Children's home run by Moonreach LTD in Dover

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:

 The home provides a relaxed, family atmosphere and promotes a sense of belonging for children.  Children form positive attachments to members of staff who make them feel safe and valued.  Children reduce risk-taking behaviour, become safer and engage in positive leisure activities.  Leaders and managers establish positive working relationships with external agencies and act as strong advocates for children.  Staff are strongly focused on the needs and well-being of children and are motivated to support children’s progress. Approaches to some more complex needs are variable.  The home has good staffing capacity and staff members feel valued. However, supervision is inconsistent.  Aspects of administration and planning in the home are generally of a high standard but some areas do not fully meet requirements.

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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 manager must develop and maintain a model of staff supervision in the home that consistently enables staff to reflect on their practice as well as to reflect and act upon how their own feelings and behaviour may be affected by the behaviour of the children they care for. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 61, paragraph 13.2 and page 39, paragraph 8.15)

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Recommendations

 The registered manager must ensures record keeping in the home is consistently carried out in accordance with a clear policy and to a good standard. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 62, paragraph 14.4)

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Recommendations

 The registered manager must ensure that staff are equipped to respond effectively to helping children and young people to deal with long-term health conditions and issues that arise from complex needs. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 34, paragraph 7.12)

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Information about this children's home

This is a privately owned children’s home which provides accommodation for two young people with emotional and behavioural difficulties. The home shares a registered manager with a sister home that is run separately and located in another property, in close proximity.

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Recent inspection history

Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement 04/05/2016 Interim Declined in effectiveness 16/02/2016 Interim Improved effectiveness 16/09/2015 Full Requires improvement 13/01/2015 Full Adequate

p.5

Good

Children are able to build trusting relationships with adults in the home because adults are reliable, consistent and interested in all aspects of children’s day-to-day living. Children feel safe and say that staff really care about them. The homely and relaxed atmosphere helps children to settle and promotes a sense of belonging. One child said, ‘I feel safe and cared for here. The staff are doing their best for me.’

p.6

Good

Children who move in are received with great care and consideration and staff are fully briefed with all the relevant information before children arrive. This helps children to feel welcome and settle quickly and also prepares the staff to support positive behaviours and manage identified risks.

p.6

Good

The home regards the views and wishes of children as important. Staff listen and respond appropriately. This happens on a daily basis and in the regular weekly children’s meetings. This helps children to feel valued and contributes to forming positive attachments to the adults in the home. Children who experience significant disappointment and feelings of being let down by others outside the home are sensitively supported and helped to resolve the emotional difficulties and frustrations that follow. This helps them to build resilience and maintain a positive view of the future.

p.6

Good

Children previously disengaged from education are nurtured back into regular school attendance. Children awaiting school provision are strongly supported to access alternative sources of appropriate learning. Children are sensitively encouraged to engage in regular, positive leisure activities. This helps to develop self-esteem, social skills and confidence. One child now enjoys regular horse riding and has joined a rugby team. Another child attends weekly exercise sessions and a dance class.

p.6

Good

The home ensures that the children have ready access to all routine medical care, including sexual healthcare, where appropriate. The staff liaise effectively with specialist services such as the designated nurse for looked after children and child and adolescent mental health services. However, the staff lack sufficient knowledge and expertise to implement coordinated approaches to helping children with long- term and complex conditions such as incontinence and autism.

p.6

Good

The manager and staff have established cooperative relationships and good lines of communication with the families of children. They work closely with placing authorities in planning and monitoring children’s contact with their families. This means that the safety and well-being of children, before, during and after contact, is carefully monitored and appropriate action is taken when issues arise that may undermine their safety or well-being. This considered approach helps to increase the benefits that children enjoy from contact with their families. The grandparents of one child said, ‘Our communication is very good and the way that they care for her is exceptional.’

p.6

Good

Managers and staff are well equipped to understand and manage the risks associated with each child and this is clearly reflected in relevant and detailed risk assessments. This helps staff to be proactive in keeping children safe.

