Children's home run by London Borough of Tower Hamlets in Tower Hamlets

Inspection report children's home: SC034652 1 SC034652 Registered provider: London Borough of Tower Hamlets

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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 local authority runs this home. It provides care and accommodation for up to six young people, irrespective of gender, who have emotional and/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: 21 February 2017

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good

Overall judgement at last inspection: Sustained effectiveness

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Key findings from this inspection

This children's home is good because: Inspection report children's home: SC034652 2  The home, in conjunction with the local authority, has a joined-up response to children who go missing from care. They are completing a high percentage of police debrief interviews and return home interviews, which is helping reduce missing episodes.  A worker who has lead responsibility for children missing from care automatically refers young people to The Children’s Society. This ensures that young people can speak to an independent person to share any concerns they have.  Staff know the young people well and take time to build relationships and establish trust.  Staff support young people to learn how to look after themselves and prepare for independent living in the community.  Young people have continual positive input from staff, which helps them to make the right choices in life.  Young people can make choices about their home, their menus, activities and

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Key findings from this inspection

annual holiday.  Despite young people often having complex needs, they are all making progress from their starting points.  Staff feel supported by managers and work well as a team.  The registered manager makes robust decisions about the mix of young people who can live together at the home.

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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 do not always provide specific details about potential risks and how to reduce them.  Agency staff should have access to the electronic recording systems to record daily logs accurately.  The registered manager must use the feedback from parents, professionals and young people to inform and improve practice at the home.

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

21/02/2017 Interim Sustained effectiveness 17/08/2016 Full Good 02/02/2016 Interim Improved effectiveness 05/08/2015 Full Requires improvement Inspection report children's home: SC034652 3

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Recommendations

 Ensure that staff continually and actively assess the risks to each child and the arrangements in place to protect them. Where there are safeguarding concerns for a child, their placement plan, agreed between the home and their placing authority, must include details of the steps the home will take to manage any assessed risks on a day-to-day basis. (‘Guide to the children's homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 42, paragraph 9.5)

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Recommendations

 Ensure that the registered person oversees the welfare of the children in their care through observation and engagement with: each child; the home's staff; each child's family/carers where appropriate; and professionals involved in the care or protection of each child including their social worker, independent reviewing Officer (IRO), teachers, clinicians and other health professionals. Such feedback to inform the planning and running of the home. (‘Guide to the children's homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 54, paragraph 10.23)

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Recommendations

 Case records must be kept up-to-date and signed and dated by the author of each entry. (‘Guide to the children's homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 62, paragraph 14.3

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Young people in this home benefit from individualised care and support. All the staff, social workers, independent reviewing offices and young people spoken with verbalised this consistently during the inspection. The staff and registered manager know the young people well and understand how their backgrounds can affect their current needs and behaviours. This level of knowledge helps young people to feel understood and not judged, which supports them to improve behaviours.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

The staff team members build positive relationships with young people. However, they do not rush this process in any way. One social worker said, ‘They are building up relationships especially with stronger members of staff.’ They understand the importance of creating trust and that slowly getting young people to work alongside them is the key to helping them to change risk-taking and negative behaviours.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff support young people to make changes and progress in all areas of development. Basic planning and assessment begins prior to admission to the home, when the registered manager completes an assessment to determine whether their placement is a Inspection report children's home: SC034652 4 good match with existing residents at the home. This assessment continues after admission and throughout their time at the home. Staff continue the assessment process through transitions for young people to live independently, and support continues after they leave the care of the home. For example, one young person recently returned to the home to enjoy a holiday with the other young people. Another young person has regular outreach support following his transition into supported living in the community. Often, young people visit the home after they have left, calling in for a meal or a cup of tea.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Young people attend weekly residents’ meetings. They often receive an incentive to attend. However, this ensures that their views and opinions on the running of the home are gathered and taken into account. Examples of this are young people’s input into the weekly menus, the activity planner and the planning for the recent holiday that they enjoyed. One young person said, ‘I have been on holiday here, I went paragliding, horse riding, swimming and had a trip on a boat.’

