Children's home run by Kids

Inspection report children's home: SC056054 1 SC056054 Registered provider: Kids

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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 home is operated by a charitable organisation and provides a short-breaks service for up to four children and young people at one time. Those placed have learning disabilities, physical disabilities, sensory impairments or a combination of these.

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Information about this children’s home

The organisation provides other services to a similar client group from the same premises. These services are registered with the Care Quality Commission.

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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: Sustained effectiveness

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Key findings from this inspection

 Children and young people enjoy experiences while on short breaks that they may not have the opportunity to participate in elsewhere.  Many children and young people make progress as a result of the work staff Inspection report children's home: SC056054 2 undertake with them. The improvements in their independent skills can be significant and subsequently used in other settings.  The manager and staff liaise well with other agencies to safeguard children and young people. They evidence and share concerns, including with families, and implement plans to address them effectively.  The manager advocates persistently on behalf of children and families in multi- agency forums.

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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

 Targets set are often written in terms of what staff will do, rather than what it is intended children and young people will work towards. They are broadly stated, so that it is difficult to assess when they have been achieved. There is no formal mechanism to chart each child’s overall progress since they started accessing the service.  Some furnishings and facilities are showing significant signs of wear and tear.  Records do not fully demonstrate the breadth of work done by staff with children. This inhibits both the monitoring of progress and deciding when a change of target is needed.

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

02/03/2017 Interim Sustained effectiveness 25/10/2016 Full Good 27/01/2016 Interim Sustained effectiveness 18/08/2015 Full Good Inspection report children's home: SC056054 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 registered person must ensure that, within 24 hours of the use of a measure of control, discipline or restraint in relation to a child in the home, a record is made which includes a description of the measure and its duration, details of any methods used or steps taken to avoid the need to use the measure and the effectiveness and any consequences of the use of the measure. The registered person must ensure that within 48 hours the user has been spoken to about the measure and signed the record to confirm it is accurate; and within five days an addition is made to the record confirming that the child has been spoken to about the measure. (Regulation 35 (3)(a-c)) In particular, records for sanctions must comply with this regulation. 30/09/2017

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must maintain case records for each child, which are kept up to date and are signed and dated by the author of each entry. (Regulation 36 (1)(b) and (c)) 30/09/2017

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Recommendations

 The registered person has specific responsibilities to prepare and implement policies setting out arrangements for the safeguarding of children from abuse or neglect. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 44, paragraph 9.19) These should address the specific issues the home encounters, including the vulnerabilities of children who have disabilities and communication issues.  The registered person should ensure that they agree with the placing authority (usually the child’s parents/carers) and, if appropriate, the child’s school, an approach to meeting any relevant education targets while the child is in the short break setting. Short breaks can present an opportunity for the child to enjoy and achieve new things. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 29, paragraph 5.22) This includes ensuring targets are measurable and devising new ones if current targets are not being attained.

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Recommendations

Inspection report children's home: SC056054 4

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

The home has a good admissions process, carried out at the pace of the child. The manager and staff ensure that children are comfortable with moving on to the next step. One parent commented, ‘It is a daunting thing for the family and they (the managers) made it right, right from the start.’ The manager does not undertake an impact risk assessment if she thinks there are no apparent risks. There was no indication on a case file that it had been decided not to undertake an assessment, rather than such an assessment having been overlooked, and there was no other record of the matching considerations to be taken into account. Children and young people enjoy their short breaks; those who are non-verbal showed this by their happy interactions with staff and those who spoke were able to say they liked coming. When one young person was asked what he liked most, he replied ‘the staff’, adding, ‘because they take me out.’ He also thought the food was ‘wonderful’.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Parents say that their children both enjoy and benefit from visits. A mother commented, ‘it is important that my daughter mixes with other young people as she doesn’t get an opportunity to have sleepovers,’ while a professional said that another young person ‘really looks forward to it, because it is a night out, like a sleepover.’ Therefore, the service performs an important social function for children and young people, who experience being away from parents and socialising with peers. Children and young people make progress because of their short breaks. Examples include assisting with simple chores, such as making beds and hanging up clothes, being able to respond to boundaries and making choices. One young person has been helped to cook healthy meals for himself and has started doing so in the family home through his own initiative. Staff, parents and professionals all believe children and young people

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

make this progress over time, but it is not possible for the home to evidence this from records, as staff do not undertake baseline assessments of abilities on admission against which they could measure long-term achievements. Staff devise and work towards targets for children and young people and anecdotally illustrate how this has resulted in progress, such as improving a young person’s interaction with sensory toys. However, the targets themselves are written in broad terms and often describe what staff will do (‘continue to help ‘X’ to use cutlery’) rather than what it is intended young people will achieve. Logs and monthly summaries record what was done and progress made but are not systematic so that, in one instance, nothing was recorded about a particular target for eight months. As a result, the manager and staff do not always respond promptly when progress is not being achieved, nor is it clear when the target has been met and the young person can move on.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Fixtures and fittings of the home are showing signs of considerable wear and tear; the bathroom has required upgrading for over a year and during the inspection a member of staff was unable to get equipment in the sensory room to work. The garden is enjoyed by children and young people, but also requires renovation and play equipment that suits the age group who now use the service. There is wi-fi access but it is Inspection report children's home: SC056054 5 temperamental; children enjoy using tablets when they are able to. Staff often seek the views, wishes and feelings of children and young people, formally through a six-monthly evaluation exercise and informally by asking their opinions about activities and making choices. Only information from the former is systematically recorded and collated to inform decisions. Even though the daily logs specifically ask whether children have been offered a choice at meal times, this information is only

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

sporadically completed. Staff organise a variety of activities, including trips to local historical sites and a ride on a steam train, which enhance children and young people’s experiences. Photographs are added to case files and journals to show what they have been involved in, but pictures are loosely grouped together into periods of two to four months and the same ones can appear in different months as ‘evidence’. There is no process by which children or staff can comment on the activities (such as, how successful it was or what to consider if repeated) to facilitate learning from the event.

