Children's home run by Jigsaw (Croydon) Limited

Inspection report children’s home: SC025871 1 SC025871 Registered provider: Jigsaw (Croydon) 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 privately run children’s home is registered for a maximum of seven children or young people who have emotional and/or behavioural difficulties. There is one semi-independent flat on the premises, which does not form part of this inspection.

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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 November 2016

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outstanding

Overall judgement at last inspection: Sustained effectiveness

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Enforcement action since last inspection

None Inspection report children’s home: SC025871 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

 Young people benefit from exceptional levels of care from the committed and dedicated staff team.  Staff advocate persistently and effectively on behalf of young people. This recently included them successfully challenging a member of parliament over the absence of specialist services.  Young people benefit from living in a warm and very friendly environment. The home offers them exceptional stability with no new staff or young person admissions for four years.  Young people and staff reap the benefits of a strong and highly dedicated management group that is extremely child centred and led by example.  The home would further benefit from a comprehensive workforce development plan and by adding the contact details for the children’s commissioner to the children’s guide.

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

14/11/2016 Interim Sustained effectiveness 11/07/2016 Full Outstanding 06/01/2016 Interim Sustained effectiveness 30/06/2015 Full Outstanding Inspection report children’s home: SC025871 3

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Recommendations

 Devise a workforce plan which can fulfil the workforce-related requirements of regulation 16, schedule 1 (paragraphs 19 and 20) The plan should: detail the necessary management and staffing structure, (including any staff commissioned to provide health and education), the experience and qualifications of staff currently working within the staffing structure and any further training required for those staff, to enable the delivery of the home’s Statement of Purpose; detail the processes and agreed timescales for staff to achieve induction, probation and any core training (such as safeguarding, health and safety and mandatory qualifications); detail the process for managing and improving poor performance. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 53, paragraph 10.8)  Ensure that the children’s guide contains contact details for the Office of the Children’s Commissioner. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations, including

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Recommendations

the quality standards’, page 23, paragraph 4.19) Inspection report children’s home: SC025871 4

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: outstanding

Feedback from young people is extremely positive. A young person commented, ‘The staff are like my family and the others like my brothers and sisters.’ This feedback is echoed by placing professionals, with one of them referring to the ‘uniquely nurturing’ skills of the staff team. Professionals refer to the outstanding ability of the home to advocate and persist with young people through extremely difficult circumstances. They report that this supports young people to achieve exceptional outcomes.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: outstanding

Young people live in an extremely stable home. The length of time that they have lived there ranges from four to nine years. Such lengths of stay are exceptional within residential care and provide young people with a significant period of stability and security. This allows staff and young people to build close bonds and relationships based on openness and honesty. One young person has worked directly with a therapist employed by the home for eight years. This has helped him address considerable trauma resulting from his early childhood.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: outstanding

Staff promote a family-style atmosphere by organising events such as themed food nights or piano-playing sessions in the living room area. This helps young people build extremely positive relationships with each other and with staff. For many young people, this is the first time that this has been achieved.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: outstanding

There is a culture of promoting achievement in education. Progress in education raises young people’s self-confidence and is very warmly celebrated by staff. Two young people have successfully progressed onto vocational courses. Staff support educational attainment by close liaison and excellent support with schools and colleges. When placing local authorities fail to provide sufficient input, staff proactively advocate and research alternatives, such as moving tutoring to a more private venue. Regular key- work with young people quickly ascertains if academic courses are meeting their needs. This ensures an extremely vibrant, holistic level of support and progress.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: outstanding

Young people learn new skills and access a wide range of fresh experiences. Experiences range from attending police cadets and the scouts to regular camping, fishing trips and holidays with staff. Young people are due to go camping in Europe this summer. Young people speak with extreme fondness and pride of building shelters and making campfires with staff support. Young people also plan to try kite surfing this summer. This varied choice offers a unique range of new skills to build social and independence skills.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: outstanding

Independent skills work is excellent. The progress of young people is assessed very regularly to ensure that staff fully appreciate the pace at which skills are learned and consolidated. Young people cook large meals and are encouraged to invite friends and family to share these. Staff use humour to support engagement. For example, young people follow a known television game show format and receive a bag of ingredients and a set period of time to prepare a meal. This encourages the development of cooking and budgeting skills, and promotes jovial banter with staff. Inspection report children’s home: SC025871 5 The approach supporting young people with family and friend contact is outstanding. Contact with friends and family is encouraged and promoted. Staff monitor this intensely and feed back concerns to placing professionals. Where contact with immediate family is not possible, young people are able to spend the weekend with mentoring families. This

