Children's home run by Serenity Care Homes Ltd

Inspection report children's home: 1249111 1 Registered provider: Serenity Care Homes 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

The home is registered to provide care for four children and young people who have emotional and/or behavioural difficulties. The home is in its first year of registration. It is privately owned by a small company that also owns one other home. The home is located within easy reach of local services and facilities. The aim of the home is to offer an environment which is safe, nurturing, encouraging and supportive.

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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: Not applicable

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Key findings from this inspection

 Young people are settling in the home and beginning to make good progress. Inspection report children's home: 1249111 2 They are developing positive routines and engaging with external services which meet their needs.  Staff have very good relationships with each young person, enabling the young people to gain support, advice, guidance and reassurance from staff.  Young people are addressing their health care needs.  Staff provide consistent and coordinated care which enables young people to feel safe and secure.  Staff work effectively and collaboratively with external professionals.

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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

 The registered manager has not yet achieved the required qualification.  Records for medication stored in the home were incomplete.  Fire extinguishers were not in their designated areas. Fire risk assessments did not reflect the new locations for firefighting equipment. Inspection report children's home: 1249111 3

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Recommendations

 Care must be taken to ensure prescribed medicines are only administered to the individual for whom they are prescribed. Medicines must be administered in line with a medically approved protocol. Records must be kept of the administration of all medication, which includes occasions when prescribed medication is refused. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 35, paragraph 7.15) In particular, make it clear if there is, for any reason, secondary dispensing, and avoid this as far as practical.

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Recommendations

 Staff should continually and actively assess the risks to each child and the arrangements in place to protect them. Where there are safeguarding concerns for a child, their placement plan, agreed between the home and their placing authority, must include details of the steps the home will take to manage any assessed risks on a day to day basis. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 42, paragraph 9.5) Specifically, ensure risk assessments reflect changes made in the home.

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Recommendations

 All managers working in a children’s home must have the qualification in regulation 28(2) within the relevant timescales listed in regulation 28(3). All staff in a care role, including external agency or bank staff, must have the qualification in regulation 32(4) within the relevant timescale listed in regulation 32(5). (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 53, paragraph 10.12)

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Young people make good progress while living at the home; they are learning and reflecting on the impact of risk-taking behaviours. They have formed good relationships of trust with staff. Young people are beginning to establish positive routines and engage in daily planned activities. They are improving their physical and emotional well-being.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff work extensively with others to ensure that plans meet the needs of young people. Staff follow detailed plans, which are regularly reviewed and shared with young people. Staff have sourced additional services that support young people. They work very closely with other agencies to provide a clear, consistent approach to caring and supporting young people.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Young people are encouraged and supported to attend education settings. Staff have facilitated changes of education provision through detailed planned transitions between settings. Those not in education are engaging in structured and meaningful activities on Inspection report children's home: 1249111 4 a daily basis.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff provide a wide variety of activities to young people which promote and develop their life, social and personal care skills. A young person has improved her physical well- being while living at the home by taking part in more physical activity and eating a healthy, well-balanced diet. Staff encourage young people to perform basic household chores which develop their life skills; these include tidying their bedrooms, shopping, budgeting and learning basic cooking tasks.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

The quality of relationships between staff and young people is a strength in this home. Staff focus on developing the young people’s trust through regular key-work sessions exploring and chatting about experiences, aspirations and challenges. Staff provide practical, good-quality education and advice about the impact of risk-taking behaviours, and they encourage young people to make positive choices. These sessions have explored positive healthy relationships, personal hygiene and who and what is important to a young person.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff support young people to address their health needs by advising, guiding and encouraging them to seek support. Young people are thoughtfully supported to address their basic and complex physical and emotional health care needs.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Good arrangements are in place to help young people to maintain relationships with family and friends. Staff work collaboratively to make decisions and arrangements for contact, which they then facilitate. A young person has seen a sibling, which she had not been able to do for a long time.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Young people are fully involved in all decisions made in the home. They attend all reviews and meetings in which decisions are made about their care. Young people are supported to contribute, and have a positive impact on the decision-making process. Young people are involved in decorating, and choosing soft furnishings for their living spaces and bedrooms. They plan and shop for their meals, and they are fully involved in planning and choosing their activities.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Good arrangements are in place to welcome new young people to the home. Staff meet and begin to develop relationships with young people before they arrive at the home. Staff involve, prepare and talk with young people already living at the home to support them in preparing for the new arrival. In one instance a young person wrote to another to welcome her to the home.

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

Young people report feeling safe and secure at the home. The safety and well-being of young people is high on the agenda in the home. Young people seek support and guidance from known staff when they are anxious or worried. Staff assist young people to explore ways to manage their emotions, and to develop strategies and skills to enable Inspection report children's home: 1249111 5 them to work through the challenges they face.

