Children's home run by The Vine Residential Services (TVRS) Ltd in Barking and Dagenham

Inspection report children's home: SC430320 1 SC430320 Registered provider: The Vine Residential Services (TVRS) 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 operates this home for up to five young people who have a diagnosed autistic spectrum disorder and/or learning difficulties. The company also has a day service provision, in the form of an activity centre, at a nearby site.

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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

Date of last inspection: 20 February 2017

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good

Overall judgement at last inspection: improved effectiveness

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Key findings from this inspection

 Young people receive a high standard of individualised care.  Young people make good progress and achieve good outcomes. Inspection report children's home: SC430320 2  The behaviour management practices are effective.  Young people have become increasingly safer.  Young people’s behaviours have become calmer and more constructive.  Young people have developed healthier lifestyles and improved their physical and mental health.  Young people have developed positive attitudes towards learning and are engaging more in their education.  Young people’s confidence and social skills have improved.  Young people lead active lives and have a positive experience of being in care.  Young people benefit from adults working together effectively around them.  Leaders, managers and staff are good advocates for young people.  Helping young people to develop their independence is integral to the staff’s support.

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Key findings from this inspection

 The home is well resourced.  Staff are skilled, caring and compassionate.  Admissions and transitions are managed well; emergency admissions to the home are managed exceptionally well.  Young people and their parents and social workers talk highly about the home.  The home has a culture of continued improvement.

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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

 Monitoring of the records relating to physical interventions is not thorough.

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

20/02/2017 Interim Improved effectiveness 12/07/2016 Full Requires improvement 15/02/2016 Interim Improved effectiveness 17/09/2015 Full Good Inspection report children's home: SC430320 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 leadership and management standard In particular, the standard in paragraph (1) requires the registered person to—

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Requirement Due date

use monitoring and review systems to make continuous improvements in the quality of care provided in the home. (Regulation 13(2)(h))

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Requirement Due date

In particular, improve the monitoring of the records of physical interventions and ensure their quality. 01/10/2017

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Young people say that this is a good home and that they receive good support. They describe the staff and managers as nice people.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Young people enjoy having daily routines in their lives. These routines give them feelings of stability and safety. Young people enjoy learning. They talk proudly about their progress. They look forward to their futures. They enjoy living with other young people and having friends. Although they say that they would rather be with their families, their overall experience of being in care is positive.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Young people see their families regularly and have a good time with them. For example, a young person’s father came to the home for his son’s birthday party. This was particularly significant as the father and son only recently rekindled their relationships. The young person was thrilled with the gifts he received from the home. They were exactly what he wanted: a car-driving lesson and a ticket to a football match. The young person has never experienced either of these things. Everybody enjoyed the celebrations. Another young person enjoyed the party so much that they have already started planning their own birthday party and looking forward to the presents. Inspection report children's home: SC430320 4 Young people benefit from adults working together around them. Leaders, managers and staff work closely with parents and with professionals from social care, education and health to achieve a holistic and unified approach to supporting young people. The

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

communication between all of the parties involved is good.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

This is an example of how staff worked effectively with health professionals to promote a young person’s health: When a young person was diagnosed with hypertension, staff were proactive at ensuring that the young person’s medication was reviewed in light of this information. The effective behaviour management support meant that the young person was able to stop taking the long-term medication. As a result of stopping this medication, and positive changes to the young person’s lifestyle, their blood pressure returned to normal.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Young people receive individualised care of a high standard. Staff know young people very well. They have an in-depth knowledge of young people’s needs, habits, preferences and abilities. Staff know how to support young people effectively. This shows in young people’s positive experience of being in care, and in the progress that they make.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Leaders, managers and staff ensure that young people’s admissions to the home and transitions from it are as smooth as possible. For example, they carefully plan multiple and gradually increasing pre-admission visits to this home, or to other places where a young person is moving to.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Helping young people to develop their independence is integral to the staff’s support. Examples include staff teaching young people how to communicate their choices and relate to people, how to use a self-service checkout in a supermarket, and how to cook meals, launder their clothes and use public transport safely.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Emergency admissions to the home are managed exceptionally well. Both social workers and parents say how impressed they are with the staff’s ability to enable young people who arrive at the home in crises to settle quickly into their new environment.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Living in this home has had a positive impact on the young people’s progress and outcomes across different areas of their lives.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

