Children's home run by Sherico Care Services Limited in Westminster

Inspection report children’s home: SC010700 1 SC010700 Registered provider: Sherico Care Services 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

This children’s home is one of a number of homes owned by a private organisation. The home is registered to provide care and accommodation for no more than three children who have emotional and/or behavioural difficulties.

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Overall experiences and progress of

children and young people, taking into account

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good

How well children and young people are helped and protected good

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good

The effectiveness of leaders and managers requires improvement to be good

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good

The children’s home provides effective services that meet the requirements for good.

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good

Overall judgement at last inspection: Declined in effectiveness

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Key findings from this inspection

 Children receive individualised care that meets their needs.  Children share trusted relationships with the staff who care for them. Inspection report children’s home: SC010700 2  Staff have good working relationships with involved professionals.  Children make progress while living in the home.  Staff listen to what children say and take their views seriously. Children do not make complaints and they participate in making decisions about their day-to- day care.  Children have positive experiences and enjoy living at the home.

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Key findings from this inspection

The children’s home’s areas for development:

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Key findings from this inspection

 Regulation 44 monitoring reports do not consistently evaluate the home’s ability to keep children safe and promote their well-being.  Staff are yet to complete training in physical intervention.  Staff conduct unjustified daily room searches in some children’s bedrooms.  Some areas of the home require redecoration.  The home’s fire precaution measures are not sufficiently robust.

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

06/03/2017 Interim Declined in effectiveness 29/11/2016 Full Requires improvement 14/03/2016 Interim Sustained effectiveness 30/11/2015 Full Requires improvement Inspection report children’s home: SC010700 3

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Statutory requirements

This section sets out the actions that the registered person(s) must take to meet 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

Independent person: visits and reports The independent person must produce a report about a visit (‘the independent person’s report’) which sets out, in particular, the independent person’s opinion as to whether— children are effectively safeguarded and; the conduct of the home promotes children’s well-being. (Regulation 44(4)(a)(b)) 01/08/2017

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Requirement Due date

Other records The registered person must— maintain in the home the records in Schedule 4. In particular, a copy of the staff duty roster of persons working at the home, and a record of the actual rosters worked. (Regulation 37(2)(a)) 01/08/2017

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Recommendations

 Ensure that the behaviour management policy sets out how staff are trained and supported to meet the child’s needs. This is in particular reference to staff needing to be trained in the use of physical intervention. (‘Guide to children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 46, paragraph 9.37)  Ensure that rooms are only searched if the child has been informed or asked for their permission. Immediate searching takes place where there are reasonable grounds for believing that there is a risk to the child’s or another person’s safety or well-being. (‘Guide to children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 16, paragraph 3.20)  Ensure that staff comply with relevant health and safety legislations. In particular, that fire doors are kept closed and that there is a fire blanket available in the kitchen area. (‘Guide to children’s homes regulations including the quality

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Recommendations

standards’, page 15, paragraph 3.9)  Ensure that the home is a nurturing and supportive environment that is homely and domestic. In particular, that the first floor landing area is redecorated. (‘Guide to children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 15, Inspection report children’s home: SC010700 4 paragraph 3.7)

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children receive individualised care that meets their needs. They make fair progress from their original starting points. Staff devise placement plans that are in accordance with issues identified in local authority care plans. This helps to meet the educational and healthcare needs of children. Children resident at the home do not attend school or college. Some receive home tuition as a means to support their educational needs, while staff support other children to complete work set by their local authority educational team. This approach is appropriate in helping children to meet their learning objectives. Children are very much engaged in their learning and actively participate in set activities. For example, children complete work sheets, visit museums and participate in learning objectives set by tutors. This helps support their educational progress while professionals attempt to arrange permanent educational provision.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children lead healthy lifestyles and staff promote this ethos. Staff ensure that children attend primary care medical appointments and encourage children to comply with recommended treatment plans. For example, one child has recently been prescribed glasses, which staff encourage him to wear. Another child is due to have braces fitted. Children enjoy meals staff prepare for them and participate in making meal choices, assisting with food shopping and food preparation. Staff ensure that children’s emotional and mental health support needs are met. Staff liaise with appropriate mental health professionals to support this. For example, staff are in close communication with child and adolescent mental health services. This is to ensure that staff have a good understanding of each child’s diagnosis and the purpose and impact of prescribed medication. Staff’s medication practices are safe and in accordance with the home’s medication policies.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children participate in physical activities that promote their well-being. They regularly play football in the park, and staff have recently purchased football equipment for the home. Children also attend the local gym for other forms of fitness and exercise. Children choose for themselves and enjoy a good range of leisure activities. This includes go-karting, trampolining and trips to the local league facility for football. On the second day of the inspection, staff accompanied children to an amusement park; both parties were very excited about the trip. Children very much enjoy the company of the staff team. They feel staff have a genuine interest in their welfare and children enjoy spending time with them. As a result, children’s relationship with staff is very good. One child said, ‘Staff here are very understanding. They understand what I am saying; they spend time and listen to me.’ As a further illustration, the residents’ book describes the children’s alarm when they

