Children's home run by Benjamin UK Ltd in Hammersmith and Fulham

Inspection report children’s home: SC484671 1 SC484671 Registered provider: Benjamin UK Ltd

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Full inspection Inspected under the social care common inspection framework

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Information about this children’s home

A private company owns this home. It provides therapeutic care for up to four children between the ages of 11 and 18 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 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: Good

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Good

Enforcement action since last inspection: None

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Key findings from this inspection

 The children make good progress from their starting point in all areas of their development.  The children receive care from a stable, diverse and committed staff team. Most children reduce their risk-taking behaviour. Inspection report children’s home: SC484671 2  The staff balance care and safety well. This ensures that their practice is not oppressive.  The manager and staff work closely with external agencies and the multi- disciplinary team in the organisation, to ensure a cohesive approach. The registered manager has a good understanding of each of the children’s needs and advocates for the children on matters such as contact arrangements.  The management team takes appropriate action when child protection concerns are raised. Records demonstrate vigorous investigations and clear decision- making processes.  The registered manager provides strong and effective leadership. She has a good understanding of the strengths and weaknesses of the home, with plans to

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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

 On occasion, some children’s inappropriate behaviour has impacted on other children’s progress and experience while living at the home.  The staff do not consistently take action when they have concerns that a child may go missing.  Some children’s records lack clear detail and include words that could potentially be difficult for the child to read.  The organisation has, at times, failed to complete all sufficient recruitment checks.  On occasion, the manager has not gained the view of the child following a physical intervention.

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

06/07/2016 Full Good 09/05/2016 Full Inadequate 17/12/2015 Interim Improved effectiveness 14/07/2015 Full Requires improvement Inspection report children’s home: SC484671 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

The positive relationships standard is that children are helped to develop, and to benefit from, relationships based on positive responses to other children and adults. (Regulation 11(1)(c)) 28/07/2017

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Requirement Due date

The protection of children standard is that children are protected from harm and enabled to keep themselves safe. In particular, the standard in paragraph (1) requires the registered person to ensure— that the home’s day-to-day care is arranged and delivered so as to keep each child safe and to protect each child effectively from harm. (Regulation 12(1)(2)(c)) 28/07/2017

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must ensure that, within 5 days of the use of the measure, the registered person or the authorised person adds to the record confirmation that they have spoken to the child about the measure. (Regulation 35(3)(c) 28/07/2017

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Recommendations

 Ensure that each child is supported to develop emotional and mental resilience to cope without the home’s support and, where the child is moving to live independently, practical skills such as cooking, housework, budgeting and personal self-care. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 17, paragraph 3.27)  Ensure that no more than half the staff on duty at any one time, by day or night at the home, should be from an external agency. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 54, paragraph 10.17)  Ensure that, as set out in regulations 31-33, the registered person is responsible for maintaining good employment practice. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 61, paragraph 13.1) This is with particular regard to ensuring that all references contain all requested information.

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Recommendations

 Keep as good practice a note of the content and/or outcomes of supervision sessions and ensure that both the person giving the supervision and staff Inspection report children’s home: SC484671 4 member have a copy of the record. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 61, paragraph 13.4)  Ensure that the staff are familiar with the home’s policies on record keeping and understand the importance of careful, objective and clear recording. Staff should record information on individual children in a non-stigmatising way that distinguishes between fact, opinion and third party information. Information about the child must always be recorded in a way that will be helpful to the child. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 62, paragraph 14.4)  The registered person should have a system in place so that all serious events

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Recommendations

are notified, within 24 hours, to the appropriate people. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 63, paragraph 14.13)

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Since the last inspection, an incident took place during which some children flooded the home. The level of damage was extensive, and the repairs and redecoration meant that the home had to close for four months. During that time, the children moved to other homes owned by the organisation, and staff were deployed to support them, to provide stability. One of the children, who was nearly 18, moved slightly earlier than planned to a supported living accommodation placement. The manager maintained contact with all of the staff and children, including the child who moved on. The children live in a home that is welcoming and inviting. Recent admissions to the home are planned and involve the manager meeting the child in their previous placements, to gain a better understanding of how the staff will meet their needs. The manager offers the children the option to visit the home for tea and an overnight stay

