Children's Home run by Amegreen Children’s Services in West Berkshire

Inspection report children’s home: SC473329 1 SC473329 Registered provider: Amegreen Children’s Services Limited

p.1

Inspected under the social care common inspection framework

p.1

Information about this children’s home

This privately owned service accommodates up to four young people. There are two other homes run by the same provider in the local area; this one specialises in assisting young people to make the transition to adult life and gain the skills they need to live independently.

p.1

Information about this children’s home

The home uses ‘Systems-Centered’ methods of working with children and young people who have experienced developmental trauma.

p.1

Information about this children’s home

The manager was registered with Ofsted on 31 Oct 2013.

p.1

Overall experiences and progress of

children and young people, taking into account

p.1

outstanding

How well children and young people are helped and protected outstanding

p.1

outstanding

The effectiveness of leaders and managers good

p.1

outstanding

The children’s home provides highly effective services that consistently exceed the standards of good. The actions of the children’s home contribute to significantly improved outcomes and positive experiences for children and young people who need help, protection and care.

p.1

outstanding

Overall judgement at last inspection: outstanding

p.1

outstanding

Enforcement action since last inspection: none Inspection report children’s home: SC473329 2

p.1

Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

15/08/2017 Full Outstanding 09/02/2017 Full Outstanding 14/10/2016 Interim Sustained effectiveness 15/02/2016 Full Good Inspection report children’s home: SC473329 3

p.2

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.

p.3

Requirement Due date

The independent person must produce a report about a visit which sets out, in particular, the independent person’s opinion as to whether children are effectively safeguarded; and the conduct of the home promotes children’s well-being. (Regulation 44 (3)(a)(b))

p.3

Requirement Due date

The report should be set out so that the evidence obtained to reach this opinion and for any recommendation made is clear. 31/10/2018

p.3

Requirement Due date

In order to complete a quality of care review the registered person must establish and maintain a system for monitoring, reviewing and evaluating the feedback and opinions of children about the children’s home, its facilities and the quality of care they receive in it; and any actions that the registered person considers necessary in order to improve or maintain the quality of care provided for children. The system must provide for ascertaining and considering the opinions of children, their parents, placing authorities and staff. (Regulation 45 (2)(a)(b)(c) (5)) 31/12/2018

p.3

Requirement Due date

When conducting the review of premises, the registered person must consult, and take into account the views of, each relevant person. (Regulation 46 (2)) 31/12/2018

p.3

Recommendations

 The children’s guide must be age appropriate, provided in an accessible format and explained to each child to make sure they understand it. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 24, paragraph 4.21)

p.3

Recommendations

 A child’s plans should form the basis of their care, and providers should use their judgement as to what is relevant in each case, taking the plans listed in the definition in the Regulations as a starting point rather than a complete list or a tick-box exercise. (‘Guide to the children’s home regulations including the quality standards’, page 56, paragraph 11.1) Inspection report children’s home: SC473329 4 In particular, plans should be informed by and linked to the home’s ‘Child and adolescent needs and strengths assessments’.

p.3

Recommendations

 Children should be encouraged by staff to see the home’s records as ‘living documents’ supporting them to view and contribute to the record in a way that reflects their voice on a regular basis. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 58, paragraph 11.19)

p.4

Recommendations

 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) In particular, the record should evidence discussion of practice, the needs of children and meet the purposes of supervision as outlined in the home’s workforce plan.

p.4

Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: outstanding

Several young people have experienced overwhelming pressures since the last inspection, which has led to periods of regression in their behaviour. However, the manager and staff have acted in concert with other agencies and families to address each issue. The manager has often been the linchpin that makes this collaboration so effective.

p.4

Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: outstanding

Had it not been for the exceptional work of the manager and staff, these challenges could have been far worse, even disastrous, for the young people involved. It is largely down to the enormous patience shown by staff, withstanding rejection and hostility, that they can continuously seek the best for each young person. The training in and understanding of how trauma affects development mean that staff have been enormously resilient, modelling the containment of destructive feelings and finding better ways to manage difficult situations.

p.4

Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: outstanding

Group dynamics have been significantly affected as young people have struggled with the impact of extremely stressful circumstances, so much so that their ability to remain living together was threatened. The manager’s and staff’s explanations of the impact of this individually and as a group have resulted in an improvement in the atmosphere of the home. Not all relationships have healed, but skilled work has avoided placement breakdowns. As a result, young people have experienced how problematic relationships do not inevitably result in acrimonious separation and feelings of rejection, which has been a pattern for much of their lives.

p.4

Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: outstanding

One professional described how ‘crises will always happen’ for young people recovering from trauma, but that staff are successfully helping them to ‘develop the ability to deal with it and come through’.

p.4

Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: outstanding

Despite setbacks, young people are making progress emotionally, psychologically and Inspection report children’s home: SC473329 5 educationally. Some of this is subtle but significant, including the acceptance of care, understanding their feelings and developing stable relationships. Other achievements are more obvious. Among these are the successful completion of GCSE and college courses and a smooth move to a leaving-care provision. Parents attribute these successes to young people taking advantage of the persistent and effective hard work of staff. Every professional contacted spoke extremely highly of this too, including one who rated the home as ‘the best placement I have worked with – hands down’.

