Children's home run by Reading Borough Council in Reading

Inspection report children’s home: SC037481 1 SC037481 Registered provider: Reading Borough Council

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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 run by a local authority and is registered to provide short-break care for up to six young people who have a learning disability, physical disability and/or sensory impairment.

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Information about this children’s home

Inspection dates: 20 to 21 February 2018

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Overall experiences and progress of

children and young people, taking into account

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good

How well children and young people are helped and protected good

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good

The effectiveness of leaders and managers good

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good

The children’s home provides effective services that meet the requirements for good.

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good

Date of last inspection: 9 February 2017

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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

 All children and visitors are warmly welcomed to the home.  Staff develop strong nurturing relationships with children. Inspection report children’s home: SC037481 2  Children enjoy their stays and have fun with the staff.  The care provided to the children is of a high quality, individualised and meets their complex needs.  Children make good progress in meeting their targets.  Care and consideration are given to arranging for children with compatible needs to have their stays in the home together.  The manager and staff have very good working relationships with other professionals and parents.  The manager and staff are committed to providing a high-quality, child-focused service the children.

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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

 Not all staff working with the children have, or are working towards gaining a level 3 qualification.  The arrangements for the manager’s monitoring and reporting do not reflect that the views and opinions of stakeholders have been evaluated and taken into account. The report lacks evaluation of the information gathered.  There are no individual assessments for children in relation to locking the doors in the home.  Information about a medication a child was allergic to was not documented in their profile or support plan.  The police have not been consulted about the missing from care policy and procedure documents. The documents do not include consideration of the complex needs the children have.  Children do not have access to a computer or the internet in their living accommodation.  Not all staff training has been updated in a timely way, and there have been some recent shortfalls in the frequency of supervision.

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

09/02/2017 Interim Sustained effectiveness 02/06/2016 Full Outstanding 20/01/2016 Interim Improved effectiveness 18/08/2015 Full Outstanding Inspection report children’s home: SC037481 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 ensure that— the privacy of children is appropriately protected; children can access all appropriate areas of the children’s home’s premises; and any limitation placed on a child’s privacy or access to any area of the home’s premises— is intended to safeguard each child accommodated in the home; is necessary and proportionate; is kept under review and, if necessary, revised; and allows children as much freedom as is possible when balanced against the need to protect them and keep them safe. (Regulation 21 (a)(b)(c)(i)(ii)(iii)(iv)) 11/06/2018

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must complete a review of the quality of care provided for children (‘a quality of care review’) at least once every 6 months.

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Requirement Due date

(2) In order to complete a quality of care review the registered person must establish and maintain a system for monitoring, reviewing and evaluating— (a) the quality of care provided for children; (b) the feedback and opinions of children about the children’s home, its facilities and the quality of care they receive in it; and (c) any actions that the registered person considers necessary in order to improve or maintain the quality of care provided for children. (5) The system referred to in paragraph (2) must provide for ascertaining and considering the opinions of children, their parents, placing authorities and staff. (Regulation 45 (1)(2)(a)(b)(c)(5)) 11/06/2018

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Requirement Due date

An individual who works in the home in a care role has the appropriate qualification if, by the relevant date, the individual has attained— the Level 3 Diploma for Residential Childcare (England) (‘the Level 3 Diploma’); or a qualification which the registered person 11/06/2018 Inspection report children’s home: SC037481 4 considers to be equivalent to the Level 3 Diploma. (Regulation 32 (1)(4)(a) or (b))

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Recommendations

 The registered person is responsible for ensuring that each child’s day to day health and well-being needs are met. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 33, paragraph 7.3) In particular, ensure that: health plans detail any allergies a child has; risk assessments relating to a child’s health needs are reviewed when health protocols have been updated; written information about personal care needs are kept up to date.  The home’s procedures must take into account the views of appropriate local services and have regard to police and local authority protocols for responding to missing person’s incidents in the area where the home is located. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 45, paragraph 9.29) In particular, ensure that police are aware of and agree the arrangements staff need to follow should a child go missing from the home.

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Recommendations

 Children should have access to a computer and the internet to support their education and learning, unless there are specific safeguarding reasons why this would be inappropriate. In such cases, the home should consider whether and how it can support the child to access a computer and the internet safely. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 29, paragraph 5.19)  The registered person should ensure that the workforce plan is implemented. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 53, paragraph 10.8) In particular, ensure that all staff training is updated in a timely way and sessional workers complete the training they are required to undertake within reasonable timescales and receive regular supervision to support their practice.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

The arrangements for children to start their series of short breaks in the home are well thought through. Assessments are carried out to ensure that children staying in the Inspection report children’s home: SC037481 5 home at the same time have compatible needs and abilities. This enables friendships to be developed or maintained.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children are welcomed into their series of short breaks very sensitively and at a pace that suits them and their parents. One child decided she did not want to continue to attend the service. Staff introduced her to another child who has similar interests and abilities. This piece of work has not only helped her back into the service but has provided her and the other child with a friendship.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children, and their parents develop trust in, and good relationships with, staff. Staff spend good-quality time with children and support them to work on their targets. Children’s efforts and achievements in meeting their targets are praised and celebrated.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff endeavour to ensure that all children are helped to express their wishes and feelings in the way that suits them best. Children have access to an advocate who visits the home on a regular basis and champions children’s views.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

The responsibility for meeting children’s education and health needs overall remains with their parents. However, staff have strong links with children’s schools. There is a high level of cooperative working with teachers to support children to work on the targets set in their education plans during their short break. A teacher commented that staff are fully involved in children’s education. He said, ‘Staff come to reviews and we share children’s targets; we share ideas.’