With the staff’s support, the young people have developed healthier lifestyles. They lead active and orderly lives. They use sporting facilities, such as local gyms, swimming pools and parks, to exercise regularly. They compete and win in sporting challenges. For example, a young person has conspicuously displayed their medals in their bedroom. The medals were for running and jumping.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Young people are comfortable in the home and sleep well. Some young people who needed medication to calm them have learned how to stay calm without it. Instead of displaying challenging behaviours, they have built positive relationships with staff and their peers. Inspection report children's home: SC430320 5 Young people eat good quality food and enjoy having a healthy diet. The young people who came to the home significantly overweight have lost weight in a gradual and safe manner. This has had a positive impact on their psychological, as well as on their physical, well-being. Young people feel more confident about themselves. They are taking more responsibility for their health. A doctor said how ‘lovely’ it was to get answers directly from the young person during a medical consultation, rather than adults talking about the young person’s health.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Young people’s confidence in social situations grows. They have learned to behave appropriately in different situations, such as at home, at school or on an outing. For example, a young person talked with excitement about dressing up and meeting people at their aunt’s wedding.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff enable young people to develop positive attitudes towards learning and education. As a result, the young people are engaging more in their education. For example, a young person has progressed from receiving individual tuition at the home to being able to attend a school. This young person said that they loved the school. A gradually increased timetable is leading to a full-time education for this young person, from September 2017. Another young person with a history of school exclusions and non- engagement in learning said that they were looking forward to attending a college in the new school year. This young person wants to contribute to society by working in the health and social care sector.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Parents are highly satisfied with the care provided to their children. They are appreciative of the positive impact that the home has had on their families, and in particular their children. These are some of the things a parent whose child recently moved from the home said: ‘All the time, staff had X’s well-being at heart. Staff were wonderful from start to finish. It was wonderful to see a genuine affection between X and the staff, as before that X has never been outside the family. He arrived unhappy, biting and absconding. Staff managed him superbly. He progressed so much. He left almost like a different person.’

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Social workers talk positively about the effectiveness of the care that young people receive in this home. They said that they were impressed with the impact of the home on young people. The social workers said that the young people have made massive progress.

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

This is a safe home. The home’s safeguarding arrangements are effective. Staff protect young people and promote their welfare well. A good understanding of risks and proactive safeguarding strategies by staff, and their strong relationships with young people, underpin the effectiveness of practice.

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

The support and care that young people receive helps them to become increasingly Inspection report children's home: SC430320 6 safer. For instance, a young person who used to run away from his family home has been helped to stop absconding. There have been no incidents regarding neglect, bullying, self-harm, being absent or missing from the home, exploitation of any kind, substance misuse, offending behaviours or radicalisation, in the last 12 months.

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

Young people say that they feel safe. They have developed trusting relationships with staff members. Their parents and the professionals who work with them also say that they have confidence that young people are safe and protected in this home.

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

Behaviour management practices are particularly effective. Staff enable young people to manage their behaviours and feelings safely. Young people’s ability to self-regulate and manage their anger has become much better. Without any exceptions, each young person’s behaviour has improved since coming to live in this home. The incidents of young people being violent towards themselves or adults around them have reduced significantly. For example, a young person who used to bite others has stopped that behaviour. The log of restraints shows a significant decrease in the number of physical interventions: there were 16 in 2016, but only two so far in 2017. The last physical intervention was in March 2017. The young people who previously needed to be restrained by staff for their own safety and/or the safety of others no longer require the staff’s physical interventions to be safe.

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

The way that staff maintain the log of physical interventions is an area for improvement. The information that is held in different places on an electronic system is not always consistent. For example, one record indicated that certain staff members witnessed a particular physical intervention, while the other record described no witnesses being present when a member of staff restrained a young person. The contradiction creates confusion about what actually happened. There are no signs that the physical intervention had a negative impact on the experience of the young person. However, the home must keep clear and accurate records of physical interventions. Currently the registered person’s monitoring processes fail to identify the weaknesses in record- keeping, so that they can be rectified.

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

Young people have responded really well to living in a structured environment with firm staff boundaries and appropriate rules. Young people are clear about the expectations of them. Young people have internalised the rules of behaviour. For example, a young person who put their feet on the table reminded themselves that was not a good behaviour and put them down.

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

Staff are highly observant of young people’s moods. Staff follow safeguarding strategies that have been individually tailored for young people. The strategies take into account young people’s individual routines, needs and abilities. For example, staff rely more on the visual guides when supporting young people who have communication difficulties. Another example is how staff support a young person with obsessive behaviours and touching routines. Any changes to the meticulous order in which the young person leaves their things, or interruptions to the touching routine, are triggers for strong anxiety for this young person. Staff are aware of this and work around these behaviours to support the young person effectively. Inspection report children's home: SC430320 7 The staff’s competences and caring attitudes have helped young people to engage in more positive ways. The young people’s behaviours, social awareness and skills have

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

very much improved. A young person said that staff have helped them to swear less and talk better. In the young person’s own words: ‘To be a nicer person’.

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

Young people receive constant praise from staff for their good behaviours. The recognition of achievements reinforces their constructive behaviours and promotes a positive atmosphere in the home. The young people are proud of their progress.

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

Parents and social workers report that the young people’s behaviour has improved for the better. One parent notes that such improvement is ‘beyond recognition’. Parents appreciate immensely being able to have good time with their children on their own, without needing constant support from professionals.

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

Managers follow up proactively any concerns about young people and/or staff practice. This has included having appropriate discussions around low-level concerns with the designated officer for safeguarding in the local authority where the home is situated.