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: outstanding

is a crucial form of support which may continue into adulthood for the young person concerned. Relatives receive advice and guidance on managing behaviours from staff. A relative commented, ‘The staff team will go to the end of the earth for him, I could not ask for any more.’ Such high levels of communication support consistency in behavioural management and positive contact.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: outstanding

Staff take positive steps to ensure that culture and difference are widely celebrated. Staff support this through in-depth life story work, which clearly chronicles life events and helps young people make sense of their very difficult histories. Life story books contain warm and touching comments from the staff team, which reflect their extremely close relationships. The home produces a monthly newspaper which celebrates individual and collective achievements, such as recently breaking a record for catching the largest fish. In another edition, two staff members were pictured in traditional Mexican clothing, seeking to advertise the forthcoming Mexican-themed food evening. This was highly amusing to young people. The newspaper is proudly displayed in the main dining area of the home.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: outstanding

Consultation with young people is outstanding. Young people are actively involved in the drafting of their own safety plans. For example, one young person has chosen an area away from the home where he can go when he feels angry or upset. This ensures that he can learn to manage his own behaviour safely in his chosen environment. When complaints occur, managers take time to speak with the young person concerned and offer a reasoned explanation. This practice is very successful at giving young people a clear and consistent message that their opinions are most important to managers and staff.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: outstanding

Residents’ meetings are termed as an ‘adult-free zone’ and are chaired exclusively by young people. These meetings allow young people to negotiate and share differences with each other and feed back to staff. Staff also offer a humorous question-and-answer game show style quiz specifically aimed at what improvements young people can make within the home. Young people engage very well and enjoy the autonomy and humour that this process offers. The young person’s guide is of an excellent quality. However, it does not contain the contact details for the children’s commissioner. Therefore, an opportunity to promote increased independent support and advocacy for young people is not well promoted.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: outstanding

Staff inventively promote the value of healthy eating and living. Key-work sessions offer an open forum for discussing safer sex and family planning. Early morning ‘high intensity exercise workouts’ and yoga sessions are offered to support good health. A recent healthy-eating promotion saw staff and young people prepare vegetarian meals. This meant that young people gained a greater insight into the value of eating a varied diet. Inspection report children’s home: SC025871 6 Medication is safely distributed where appropriate. Staff use excellent observational skills to monitor the effective and appropriate use of medication.

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

Young people feel extremely safe in this home and bond very well with staff. Staff use their experience and very close relationships with young people to envisage times when they may struggle. For example, staff role play the type of interactions that young people may face when meeting with a large group of unknown professionals in advance of statutory reviews. Staff discuss the challenges that may lie ahead and possible triggers that accompany young people’s challenging behaviours. For example, young people becoming angry when family issues are raised with them by staff or other young people. This means staff are well informed of when young people may become upset or angry and are able to foresee potential problems. This in turn reduces young people’s anxieties and allows them opportunities to express themselves in more appropriate ways.

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

Safeguarding is very strong and proactive. For example, the deputy manager analysed the provision of early intervention services in neighbouring local authorities. The deputy manager then successfully used their findings to seek a specific youth offending service for a young person from the local member of parliament. The member of parliament subsequently liaised with the local authority and the resultant service has worked effectively without criminalising the young person concerned.

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

Multi-agency working is excellent. Staff regularly access advice and guidance from the specialist worker within the host local authority to quality assure their decision making and promote safeguarding. Staff access information from the local police regarding possible gang-associated risks in the local area. The details are then utilised to inform complex risk assessments which successfully guide staff to ensure that young people are supervised and supported while in areas of high gang activity. This approach helps to keep young people safe.

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

Young people enjoy excellent access to specialist services. When young people struggle to engage, staff ensure that professionals visit the home to complete sessions in a familiar and comfortable environment. Staff attend therapeutic appointments with young people to support them and to develop a greater understanding of the actual work being undertaken. Staff make notes of each session and encourage young people to sign the notes. This clarifies what happened during the session and provides a narrative for future discussion. Staff implement specialist interventions such as interactive card games at home, which supports and replicates the work being achieved in therapy. This innovative approach develops understanding and improved self-esteem for young people.

