Children's home run by White Orchid Marston Moretaine Limited in Dacorum

Inspection report children's home: SC483714 1 SC483714 Registered provider: White Orchid Marston Moretaine Limited

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Full inspection Inspected under the social care common inspection framework

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Information about this children’s home

The home is registered to provide care for up to six children who have additional needs. The children cared for are vulnerable and may have experienced trauma due to neglect and/or physical and/or emotional and/or sexual abuse. They may also be at risk of child sexual exploitation and may be experiencing mental health issues. The home provides a multi-professional approach to therapeutic care.

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Overall experiences and progress of

children and young people, taking into account

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outstanding

How well children and young people are helped and protected outstanding

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outstanding

The effectiveness of leaders and managers outstanding

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outstanding

The children’s home provides highly effective services that consistently exceed the standards of good. The actions of the children’s home contribute to significantly improved outcomes and positive experiences for children and young people who need help, protection and care.

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outstanding

Date of last inspection: 14 February 2017

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outstanding

Overall judgement at last inspection: Improved effectiveness

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Enforcement action since last inspection

None Inspection report children's home: SC483714 2

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Key findings from this inspection

This children’s home is outstanding because:

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Key findings from this inspection

 The children are making excellent progress from their starting points.

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Key findings from this inspection

 Families and professionals are very positive about the care that the children receive.

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Key findings from this inspection

 A stable and experienced staff team cares for the children and provides consistent boundaries.

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Key findings from this inspection

 The staff are able to build positive warm relationships with the children quickly.

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Key findings from this inspection

 The staff support the children through key work and therapy to build their levels of resilience.

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Key findings from this inspection

 Children are becoming increasingly responsive to the de-escalation techniques used by the staff.

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Key findings from this inspection

 The children are becoming increasingly able to self-regulate their emotions.

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Key findings from this inspection

 The home shares its learning from incidents and events with other professionals, to ensure that other settings benefit from the lessons learned by the home.

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Key findings from this inspection

 The staff have found creative ways of maintaining contact between a child and the child’s relatives who live overseas.

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Key findings from this inspection

 The staff are undertaking a bespoke reflective-practice training course that is further enhancing their understanding of therapeutic work.

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Key findings from this inspection

 The organisation has developed a fostering service, with the specific aim to provide continuity of care for the children.

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

14/02/2017 Interim Improved effectiveness 05/10/2016 Full Good 24/03/2016 Interim Improved effectiveness 16/06/2015 Full Good Inspection report children's home: SC483714 3

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: outstanding

Since the last inspection, one child has moved into the home. No children have moved out. The transition plan for the new child is very detailed and describes how the staff will address any potential areas of conflict between the children. These strategies have not been required, as the child has settled into the home quickly and gets on very well with all of the children.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: outstanding

The therapeutic approach that forms the ethos of the home underpins the way that the children are cared for. This approach, utilised by all of the staff, enables the children to live in a group that feels more like a family. The organisation describes the home as, ‘An environment which promotes thinking, listening, reflection, understanding and development.’ The staff are excellent role models and they demonstrate this ethos consistently, and particularly each time the children’s moods and behaviour escalate. A professional said, ‘The conversation with [child] earlier was about him wanting to, and fearing, knowing more about his birth mother. I don’t think we would have got to this point already with any other carers.’ Another professional said, ‘I like the change in [child’s] ability to articulate his views and feelings, and the strength that I can see now. He is finding the words rather than using destructive ways. He wanted his aunt to bring

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: outstanding

his brother to contact. We thought that he would be upset as he had not seen her for a while. He was listened to and his aunt was overwhelmed that he had asked for her. Everything here is at his pace and it is working as it is so powerful.’ The children are becoming more able to self-regulate and engage with their emotions because of the staff team’s approach.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: outstanding

The staff are extremely skilled at quickly building excellent relationships with the children, their families and the professionals involved in the children’s lives. This process starts with the manager’s and key worker’s introductory visits to the children, both during the referral process and once a move is scheduled. This enables the child to have a smooth transition into the home. In cases when a child is unable to visit before moving in, the staff write the child a ‘welcome to your new home’ letter, with accompanying pictures of the child’s bedroom, the child’s key workers and the house. This provides the child with some details about who will be caring for them, who they will be living with and their new home. A parent said, prior to her child moving in, ‘I went to visit. I got to ask all my questions and I saw his bedroom. I am very happy.’

