Children's Home run by West Sussex County Council in West Sussex

Inspection report children’s home: SC399222 1 SC399222 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

This home is run by the local authority, and is registered to provide care and accommodation for up to three children who have severe learning disabilities.

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Overall experiences and progress of

children and young people, taking into account Good

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Overall experiences and progress of

How well children and young people are helped and protected Good

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Overall experiences and progress of

The effectiveness of leaders and managers Requires improvement to be good

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Overall experiences and progress of

Overall judgement at last inspection: Sustained effectiveness

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Enforcement action since last inspection

None Inspection report children’s home: SC399222 2

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Key findings from this inspection

 Young people make very good progress, especially considering their starting points.  Effective partnerships with other professionals support the young people in developing their life skills, coping strategies and independence.  Members of staff develop close caring relationships with the young people. This helps the young people to feel safe and secure.  Members of staff are conscientious in ensuring that the young people are safe while they are given new and exciting opportunities to take part in activities.  Effective systems are implemented by members of staff to make sure that young people’s safety is protected and promoted.  Parents are complimentary about the approachability of the manager and staff team and their willingness to listen.

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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

 The home still has areas which need to be redecorated to ensure that it is domestic and child friendly.  Some records lack detail, and monitoring of these has failed to ensure that they are of the required standard.  Recording of complaints and how they have been resolved lacks depth.

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

09/03/2017 Interim Sustained effectiveness 23/11/2016 Full Good 01/03/2016 Interim Improved effectiveness 15/12/2015 Full Outstanding Inspection report children’s home: SC399222 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

13: The leadership and management standard. In order to meet the leadership and management standard, in particular paragraph (1), the registered person must: (2)(h) use monitoring and review systems to make continuous improvements in the quality of care provided in the home.

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Requirement Due date

This is with specific reference to managers ensuring that all aspects of recording are reviewed to ensure that they are accurate and up to date, including records of supervision, complaints and restraint. 01/11/2017

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must ensure that, within 48 hours of the use of the measure, the registered person, or a person who is authorised by the registered person to do so ("the authorised person"), has spoken to the user about the measure; and, within 5 days of the use of the measure, the registered person or the authorised person adds to the record confirmation that they have spoken to the child about the measure. (Regulation 35(3)(b)(i) and 35(3)(c))

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Requirement Due date

This is with specific reference to ensuring that all incidents of physical restraint have been monitored by the member of staff responsible. 01/11/2017

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must establish a procedure for considering complaints made by or on behalf of children. In particular, the registered person must ensure a record is made of any complaint, the action taken in response and the outcome of any investigation. (Regulation 39 (4))

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Requirement Due date

This is with reference to recording how issues have been explored and addressed and whether the complainant is satisfied with the response. 01/11/2017

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must notify HMCI and each relevant person without delay if there is any incident relating to a child which the registered person considers to be serious. (Regulation 40 (4)) 01/11/2017 Inspection report children’s home: SC399222 4

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Recommendations

 For children’s homes are to be nurturing and supportive environments that meet the needs of their children, they will, in most cases, be homely, domestic environments. In doing so, homes should seek as far as possible to maintain a domestic rather than ‘institutional’ impression (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’ page 15, paragraph 3.9). This includes redecorating and maintaining the home as required.

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Recommendations

 A record of supervision should be kept for all staff, including the manager. The record should provide evidence that supervision is being delivered in line with regulation 33 (4) (b) (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 61, paragraph 13.3). This is in relation to recording discussions that practice has been reflected on following a complaint about a member of staff’s conduct.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people:

Members of staff genuinely care for the young people. There are warm, nurturing relationships and members of staff are seen to be extremely patient with and understanding of each young person’s behaviours and idiosyncrasies. As a result of this high standard of commitment and support, young people make very good progress, especially considering their starting points.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people:

Young people benefit from staff’s understanding of their particular needs. Each young person’s individual identity is valued and respected. The staff ensure that any plans for their care are tailored to keeping them safe and help them to develop their life skills and to broaden their experiences. Members of staff do not see the young people’s disabilities as a barrier to their participating in enjoyable activities. They take extra time and have patience to make sure that the young people enjoy their time in the community. For example, careful planning by the staff enabled two young people to visit a wildlife park and to stay at a hotel overnight. This is an excellent achievement, especially when taking into consideration the young people’s abilities and how challenging they find change to their routines to be.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people:

The young people are supported closely to attend school. Members of staff effectively liaise with school staff and, if required, they will support them while they are there. This helps to ensure that all professionals, across both care and education settings, are consistent in their care. This approach creates stability for the young people and leads to a strong sense of collaborative working with other key professionals. Inspection report children’s home: SC399222 5 Each young person is supported to develop their independence as far as they are able. Due to their profound disabilities, the independence plans are paced at a rate with which they can cope. Examples of their development include learning to brush their teeth and learning how to communicate their preferences when choosing meals or activities. Six- weekly reviews involving the staff and other professionals, such as a psychologist and the young person’s social worker, ensure that progress is constantly assessed and that

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people:

routines and strategies are changed if necessary. As a result of this monitoring, care plans which inform and advise the staff in their practice, are kept up to date and relevant. A young person’s mother commented about the standard of care and stated that her son is ‘advancing and growing up so well’.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people:

Any specific health needs are known and met. Members of staff ensure that young people receive any prescribed medication and support them to attend appointments with health professionals, such as doctors or dentists. Preparation for these visits is careful and may take several attempts to succeed. For example, members of staff supported a young person over a period of months to visit a dentist and eventually allow his teeth to be examined. This careful and considerate planning has enabled development of young people’s abilities to cope with new experiences and has improved their health and well- being. Young people’s emotional well-being is promoted to a good standard. Consultation with professionals, such as psychologists and psychiatrists, helps to inform strategies and plans, which support the young people to feel safe and to cope with their emotions.

