Children's Home run by Destiny House in Harrow

Inspection report children's home: SC038906 1 SC038906 Registered provider:

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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 private home provides care and accommodation for up to eight young people. The home’s statement of purpose notes that the home can look after young people with post-traumatic disorders, severe anxiety, attachment issues, emotional behavioural difficulties and challenging behaviour.

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Information about this children's home

The home does not have a registered manager. The registered provider was in the role of the registered manager role until 20 April 2018. A new manager was appointed on 19 February 2018. One young person is currently living at the home.

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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 requires improvement to be 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

Date of last inspection: 30 November 2017

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requires improvement to be good

Overall judgement at last inspection: inadequate

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Enforcement action since last inspection:

Inspection report children's home: SC038906 2 On 25 January 2018, Ofsted served a notice of proposal to cancel the provider’s registration under section 14 of the Care Standards Act 2000.

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Enforcement action since last inspection:

On 3 April 2018, Ofsted served a notice of decision to cancel the provider’s registration under section 19 of the Care Standards Act 2000.

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Enforcement action since last inspection:

The provider has appealed to the Health, Education and Social Care Chamber against the decision. The tribunal process is in progress.

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

30/11/2017 Full Inadequate 22/08/2017 Full Inadequate 27/03/2017 Interim Improved effectiveness 28/09/2016 Full Requires improvement Inspection report children's home: SC038906 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 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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Requirement Due date

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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Requirement Due date

ensure that the premises used for the purposes of the home are designed and furnished so as to—

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Requirement Due date

meet the needs of each child (Regulation 6 (1)(a)(b)(2)(c)(i)) 13/08/2018

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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;

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Requirement Due date

help each child to understand how to keep safe. (Regulation 12 (1)(2)(i)(ii))

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Requirement Due date

In particular, the registered person must ensure robustness of risk assessments and strategies to keep children safe including helping children to understand the risks and build on safer behaviours. 13/08/2018

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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. 13/08/2018 Inspection report children's home: SC038906 4 In particular, the standard in paragraph (1) requires the registered person to ensure—

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Requirement Due date

that the premises used for the purposes of the home are designed, furnished and maintained so as to protect each child from avoidable hazards to the child’s health. (Regulation 12 (1)(2)(d)) *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 fulfil their potential; and promotes their welfare.

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Requirement Due date

In particular, the leadership and management standard requires the registered person to—

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Requirement Due date

demonstrate that practice in the home is informed and improved by taking into account and acting on—

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Requirement Due date

research and developments in relation to the ways in which the needs of children are best met. (Regulation 13 (1)(a)(b)(2)(g))

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Requirement Due date

In particular, the registered person must ensure that the home’s policies, procedures and practices are in line with current legislation and good practice guidance. 13/08/2018

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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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Requirement Due date

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

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Requirement Due date

In particular, the leadership and management standard requires the registered person to—

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Requirement Due date

use monitoring and review systems to make continuous improvements in the quality of care provided in the home. (Regulation 13 (1)(a)(b)(2)(h)) 13/08/2018

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must prepare and implement a policy which—

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Requirement Due date

is intended to safeguard children accommodated in the children's home from abuse or neglect;

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Requirement Due date

and sets out the procedure to be followed in the event of an 13/08/2018 Inspection report children's home: SC038906 5 allegation of abuse or neglect.

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must ensure that the procedure to be followed in the event of an allegation of abuse or neglect must, in particular—

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Requirement Due date

provide for the prompt referral of an allegation about current or ongoing abuse or neglect in relation to a child to the placing authority and, if different, the local authority in whose area the home is located;

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Requirement Due date

provide for the prompt referral of an allegation about past abuse or neglect in relation to a child to the placing authority and, if different, the local authority in whose area the alleged abuse or neglect occurred;

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Requirement Due date

describe how and to whom staff are to report, without delay, any concern about abuse or neglect of a child. (Regulation 34 (1) (a)(b)(2)(b)(c)(f))

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Requirement Due date

In particular, the registered person must ensure that there is a clear policy and procedure and that it is implemented in practice *Schedule 4 sets out the other information that the registered person must keep in relation to a children’s home.

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Requirement Due date

maintain in the home the records in Schedule 4;

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Requirement Due date

ensure that the records are kept up to date; and

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Requirement Due date

retain the records for at least 15 years from the date of the last entry. (Regulation 37 (1)(2)(a)(b)(c))

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Requirement Due date

In particular, the registered person must:  ensure that a record in the form of a register is kept showing in respect of each child’s placing authority. (Schedule 4.1.e)  keep a copy of the staff duty roster of persons working at the home, and a record of the actual rosters worked (Schedule 4.3)  keep a record of any persons who reside or work at any time at the home, who are not mentioned in the records kept in accordance with paragraphs 1 (children) o 2 (staff) (Schedule 4.4)  Keep a record of all visitors to the home, and to children, including the names of visitors and the reasons for the 13/08/2018 Inspection report children's home: SC038906 6 visit (Schedule 4.5)

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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

After completing a quality of care review, the registered person must produce a written report about the quality of care review and the actions which the registered person intends to take as a result of the quality of care review ("the quality of care review report").

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must— supply to HMCI a copy of the quality of care review report within 28 days of the date on which the quality of care review is completed. (Regulation 45 (1)(3)(4)(a)) 13/08/2018

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Requirement Due date

* These requirements are subject of a compliance notice.

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improvement to be good

Young people live in a home that is poorly managed. The registered person does not demonstrate that young people receive the service that is required by legislation. This, together with the weak safeguarding arrangements and risk assessment practices undermines the quality of care and increases the risks to young people’s safety.

