Children's Home run by S P Homes Limited in Lambeth

Inspection report children's home: SC065535 1 SC065535 Registered provider: S P Homes Limited

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Full inspection Inspected under the social care common inspection framework

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Information about this children’s home

This privately run children’s home caters for up to six young people who have emotional 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

Date of last inspection: 16 November 2016

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good

Overall judgement at last inspection: Sustained effectiveness

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Key findings from this inspection

 Young people generally make good progress while living in this home.

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Key findings from this inspection

 Local authority staff appreciate the quality and timeliness of the home’s Inspection report children's home: SC065535 2 communications with them.

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Key findings from this inspection

 Missing from home procedures are carefully followed.

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Key findings from this inspection

 There is a low rate of physical restraint and of using the police to manage behaviour.

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Key findings from this inspection

 The home environment is spacious, comfortable and safe.

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Key findings from this inspection

 There is a strong and effective new manager in place.

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Key findings from this inspection

 Staff are well supported and appropriately challenged by receiving good levels of supervision, appraisals and training.

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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

 Risk assessments on young people are not consistently accurate.

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Key findings from this inspection

 There is scope for improvements in working with young people who go missing from the home.

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Key findings from this inspection

 In holiday time particularly, staff are not sufficiently engaged with young people.

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Key findings from this inspection

 The independent visitor’s report lacks sufficient thorough analysis on how well young people are looked after and safeguarded.

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

16/11/2016 Interim Sustained effectiveness 13/07/2016 Full Good 02/03/2016 Interim Sustained effectiveness 20/10/2015 Full Good Inspection report children's home: SC065535 3

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Statutory requirement

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

Ensure that all staff can assess whether each child is at risk of harm, and if necessary make arrangements to reduce the risk of any harm to the child. (Regulation 12 (2) (a) (i)) 09/10/2017

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Recommendations

 Ensure that staff offer children a wide range of activities both inside and outside the home, and that the children are encouraged to participate in these activities. This particularly relates to ensuring that staff routinely spend relaxed time with children inside the home. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 31, paragraph 6.5)

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Recommendations

 Ensure that the strong safeguarding culture in the home includes staff being sufficiently proactive about young people going missing from the home. This specifically refers to tracking young people who are missing from the home and focused working with them using appropriate resources. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 43, paragraph 9.8)

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Recommendations

 Ensure that the independent person visiting the home makes a rigorous and impartial assessment of the home’s arrangements for safeguarding and promoting the welfare of the children in the home’s care. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 65, paragraph 15.5)

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Local authority colleagues are impressed with the impact the home is making on the progress and experiences of the young people who are currently living there. They are pleased that levels of risky behaviour have reduced and that the involvement of young people in education is a priority. One local authority colleague said, ‘They have stabilised her all round.’ Staff generally appreciate the particular characteristics, wants and needs of each young Inspection report children's home: SC065535 4 person, and the care offered is geared towards meeting their individual needs. This results in young people all having at least one staff member who they feel they can trust. This personalised approach starts at the admission point. Staff are prepared to spend as long as it takes both to talk with young people about what the home offers and to encourage them to move in. External colleagues appreciate the quality and timeliness of staff communication. Detailed

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

reports about young people’s progress are sent on a routine basis, and unplanned incidents are promptly communicated. One local authority colleague said, ‘They work with me brilliantly.’ Staff attend meetings and are well prepared for them. Staff are committed to maintaining and building on existing family relationships. A young person said, ‘They always tell me when my Mum phones, and I can talk to her in private.’ All young people are encouraged to have an independent advocate. Staff ensure that young people are made to feel welcome in the home. Young people use the complaints system when necessary, but most say they will just tell the manager if they are unhappy about something. Again, this demonstrates trust and faith in the staff group. Young people’s meetings are regularly held, and food choices are always a major agenda item. Young people feel that they generally get the food they have asked for and they are also pleased

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

that they now have full-length mirrors in their rooms. There are encouraging signs that most young people are appropriately accessing education, but routine attendance is still a challenge for some. However, the home has effective links with education providers, and staff prioritise attending education progress meetings. Recently, the home has appointed a member of staff to be the designated education lead. This role is intended to sharpen up home and education links even further. Young people are generally physically healthy. When appropriate, they are encouraged to manage their own medication needs with discreet oversight from staff. This helps prepare young people to manage and take responsibility for their own health. There are opportunities available for young people to develop their own emotional health positively. Staff are supported appropriately to increase their understanding of what lies underneath

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

presenting behaviour. All young people are supported to try a new hobby or continue with an existing one. This means that some young people routinely do horse riding and others boxing. Although an activity programme is in place during school holidays, some young people complain of boredom. This creates a risk that young people will return to unsafe behaviours. Some young people would like staff to spend more time with them inside the home, just ‘chilling out’. Some young people are not from the local area. Staff respect the ties that young people have to their home area and support them in returning there safely. For example, some young people travel to their home area to keep up a specific activity, and staff will travel back with them to ensure their well-being.

