Children's home run by Kennet Care Limited

Inspection report children’s home: 1185488 1 Registered provider: Kennet Care 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

The home is registered to provide care for up to four young people who may have emotional and/or behavioural difficulties and/or children and young people who may have learning disabilities. The home is located within easy reach of community-based services in a residential area.

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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: 24 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 are making good progress while living at the home. Inspection report children’s home: 1185488 2  They are attending education and making progress academically.  Staff support young people to address their risk-taking behaviours and learn more socially acceptable ways to behave.  Staff are supportive, caring, encouraging and aspire for each young person to achieve their best.  Young people take part in a wide variety of activities. Staff support them to plan holidays and the activities.  The home has a good safeguarding culture and ethos. Staff have a good understanding about relevant policy, procedure and their individual responsibilities.  Staff work collaboratively with external professionals and young people’s care plans reflect the joined-up approach.  Staff receive regular, effective training pertinent to their role, which informs and educates them.

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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

 Staff have not all achieved the required qualification in the expected time frame.  Leaders and managers do not routinely evidence that they have reviewed and monitored all sanctions.  There are gaps in the recording of supervision, although the log of events states that sessions have occurred.  The systems used to monitor and evaluate safeguarding concerns are overly complicated.  Managers have not evidenced how they talk with young people to prepare them for the admission to the home of new young people.

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

24/11/2016 Interim Sustained effectiveness 26/04/2016 Full Good Inspection report children’s home: 1185488 3

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Recommendations

 It is good practice for a note of the content and/or outcomes of supervision sessions to be kept and to ensure that both the person giving the supervision and staff member have a copy of the record. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 61, paragraph 13.4)  The registered person should ensure that all incidents of control, discipline and restraint are subject to systems of regular scrutiny to ensure that their use is fair and the principles as set out in 9.35 are respected. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 46, paragraph 9.36) Specifically, ensure that consequences and sanctions are monitored.  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). The registered person may extend the time period if the member of staff

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Recommendations

hasn’t worked in the role for a prolonged period, such as sick leave or maternity leave, or if it is not reasonable to expect the member of staff to complete in this timescale due to the nature of the hours they work. (‘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

Children who have lived in the home for a significant period of time are settled and make good progress. They are developing positive routines and are improving their life chances and their personal and social skills. Those who have recently arrived in the home are developing relationships and are engaging with their plans.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff support and encourage all young people to attend education. When young people refuse to attend school, staff are persistent in following this up and support young people to re-engage. Staff attend meetings and reviews, with regular updates shared between home and school; this has a positive impact on consistency of approach across those involved. Staff also advocate on behalf of young people seeking, sourcing and locating education provision.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Young people are supported to meet all of their basic health needs. Staff refer young people to specialist health services and seek additional advice and guidance if required. They provide practical education, advice and information to young people about the impact of lifestyle choices, including smoking and drinking. This enables young people to make informed choices about their actions and behaviours.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff follow detailed plans which are ‘child-friendly,’ enabling staff to share them openly with young people. Staff regularly meet with young people to gain their views and opinions Inspection report children’s home: 1185488 4 about progress made. They also gain their views in questionnaires, reviews and by talking with them about the ‘highs and lows’ of the month. Staff actively support and encourage young people to be involved in their review meetings, and as a consequence young people are now able to share their views about their plans and future aspirations. Staff complete detailed assessments prior to the admission of new young people to the home. They complete thorough impact risk assessments which explore all known risks. Staff talk with and prepare young people currently residing here for the new arrivals to the home. They do not formally record this currently.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Young people engage in a wide variety of daily activities. Staff have good knowledge of young people’s favoured activities and plan activities accordingly. Staff and young people have planned short breaks and holidays for those who have resided in the home for an extended period of time. Young people spoke happily about these trips and what they hope to do next time.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff facilitate family and other contact for young people, which enables them to sustain relationships with family and friends.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff offer young people regular, meaningful one-to-one sessions which afford them opportunities to explore issues that are important to them. They also offer an opportunity for quality one-to-one time with a member of staff.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff are caring and nurturing in their approach with young people. They offer young people time to talk about their worries and anxieties and support them to explore strategies that assist them in managing their behaviour and emotions.

