Children's home run by West Sussex County Council

Inspection report children’s home: SC037447 1 SC037447 Registered provider: West Sussex County Council

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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 accommodate up to 16 children irrespective of gender, aged between five and 18 years old, who have a learning disability. This is a local authority home that provides short- and long-stay accommodation. In addition, there is an individual unit providing a bespoke environment for children who have exceptionally complex needs.

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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: 17 January 2017

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good

Overall judgement at last inspection: sustained effectiveness

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Key findings from this inspection

 The staff team provides a positive experience for children who access the Inspection report children’s home: SC037447 2 service. The care and support provided by the staff makes a real difference to children and families’ lives.  Children enjoy warm and supportive relationships with the staff who care for them. Children are happy both in short-breaks time or living full time at the home. They make very good progress.  The staff work very hard to ensure that children have access to a variety of activities, both in the home and in the local community.  The staff know the children and their individual vulnerabilities well and work closely with them to make sure they feel safe and protected.  The period when children are moving into the home or moving on to adult provisions is well thought through and managed.  The staff team is trained and skilled to meet the complex needs of children. Its members’ practise a range of communication methods which are best suited to

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Key findings from this inspection

each individual child.  The management of the service is excellent. The service continues to develop in tandem with changes being implemented across the local authority.

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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

 Some areas of recording do not leave a sufficient audit trail.

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

17/01/2017 Interim Sustained effectiveness 27/10/2016 Full Good 18/02/2016 Interim Improved effectiveness 02/07/2015 Full Good Inspection report children’s home: SC037447 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 is that the registered person enables, inspires and leads a culture in relation to the children’s home that – (h) Use monitoring and review systems to make continuous improvements in the quality of care provided in the home. (Regulation 13 (2)(h)) In particular, closely monitor the implementation of new recording and reporting formats, for example ensure that there is a clear audit trail of action taken in response to staff completing body maps. 30/09/2017

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children receive a very good standard of care from staff, who invest energy and time in promoting their well-being and happiness. As a result, children enjoy being at the service and make good to excellent progress across many areas of their lives. Children develop trusting and warm relationships with the staff. Children grow in confidence and self-esteem. Detailed care plans help to ensure that staff know each child’s needs and provide nurturing, sensitive support which enables children to feel safe and secure.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children are not disadvantaged or socially isolated. Their differences are embraced and celebrated. Children feel free to express their individuality without fear or judgement. The staff support children to access activities and interests in the local community and further afield, for example by visiting museums in London, attending football matches, and joining in local youth and sport clubs.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children freely express themselves through their chosen form of communication. The staff know each child’s preferred method of communication and support them to develop skills in it. Many children use communication methods, such as Picture Exchange Communication Scheme. The staff continually encourage children to use verbal language whenever they can.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

The staff promote the value of education. Children make good progress educationally, Inspection report children’s home: SC037447 4 taking into account their disabilities and starting points. All children who use this service have an education placement. The staff support them to attend and maintain close contact with teachers via daily handovers, reviews and the use of home/school communication books.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children are proud of their achievements. The staff make sure that each individual achievement is praised and celebrated. There are numerous pictures around the home showing a wide range of achievements. Families receive a quarterly newsletter in which individual achievements are reported on. In addition, the staff support children in completing a personal photo album of activities they have enjoyed and areas they have made progress in. Children present this album at their placement reviews and share them with their families.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children’s health needs are managed well. The staff promote a healthy lifestyle and encourage children to have a nutritious and balanced diet. The use of colour-coded mats at mealtimes encourages children to make healthy choices. For example, food placed on a red mat (carbohydrate) means it is healthy to have one portion, whereas food placed on a green mat (vegetables) means it is healthy to have two portions. The quality, variety and nutritional value of the food provided is excellent. Individual dietary needs are well catered for.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

All children are placed from within the local authority in which the home is located. Careful consideration is given to referrals and moving in. Plans for moving on to adult provisions are discussed at an early stage to ensure that parents and children can voice their wishes and subsequently experience a positive transition. Three children have successfully moved to adult provisions since the last inspection.

