Jamma Umoja

Inspection report for residential family centre: Jamma Umoja 1 Jamma Umoja Jamma Umoja (Community Services) Limited 94 Plaistow Lane, Bromley, Kent BR1 3JE

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Inspected under the social care common inspection framework

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Information about this residential family centre

This residential family centre is a family resource service offering assessment and treatment services. A group of directors owns the company, and this is one of two residential family centres based in the South London area.

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Information about this residential family centre

This centre provides assessments of parenting, on a residential basis and in the community. The centre generally conducts residential assessments within a 12-week timeframe, amending this if necessary in order to meet the individual needs of families. The centre accommodates up to nine families and is staffed on a 24-hour basis.

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Information about this residential family centre

Inspection dates: 21 to 23 November 2017

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Overall experiences and progress of

children and parents, taking into account

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good

How well children and parents are helped and protected good

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good

The effectiveness of leaders and managers requires improvement to be good

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good

The residential family centre provides effective services that meet the requirements for good.

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good

Date of previous inspection: 7 October 2015

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good

Overall judgement at last inspection: good

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Enforcement action since last inspection

None Inspection report for residential family centre: Jamma Umoja 2

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Key findings from this inspection

This residential family centre is good because:

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Key findings from this inspection

 Parents receive good support to help them understand the impact their behaviour has on their children, and how to address the need for change.  Families feel safe at the centre. Children and adults are protected from abuse, neglect, violence and self-harm.  Staff produce assessments and final reports that are of a very high quality. These meet the placement needs of the placing authorities and the courts.

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Key findings from this inspection

 Staff work effectively with key professionals to ensure that all those involved are aware of placement issues and developments. Feedback from professionals is consistently positive.

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Key findings from this inspection

 Children and parents are treated with respect and dignity. They share good working relationships with the staff team.

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Key findings from this inspection

 The provider’s vision, ambition and plans for the service result in continued improvements in the quality of care, positive experiences for families and the effective safeguarding of children and parents.

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Key findings from this inspection

The residential family centre’s areas for development:

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Key findings from this inspection

 The provider does not consistently complete regulation 25 monthly monitoring visits. Ofsted does not receive subsequent monitoring reports in a timely manner.

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Key findings from this inspection

 The provider does not conduct regulation 23 quality of care reviews as expected. Ofsted does not receive subsequent review reports in a timely manner.

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Key findings from this inspection

 Staff do not always record the outcomes of complaints.

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Key findings from this inspection

 Managers do not consistently obtain full vetting and recruitment information for staff assigned to work with families. Inspection report for residential family centre: Jamma Umoja 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, Residential Family Centre Regulations 2002 and the national minimum standards. The registered person(s) must comply within the given timescales.

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Requirement Due date

(3) For the purpose of paragraph (1), a person is not fit to work in a residential family centre unless— (d) full and satisfactory information is available for each person employed in respect of all matters specified in Schedule 2. (Regulation 16 (3)(d)) 01/03/2018

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Requirement Due date

The registered person shall establish and maintain a system for— (a) reviewing at appropriate intervals; and (b) improving the quality of care provided at the residential family centre. (Regulation 23 (1)(a)(b)) 01/03/2018

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Requirement Due date

The registered provider must supply to Ofsted a report in respect of any review conducted by him under regulation 23 and make a copy of the report available to residents. (Regulation 23 (2)) 01/03/2018

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Requirement Due date

Where the registered provider is a partnership, the residential family centre shall be visited in accordance with this regulation by— (a) the responsible individual or one of the partners. (Regulation 25 (2)) 01/03/2018

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Requirement Due date

(3) Visits under paragraph (1) or (2) shall take place at least once a month and may be unannounced. (4) The person carrying out the visit shall— (a) interview, with their consent and in private such of the residents and persons working at the residential family centre as appears necessary in order to form an opinion of the 01/03/2018 Inspection report for residential family centre: Jamma Umoja 4 standard of care provided in the residential family centre (b) inspect the premises of the residential family centre, records of any complaints; and (c) prepare a written report on the conduct of the residential family centre. (5) The registered provider shall supply a copy of the report required to be made under paragraph (4)(c) to— (a) Ofsted, (b) the registered manager; and (c) each of the partners. (Regulation 25 (3)(4) (a)(b)(c)(5)(a)(b)(c)) 20: Complaints

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must ensure that a written record is made of any complaint or representation, the action taken in response, and the outcome of the investigation. (Regulation 20 (6)) 01/03/2018

