Children's home in Southwark

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 registered manager is an inspirational and competent leader. He champions tirelessly on behalf of children who have disabilities and special needs.  The service is managed effectively and efficiently. It fulfils its statement of purpose. It has a positive impact on the families with children who have disabilities.  The transition from one children’s home to different premises has been successful. As a result children have settled very well into their new environment.  Managers and staff ensure that the matching process is good. Staff plan short breaks with rigorous consideration of the impact of the group dynamics.  Proactive and robust risk management practice ensures that any risks to children’s safety are identified early and are either eliminated, reduced or managed effectively.  The care is personalised and effective in meeting the full range of children’s needs. Staff are highly skilled at communicating with children and

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The children's home provision is good because:

establishing relationships with them. The strength of this bond has contributed to the children’s increased sense of safety.  The behaviour management practice is effective. Staff promote children’s positive behaviours and engagement consistently.  The service is appropriately resourced and staffed. Staff are suitably experienced, qualified, trained and skilled for their roles. The team works collaboratively to provide consistency and stability to children and enrich their lives through a range of recreational activities.  The environment is of a high quality and maintained well. It is comfortably furnished and provides a homely atmosphere.  Parents, children and professionals who use the service are highly satisfied with its quality and effectiveness.

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Statutory requirements

This section sets out the actions which must be taken so that the registered person 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 must comply within the given timescales.

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must ensure that within 48 hours of the use of the behaviour control measure, the registered person, or a person who is authorised by the registered person to do so (‘the authorised person’) has spoken to the user about the measure and that this is clearly evidenced. (Regulation 35(3)(b)(i)) 01/05/2017

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must maintain in the home the records set out in Schedule 4. The staff duty roster must clearly reflect the registered manager’s hours. (Regulation 37(2)(a) Schedule 4.3) 01/05/2017

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Information about this children's home

This is a local authority service. It provides short breaks for up to six children who have complex learning and/or physical disabilities and challenging behaviours, including those associated with the autism spectrum disorder. The children’s home consists of three separate flats. This service operates on alternative weeks. The same provision for adults operates from the same premises on the other weeks. Both provisions have the same registered manager and staff team. However, the services for children and adults never operate at the same time. The Care Quality Commission regulates and inspects the adult service. The local authority has registered these two services on this location as an interim measure while the site from which they usually operate is undergoing a major refurbishment.

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Recent inspection history

This is the children’s home’s first inspection after registration.

p.5

Good

The manager and staff always base their decisions on what is best for children. Good planning and efficient management ensures that children have positive experiences and make good progress in their welfare and development.

p.6

Good

Children receive good quality care from a committed and competent care team. They have their needs met in line with the comprehensive and detailed care plans. The care plans provide clear guidance to staff and ensure a consistent approach in meeting children’s individual needs. The care is personalised and effective. Children experience care that is sensitive to their identity, family history and ethnic background. Staff always include parents and children (as much as their abilities allow) in the care planning and review process. A parent said: ‘Staff look after my son really well. They are very careful about his food and medication. They take him to the park and other places that he enjoys visiting. He simply loves being there.’ A head of the service for children who have disabilities commented that the manager and staff were highly professional, and eager to contribute to the formal children’s reviews.

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Good

Staff are highly skilled at communicating with children, including those who cannot communicate verbally and have other communication difficulties. Staff are attentive, observant and sensitive towards children. Staff’s caring approach, emotional warmth and professional competencies contribute to the children’s increased ability to express themselves and make choices. Children are supported to build trust and secure relationships with the staff members. A parent commented that she felt that her son was ‘loved’ in the children’s home. She highlighted that the empathy he received from the staff members was ‘wonderful’.

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Good

Despite the communication difficulties that children have, they were able to say that they were feeling ‘fine’, ‘happy’ and ‘safe’ in the service. When asked what they liked best about the service, they said that it was the staff. Observations confirmed that children form positive and secure relationships with the staff members. Taking into account the children’s autistic traits and diagnoses, establishing a bond with a person outside their immediate family is significant.

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Good

One other achievement for children is how quickly they settled into their new environment. This children’s home has been fully operational for only approximately four weeks. It is well known that children who have an autistic spectrum disorder can often find any changes to their routines anxiety provoking, difficult and disturbing. The home’s excellent practice regarding transition/introduction to the new service has underpinned the success of the move. Children’s excellent transition from one children’s home to another is a testament of the bond that they have formed with the staff members (who supported them in both homes). The strength of the bond has contributed to the children’s increased flexibility and resilience to change.

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Good

Children feel safe when they are with the staff members. This has enabled them to have positive experiences when they are away from their parents and family, or in new situations. They have accessed a range of activities in the community. Without this service, some of these activities would have not been available to them. The community-based activities promote their social skills and integration, and enhance their general learning and confidence effectively. By using this service, children get to share their experiences with their peers. This provides them with additional opportunities for developing social skills and friendships.

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Good

Better understanding of situations, better communication skills including having increased vocabulary, having uninterrupted sleep at night, reduction of challenging behaviours and more independence in relation to their personal self-care skills are some of the recent achievements that the children have gained.

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Good

Safeguarding children and promoting their welfare have a prominent profile in the home. The registered manager and staff approach their work with high levels of safeguarding awareness, vigilance and competence. They provide an emotionally and physically safe environment.