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

Young people are happy at the home and report feeling safe and secure. They each have a trusted adult whom they can confide in and share concerns with.

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

Staff have good knowledge and understanding of the risk factors affecting individual young people and what is required to manage and minimise the impact of these. Records are thorough and provide clear detailed information and evidence. Managers do not keep a single central log for safeguarding concerns and allegations, which makes it harder to review and monitor the processes followed. Staff respond to all concerns and allegations, and seek additional guidance when needed. Managers have good effective working relationships with the local safeguarding board and seek their guidance when needed.

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

Staff training includes understanding risk factors and knowing the processes and procedures to follow that address them. Staff have managed incidents of young people going missing well. This has been done collaboratively with external professionals, to good effect. Young people are welcomed back to the home and staff spend time with young people ascertaining whether they are safe and well and exploring the reasons for their episode of going missing.

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

Managers and staff complete detailed risk assessments and plans. Staff support young Inspection report children’s home: 1185488 5 people to take age-appropriate risks. Management plans are detailed and explore all known risk factors and provide practical advice and guidance to staff about how to manage and minimise risk.

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

Young people and others have made complaints, which have been explored and responded to. Young people have written letters of apology to others if they have been the cause of the complaint.

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

Behaviour is well managed, with clear practical plans and strategies for staff. Staff avoid physical intervention if possible and it has only been used once since the last inspection. Staff utilise their good relationships with young people to de-escalate situations. Staff record incidents, physical intervention and sanctions accurately; they explore the views of young people after the incident. Staff have given sanctions that do not link to the behaviour or cause. Managers have not routinely monitored sanctions and the records do not clearly show when a young person’s views have been sought.

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

Medication is stored securely in the home. Staff have completed additional medication training about its administration and storage, and managers have reviewed the home’s medication policy and procedure. This has improved staff knowledge and understanding about this area and has reduced medication incidents.

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

Staff adhere to safer recruitment practice, and newly appointed staff are provided with a thorough induction to the home. They complete a probation period in which their practice and knowledge are regularly reviewed and monitored.

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

The home environment is safe, with all safety checks undertaken and any damage swiftly repaired. The home’s location risk assessment details all known risk factors in the local area; managers are planning to review this.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The home is managed effectively by senior staff and the responsible individual. The home manager has recently resigned and leaders are currently recruiting a manager.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The previous manager had applied to Ofsted to become the registered manager. The application was not processed within the required timescale and the period has now gone over 26 weeks without a registered manager in post. However, the cause of this delay was primarily within Ofsted’s processing system and therefore is not affecting this judgement area.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The responsible individual is very involved in the day-to-day running of the home and so she has managed the home during this delay. The leaders and managers utilise a variety of systems to evaluate and monitor the quality of care provided in the home. The managers and responsible individual have good knowledge and understanding of the needs and risks posed by each young person in the home. They have developed positive relationships with young people and their families. Inspection report children’s home: 1185488 6 Staff are well supported by leaders and managers in the home. The regular reflective team meetings provide ample opportunities to review and reflect on practice. Staff access regular, effective supervision but there are minor gaps in the records of these sessions. Staff practice is appraised at least annually.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Staff access a wide variety of training specific to their role. Recent training has included substance misuse, self-harm and suicide, first aid, refresher safeguarding and child sexual exploitation. Staff either have the required qualification, an equivalent qualification or are enrolled to complete this. However, not all staff have achieved this in the required time frame.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The independent visits to the home have provided an additional layer of scrutiny, and managers use the findings effectively. Areas of weakness are swiftly addressed and improved. The home’s development plan focuses on areas of improvement, including the environment, staff practice, and the monitoring and encouraging of progress that young people make while living at the home. The plan has been regularly reviewed and updated by managers.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Leaders and managers have good links with the local community, and staff support young people to access community events, resources and services. Managers have developed effective working relationships with external professionals and stakeholders.

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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: 1185488 7

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Children’s home details

Registered provider: Kennet Care Limited

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: Stan Colaco And Co, Atlantic House, Reading, Berkshire RG2 0TD

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Inspector

Amanda Maxwell, social care inspector Inspection report children’s home: 1185488 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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