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Recommendations

 All new staff have a minimum level 3 Children and Young People’s Workforce diploma, which must include mandatory social care units or be working towards the relevant qualifications within six months of confirmation of employment. Staff may also find it helpful to have a level 3 award or certificate in Work with Parents or level 4 award in Work with Parents. (National Minimum Standards 16.5)

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Recommendations

 The registered person has a written development plan, reviewed annually, for the future of the centre, either identifying any planned changes in the operation or resources of the service, or confirming the continuation of the centre’s current operation and resource. The views of parents and children at the centre at the time of the annual review are sought and taken into account. (National Minimum Standards 13.2)

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Recommendations

 Staff are equipped with the skills and experience to meet the needs of the parents and their children and the purpose of the centre. In particular, that domiciliary staff receive basic safeguarding training and that key staff receive training in CCTV operation. (National Minimum Standards 16.1) Inspection report for residential family centre: Jamma Umoja 5

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Overall experiences and progress of children and parents: good

Children and their parents receive individualised care and support tailored to meet their assessment needs. What families say about the centre influences the service and helps with its development. For example, families help decide the décor of communal spaces and what activities take place in them. Families sometimes have a choice of bedroom and occasionally, due to particular circumstances, are able to negotiate how assessment activities are undertaken. This can help families to settle in when they arrive at the centre. Families know how to make complaints. However, staff must ensure that records reflect the outcomes of complaints.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and parents: good

Families share very good relationships with the staff team. A child told the inspector, ‘I like it here; everyone’s nice.’ A parent said of the staff team, ‘They’re all lovely. They’re respectful and give good advice.’ A father preparing to leave the centre commented, ‘It’s been good, I’ve learnt a lot and I’m going to miss the staff when we leave. It’s been better than I thought it would be.’

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Overall experiences and progress of children and parents: good

Members of the staff team enjoy working with families. In particular, most comment on the satisfaction they gain from working directly with children and adults, using assessment models that are meaningful and effective. Staff are sensitive and skilled in helping families settle for assessments they will find challenging. Children and their parents settle in quickly, and the majority engage fully in the assessment process.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and parents: good

A local authority social worker said, ‘Members of staff were friendly and welcoming to the family. This was the first time that I had been to a Jamma Umoja house and I was very impressed with the whole moving in procedure and the way that it was carried out. Thank you for making this family very welcome.’

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Overall experiences and progress of children and parents: good

Staff are also skilled in managing difficult endings. A local authority social worker commented, ‘I would like to take the opportunity to thank all the staff who remained on site last night for the assistance in facilitating the safe removal of X. On my arrival at Jamma Umoja, all of his personal belongings were packed and ready to move straight into the car. X was settled on my arrival and again I thank all the staff for assistance in such a traumatic and very sad situation. However, last night could not have been planned and facilitated any better by your team of staff. So once again I thank you on behalf of myself and my team.’

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Overall experiences and progress of children and parents: good

Children and parents are treated with dignity and respect, and the identity needs of individual family members are well met by the service. For example, when choosing assessment activities, staff carefully consider the particular needs of individual children such as those who have disabilities or who are older. Staff ensure that families have good access to interpreters, so they can fully engage in the assessment process. The service facilitates activities for both men’s groups and women’s groups. Families value staff’s commitment to anti-discriminatory practice. Inspection report for residential family centre: Jamma Umoja 6 Children and parents benefit from high quality, evidence-based assessments. These successfully address local authority and court-directed instructions. Staff make expert use of a range of assessment tools and activities that address fully the individualised needs of children and their parents. Assessments are explicit about parents’ capacity

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Overall experiences and progress of children and parents: good

to meet their children’s needs and promote their welfare.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and parents: good

Final reports are comprehensive and analytical, and contain well–triangulated evidence. Other professionals acknowledge the expert skills of the staff team. A child’s guardian commented, ‘Their assessments are clear and thorough. Staff are skilled at understanding family dynamics and people dynamics. The social worker was brilliant in court. Very clear. She knew her stuff and stuck by it. I was really impressed with her. If I’m in court and I need a residential family centre, I always recommend Jamma Umoja. Service users get a good service and staff give very good evidence in court.’

