Children's Home run by Pilgrims Corner Limited in Kent

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:

 Children who move in are able to settle quickly and develop a sense of belonging and attachment to caring adults.  The registered manager and staff are confident in their caring role and provide children with a sense of safety and security.  Staffing capacity enables a consistent level of close supervision and personalised care for children.  Staff are effective and committed to keeping children safe and also helping them to keep themselves safe.  Consistent routines and appropriately structured plans of care provide children with a sense of safety and security from which they can successfully access learning and development.  The sense of security and attachment that children develop with staff enables them to talk about their worries and fears and to address emotionally difficult issues.  The registered manager and staff communicate effectively with partners and statutory agencies in keeping children safe and helping them to engage in

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

education and to reduce unwanted behaviours.  A good package of support and professional development helps the registered manager and staff to sustain their focus and motivation in providing good care for children.  Shortfalls with regard to monitoring systems, the safeguarding policy and some specific areas of practice, as well as the need to enhance the physical environment, are described within the body of the report. There is no immediate risk to the safety or welfare of the children.

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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

The registered person may only employ an individual who has attained the appropriate qualification by the relevant date. (Regulation 32 (5)(b)) 15/07/2017

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Requirement Due date

The registered person may only use devices for the monitoring and surveillance of children if the monitoring or surveillance is no more intrusive than necessary. (Regulation 24 (1)(d)) 30/11/2016

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must prepare and implement a policy which is intended to safeguard children accommodated in the children’s home from abuse and neglect, with particular reference to e-safety. (Regulation 34 (1)(a)) 15/12/2016

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Recommendations

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

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Recommendations

 That the registered manager further develops and consolidates the assessment of the suitability of the location of the home. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 64, paragraph 15.1)

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Recommendations

 That the registered manager continues to seek ways in which the home environment can be made more nurturing, welcoming and supportive. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 15, paragraph 3.7)

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Recommendations

 That the registered manager makes full use of the regulation 45 review process to analyse and understand the key strengths and weaknesses in the home and then uses this understanding to plan for continuous improvement. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 65, paragraph 15.4)

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Information about this children’s home

This children’s home is managed and run by a private organisation. It is one of four and provides care and accommodation for up to two children with emotional and/or behavioural needs. The registered manager manages a second home, with the same provider, that is within walking distance.

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Recent inspection history

Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement 30/03/2016 Interim Improved effectiveness 29/12/2015 Full Requires improvement 05/02/2015 Interim Sustained effectiveness 19/11/2014 Full Good

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Good

Children who come into this home enjoy a culture of consistency, warmth and care, underpinned by sensitively applied structure and clear boundaries. This makes them feel safe and able to settle quickly.

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Good

Children learn to trust the staff, who are consistent and controlled in their responses and are positive and optimistic about children making progress. Staff are honest and sensitive in their dealings with children and demonstrate a close interest in their progress and well-being. This encourages children to face the difficulties they are experiencing, to be realistic about their circumstances and to be able to think about the future. One child said, ‘I really like it here, but there is a plan for me to go back into foster care, and then I want to be adopted.’

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Good

Children are able to say what they think and feel about things they don’t like because they know that staff listen and will be fair and responsible in their responses. This helps to make the need for formal complaints very rare. Consultation is a strength. Children provide written feedback on staff to inform staff’s annual appraisals. They are involved in staff recruitment by generating children’s interview questions and they regularly contribute to meal and activity ideas and planning.

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Good

Children feel welcome and valued. The home is in a settled residential area and the building and garden are well maintained. The interior is clean and well furnished, with the open-plan kitchen/dining room forming the social hub. The staff office is separate from the living area and does not detract from the homely atmosphere. Bedroom decor and organisation reflect the clear individual taste and special interests of the children. Although the home has a positive atmosphere, full use has not been made of space to create a nurturing, supportive and welcoming environment. There is little visible evidence of the children who live there or elements that reflect a sense of permanence and continuity provided by the home.

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Good

Children are able to access education quickly because the home is part of an organisation that has its own dedicated school. Children who attend the school are helped to engage in their learning through close communication between home and school. This is mainly via an electronic daily diary maintained by the home and school, on which significant events and behaviour are noted. Children requiring other education provision receive equal support from staff who follow their progress closely. The secure foundation set by the home enables children to access learning and to make academic progress. Children profit from a rich range of positive leisure pursuits available in the area. These include cultural, exercise and fun activities. A combination of choice and staff guidance and support helps children to try new things and expand their enjoyment and experience of life. One child has discovered a surprising talent and enjoyment

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Good

Children are encouraged and supported to acquire the skills required for independent living. This includes encouraging age- and ability-appropriate risk taking, such as cooking and learning to deal with kitchen hazards. One young person has recently made a successful transition to semi-independent living.