p.7

Good

The risk-taking behaviour of children reduces substantially after they move in. One child with a history of chronic absconding and high risk-taking behaviour has only gone missing twice, for short periods during the first three months of her stay. The self-harming behaviour of two children has ceased since moving in. The increased safety and well-being of children and positive risk management by the staff allows family contact for children to be increased where appropriate and allows them to expand their range of activities outside the home.

p.7

Good

On the rare occasions when children have gone missing, the staff have responded with urgency and tenacity. Staff are familiar with procedures, follow these and liaise closely with statutory and enforcement professionals. When asked if they feel safe in the home, a child said, ‘We feel safe because they care about us and look after us.’

p.7

Good

The use of restraint within the home is to regulation. Systems for recording physical interventions have been significantly improved. This enables good management oversight for analysing de-escalation practice and reducing the need for restraint.

p.7

Good

Staff are adept at learning about and understanding the behaviours of the children that may give rise to difficulties as well as those that are positive. They devise strategies and plans for reducing negative behaviours and increasing positive behaviours. This decreases the need for sanction and restraint and helps the children to develop a more positive self-image.

p.7

Good

Good safeguarding practice is embedded and the staff receive training updates when these are due. Specialist training around child sexual exploitation, e-safety and radicalisation contributes to a staff skill set that helps to keep children safe. Managers and staff are clear about the need to avoid the unnecessary criminalisation of children. This means that the context of unwanted behaviours is understood and responded to accordingly and restorative approaches are applied when possible and appropriate. This gives the children more chance to end negative cycles of behaviour.

p.7

Good

Identified risks in the home are effectively managed through adherence to regular health and safety checks as well as fire drills. The home employs a consultant to support the practice of providing a safe environment for children.

p.8

Good

Management and staff have a good knowledge of the local area and a locality risk assessment informs them further about how to make best use of amenities for children and how to keep them safe when outside the home.

p.8

Good

A confident, experienced and well-qualified registered manager leads a committed staff team in providing children with stable and consistent care.

p.8

Good

Children are protected from exposure to unsuitable adults through careful application of safer recruitment practice, meaningful induction and effective use of probation periods. The contract for a recently recruited member of staff was ended early when he was deemed to display some unhelpful attitudes towards children, not evident during the recruitment process. Realistic staffing levels provide the children with stable and consistent care and enable them to develop meaningful attachments to members of staff. A team ethic is evident and staff work closely together in focusing on the needs and well-being of children.

p.8

Good

The registered manager displays commitment to ensuring that staff receive all mandatory and specialist training and that this training is of a good standard. Succession and staff development plans are in place and this contributes to the maintenance of staffing stability and motivation. Staff supervision is inconsistent and this undermines the consistency of practice as well as staff development and the sustaining of individual emotional resilience.

p.8

Good

Managers and leaders are receptive to feedback from professionals and are focused on improvement in the quality of care. They learn from experience and have monitoring systems in place to maintain a good understanding of how children are experiencing their care. The role of the Regulation 44 independent person is embraced and their reports are regarded as useful and recommendations are followed.

p.8

Good

Children benefit from leaders and managers who are effective in maintaining positive relationships with local authorities and other professionals and are adept at escalating effectively concerns about poor services. Leaders and managers make consistent efforts to maintain positive relationships with the neighbours, particularly those who may be affected by disruptive behaviour.

p.8

Good

The quick and proper notification to relevant persons about significant incidents involving the children helps to make their responses most helpful for children’s well-being and progress. Some aspects of recording are of a high standard but the quality of recording as a whole is inconsistent and needs to improve.

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Good

In addition to being strong advocates for children, leaders and managers provide appropriate support to children to engage independent advocates, when this becomes necessary. One such advocate said, ‘They could not do anything more and there are some things that others need to take forward for her.’ She went on to compliment the home on its, ‘Good communication, quick responses, accurate reports and diligent attendance of meetings for children.’

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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 looked after children 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 that 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, workbased 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

Store Street Manchester M1 2WD T: 0300 123 1231 Textphone: 0161 618 8524 E: enquiries@ofsted.gov.uk W: www.gov.uk/government/organisations/ofsted

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