Children's home run by Smartcare Services

Inspection report children’s home: 1254701 1 Registered provider: Smartcare Services Ltd

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Inspected under the social care common inspection framework

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Information about this children’s home

This is a privately owned children’s home. The home’s registration allows the manager to admit up to three children with 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

Overall judgement at last inspection: not applicable

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Enforcement action since last inspection:

None Inspection report children’s home: 1254701 2

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Key findings from this inspection

 The registered manager is organised and provides structure in the home.

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Key findings from this inspection

 The staff are experienced and work well together as a team.

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Key findings from this inspection

 Young people make good progress from their starting points.

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Key findings from this inspection

 The staff team manages complex behaviours well and keeps young people safe.

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Key findings from this inspection

 Relationships are key to building up trust and security for young people.

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Key findings from this inspection

 The home’s response to young people who go missing is effective. There have been significant reductions in the number of missing episodes.

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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

 Leaders and managers must ensure that the staff have access to training on thematic safeguarding issues, such as risk of radicalisation, prevention of terrorism, female genital mutilation and honour-based violence.

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Recommendations

 Ensure staff can access appropriate facilities and resources to support their training needs, specifically in relation to thematic safeguarding issues such as risk of radicalisation, prevention of terrorism, honour-based violence and female genital mutilation. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards, page 53, paragraph 10.11) Inspection report children’s home: 1254701 3

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Young people experience individual care and support, which has a positive impact on their experiences and progress and helps them to improve. An example of this is staff working closely and consistently with young people, leading to fewer incidents of them going missing from the home.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

A strength of this home is the staff’s ability to build positive relationships with young people. Young people say that they genuinely feel cared for by staff who make them feel important. Experienced staff understand the importance of establishing relationships with young people, placing social workers, other professionals and parents. The impact of this is that young people receive a consistent approach from the people involved in their lives.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Young people feel listened to. They are aware that they can make a complaint if they wish to and they have a copy of the young people’s guide, which gives guidelines about what to do if they are not happy. Young people say that they feel listened to, because the registered manager operates a ‘grumbles’ system, where young people can talk to the manager about anything they are worried or unhappy about. The manager gives them a speedy response, including what action will take place. This helps to ensure that worries or concerns get resolved quickly before they escalate or make young people feel uncomfortable. The manager fully involves young people in resolving ‘grumbles’ giving them an opportunity to see what action has been taken and to decide if they wish to take the matter further. Young people have access to, contribute to and sign these records, helping them to feel empowered and to have their say in the running of the

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

home. For example, the manager recommended additional training for agency staff following one grumble.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Basic planning and assessment begins prior to admission to the home. The registered manager completes an assessment to determine young people’s suitability for admission to the home. This assessment determines whether their placement is a good match with other existing residents at the home. Assessment continues throughout young people’s stay at the home and carefully informs the care planning process and contributes to reviews of placements. If a young person is not making the expected progress, the ongoing assessment process informs a more appropriate pathway, such as a planned transition into either supported independent living or to a more suitable resource.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

The placing authorities using this home are all outside of the local area. This has led to some delay in setting up education for the young people. Despite this difficulty, the leaders and managers at the home are chasing and pursuing the placing authorities to ensure that services are established. During the interim period, the home offers alternative options, such as educational trips to museums or support to complete educational activities within the home. The home has strived to ensure that education planning for young people occurs and there is evidence of this on records. However, personal education plan meetings have not routinely taken place. Leaders and managers Inspection report children’s home: 1254701 4 continue to challenge this and have requested a meeting with senior managers in the placing authority concerned to resolve this issue.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Despite complex needs, all the young people at the home are making progress. For example, the numbers of young people going missing from the home is significantly reducing. Other areas of progress, although small, are significant, such as engaging and investing in relationships, signing a youth offending contract when previously there has been no compliance and completing college applications when a young person has been out of school for several years.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff work closely with young people’s health needs and pay particular attention to their emotional needs. Staff support young people to be healthy by ensuring that they register with local health services and encourage attendance at routine appointments. When basic health information is not forthcoming from the placing authority, the manager continues to challenge this and advocate on young people’s behalf.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

All young people experience good day-to-day care, which is organised, consistent and is providing them with stability. They are able to build trusting relationships, which helps them to feel valued. One social worker says, ‘They call him, he feels they care, they are good at communication.’

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Young people learn self-care skills. For example, they are encouraged to clean their rooms, learn how to cook meals and help keep the home tidy.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

The home is very mindful of supporting children’s connections to their homes, families and local areas. All the young people originate from outside the area and the home has been quick to organise contacts with family and friends where suitable.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children are treated with dignity and respect. Their cultural identity is respected. The home is very child-focused and staff work tirelessly to ensure that young people’s needs are met.

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

Staff and managers protect young people from harm. Young people say that they feel safe and supported. Staff consistently give strong and consistent messages to young people to keep them safe and reduce risks. Staff work closely with allocated social workers and young people’s families in their quest to keep children as safe as possible.

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

Young people say that they feel that staff care for them. They have been able to build up trusting and positive relationships, which has helped them feel safe and secure. They can talk about their worries and concerns and they feel listened to.

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

Risks are known and well assessed. There are clear behaviour management plans to reduce risks and prevent the risk of harm.

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

The response to young people who go missing from the home is good. The staff and Inspection report children’s home: 1254701 5 manager work continuously to try to reduce episodes of missing. This has included a joint collaborative approach with the child sexual exploitation and missing people unit of the police. It has also involved placing authorities and the transport police as well as regular contacts with young people when they are away from the unit. Offers to collect young people from the station once they return and encouragement to stay by planning activities and offering 2-to-1 care are all helping. Since the home opened in May 2017 one young person’s missing episodes have reduced by almost two thirds. One placing social worker says, ‘Previously he was missing for a period of 23 days; here is the first home he has engaged and invested in relationships.’

