Children's home run by Castle Homes Care Limited in Hammersmith and Fulham

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 provision is outstanding because:

 The highly committed and nurturing staff provide excellent quality care and intensive support to young people.  Young people make significant progress with education and health, and improvement in emotional well-being.  Staff’s persistence leads to young people becoming more open. They form attachments to staff and develop trusting relationships. This allows them to address their underlying emotional needs.  Staff use exceptionally well-planned and individualised key-working sessions to help young people to address practical and emotional issues.  Young people do not go missing from home for long periods and, as a result, their risk of child sexual exploitation decreases.  Excellent behaviour management plans are instrumental in reducing negative behaviours.  The highly committed manager and staff team strive to enable young people to reach their full potential and achieve the best outcomes.

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Information about this children’s home

The home provides care and accommodation for up to three young people irrespective of gender, with emotional and/or behavioural difficulties. It is operated by a private organisation.

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Recent inspection history

Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement 29/03/2016 Interim Improved effectiveness 18/11/2015 Full Outstanding 04/02/2015 Interim Improved effectiveness 10/06/2014 Full Outstanding

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Outstanding

This home provides high quality, intensive support to ‘emotionally damaged and disaffected children and young people’. Staff’s priority is to spend time with young people, coming to know them exceptionally well. One staff member said: ‘Relationship building is the key to allow young people to progress and develop.’ The highly experienced and skilled staff are committed and passionate. They earnestly support young people even when faced with aggression and resistance from them. Their persistence demonstrates to young people that they are cared for, leading to trusting relationships with staff and the forming of positive attachments.

p.5

Outstanding

Young people make significant progress in various aspects of their lives. Staff strive for the best educational placement for young people, and maintain excellent communication with schools and educational professionals. Young people with inconsistent school attendance become self-motivated and make improvements in education. This includes achieving their educational potential, obtaining qualifications with some predicted good GCSE grades, and attendance at further education and work placements. Young people take pride in their achievements, and make plans for their future education and employment.

p.5

Outstanding

Meaningful staff encouragement leads to young people re-engaging with a variety of health professionals to address their short and longer-term health needs. Young people begin to take responsibility for healthy eating, including attendance at slimming clubs. Physical activity and fitness levels increase and any outstanding health needs are fully addressed.

p.5

Outstanding

Staff are proactive in working with parents. They are instrumental in re-establishing contact between young people and their parents, and provide physical and emotional support. One professional reported, ‘Staff are very flexible around contact arrangements and are also there to support family members.’ Young people benefit from the reintroduction and increase of regular contact with family members. This improves opportunities for young people to return home while enhancing their identity.

p.5

Outstanding

The extremely knowledgeable staff team have a great deal of insight about attachment theory and trauma. This is a result of the high levels of psychological input and the staff team using a therapeutic model of parenting. A psychological profile provides an assessment of young people’s emotional development upon admission. This helps to provide a holistic picture of young people’s needs from the time they move in. One of the home’s major strengths is the exceptionally well-planned and individualised key-working sessions. Staff creatively help young people to address practical and emotional issues. The highly intuitive and observant staff identify subtle behaviour changes, which could indicate a deterioration in young people’s emotional state. Staff’s nurturing and caring approach enables openness, and young people express their feelings and negative thoughts. This leads to young people engaging with bespoke therapeutic services, which they previously refused.

p.5

Outstanding

Staff work closely with the professionals involved and participate in young people’s therapeutic sessions. Young people address difficult past events and develop emotional resilience. This results in emotional stability, with a reduction in harmful behaviours.

p.6

Outstanding

The comprehensive individualised placement plans have ongoing input from young people. Monthly tracker reports allow young people to recognise and take pride in their achievements. Young people make excellent progress, become more confident and have improved self-esteem. This leads to young people’s active involvement in local authority care planning. One young person began meeting their independent reviewing officer, and recently chaired and took control of their own statutory review. The young person was empowered and involved in decision making for their future.

p.6

Outstanding

Young people produce photographic memories of their time living at the home. One young person was keen to show me the range of activities and events that they had taken part in, including the school prom. Young people invite their friends to the home and staff encourage safe peer relationships. They are actively involved in the community and annually help to raise money for a local charity by running a tombola at the nearby church. This helps with young people’s social development and promotes a sense of belonging in the local area.

p.6

Outstanding

The home is warm, inviting and comfortable. Young people’s influences around the home include upcycled dining room chairs. There are individualised spacious bedrooms, which provide a real sense of ownership for the young people.

