Children's home run by St Christopher’s Fellowship in Wandsworth

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 staff work well with the children and they develop strong partnership working with families and professionals.  Children are all engaged in education and achieving high attendance levels.  An established staff team works positively to help children address and reduce concerning behaviours.  The number of missing from home episodes has significantly decreased because of the work undertaken with the children.  Staff support the children to develop increased levels of independence that prepare them for adult life.  Children participate in a good range of activities and events. Staff support the children to create and record positive memories of these events through newsletters, memory books and photo albums.  Children live in a homely setting that they are able to personalise.  Professionals say that the staff liaise with them to ensure that they are always aware of any areas of concern.  Staff are not receiving regular supervision in line with the home’s policy.

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Recommendations

To improve the quality and standards of care further, the service should take account of the following recommendation:  Put systems in place so that all staff, including the manager, receive supervision of their practice from an appropriately qualified and experienced professional, which allows them to reflect on their practice and the needs of the children assigned to their care. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 61, paragraph 13.2)

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Information about this children’s home

The children’s home is owned and managed by a charitable organisation. It provides care and accommodation for five children aged between 12 and 18 years, who have emotional and/or behavioural difficulties.

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Recent inspection history

Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement 18/01/2016 Interim Sustained effectiveness 29/06/2015 Full Good 03/03/2015 Interim Improved effectiveness 24/06/2014 Full Good

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Good

Children have warm, relaxed relationships with the staff. A parent said, ‘Staff are fantastic, I don’t know how they do it. I hope my child can stay there as long as possible.’ Professionals speak positively about the staff and the care that the children receive. One said, ‘The children know how to push boundaries and will try their luck, but they definitely know where the line is. The team goes the extra mile and I am really pleased with how they meet the children’s needs.’

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Good

All of the children are in education and are now achieving high levels of attendance. This is commendable given that each child had poor attendance and attainment prior to living at the home. One child’s personal education plan demonstrated that her attendance had increased from 33% to 100%. Staff have regular meetings with the teaching staff and have a good understanding of the levels that children are working to. Staff actively support children to recognise the importance of education and its impact on their futures.

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Good

Children live in a well-furnished, comfortable environment and are able to select the furnishings and colour schemes for their bedrooms. Staff seek the children’s views when decorating the communal areas of the house, helping children to feel part of decisions about the home. The art room provides a creative area that the children use for relaxing and as a therapeutic space. The children’s art work decorates the walls, affirming the value that the staff place on the children’s work. A professional spoke about the benefits of a child not having to travel to her office and meeting her in a space that the child is comfortable in. This has increased his level of participation in the sessions.

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Good

The manager conducts a compatibility impact assessment before each admission to the home. This helps to identify strategies that need to be implemented to smooth transitions into the home and to establish that the new dynamics are likely to be successful. Children’s placement plans detail the aims and objectives of their placement. These plans are created in conjunction with the children, their families and the professionals involved in their care. Staff use the plans to support them to work effectively with the children, enabling them to meet their goals.

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Good

Staff support children to attend routine and specialist medical appointments and they make referrals for children to access counselling and mental health services. One child is grieving the loss of her brother and, with staff support, visited his grave for the first time. Staff ensure that children receive the emotional support they need from staff and medical professionals. Children have regular house meetings and key work sessions that cover a variety of topics. Staff use these sessions to work with the children individually or as a group to seek their views on household matters or to identify and discuss areas of concern. These have included conversations about activities, bullying and sexual health. The manager provides a response to matters that are raised at the house meetings and offers children the opportunity to raise their suggestions at staff meetings. This provides children with a range of opportunities to have their views

p.6

Good

One child is working towards his transition to independent living and he receives a weekly budget. He is responsible for doing his own food shopping and he cooks most of his meals. This enables him to develop the skills that he needs to manage living independently successfully.

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Good

The staff team produces a monthly newsletter that shows the activities, events and achievements of the previous month. Copies of the newsletters are sent to the children’s families and the professionals involved in their care. This provides them with an insight into the fun things that their child has been involved in.

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Good

The children add their pictures, artwork and certificates of achievement to their memory books, which they take with them when they leave. This ensures that they have memorabilia that positively reflect their time living in the home.

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Good

Staff facilitate family contact visits and the children benefit from positive family contact. A parent described how staff support her child when they have family functions. The staff member’s presence minimises the child’s anxieties about attending large functions. This support encourages children to maintain and build on their relationships with their families and friends.