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

Behavioural management is outstanding. Young people respond exceptionally well to varied and thoughtful incentives in order to behave well. These include opportunities to attend camping trips abroad. There have been no restraints in the home since December 2016 despite considerable challenges. This is due to the excellent relationships that exist Inspection report children’s home: SC025871 7 between staff and young people, and the knowledge that staff have of the behavioural triggers of the young people. Staff act in a sensitive yet firm way to explain why behaviour is not acceptable, and young people respond very well to boundaries set.

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

There have been no incidents of young people going missing from the home since the last inspection. Despite this, young people have an individualised ‘missing’ plan which meets their respective needs very effectively. Young people have an ‘SOS’ facility on their mobile telephones which contacts staff if they feel unsafe outside of the home. This simple but highly effective initiative ensures that young people feel very safe.

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

Internet safety is prioritised. Staff openly discuss the potential dangers and positives of social media use. Access to mobile phones is informed by a rigorous risk assessment and ensures safety.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

Leaders and managers place the needs of young people at the heart of the home. The management team provides staff with clear and effective guidance and leads by example. As a result, young people receive excellent standards of care from staff who truly know and understand them.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

The owner of the home is also the registered manager. She is a qualified social worker with the appropriate management qualification. She is extremely well supported by her deputy manager, who is also qualified to the appropriate level. Both work very well in tandem to promote a deep-rooted child-centred ethos in the home.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

Staff work together very closely and provide each other with outstanding mutual support. Staff morale is very high with managers providing them with excellent levels of supervision and appraisal. One staff member comments, ‘We are just like a big family. There is always someone to turn to.’ Training is varied and addresses key areas of risk, such as the sexual exploitation of young people. All of the staff members are driven by a strong desire to support young people and develop their knowledge of how best to look after young people. This promotes a strong learning culture in the home.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

Managers are very open and reflective when young people experience difficulties living in the home. They intensely scrutinise interventions and care-planning decisions to assess if improvements can be made. Joint clinical supervision with the in-house therapist helps the team come to joint decisions when young people struggle. This promotes an extreme sense of camaraderie and joint ownership of plans. At present this progress is not fully evidenced within the home’s workforce development plan.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

The staff team provides an extremely stable workforce. There has been no new staff recruitment for four years and there is no use of agency staff. Staff know and understand each other very well. Young people report that the staff rota means they receive support and care consistently from adults who they know and trust.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

Managers support a culture built on strong social work principles. Positivity is Inspection report children’s home: SC025871 8 consistently promoted. Staff take clear and obvious pleasure in allowing young people to develop the resilience and the strength to make their own decisions. This is particularly evident when viewing the progress that young people have made. Young people now make positive choices where previously they responded negatively. For example, where previously some young people would run away from the home following an argument with other young people, they now choose to talk to staff and calm down.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

Managers continue to drive improvements and new initiatives. Key policies such as the statement of purpose are re-drafted in two versions, with one version adapted so that young people can understand them easily. New ideas such as ‘the enrichment programme’ to chart the successes and ambitions of young people are re-evaluated regularly as young people get older. This ensures their effectiveness and successful implementation.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

Managers advocate persistently on behalf of young people. Any issues of drift or delay in care planning are swiftly addressed. The registered manager comments, ‘We always fight hard for what they (young people) need.’ In-depth internet research supports the home’s approach to advocacy. For example, the deputy manager analysed the effect of medication in managing a young person’s complex health condition. The findings were subsequently fed back to mental health professionals. As a result the deputy manager’s rigorous analysis helped to secure a specialist intervention which continues to prove of great benefit to the young person concerned.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

Managers demonstrate an excellent approach for managing the dynamics of the home. Despite the home having four young people vacancies, managers have chosen to keep numbers low. This is in the best interest of current young people and those seeking to move to the home in the future. This ensures that the home is stable and young people remain safeguarded.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

Case recordings are of very a high quality. Files offer a vivid and clear picture of the progress made by young people. When young people present with high-risk behaviour, risk assessments are reviewed on a daily basis. This supports excellent levels of safeguarding and a consistent flow of information to key professionals.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

Managers ensure that the home is very well maintained and all of the necessary risk assessments are undertaken. They continue to review the home environment and make changes to the décor or purchase items for young people. For example, motivational phrases such as ‘achievement has no colour’ have recently been added to a mural in the dining area. These support the key message and ethos of the home.

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Information about this inspection

Inspection report children’s home: SC025871 9 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 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: SC025871 10

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Children’s home details

Registered provider: Jigsaw (Croydon) Limited

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Children’s home details

Responsible individual: Jaqueline Scrivens

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Inspector

Barnaby Dowell, social care inspector Inspection report children’s home: SC025871 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 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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