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Outstanding

Before living at the home, young people were putting themselves at significant risk of harm through long periods of going missing. There were concerns about the levels of risk of child sexual exploitation and self-harming behaviours. A professional said that one young person was ‘really at crisis point before they moved in, which was a really worrying time then. She is now a different girl.’

p.6

Outstanding

Staff have significant knowledge about the issue of child sexual exploitation and associated behaviours. As they are fully conversant with the signs and symptoms, staff are observant and perceptive. They can identify behaviour changes and their pre-emptive approach keeps young people from getting into risky situations. Young people report that they feel safe because of the care provided. A professional said, ‘They are excellent at keeping young people safe, as they are very vigilant and have a good idea of her behaviour.’

p.6

Outstanding

Comprehensive and detailed risk assessments outline the measures in place to reduce risk. Extensive work with young people results in them becoming more open with staff. Regular return home interviews and strong relationships with staff have led to a significant reduction in the number and duration of ‘missing’ episodes. In recognition of their improvement, staff afford young people more independence. They keep in contact with staff and are no longer at such a high risk of child sexual exploitation. Young people’s self-worth increases and they develop strategies to keep themselves safe in the community. When speaking about a young person, a professional said, ‘There is a reduced risk due to the insight that the young person now has.’

p.7

Outstanding

Staff work with young people to identify triggers for behaviours and their own suggestions on how to diffuse a situation. This leads to detailed, tailor-made behavioural management plans. Strategies include re-parenting, as staff recognise that young people may function emotionally at a much younger age. A young person with attachment difficulties has struggled to form relationships with staff. This has resulted in some negative behaviour towards staff. However, they avoid criminalising young people unnecessarily and persist in working with them. Additionally, placements are not ended suddenly, so young people do not face further moves or rejection in their lives, which could further affect their emotional health.

p.7

Outstanding

When incidents occur, the detailed recording by staff facilitates useful reflective discussions. Lessons are learned and staff adopt a consistent approach. Direct work with young people, focusing on such behaviours, enables them to self-regulate better. Schools report that they are not using sanctions and family members feel more confident about managing their children’s behaviour during contact. Staff avoid sanctions, and instead use restorative justice to manage negative behaviours. For example, if damage is caused at the home, the young people and staff look at ways to replace or repair the item together. Young people are receptive to this and the damages at the home have been significantly reduced.

p.7

Outstanding

Staff’s creative and innovative use of positive reinforcement of behaviour includes instant rewards. This encourages positive behaviour on a daily basis. Young people have designed their own reward charts. Small gifts are wrapped by staff and presented as a lucky dip, as a way of recognising and rewarding young people’s achievements. Young people enjoy these rewards and negative behaviour has decreased significantly. The manager is a member of the local safeguarding forum that shares intelligence about the area. This enables the comprehensive locality risk assessment to be kept up to date. Staff utilise this knowledge to remain proactive to ensure the continued safety of young people. Community police are known to the young people, which provides them with an added layer of protection when they are out in the community.

p.7

Outstanding

The manager is suitably qualified and experienced. She has been in post since December 2013. The manager is committed to her ongoing professional development, and undertakes additional managerial training to add to her knowledge and skills. She is a well organised and is highly effective in organising the staff team. The manager is methodical and, as a result, the paperwork and recording systems are of an exceptionally high standard and kept up to date.

p.8

Outstanding

The new ownership of the service has provided additional training experiences for the whole staff team. Staff receive bespoke training if they recognise a shortfall in their skills or if a young person is presenting a particular new behaviour or challenge. This ensures that the staff team remains suitably skilled to meet the needs of each young person.

p.8

Outstanding

The manager and staff team are aspirational for young people. They strive to enable young people to reach their full potential and achieve the best outcomes. This is apparent when staff engage with young people who respond well to this positivity.

p.8

Outstanding

Since the last inspection, some new staff have left whilst still in their probationary period. Exit interviews have fed into a review of the recruitment procedures leading to a more stringent interview and induction process. This enables all new staff to understand the role before they commit to working at the home. Alongside mandatory induction training, staff complete a comprehensive reflective workbook, which prepares them to undertake the diploma. From the commencement of their employment, staff look reflectively at young people using research to inform their practice.

p.8

Outstanding

Young people actively take part in the recruitment and interview process, and this has resulted in an eclectic mix of staff. Staff and young people build early relationships, as the young people engage more readily with new staff whom they have selected. This promotes their sense of belonging and ownership of their home.

p.8

Outstanding

Regular supervision and team meetings are of a high quality and are reflective in nature. New staff receive mentoring sessions. These enable the manager to recognise staff’s individual strengths, which she utilises. This gets the best out of staff and young people clearly benefit from the different skills, abilities and experiences.

p.8

Outstanding

The home environment reflects a warm, welcoming, domestic setting, and staff’s care is of a high quality and as nurturing as possible. A parent said, ‘They do everything with (name of young person), help her with cleanliness, speak to her when needed, she is given warmth and love.’

p.9

Outstanding

The staff team has good links with a range of external agencies such as the police, and health and charitable organisations. This ensures that young people receive timely support when needed. Parents and professionals talk about excellent communication with the home.

p.9

Outstanding

A detailed review of the quality of care provides focus on improvements to the service to young people. Meaningful feedback received from young people, their family, staff and professionals feed into this. The feedback demonstrates a consensus of opinion that the service provided is excellent. Monthly independent visits provide a further contribution. The manager scrutinises practice at the home and strives to look for improvements to make the service the best for young people.

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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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