Children's Home run by Stellakis Miltiadous in Haringey

Inspection report children's home: SC039213 1 SC039213

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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 privately run children’s home is registered to care for up to six young people who have emotional and/or behavioural difficulties.

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Overall experiences and progress of

children and young people, taking into account

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inadequate

How well children and young people are helped and protected inadequate

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inadequate

The effectiveness of leaders and managers inadequate

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inadequate

There are serious and widespread failures that mean children and young people are not protected or their welfare is not promoted or safeguarded.

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inadequate

Date of last inspection: 15 January 2018

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inadequate

Overall judgement at last inspection: Improved effectiveness

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inadequate

Enforcement action since last inspection: none Inspection report children's home: SC039213 2

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

15/01/2018 Interim Improved effectiveness 06/06/2017 Full Requires improvement to be good 15/02/2017 Interim Sustained effectiveness 26/07/2016 Full Requires improvement Inspection report children's home: SC039213 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 quality and purpose of care standard

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Requirement Due date

In order to meet the quality and purpose of care standard, the registered provider must ensure;

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Requirement Due date

provide to children living in the home the physical necessities they need in order to live there comfortably. (Regulation 6(2)(b)(vii))

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Requirement Due date

In particular, that the provider ensures that young people are supported to keep their bedrooms clean of hazards such as dirty plates, empty packets of drink and signs of drug misuse. 30/07/2018

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Requirement Due date

The quality and purpose of care standard

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Requirement Due date

The quality and purpose of care standard is that children receive care from staff who—

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Requirement Due date

understand the children’s home’s overall aims and the outcomes it seeks to achieve for children;

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use this understanding to deliver care that meets children’s needs and supports them to fulfil their potential.

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Requirement Due date

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

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provide personalised care that meets each child’s needs, as recorded in the child’s relevant plans, taking account of the child’s background;

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Requirement Due date

In particular, the home must ensure that appropriate assessments are completed that confirm how the home will 30/07/2018* Inspection report children's home: SC039213 4 meet the needs of young people and mitigate any risks that they pose to themselves or others. The protection of children standard

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Requirement Due date

The protection of children standard is that children are protected from harm and enabled to keep themselves safe.

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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 — assess whether each child is at risk of harm, taking into account information in the child’s relevant plans, and, if necessary, make arrangements to reduce the risk of any harm to the child. (Regulation 12 (1) and (2)(a)(i))

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Requirement Due date

In particular, the home must ensure that written assessments highlight the risk that young people are to themselves or others and confirm the actions that staff have to take to reduce risk. 30/07/2018*

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Requirement Due date

In order to complete a quality of care review the registered person must establish and maintain a system of monitoring, reviewing and evaluating—

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Requirement Due date

the quality of care provided for children; the feedback and opinions of children about the children’s home, its facilities and the quality of care they receive in it; and any actions that the registered person considers necessary in order to improve or maintain the quality of care provided to children. (Regulation 45 (2) (a)(b)(c)(d)) 30/07/2018

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must review the appropriateness and suitability of the location of the premises used for the purposes of the children’s home at least once in each calendar year taking into account the requirement in regulation 12(2)(c) (the protection of children standard).

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Requirement Due date

When conducting the review, the registered person must consult, and take into account the views of, each relevant person. (Regulation 46 (1)(2))

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Requirement Due date

In particular, the home must ensure that the location risk assessment contains reference to the specific risks posed by gangs in the local area. 30/07/2018

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Requirement Due date

The positive relationships standard 30/07/2018 Inspection report children's home: SC039213 5 The positive relationships standard is that children are helped to develop, and to benefit from, relationships based on—

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Requirement Due date

In particular, the standard in paragraph (1) requires the registered person to ensure— that staff—

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Requirement Due date

encourage each child to take responsibility for the child’s behaviour, in accordance with the child’s age and understanding;

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In particular, ensure that behaviour support plans include the views and opinions of young people. Children’s case records

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must maintain records (‘case records’) for each child which:

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are kept up to date. (Regulation 36(1)(b)) 30/07/2018

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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—

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helps children aspire to fulfil their potential; and promotes their welfare.

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

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ensure that staff have the experience, qualifications and skills to meet the needs of each child; (Regulation 13 (2)(c))

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Requirement Due date

In particular, the home must ensure that the staff receive physical restraint training. 30/07/2018

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must notify HMCI and each other relevant person without delay if— 30/07/2018 Inspection report children's home: SC039213 6 an incident requiring police involvement occurs in relation to a child which the registered person considers to be serious.

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Requirement Due date

(Regulation 40 (3)(a)(e)) Employment of staff

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must ensure that all employees—

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Requirement Due date

undertake appropriate continuing professional development;

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Requirement Due date

receive practice-related supervision by a person with appropriate experience

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Requirement Due date

This is with reference to ensuring that the home keeps records of staff supervision. 30/07/2018

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Requirement Due date

* These requirements are subject of a compliance notice.

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Recommendations

 When a child returns to the home after being missing from care or away from home without permission, the responsible local authority must provide an opportunity for the child to have an independent return home interview. Children’s homes should take account of information provided by such interviews when assessing risks and making arrangements to protect each child (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 45, paragraph 9.30).

