Children's Home run by Restoration Care & Services Limited in Barking and Dagenham

Inspection report children’s home: 1269966 1 Registered provider: Restoration Care & Services Limited Full inspection Inspected under the social care common inspection framework

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Information about this children’s home

The home is privately owned. The provider states in their statement of purpose that they provide care for up to five young people with social and emotional difficulties.

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Information about this children’s home

Inspection dates: 24 to 25 September 2018

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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 requires improvement to be good

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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

Ofsted registered both the home and the registered manager in February 2018.

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requires improvement to be good

Overall judgement at last inspection: not applicable

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requires improvement to be good

Enforcement action since last inspection: none Inspection report children’s home: 1269966 2

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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.

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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. (Regulation 12 (1)(2)(a)(i))

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Requirement Due date

In particular, the home must ensure that written assessments are updated regularly and highlight the risk that young people are to themselves or others and confirm the actions that staff have to take to reduce risk. 01/12/2018

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Requirement Due date

In order to complete a quality of care review the registered person must establish and maintain a system of monitoring, reviewing and evaluating—

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Requirement Due date

the quality of care provided for children; 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 to children. (Regulation 45 (2)(a)(b)(c)(d)) 01/12/2018

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Requirement Due date

The positive relationships standard is that children are helped to develop, and to benefit from, relationships based on—

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Requirement Due date

mutual respect and trust. 01/12/2018 Inspection report children’s home: 1269966 3 In particular, the standard in paragraph (1) requires the registered person to ensure— that staff—

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Requirement Due date

encourage each child to take responsibility for the child’s behaviour, in accordance with the child’s age and understanding. (Regulation 11 (1)(a)(2)(a)(iii))

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Requirement Due date

In particular, ensure that behaviour support plans include the views and opinions of young people. Children’s case records

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must maintain records (‘case records’) for each child which:

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Requirement Due date

are kept up to date. (Regulation 36 (1)(b)) 01/12/2018

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

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Requirement Due date

ensure that staff have the experience, qualifications and skills to meet the needs of each child. (Regulation 13 (2)(c))

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Requirement Due date

In particular, the registered person must ensure that the staff receive physical restraint training. 01/12/2018

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must notify HMCI and each other relevant person without delay if—

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Requirement Due date

an incident requiring police involvement occurs in relation to a child which the registered person considers to be serious. (Regulation 40 (3)(a)(e)) 01/12/2018

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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. In particular, the standard in paragraph (1) requires the 01/12/2018 Inspection report children’s home: 1269966 4 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. (Regulation 12 (1)(2)(a)(i))

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Requirement Due date

In particular, this relates to young people having access to DVDs that are not age appropriate. Review of premises

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must review the appropriateness and suitability of the location of the premises used for the purposes of the children’s home at least once in each calendar year taking into account the requirement in regulation 12 (2)(c) (the protection of children standard). (Regulation 46 (1))

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Requirement Due date

In particular, this relates to the specific risk posed by gangs in the local area. 01/12/2018

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Recommendations

 When a child returns to the home after being missing from care or away from home without permission, the responsible local authority must provide an opportunity for the child to have an independent return home interview. Homes should take account of information provided by such interviews when assessing risks and putting arrangements in place to protect each child. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 45, paragraph 9.30)  Records must be kept detailing all individual incidents when children go missing from the home (regulation 36 (schedule 3 (14)). This information should be shared with the placing authority and, where appropriate, with the child’s parents. Evaluation of missing incidents should be undertaken to identify any gaps in training, skills or knowledge for staff or to record and retain evidence of what worked well. This evaluation should inform the review of the quality of care.

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Recommendations

(‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, pages 45 and 46, paragraph 9.31)  The registered person should have a workforce plan which can fulfil the workforce related requirements of regulation 16, schedule 1 (paragraphs 19 and 20). (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 53, paragraph 10.8)  Ensure children have access to appropriate advocacy support, and where possible this should be provided by a person that the child chooses. Looked-after children are entitled to an independent advocate to advise them and ensure they have the support needed to express their views, wishes and feelings about their care and Inspection report children’s home: 1269966 5 lives. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 22, paragraph 4.16)  The following elements of the workforce plan should be included in the statement

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Recommendations

of purpose: (in accordance with schedule 1 (paragraphs 19 and 20)) the staffing structure, experience and qualifications of staff and arrangements for supervision of staff practice. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 53, paragraph 10.10)  Ensure young people are provided with support to sustain or regain their confidence in education and engagement in suitable structured activities. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 27, paragraph 5.5)

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improvement to be good

Outcomes are not positive. Young people’s progress is limited because they go missing from the home regularly. One young person moved on from the home prematurely following their placement at the home breaking down, while another young person was remanded into custody.