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Good

Children enjoy a high level of health care, and have full access to routine appointments, as well as specialist care. One young person has recently had glasses prescribed. Specialist counselling and therapy services are accessed for children as required and they also have ready access to the services of an experienced psychiatric nurse, who is contracted by the home. This nurse was able to provide immediate support to a child, who had newly moved in, with some pressing mental health needs.

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Good

Moving out of the home is managed with careful preparation and in close liaison with placing authorities. The interests and well-being of children are held at the centre of such moves. This is the case for planned moves as well as those associated with placement breakdowns.

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Good

Children move in only after very careful assessment of all relevant information. Critical to the home is its ability to meet the needs of the child effectively, and how these needs will be matched to children already in place.

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Good

When family contact arrangements present risks, children are well supported. They benefit from these contacts because the home liaises very closely with the placing authorities and manages arrangements with care and vigilance.

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Good

Children are kept safe by a staff team which is protective and displays a high level of safeguarding knowledge and awareness. They are informed in their safeguarding practice by a range of relevant and clear risk assessments for each child, at home and when out in the community. Children in this home say that they feel safe because: ‘The adults know how to look after us.’ Staff safeguarding expertise includes training in child sexual exploitation, internet safety and radicalisation. This helps them to keep the children safe from more subtle and sophisticated forms of risk. The policy and practice around safe internet use in the home, however, require revision and updating and a requirement is made in this regard.

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Good

Children become safer because there are clear plans about how risks can be reduced and how children can get better at protecting themselves. The need to go missing reduces substantially for children as they settle. One child who had previously gone missing on 66 occasions has gone missing once since moving in. Another, with a history of going missing, has not done so since their arrival. There has been only one missing incident during the past eight-week period. This has substantially reduced the risk of harm to children.

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Good

When children do go missing, staff respond with urgency and vigour and follow prescribed procedures closely. Exhaustive efforts are made to locate children and to secure their safety. Return home procedures are adhered to and risk reduction key working sessions with children follow as soon as it is appropriate. The home maintains a positive relationship with all key safeguarding partners, including the police. Good practice around missing incidents helps to reduce the risk of harm to children.

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Good

The escalation of children’s unwanted behaviours is curtailed by staff’s proactive and effective behaviour-management practice. This largely avoids the need for physical restraint interventions and helps to maintain positive relationships between children and staff. There have been no incidents of physical restraint during this inspection period. The recording system in place for restraints is of a particularly good standard and provides key information about restraint practice in a clear and accessible manner, making management oversight easy.

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Good

The home follows a rigorous and uncompromising recruitment process and this reflects its resolve to protect children from unsuitable adults. This identifies any obvious areas of risk, and also focuses strongly on general suitability and ability to work with children and, in particular, children who display challenging behaviours.

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Good

Children are well protected from regulated risks within the home. Full health and safety procedures and provisions are in place and the relevant checks are carried out and recorded. The home is well maintained and provides a safe and homely environment for children. The motion-activated alarm on the upper landing that is set when the children are settled at night is, however, highly intrusive and excessive for monitoring purposes. A requirement has been made to address this.

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Good

The suitability of the location of the home and the various areas of potential risk for children in the locality, have been assessed and included, when relevant, in individual risk assessments. What is lacking, however, is a single, properly sourced and comprehensive assessment of the locality that will suitably inform staff in keeping the children safe, particularly when making use of facilities in the area. Judgement grade

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Good

An experienced and thoughtful registered manager provides stability for a motivated staff team. He is permanently appointed and has a diploma in therapeutic child care and is in the final stages of completing the level 5 diploma.

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Good

Children enjoy continuity of care by a male-dominated staff team. This is not currently at full strength but is able to deliver on children’s needs and meets the criteria set in the home’s statement of purpose. The registered manager is addressing what the children agree as being a gender imbalance, by recruiting a female to a vacant post and the swapping of shifts with a sister home to ensure a regular and meaningful female influence in the home.

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Good

One member of staff has not achieved the appropriate qualification in the required timescale. The registered manager is, however, addressing this and there is a plan in place for this requirement to be met.

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Good

Staff supervision is regular and planned and staff feel emotionally supported by this process. They also say that it helps them to keep focused on the needs of the children. Mandatory and specialised training is scheduled and monitored, and staff report that keeping their knowledge current and learning new things helps them to keep focused and motivated in their practice.

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Good

The registered manager and his staff follow a clear one-to-one model of care for the children that includes close supervision, a high level of care and consistently applied boundaries. Plans for children are clear and appropriately focused on priority areas. This helps children to manage their behaviour, feel secure and experience consistency and predictability in their care.

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Good

The registered manager monitors the progress and quality of care from the daily records of each child and how this links with the targets in their care plans. Children also complete monthly feedback questionnaires that inform staff of areas that may require improvement or change. The regulation 45 review report provides good detail of children’s journeys in care and the progress they make. However, insufficient analysis is made of this information in planning improvement to the quality of care provided.

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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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