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

The support provided to children ensures that their safety is promoted to a good standard. The staff are very aware of each child’s vulnerabilities and provide close nurturing support which helps to keep them safe. Consultation with children, which is presented in a format they understand, confirms that children feel safe and like living in or visiting the home. The staff team is also aware of group dynamics and plan respite carefully so that children will enjoy each other’s company.

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

The home is a calm environment within which children may still get excited and have fun. Children were observed enjoying many activities, for example watching films, listening to music, playing football and basketball and playing the drums, during this inspection. All activities are very well supervised to ensure individual safety and follow individual risk assessments.

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

All staff are trained in safeguarding and child protection. The registered manager takes the lead in safeguarding matters. Both she and her staff team know what to do and whom to inform if there are concerns about a child’s welfare. Plans, including protection and support strategies, are in place to safeguard children and support parents. Newly introduced recording systems need some changes as the follow-up to Inspection report children’s home: SC037447 5 concerns noted, for example on body maps, is not clearly defined and can cause confusion as to what subsequent action has been taken. A clearer system would enable improved monitoring by the registered manager and senior staff.

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

Positive behaviour is promoted, with individual behaviour plans informing staff how to manage specific challenging behaviours. They identify triggers and strategies to be used. No child has gone missing as a result of the very close supervision they have at all times. A procedure is in place should an incident occur. The staff are trained in physically intervention, but their main focus is on redirection rather than restraining. Restraints undertaken are of a low level and of a short duration. All restraints are monitored by the registered manager.

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

The home receives few complaints and many compliments. Complaints are taken seriously, well managed and appropriately investigated and remedial action taken. Risk assessments carefully consider issues of child sexual exploitation and the children’s vulnerability due to disability. The staff receive training to improve their knowledge and understanding of e-safety and exploitation. This ensures that staff can support children to use social media and electronic devices safely.

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

All areas of the home are well maintained. All necessary safety checks are carried out. Each child has a personal emergency evacuation plan in place that outlines the level of support they require for such an event. Staff support children to experience fire drills, as seen during this inspection.

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

Staff recruitment procedures are robust and all necessary background checks are carried out prior to adults working in the home.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The home is managed by an experienced and highly competent registered manager. She has been the registered manager of this service since 1991 and continues to have a good track record of sustaining improvement. She has a level 5 Diploma in Leadership and Management for Residential Childcare. A change of responsible individual took place in February 2017. The responsible individual and registered manager work closely and effectively together.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Current staffing levels are satisfactory and meet the needs of the children. There is an active staff recruitment programme. At times, the home employs agency staff; managers ensure that these are still staff who are known to the home and children. Permanent staff work extra shifts to ensure satisfactory staffing levels. The staff receive a wide range of training, which exceeds regulatory requirements. This ensures that the staff are kept up to date with their skills and knowledge so that they can undertake their roles effectively. All staff have the NVQ level 3 in children’s social care or they are currently completing it. New staff commence level 3 training once they have completed their probationary period. The staff are supported through regular supervision. Staff morale is very good. Inspection report children’s home: SC037447 6 Good liaison is maintained with partner agencies, such as education placements and

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

social workers. This ensures that all relevant information is shared for the benefit of the children. Significant events are shared with relevant agencies, such as Ofsted, placing social workers and the local safeguarding children board. This effective communication ensures that the home’s practice is externally monitored and open to challenge.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Parents and professionals provide very positive feedback about the service, the staff and the manager. Parents recognise the progress their children make at the service and say that their children look forward to being at the home.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Monitoring of the home is organised and robust. The registered manager has effective methods of scrutinising records and practice to make sure that children’s needs are being met. The need to develop further the local authority’s quality assurance systems has been identified. As a result, new recording formats have recently been introduced. This will ensure consistency across all the local authority’s residential services.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The independent visitor’s observations are satisfactory, with good-quality reports supplied to Ofsted.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The registered manager oversees a good home. The local authority has shown its commitment to review its provision across the county and to ensure that the respite and permanent care for children with learning disabilities develops and moves forward. Newly introduced quality assurance systems and recording formats need time to fully embed.

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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 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: SC037447 7

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: West Sussex County Council, Director of Social Services, County Hall, Tower Street, Chichester, West Sussex PO19 1QT

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Inspector

Liz Driver, social care inspector Inspection report children’s home: SC037447 8 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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