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

Young people feel safe in this home and do not feel bullied in any way. They have a mature attitude to group living, stressing the importance of ‘being civil’ but ‘not getting too close and getting into trouble together’. This sensible perspective is encouraged by staff who Inspection report children's home: SC065535 5 successfully promote an atmosphere of mutual respect for each other. Most risk assessments strongly reflect young people’s vulnerabilities, detail the warning signs and, crucially, explain how to minimise particular risks. However, not all risk assessments are sufficiently detailed and accurate. This lack of consistency means that young people’s well- being may not be sufficiently promoted. Recently, a new format has been introduced for risk assessments relating to episodes when young people go missing from the home. These represent a significant practice improvement, as they are clearly laid out and appropriately thorough. Overall, the home’s

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

procedures to monitor and protect young people who go missing are sound. Staff understand the process and follow it diligently. They alert appropriate people, follow young people if possible, and keep activity logs. However, there are some improvements that could be made to bring these procedures in line with best practice. For example, the home does not yet routinely track Oyster card usage, nor use web-based resources for direct work with young people at risk. Staff in this home rarely use physical restraint measures on young people, nor are the police regularly called to the home. Staff have a good understanding of the limited circumstances under which they would use such measures. Behavioural issues are routinely managed through the positive relationships that are usually apparent between staff and young people. These relationships are supplemented by young people receiving individualised targets for

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

positive behaviour and sanctions for the reverse. Targets are linked to an incentive system, so young people get rewards for meeting them. Most young people understand this system well and are motivated to meet their targets, if the incentive is attractive enough. Staff recruitment processes are thorough. All checks are appropriately completed, and the individual’s attitude and approach to young people is carefully assessed prior to a job offer being made. Staff are clear about their safeguarding responsibilities towards young people in their care, and take these responsibilities seriously. They balance protecting young people from harm with allowing them appropriate freedoms. For example, they may let a young person travel alone in the day, but insist on escorting them home as it gets dark. Staff benefit from the regular updating of their safeguarding knowledge and procedures, and this contributes to keeping young people as safe as possible.

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

Young people think that their home environment is spacious and comfortable. It is well cared for and regular health and safety checks help keep it as a safe environment. Fire checks are diligently carried out by the home’s health and safety lead, and new staff and young people are quickly involved in a fire evacuation drill of the whole premises. This means that everyone in the home knows what to do if there is a fire alert. The manager completes an annual review of the location of the home to ensure that any wider risks are assessed to help secure young people’s safety within the community.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

This home has recently appointed a new manager. He has a strong track record of managing another children’s home and is in the process of submitting his application to be the registered manager of this home. He has a clear understanding of the strengths and weaknesses of his new home and has initiated some key changes. Young people have confidence in the new manager, feeling that if they did have a problem they would go to him Inspection report children's home: SC065535 6 and he would ‘sort it out’. The manager has reviewed systems used in the home and has successfully introduced clearer methods of monitoring. For example, new processes now exist for identifying the risks of young people going missing from the home, tracking the progress of a missing from the home episode and maintaining an accurate overview of missing from home trends and patterns. In addition, a simple monitoring system now exists to assess young people’s

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

progress over all key areas. These systems will be useful, both in driving improvement and in providing a clear overview of progress. Staff are still getting used to these new systems, but most can see that they represent an improvement. However, the most important new initiative in this home has been the focused attention on improving staff numbers and status. At the last inspection, a requirement was made because of insufficient staff numbers. This requirement has now been met. When appropriate, temporary staff have moved to permanent status, and a new senior team has been recruited, together with some well-qualified support workers. Some of these people are still completing recruitment processes, but there are now sufficient in their permanent posts to make a positive difference to the home. The independent visitor routinely offers useful external scrutiny of the running of the home. However, there is not sufficient thorough analysis of whether young people are appropriately

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

safeguarded and their welfare sufficiently promoted. A new training programme is now in place. This is helping to establish a consistent practice baseline for this new staff team and is providing a useful refresher for long-standing staff. Some staff feel that the training programme has helped them ‘become more confident in dealing with young people’. Established staff are cautiously optimistic about the future direction of the home, and feedback from social workers is positive. Supervision and appraisal are given high priority in this home. Staff get regular formal supervision, which provides them with a good mix of challenge and support. Appraisal events set appropriately high aspirations for the staff’s performance. This approach means that young people benefit from staff who are well supported and challenged appropriately.

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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. Whenever 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 and 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: SC065535 7

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: 163 Manor Road, Mitcham, Surrey CR4 1JT

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Inspector

Bridget Goddard, social care inspector Inspection report children's home: SC065535 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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