Children's home run by Chartwell Care Services Ltd in Islington

Inspection report children’s home: SC468325 1 SC468325 Registered provider: Chartwell Care Services Limited Full inspection Inspected under the social care common inspection framework

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Information about this children’s home

The home is privately owned and is registered to provide care and accommodation for up to three children who have learning disabilities.

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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 requires improvement to be 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: good

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good

Enforcement action since last inspection : none Inspection report children’s home: SC468325 2

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

06/06/2017 Full Good 31/01/2017 Interim Sustained effectiveness 19/10/2016 Full Good 15/03/2016 Interim Sustained effectiveness Inspection report children’s home: SC468325 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 leadership and management standard is that the registered person enables, inspires and leads a culture in relation to the children’s home that— helps children aspire to fulfil their potential; and promotes their welfare. In particular, the standard requires the registered person to— ensure that the staff have the experience, qualifications and skills to meet the needs of each child. (Regulation 13 (1)(a)(b)(2)(c)) 31/07/2018

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Recommendations

 The registered person should monitor and review the patterns and trends of turnover of staff, whether agency or directly employed, and be able to understand and where possible, address any negative trends. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 54, paragraph 10.19)  The home should play a full part in promoting the best interests of the child, proactively advocating for the child to ensure that others play their role and deliver the high quality support that is needed. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 11, paragraph 2.4) This is with particular reference to ensuring that the staff and registered manager have the skills and knowledge to confidently challenge the responsible local authority and school, when there are delays in receiving a good-quality education plan for each child. Inspection report children’s home: SC468325 4

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Young people benefit from detailed care plans, including child-friendly, ability- appropriate plans. Staff work with young people to develop effective communication pathways and build positive relationships.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

There is excellent information available, from family, previous records and involved agencies, to support staff to meet young people’s individual health needs. Young people attend regular appointments with universal services to monitor their health needs and they have access to specialist services. Staff ensure that young people experience a healthy, balanced diet and have access to physical activities. For example, young people have participated in swimming and horse riding. As a result, young people have improving health.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

When there have been concerns, for example, increased anxieties and changes in behaviour, the manager ensures timely contact with the child and adolescent mental health service (CAMHS). Staff from health services, school and the home work together to assess and respond to young people’s needs. For one young person, this resulted in a review of their medication. One professional said: ‘Staff and managers are good at sharing information. They want to understand children’s behaviour and they seek advice in order to respond helpfully.’

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Young people benefit from supportive direct work. Daily routines include staff using a range of ways of capturing young people’s views. There are weekly consultation meetings. Young people have grown in confidence in contributing to their weekly planners and care planning.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Young people have made progress in attending to their physical appearance. They are enabled to make choices about their clothes. This has notably improved their self- esteem. One young person has participated in a school residential trip, which is significant progress and evidence of their increased confidence.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff liaise carefully with social workers and families and sensitively plan transitions from the home. They have supported one young person to move on positively from the home. The manager negotiated the date of the transition so that the young person could enjoy his birthday at the home. The social worker referred to staff being ‘proactive and very supportive’ of the transition plan. Staff are currently involved in planning a transition for another young person. They recognise the importance of multi-agency, timely planning and capturing the young person’s views about the plan.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Young people have excellent education attendance records and staff liaise closely with schools to support positive transitions from home to school. There are daily school to home diaries, supplemented by telephone calls when necessary. Staff are supporting young people to reach their potential. Inspection report children’s home: SC468325 5 However, one young person had a poor-quality education plan that had not been updated in a timely way. A recommendation is made to ensure that the manager and staff receive training regarding the education of looked after children. This would ensure that they have the skills and knowledge to confidently challenge the responsible local authority and school, when there are delays.

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

Young people in this home are vulnerable and have a range of communication difficulties as a result of needs and behaviours associated with significant learning disabilities and autistic spectrum disorder. There are detailed behaviour management plans and risk assessments in place to support staff to keep young people safe. Staff have received mandatory safeguarding training and they demonstrate an understanding of the additional vulnerabilities and safeguarding needs of disabled children.

