Children's Home, Residential special school run by Thornleigh Camphill Communities Limited in South Gloucestershire

Inspection report children’s home: 1226971 1 Registered provider: Thornleigh Camphill Communities 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

 The home provides care for up to 12 children aged between six and 17 years old.  Care is provided in two homes which are on the same site as the school.  Children who live at the home require medium- to long-term care and have a range of needs, including autistic spectrum disorder, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), social, emotional and behavioural difficulties, and may have mild to severe learning disabilities.  The home provides a therapeutic programme delivered by a therapy team that works across the home and school.  The registered manager has been registered since 2017.

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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

Overall judgement at last inspection: improved effectiveness

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good

Enforcement action since last inspection: none Inspection report children’s home: 1226971 2

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

21/03/2018 Interim Improved effectiveness 21/06/2017 Full Requires improvement to be good 18/01/2017 Full Requires improvement 12/10/2016 Full Inadequate Inspection report children’s home: 1226971 3

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Recommendations

 Ensure leaders and managers continue with the home’s improvement plan in respect of improving the quality of the homes; for them to be nurturing and supportive environments that meet the needs of their children, they will, in most cases, be homely, domestic environments. Homes should seek as far as possible to maintain a domestic rather than ‘institutional’ impression (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 15, paragraph 3.9). In particular, continue with the redecoration and restriction reduction plans, and remove the unnecessary display of signage in the homes.  Ensure the registered person improves the records of fire drills to include more detail to enable them to oversee the welfare of the children in their care more effectively. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 54, paragraph 10.23)  It is good practice for a note of the content and/or outcomes of supervision

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Recommendations

sessions to be kept and to ensure that both the person giving the supervision and staff member have a copy of the record (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 61, paragraph 13.4). In particular, leaders and managers should ensure they keep records of additional conversations when these are held with staff.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children living in the home make good progress. Staff use the education health and care plans well to support children to achieve their individual targets and goals.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

A consistent team of staff provides good support for children in each of the two homes. Children and staff have positive relationships with one another. Staff care about the children and understand them well. These positive relationships contribute to the good quality of care children receive.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children have good access to their local community. Children choose fun and interesting activities that they want to do in their spare time. During the inspection, one child particularly enjoyed a Harry Potter story.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children have good experiences while living here. Staff support them to grow and integrate well with other children of their own age. Children enjoy going to the skate park, leisure centres and for local walks. Staff support children to explore their interests; they help them to do this through good preparation, social stories and routines. This high level of support has enabled children and staff to attend music festivals and local Inspection report children’s home: 1226971 4 events.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff help children and parents to maintain and their relationships. Communication between staff and parents is good. Families are welcome to visit their children at any time. Staff support children to visit their families at home, and support them to go on family holidays.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children’s records provide comprehensive details about their needs. They have all the relevant plans in place, including sensory plans, occupational therapy plans and healthcare plans. Staff understand these plans, and ensure that they are accurate and relevant.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

The quality of the fabric of the homes remains a challenge. Leaders and managers recognise this weakness and are implementing a maintenance plan to make improvements. Some environmental restrictions remain in place, such as window restrictors. Leaders and managers’ assessment is that these restrictions are necessary currently.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

The ongoing use of notice boards with unnecessary signage and staff wearing identification cards in the homes also detracts from creating a homely environment. Leaders and managers took action during the inspection to address these shortfalls.

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

Leaders and managers implement child protection procedures effectively. Staff understand these procedures. Staff are regularly trained to the required level for their role in child protection.

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

Child protection records are well maintained. Leaders and managers refer child protection concerns appropriately to the relevant safeguarding agency. Internal investigations into practice concerns are thorough and completed in a timely manner. These systems help to keep children safe.

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

Staff use children’s support plans and risk assessments well to help the children to develop positive behaviour. Leaders and managers update these records regularly with input from children, parents, the therapy team and clinicians. Staff know the children well and can quickly identify when a child may need additional support to help them to manage their anxieties.

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

On occasions, staff restrain children appropriately to prevent them from causing harm to themselves or other people. The use of restraint and the number of incidents are reducing significantly. Leaders and managers monitor records and the staff’s practice effectively, and work with the multi-agency team to identify causes and ways to reduce incidents further.

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

Fire drills and the testing of fire safety equipment take place as required. Inspection report children’s home: 1226971 5 Personal emergency evacuation plans accurately inform staff of the support that children need in order to leave the building during a fire. Leaders and managers’ monitoring of the effectiveness of fire drills is hindered due to insufficient information about the time it takes to evacuate and how staff support children who refuse to leave the building.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Leaders and managers understand the strengths and weaknesses of the home. A development plan and a maintenance improvement plan confirm how they plan to address the shortfalls and make further improvements. Leaders and managers’ monitoring of the quality of care is effective.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Staff say that they feel supported by leaders and managers, and an on-call system reinforces that support. In the main, staff receive regular supervision. However, the registered manager has identified some gaps in supervision and is taking effective action in response. Staff have their performance appraised annually, but leaders and managers do not evidence well all of the discussions that they have with staff about improving their practice. In particular, discussions held with staff when there has been a concern raised about their performance are not always written up and placed on their staff files.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Team meetings take place weekly and focus on the needs of the children. Staff value these meetings and use them effectively to review children’s care plans and to share information and strategies. This has a positive impact on the consistent care that children receive.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Each child has sufficient staff to look after them. Some children are cared for by two staff at all times. Staff reduction plans confirm how children can receive this staffing ratio without being overly restricted. Staff understand the plans and support children to make progress. Managers appropriately reduce this level of staffing when it is not required.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Staff work well with children to help them to make choices and express their views. The therapy team helps staff to develop children’s ability to communicate using augmentative communication systems such as the picture exchange system. One child has also started to speak verbally. This focus on communication is assisting leaders and managers to develop the home in consultation with children.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Regular training is available to staff to ensure that they have the skills to meet the needs of the children. Leaders and managers have a training plan which recognises the skills they expect their team of staff to have. A number of staff have completed their care qualification, as required for the role. Leaders and managers are able to track the progress that staff make and offer them support to help them to complete the qualification within the required timescale.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Leaders and managers work well with other agencies to support children living in the home. Specialist support is sourced for children when necessary, such as the services of Inspection report children’s home: 1226971 6 a developmental psychologist. Children benefit from this multi-agency approach and the determination of the registered manager to ensure that children receive the services they require.

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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: 1226971 7

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Children’s home details

Provision sub-type: Residential special school

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Children’s home details

Registered provider: Thornleigh Camphill Communities Ltd

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Children’s home details

Responsible individual: Nicolas Sialelli

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Inspector

Nicola Lownds: social care inspector Inspection report children’s home: 1226971 8 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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