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

prior to their placement. As a result, the manager has a more robust assessment of the child and their needs, and is able to take into account other children’s previous backgrounds to fully identify any potential risks. These children have settled in well with the other children, and have built positive relationships. The children speak positively about the staff. They can identify staff who they feel they have a good relationship with and who are positive role models for them. The staff support the children to have their views heard. Key-work sessions and house meetings not only enable the children to have a formal forum in which they can have their views heard, but they also allow the children to be part of the day-to-day running of the home. The children have made progress since their starting points in relation to their education. Two of the children are attending an off-site education provision. The staff and

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

management team were passionate in working with a virtual headteacher to ensure that the educational needs of another child were met through identification of a suitable placement. The social worker described the staff as ‘challenging and pro-active’ in their task. The staff supported the child to speak, prior to the education placement, with the Inspection report children’s home: SC484671 5 headteacher via telephone. A further child, who has not attended education for some time prior to placement, is now attending the organisation’s school. While attendance is sporadic, there is recognition of the progress that has been achieved for this child from their starting point. There was a period when all of the children’s attendance was sporadic; however, since changes to the children in placement, they are all now making progress academically and in their attendance. A professional reported, ‘The staff are

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

great. The key workers are particularly good at helping the children to engage in their education.’ The staff regularly attempt to engage the children in educational and extracurricular activities. One child recently attended a residential week at a farm. The child spoke positively about the experience. He described looking forward to the scheduled follow-up events at which he can meet up with the children he met at the camp. Another child attended a week-long rugby day camp and has recently become focused on another sport as a positive alternative. This helps to build the children’s social skills, independence skills, and self-confidence. The staff promote healthier lifestyles for children. The children eat healthy, nutritious, home-cooked food and most of the children sit together with the staff at mealtimes. This approach helps to build the children’s social interaction. The staff ensure that they take

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

into account the children’s cultural needs and preferences. The children have general medical checks and can access targeted health information and support as required. The manager has been pro-active in seeking alternative external agencies to better support and engage with the children. This enables them to discuss any concerns, such as potential use of cannabis, and sexual health information. The organisation’s consultant clinical psychologist supports the children through weekly visits to establish a relationship with them, with a view to offer clinical supervision sessions, if required. The clinical psychologist supports the children through her work with the staff, such as holding child-focused meetings to improve engagement or identify alternative strategies to address inappropriate behaviour. The manager reviews the individual care plans, the home’s token system, on a regular basis, identifies the individual targets with the children and their key worker for the

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

month. As a result, the children have made progress in their positive behaviour, attendance at education provision and in their self-esteem and confidence. The staff celebrate these achievements by moving the children up in the organisation’s diversion programme. The programme gives the children additional incentives and status, along with verbal praise and recognition. The staff support the children to take part in a range of purposeful activities and support the children to engage in their interests. This has a positive impact on how the children spend their free time. The staff use their own personal qualities and experiences to engage the children in interests, such as rugby. The staff use house meetings to discuss household matters and to plan further activities that the children have undertaken. These activities includes going in a sky-diving machine, jet skiing, bowling, the gym and a music studio. The children to participate in activity planning, organise their schedules,

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

and engage in new challenges. One child is making positive moves in reducing their missing episodes, following attending structured personal training in boxing. The child took part in activities that broadened their horizons and enhanced their self-confidence, Inspection report children’s home: SC484671 6 personal and social development. The children, when appropriate, enjoy time with their families and others who are significant to them. The staff are proactive at advocating on behalf of the children when contact is not occurring. This is through either support for contact to be re-established, or to help the child to understand why contact cannot occur currently. The staff facilitate contact when necessary and, when required, will drive significant distances to ensure that the children can see their families. Equally, families are welcome at the home or are supported by staff in the local area. This approach ensures that children are not isolated