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Some of the young people who are admitted to the home have highly complex needs, which can mean that the placements team has struggled to find suitable placements for them. The registered manager has autonomy to consider the mix of young people placed and to keep numbers low to ensure that individual needs are met. This enables the staff team to work more intensively with young people, with a higher ratio of staff to help settle them into the home.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Despite complex needs, all young people at the home are making progress. For example, the number of times that young people go missing from the home is reducing. Other areas of progress, although small, are significant, for example young people engaging with youth offending services, completing college applications or improving language skills. Staff give young people consistent and unconditional support, which helps them to feel safe and provides security. Staff continuously encourage young people to make wise choices, and they accompany them to ensure that basic health needs, such as dentist, optician and health assessments, are completed. This helps young people to be as healthy as possible. One young person said, ‘I try to keep fit and healthy, to eat the right things and do exercise daily.’

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

All young people either are on roll at school or have applied for places at college for September 2017. Some young people require more staff support to engage than others do. For example, staff prompted one young person to complete an application and the social worker delivered this to the college on his behalf. Another young person, who is studying English as a second language, requested additional support throughout the holiday period. This young person’s language has improved so much that he no longer needs interpreters to communicate on a day-to-day basis. Staff consider wider needs and involve outside professional support where needed. For example, they have arranged guitar lessons, virtual school involvement and additional support for learning.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff pay close attention to young people’s emotional needs. One-to-one key-work sessions focus on life choices and identified risks. These sessions help young people to think about risk-taking behaviours and the potential consequences. Staff ensure that Inspection report children's home: SC034652 5 referrals are made to the child and adolescent mental health services or the educational psychologist for more specialised support when needed. There is also close and helpful working with youth offending services and the police, in attempts to de-criminalise young people and help them to take the right track.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Young people experience stable and consistent placements at this home. One young person recently moved into semi-supported accommodation, having lived at the home for over six years. Both he and another young person have made successful and positive transitions to leaving care since the last interim inspection in March 2017. One young person wrote in his exit questionnaire, ‘I had a great time in this home every staff member treated and helped me in everything.’ The young people living at the home originate from the local community, which has prevented them from having to move far away from their family home. Staff support regular contact with young people’s families and promote positive relationships where it is safe to do so.

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

A skill of this staff team is its members’ capacity to challenge young people in a non- threatening way. This enables staff to have regular discussions with young people and continually give them the right messages about acceptable behaviours. All young people have a key worker and a co-key worker who meet with them regularly and are available if young people need additional support. The records of key-work sessions indicate that staff challenge young people on pertinent issues and are getting this balance right.

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

The registered manager makes autonomous decisions about which young people can come and live at the home. Past concerns that the registered manager felt pressure to accept inappropriate requests for young people have gone. The registered manager has more time to consider, match and make decisions about the placement of young people. The home does take young people who have highly complex needs, who have proved very hard to place. However, better processes allow for safer placements, which take into account the needs of all the young people living at the home. Where potential risks for a placement are high, the staffing ratio reflects this, ensuring high levels of supervision. This helps to keep young people as safe as possible.

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

The responses to young people who go missing from home have improved significantly. The child protection and review team in the local authority have appointed a specific worker to coordinate responses to all young people who go missing. This ensures that they are aware of patterns and trends of missing young people. It also allows professionals to understand young people’s networks better. For example, it identifies when young people go missing together. The local authority lead worker for child sexual exploitation also attends a specialist multi-agency panel, which helps ensure that proper strategies are in place where there are concerns. The local authority ensures that an independent interview is offered to all young people when they return from going missing. This helps to understand the reasons why they went missing. Although there are still high numbers of young people going missing, this has been reducing in recent

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

months since the new systems have come into place. As part of the new response to Inspection report children's home: SC034652 6 children who go missing, the managers considered the risks to all young people living at the home, through a strategy meeting to think about patterns of missing and the best way to safeguard young people.

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

When young people first come to live at the home, risk assessments help staff to think about potential risks and strategies to keep young people safe. However, the risk assessments completed by staff are basic. They lack specific information about what the risk is and how staff can minimise it. If a young person is at risk of trafficking or child sexual exploitation, the risk assessment should evidence the reasons for this risk and help staff to manage it safely. Current risk assessments do not consider obvious potential risks, for example discrimination in the community for unaccompanied asylum- seeking children. Although no young people have come to any harm because of this shortfall, thinking about all risks will inevitably keep young people as safe as possible.