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Good

A proactive and robust risk management practice ensures that any risks to children’s safety are identified early and are either eliminated, reduced or managed effectively. Comprehensive individual risk management plans and other records clearly evidence good safeguarding practice.

p.7

Good

The registered manager and staff are acutely aware of the children’s specific needs and vulnerabilities. They creatively use their knowledge of children and the existence of separate flats to plan effectively for children’s safety, and to enable them to have positive experiences. They plan short breaks with rigorous consideration of the impact of the group dynamics and good matching practice.

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Good

The physical environment is equipped well for children who have disabilities and special needs. All staff have received training in the deprivation of liberty. They have a good working knowledge of this aspect of care and are keen to promote children’s rights. The statement of purpose includes clear information about the use of surveillance in the home. There are no cameras inside the home. In the absence of the children’s understanding, staff discuss and formally agree any use of locks and surveillance, with their parents. The surveillance is limited to sounders fitted to the bedroom doors. Those alarms can be switched on and off, and have been used appropriately, at night.

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Good

As a result of the staff protective actions, there have been no accidents, or incidents of children going missing or putting themselves at risk of harm, exploitation or radicalisation.

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Good

The behaviour management practice in the home is effective. Staff promote children’s positive behaviours and engagement consistently. They provide an orderly and positive environment. They set clear and firm boundaries about what is safe and acceptable behaviours. They are aware of the triggers for children’s challenging behaviours and do not miss the early signs of children’s rising anxieties. They respond quickly and effectively to reassure children and help to diffuse and de-escalate potentially challenging behaviours and situations.

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Good

There has been only one incident when the staff members had to intervene physically, in order to make everybody safe. This child has a long history of requiring physical restraint on a regular basis. It is a sign of great progress that at all other times when using this service she was able, with the staff’s help, to regulate her behaviour, without need for physical intervention. The restraint log clearly shows that on this occasion the physical intervention was necessary, appropriate and effective. The child later apologised for her behaviour. This was appropriately recorded. However, the debrief that subsequently took place between senior staff and the staff member concerned was not documented. This shortfall did not place any child at risk of harm.

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Good

The inspector observed children being relaxed and comfortable in the home’s environment. This included a five-year-old child who was admitted in an emergency and was away from his family for the first time. The staff are very skilled at quickly forming positive relationships with children and making them feel safe.

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Good

All children who spoke to the inspector said that they were safe at this home. Their parents echo this. The parents said that they did not worry about their children when they were receiving the short break service.

p.8

Good

The leadership and management of the home is strong. The registered manager has appropriate levels of qualification, experience and competence. He is an inspirational leader, who champions tirelessly on behalf of children who have disabilities. Supported by three experienced deputy managers, he has ensured that the service is managed effectively and efficiently, and that it delivers only high quality care.

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Good

The service is appropriately resourced and staffed to meet children’s complex needs. The staff duty roster clearly evidences this. However, the registered manager’s hours have not always been recorded.

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Good

Parents and children are highly satisfied with the service. The service fulfils its statement of purpose effectively. It has a positive impact on the families with children who have disabilities in the borough. A parent described the service as a life-saver for her family. She said that the service helped her to keep her child out of care. Another parent said that due to his son’s high needs, the only time when he could spend quality time with his daughter was when his son was staying at the children’s home.

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Good

The whole service, including the full management and staff team, has recently transferred from the children’s home that is currently undergoing refurbishment. The leaders and managers have worked hard to minimise any negative impact of the transfer on the children and their families. Working in close partnership with the local authority’s leaders, parents, schools and the local neighbourhood, the registered manager has ensured that the transfer went as smoothly as possible. Taking into account the particular needs of children, the continuation of a good service in a completely different physical environment is a great achievement for everyone involved.

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Good

The new environment is of a high quality specification and is maintained well. It is comfortably furnished and provides a homely atmosphere.

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Good

The staff members have worked together for a long time. They have developed a sense of shared ownership for the children and the quality of the service that they receive. They work collaboratively to provide consistency, stability and safety to children and enrich their lives.

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Good

The local authority has recruited and maintained a diverse staff team that reflects the needs of the local community. Staff are appropriately experienced, qualified, trained and skilled for their roles. Good policies, procedures and systems are in place to guide and promote good practice. Records of regular individual staff supervision and team meetings demonstrate the management’s commitment towards providing supportive environment for staff and striving to continually improve the care practice. A parent noted that from all the services that she dealt with, the staff from this children’s home were the most professional. Staff appropriately maintain children’s files. The records reflect children’s needs, experiences, progress and outcomes.

p.9

Good

The leaders and managers actively monitor the quality of the provision and its impact. An independent professional’s monthly monitoring visits to the service add to the quality assurance processes. The registered manager is realistic in his self- evaluation of the service and fully aware of the home’s strengths and weaknesses. He has a clear commitment towards moving the quality of the service forward and preparing well for a move back to the fully refurbished premises, once the work has been completed.

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Good

The re-registered manager has worked positively and transparently with Ofsted, in relation to this new registration. He is very keen to run a fully compliant service and continues to work hard towards meeting and exceeding the quality standards.

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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 that 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 whom 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 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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