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: outstanding

The staff tailor the placement plans to the children’s individual needs. The plans detail the short, medium and longer-term placement goals and enable easy tracking of the children’s progress towards achieving their targets and goals. There is a child-friendly version of the plan that the children help to complete. This format helps the children to understand what they need to do to achieve their targets.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: outstanding

The children’s weekly and monthly progress reports are password protected when provided to families and professionals. The reports detail targets, achievements and the positive and negative behaviour measures that the staff are using to promote positive Inspection report children's home: SC483714 4 changes. These reports demonstrate that the children are making excellent progress from their starting points.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: outstanding

The staff are actively working with the children to address some of the issues and behaviours that have meant that foster care is not a current option. The organisation has set up a fostering agency to enable them to recruit carers who are suited to the needs of the children, and to enable the continuity of care and workers.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: outstanding

A parent said, ‘He [child] is confident and stronger in himself and it is easier to calm him. They [the staff] have taught him so much about self-control and respect that he can now take the blame if he is in the wrong, and he will say sorry.’

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: outstanding

The children are encouraged to take an active role in the home. This includes having individual and group incentive schemes. A recent group incentive, used to reduce the incidence of children swearing, has resulted in the children achieving their chosen reward of a new trampoline. The variety of incentives is promoting good behaviour and the children’s sense of working as team.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: outstanding

The staff encourage the children, through key-work sessions and the house meetings known as catch-up sessions, to select activities and meals and to voice their opinions on various topics. The new format of the catch-up book gathers the children’s views in an extremely child-friendly, creative and inclusive way. An example of this is the children suggesting countries for the monthly themed night. The most recent was an Egyptian night. The children and the staff conducted research for recipes for the meal and also about the country and its traditions. This provides the children with positive exposure to other cultures.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: outstanding

The children attend their routine and specialist health checks. The manager has created a new health passport that contains a summary of the children’s medical conditions, associated professionals, access to health-care services, an immunisation log and a growth log. This enables the information to be shared at appointments without the child having to listen to it all being restated, and to avoid any gaps in information.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: outstanding

The in-house psychotherapist spoke positively about how the children are increasingly engaging with him. Three of the children now see him weekly. One child has opted to have sessions accompanied by his key worker. Another child, who is wary of therapy, is still unwilling to participate in the sessions but is now more able to speak informally with the psychotherapist. This is enabling the psychotherapist to work closely with the staff to identify the strategies that the staff can use to successfully deflect and defuse any challenging behaviour.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: outstanding

The staff, in conjunction with the psychotherapist, are working creatively with one child about his bereavement. They are using items such as a ‘memories of my daddy’ book. This is helping him with the ongoing emotions that he is experiencing in relation to the loss of his dad. His social worker said, ‘These things are being done at his pace and he has built up core strength and resilience. He is able to speak about his feelings more.’ The staff apply this creativity to working through life-story work with other children, to Inspection report children's home: SC483714 5 enable the children to understand the circumstances that have led to them living away from their families.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: outstanding

Prior to living at the home, the children have either refused to attend school or they have attended sporadically. The children’s attendance now averages 90%. A teacher spoke positively about how the home has pre-planned and managed transitions from lower to middle school. This has enabled the school to fully consider all aspects of the child’s life experiences in their planning. The tutor for one of the children reported that they had observed the child trying to use a Segway during his break. Within ten minutes the child had progressed from being scared to get on it and clinging to two staff to doing turns with minimal support. This demonstrated his absolute trust in the staff and their ability to support him. The tutor said, ‘His confidence today is absolutely inspiring.’

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: outstanding

The children participate in a wide range of extra-curricular activities in the community. Some of the children have made friends locally and at school, and go over to their friends’ homes to play, or they have friends over to visit. This enables the children to develop positive friendships and provides them with an experience that is the norm for their mainstream peers.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: outstanding

The staff facilitate contact with family members, irrespective of the distance that the family lives from the home. A social worker was complimentary about the staff. They said that the staff will make and fulfil any arrangements that enable the child to maintain family contact. The staff have found a creative way of communicating and sharing information with a parent who lives overseas, to maintain the parent’s ability to receive updates about her child.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: outstanding

The house and garden offer the children ample space to relax and play. Redecoration has occurred in several parts of the house. The children’s bedrooms are decorated in colours and themes of the children’s choice. This gives each bedroom a unique feel. A spare bedroom is in the process of being converted into a sensory room. The children benefit from the additional space that the fostering offices provide. These are used for tutoring, contact visits, staff training and meetings. This additional space enables the manager to limit the number of visitors and staff present in the home.