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Good

Since the last inspection, the home has experienced an increase in the number of missing from home episodes. A high percentage of these relate to a child who initially refused to move in or to work with staff. The police made a formal complaint about the frequency of these episodes. Over time, the child developed stronger links with the home, in particular with her key worker, and her number of incidents of missing reduced significantly. The manager and team ensured that the relevant professionals remained involved and that all parties were working with the child in a consistent way. Staff continued to seek ways to engage the child and they were successful in reducing the incidents of missing during the nine months she lived at the home. Staff were able to assist her with a positive planned move to a specialist resource.

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Good

A parent spoke of how her child has developed since moving into the home. She said, ‘This time last year she was at home and she would go missing for days at a time, but she has never gone missing from the home.’ None of the children are currently going missing.

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Good

One child has recently returned to the home after a period in a secure detention centre. He has regular meetings with his youth offending workers in relation to his curfew and court cases. A professional said, ‘Not many places will have a child back after they have been in custody. It has been brilliant for him coming back here as he has had continuity.’ This shows the children that they are valued and that the staff are committed to positively working through difficult situations with them.

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Good

Staff work with the children to identify triggers and strategies that can help minimise their risk-taking behaviours, for example criminal activity, self-harming and cannabis use. Staff have taken actions that include noting and reporting number plates of cars that collect children, and staff refusing to take children back to places that they suspect that children have returned from with drugs. These concerns and agreed actions are discussed in key work sessions and result in referrals to external agencies. This demonstrates to the children that staff are concerned about them and will take the necessary steps to protect them.

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Good

Staff complete children’s risk assessments based on known and perceived risk factors. Staff have access to information and resources that include subjects such as child sexual exploitation, radicalisation and safeguarding. These resources provide staff with information and tools that they can use in conversations with the children.

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Good

Appropriately trained staff have used physical intervention on two occasions since the last inspection. Staff successfully use de-escalation techniques and their rapport with the children to defuse situations.

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Good

There have not been any episodes of bullying. Bullying is a regular agenda item at both staff and house meetings. This provides the space for any issues to be raised by the children or staff and means that bullying is regularly reviewed.

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Good

Staff, in accordance with the placement plans and risk assessments, develop the children’s behaviour management plans. These highlight specific needs, such as additional staff support. The manager increases staffing levels to minimise levels of risk as required. A child who was repeatedly missing from the home was allocated one-to-one staffing for a number of months. The manager continued with the increased staffing levels despite not receiving the full funding from the placing authority. This ensured that the child’s needs took priority over funding issues. Judgement grade

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Good

The registered manager has been in post since June 2014 and holds a Level 5 qualification. The deputy manager and staff skilfully facilitated the inspection in the manager’s absence.

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Good

Staff say that the manager operates an ‘open door’ policy and that they find this supportive. The team has regular staff meetings, when they are able to discuss the children’s progress as a group and agree joint approaches to meet each child’s individual needs. Consequently, children experience a consistent response from the staff.

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Good

The manager has addressed the two requirements and two recommendations made at the last inspection. These related to risk assessments, recording of physical interventions, the independent visitor’s reports and recruitment checks.

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Good

The staff team has remained stable since the last inspection, with only two staff leaving and one new staff member starting. Three staff commenced the Level 3 qualification course in July 2016. The eight remaining staff members hold the appropriate qualifications. Children benefit from being cared for by a qualified staff team which they know well.

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Good

The training matrix demonstrates the variety of courses that staff undertake and that they are booked onto refresher training at the appropriate intervals. This regular training ensures that staff are receiving current subject knowledge and information to support their work with the children.

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Good

An independent visitor monitors the home monthly, to provide an ongoing review of the care and to highlight any areas for development. The reports now contain commentary about safeguarding and how the home promotes the care of the children. This addresses a recommendation made at the last inspection.

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Good

The manager completes a six-monthly report that details the events, concerns and progress in the period covered. The reports give a detailed overview of the home and demonstrate that the managers have a good understanding of the strengths and weaknesses of the home. The manager conducts consultations with the children each month, and quarterly with professionals. This provides her with insight into their views of the service. Feedback from the most recent consultation was positive.

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Good

Staff receive annual appraisals, providing the opportunity to identify any areas for professional growth, their strengths and any developmental training needed. However, supervision sessions are not occurring in line with the home’s policies. This does not give staff a formal space to discuss and reflect on their practice.

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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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