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

mistakenly thought a member of staff was leaving the home. This is an indication of children’s fondness for staff who take care of them. Another child said, ‘I give the home Inspection report children’s home: SC010700 5 ten out of ten, I like this place. It isn’t like Tracey Beaker at all!’ Children have good opportunities to share their views and opinions about the home and their placement. They do not make complaints, but speak openly to staff about any issues or concerns they may have. Staff encourage children to participate in making decisions about their care. This is most noticeable in the choices that children make in relation to the leisure activities, the decor of the home and the decoration of their bedrooms. One child, on admission to the home, changed his bedding to reflect Manchester United Football Club, as he is a keen supporter. Children have an influence on the environment they reside in and the care they receive.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff pay adequate attention to the identities of children and the needs surrounding these. For example, staff are mindful of the maturity and understanding of some young children, ensuring that their care is age-appropriate. Staff sensitively support younger children to complete self-care tasks and they braid children’s hair in a style they prefer. Staff prepare culturally appropriate meals that children enjoy. Children develop good practical skills to help prepare them for adulthood. Older children participate in the home’s semi-independent programme and show some improvements in budgeting, meal preparation, and keeping their personal space clean and tidy.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children enjoy safe and appropriate contact with friends and members of their families. Staff are supportive of agreed contact arrangements and encourage children to have family members and friends visit at the home if they so wish. Staff are vigilant about the visiting patterns of children’s friends. For example, on one recent occasion, staff asked a young person visiting the home to leave once it became clear she was supposed to be at school during that time.

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

Children feel safe at the home and staff protect them from harm and abuse. Staff are familiar with the home’s comprehensive child protection policies, which is to children’s benefit. This was not the case at the last inspection, as there were concerns for staff’s safeguarding practices. Since the last inspection, the staff team has undergone safeguarding training and managers routinely discus child protection issues in team meetings and individual staff supervision sessions. There has been significant improvement in staff’s management of incidents when children are missing from the home. Staff consistently adhere to revised policies; for example, they now complete missing person’s risk assessments. This is to inform the police of the particular vulnerabilities of children. Staff now also maintain accurate records of children who go missing from the home. This helps them to better gauge trends. In one case, accurate record keeping highlights to staff one child’s tendency to

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

prepare to leave the home late and go missing on Fridays. Staff were better prepared to address issues with this child at times when they thought she may be preparing to be absent. This action has had some success, as the frequency of the child going missing has reduced. Staff demonstrate a good understanding of the home’s policies and procedures when children make allegations. Since the last inspection, children have made two allegations Inspection report children’s home: SC010700 6 against staff. In both instances, managers took effective action to ensure that children were safe, including consistent communication with the local area designated officer, field social workers and the police. One social worker says of staff’s management of a recent allegation, ‘The quality assurance manager acted quickly and appropriately, the situation was handled well.’ Staff work in effective collaboration with other professionals to promote the protection of