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Shortfalls were found in one child’s healthcare information. Medication allergy details contained in the child’s emergency treatment plan had not been transferred to the child’s profile and support plan. On a day-to-day basis, this significant information is not obvious to the staff.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Many of the children have complex health needs and staff are trained and competent in meeting them. There have very good working relationships with health professionals. Staff work closely with the occupational therapy services. Any recommendations made by the therapist about adaptations to the environment needed to support the child in the home effectively are addressed. This means that children’s disabilities are not a barrier to their enjoying a short break in the home.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children have fun during their short break. They are comfortable in the company of the staff and were observed to be happily working on their targets. A social worker said the child she works with has ‘come in in leaps and bounds since having her stays.’ A popular pastime for many of the children is spending time in the sensory room or relaxing watching the television with staff in the lounge. Trips out are arranged from time to time, and this provides children with opportunities to take part in activities in the community.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

As children approach adulthood, they are supported to develop their independence skills. Some make small but significant steps in this regard. For example, some develop the ability to butter their own toast or clean their teeth, and others learn attributes such as Inspection report children’s home: SC037481 6 sharing and showing empathy for others.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff support children to have positive endings to using the service. Currently, this work is restricted to holding a goodbye party as children do not generally move on from this home to adult short break services.

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

Children approach staff confidently and are clearly comfortable with them. Overall risks are well managed by staff who understand children’s needs. Staff get to know children well and understand triggers to their behaviour. Staff make sure that, whenever possible, triggers are avoided.

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

Staff are skilled at using rewards, praise and de-escalation techniques to support children to manage their behaviour. Children’s complex needs mean they do not have an understanding about what consequences are; therefore, staff do not use sanctions. Physical interventions are rarely used because staff are usually successful in helping children manage their behaviour effectively.

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

Doors in the home are locked. There are generic risk assessments in relation to these restrictions that identify that there is a safety need to lock the doors. However, individual assessments about restricting a child’s movements are not carried out. Therefore, some children may be in a more restrictive environment than is necessary to keep them safe.

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

Children have not gone missing from this home due to the high levels of supervision they have. In the unlikely event that a child does go missing, or get lost, the missing policy and procedure documents do not take into account the vulnerabilities of the children using this service. The policy identifies the number to call the police should a child be missing, but the procedure identifies a different number. The police have not been consulted about the actions they require staff to take should a child go missing.

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

There have been no safeguarding concerns since the last inspection. Staff know how to deal with safeguarding or child protection concerns. Since the last inspection, staff have had training in recognising and dealing with child exploitation, female genital mutilation and radicalisation.

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

Children coming to stay in the home only have access to the internet through the staff computers in the office. Although staff support children to use these computers, the staff offices are not set up for children to use easily and safely. On line e-safety training has been undertaken by all but two staff members.

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

The environment children are provided with is homely and well maintained. The location risk assessment is updated annually and shows that the home is located in a low crime risk and overall safe area.

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

The procedures for the recruitment of staff are thorough and ensure that people are assessed as suitable to be working with the children. Inspection report children’s home: SC037481 7

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The manager has been in charge at the home for a number of years and works with passion and commitment. The manager’s commitment is shared by staff who want the best for each child. The manager and staff have developed strong working relationships with other professionals working with the children. When required, the manager or her staff appropriately challenge other professionals or services that are not meeting children’s needs effectively.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The arrangements for monitoring practice make sure that there are opportunities to learn from and develop the services to children. The monitoring by an independent person is particularly helpful in identifying areas for improvement. The monitoring carried out by the manager is not evaluative and does not reflect how the views and opinions of stakeholders have been assessed and taken into account.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

There were three recommendations made at the last inspection. One of these, relating to making sure that all staff are trained in internet safety, has not yet been fully met.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

When there has been a significant event, the manager makes sure that all relevant people and agencies are notified. Action is taken to ensure that children are safeguarded and that their well-being is promoted.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The staff team is highly competent at caring for children who have complex needs. Staff hold the well-being of children at the centre of their practice. Staff are clear about the lines of accountability and take their responsibilities seriously. A team manager in the local authority said, ‘I am impressed with the care plans and the professionalism of staff. Staff know the young people well and highlight any issues.’

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Staff are supported by supervision although the frequency of supervision for sessional workers over the two months preceding this inspection was not as expected by the organisation. Staff training covers all the mandatory areas, but not all sessional workers are up to date with their training. There are also agency staff working in the home who are not qualified to a level 3 in caring for children. Despite these shortfalls, the quality of care is currently good, and children make sound progress in many areas of their lives.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Children’s case records provide the reader with a good view about the child’s time in the home and their progress. For those children who want to see their file the records will provide them with nice memories of their time in the home.

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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 Inspection report children’s home: SC037481 8 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: SC037481 9

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Children’s home details

Registered provider: Reading Borough Council,

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: Civic Centre, Castle Street, Reading RG1 7AE

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Children’s home details

Registered manager: Helena Macieira Baptista

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Inspector:

Rosie Dancer, social care inspector Inspection report children’s home: SC037481 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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