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

from their families and have an understanding of their heritage. The children’s individual care plans, risk management procedures and behaviour management plans are in place. The documentation provides clarity for staff on the support that the children need. All of the professionals and parents are involved in the reviewing of the plans. This provides the staff with clearly agreed strategies to meet the children’s individual needs. The children develop independence skills while living at the home, such as cooking, washing, safe care skills and low-level maintenance. However, these skills are not recorded in a way that is helpful for the children to see how far they have progressed, or to assess what they still need to learn. This does not fully support children to ensure that they have the skills required to move into adulthood. The house is well furnished and decorated to a high standard and has a homely feel.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

The children benefit from having areas in the home that they can share communally or use to have time on their own. The house is set within large grounds that provide several areas for outdoor play. There is an external classroom area on site which is utilised by children who are receiving tuition in the organisation’s education provision.

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

The children say they feel safe living in this home. They can identify individual staff who they can talk to about any concerns that they have. The children’s relationships with their key workers are strong. The staff know the children well and understand why they behave the way they do. Input from the organisation’s clinical psychologist strengthens the staff understanding and helps them to manage the children’s inappropriate behaviour effectively. On occasion, some children’s inappropriate behaviour has impacted on other children’s progress and experience while living at the home. This relates to occasional incidents concerning one child of bullying, missing from care episodes and lack of engagement with their education. During these times, the staff took action to address these behaviours through bullying panels, key work sessions and debriefs; however, the impact on other children continued. As a result, the organisation

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

ended this placement. Since this time, there has been an improvement in all areas of children’s engagement with staff, attending education and a significant reduction in bullying and missing incidents. The home has good policies, procedures and practices around safeguarding concerns. Staff are trained and confident in the action that they would take if a child makes an allegation or disclosure. When this has occurred, the management is swift in its Inspection report children’s home: SC484671 7 response, and works well with the designated officer. Investigations into concerns raised are in depth, and records are clear and detail reasons for the decisions made. The management identifies action it can take to improve the service provided to children and reduce the risk of recurrence. This protects children in an effective way. The staff spend quality time with the children and are knowledgeable on the aims and

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

ethos of the home in managing the children’s behaviour. The home’s token scheme, therapeutic plans and diversion programme are consistently implemented. The children engage in the programme and make changes to the way they spend their free time, to more positive engagement in activities. The children are keen to progress through the programme. When children display a keen interest and passion for a type of structured activity, the organisation thoroughly embraces and supports them to engage. The staff actively encourage the children, and the senior management ensures that the funding is there to enable the interest to develop. Physical intervention is only used as a last resort. Staff debriefs following physical interventions or incidents are effective and detailed. However, conversations with children to gain their view following physical interventions are inconsistent. This fails to ensure that children understand why they were physically

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

held and to provide them with a formal opportunity to raise any concerns. There are no known concerns regarding child sexual exploitation. Some children do go missing. The staff are proactive in working with parents, external agencies and the child to encourage a quick return home. A professional stated, ‘The home appears to have robust procedures when dealing with missing person episodes and actively engages with its residents to minimise these occurrences.’ However, sometimes the staff have failed to be proactive to reduce the risk of children going missing. For example, when children have stated that they are going to leave and not return, staff do not consistently follow them to encourage them not to go missing. This does not ensure that the staff take all possible action to reduce the risk of a child going missing. The home works with placing authorities to ensure that all of the children receive, or are offered, the opportunity to

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

have a return home interview. One child, who was missing on a number of occasions, was provided with a consistent advocate to enable him to build a relationship with them. This ensures that the children have someone outside of the home to speak to about why they went missing. The staff monitor the children’s risk-taking behaviours. Safeguarding strategies focus on detailed risk assessments, with practical risk management strategies having a positive impact on individual behaviour. When concerns have increased, the registered manager takes action to try to reduce the risk. For example, when there were concerns that a child was hiding weapons, the manager traced back to see how the child may have got hold of the items, took action to reduce the possibility of the child being able to access them again, and increased room searches. In addition, although the child is no longer living at the home, the manager arranged for training on knife crime. This increases the

