Children's home run by Southern Adolescent Care Services Ltd in Crawley

Inspection report children‟s home: SC038522 1 SC038522 Registered provider: Southern Adolescent Care Services Ltd

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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 home is one of three children‟s homes operated by Southern Adolescent Care Services Ltd. It is registered to provide care and accommodation for up to five young people who have emotional and/or behavioural difficulties on a planned or emergency basis. Inspection dates: 13 to 14 December 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 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: sustained effectiveness

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good

Enforcement action since last inspection: None

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Key findings from this inspection

 The support that young people receive when they move in and move out of the home helps them to deal with these changes well. Inspection report children‟s home: SC038522 2  Consultation with young people is undertaken regularly and is used constructively to inform developments.  The staff continuously try to engage young people with education services even if the young person does not want to.  Risk assessments are well written and updated when necessary.  Training is given a high priority. It is regularly refreshed to ensure that it meets the staff‟s needs.  The staff work well with other professionals.

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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

 Some management monitoring systems are not effective.  The staff support for young people to cease smoking or stop taking illicit drugs lacks drive and ambition.  The staff do not consistently record well.

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

16/03/2017 Interim Sustained effectiveness 09/11/2016 Full Good 15/12/2015 Full Good 12/08/2015 Interim Declined in effectiveness Inspection report children‟s home: SC038522 3

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Statutory requirements

This section sets out the actions that the registered person(s) must take to meet the Care Standards Act 2000, Children‟s Homes (England) Regulations 2015 and the „Guide to the children‟s homes regulations including the quality standards‟. The registered person(s) must comply within the given timescales.

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must compile in relation to the children‟s home a statement (“the statement of purpose”) which covers the matters listed in Schedule 1. (2) The registered person must provide a copy of the statement of purpose to HMCI and make a copy of it available upon request to— (a) a person who works at the home; (b) a child, or a child for whom accommodation in the home is being considered; (c) a parent of a child, or a parent of a child for whom accommodation in the home is being considered; (d) a child‟s placing authority; and (e) in the case of a qualifying school, the Secretary of State. (3) The registered person must— (a) keep the statement of purpose under review and, where appropriate, revise it; and (b) notify HMCI of any revisions and send HMCI a copy of the revised statement within 28 days of the revision. (Regulation 16(2)(3)(b))

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Requirement Due date

In particular, the registered person must ensure that they provide HMCI with a copy of the statement of purpose if they make any revisions. 22/02/2018

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Requirement Due date

1) The leadership and management standard is that the registered person enables, inspires and leads a culture in relation to the children‟s home that— (a) helps children aspire to fulfil their potential; and (b) promotes their welfare. (2) In particular, the standard in paragraph (1) requires the registered person to— (a) lead and manage the home in a way that is consistent with the approach and ethos, and delivers the outcomes, set out in the home‟s statement of purpose; (b) ensure that staff work as a team where appropriate; (c) ensure that staff have the experience, qualifications and skills to meet the needs of each child; 22/02/2018 Inspection report children‟s home: SC038522 4 (d) ensure that the home has sufficient staff to provide care for each child; (e) ensure that the home‟s workforce provides continuity of care to each child; (f) understand the impact that the quality of care provided in the home is having on the progress and experiences of each

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Requirement Due date

child and use this understanding to inform the development of the quality of care provided in the home; (g) demonstrate that practice in the home is informed and improved by taking into account and acting on— (i) research and developments in relation to the ways in which the needs of children are best met; and (ii) feedback on the experiences of children, including complaints received; and (h) use monitoring and review systems to make continuous improvements in the quality of care provided in the home. (Regulation 13(2)(h))

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Requirement Due date

In particular, the registered person must ensure that they use effective monitoring systems in all areas of practice that ensure records are accurate and well written.

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Recommendations

 Children‟s homes should work closely with the placing authority to understand the child‟s relationship history and the impact that the child‟s arrival may have on the group living in the home. Staff should understand, for each child, what the placing authority has recorded in the relevant plan as an appropriate level of contact with family and friends. („Guide to the children‟s homes regulations including the quality standards‟, page 38 paragraph 8.3)

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Recommendations

In particular, the registered person should ensure that they use every source available, such as foster carers and a child‟s teacher, to gain information about the young person‟s needs. The information should be used to complete the compatibility risk assessment prior to admitting a young person.

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Recommendations

 The registered person must ensure that staff have the relevant skills and knowledge to be able to: respond to the health needs of children; administer basic first aid and minor illness treatment; help children to manage long-term conditions and where necessary meet specific individual health needs arising from a disability, chronic condition or other complex needs. („Guide to the children‟s homes regulations including the quality standards‟, page 34 paragraph 7.13)

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Recommendations

In particular, the registered person should ensure that clear consistent plans are adopted by all the staff to aid young people to stop smoking or taking illegal substances. Inspection report children‟s home: SC038522 5  Regulation 19(2) details sanctions that are prohibited in behaviour management. Any sanctions used to address poor behaviour should be restorative in nature, to help children recognise the impact of their behaviour on themselves, other children, the staff caring for them and the wider community. In some cases it will be important for children to make reparation in some form to anyone hurt by their behaviour and the staff in the home should be skilled to support the child to understand this and carry it out. („Guide to the children‟s homes regulations including the quality standards‟, page 46 paragraph 9.38)

