completed by staff while working at the home, and used to record the ongoing training and continuing professional development needs of staff. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 53, paragraph 10.8)

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Information about this children’s home

A large charitable organisation manages this service. It provides short breaks for up to six children who have learning difficulties and/or physical disabilities.

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Recent inspection history

Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement 29/04/2016 Interim Sustained effectiveness 12/01/2016 Full Good 16/06/2015 Interim Sustained effectiveness 14/01/2015 Full Good

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Good

This home offers children with additional needs a short-break respite service. Being purpose built, it provides a unique opportunity for children with a range of disabilities to access all facilities. Internally, it presents as a homely environment offering large spaces for community living and sensory stimulation. Externally, a well-equipped garden containing specialist play equipment enables children to access and experience usual childhood recreation and play.

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Good

The staff team recognises the potential for anxiety of parents and children accessing the service for the first time. To help to reduce this, the home has excellent processes and procedures. They work closely with parents, the professional team and the child to smooth the transition. Initial meetings with parents offer them the opportunity to inform staff about their child’s behaviour and care needs. Staff formulate this information into a placement plan and set individually paced introductory visits. One professional commented, ‘The quality of the provision is exceptional, this is proven by the children going in and settling so well.’ A parent added, ‘He has taken to it so well and it’s been really good for him.’

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Good

As the home offers short breaks, children’s education remains the responsibility of parents and the local authority. However, the home supports continued learning and development. A recently refurbished kitchen has the addition of a low-level stove and sink. This enables children to engage in the independence activity of food preparation and cooking. The home also sets individual development targets in collaboration with parents and the professional team. Staff work with children on these targets during each stay. Once achieved, the child receives a certificate. Children enjoy the experience of success, which builds their confidence and self- esteem and staff demonstrate their contribution to children reaching their potential. For some children, however, the inspection found targets to be ambiguous. For these children, the experience of success was not achievable.

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Good

Children accessing the home come with a range of complex health needs. Health plans set out individual needs and provide staff with the necessary information to meet the unique packages of healthcare for each child. Training in both first aid and the administration and safe storage of medication ensure that staff have knowledge in meeting the health needs of children in their care.

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Good

The home offers children a full range of activities and experiences within both the home and the community. A professional commented, ‘The size of the home offers children opportunities that couldn’t be given at home or at school.’ A parent added, ‘He gets opportunities outside of our life that broaden his horizons.’ Staff consider the individual likes of children and set activities against these. These include trips out to places of interest, such as bowling, cinema catering for people who have autism, and farms. The home offers a variety of activities within the home, including two family days where children choose the theme, the most recent being space and aliens. One parent commented, ‘They are imaginative in what they offer; things that I would never have thought of. They enhance his life experience.’ Another added, ‘He loves it there, he just loves going.’

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Good

Staff demonstrate well-considered planning when determining the matching of children staying. This helps to support and build children’s friendships. Recently, staff creatively engaged the services of a former service-user to work with specific children where friendships had become difficult. His engagement has been a particular success as these children’s confidence and self-esteem has grown, enabling a re-engagement with friendships. Staff also bring their own uniqueness and interests to their role. One child who interacts with the world through sound has found a love of rock music, ‘A very different style to the music I play,’ comments his mother. One older child commented, ‘I like everything about this home and it gives me a break from my parents.’ The opportunities offered help children to establish their own personalities and identities.

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Good

Since the last inspection, two children have moved on to adult care services. Like transitions into the home, those leaving experience the same level of skilfully executed transitions as they move on to their adult world. Staff initially work with both parents and the professional team in identifying an appropriate resource. The manager then continues to work closely with staff from adult care. A crossover of staff within both homes ensures that new carers have the required information to meet the young adult’s needs effectively. One parent commented, ‘They were unbelievable, so supportive of us all. They certainly helped his transition.’ The dedication and integrity of managers and staff ensure that children leaving their service do so with the utmost support to smooth their onward journey.

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Good

Particularly vulnerable children access this service. Staff deliver a high standard of care, which promotes their welfare and safeguards them. A parent of a child with particularly complex needs commented, ‘As a parent it is the most stressful situation to leave your precious child in the care of another. But we did and they totally cared for him.’

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Good

The home provides a short-break provision for children with a range of additional needs. Robust care planning and individually assessed needs ensure that children receive appropriate levels of staff supervision and care. Behaviour management forms part of each young person’s care plan, which identifies the possible behaviours and triggers, and the techniques used to manage behaviour. This clear, proactive process helps to minimise anxiety or stressful situations for children. It provides them with a consistent and familiar approach by an understanding and caring staff team.