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

A robust staff recruitment procedure ensures that the staff are suitable to work with young people. The careful selection of staff and excellent training opportunities contribute to the robustness of the safeguarding practices in the home. The training on a wide range of safeguarding topics has included social media and online safety, recognising and countering radicalisation and extremism, child sexual exploitation, female genital mutilation and forced marriages. Staff have a good understanding of the risks to young people and are able to protect them from these risks effectively.

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

Thorough health and safety arrangements ensure that the physical environment remains safe and secure.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Leaders, managers and staff share a vision of improving lives of young people regardless of their disabilities or any other characteristics. An anti-discriminatory ethos and a desire to help young people to have more fulfilling lives greatly influence staff practice.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Leaders, managers and staff fulfil the statement of purpose effectively and efficiently. Since the last inspection, the home has stopped providing short breaks. This was managed well. The change in the nature of the service has had a positive impact. Staff have been able to focus more on providing continuity and stability in the home to the young people who live there on a permanent basis.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Young people receive good advocacy support. Leaders, managers and staff are ambitious about young people’s outcomes. They expect young people to be given high quality support in all areas of their development. Staff and managers work in strong Inspection report children's home: SC430320 8 partnership with the network of professionals. They are engaged, positive and proactive partners. Staff and managers do not hesitate to challenge professionals to provide the best possible service to young people. An example of this is how they negotiated to secure appropriate educational provisions for young people.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Leaders and managers apply high levels of scrutiny to their own systems and practices. Apart from the weakness in the monitoring of the records of physical interventions, the quality assurance mechanisms are comprehensive and robust. Leaders and managers ensure that young people receive high-quality care.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Young people’s forums enable young people to have their voices heard and remain active participants in the life of the home, regardless of the communication difficulties that they have. For example, they can choose which activities to do, and which trips to go on. The independent visitor’s insightful monthly monitoring reports make strong contributions towards assuring quality and the continued improvement of the service.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

There is an improvement culture in the home. Various external professionals describe the home as a listening service that is always seeking opportunities for further improvement and better outcomes for young people. Leaders, managers and staff have responded positively to any feedback and suggestions that they have received. For instance, they have provided detailed summaries of a young person’s engagement and progress on a weekly basis to the social worker, when this was suggested. After a parent said that they also wanted to know more about their child’s experiences and progress on a more regular basis, staff shared these reports with the parent as well.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Leaders and managers have taken the findings from the last full inspection very seriously. They have invested heavily in the home’s improvement. Leaders and managers have implemented a comprehensive action plan that addressed all requirements and shortfalls at the time. They are committed to investing in further improvement and developing the services they offer.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

An ambitious workforce plan includes a comprehensive induction programme and extensive training opportunities for staff. Good quality monthly formal supervisions and regular reviews of the staff performance ensure that good practices are embedded. Staff receive detailed guidance and are clear about their roles and responsibilities. They report being led and managed well and having good opportunities to develop their professional skills. These opportunities include being supported to gain relevant qualifications. Staff say that the leaders and managers are highly supportive and provide staff with a lovely working environment.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Leaders and managers ensure that the home is well resourced. Staffing levels are maintained at high levels, in line with the young people’s complex needs and high vulnerabilities. For example, each young person receives a minimum of one-to-one support. This includes during the night-time. At the beginning of the placements, each young person receives additional staff support in the ratio of two staff to one young person. Inspection report children's home: SC430320 9 Significant refurbishment has taken place to improve the environment. For example, a new kitchen has been fitted. The ground floor has been reconfigured to create an open- plan living space for young people to enjoy. A professional designer and staff are supporting young people to redesign the interiors of their bedrooms, so that they reflect better their interests and identity.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Young people’s files are maintained appropriately. The extensive use of photographs supplements the written records. The photographs enable young people to have a visual record of their experiences. Due to their communication difficulties, they find this more accessible than words. The case records demonstrate that young people’s progress is closely monitored and that they achieve good outcomes. The records include life-story books, and show that the young people’s lives have been positively improved since moving into this home.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Leaders, managers and staff make a strong contribution to the care planning process and the delivery of care that young people receive. They share information effectively and take an active part in reviewing care arrangements. Social workers described the communication and collaboration with the home as excellent.

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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: SC430320 10

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Children’s home details

Registered provider: The Vine Residential Services (TVRS) Ltd

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: Studio 4, 1st Floor, The Granary, 80 Abbey Road, Barking, Essex IG11 7BT

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Inspector(s)

Seka Graovac, social care inspector Inspection report children's home: SC430320 11 achieve excellence in the care of children and young people, and in education and skills for learners of all ages. It regulates and inspects childcare and children’s social care, and inspects the Children and Family Court Advisory and Support Service (Cafcass), schools, colleges, initial teacher training, further education and skills, adult and community learning, and education and training in prisons and other secure establishments. It assesses council children’s services, and inspects services for looked after children, safeguarding and child protection.

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Inspector(s)

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Inspector(s)

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Inspector(s)

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