Children's home run by Action for Children in Watford

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:

 Children enjoy their short breaks. They experience a home-from-home style care and an environment in which they can relax and have fun.  Children are very well cared for and their individual needs are met.  Parents speak particularly highly of the service, the staff and the care that their children receive.  Children receive predictable care from the familiar, long-standing staff team. Staff genuinely care about the children’s welfare and work in their best interests.  Children are safe and the experienced staff team ensure their continued safety through effective implementation of safeguarding practices and processes.  Managers have devised new working practices to enable children to discuss their thoughts and feeling.  Staff work particularly closely with the wider professional team and family members to deliver children’s individual care plans.  The manager leads a child-focused service. She is aware of the home’s

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The children’s home provision is good because:

strengths and has a clear vision for the future development of the service.  This inspection identified some shortfalls in practice. Some children accessing this short-break service have previously experienced abuse, neglect and have been subject to domestic violence. Staff have not received training in these complex areas of childcare. Staff do not receive specific training to manage particular incidents of potentially harmful behaviour. Although significant progress in building children’s self-esteem is evident, some children will not experience this, as the targets that are set are not specific enough.

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Recommendations

To improve the quality and standards of care further, the service should take account of the following recommendation(s):  Ensure that children’s homes staff seek to identify and provide appropriately targeted and stepped opportunities for children to develop. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 31, paragraph 6.4)  Ensure that staff are adequately trained in the principles of restraint and that restraint techniques are appropriate to meet the needs of children and to protect staff. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 49, paragraph 9.57)  Ensure that staff access appropriate facilities and resources to support their training needs. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 53, paragraph 10.11) This relates in particular to training on the impact of child abuse, neglect and

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Information about this children’s home

A charitable organisation owns and operates this home. It provides short-break care and accommodation for up to six children who have additional needs.

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Recent inspection history

Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement 22/06/2016 Interim Sustained effectiveness 02/02/2016 Full Good 06/08/2015 Interim Improved effectiveness 20/01/2015 Full Adequate

p.5

Good

This home offers short breaks to 38 children who have additional needs, supporting both them and their families. The home has recently undergone redecoration and refurbishment, and the children had full input into the process. The children helped to choose colour schemes and the furniture style. They benefit from a modern, comfortable home environment in which to enjoy their stay.

p.6

Good

Many children have accessed the service for a considerable time. They benefit from a consistent staff team that offers them dependable, familiar care. Staff know each child well and this affords children the opportunity to establish trusting relationships with them. Parents speak highly of the service and the care that their children receive. One parent commented, ‘He has a really good experience. He loves going and looks forward to it.’ Another said, ‘I know that he is safe with them. They are his second family.’

p.6

Good

Since the last inspection, two children have joined the home. Staff appreciate the possible impact that accessing this new service may have on both the child and their parents. Staff take time to introduce the family to the resource. Staff work closely with the family and the professional team throughout. Introductions include meeting the parents, the child and their parents visiting the home, staff observing the child in school and the child beginning tea visits that culminate in their first overnight stay. Staff also devise pictorial social stories to help children to understand the process and to aid their transition.

p.6

Good

Parents and the professional team fully contribute to the child’s care plan. Staff help the children to contribute and understand the plans, which for some may be in a simple social story format. As staff know the children well, they are effective in matching the placements and ensuring that there are positive group dynamics. This helps the children to build and maintain friendships. Staff are mindful as to how well the service is meeting a particular child’s need. One parent said, ‘My child’s care package was for two consecutive nights. He became unsettled by the second day and wanted to come home. The staff listened to him and split the nights. This worked for him.’ Children are listened to and staff act upon the children’s wishes.

p.6

Good

Children who access the service have 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 first aid, the administration of medication and lifting and handling ensures that staff meet children’s physical needs. During this inspection period, managers have devised working practices to help the children to consider their thoughts and feelings in a specific situation. Although in its infancy, this method of engagement is successful. It has helped children to consider their behaviour and has helped staff to revise care planning to benefit the children.

p.6

Good

As the home offers short breaks, children’s education remains the responsibility of their parents and local authority. However, the staff support learning and development. Development plans set out individualised targets for children to work on and achieve. The targets focus mainly on self-care skills, independence and social interaction. Staff have devised new active support plans which take a child through their targets systematically. These take time to set up, meaning that some children’s targets remain ambiguous. This does not support those children to experience the feelings of success that others do.

p.7

Good

Staff plan each short-break session carefully, preparing activities in advance, not only in order to meet the child’s basic needs but to ensure that they have fun and enjoy their time. Children benefit from the range of activities on offer. Both in and outside of the home, children access specially designed play equipment and apparatus. Children’s views and wishes identified a number of outings that the children wished to go on, a trip to Harry Potter World and Chessington Zoo being particular successes. Children benefit physically, emotionally and socially from these activities while having fun. The home also offers children time to relax and enjoy an experience outside of family life. It offers a home-from-home experience, clearly demonstrated by a child arriving at the service from school, going into the kitchen and opening a cupboard to choose a snack, a scenario that is played out in many family homes.

p.7

Good

Staff work with parents and the professional team to aid the transition for children moving into adult care services. Social stories help the child to understand their onward journey. One parent commented, ‘Staff have helped and worked very well with the transition team and the plan for moving.’