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Good

The skilled staff team knows each child well. As verbal communication is limited, staff interpret children’s body language, their signs and sounds in a communication dialogue. One professional commented, ‘They know him, they know when he is happy, when he is sad or when he has a sore tummy.’ This close working relationship and interpretation of behaviour means that staff recognise possible distress. They use individual strategies to aid the child in managing a particular situation or behaviour. This skilled practice means that physical intervention is rarely used.

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Good

Children do not go missing from this home. Robust risk assessments and appropriate levels of staffing ensure that a high level of monitoring is in place whether inside the home or outside on a community activity. The home has a missing from care policy and clear procedures in place should an episode occur. The clear prevention and urgent responses in place protect and safeguard children.

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Good

No children accessing the service are believed to be at risk of child sexual exploitation. Staff have completed training in this subject, ensuring that they are knowledgeable in this area of child abuse.

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Good

The organisation has a robust recruitment and selection process for the employment of new staff. This ensures the safety of children accessing the service.

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Requires improvement

The manager brings a wealth of practice experience to her role, having worked in the childcare sector of social care since 2000. She became the registered manager in 2015 and is currently working towards her leadership and management diploma. She leads a committed staff team which delivers her ethos of holding children at the centre of practice.

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Requires improvement

During this review period, the manager has worked without a deputy for a significant period. This has resulted in her attention being drawn away from management tasks to meet the needs of children effectively. This has contributed to a number of management tasks requiring improvement. The home’s statement of purpose is the framework from which the home delivers care. Currently, this is incomplete as it lacks specific information in respect of the current staffing levels and the staff’s qualifications. The home’s workforce plan is also incomplete and holds information not pertaining to the home. This does not help to ensure clarity in staff’s professional development.

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Requires improvement

The manager does have monitoring tools in place which assist her in overseeing the home’s operations. The independent visitor contributes to service improvement with their monthly audit and review of practice and process. The manager monitors the quality of care in a timely manner, but ascertaining and considering the opinions of parents, placing authorities or staff are not taking place as part of this process. The omission of the views of the team around the children and of parents does not provide for a robust review of the quality of care delivered.

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Requires improvement

A well-composed guide offers children with additional needs symbols and signs to assist their understanding of how the home operates. However, it requires updating to reflect current staffing and to include the correct information in respect of the Children’s Commissioner. Currently, particularly for children who use pictorial symbols to communicate, the guide contains incorrect information in relation to the staff team.

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Requires improvement

Staff supervision generally takes place monthly. It includes time and space to discuss children accessing the service and staff development. However, three separate matters arose as requiring improvement in relation to this area of practice. Where there is an issue of staff performance, the manager is effectively overseeing it, supporting, guiding and setting deadlines as appropriate to ensure compliance. However, supervision time has, on many occasions, solely focused on performance management. In doing so, staff have not received supervision in line with the organisational policy, in particular having discussions about meeting children’s needs. It is common practice for staff not to receive supervision in the month of August due to the high volume of children accessing the service. However, this common practice is outside organisational policy. Additionally, it has resulted in a probationary member of staff not receiving the frequency of

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Requires improvement

supervision required by the organisation. Because of this, the probationer was not offered the opportunity to consider their performance and practice in this complex area of childcare.

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Requires improvement

The last inspection set three requirements to improve the quality and standards of care. Each has been met. The first was to ensure that staff signed and dated a range of paperwork to demonstrate that they were knowledgeable about each child’s relevant plans. The home introduced a simplified system. At the start of each shift staff now sign to agree that they have read the relevant plans for each child using the service on any particular day. This practice safeguards children and protects their welfare.

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Requires improvement

For the remaining two requirements, the manager has implemented a collective consent form. Parents sign to agree a range of permissions. These include giving permission to the independent person undertaking monthly care audits to view children’s files. It also gives consent for the home to use devices for monitoring or surveillance of children. The independent person has access to all information, offering the opportunity to highlight good practice and to raise practice standards.

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Requires improvement

Overall, this is a good home. A committed staff team offers consistent and nurturing care to children. This is a home where meeting the needs of children is central to practice. One professional commented, ‘They put children first and meet their individual needs,’ and a parent added, ‘They know about my son!’ Children are valued and overall they enjoy a good experience at this 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’.

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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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