Children's home in Camden

Outstanding

The children’s home provides highly effective services that consistently exceed the standards of good. The actions of the home contribute to significantly improved outcomes for children and young people who need help, protection and care.

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

 Children receive exceptional levels of individualised care which meets their very particular needs.  Children’s physical and emotional healthcare needs are especially well met, and this helps to keep children safe and comfortable.  Children’s daily experiences are well organised and planned effectively, which gives them a predictable and safe environment.  Children benefit from highly effective links between the home and the school, which gives them a consistent daily experience.  This home celebrates diversity, and prioritises meeting individual needs.  Children are encouraged to make choices about their daily lives in the home.  The home works well with parents and with local authority colleagues.  Children benefit from the home’s close links with nursing, physiotherapy, and speech and language colleagues.  The home has an explicit culture that prioritises dignity and respect. This helps to keep children safe.

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

 There are a wide range of stimulating activities available for children to enjoy.  The staff group is highly competent and committed to offering a high standard of knowledgeable and nurturing care.  The manager aspires to excellence in the quality of care that each child receives, and successfully motivates and monitors her staff to deliver this.  There is one minor shortfall. The independent visitor reports lack sufficient evaluation about the quality of care children receive.

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Recommendation

To improve the quality and standards of care further, the service should take account of the following recommendation  Ensure that on each visit the independent person makes a rigorous and impartial assessment of the home’s arrangements for safeguarding and promoting the welfare of the children in the home’s care. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 65, paragraph 15.5)

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Information about this children’s home

This home is owned by a national charity, and provides short breaks and sleepover services for up to 12 children. Children may have a visual impairment and additional profound and complex physical and/or learning disabilities and/or sensory needs. The home is located within a non- maintained special school. It is open from Monday to Thursday in term time and throughout school holidays. The service is accessible to additional children, not just those attending this school.

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Recent inspection history

Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement 07/03/2016 Interim Improved effectiveness 05/10/2015 Full Good

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Outstanding

Children staying in this home receive an exceptionally high level of individualised care. Each child has complex health needs which require consistent and regular medical protocols to be followed. These vital tasks are completed highly effectively, with the child at the centre, while their unique needs as children are equally prioritised. For example, during essential procedures children have a song sung to them, or they hear stories and their stiff limbs are exercised while playing with soft toys.

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Outstanding

Staff and children have an excellent quality of relationship, with staff demonstrating a warm, nurturing and knowledgeable approach to meeting individual children’s needs. They have a thorough understanding of each child’s likes and dislikes. For example, staff deftly choose the most appropriate object to successfully regain a child’s attention.

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Outstanding

Wherever possible, children are encouraged to progress their skills. Each child’s care needs and routines are detailed, together with their picture, on the daily board. This is an effective way of reminding and enabling all staff to encourage specific skill development, such as assisting with dressing or tolerating teeth cleaning. Children’s s t eps in meeting these are carefully recorded and routinely reviewed.

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Outstanding

Professional colleagues praise the quality of care given in meeting children’s physical health needs, no matter how complex. One health professional commented that the home offers, ‘an excellent standard of individualised healthcare that shows great attention to necessary detail.’ In addition, children’s emotional health needs are met in an excellent way. Children demonstrate this by their relaxed and trusting demeanours.

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Outstanding

Children’s daily experience is one of consistent routine and highly skilled care, and this clearly meets their needs. There are excellent, well- established links between the co-located school and the home, which means that children benefit from a cohesive approach to their care and education. Practically, this co-location also means that children can benefit from an extensive range of bespoke activity spaces, including a hydrotherapy pool and a sensory theatre. In addition, the home shows an exceptional aspiration in balancing risk with giving these health-compromised children new experiences, with their parents’ consent, such as introducing children to carefully selected animals, and offering tailor-made pamper sessions. This extensive selection of activities means that children benefit from a wide range of additional experiences.

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Outstanding

The home works closely with parents from admission onwards. Staff fully respect that parents know best what their child likes and dislikes, and therefore parents are asked to help to choose the most suitable bedroom for their child on admission. Some children and parents also like to be in touch during a stay, and the home is highly effective at enabling the most effective ways of achieving this.

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Outstanding

Children always stay in the same bedroom, which helps them to develop a sense of familiarity and comfort. Their cultural and religious needs are very well met, with bedrooms being individualised for each stay, some with special photos or religious articles. Staff’s exceptional knowledge and understanding of individual children means that they are highly adept at understanding their particular ways of communicating. For example, some children eye-point, while others show their views through sounds or their body language. Staff take full advantage of children’s efforts to communicate, and pay close attention to their views. They follow children’s preferences for songs and videos, and are proactive in offering choices, such as when to have a bath. This helps children to feel valued as unique individuals. As a parent said, ‘They see past the disability to see her as the teenager she is.’