p.4

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

Despite the upheavals in young people’s lives and the impact this has had, there have been no missing episodes and no use of restraint since the last inspection. Staff understand that challenging behaviour is a means of communicating distress; one explained it as ‘young people wanting you to feel what they feel’, or reverting to earlier, unhelpful patterns of coping. They learn the ways that each young person responds to best to help them return to a calmer state.

p.5

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

Staff motivate young people to rise to challenges or to change behaviour, and sanctions are rarely used.

p.5

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

Some young people regard themselves as being less favourably treated than others or are critical of the way staff have addressed issues with them. However, the evidence of case records and the opinions of parents and professionals are that staff consult the wider network or discuss approaches as a team before acting. Interventions are measured and often successful. One professional commented, ‘The staff are so patient and helpful with the young person; everything they are doing is working for her.’

p.5

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

Each young person believes that their placement has been beneficial and could see ways in which they had progressed since moving into the home. Despite raising some misgivings, one young person wanted to emphasise that ‘this is the best placement for me’.

p.5

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

Staff follow up safeguarding concerns promptly and effectively. There are frequent discussions with young people about how they can keep themselves safe, whether online, in the community or by maintaining their own positive mental health.

p.5

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

Young people named members of the staff team who they can talk to about concerns and said they would raise issues with them rather than someone they did not know. Nevertheless, they had limited knowledge of agencies set up to help young people; this was not helped by some information on noticeboards being out of date.

p.5

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

The provider’s ‘Child and adolescent needs and strengths assessments’ measure progress over time and identify priorities for future work. However, there is little correlation with young people’s placement plans, so that there is potential for the efforts of staff to be disjointed. The plans themselves do not evidence how young people have contributed to them, how their views have been considered or who they have been shared with. Inspection report children’s home: SC473329 6 Staff are highly effective in communicating with parents and others who are important in young people’s lives. Young people benefit from the consistent approach that arises out of this and from improved contact. One mother said that because of the efforts of staff, ‘my relationship with my daughter is the best it has ever been’.

p.5

The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The manager has high expectations of his staff and provides the supportive environment in which these can be attained. He promotes and exemplifies the provider’s ethos of how to work with young people who have experienced developmental trauma. This leads to the team delivering high standards of care and encouraging young people ‘to be the best they can be’, as one parent put it.

p.6

The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Staff report that they are well supported through excellent training, much of it tailored to the needs of young people in their care, by formal supervision and regular conversations with managers. Some talked knowledgeably about the approach the home has adopted and how this makes a difference to their practice. However, supervision records largely refer to a single, pressing issue, often child-focused, rather than the range of matters pertinent to their roles.

p.6

The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The manager has earned the admiration of young people, staff, families and professionals, one of whom described him as having ‘an impeccable desire to fulfil the needs of children’. This is an enormous strength and the manager has had a greater role than usual in the care of individual young people, which has detracted from some other areas of his role.

p.6

The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Over a year on from the recommendation that the children’s guide be more age- appropriate, the work has not yet reached fruition. The most recent update includes the statement that it ‘was written with the help of the young people living at the home’, but the manager has not consulted the young people about it for a long time.

p.6

The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The actions contained in the review of the quality of care in the home focus on how staff can improve things for individual young people, but insufficiently on the overall service. Neither this nor the location risk assessment show evidence that the views of young people or other relevant people have been sought and considered.

p.6

The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Nevertheless, the manager and staff have built up excellent professional networks with the aim of collaboratively meeting young people’s needs. There is ample evidence that the whole team has been open to learning from different disciplines.

p.6

The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The provider has recently introduced a new computerised recording and monitoring system. It is still being embedded, but has already streamlined case recording and ensured that staff enter all required information. However, regulation 44 reports, the format of which the system generates, can be unclear as to why the independent person has drawn her conclusions or what recommendations she is making. Inspection report children’s home: SC473329 7

p.6

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.

p.7

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: SC473329 8

p.7

Children’s home details

Registered provider: Amegreen Children’s Services Limited

p.8

Children’s home details

Registered provider address: 2 Granary Court, Fair Oak Green, Stratfield Saye, Reading RG7 2DL

p.8

Inspector

Chris Peel, social care inspector Inspection report children’s home: SC473329 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.

p.8

Inspector

If you would like a copy of this document in a different format, such as large print or Braille, please telephone 0300 123 1231, or email enquiries@ofsted.gov.uk . You may reuse this information (not including logos) free of charge in any format or medium, under the terms of the Open Government Licence. To view this licence, visit http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/doc/open-government-licence , write to the Information Policy Team, The National Archives, Kew, London TW9 4DU, or email: psi@nationalarchives.gsi.gov.uk .

p.9

Inspector

Interested in our work? You can subscribe to our monthly newsletter for more information and updates: http://eepurl.com/iTrDn .

p.9

Inspector

T: 0300 123 1231 Textphone: 0161 618 8524 E: enquiries@ofsted.gov.uk W: http://www.gov.uk/ofsted

p.9