Children's home run by Southern Adolescent Care Services Ltd in Crawley

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:

 Young people are cared for by competent caring staff. Interactions are warm and focus on the individual needs of the young person.  Sensitive care is taken by staff to introduce new young people to the home. Those moving on are supported to have positive endings.  Staff provide many opportunities for young people to discuss difficult issues. Young people make good use of these sessions.  Young people benefit from a well-developed programme to gain skills for independence.  Staff are supported by effective training and supervision.  Leaders and managers could seek further information about young people’s needs before agreeing to a move into the home, to ensure that the impact on other young people is minimised.  Monitoring of practice is established in many aspects of care. However, some records are stored in private files and cannot easily be retrieved to inform audits.  The manager has failed to monitor staff practice efficiently, which has

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The children’s home provision is good because:

resulted in some staff having poor communication skills.  Notifications about events and concerns about young people’s safety and welfare are not always sent to appropriate agencies.

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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 must ensure that for all employees there is: A full employment history, together with a satisfactory explanation of any gaps in employment, in writing. (Regulation 32, schedule 2(6))

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Requirement Due date

In particular employment records should be made in a manner that allows all gaps in employment to be identified. 30/01/17

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must ensure that there is a copy of the staff duty roster of persons working at the home, and a record of the actual rosters worked. (Regulation 37, schedule 4(3)) 30/01/17

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must notify HMCI and each other relevant person without delay if: there is any other incident relating to a child which the registered person considers to be serious. (Regulation 40(4)(e)) 30/01/17

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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

 The registered persons should ensure that anyone with a legitimate need to view electronic records can do so easily. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 61, paragraph 14.2)  The registered persons should review whether all staff should have necessary level of skills and confidence to communicate easily and respond appropriately at all times to the children they care for. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 22, paragraph 14.10)  The registered persons should continue to develop how the home supports young people in respect of their nutrition and healthy diets. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 35, paragraph 7.18)  The registered persons should review how the home’s daily routines are suitably structured to support young people’s education. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 28,

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Recommendations

paragraph 5.15) Particular attention should be paid to the structure provided to young people who do not have educational provision.

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Information about this children’s home

The home is one of three children’s homes operated by Southern Adolescent Care Services Ltd. It is registered to provide care and accommodation for five young people with emotional or behavioural difficulties on a planned or emergency basis. An education team and qualified therapists support staff practice. Therapists also provide a range of services to young people as a group each week and, when needed, to individuals.

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Recent inspection history

Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement 15/12/2015 Full Good 12/08/2015 Interim Inadequate progress 11/03/2015 Full Good 03/09/2014 Interim Good 24/03/14 Interim Satisfactory progress

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Good

Young people live in a homely and comfortable environment, and are cared for staff who are able to demonstrate good parenting skills. One young person said, ‘It’s a good place’.

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Good

Sensitive support helps young people to settle well when they first arrive. They know whom they can talk to if they are worried about something, and understand what is expected of them in the home. On the first day, the young person meets with staff to complete a short form on what they want from being at the home and to talk about why the young person has come to live there. One social worker commented, ‘I think [that the home has] a very wonderful range of staff who work hard to establish and build good relationships with young people.’

p.7

Good

Key-working sessions are exceptional. These meetings are participative and presented in an innovative way, as a diary that has regular entries from staff and young people. These personalised records assist everyone to understand and reflect on young people’s progress and challenges. They are a keepsake for the young person when they leave that helps them to review their progress in the future and understand their achievements while living at the home.

p.7

Good

Young people’s medical and emotional health needs are identified and managed well. Risks to young people’s health are dealt with quickly and appropriately. For example, staff manage medication well and ensure that medication is appropriate for each young person. Menus show variety, but young people consider that healthy eating options could improve. Group drama and art therapy sessions take place each week and are open to all. Young people want to attend. They like the therapists and find that the sessions and activities help them to talk about and deal with difficult issues and feelings.

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Good

Independence is promoted well. The incremental independence programme supports young people to become proficient in learning life skills in stages. For example, young people are given responsibility for budgeting and cooking before taking on more complex matters, such as managing medication.

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Good

The company’s teachers work quickly to help young people to attend education at in-house sessions and find an appropriate school. They have well-structured plans to monitor young people’s educational attainment and engagement with the sessions that they provide. Young people’s daily routines lack a suitable structure which reinforces the importance of education. Systems to support young people’s participation are well embedded in the home’s routines. This helps them to speak openly with staff and feel listened to. For instance, regular young people’s meetings cover a wide variety of issues such holidays, menus, poor use of language and going missing. This helps them to feel that their views are important and valued, and can influence their care and support.

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Good

Young people think that most staff speak to them well. These staff listen and think about what they say. Other staff show less skill in communicating, which affects young people’s views about these staff and impacts negatively on their relationships with them. In one instance, a member of staff did not apologise for using inappropriate language to a young person.

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Good

The very few complaints received are dealt with quickly and efficiently. However, responses to young people are not consistently child friendly. This detracts from the open culture that managers wish to instil.

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Good

Young people have excellent support when they leave the home, whether this is planned or unplanned. Staff collaboratively and effectively liaise with future placements. For instance, one placing officer commended how staff had helped the new home to assist a young person to decrease the number of times that they go missing.

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Good

Young people are protected well by staff who respond appropriately to safeguarding concerns and consistently promote good behaviour.