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Outstanding

The management of the home is keen for children and staff to benefit from research-based practice. For example, the home has arranged for a staff member to be trained in the latest research-based developments in manual handling. This is particularly pertinent in a home where all the children are wheelchair users, and helps to minimise discomfort for both children and staff. In addition, the manager has used recent research on staff utilisation to ensure that both children and staff get the maximum benefit from night staff deployment.

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Outstanding

Each child has a tailored suite of risk assessments, reflecting their particular issues. These are comprehensively detailed and regularly reviewed. They help to keep children as safe as possible from environmental and other hazards. Children do not go out alone, as their physical impairments mean that they cannot propel their wheelchairs independently. The particular vulnerabilities of these children mean that they require a high level of protection from people while they are on site. As such, entry to the home is closely monitored, both by staff and electronic systems. Staff are appropriately vetted, and crucially there is an explicit culture in the home which emphasises respect for the individual. In practice, this means that, for example, attendance to children’s personal care needs strongly focuses on maintaining their dignity. This respectful safeguarding culture is supported by research informed by practice stemming from the ‘Prevent’ anti-

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Outstanding

radicalisation duty. This means that the home not only celebrates diversity, but actively promotes the values of respect and tolerance. This helps to create an exceptionally sheltered environment for these children. A parent said, ‘I totally trust them and know he’s safe, I don’t need to worry at all.’

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Outstanding

Children live in a bright, clean environment surrounded by artwork and photographs. The manager has good oversight of health and safety checks, and considerable thought and effort has gone into ensuring that effective practice fire evacuations happen regularly.

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Outstanding

Staff are well trained in safeguarding and are very aware that disabled children may be particularly vulnerable. The home has on occasion been appropriately proactive in progressing safeguarding concerns, and staff have good knowledge of relevant local authority systems. One professional colleague said that, ‘They are always very proactive at organising professionals’ meetings when there are concerns.’

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Outstanding

This home does not use sanctions, nor restraint. On rare occasions, staff may need to deflect a child from harming themselves by guiding or steering. These techniques are well reflected in individual behaviour plans and staff are trained in their use, which is monitored well. However, in the vast majority of cases, the home manages behaviour through staff knowledge of individual children, and through the high quality of relationships between staff and children. Usually staff use distraction techniques effectively, and challenging behaviour is rare in this home.

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Outstanding

This home is managed by a highly effective registered manager who has been in post since 2010. She is ambitious for excellence and creates a culture of high aspirations amongst her staff. She is well supported by the wider organisation, which allows the manager the freedom to have the best combinations of children staying, without undue pressure on occupancy rates. The home is appropriately staffed by a qualified and highly competent staff group.

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Outstanding

Underpinning the exceptional quality of everyday care is the highly effective organisation and monitoring within this home. There is a clear structure of planning and communication which ensures that, routinely, things happen when and how they should. For example, handover meetings are at a set time each day and include running through a check list of key issues, as well as a detailed discussion about each child living there. Professional colleagues note this structured approach, and comment that they get, ‘fast responses to issues, and staff who are well prepared at meetings.’ Management monitoring is effective and highly visible. Managers have excellent knowledge of each child’s needs, so their oversight of other staff and procedures is well informed. There is a culture of constant learning in this home, and monitoring is used to good effect to inform practice and plan the next steps in the home’s development.

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Outstanding

External monitoring is appropriately completed by a knowledgeable independent visitor. However, the template used is not sufficiently clear, and lacks explicit evaluation of the home’s ability to safeguard and promote the welfare of children. These issues limit the usefulness of the external scrutiny. This shortfall does not place children at risk of harm, but it misses a key opportunity to confirm a highly effective approach.

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Outstanding

Care planning is thorough, and is well reflected in children’s files, which are ordered and up to date. Relationships with parents and local authority colleagues are strong, and children particularly benefit from the highly effective relationships forged with school and therapy colleagues. For example, the home’s staff get regular advice and training from physiotherapy, nursing, and speech and language colleagues. This all helps children to benefit from a consistently high standard of holistic care. This is well reflected in the home’s statement of purpose.

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Outstanding

There is a comprehensive training programme for staff, which is robustly monitored. Supervision and appraisal are routinely completed, and are delivered to a high standard. Staff feel well supported. One of them noted, ‘We have fantastic staff and children, we are great team players and communicate well.’ This helps them to continue to give children an excellent experience.

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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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