Children's home run by Hertfordshire County Council in Dacorum

Inspection report children’s home: SC382138 1 SC382138 Registered provider: Hertfordshire County Council

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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 home aims to provide high-quality care that makes children and young people feel safe and nurtured. The manager has been in post since 2014 and she holds a relevant level 5 qualification.

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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 requires improvement to be 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: requires improvement to be good

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good

Enforcement action since last inspection: none Inspection report children’s home: SC382138 2

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

03/07/2017 Full Requires improvement to be good 29/12/2016 Interim Improved effectiveness 25/05/2016 Full Good 19/01/2016 Interim Improved effectiveness Inspection report children’s home: SC382138 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 protection of children standard is that children are protected from harm and enabled to keep themselves safe. In particular, the standard in paragraph (1) requires the registered person to ensure— 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; help each child to understand how to keep safe; manage relationships between children to prevent them from harming each other; understand the roles and responsibilities in relation to protecting children that are assigned to them by the registered person. (Regulation 12 (1)(2)(a)(i)(ii)(iv)(v)) 20/08/2018

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Requirement Due date

The care planning standard is that children— receive effectively planned care in or through the children’s home; and have a positive experience of arriving at or moving on from the home. In particular, the standard in paragraph (1) requires the registered person to ensure— that children are admitted to the home only if their needs are within the range of needs of children for whom it is intended that the home is to provide care and accommodation, as set out in the home’s statement of purpose. (Regulation 14 (1)(a)(b) and (2)(a)) This is with particular reference to ensuring that the children do not experience and are not exposed to increased levels of risk because their needs are incompatible with those of the children already living at the home. 20/08/18 Inspection report children’s home: SC382138 4

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

The house continues to be homely and well furnished. A child beamed with pride as she showed how she is personalising her bedroom. Since the last inspection, four children have moved in and six have moved out. A parent whose child has lived at the home for over a year said, ‘It is an amazing place. He has done so well here compared to his other placements. His education is really good. He wasn’t going [to school] before and his attendance was 42%. It has increased to 98%.’ When it is not possible for the children to maintain their existing school placement, the staff work closely with the virtual school team. The education team creates personalised educational packages. This bespoke approach successfully increases the children’s willingness to participate because, in addition to core subjects, the timetables incorporate subjects and areas of interest to them. The virtual school headteacher described the positive educational progress that each of the children, including those

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

who have moved out, have made. Professionals spoke highly of the staff and praised their ability to quickly build a rapport with the children. They feel that this rapport helps the children to engage in key-work sessions and supports them to make good progress while living at the home. The children are encouraged to eat healthily and to lead active, healthy lives. The staff actively advocate on the children’s behalf to ensure that the children receive any specialised medical and emotional support that they require. The staff’s open and supportive approach enables the children to explore issues such as sexual health and cessation of smoking. The care and support that children receive is helping them to address matters such as managing separation and self-regulating their emotions. The children are now more able to identify strategies that they can successfully use to achieve this. The staff creatively sum up what has happened or is coming up in the month in a

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

newsletter. The staff collate pictures and information that reflect the varied events that the children and the staff participate in. These celebrate the children’s achievements such as completing a Duke of Edinburgh award, fund raising events and having a holiday abroad. There is ongoing consultation with the children, and this includes the children’s meetings. These meetings are scheduled for the year and cover a range of themes and topics. These topics reflect the diversity in the home and the wider community. When applicable, the children’s requests and suggestions are incorporated into their plans and the home. A large fish tank in the dining room that was initially requested at a children’s meeting demonstrates that the children’s views are acted on. The children have access to an independent advocate who visits the home. Although not always utilised, the advocate provides an independent source of support for the children.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

The older children have access to support flats. One child has recently successfully transitioned from the home following a period of ‘trial’ independence in the flats. These opportunities enable the children to identify any additional skills or learning that they Inspection report children’s home: SC382138 5 need to develop prior to them to living independently.

