Children's home run by SWAAY Child & Adolescent Services Ltd in Sutton

Inspection report children’s home: SC431807 1 SC431807 Registered provider: SWAAY Child and Adolescent Services Limited

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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 provides care and accommodation for adolescent males with a history of trauma and disrupted attachments and histories of harmful sexual behaviour.

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Information about this children’s home

There is an experienced manager currently in day-to-day control of the home. However, it has operated without a registered manager since April 2017.

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Overall experiences and progress of

children and young people, taking into account

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requires improvement to be good

How well children and young people are helped and protected good

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requires improvement to be good

The effectiveness of leaders and managers inadequate

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requires improvement to be good

The children’s home is not yet delivering good help and care for children and young people. However, there are no serious or widespread failures that result in their welfare not being safeguarded or promoted.

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requires improvement to be good

Overall judgement at last inspection: declined in effectiveness

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requires improvement to be good

Enforcement action since last inspection: none Inspection report children’s home: SC431807 2

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

26/03/2018 Interim Declined in effectiveness 01/11/2017 Full Requires improvement 19/10/2016 Interim Improved effectiveness 01/06/2016 Full Good Inspection report children’s home: SC431807 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—

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Requirement Due date

helps children aspire to their full potential; and

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Requirement Due date

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

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Requirement Due date

ensure that the home has sufficient staff to provide care for each child. (Regulation 13(2)(d)) 23/07/2018

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must make arrangements for the handling, recording, safekeeping, safe administration and disposal of medicines received into the children’s home. (Regulation 23(1)) 23/07/2018

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Requirement Due date

The registered manager must appoint a person to manage the children’s home if—

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Requirement Due date

there is no registered manager in respect of the home. (Regulation 27(1)(a)) 23/07/2018

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Recommendations

 For children’s homes to be nurturing and supportive environments that meet the needs of their children, they will, in most cases, be homely, domestic environments. Children’s homes must comply with relevant health and safety legislations (alarms, food, hygiene etc). (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 15, paragraph 3.9)

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Recommendations

Specifically, ensure that the home is well decorated and maintained.  The registered person should ensure that staff can access appropriate facilities and resources to support their training needs, and should understand the key role they play in training and development of staff in the home. (‘Guide to the Inspection report children’s home: SC431807 4 children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 53, paragraph 10.11)

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Recommendations

Specifically, ensure that staff are supported to complete core and refresher training in a timely way.  As outlined in 10.1, the registered person should plan staffing levels to ensure that they meet the needs of children and can respond flexibly to unexpected events or opportunities. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 54, paragraph 10.15)

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Recommendations

Specifically, ensure that when staff are working alone with children, the associated risk assessment provides staff with guidance on how to manage predictable events.  A record of supervision should be kept for staff, including the manager. The record should provide evidence that supervision is being delivered in line with regulation 33(4)(b). (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 61, paragraph 13.3)  Case records must be kept up to-date and signed and dated by the author of each entry. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 62, paragraph 14.3)

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Recommendations

Specifically, ensure that a written record is kept of each key-work session undertaken with a child. .

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improvement to be good

Managers and staff ensure that the home provides a nurturing environment where the majority of children and young people develop a sense of stability and belonging. The positive environment enables children and young people to begin to overcome past trauma and address unsafe behaviours. Children and young people consistently say that they have made progress at the home, particularly in terms of managing their anger and frustration and becoming more mature.

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improvement to be good

Staff support children and young people to manage daily routines in which education and engagement in therapeutic interventions are the norm. Consequently, children and young people make steady, and sometimes exceptional, educational progress, and experience improved emotional well-being. Over time, children and young people develop greater self-esteem and gain the confidence to express their individuality.

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improvement to be good

Staff assist young people to engage with their local communities in a safe, carefully planned way. This ensures that the challenges young people face do not prevent them from taking part in their preferred leisure activities or from forming positive relationships with peers outside the home. Staff encourage children and young people to achieve Inspection report children’s home: SC431807 5 greater independence, without compromising their safety.

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improvement to be good

Leaders and managers demonstrate a commitment to ensuring that children and young people have access to specialist support within the organisation. Children’s emotional and psychological well-being is prioritised. Staff recognise the importance of promoting a healthy lifestyle and maintaining good physical health. However, there have been occasions when practice relating to the safe administration and recording of medication has been compromised.

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improvement to be good

Staff have the skills to engage and motivate children and young people, and over time they build positive, trusting relationships. However, this good practice has been undermined at times, as a result of the high staff turnover. Despite this, children and young people feel valued; one young person said, ‘Whatever happens, I know they still care for me.’