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

Alongside proactive responses to keep young people safe, they are encouraged to take responsibility for themselves. For example, young people are given appropriate responsibility to see if they can be trusted to return on time.

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

Staff provide consistent, clear and firm boundaries for young people. They offer close supervision and interaction, which helps young people to know that staff are interested in them. These relationships encourage trust and stability and help young people to manage their own behaviours. Young people can earn rewards for tasks and take on responsibilities, thus encouraging positive behaviour and trust.

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

There have been no restraints since the home opened in May 2017. Staff received appropriate training but positive trusting relationships have lessened the need for restraints or sanctions. Conflict management is good, staff pre-empt situations and are managing young people calmly and consistently with positive effect.

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

Staff understand the risks posed by the internet and social media in particular. They closely monitor young people’s use. Observations during inspection showed staff engaging with what young people watched on ‘YouTube’. Staff encouraged young people to look at and choose appropriate music videos where positive images and language were in use.

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

Staff understand the risk of child sexual exploitation. When this has been evident, staff have worked hard to significantly reduce the risk. Staff have not yet received other thematic safeguarding training, such as the risk of radicalisation, trafficking, honour- based violence and female genital mutilation.

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

Staff spoken to during the inspection held a good knowledge of safeguarding processes and have all received refresher safeguarding training. Staff are aware of the designated officer, the local safeguarding team and of the home’s whistleblowing policies. They know how to report any safeguarding concerns appropriately, although to date none have needed reporting.

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

The home practises good multi-agency working and communicates any concerns about safeguarding and keeping children safe appropriately with the professional network. One social worker says, ‘What has been outstanding is the child-focused approach; communication has been excellent.’ Inspection report children’s home: 1254701 6

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The registered manager is an effective and organised leader. She has been the manager from the home’s creation. She has been instrumental in writing and revising policy and procedure and setting up a staff team to run the home. She has suitable experience in previous jobs and understands her role in running and managing the home. The registered manager has the appropriate level 5 qualification in leadership and management.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The home has a staff team of six permanent staff as well as the manager. The manager continues to recruit staff and aims to have 10 permanent workers. In the meantime, the manager uses agency staff to support the permanent staff rota. She consistently uses the same agency to ensure that there are not too many changes for young people. All staff are suitably vetted and most hold the NVQ level 3 diploma or are working towards achieving this. Some staff have additional qualifications, such as a degree in social work or psychology. Both senior staff members are working towards level 5 qualification in leadership and management.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The registered manager regularly oversees the work of the staff and reflects this in supervision notes, signatures on files and through handover meetings. External monitoring of the home is good. An independent visitor regularly monitors what goes on in the home and reports directly to Ofsted every month. These reports reflect an impartial view of the home’s arrangements for safeguarding and promoting the welfare of the children in the home’s care. The independent person makes recommendations to the leaders and managers so that they can improve the service they provide.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

There have been two external complaints, both of which the manager dealt with quickly and appropriately. The leaders and manager at the home show a willingness to reflect and engage in how to make changes to practice to keep young people safe and in response to complaints. The responsible individual is in contact with the ‘children in care’ lead in the host borough to ensure good communication. Leaders and managers learn from feedback and are aware of their strengths and areas for development.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Leaders and managers know the young people well and ensure that plans meet their needs and remain child-focused. Placement plans are linked to the placing authority’s care plan. They identify targets, aims with timescales and delegate responsibility for tasks. There is good evidence of working with outside professionals in partnership to ensure that young people’s needs are met. For example, referrals to the hospital for grief counselling are examples of ensuring that wider services are available for young people.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Leaders and managers work proactively within the community. For example, they have joined the neighbourhood’s Facebook page. They also make it their business to get to know local shopkeepers, station staff and the police to help support young people’s safety in the community.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Leaders and managers work well with commissioning authorities and actively challenge when they do not feel that they are meeting the objectives of the care plans. When Inspection report children’s home: 1254701 7 young people do not settle, the leaders and managers proactively call meetings, challenge and reconsider care plans. When it is not safe to continue a placement, the leaders and managers offer good transitional arrangements to support young people until alternatives are identified. For example, one social worker says, ‘They focus on needs and risks; they are supporting a transition and haven’t just said he needs to move.’

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Staff feel supported and describe good supervision, debriefing and team support. There is evidence of good induction, probation and ongoing development. The staff team has gelled well together and has a vast range of experience in practice. Some of them have worked together previously and their different skills complement one another. The staff share responsibility and enjoy their work. Staff feel well managed and organised and this helps them to practise effectively. Staff say they have confidence in the leaders and managers and trust them.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The statement of purpose sets out the ethos of the home and the leaders and managers are working towards achieving the statements made. There were some minor recommended changes, which the manager completed during the inspection period.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The home is in a good state of repair and maintained to a high standard. The registered manager ensures that case records are stored in fireproof, lockable cabinets to ensure confidentiality.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Leaders and manager hold high expectations of standards of care and encourage all staff to strive to uphold these standards.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Leaders and managers regularly review known risks at the home, such as fire safety. Staff receive training in health and safety issues and first aid, which helps them to keep young people safe. The registered manager has completed a further risk assessment of the local area to establish local risks.

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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 Inspection report children’s home: 1254701 8 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: 1254701 9

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Children’s home details

Registered provider: Smartcare Services Ltd

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: 2 Wellesley Parade, Godstone Road, Whyteleafe Surrey CR3 0BL

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Inspector

Christine Kennet, social care inspector Inspection report children’s home: 1254701 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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