Children's Home run by Blandford House (UK) Limited in Hillingdon

Inspection report children’s home: SC484912 1 SC484912 Registered provider:

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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 is a privately owned residential children’s home. It is registered to provide care and accommodation for up to 10 young people who have emotional and/or behavioural difficulties and learning difficulties.

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Information about this children’s home

Inspection dates: 13 to 14 November 2017

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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 requires improvement to be 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 judged

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good

Enforcement action since last inspection: None

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Key findings from this inspection

 Young people enjoy a wealth of exciting and stimulating activities in and out of the home.  Leaders and managers have addressed all of the requirements and recommendations Inspection report children’s home: SC484912 2 set at the last inspection.  Parents, carers and professionals compliment the staff’s dedication to the young people.  Young people make good progress in all areas of their lives.  Staff work effectively with schools and placing social workers to help young people find the right educational provision.  Staff support young people to have positive contact with their families.  Young people’s risk management strategies are effective. As a result, their risks are reduced.

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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 do not ensure that robust recruitment procedures are followed on every occasion.  Staff supervision is not conducted in line with the home’s policy.  Young people’s risk assessment updates are unclear.  Leaders and managers do not ensure that Ofsted receives serious incident notifications.  Young people’s return home interviews are not sent to the home. As a result, staff do not analyse young people’s missing-from-home behaviour patterns.  The home’s location risk assessment is up to date but does not include an analysis of any risk posed from neighbouring properties.

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

30/03/2017 Interim Not judged 21/06/2016 Full Requires improvement 30/03/2016 Interim Sustained effectiveness 15/12/2015 Full Good Inspection report children’s home: SC484912 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, the 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 recruit staff using recruitment procedures that are designed to ensure children’s safety. The requirements are that –

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Requirement Due date

full and satisfactory information is available in relation to the individual in respect of each of the matters in Schedule 2. (Regulation 32(1) and (3)(d)) In particular, verification of references and discussions with referees must be clearly recorded. 31/01/2018

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must notify HMCI and each other relevant person without delay if –

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Requirement Due date

an incident requiring police involvement occurs in relation to a child which the registered person considers to be serious; there is any other incident relating to a child which the registered person considers to be serious. (Regulation 40(4)(b)(e)) 31/01/2018

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Requirement Due date

In particular, the standard in paragraph (1) requires the registered person to ensure –

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Requirement Due date

that staff help each child to access and contribute to the records kept by the registered person in relation to the child. (Regulation 14(2)(f)) In particular, young people’s signatures must be sought as confirmation of their contribution to and understanding of their individual behaviour support plans. 31/01/2018

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Recommendations

 When a child returns to the home after being missing from care or away from the home without permission, the responsible local authority must provide an opportunity for the child to have an independent return home interview. Homes Inspection report children’s home: SC484912 4 should take account of the information provided by such interviews when assessing risks and putting arrangements in place to protect each child. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 45, paragraph 9.30) In particular, staff must ensure that all young people’s return home interview records are sent to the home.  Staff should continually and actively assess the risks to each child and the arrangements in place to protect them. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 42, paragraph 9.5) In particular, staff’s reviews of young people’s risks must be clearly recorded.

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Recommendations

 The registered person must ensure that the home is suitably located so that children are effectively safeguarded. Under regulation 46, the registered person should review the appropriateness and suitability of the location and premises of the home at least once a year. The review should include the identification of any risks presented by the home’s location and strategies for managing these. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 64, paragraph 15.1) In particular, the registered person must make professional enquiries regarding the neighbouring home of multiple occupancy.  The registered person must have systems in place so that all staff receive supervision of their practice. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 61, paragraph 13.2) In particular, the registered person must have suitable alternative staff supervision arrangements in place in

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Recommendations

the event of any supervisor absence.  All children's case records (regulation 36) must be kept up to date. ('Guide to the children's homes regulations and the quality standards', page 62, paragraph 14.4). In particular, the registered person must regularly audit electronic records to ensure their accuracy.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Young people make good progress in the home. Care plans identify young people’s personal progress targets. These can include developing independent living skills, increasing family contact or engaging in healthy activities. Staff support young people in all these areas. A parent said, ‘Staff really care and (X) is doing well.’

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff provide young people with informal opportunities to progress their independent living skills. This includes cooking, laundry and budgeting. Young people also have ‘free time’. This encourages young people to plan ahead and gain the confidence to manage their own time. Staff review young people’s progress in their personal development plans every six months. The home also provides a more formal independent skills training and transition service for young people aged between 16 and 18. Up to two young people can live in the home’s semi-independent unit situated in the home’s grounds. Young people receive bespoke staff support. This service has not been used since the home reopened. Inspection report children’s home: SC484912 5 Staff encourage young people to stay healthy. Young people access the local gym, and staff support them to attend activities further afield. When young people identify their

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

particular interests, the enthusiastic staff team purchases young people’s sports equipment. Staff provide young people with transport to and from the activity and offer praise and encouragement during matches and training. Young people gain a sense of pride in their achievements.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff support young people’s contact with their families. When necessary, staff transport young people long distances to ensure that family contact occurs. A family member praised staff: ‘Every time they bring (X) up for the weekend, they inform me of everything. Communication is good.’ Families are also welcomed into the home. Young people make menu decisions and then staff purchase the food and support young people with meal preparation. This enhances young people’s sense of identity and is very successful.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

All young people living in the home attend education. If school places are not available, staff challenge the relevant placing authority to provide young people with interim educational resources. Staff encourage young people to attend and contribute to their education planning meetings. As a result, a young person, after not being in education for an extended period, is now attending full-time in the school of his choice.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Young people’s care planning is good. Young people’s placing authority referral information informs detailed care plans. Alongside young people’s risks, health and education, their personal choices are recorded. For example, the home’s weekly planner takes account of young people’s favourite meals, activities and how to be woken up in the morning.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