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Overall experiences and progress of children and parents: good

Leaders, managers and staff have high expectations for what children and parents can achieve. Staff challenge agencies that fail to support this ethos. For example, staff ensure that children of primary school age receive appropriate education that promotes positive learning outcomes. When children’s learning needs are not met, staff strongly advocate for appropriate services to be put in place. Families benefit from staff’s encouragement for them to live healthy lifestyles. Health promotion is high on the centre’s agenda. Assessments routinely focus on basic safe care, healthy eating, good personal hygiene, play, stimulation, and substance misuse. The recent recruitment of a psychologist as a consultant enhances the service’s focus on mental health issues. The centre can now facilitate specialist cognitive assessments, if required.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and parents: good

Children and their parents enjoy the centre’s very active recreational programme. This includes song and dance activities, cooked breakfasts, coffee mornings, movie night and ‘Come Dine With Me’ type events. Families access the local community for other leisure activities that they enjoy.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and parents: good

Children and parents benefit from careful, safe and sensitive contact arrangements. Staff encourage families to maintain and build on relationships with their significant others when it is safe for them to do so. Where risks are present, staff ensure that effective safeguards are in place that minimise or eliminate risks.

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How well children and parents are helped and protected: good

Protecting children is the centre’s highest priority. Children are safe, and staff protect them from harm, abuse, neglect, accidents and bullying. Parents are clear about the concerns professionals have for the safety of their children, and about the purpose of the placement. A parent said, ‘I know there were concerns for my partner. She left and now it’s just me and the kids. I’m only focused on not losing the kids; I don’t Inspection report for residential family centre: Jamma Umoja 7 care about anything else.’

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How well children and parents are helped and protected: good

Staff complete risk assessments that address identified risks as they specifically relate to individual children and adults. Staff regularly revise and amend risk assessments in line with families’ changing circumstances. The newly introduced multi-disciplinary case review panel, which convenes fortnightly, has a strong focus on exploring risks and developing strategies to reduce risk. The responsible individual commented, ‘The case work panel focuses on management and risk. It ensures senior managers are constantly in the loop. Case managers are appreciative of the multidisciplinary approach and for direction. It means that our services really are tailor-made for families and we can track progress.’

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How well children and parents are helped and protected: good

Parents report that they feel safe at the centre, and that staff listen to them and take their views seriously. Families are aware of how to make complaints, and feel free to do so. In recent months, some parents have made a number of complaints about the conduct of other residents. Staff manage such issues sensitively and effectively. For example, residents’ meetings and individual key-work sessions regularly address the need for families to show respect for each other.

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How well children and parents are helped and protected: good

Staff promote positive behaviour. They set safe boundaries and encourage families to adhere to these. Parents are clear that the service does not tolerate any form of discrimination. When such incidents occur, staff strongly challenge such behaviour.

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How well children and parents are helped and protected: good

There have been no allegations made against staff, or incidents of staff using physical intervention, since the last inspection.

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How well children and parents are helped and protected: good

Staff make appropriate use of the centre’s surveillance systems. These are in place to monitor parents’ safe care of their children. Managers have revised key policies and procedures in relation to staff’s use of the centre’s close circuit television (CCTV). However, not all staff have received training in its operation, which is needed to ensure that the staff team is fully competent in using the centre’s surveillance systems. This helps to keep children safe. A resident father said of the centre’s CCTV, ‘I was aware of the cameras prior. I don’t like it, but it has to be done. I understand why.’

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How well children and parents are helped and protected: good

The vetting and recruitment of some newly appointed staff members and service consultants requires improvement. Managers do not consistently obtain full recruitment information, as specified in the regulations. Missing information includes second references, confirmation of formal qualifications and registration with relevant professional bodies. This is necessary to ensure the safe recruitment of individuals assigned to work with vulnerable children and adults.

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How well children and parents are helped and protected: good

The staff team’s communication with other professionals is frequent and effective. Staff routinely provide placing authorities with weekly written summaries to keep them aware of placement developments and issues. Responses to child protection issues are prompt and appropriate. Feedback from external partners about the staff Inspection report for residential family centre: Jamma Umoja 8 team’s conduct and professionalism is consistently positive.

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How well children and parents are helped and protected: good

The centre’s premises are clean, comfortable and well equipped to meet the assessment needs of families. The building has recently undergone significant redecoration and refurbishment, and communal kitchens have been modernised. Children have ample play and learning materials, while parents have good access to recreational space and facilities. Staff benefit from additional office space towards the rear of building, and families enjoy making use of the garden area. The building is safe and appropriately secure. There are no health and safety concerns.

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good

Leaders and managers of the service have high ambitions and a clear vision for service development and improvement. They have a good understanding of the centre’s strengths and weaknesses. However, they have yet to devise a development plan to help cascade their vision and plans to staff and other stakeholders.

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good

Managers’ monitoring of the effectiveness of the service is good. However, leaders do not consistently complete monthly monitoring visits or forward subsequent monitoring reports to Ofsted, as required. This is needed to enhance the leaders evaluation of the effectiveness of the service. In addition, leaders do not complete six-monthly quality of care reviews. This is a breach of the regulations.