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improvement to be good

Staff pay careful attention to detail when arranging and supporting children and young people to have contact with their family members. Skilled professionals within the organisation work effectively with family members where it is appropriate to do so. For example, planned family therapy work is enabling one young person to rebuild positive relationships with family members.

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improvement to be good

This home has undergone a sustained period without a manager who is registered with Ofsted. This is in breach of the Care Standards Act and results in this lower judgement of requires improvement to be good.

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

Staff have a thorough understanding of the specific risks associated with each child and young person. There has been an improvement in the standard of risk assessment, and staff now have clear guidance and strategies to follow in order to minimise the potential for children and young people to come to harm.

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

Staff fully implement agreed strategies when a child or young person goes missing from the home. The response to children and young people returning from a missing episode is excellent. Children and young people are supported to reflect on their actions and are helped to identify the dangers of going missing. Staff fully utilise the resources available to them in order to review and amend the strategies for reducing further missing episodes. As a result of this coordinated approach, children and young people rarely go missing from the home.

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

Senior staff ensure that there is a prompt response to any emerging safeguarding concerns. They demonstrate a high level of professional curiosity in order to identify potential risks to the child or young person. Consequently, staff anticipate behaviours that could result in that child or young person, or their peers, coming to harm.

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

Behaviour management plans are highly individualised. They take into account the recommendations made in specialist assessments and this ensures that the strategies Inspection report children’s home: SC431807 6 staff adopt to promote positive behaviour are relevant to the child or young person’s cognitive abilities. Over time, most young people make significant progress in managing their behaviour more effectively.

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

Any concerns regarding staff practice that could undermine a child or young person’s safety are quickly identified. There is a proportionate response from leaders and managers which is focused on keeping the children and young people safe. Staff are given the support and guidance needed to ensure consistent improvement in the standard of safeguarding practice.

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

Although staff quickly identify health and safety hazards, and areas of the home that are in need of redecoration, there is not always a timely response for rectifying the issue. This is partly due to the resources available for ensuring that all of the organisation’s homes are consistently maintained to a high standard.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

The home has not had a registered manager since 24 April 2017. A manager was appointed, but later withdrew her application to register with Ofsted. There is currently an experienced manager who has day-to-day responsibility for running the home. She has previously been registered with Ofsted at another home, and she holds the level 5 diploma in leadership and management for residential childcare. There has been a delay in her submitting an application to become registered with Ofsted. The leadership and management of the home is judged to be inadequate due to the period there has been no registered manager.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

There has been a high turnover of staff since the last full inspection in November 2017, and at the time of this inspection there were four staff vacancies. Although leaders and managers have taken steps to minimise the impact of inconsistent staffing, some children and young people have been negatively affected. There have been times when three children and young people have been supervised by only one member of staff. The lone working risk assessment pertaining to this situation does not adequately specify the steps that should be taken to ensure that all children and young people remain safe in this situation.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

Leaders and managers have not consistently ensured that all staff remain up to date with refresher training. The lack of effective training in the recording and administration of medication has had a detrimental effect on this area of practice. In addition, staff supervision meetings are often not recorded in a timely way.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

There has been a significant improvement in the implementation of quality of care monitoring systems. This has ensured that most of the shortfalls identified at this inspection were already known to the manager, and she was beginning to take action to address these. The manager’s six-monthly quality of care review, and the associated report, are now highly effective tools for identifying weaknesses and developing action plans. Inspection report children’s home: SC431807 7 Leaders and managers conduct a thorough assessment of the likely impact of a child or young person moving into the home. The assessment clearly demonstrates that leaders and managers analyse all relevant information before accepting a new referral. Through this process, potential difficulties in peer relationships are anticipated and staff are prepared and ready to implement strategies designed to minimise disruption.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

Leaders and managers ensure that children and young people’s plans are detailed and specific to their individual needs. The plans clearly state how the child or young person should be supported and cared for. This ensures that staff maintain consistent boundaries and maximise the potential for children and young people to benefit from the specialist interventions being provided. Children and young people’s progress is recorded in detail. Despite this high standard of practice, the recording of individual key-work sessions with children and young people is not always kept up to date.

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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: SC431807 8

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Children’s home details

Registered provider: SWAAY Child and Adolescent Services Limited

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: 591 London Road, Sutton, Surrey SM3 9AG

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Inspector

Stephen Collett, social care inspector Inspection report children’s home: SC431807 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 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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