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improvement to be good

Educational progress is limited. This is despite staff attempting to support young people’s attendance by removing televisions from their bedrooms during the periods when they should be engaging in education. In contrast, young people can use the home’s internet during school hours, having refused education. This does not motivate them to attend.

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improvement to be good

The quality of behavioural management is mixed. Staff support young people to settle their differences among themselves in an appropriate manner and, where appropriate, to apologise. Less positively, staff have not received any restraint training. Physically restraining young people without training places young people at risk of harm.

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improvement to be good

Young people reported that staff strongly advocate for them and that staff are keen to see them progress. Despite this, young people do not have access to information regarding independent advocacy.

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improvement to be good

Feedback from social workers and parents was generally positive. One social worker referred to staff’s ‘nurturing support’, while another social worker stated that they were impressed that staff visited a young person while he was in custody. However, another social worker felt that a young person needed to make more progress in education.

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improvement to be good

It is difficult to assess the quality of independence work because case recording is poor. Despite case files showing pictures of staff engaging young people in cookery exercises, independence workbooks are empty. This means that opportunities to capture the lives Inspection report children’s home: 1269966 6 and development of young people are missed.

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improvement to be good

Risk assessments lack detail. Staff failed to update one assessment following a recent serious safeguarding incident. This reduced the quality of the assessment.

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improvement to be good

Care plans and risk assessments do not reflect the views of young people. They do not guide staff in how to support young people when they are struggling with their feelings or behaviours.

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improvement to be good

Young people go missing from the home less often than they did when they first moved in and said that they attributed this to the house being ‘cool’. When young people do go missing, staff attempt to find them and return them to the home. Less positively, the home does not monitor the provision of independent return to care interviews or identify patterns of going missing behaviour.

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improvement to be good

The home fails to ensure that young people are not exposed to potentially unsuitable material. During the inspection, films rated for eighteen-year-olds were seen on the shelves within communal areas. Given the younger age group of the young people, this is of particular concern.

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improvement to be good

Key-work sessions support the development of good relationships between staff and young people. Key-work sessions allow young people the chance to think through their behaviours and to develop their own strategies. These new skills help young people to rebuild their self-confidence, to reduce offending behaviour and to rebuild relationships with their birth families.

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improvement to be good

Staff are inventive and creative when seeking to support young people. They are currently developing a key-work programme known as ‘decode the road’ to allow staff to further understand the pressures placed on young people.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: requires improvement to be good

Succession planning is poor. The registered manager is a qualified social worker, with nearly three years of experience working with young people. However, the registered manager is not currently supported by a deputy experienced enough to manage the home in her absence.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: requires improvement to be good

Staff morale is strong and there is little use of agency staff. Staff say that supervision and training are useful. They spoke positively about a recent training course on the dangers posed by criminals attempting to groom young people outside fast food restaurants.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: requires improvement to be good

Case recording is poor. There is not enough management oversight, and, in some cases, records are inaccurate. Furthermore, case files are disorganised and fail to evidence the Inspection report children’s home: 1269966 7 progress achieved by young people.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: requires improvement to be good

Managers control admissions well. Each admission considers the needs of those already resident in the home to ensure that young people settle quickly and make progress.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: requires improvement to be good

The risk assessment of the local area requires more information about the risk posed by gangs in the local area.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: requires improvement to be good

Managers do not report incidents as required. The home failed to notify Ofsted of a serious incident that had occurred recently. This shortfall limits Ofsted’s ability to monitor the home effectively.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: requires improvement to be good

The home has not completed a management monitoring report since opening. In addition, the home is lacking a workforce development plan and a statement of purpose that fully reflects the current qualifications and skill base of the staff team.

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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: 1269966 8

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Children’s home details

Registered provider: Restoration Care & Services Limited

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: 53 Levine Gardens, Barking, Essex IG11 0UH

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Inspector

Barnaby Dowell: social care inspector Inspection report children’s home: 1269966 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 looked after children, safeguarding and child protection.

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Inspector

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Inspector

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Inspector

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