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Recommendations

In particular, the registered person should ensure that they monitor effectively the impact that sanctions have on young people‟s behaviours.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

The staff prepare well for young people before they come to live here, and warmly welcome young people to the home. Despite this, managers do not take every opportunity to gather as much information about a young person as possible. Managers rely on information given by the local authorities and do not ask for information from other people, such as parents and teachers. This is a missed opportunity to gather details, which would help managers to make appropriate decisions about which young people come to live here.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Young people say they like living here, generally get on together well and like spending time with the staff, who know them well.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Motivated staff actively encourage young people to engage with their education and voice their opinions. Despite these efforts, young people‟s engagement with their education is variable. One young person was very positive about how the staff had supported her to agree a reduced timetable which resulted in her remaining in school and not going missing.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Medication management is effective. The staff showed a good understanding of the protocols for the administration of medication. Medication administration records are regularly monitored and the staff rectify any errors identified.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

The staff help young people to develop a healthy lifestyle through engaging in physical activity and eating healthy meals. However, one young person is known to frequently take drugs. Plans to help him stop are not clear. The risk assessment regarding his drug use is not updated appropriately. Some progress has been made in reducing his drug use and helping him engage with support agencies. However, the staff were not pro- active in identifying how the drugs were obtained.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Independence is promoted in line with local authority plans for each young person. The staff support young people to develop the skills to look after themselves at an appropriate pace. Inspection report children‟s home: SC038522 6 Preparation for moving out of the home is well organised and supports young people at a time of change effectively.

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

Young people say that they feel safe living here and that the staff support them and help them to behave well and find ways of keeping themselves safe.

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

Good behaviour is promoted. The staff take every opportunity to discuss issues with young people and use a well-considered reward system that links to the issues that young people have. Progress is celebrated, and the staff praise and record young people‟s achievements so that young people know how well they are doing.

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

Difficult behaviours are managed appropriately. The staff team plan effective support for young people during potentially stressful periods of time, such as Christmas. The effectiveness of all of the discussions that the staff have with individual young people is less clear, because records indicate that the staff find some subjects easier to discuss than others. For example, the staff recorded more open and full discussions about one young people‟s emotions and relationships than about his drug use.

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

Incidents of when young people go missing are managed effectively. The staff diligently search for young people and record these incidents well. If there is an increase to the number of times young people go missing, the staff identify effectively the reasons and decrease the number of incidents.

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

Restraint is used when necessary. The restraint records are well-written and regularly reviewed. The records link appropriately to other actions taken, such as a young person‟s room being searched. This level of recording enables a good picture of how such incidents are managed as a whole to be understood, and staff use this information to consider how they can manage young people‟s behaviours more effectively.

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

Sanctions are infrequently imposed and while seen as fair by young people they were not always restoratively based. The manager is now monitoring how well the staff use restorative sanctions. Greater use of this type of sanction is starting to have a positive impact on young people‟s behaviours.

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

Health and safety records are maintained appropriately. For example, the fire equipment is checked regularly and records are up to date. The staff did not show that they fully understood the dangers of using extension cables, and their use posed some risks. This was resolved during the inspection.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The manager has the appropriate level of qualification. She has a good understanding of the short- and long-term needs of the service and is making progress to achieving the Inspection report children‟s home: SC038522 7 goals she has set. For example, she has supported staff to improve the quality of the individual meetings that the staff have with young people. The records are more succinct and use more appropriate, child-friendly language. Staffing levels meet young people‟s needs. Changes to staffing have not adversely affected the quality of care provided. Senior managers have managed this challenging period effectively by providing extra support. This has enabled the staff to remain focused on young people‟s needs.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The staff‟s support is good. Managers‟ guidance focuses on developing a positive team that works together well even through challenging periods. This support has enabled the staff to remain positive during a particularly difficult period of challenging behaviour from one young person. This positive attitude and staff resilience assisted other young people not to engage in these incidents.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Staff training is effective. New staff induction procedures have increased staff‟s understanding and engagement in their learning and made their experience more enjoyable. Senior managers continue to develop and revise all the courses to ensure that these meet the needs of the young people whom they care for and take account of new information and issues which arise.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Partnership working is a well-established and positive aspect of the home. Social workers are extremely positive about how the staff work with them and can see the positive influence that the staff have in supporting young people to progress.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The independent visitor‟s reports cover a wide range of topics but do not always detail how she reaches her conclusions. Senior managers cannot therefore consider whether they are satisfied with her level of scrutiny. The responsible individual said that she is reviewing the format of the monthly independent person‟s visits and will consider this point as part of that action.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Monitoring of records is not always effectively executed. For example the managers did not identify when the standard of one-to-one sessions varied and investigate the reasons why this had occurred.

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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. Inspection report children‟s home: SC038522 8 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

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Information about this inspection

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: SC038522 9

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Children’s home details

Registered provider: Southern Adolescent Care Services Ltd

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: Room 8, Worth Corner, Turners Hill Road, Pound Hill, Crawley, West Sussex RH10 7SL

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Inspector

Ruth Coler, social care inspector Inspection report children‟s home: SC038522 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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