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

Episodes of missing are well managed through a collaborative and coordinated approach. Staff actively seek young people and request the support of additional agencies, in line with young people’s individual plans. Staff welcome young people back to the home and offer young people the opportunity to explore and talk about their reasons for going missing.

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

Safeguarding policies and procedures are understood by staff. Staff clearly record concerns and refer them to the external agencies when needed. Staff follow robust and effective procedures, ensuring that concerns are given high priority. Managers have referred and responded to allegations and retained a clear evidence trail. Managers have thorough systems for monitoring and reviewing concerns, which ensures that matters are acted on swiftly and outcomes recorded. There are robust relationships with statutory agencies, and staff will challenge other professionals if they believe they are not fulfilling their responsibilities to young people.

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

Incidents of self-harm are well managed by staff, who are calm and follow clear plans for each young person. Staff explore the cause and impact of this behaviour with the same rigorous approach that they bring to safeguarding concerns. Staff seek additional support and guidance when required.

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

Staff are trained in the home’s preferred approach to behaviour management. Positive behaviour support plans are practical and detailed, and provide staff with clear guidance to follow. Staff use a variety of strategies to de-escalate young people’s behaviour. Staff have used physical intervention at times of significant risk to young people or others. When it is used, it is in its least restrictive form, and for the shortest timescale possible. Detailed records provide the required information to enable effective review of the intervention. Staff have applied sanctions or reparative tasks in response to negative behaviours; these are aimed at reducing the likelihood of recurrence. Young people and staff review and reflect on incidents, physical intervention and sanctions. This helps both parties to gain insight and understanding about the incident.

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

The home is well maintained and safe with any areas of damage swiftly repaired.

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

Staff complete detailed risk assessments, which explore many known risk factors. Staff are trained to identify risks associated with child sexual exploitation. Risk assessments detail actions required to minimise risk; they are regularly reviewed and updated. Managers complete thorough plans and assessments prior to admission, ensuring that need and risk can be minimised and managed effectively. There is not yet a ‘Lone Working Policy’, and fire risk assessments were not updated to reflect the new locations for firefighting equipment.

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

Young people have made complaints. Staff have explored and investigated these complaints and provided young people with a response and outcome. There have been no complaints from outside of the home. Inspection report children's home: 1249111 6 Staff adhere to safer recruitment practice, and newly appointed staff are provided with a thorough induction to the home. They complete a probation in which their practice and knowledge is regularly reviewed and monitored.

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

Medication is stored as required and records evidence staff giving young people medication as needed. However, a controlled medication was relayed to a carer and not given in the home, but the records did not reflect this.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The home is managed by an effective manager and deputy manager. They utilise a wide variety of systems and processes to assess and evaluate the quality of care provided in the home. The weekly and monthly manager’s checks provide regular scrutiny and review. The home’s development plan demonstrates which areas the managers wish to improve. The manager has not yet achieved the required qualification. This has been due to a change in the education provider.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The information and detail provided by the monthly independent visits to the home also informs the manager of tasks required. The reports have not been received by HMCI, but this was rectified during inspection.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The manager and staff have very good knowledge and understanding of each young person and have developed very positive relationships with them all. They support and encourage young people to make positive decisions which are having a significant impact on their lives.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Staff feel well supported, and they have regular opportunities to reflect and debrief following complex and challenging incidents. This allows space to review the effectiveness and impact of the interventions with young people and the personal impact on staff. Supervision is regular and effective, and has a positive impact on staff practice. Staff practice is appraised at least annually, and those staff on probation receive regular reviews to ensure that their practice is developing to the required standard.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Newly inducted staff report that the induction process has been beneficial. They also complete a wide variety of core training which is specific to their role. This includes safeguarding, medication administration and behaviour management training. All staff complete refreshers and updates to core training.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Managers have formed very effective working relationships with families, agencies and professionals, with all parties working collectively to achieve the best child-centred outcomes and decisions for young people. Managers keep others well informed of challenges and achievements made by young people. They have also advocated effectively on behalf of those in their care.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Detailed and well planned pre-admission processes enable young people to move positively into the home. The manager has developed a child-friendly process to prepare Inspection report children's home: 1249111 7 young people prior to them moving into the home. Young people are fully involved in the early stages of planning and visiting the home. Managers have assessed that this process is having a positive impact on young people’s transitions into the home and helping them to settle in more quickly.

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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 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: 1249111 8

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Children’s home details

Registered provider: Serenity Care Homes Ltd

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: Greenacres, Silver Street, Hordle, LYMINGTON, Hampshire SO41 0FN

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Inspector(s)

Amanda Maxwell, social care inspector Inspection report children's home: 1249111 9 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(s)

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Inspector(s)

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Inspector(s)

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