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good

Since the last inspection, managers have implemented significant changes that have improved the quality of the service. These include changes to team and staffing structures, the recruitment of specialist consultants and the recruitment of a human resources specialist. Key centre tasks have been streamlined, or reassigned to individual staff. An example of this is the centre’s appointment of an operations manager. These changes have resulted in the improved efficient functioning of the service.

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good

A permanent, suitably experienced and qualified manager, one of the directors, manages the centre effectively. The previous inspection highlighted the need for the manager to receive formal supervision. This is now in place. Staff are appreciative of the efforts of the manager to improve the quality of service. One staff member said of the manager, ‘He’s very influential in the service; he knows it like the back of his hand. He’s keen that the service is high functioning. He knows the families well and takes time to ensure I have what I need.’

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good

Leaders and managers have a clear understanding of the progress children and parents are making in relation to the plans in place. Managers and staff regularly review local authority care plans and child protection plans to ensure that these remain relevant to individual family members. This is also the case for the centre’s own placement plans. Inspection report for residential family centre: Jamma Umoja 9 Managers’ recent introduction of a multi-disciplinary case-reviewing process enhances the careful tracking of children’s and parents’ progress and placement issues. This is an important and effective system in maintaining an overview of the effectiveness of staff’s work with families.

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good

Leaders and managers ensure that they provide a supportive environment for staff and students on placement. The staff group is diverse in terms of gender and ethnicity, and staff have extensive experience of working with families who have complex, diverse needs. The recently restructured staff team is stable and consistent. Managers hold staff accountable for their work performance, and this encourages high quality work. A staff member said, ‘Managers? They don’t wait to see what happens, they take action. They meet with staff and residents to hear ideas and offer support. Managers ordinarily wouldn’t be my first port of call. But I love to watch them work, especially in the domestic violence groups. I learn as much as the residents do.’

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good

Managers provide all staff with regular, meaningful and reflective supervision. Staff are appreciative of the high quality of supervision that they receive. A staff member, new to his current post, said, ‘My support and supervision is really, really good. I can’t complain. I fully explored my new role during the induction and I understand how I can help elevate the service. I receive supervision every month; target setting keeps me on track.’

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good

Staff training opportunities are excellent. Recently, the entire staff team participated in Parental Assessment Manual Software (PAMS) training. This ensures that the team understands the assessment model, and how this is used to meet the assessment needs of all families. Other newly introduced training includes report writing, safeguarding, and first aid, and staff also attend some groups that parents attend. However, managers need to ensure that all support staff, as a minimum, complete relevant training at level 3. Domiciliary staff should also receive basic training in safeguarding. This is to ensure that staff in all roles understand their responsibilities in helping to keep families safe.

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good

Case records are clear, and comprehensively detail staff’s work with families. Staff share key records and reports with parents. This is to promote their engagement with assessments and help them to understand how the assessment is progressing. Managers complete case file audits to ensure that recording is of a good standard. Staff complete weekly summaries of placement events and share these with key professionals. This helps to keep partners aware of placement issues.

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good

Staff’s partnership working with external professionals is effective. Communication between staff and local authority social workers, commissioners and children’s guardians is consistent and purposeful. A child’s guardian told the inspector, ‘Staff here are good at sharing information. They are organised and can arrange an interpreter if required. They identify who the key worker is, and make them available to meet with me when I visit. Staff are always available for feedback.’ Inspection report for residential family centre: Jamma Umoja 10 The centre’s statement of purpose is a detailed document, which outlines explicitly the aims and objectives of the service. This is to ensure that stakeholders are aware of the purpose and operation of the residential family centre.

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Information about this inspection

Inspectors have looked closely at the experiences and progress of children and parents. Inspectors considered the quality of work and the differences made to the lives of children and parents. They watched how professional staff work with children and parents and each other and discussed the effectiveness of help and care provided. Wherever possible, they talked to children and parents. In addition, the inspectors have tried to understand what the residential family centre knows about how well it is performing, how well it is doing and what difference it is making for the children and parents 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 Residential Family Centre Regulations 2002 and the national minimum standards. Inspection report for residential family centre: Jamma Umoja 11

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Residential family centre details

Registered provider: Jamma Umoja (Community Services) Limited

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Residential family centre details

Registered provider address: Mazars Llp Apex 2, 97 Haymarket Terrace, Edinburgh EH12 5HD

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Inspector

Sandra Jacobs-Walls, social care inspector Inspection report for residential family centre: Jamma Umoja 12 to 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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