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

The manager and staff have contributed considerably to raising awareness of concerns about some young people who attend the service, documenting observations, and notifying other agencies promptly of safeguarding issues and keeping them updated. One professional said that the manager, ‘takes any concern very seriously and is really proactive’. This is exemplified in an admirably written report for a child protection conference that evidenced concerns, described how they were addressed with the family and other professionals, and reported both the strengths and weaknesses of parents. Staff assist children and young people to understand risks, whenever possible. An example is helping a young person to understand it is not good to view videos rated above his age. They achieved this by asking him what he would think if he could only watch ones suitable for much younger children (illustrating that what is appropriate for

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

one age group is not for another). Staff also help children to manage risks at an acceptable level, most notably by working with parents to help a young person to self-administer medication that he needs to take on a regular basis. High levels of supervision ensure that children and young people are at a low risk of going missing while on short breaks. Nevertheless, staff are well versed in how to respond in such circumstances. A sample of recruitment files showed that applicants had gaps in their employment histories. The manager readily recalled the explanations given, demonstrating that she had explored them, but had not recorded the outcomes. Documentation evidencing that Disclosure and Barring Service disclosures had been obtained did not specifically state whether they were ‘clear’ or not. It is important to ensure that employment records detail that due diligence has been taken to ensure that those employed to work with

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

children are unlikely to pose a threat. Managers require potential recruits to spend time on a shift so that managers can observe how they work and gauge the reactions of children and young people to them. Inspection report children's home: SC056054 6 In this way, children can contribute indirectly to decision-making about recruitment. A complaints policy and process is in place but no complaints have been received from a child or young person. This is likely to be because most of the children and young people are non-verbal, and the policy does not give any guidance to staff about how to identify or respond to behaviour that demonstrates that a child has a grievance. This means children’s views and concerns may be unheard, and opportunities to improve their care or the service more widely may be missed. Positive interactions between staff and children underpin secure and caring relationships, in which children are protected and helped to develop. Observations during the

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

inspection indicate that children and young people are comfortable in the care of those working with them. This is confirmed by comments of family and professionals; as one parent commented, ‘staff are pretty exceptional and have worked hard to build relationships with my child’.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The manager and staff have developed methods to improve plans and assessments that reflect the work they undertake with children and young people. These are effective in informing that work so that it is consistent and clear. The deputy manager has produced a key-worker pack that shows what tasks and paperwork need to be completed, when and by whom. ‘Archive days’ are convened when the entire team, including night-shift workers, come together and undertake this work. As a result, case files are up to date and specifically address issues for individual children. Parents are now invited to sign key documents to show they have been shared, and a signing sheet for staff has been introduced to confirm that they have read and understood them too. Managers have responded to all of the requirements and recommendations made at the last inspection, but while there has been progress there are outstanding issues in some

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

areas. Authors of plans and assessments are always identified and this has gone a long way to complying with the requirement to maintain records that are kept up to date and signed. However, other entries on case records are not always signed, which means there is a difficulty in determining accountability, which is particularly important for records of safeguarding concerns. Other issues still needing attention include the recording of timescales in logs for sanctions and the provider’s safeguarding policy not adequately addressing particular issues for children who have physical disabilities and/or learning difficulties. The paragraph inserted merely states that such children have additional vulnerabilities, but does not cover what they are or how staff should address them. The manager has recently introduced journals to document children and young people’s experience of using the service from the date of admission. This includes significant

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

events and developments, illustrated by photographs and containing written reflections and notes of important meetings. One has been produced for a young person who is about to leave the service and it is a useful record of how staff have assisted him to prepare for the transition. Inspection report children's home: SC056054 7 The manager and staff liaise well with other agencies: one professional commented, ‘They will always do joint visits with me; the manager works hard at getting things done for children.’ Others spoke of the team working well together by offering accommodation at short notice, sharing information, notifying concerns and ‘helping to think about complicated cases’. This has significantly facilitated the safeguarding of children and young people and the promotion of their welfare. Minutes of interagency meetings evidence that the manager has raised concerns about a lack of invitations to attend key meetings for children and young people. Similarly, staff

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

send emails to chase local authority paperwork. Both issues continue to be chronic problems. Managers have not escalated the concerns sufficiently quickly or high enough to make sure the issues are addressed by senior managers of placing authorities. In addition, neither the lack of invitations nor the chasing of documentation is recorded in the case files of children concerned. The staff engage well with families, who report a high level of communication between them and the service. They feel well informed about their children’s experiences when having short breaks. The manager keeps a record of attendance of staff meetings, noting when anyone has not been present for a while. This led to a creative resolution proposed by a worker whose second job made attendance problematic, which is to join via an internet video link. A beneficial effect for whole-team meetings is a greater sense of working together

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

for the common purpose of improving how the service is run and providing care for children and young people. This has the impact of gradually raising the standards of work by the entire staff group.

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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: SC056054 8

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: 7-9 Elliotts Place, London N1 8HX

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Inspector

Chris Peel, social care inspector Inspection report children's home: SC056054 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 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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