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

Young people said that they feel safe in this home and that they like living here. One young person scored the home a nine out of 10, with 10 being the highest score. They said that they have comfortable bedrooms and that they can have a say in what happens at the home. Young people could identify staff whom they felt they could talk to if they had a problem and were aware of how they could complain if they needed to. Both young people spoken to at this inspection had access to either an independent advocate or a solicitor, and they were aware of the role of the independent visitor for the home.

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

Young people have the benefit of various safeguarding policies, written for their safety and protection. These cover all aspects of safeguarding practice and help staff to understand how and when to report any issues of concern or allegations made. Staff spoken to feel confident to report any safeguarding issues and are aware of the whistleblowing policy.

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

The home environment is clean, comfortable and well maintained. The manager makes regular health and safety checks to ensure that it is a safe environment, including the local area surrounding the home and any risks that this may present to young people.

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

Robust staff recruitment processes are in place. This helps to protect children from exposure to unsafe people working in their home.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The registered manager is an experienced manager who is appropriately qualified to undertake this role. The staff team and the young people respect her. One staff member said, ‘The manager is a rock, she has the ability to be in tune with all the staff.’ The registered manager has been able to assert her role and the personal responsibility she holds, with the senior leaders and managers to ensure the smooth running of the service and the best possible outcomes for young people. Her approach is pragmatic, and she understands that often young people who have complex needs will require short-term accommodation in emergencies. The registered manager ensures appropriate staffing Inspection report children's home: SC034652 7 and resources to manage risks safely and to promote the welfare of all young people placed. A good example of this is admission and management of young people whose only alternative potential accommodation was secure placement.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Leaders and managers know the young people they care for well. Good relationships exist, and it is obvious through observations that they are familiar with one another. Despite leaders and managers knowing previous history and difficulties, they are prepared to give young people a second chance, and they support the staff team to work with the young people to reduce risk-taking behaviours.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The registered manager demonstrates a straightforward and effective approach to the running of the service. She is calm, considered and knows her staff team and the young people well. She is aware of the strengths and the vulnerabilities of the service. She challenges where necessary in a collaborative and supportive way, which promotes young people’s needs while maintaining positive relationships with placing teams. When the manager does not feel that a placement is working, she is able to have these discussions and negotiate planned moves that are in young people’s best interests.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Staff like working at this home and said that they feel supported by managers. The staff team members work well together and complement one another. For example, a buddy system for working weekends ensures a good skills mix of staff who can meet the needs of the young people placed. One staff member said, ‘The team work together in partnership, we help each other out. Buddy systems mean we are able to forge great working relationships with others.’ Staff receive regular supervision, which helps them to reflect on the needs of the young people placed and discuss any safeguarding or practice issues. Staff members have an annual appraisal of their practice. This helps leaders and managers to identify good practice and plan training and development where necessary. The annual appraisal of work feeds into a personal development plan for each staff member.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

A strength of this home is its ability to work very closely with placing social workers, the police, multi-agency panels, planning and review teams, placement planning and senior managers. It also maintains strong links with youth offending services, schools and parents. It only takes referrals from the local authority and is an integral part of it. The leaders and managers ensure that the home is compliant with its statement of purpose and function and is offering a good service to the young people who are looked after by the local authority. This allows young people to stay within their community, if possible.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

External monitoring of the home is good. An independent person provides a report on what is happening within the home on a monthly basis and provides a critical friend to the home. This report is sent to the regulator, which allows for further scrutiny on the running of the home. The independent person makes recommendations to the leaders and managers so that they can improve the service that they provide.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The registered manager completes a six-monthly quality of care review. Feedback from parents, professionals and young people informs this report. However, the registered manager does not yet make the best use of this collated feedback and is not showing Inspection report children's home: SC034652 8 how it will inform and change practice and improve the service.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The service keeps comprehensive records on the local authority’s integrated electronic recording system. Leaders and managers must ensure that all staff, including agency staff, understand the record-keeping policies in relation to these records.

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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 differences 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: SC034652 9

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Children's home details

Registered provider address: Children's Services, Mulberry Place, 5 Clove Crescent, London E14 2BG

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Inspector

Christine Kennet, social care inspector Inspection report children's home: SC034652 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 looked after children, safeguarding and child protection.

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Inspector

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Inspector

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Inspector

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