All young people are registered with a doctor, dentist and opticians. Staff support young people to attend their appointments. This ensures that young people’s health needs are met. Prescribed medication is kept secure and staff’s relevant recordings are accurate.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Young people are encouraged to attend their weekly house meetings. Young people are consulted. They put forward their ideas for future menu plans and group activities. Exciting group activities include indoor skydiving and Segway. Young people also input into the running of the home. Young people asked to have their bedroom televisions on for longer at bedtime. Staff have agreed to this request for a trial period. This approach ensures that young people’s wishes are acted on, while enabling staff to monitor any impact on the young people’s morning routines.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

The home is a very large residential property. The responsible individual has ensured that it provides a warm, welcoming and homely environment. Each young person’s bedroom provides an en suite bathroom. Young people’s privacy is further enhanced with their own bedroom key. Young people have access to large communal areas in the home. They make good use of a comfortable lounge, an equipped games room and an outside space that has sports equipment and bicycles. Inspection report children’s home: SC484912 6

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improvement to be good

Young people’s individualised risk assessments are in place. Staff identify young people’s vulnerabilities such as going missing from the home, substance misuse and challenging behaviour. Staff understand the triggers that may influence a young person’s risky behaviours. Young people contribute to their individual behaviour support plans. However, this is not always successful. There is no clear record of whether young people have refused to contribute to or sign their plans. As a result, young people’s understanding of their behaviour support plans is unclear.

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improvement to be good

Staff use young people’s individual behaviour support plans to reduce any risks. For example, when a young person struggled when his routine was changed, staff ensured that his weekly education and activity timetable stayed the same. As a result, the young person’s episodes of challenging behaviour reduced. With staff’s effective support, a young person’s episodes of going missing have significantly reduced. However, risk reduction evidence in the home’s electronic recording systems is not clear. This runs the risk of staff confusion or insufficient safeguards being in place.

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improvement to be good

When young people go missing from the home, staff inform the appropriate authorities. Staff pursue the placing authorities for return home interviews. However, staff do not receive a record of these interviews. This means that staff do not have an opportunity to analyse young people’s behaviour of going missing, assess risks or put arrangements in place to protect the young people in the community.

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improvement to be good

Leaders and managers have updated the home’s location area risk assessment. However, this does not take account of all the properties neighbouring the home. Young people living at the home visit a neighbouring property on a regular basis. The young people say they enjoy meeting up with the other young people who live there. However, staff are unaware of the individuals in the neighbouring property and, as a consequence, do not know whether any more safeguards should be in place.

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improvement to be good

Staff recruitment procedures are not adhered to. Written records fail to confirm that references have been verified on every occasion. Where a reference appears unsatisfactory, there is no evidence of leaders and managers exploring this further. This could result in unsuitable people working in the home.

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improvement to be good

There have been no episodes of physical restraint since the home reopened. If required, staff policies, recording systems and young people’s post-incident ‘life-space interview’ debriefs are in place.

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improvement to be good

There has been one safeguarding incident since the home reopened. Ofsted was not informed. In line with regulations, when any significant incident occurs Ofsted must be informed.

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improvement to be good

Young people receive a welcome guide when they come to live in the home. Young people know how to complain, and where to seek advocacy support. Inspection report children’s home: SC484912 7 The home provides a safe environment for young people. All certificates for fire and health and safety checks are current and reviewed in line with regulations. Regular fire drills take place when the young people are in the home. This ensures that young people and staff are familiar with the procedures should an emergency occur.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

After a period of closure, the home has recently reopened to young people. During the home’s temporary closure, the responsible individual reviewed the management structure. A newly appointed head of service and deputy manager have overseen a period of transition to a new organisational structure. The head of service has considerable experience of managing residential children’s homes. A qualified new staff team is in place.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The registered manager and deputy manager have spent considerable efforts addressing the requirements and recommendations made at the last inspection. This has included reviewing and updating many policies and procedures. As a result, the requirements and recommendations have been met.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The head of service has a clear vision for the home which is line with the home’s statement of purpose. While the home has only recently reopened to young people, staff’s aspirations for young people to achieve positive outcomes in all areas of their lives are evident in their practice. The head of service said, ‘Young people are at the centre of the home’s decision-making.’

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Staff’s mandatory training is comprehensive. This ensures that staff are competent and confident to perform their role. Leaders and managers have resourced external agencies to provide more training and workshops. Plans are in place to provide young people with specialist advice and support about the impact of gang culture. Also, a specialist therapeutic childcare consultant is now available. Because the home has only recently reopened, these services are not yet embedded in the home’s day-to-day practice.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Staff enjoy working in the home and appreciate the support they receive from the leadership team. A member of staff said, ‘Support is good.’ However, leaders’ and managers’ annual leave and other recent personal absences have affected the frequency of staff supervision. Leaders and managers do not provide staff with appropriate alternative arrangements. While this has not affected the quality of care provided to the young people, staff do not have access to regular advice and guidance during these times.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Staff work well as a team. Team meetings are effective. Staff share young people’s updates among the whole team. This ensures that all staff provide appropriate support and care to the young people’s changing needs. Professionals praise the dedication of the staff team. A social worker praised the staff: ‘Their unfaltering support for (X) has been exceptional.’ They added: ‘We maintain a consistent narrative and this continues to be a crucial aspect of (X’s) care.’ Inspection report children’s home: SC484912 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 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: SC484912 9

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Inspector

Victoria Jones, social care inspector Inspection report children’s home: SC484912 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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