Children's Home run by My Choice Children’s Homes Limited in West Sussex

Inspection report children’s home: SC390785 1 SC390785 Registered provider: My Choice Children’s Homes 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

Ivy Cottage provides accommodation for up to four children.

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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: 18 December 2017

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good

Overall judgement at last inspection: improved effectiveness

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good

Enforcement action since last inspection: none Inspection report children’s home: SC390785 2

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

18/12/2017 Interim Improved effectiveness 30/05/2017 Full Requires improvement to be good 09/11/2016 Full Good 20/01/2016 Full Good Inspection report children’s home: SC390785 3

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Recommendations

 Ensure that staff are familiar with the home’s policies on record keeping and understand the importance of careful, objective, and clear recording. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 62, paragraph 14.4) In particular, signatures of members of staff on medication records should be legible so that the identity of the author is clear and records such as debriefs and incidents are sufficiently detailed.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

The staff work closely with a range of external professionals to ensure that children make good progress in their education, health and social development. The staff support children to engage in education positively. For those children who have previous poor attendance, staff work hard to make education a positive experience. Staff maintain good communication with schools and support young people in classrooms and in their career choices. The staff develop meaningful relationships with the children. Staff apply clear boundaries that are consistently delivered. The relationships staff have developed with the children and the consistent application of behaviour management plans have led to a significant decrease in the number of serious incidents, missing episodes and anti-social behaviours. The staff ensure that children experience a homely environment. For example, they have moved the dining table so that children and staff can now eat together. The manager

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

has encouraged staff to stop smoking; this is excellent role modelling and staff work relentlessly to help children not to smoke, with good results evident. The staff are clearly focused on encouraging and delivering a healthy lifestyle for children. The manager and the staff team support children to start or continue positive contacts with their families. Families report that they have very good relationships with the staff and are confident in the staff’s ability to care for and keep their children safe.

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

The staff are trained and able to keep children safe. The training that staff receive covers topics such as sexual exploitation, drug misuse, radicalisation and risks associated with going missing. A range of external professionals provides specialist interventions that inform staff practice. For example, children access therapeutic services and the staff have completed, or are currently completing, a therapeutic award. This enables the staff Inspection report children’s home: SC390785 4 to provide consistency of care and to understand children’s behaviours following therapy sessions. Safeguarding matters at the setting are managed well with correct referrals made where needed. The staff team works well together to set expectations of children to behave positively. Staff meetings reflect on incidents that have taken place, group dynamics and staff relationships with the children. The staff question and discuss poor behaviours so that

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

children can reflect on their actions. Staff address inappropriate language and give consistent guidance and advice to children. Although significantly decreased, when missing incidents do occur, the registered manager and staff team manage them in a well-co-ordinated way that reduces the risk of harm. The registered manager challenges local authorities where an independent return interview is not offered or arranged by the local authority. Staff recruitment procedures are safe. Children feel comfortable to express their views, thoughts and frustrations so the staff can address them before they escalate.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The registered manager is passionate about ensuring that children have a good experience at the home and that they make good progress. He provides very good support to the staff team and knows the children and his staff team well. He has developed a team that is focused on the best outcomes for children. The manager continues to develop his skills with the support of a senior manager in the organisation. The staff team is suitably qualified to work in the home. The manager has recruited two females to address the imbalance of the male to female staff ratio. A wide range of training courses gives staff a very good understanding of the risks that children present with and how to manage these risks. The procedure for agreeing placements has improved. Placements made since the last inspection have been thought through carefully and risk assessed to reduce the impact of introducing a new child on others already placed. As a result, placement stability has

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

improved. The registered manager monitors records and staff practice. However, despite the vast majority of records being written to a good standard, he has failed to identify a few records that are not sufficiently detailed. Some medication records are messy and some debrief and incident records lack detail. External monitoring is good, with detailed reports and recommendations made. The manager uses this to develop practice by actively responding to all recommendations made.

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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 Inspection report children’s home: SC390785 5 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: SC390785 6

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Children’s home details

Registered provider: My Choice Children’s Homes Ltd

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: Unit 3a, Mill Green Business Estate, Mill Green Road, Haywards Heath RH16 1XQ

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Inspector

Liz Driver, social care regulatory inspector Inspection report children’s home: SC390785 7 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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