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

knowledge of the staff, and to learn additional strategies to prevent a recurrence. The staff are carefully selected and vetted as suitable to work with and care for the children. One member of staff who has recently started with the organisation reported that the interview was realistic to the role, and they had equally been able to ask questions regarding the role. However, on one occasion, a reference received did not have the required employment dates of a member of staff. This was not identified at the Inspection report children’s home: SC484671 8 time. This does not ensure that all consistent efforts have been made by the organisation to ensure that all staff are assessed as suitable to work with children.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The manager has been in post since October 2015. She has completed the relevant level 5 qualification. Since the last inspection, changes in senior management strengthen the oversight and support for the manager and staff. These include the appointment of an additional head of care overseeing the homes in the organisation, and of a full-time supporting manager in the home. Therefore, positively impacts on the children, as the staff feel well supported. Staffing levels are mainly good and provide children with competent adults to care for them and fulfil a positive parenting role. When there are gaps, core staff, including the manager, regularly work additional shifts. Overall, the use of agency staff is low. However, for a short period of time, due to unforeseen events, the number of agency staff to core staff was higher. This did not ensure that, during this time, the children were cared for by staff who knew them well.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The staff team is diverse, and has a range of life experiences and qualifications to broaden children’s horizons. A member of staff said, ‘We have the nicest staff team, we all bring different things, ages, interests, and strengths.’ The staff expressed confidence that the manager and the organisation promote their development opportunities and that the managers provide a good level of support. One member of staff said, with regard to the support from the manager, that, ‘I couldn’t wish for anyone else to manage me.’ This is supported by another member of staff who said, ‘The manager has helped to really develop my skills.’ However, not all staff have received supervision, in line with the home’s supervision policy, and when they have occurred there is sometimes a lack of notes of the sessions. This fails to ensure that staff are provided with a formal forum to discuss any concerns and reflect on practice.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Management and staff provide care in line with the ethos and aims of the setting, as described in a detailed statement of purpose. Staff are knowledgeable about the ethos of the home and view this as central to their work to provide children with a child-centred approach. The manager has met the two requirements made at the last inspection. All staff now either have or are completing the level 3 qualification. This ensures that qualified staff care for the children. The manager seeks the views of external agencies, children and parents, and considers how their views can positively impact on the care provided to children. The children benefit from effective management. The manager and staff have a clear and knowledgeable understanding of the children and ensure that they prioritise their needs well. The manager is a strong advocate for children’s wishes and feelings. Recently, she felt that a child’s missing from home incidents were linked to his lack of

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

formal arrangements with his family, and the child was voicing his wish for his contact to be more consistent. Through her strong advocacy skills, the child now has regular formal contact, and his missing from home incidents have significantly reduced. This also Inspection report children’s home: SC484671 9 demonstrates the manager’s positive work with other agencies and professionals, to enable children to have a holistic care package in line with their individual plans. The children’s records are stored securely, and most provide a clear and detailed account of the child’s day. However, some children’s records lack this level of detail and include words that could potentially be difficult for the child to read. The manager has already identified this as a shortfall and is arranging for training to be provided in this area. Information relating to significant events affecting children’s safety is notified to relevant

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

agencies; this includes Ofsted and the placing authorities. However, on one occasion, the home was significantly late in informing Ofsted of one event. While there was minimal impact on children, due to appropriate action being taken, and all other required agencies being informed, this does not ensure that all concerns about children’s safety is shared by the home in a timely manner. Parents and professionals describe having a positive working relationship with the manager and the staff team. Parents said:  ‘I feel that he [child] is safe at the home. He says that he likes it there. The staff are lovely, and they keep me up to date all day, every day.’  ‘They [staff] are excellent. They are good at informing me and sharing information. I honestly cannot think of anything negative about them.’

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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 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: SC484671 10

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: 32 Woodstock Grove, London W12 8LE

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Children’s home details

Responsible individual: Claudette Deysel

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Inspector

Natalie Burton, social care inspector Inspection report children’s home: SC484671 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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