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How well children and young people are helped and protected:

Staff work very hard to successfully ensure that young people are kept safe while they live at this home. All staff understand their roles and obligations with regards to safeguarding and child protection, and all receive regular training to ensure that their knowledge is current and up to date. This enables any issues to be promptly shared and action plans put in place to keep young people safe.

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How well children and young people are helped and protected:

There has been one incident since the last inspection about which a child protection issue was raised and shared with the local authority child protection team. The issue was dealt with effectively and resolved quickly. Some recording concerning the issue lacked detail, but this shortfall did not impact on the young person’s well-being or safety.

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How well children and young people are helped and protected:

Members of staff know the young people very well and understand their behaviours and vulnerabilities. Detailed plans outline how each young person is to be supported and how to reassure them when they are anxious. This approach has led to a decrease in the number of incidents in which young people have become distressed and displayed behaviours which are challenging. The measured, consistent and patient approach of the staff over a substantial period of time has enabled young people to make considerable progress, especially when bearing in mind their starting points and learning difficulties.

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How well children and young people are helped and protected:

Staff conscientiously follow the detailed behavioural management plans, when supporting the young people in the home or out in the community. They are acutely Inspection report children’s home: SC399222 6 aware of the young people’s vulnerabilities if they were to be unsupervised or go missing, and this has ensured that there have been no incidents of this nature.

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How well children and young people are helped and protected:

Overall recording and monitoring of physical restraint are good. For the most part, managers review each incident and explore the circumstances with staff involved, so that any learning points can be implemented and strategies changed if necessary. They also review the incident with the young person involved, at a level commensurate with their understanding and their preferred method of communication. For example, this may be in the form of using pictures in a ‘social story’. This ensures that the incidents are explored fully and the young person’s opinion is sought. On one occasion, an incident in which the manager had been involved was not reviewed by the member of staff allocated for the task. Although this has not had an impact on the young person’s safety and was a minor incident, the monitoring of this was not effective.

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How well children and young people are helped and protected:

The behaviour of the young people is closely monitored to ensure that they are safe. While they may not have the cognitive ability to understand the concept of bullying, dynamics within the group and ways in which their behaviour may impinge on each other are closely supervised. This means that the staff know what to do and how to support the young people if they become distressed or show behaviour which may upset other young people.

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How well children and young people are helped and protected:

Regular testing of fire alarm systems is carried out and all of the young people take part in fire drills. Each young person has a personal emergency evacuation plan, and these outline what support each young person needs in the event that the home has to be evacuated. These are understood by all members of staff, and recording of fire drills shows that they are implemented successfully.

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How well children and young people are helped and protected:

An effective recruitment process ensures that all new members of staff have checks carried out on their backgrounds before they commence work. This ensures that only adults with appropriate backgrounds are employed to care for the young people.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers:

This home is undergoing a period of transition. There has been a new manager in place since February 2017, and he has applied to Ofsted to become the registered manager.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers:

There is a stable staff team that is committed to its task and ensures that the young people receive a very good quality of care. Some monitoring and review of records lack thoroughness. There is an action plan in place to improve this area of the service, but it has yet to be consolidated. There continues to be a lack of detail in some records.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers:

At the last inspection in March 2017, one requirement was made in relation to ensuring that all professionals and parents agreed to the surveillance and monitoring systems used in the home. This has been achieved. A recommendation in relation to ensuring that the environment is suitably decorated is repeated for the third time. Efforts made to improve the decor included having a team of volunteers repainting some areas of the home. This was partly achieved, but they were unable to finish their work and some Inspection report children’s home: SC399222 7 areas, for example a mural in the garden, have been partially covered. To date, there is no definite plan for this work to be finished. Additionally, the walls on the first floor landing are in need of repainting. This lack of progress detracts from the homeliness of the young people’s living area and the comfort of the home.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers:

Other shortfalls identified during this inspection are in relation to failures to monitor records thoroughly. For example, an incident of physical intervention had not been signed off in a timely manner by the member of staff identified to do so. Although this was a minor incident, there was not a follow-up debriefing or in-depth analysis, although it is the expectation of the service.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers:

The recording of complaints does not show that the complainant is satisfied with the resolution. There is no formal feedback given to the complainant informing them of the outcome.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers:

There is poor recording of supervision sessions, which have been held as a result of complaints about a staff member’s conduct. Insufficient recording makes it unclear what discussions have taken place and whether any formal action regarding performance management has been necessary.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers:

On one occasion, Ofsted was not notified of a significant incident for a week following its occurrence. While other key agencies were informed of the incident promptly and the young person’s well-being was protected, there was a delay informing Ofsted, despite this expectation being clear in legislation.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers:

There are enough members of staff to ensure that the young people are supported and protected, in the home and while out in the community. Members of staff report that they receive a wide variety of useful training and that they feel very well supported. The varied training in key areas, such as safeguarding and child protection, behaviour management and autism, ensures that they have the skills, knowledge and confidence to support the young people and to have good insight into their needs and behaviours. The cohesive planning and teamwork ensure that the young people make very good progress at this home.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers:

Parents of young people who use this service stated that the manager and staff are open and approachable. ‘He is easy to talk to and straightforward in what he says,’ a parent reported about the manager. This demonstrates that young people’s welfare and progress is discussed openly and that there is a genuine belief that everyone is working together so that the young people can benefit from their placements. Inspection report children’s home: SC399222 8

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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: SC399222 9

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Children’s home details

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

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Inspector

Paul Taylor, social care inspector Inspection report children’s home: SC399222 10 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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