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Recommendations

 Records must be kept detailing all individual incidents when children go missing from the home (regulation 36 (schedule 3 (14)). This information should be shared with the placing authority and, where appropriate, with the child’s parents. Evaluation of missing incidents should be undertaken to identify any gaps in training, skills or knowledge for staff, or to record and retain evidence of what worked well. This evaluation should inform the review of the quality of care. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, pages 45 and 46, paragraph 9.31)

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: inadequate

Young people are not safe in their home. Poor risk assessments, poor case recordings and an inability of staff to challenge difficult behaviours leave young people at significant risk of harm. Inspection report children's home: SC039213 7 A number of young people’s bedrooms are dirty. In one bedroom, there were obvious signs of cannabis misuse. When young people refuse to clean their rooms, staff are slow to support them. This means that bins are overflowing and floors covered in dirt.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: inadequate

Behaviour management is poor and inconsistent. Case records evidence one young person smoking cannabis in the home without being challenged by staff. However, other records evidence that the same young person received a reward for not smoking in the home.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: inadequate

Feedback from professionals is mixed. One placing social worker refers to her allocated young person as ‘coming a long way’. However, two other professionals raised concerns regarding the level of cannabis misuse in the home and the inability of staff to recognise the risk of young people running county lines or dealing in drugs outside of the London area.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: inadequate

Young people’s progress in education and employment is variable. One young person has progressed to taking up employment after passing exams in mathematics and English. Other young people do not engage in their education and spend long periods of time away from the home without staff knowing their location or what they are doing.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: inadequate

Work to assist young people into living independently is good. Some young people enjoy a structured programme of support from staff which allows them to learn cooking and budgeting skills. Since the last inspection, six young people have either moved back to live with their families or onto semi-independent living.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: inadequate

Young people are able to access independent advocacy and mentoring in the home. Residents meetings offer young people a weekly opportunity to contribute towards their choice of activities.

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

Poor admission and risk assessment practice leaves young people at significant risk of harm. The home admitted one young person without any risk assessment. This was despite the young person having had their previous placement terminated due to serious allegations made against them regarding inappropriate behaviour.

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

Staff within the home fail to respond robustly when serious concerns are identified. For example, police recently attended the home and found a knife and evidence of possible drug dealing in a young person’s bedroom. Although information regarding this situation was written in the young person’s case chronology, staff failed to update the young person’s risk assessment. In addition, they did not take effective action to reduce this obvious risk, or ensure that all other young people and staff were safe in the home.

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

Care plans and risk assessments do not reflect the views, wishes or feelings of young people. They do not address how staff should respond to young people when they are Inspection report children's home: SC039213 8 struggling with their feelings or behaviour. This shortfall decreases the effectiveness of behavioural support plans.

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

Responses to young people going missing from the home are poor. For example, police arrested one young person outside of the London area. Following the young person’s return to the home, staff failed to update the young person’s risk assessment or to consider the link between this incident and a previous allegation of drug dealing.

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

Young people do not receive independent return to care interviews on a regular basis. Furthermore, the home fails to effectively evaluate the statistics of young people’s missing behaviour. This limits opportunities to support young people.

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

Restraint practice is not safe. The home has not provided staff with any restraint training since 2014. Newer staff have not received any restraint training. Although incidents of restraint are rare, physically restraining young people without up-to-date training places young people and staff at risk of harm.

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

One young person has reduced their missing behaviour. The placing social worker attributes this reduction in part to the close relationship that the young person enjoys with staff in the home.

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

Although there are serious shortfalls in the overall approach to keeping young people safe, the home have a positive working relationship with the local police. Staff pass on information such as car number plates and other issues of concern in the local community.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

The home has failed to achieve a good overall inspection judgement since 2015. Managers state that they understand the concerns expressed during this inspection and that they are committed to addressing them. Managers recognise that the last full inspection also raised concerns relating to risk assessment and the staff response to young people who go missing.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

The registered manager has been in post for four years and possesses the required management qualification. He is supported by a deputy manager and two senior staff.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

The home’s location risk assessment lacks evidence of how the home evaluates and manages local issues, such as gang issues in the local area, and how these could impact on the welfare of young people.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

Record-keeping in the home is very poor, with little evidence of robust management oversight. One young person’s file did not contain progress reports from the last two months, despite the young person presenting at an extremely high level of risk.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

Managers do not report incidents as required. Managers failed to notify Ofsted of a Inspection report children's home: SC039213 9 serious incident that had occurred recently. This shortfall limits Ofsted’s ability to monitor the home effectively.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

The registered manager’s monitoring reports fail to contain sufficient evidence of gaining the opinions of young people. This limits any effective evaluation of the quality of service provided to young people.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

Young people do not consistently receive the necessary support and guidance from staff to meet their needs. For example, an inexperienced member of staff was allocated as the keyworker for a young person who has very high risk behaviours.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

Staff report feeling appreciated and supported by managers. There is no use of agency staff in the home and only one staff member has left the home since the last full inspection. Despite this, managers fail to record meetings of staff supervision appropriately. This means that it is difficult to assess the development and progress of staff.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

The home has recruited a new independent visitor to improve the level of scrutiny and challenge in the home. The impact of this change is yet to be seen.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

There have been improvements to the maintenance in the home. An allocated maintenance man now ensures that repairs occur promptly and that the home is in a suitable condition. Inspection report children's home: SC039213 10

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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: SC039213 11

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: Apartment 14, Centurion Building, 376 Queenstown Road, London SW8 4NW

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Children’s home details

Responsible individual: Stellakis Miltiadous

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Inspector

Barnaby Dowell, social care inspector Inspection report children's home: SC039213 12 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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