Children's Home run by SWAAY Child & Adolescent Services Ltd in Bracknell Forest

Inspection report children’s home: SC481040 1 SC481040 Registered provider: SWAAY Child and Adolescent 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 owned and run by a private organisation. It is registered to provide care and accommodation for up to four boys. The organisation runs other homes and a school within the local area. The home is managed by a suitably experienced manager who was registered in May 2018.

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Information about this children’s home

Inspection dates: 18 to 19 September 2018

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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

Date of last inspection: 18 January 2018

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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: SC481040 2

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

18/01/2018 Interim Improved effectiveness 18/10/2017 Full Requires improvement to be good 30/03/2017 Interim Improved effectiveness 11/08/2016 Full Requires improvement Inspection report children’s home: SC481040 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.

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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 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 (2)(d))

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Requirement Due date

In particular, items that have been damaged are removed promptly to reduce the risk of injury to children. 31/10/2018

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Recommendations

 Staff should continually and actively assess the risks to each child and the arrangements in place to protect them. Where there are safeguarding concerns for a child, their placement plan, agreed between the home and their placing authority, must include details of the steps the home will take to manage any assessed risks on a day-to-day basis. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 42, paragraph 9.5) Specifically, ensure that all information from pre-placement risk assessments is available in current plans and assessments and that plans to support behaviour are updated promptly.  Staff should be familiar with the home’s policies on record-keeping and understand the importance of careful, objective and clear recording. Staff should record information on individual children in a non-stigmatising way that distinguishes between fact, opinion and third-party information. Information

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Recommendations

about the child must always be recorded in a way that will be helpful to the child. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 62, paragraph 14.4) Specifically, ensure that computerised recording systems are effective, and information is easily accessible. Inspection report children’s home: SC481040 4

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children flourish while living in the home. They are positive about their placement and the help and support that they receive from staff. One child was particularly proud of his recent achievement of becoming head boy at school. Other children shared that they were happy in the home and liked what it had to offer them to help them to move on in their lives.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children feel listened to and recognise that even though they may not receive their desired outcome, staff will explain to them why their wishes cannot be met. All children attend education as planned in the organisation’s school and joint working across the organisation results in a consistent approach to children in all settings.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children’s emotional health and well-being is central to their care and placement within the home. Each child has a named person in the organisation’s therapies team and benefits from group and individual sessions. Children were proud while talking of how they have progressed through the staged therapeutic process and the sense of achievement that they have gained from this. Staff are acutely aware of each child’s needs and they use a restorative approach to reduce negative and unwanted behaviour. Emoji cushions and feelings cards allow children to share how they are feeling when they cannot find the words to express this, allowing a proactive response to anxiety or distress.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children are striving for independence. Plans are clear about how this is structured and how children can progress through the levels of earning trust in the home and in steps to eventual independence in the community. In this process, children learn social and practical skills in order to manage social situations that may be challenging to them. Joint working with partner agencies such as the youth offending service ensures that independence is carefully risk assessed and is in each child’s best interest.

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

Children’s actions and demeanour show that they feel safe in the home. They are also confident in sharing when they feel unsafe, although some are still learning how to express this in a safe way. Current concerns over the impact of relationships within the home are being thoughtfully managed and children have space to share as a group how the actions of those they live with affect them.

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

Staff are acutely aware of each child’s risks and vulnerabilities. Staff are vigilant to issues within the group and respond swiftly to any concerns or worries, informing partner agencies as required. Children learn to understand their feelings and emotions, leading to them sharing with staff things that they may not be able to manage, such as the new cutlery set being too much of a temptation for self-injury.

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

The home has had a period of unsettled emotions, leading to some destructive Inspection report children’s home: SC481040 5 outbursts. While these have been managed with support from other colleagues and senior leaders in the organisation, items that had been damaged over the weekend preceding the inspection had not been removed promptly and were still in the garden at the point of inspection. These were a potential injury hazard to children. Behaviour response plans are clear and reflect how the child may be feeling. They include the importance of staff acknowledging that all feelings are valid, even if the resulting actions are not socially acceptable.

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

Risk is recognised and is managed well in the home. In-house plans are reflective of each child’s presenting behaviours and needs, with a clear response pattern and approach for staff. Pre-placement risk assessments are highly detailed and incorporate views and assessments from a range of professionals in the organisation and partner agencies. It was noted that one child’s current plan did not include fire setting despite it being included in the original assessment. This has had minimal impact due to the high levels of supervision in the home but should have been referred to in the plan.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Staff feel well supported and motivated in their roles. They say that they can access managers and senior staff at all times and that they have regular supervisions and reflective meetings as a team. They demonstrate a strong understanding of the therapeutic basis to the approach to care as is detailed in the statement of purpose. All members of staff are aware of their roles in supporting children to develop and progress.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The registered manager has an excellent understanding of each child’s needs. She regularly monitors in-house plans to ensure that they remain relevant and that targets are appropriate for each child. Children benefit from excellent joint working across disciplines within the organisation and from the input of a range of professionals in their in-house care plans. Staff are able to work holistically with each child and understand how children are progressing across all aspects of their lives. Where children are struggling to manage group living, the home considers other options of placement within the organisation, and when necessary will support and advise placing authorities on appropriate future placements in other settings.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The home is in the process of reorganising how it stores and records information about children. It can be difficult and/or time consuming to find the relevant records, plans and assessments in the current format, and laptops in the home could not quickly access the organisation’s database. While this has no direct impact on children, it can hinder staff access to information and affected inspection process.

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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 Inspection report children’s home: SC481040 6 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: SC481040 7

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Children’s home details

Registered provider: SWAAY Child and Adolescent Services Limited

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: 591 London Road, Sutton, Surrey SM3 9AG

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Inspectors

Jennie Christopher: social care inspector Inspection report children’s home: SC481040 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 looked after children, safeguarding and child protection.

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Inspectors

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Inspectors

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Inspectors

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