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How well children and young people are helped and protected: outstanding

The staff tailor children’s risk assessments to enable the children to increase their ability to take safe levels of risk in areas such as the use of wi-fi enabled devices. The staff monitor the children’s device usage. If the children are not using their devices in a safe way, then the revised agreements are implemented and protective measures, such as having a password on the area where applications are downloaded, are put in place. This ensures that the children start from a position of trust in learning about online safety.

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How well children and young people are helped and protected: outstanding

The manager and staff maintain their knowledge of current safeguarding concerns and guidance. For example, the staff receive updates from the police in respect of issues such as the Blue Whale Challenge. The manager shares the guide written by the Inspection report children's home: SC483714 6 National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children, ‘A Parent’s Guide to being Share Aware’, in respect of social media and internet sites. The staff ask the children to tell them about potential dangers. This means that the children are able to share their knowledge, which informs staff about how well the children understand potential dangers. The approaches used by staff help to protect the children from external influences that could put them at risk of harm.

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How well children and young people are helped and protected: outstanding

There have been no episodes of the children going missing from home. The staff are proactive in their work with the children, especially those who have historically tried to run away when upset. The staff use their relationships with the children successfully, to help the children to talk about their concerns. The staff, in conjunction with the children, develop alternative strategies that enable the children to learn to recognise the potential risks that they would be facing if they were to run away. The manager has created links with the local police missing-person department and the officer has visited to meet informally with the children and to speak with the staff team.

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How well children and young people are helped and protected: outstanding

The staff provide the children with consistent boundaries and use incentives, rewards and sanctions to promote positive behaviour. The children’s monthly progress reports demonstrate the positive changes that these incentives are having on the children, both as individuals and as a group. One child who has difficulty sleeping at night has an incentive to help him to call staff at night if he wakes. He said that he has to use his ‘quiet voice’. He is now able to differentiate between the noise levels and he is able to seek staff attention without disturbing the other children’s sleep. A social worker said, ‘[Child] is safe here and they [staff] know what he is like. I know the levels that they go to [to keep him safe].’

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How well children and young people are helped and protected: outstanding

The use of physical interventions is low and proportionate. The staff use de-escalation techniques, such as diversion, adeptly. The records detail the manager’s review of the effectiveness of the intervention and any follow-up actions taken. The manager tracks the use of the interventions to identify any trends or patterns, to look at whether alternative strategies could be used in the future. This is proving successful and the use of physical intervention at known trigger points, such as at Christmas and birthdays, has reduced.

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How well children and young people are helped and protected: outstanding

The staff report that they do not have any concerns about their colleagues’ suitability or practice. The staff are confident in the use of the whistle-blowing process. The staff make appropriate safeguarding referrals and notifications. Although none of the matters to date have required any further action, the manager reviews all significant events to ensure that the staff can benefit from any lessons learned.

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How well children and young people are helped and protected: outstanding

Fire drills and test evacuations are conducted at the required frequency, or sooner if a new child moves in. An evacuation occurred during the inspection. A child, who is new to the home, was able to say what we needed to do, where we needed to congregate and what sign we had to receive before re-entering the property. This demonstrates that he is familiar with the process and that he understands the importance of leaving the building in a calm way. Inspection report children's home: SC483714 7 The staff access a robust training programme that ensures that they are equipped to keep children safe from abuse, child sexual exploitation and radicalisation. The organisation is proactive in requiring its staff to complete an annual signed declaration to confirm that their police and driving records remain clear. This enables the manager to ensure that the staff continue to be free of any convictions after their employment.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

The manager has been in post since the home opened. She holds a social work degree and a relevant level 5 qualification. She has aspirational expectations for all of the children. She actively promotes partnership working with families and professionals to ensure that the children receive consistent care.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

A staff member described the manager as, ‘A fantastic manager. She has helped me to develop my confidence.’ Another described feeling supported by the manager and staff team. They said, ‘I know it sounds cheesy, but it feels good working here. They are some of the best staff that I have ever worked with.’