p.7

Good

Staff ensure that the children are safe and protected. Close working relationships with parents and the wider professional team ensure that all relevant information is available to staff so that they can meet children’s individual needs safely and effectively.

p.7

Good

Robust risk assessments identify areas of potential risk and effective strategies to manage them. The risk assessments are reviewed and updated on either a six- monthly basis or following a particular incident. For some children, for whom the presenting behaviour is deemed to be of high risk, the assessments receive monthly updates. This process ensures that safety precautions are proportionate and match current behaviours.

p.7

Good

The skilled and observant team records and shares areas of concern with their multi-agency colleagues, whether these relate to a child protection concern or one in respect of standards of care. This practice ensures the safeguarding of children and effective support to families to help to create positive change.

p.8

Good

Children who use this service are highly vulnerable. Robust risk assessments and appropriate staffing ratios mean that no children have gone missing from the home. Should a child go missing, there are procedures in place for staff to follow.

p.8

Good

The children display some challenging and complex behaviours. Staff successfully use distraction and de-escalation techniques to help the children to manage their behaviours. Behaviour support plans and staff’s knowledge of children mean that physical intervention is seldom used to manage behaviour. When it has taken place, robust oversight by the management ensures its appropriateness. Recently, one child has demonstrated a new behaviour of placing staff in a headlock. This is an aspect that the staff have not been trained to manage, which does not enable them to ensure the safety of all concerned in such situations.

p.8

Good

The manager has a wealth of childcare experience and is appropriately qualified to hold the post. She leads a dedicated staff team to deliver good outcomes for the children. The home does not have a significant turnover of staff. A core group has worked in the home since it opened in 2012, and many staff have worked for the organisation for over ten years. Children experience consistent, familiar carers who know each child’s personality and their specific care needs very well.

p.8

Good

New staff undergo a robust selection and vetting process to ensure their suitability to work within the setting. An induction schedule offers staff the time to become familiar with policy and processes and, importantly, the time to build rapport with the children. A set package of core and developmental training ensures that all staff have the knowledge to meet the needs of the children. The training offers staff the opportunity to enhance their understanding and practice of wider subjects relating to disability. However, more recently, some of the children accessing the service have previously experienced abuse, neglect and living with domestic violence. Staff lack knowledge and understanding of these broader childcare issues. As such, staff are not alert to the impact that living in these conditions may have on children’s welfare and behaviours.

p.8

Good

Staff supervision is provided regularly, offering time to consider how the home meets children’s needs and the individual development of staff. Regular team meetings bolster staff’s knowledge of children’s situations and needs. Circumstances are collectively shared, ensuring that all staff have current information about the children. Annual staff appraisals review performance and set targets to ensure that the service delivery meets the home’s statement of purpose. All staff either have or are working towards the required childcare diploma.

p.8

Good

The manager has good monitoring systems in place to review practice to ensure compliance and to ensure that feedback from service users and stakeholders contributes to continued service development. The manager has a good overview of the strengths of the home and areas for improvement, which are set out clearly in the home’s comprehensive development plan.

p.9

Good

Managers and staff have excellent working relationships with the wider professional team. A rarely changing staff team has enabled and maintained long-standing relationships between the staff and the team around the child. One professional commented, ‘We speak daily to discuss the needs of children. The staff contribution to meetings is invaluable, as their knowledge of the children is exceptional.’ Schools echo this experience. One teacher commented, ‘A real strength is their communication, a willingness to communicate and share advice.’ The team works closely with all professionals, ensuring that each child receives continuity in their care, has their individual needs met and makes progress in their unique areas of personal developmental.

p.9

Good

The managers and staff work very closely with parents. Frequent contact is essential, as many children accessing the service have limited communication. Updates from parents ensure that staff act on the most current information when caring for the children. One parent commented, ‘There is really good communication between the home, the professional team and me. The staff always phone me if anything happens, and they respond quickly.’ Parents feel valued by managers and staff, and a strong, trusting relationship prevails.

p.9

Good

To improve the quality and standards of care, one requirement and three recommendations were set at the last inspection. The manager has met all of these. In relation to the requirement, staff have undertaken training in bullying. This has expanded their knowledge and understanding of recognising and managing such incidents. In relation to the three recommendations, the home has undergone redecoration and presents as a bright, welcoming environment. The addition of new furniture adds a current, funky interior for the children to enjoy. The home has created a debriefing tool kit that includes pictorial symbols for ease of communication. This offers children the opportunity, time and space to discuss their thoughts and feelings following any incident of physical intervention by staff. It also ensures that children are helped to understand reasons for an intervention and helps to maintain good relationships between the staff and children. Finally,

p.9

Good

record keeping has improved. Staff record in a clear, objective style which maintains a professional stance. The committed staff team delivers good care to children. It is a place where children are supported and nurtured, and enjoy the relaxing, fun environment. One parent said, ‘I would recommend the service to anyone. I don’t know what we would have done without it.’

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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’. 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 looked after children is safeguarded and promoted. Minimum requirements

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What the inspection judgements mean

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 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 0300 123 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 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

T: 0300 123 1231 Textphone: 0161 618 8524 E: enquiries@ofsted.gov.uk W: www.gov.uk/government/organisations/ofsted

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