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improvement to be good

The staff are positive about their work, but feel that there are times when children could have moved on sooner and other times when children should never have moved in. The staff believe that, despite the managers saying that the children’s needs do not match, senior managers ignore this and the children are placed anyway. A professional echoed this when speaking about a child who was moving out that day. She said, ‘[The child] should never have been here as no one knew enough about him.’ There has been a recent increase in the number of significant incidents, some of which have included weapons. These events mainly relate to children who have moved into the home despite their needs being assessed as incompatible with the children already living at the home. The acceptance of these placements negates the purposefulness of the manager’s pre-admission matching process. Failure to acknowledge known unsuitability

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improvement to be good

of placements fails to protect the new child, existing children and the staff. Generally, the staff are adept at de-escalating situations and use a range of diversionary and de-escalating techniques. However, the behaviours presented by a child who was recently admitted resulted in an increase in the use of physical holds. Debriefings take place whenever a physical intervention or incident occurs. A child was busily signing off records of their most recent incidents and challenged some of the information. This process enables the child to discuss the event when in a calmer state and to consider ways to avoid recurrences. When a child who regularly went missing from the home moved out, the home experienced a steep decline in the number of missing from home episodes. The issue has recently resurfaced with a spike in the frequency of missing from home episodes. The staff actively look for the children in the local area and liaise with the police and the

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improvement to be good

staff from other homes to ensure that the children are located as soon as possible When a child complained about feeling bullied by other children in the home, the issue was appropriately addressed with all of the children. A follow-up consultation was conducted to assess how all of the children were feeling and to hear their views on whether the matter had been managed effectively. This enabled the manager to review how the children were feeling and ensured that they had additional opportunities to raise concerns. At times, the staff undertake room searches to ensure that the children do not have any weapons, items that can be used to self-harm, or illegal substances on site. The children are generally present when the searches occur and are aware of any items that are found and/or confiscated. The searches ensure that the children are living in a safe environment. Staff receive training that helps them to work with the children on various areas of risk

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improvement to be good

such as e-safety, healthy relationships and child sexual exploitation. The children have undertaken a safer relationship course that covered online safety, domestic violence and other relationship issues. This knowledge helps them to recognise both the positive and Inspection report children’s home: SC382138 6 negative aspects of behaviour that they may experience in their relationships. The healthy relationship sessions also cover the issue of grooming and exploitation. These additional subjects help the children to recognise warning signs and patterns of behaviour. Allegations against staff members are responded to quickly and positively. This proactive response ensures that the children and the staff are appropriately protected.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The manager returned from maternity leave in December 2017 and the deputy manager left the home in April 2018. The new deputy manager has worked at the organisation’s homes for a number of years. The managers are keen to instil the stability and leadership that the home was lacking towards the latter half of 2017. The managers have a good understanding of the children’s progress and are working well with the staff to ensure that the children’s needs are met. Aside from the managerial changes, there has been little change to the composition of the staff team. With the exception of the newest staff member, all the staff hold a relevant level 3 qualification. The team is undergoing training and secondments to facilitate the introduction of the therapeutic model that underpins the work of some of the other homes within the organisation. As implementation is in its infancy, the use of the approach has not been

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

explored at this inspection. The managers are confident that the staff’s improved knowledge and awareness will help them to recognise where their practice already reflects this approach. The previous requirements and recommendations have been addressed:  The concern about a relationship between two children was addressed. However, similar issues have arisen more recently so this requirement will be restated.  The quality of care report has been received and enables Ofsted to have insight into the manager’s overview of the reporting period.  The staff are working closely with the children to ensure that they are able to recognise risk and become increasingly aware of how to keep themselves safe.  Health and safety checks, including fire system checks, are undertaken regularly.  The manager is undertaking regular file audits. These audits enable her to highlight any gaps in records.

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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 Inspection report children’s home: SC382138 7 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: SC382138 8

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: Hertfordshire County Council, Apsley One, Brindley Way, Hemel Hempstead, Hertfordshire HP3 9BF

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Inspector

Sonia Hay: social care inspector Inspection report children’s home: SC382138 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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