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

There is a high level of monitoring and staff support for young people. This is subject to regular review as part of individual care planning.

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

Staff share information about assessment of needs and behaviour strategies, such as what works in de-escalating concerning behaviours, within the staff team and with partners. Information is recorded in a daily communications book and is shared in daily staff handovers and in team meetings. Assessment is captured in children’s records, plans and updates to social workers.

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

There has been a reduction in incidents of physical restraint and interventions for one young person as a result of effective multi-agency working. Another young person has recently demonstrated an increase in concerning behaviours, which has resulted in a review of medication and careful monitoring.

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

Staff are trained in using physical restraints in a safe way and are clear about the use of restraint being a last resort to prevent harm. There are detailed records completed by staff after any incident that adhere to procedures and regulations. Managers review all records, as does the independent visitor. Family and social workers are always notified. Staff ensure that young people have the opportunity to make a complaint and/or request medical attention.

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

Individual direct work with young people covers being kind to each other and providing personal space. The consultation meetings include young people adding their views to the ‘kindness tree’. This is to encourage young people to think about their peers’ feelings and to prevent and reduce targeting behaviour between peers. As a result, there are limited incidents of this.

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

There have been no episodes of going missing due to the high level of monitoring. Staff have had training in responding to going missing from care episodes and the exploitation of young people and there are up-to-date multi-agency procedures in place. Inspection report children’s home: SC468325 6

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: requires improvement to be good

The registered manager is experienced, resilient and has achieved the relevant qualification in leadership and management since the last inspection. There has been a change of responsible individual, an experienced manager who has provided regular supervision for the manager and support in the home.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: requires improvement to be good

There has been a high turnover of staff in the past two years which has recently slowed down. However, the impact of this is that, at the point of the inspection, a high proportion of staff did not have the mandatory qualification for working with children and young people. In addition, a number of staff are subject to probationary procedures. Some staff are currently undertaking the appropriate course and within the next seven months, four staff will be qualified.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: requires improvement to be good

During the inspection, the registered manager and the responsible individual ensured that all staff are enrolled to complete the appropriate qualification.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: requires improvement to be good

The management team will review the workforce development plan and strategies to improve the recruitment and retention of staff. A requirement and a recommendation are made to ensure that identified weaknesses about non-qualified staff and turnover of staff are effectively addressed.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: requires improvement to be good

The manager has ensured that the use of agency and in-house bank staff has been limited to a small number of familiar, experienced staff. She has ensured that continuity of care for children has been achieved by the use of familiar bank staff. In addition, there has been some success in the past year of recruiting from the bank staff to permanent posts.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: requires improvement to be good

The manager has also worked hard to ensure that there is a balance on the rota of experienced and less experienced staff. She recognises that there is less of a gender balance available on the rotas but addresses this, if possible, when it is necessary to use bank staff. This will be included in the review of recruitment.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: requires improvement to be good

There have been some improvements since the last inspection. Safeguarding is always covered in team meetings and supervision. The manager has developed ways of testing staff safeguarding knowledge.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: requires improvement to be good

The quality and records of individual direct work with young people have significantly improved. The quality of direct work is subject to monitoring. The sessions are linked to young people’s care plan targets and to quality standards.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: requires improvement to be good

Records and monitoring of incidents have improved. A weekly planner is used to plot any incidents, including physical interventions. This has been effective in identifying and responding to trends and patterns. Inspection report children’s home: SC468325 7

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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: SC468325 8

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Children’s home details

Registered provider: Chartwell Care Services Limited

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: 12 Helmet Row, London EC1V 3QJ

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Children’s home details

Responsible individual: Olubunmi Fabusuyi

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Inspector

Cathey Moriarty: social care inspector Inspection report children’s home: SC468325 9 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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