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

The manager has forged links with relevant professionals to share ideas and good practice. This collaborative working includes taking an active role in a forum for local service providers, where she has shared the learning and knowledge gained from incidents that have occurred in the home with other professionals.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

A stable and consistent staff team cares for the children. There have been no leavers or starters since the last inspection.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

There were no requirements or recommendations made at the last inspection. The manager is working consistently to creatively develop and improve the service. The home’s vision board, which was in its infancy at the last inspection, is now taking effect. Initiatives such as ‘smile week’ and themed nights are having a positive impact on engaging the staff and the children.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

The manager has excellent oversight of all of the children’s progress. She liaises with the key workers and staff members to ensure that the children’s plans and targets are easy to track. This maximises the children’s potential to meet their targets and objectives. The staff complete an assessment review that details the children’s presentation, planning and areas of resilience and concern. The manager oversees the staff’s key-work planning to ensure that the sessions cover current aspects that the children need to develop along with areas of concern.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

The staff receive regular supervision, which they describe as supportive. The staff report that the organisation’s new bespoke training for reflective practice has enabled them to think about their work and the children’s development differently, and from a more therapeutic basis. One staff member said, ‘I have worked in residential and took it for granted. Now I can connect emotionally. I can put some actual theory behind it and look at papers that people have written. It makes you look at things more deeply, to see behind the behaviour.’ Another said, ‘The sessions feel like group therapy. I find it really Inspection report children's home: SC483714 8 interesting looking behind the behaviour. It makes you sit back and think and you can see it differently using different strategies. I can see a real difference.’ The additional insight provided by the training is enabling the staff to review the approaches and

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

strategies that they use with children, and is encouraging a higher level of self-reflection.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

The staff undertake a wide range of training that includes the organisation’s mandatory and developmental training courses. These are refreshed at the required intervals to ensure that the staff are working with current knowledge.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

The staff have good working relationships with other professionals. Feedback from parents and professionals includes:

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

 ‘They [the staff] work well with families and they have excellent relationships with the children. They support you as a parent and you can call and speak and get an update at any time. I get the support and reassurance.’  ‘His last place was not as nice really. This feels much warmer and suits his needs more.’  ‘I’ve never seen kids so happy. It feels and looks like a family home and it feels like a family unit. At their age, it gives the children a sense of belonging.’  ‘The manager is really excellent. She follows things through and I have total confidence in her.’  ‘They [the staff] are highly professional, really thorough and always go over and beyond. They are really child focused. He is at the centre of the planning.’  ‘They [staff] are brilliant and I feel lucky that [my child] is there. Hopefully, when he is older he will look back and feel the same.’  ‘If there was a Michelin star for care, I would give them five stars. They are a cut

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

above the rest. My child was with foster carers. He is happier now than when living one-to-one with a carer.’  ‘The staff are passionate, caring and consistent. They do not let the children down.’

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Information about this inspection

Inspectors have looked closely at the experiences and progress of children and young people. Inspectors considered the quality of work and the differences made to the lives of children and young people. They watched how professional staff work with children and young people and each other and discussed the effectiveness of help and care provided. Wherever possible, they talked to children and young people and their families. In addition, the inspectors have tried to understand what the children’s home Inspection report children's home: SC483714 9 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.

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Information about this inspection

Using the ‘Social care common inspection framework’, this inspection was carried out under the Care Standards Act 2000 to assess the effectiveness of the service, how it meets the core functions of the service as set out in legislation, and to consider how well it complies with the Children’s Homes (England) Regulations 2015 and the ‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’. Inspection report children's home: SC483714 10

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Children’s home details

Registered provider: White Orchid Marston Moretaine Limited

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: 77 Marlowes, Hemel Hempstead, Hertfordshire HP1 1LF

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Inspector

Sonia Hay, social care inspector Inspection report children's home: SC483714 11 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, further education and skills, adult and community learning, and education and training in prisons and other secure establishments. It assesses council children’s services, and inspects services for looked after children, safeguarding and child protection.

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Inspector

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Inspector

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Inspector

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