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Good

They know how staff protect them. Although they do not always appreciate the action that staff take, they understand why they do so and they receive additional rewards for positive changes which encourage them to continue to behave well. Young people learn to manage their difficult behaviours better or not get involved when others behave badly.

p.8

Good

Well-written, regularly updated and clear individualised risk assessments support safeguarding practice. These are underpinned by analysis and evidence of what motivates the young person to put themselves at risk. Staff make collaborative decisions with partner agencies to agree the best course of protective action. Managers involve staff in constructing safeguarding plans, which include how to prepare for and manage the times when children go missing. They know where young people are likely to go when they abscond and the places of most risk in the area in which the home is located. The missing person’s unit of the police is complimentary about staff’s safeguarding practices and considers that they work well together.

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Good

Young people do not like being restrained, but they are not hurt and they know why this occurs. Records about restraints are appropriate and demonstrate that staff reflect whether they could handle things differently in the future.

p.9

Good

Managers recently reviewed and made changes to how sanctions are used. This has resulted in improved practice. The reparation that young people make is more clearly linked to the reason for the sanction. Written accounts also record more thoroughly the efficacy of any sanction that staff impose in changing a young person’s behaviours. Staff manage young people’s difficult behaviours well and learn from incidents that they are involved in. Staff work hard to help young people to keep themselves safe and make changes for the better. For example, when a young person self-harmed, additional staffing was provided, key-working sessions focused on self-harm and the number of mental health appointments were increased. Also, one social worker was impressed that staff admitted that their handling of an incident could have been different and may have adversely affected the young person’s behaviour. This resulted in the police deciding not to

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Good

criminalise the young person, and provided the young person with an example of how to take responsibility for his actions.

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Good

Recruitment practice shows that managers know how to assess people’s suitability well. Records do not always accurately indicate whether there are gaps in a member of staff’s working history. Some staff records contain only the year of employment, for example 2012 to 2015, rather than the month and year.

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Good

Health and safety practice is well organised and understood. Potential risks are identified effectively and managers’ development plans for the premises are clear.

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Good

Managers make appropriate notifications to all the relevant agencies, such as children’s social workers and safeguarding teams, when necessary. In one instance, a safeguarding concern was not notified to Ofsted in a timely manner, but this had no adverse effect on the young person’s safety or welfare.

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Good

The location assessment helps to keep young people safe. However, it is based on detail provided by local services, such as the police and youth offending team, from 2014. It therefore does not include the most up-to-date information available. Requests for updated information are being made to ensure that this is improved. Judgement grade

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Good

The registered manager was not present during the inspection. Staff and stakeholders, parents, social workers and placing officers spoke very positively about her ability to lead a team which can meet young people’s needs effectively. She is due to complete the level 5 diploma in leadership and management for residential childcare by June 2017.

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Good

Senior managers of the company are involved effectively in the strategic development of the service and oversight of children’s care. They visit the home regularly. They also hold frequent joint meetings with managers of all three homes to discuss the operation of the service and individual plans for young people. Appropriate action has been taken in respect of the requirements and recommendations made at the last inspection in December 2015.

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Good

Numbers of staff on duty met young people’s needs at the time of inspection. However, rotas do not clearly record which staff work each day at the home. Therefore, it cannot be verified that there are always sufficient numbers of staff on duty each day, especially when additional staff are made available to assist in managing young people’s behaviour.

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Good

The range of staff such as teachers, care staff and therapists who work for the company support the aims outlined in the statement of purpose well. Fifty per cent of the staff team has completed the level 3 diploma for residential childcare. The rest of the staff aim to complete their qualifications in 2017.

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Good

Appraisal and supervision records cover appropriate areas, but access to these records during inspection was inhibited by the absence of the manager. Staff consider that their support is effective. They view team meetings as a positive forum that allows for the normal ‘niggles and moans’ to be easily resolved and which supported them to work together well. One member of staff had returned to work at the home because of the quality of support and management, and another said that it was much better than the home at which they previously worked.

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Good

There is an excellent culture regarding learning and development. Training supports staff to identify needs effectively, and manage behaviour and care well, including the therapeutic theories underpinning the service. Staff demonstrate a high commitment to their own learning by taking additional courses, such as a master’s degree in women and child abuse studies.

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Good

During the summer, staff struggled to meet the combination of young people’s complex needs. This led to several incidents of high aggression from young people who each moved in and on within a short space of time. For example, one young person stayed for only seven days. Managers have reviewed and reconsidered how they match the needs of the referred young people to the needs of those already living there. This has resulted in young people feeling that the home is calmer, with fewer aggressive incidents and instances of going missing. Sources of information about young people before admission are mainly the detail supplied by local authorities. Additional opportunities, such as consistently asking the home’s therapists’ view of potential admissions or speaking with a young person’s current carers, are not taken.

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Good

Professional relationships are good and support staff to meet young people‘s needs effectively. Parents, social workers and placing officers are positive about how staff worked with them, for example in relation to how staff support young people to have positive contact with their families. When staff’s working relationship with an agency has deteriorated or is less effective, appropriate action is taken to build better relations.

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Good

The statement of purpose and home’s development plan are clear and easy to read. The statement lacks detail of the particular needs of the young people at this home and up-to-date information about staff training. A revision is already in progress and will take these points into account.

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Good

Monthly visits by independent visitors and their subsequent reports provide helpful evaluations and recommendations which are used to improve practice. The six-monthly review of practice is in development and is due by the end of the year. Effective monitoring is weakened by records being kept in managers’ private files, for example records of complaints investigated by the organisation’s head office.

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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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