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

children. This is particularly the case with social workers, local police teams, health and educational professionals. Staff contact the police appropriately when children are at risk. Staff have recently invited the police to speak with children informally to discuss risk issues and their personal protection. Case records detail regular information sharing with external partners, which helps coordinate children’s safe care in accordance with plans. Children relate well to each other and they do not experience bullying or discrimination. Staff help and support children to manage their behaviour and feelings. As a result, critical incidents involving children displaying negative behaviour(s) are on the decline. Staff promote positive behaviour by using rewards and incentives which are effective. Staff ensure that children are clear about staff’s expectations regarding their behaviour and there are good boundaries in place to support this. There is some evidence of staff

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

beginning to adopt a restorative approach in response to poor or challenging behaviour. Staff do not restrain children, but managers accept the need for staff to receive training in physical intervention. This is to ensure that staff are equipped to manage any extreme, harmful behaviour safely. Staff conduct room searches to ensure that children do not have in their possession items that pose risks to their safety. However, for some children, daily room searches are unjustified and unwarranted. This is an infringement of their privacy and not in children’s best interest.

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

The home’s staff vetting and recruitment practices are vigorous and safe. All required staff vetting information is evident on personnel files. This ensures that staff are suitable to work with vulnerable children. The home’s premises are generally physically safe and secure. Staff conduct health and safety checks regularly, including fire drills. However, the home’s fire prevention measures require improvement. In particular, no fire blanket is evident in the kitchen and the fire door to the lounge is propped open. This does not protect children and others from harm in the event of a fire.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: requires improvement to be good

Leaders and managers prioritise the needs of children. The home’s care planning process is thorough. Children’s outcomes improve from their starting points and their experiences are positive. Leaders and managers have insight into the service’s strengths and weaknesses and, since the last inspection, they have been effective in driving improvement to the home’s quality of care. The previous inspection highlighted concerns about the effectiveness of the home’s leadership and management and, as a result, a number of actions were raised. Since this time, most of the identified shortfalls have been resolved. Inspection report children’s home: SC010700 7 The home’s monitoring systems show some improvement. However, regulation 44 visits fail to evaluate the service’s effectiveness in safeguarding children or its promotion of children’s well-being as required. The home has recently recruited a new manager, who intends to apply to become the

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: requires improvement to be good

home’s registered manager. The manager offers the staff clear leadership and is committed to improving the service’s quality of care. There is sufficient staff in the home at all times, and this supports children to meet placement goals. However, managers’ records of staff rotas are incorrect and do not reflect the actual shifts worked by individual staff members. The service is well resourced and is financially viable. However, the upper level of the premises requires redecoration in order to make the area more homely and pleasant. The home has recently recruited a number of new staff. The new staff team feels well supported and receives regular supervision, and staff find this useful. Staff training opportunities are good. New staff undergo an appropriate induction; thereafter, the organisation provides the staff with regular, relevant training. This is to enhance staff knowledge and skills and to improve the quality of care provided to children. Recent staff

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: requires improvement to be good

training topics include safeguarding, challenging behaviour, medication training, and attachment and loss. Team meetings and individual supervision sessions are also vehicles for training. The staff team is yet to complete training in physical intervention. This is necessary to ensure staff’s safe practices if high-risk incidents occur that may require children to be restrained for their own safety.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: requires improvement to be good

The home’s statement of purpose is a detailed document that outlines well the aims and objectives of the service and the nature of care provided. This is to ensure that stakeholders are aware of services available. The home’s children’s guide is a user- friendly document for children’s use. The handbook is a creative summary of services provided and includes information about making complaints and independent advocacy. Staff maintain children’s case files in an orderly manner; information is comprehensive and up to date. Key records such as 1:1 sessions, risk assessments and records of children who go missing from the home are appropriately detailed. This is a significant improvement to the quality of recording observed at the last inspection. The leadership and management of the service shows improvement. Enhanced management systems have had a positive impact on the quality of care provided, the protection of children, and children’s overall progress.

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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 difference made to the lives of Inspection report children’s home: SC010700 8 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 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.

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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: SC010700 9

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Children’s home details

Registered provider: Sherico Care Services Limited

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: 2nd floor, 167-169 Great Portland Street, London W1W 5PF

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Inspector

Sandra Jacobs-Walls, social care inspector Inspection report children’s home: SC010700 10 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 children looked after, safeguarding and child protection.

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Inspector

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Inspector

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Inspector

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