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improvement to be good

Leaders and managers fail to ensure that young people live in a homely environment. The shower room was found to have a poor level of cleanliness. In addition, the garden remains largely bare, uninviting and unkempt. Refurbishments were due to be completed in March this year, but these have yet to be completed. Professionals provided mixed feedback to the inspectors about the quality of care and their working relationships with the registered provider. However, they did note that their relationships with the new manager are positive.

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improvement to be good

Staff are effective in supporting young people’s learning. The current young person living in the home has secured good educational attainment and is currently undertaking a number of exams.

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improvement to be good

Staff support young people to be healthy and maintain healthy lifestyles. This includes supporting their mental health and emotional well-being. Young people have access to Inspection report children's home: SC038906 7 individual therapy that is provided by the home’s own drama therapist. Staff support young people to maintain and develop relationships with their families. Parents talk positively about the home. The young person said that she enjoyed a great birthday celebration recently.

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improvement to be good

The young person’s level of autonomy has increased. For example, she has started going to and from school on her own. The young person is also involved in a wider range of activities in and outside the home and she has developed friendships.

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improvement to be good

Young people have access to advocacy services. The young person has been in touch with the Children’s Commissioner, has written to Ofsted and expressed her views clearly to inspectors. She said that everything in this home was great and that she would like the home to remain open until her 16 th birthday.

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improvement to be good

The home’s written procedure for dealing with allegations and suspicions of abuse is confusing and increases the risk that young people will not be suitably protected.

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improvement to be good

The procedure is not written in line with the expectation of the local children’s safeguarding board for the area where the home is situated. The procedure allows leaders and managers a period of 72 hours in which to make a referral to the local authority’s designated officer. This is contrary to the one day timescale set by the local children’s safeguarding board. Any delays in sharing information about potential abuse with appropriate professionals fail to adequately safeguard young people.

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improvement to be good

The risk assessment practices in the home are weak. Written assessments are not kept up to date and sometimes key areas of risk are not completed at all. This increases the risk that young people will not be properly protected.

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improvement to be good

The home fails to risk assess situations of staff working alone with young people. This shortfall places young people and staff in a vulnerable and potentially unsafe situation.

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improvement to be good

Young people’s individual assessments fail to give young people the appropriate opportunities to learn how to safeguard themselves. These assessments focus on past incidents and risk-taking behaviours, and do not reflect the progress that the young people have made. Some professionals expressed concerns that the staff’s risk management practices were too controlling.

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improvement to be good

The risk assessments for young people’s activities do not meet the home’s own policy and processes or good practice. They are not consistently completed and therefore do not identify potential risks to young people or strategies to manage them. This increases the chance of young people being harmed while engaging in activities.

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improvement to be good

The current risk assessment of the premises contains information about the home’s Inspection report children's home: SC038906 8 swimming pool opening times. The registered person and the manager signed this document in March this year. However, the swimming pool has not been in use since 2011. Since the last inspection, the registered person has updated the records relating to allegations of abuse against staff. This includes details confirming the outcomes of the allegations. No new allegations have been made.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

Leaders and managers fail to run a home that complies with legislation. In particular, they fail to demonstrate how the home promotes young people’s welfare in line with the Children’s Homes Regulations 2015.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

The requirement for the registered person to provide clear and up-to-date guidance to staff through policies, procedures and documents was initially made following an inspection in 2015. This requirement was restated at each of the eight visits that Ofsted inspectors have carried out to the home since then, and is made again at this inspection.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

As a result another compliance notice in relation to the leadership and management standard has been issued against the home under section 22A of the Care Standards Act 2000. The continued failure to meet this aspect of the leadership and management standard continues to raise serious concerns about the registered person’s fitness to remain registered.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

The registered person does not use monitoring and review systems effectively to make improvements in the quality of care provided in the home. Despite numerous reviews, the home’s written guidance on notifying Ofsted of significant events remains based on the information from the old children’s homes’ regulations before they were changed on 1 April 2015. For example, it is not stated that the home should notify Ofsted if there is an allegation of abuse against the home or a person working there. The reoccurring shortfalls in record keeping continue to raise concerns. Records relating to visitors and contractors to the home, staff duty rosters and the children’s register are not kept in a consistent manner. The failure to maintain vital records accurately, reduces the effectiveness of measures necessary to safeguard young people. The improvement that the registered provider achieved in record keeping, highlighted

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

following the monitoring visits last year, was not long lasting. Therefore, another compliance notice regarding record keeping has been issued under section 22A of the Care Standards Act 2000. The home’s quality review reports fail to accurately reflect all the events that occur in the home and are not sent to Ofsted in a timely manner as required. The last quality- review reports that Ofsted received related to the period up to September 2017. At the inspection, the registered person gave a copy of the latest report to the inspectors that covered a seven months’ period. However, the report did not make any reference to the allegation made by a young person against staff that was investigated during the same Inspection report children's home: SC038906 9 period. Therefore the home’s quality review process is flawed as opportunities to evaluate the effectiveness of safeguarding in the home are missed.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

The registered person has appointed a manager and a new independent visitor to the home. A consultant is also working with the registered person to offer additional support.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

Despite the additional resources, the home remains non-compliant with legislation. Eight requirements have been made at this inspection. They include five requirements that were previously made at the last inspection.

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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: SC038906 10

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Inspector(s)

Seka Graovac, social care inspector Christine Kennet, social care inspector Inspection report children's home: SC038906 11 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(s)

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Inspector(s)

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Inspector(s)

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