Children's home run by Beaufort Care Group Ltd in Barnet

Inspection report children‟s home: SC470479 1 SC470479 Registered provider: Beaufort Care Group

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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 is registered for up to six children.

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Information about this children’s home

 The home provides care for children who may have emotional and/or behavioural difficulties.

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Information about this children’s home

 The home is operated by a private provider who has three other children‟s homes in the area.

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Information about this children’s home

 The manager has been in post since 19 August 2015.

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Information about this children’s home

Inspection dates: 26 to 27 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

Date of last inspection: 10 October 2017

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requires improvement to be good

Overall judgement at last inspection: good

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requires improvement to be good

Enforcement action since last inspection: none Inspection report children‟s home: SC470479 2

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

10/10/2017 Full Good 21/02/2017 Interim Improved effectiveness 05/10/2016 Full Good 18/03/2016 Interim Sustained effectiveness

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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

13: The leadership and management standard

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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— 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— use monitoring and review systems to make continuous improvements in the quality of care provided in the home.

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must ensure that all employees undertake appropriate continuing professional development; receive practice-related supervision by a person with appropriate experience; and have their performance and fitness to perform their roles appraised at least once every year.

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Requirement Due date

(Regulation 33(4(a)(b)(c)) 31/12/18 Inspection report children‟s home: SC470479 3 In particular, ensure that records of the supervision and appraisal of staff are good quality, reflect the discussion that takes place and record any required actions to be taken. These actions should be reviewed regularly to assess progress. 36: Children‟s case records

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must maintain records (“case records”) for each child which— include the information and documents listed in Schedule 3 in relation to each child; are kept up to date.

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Requirement Due date

In particular, ensure that the system used to store records relating to restraint, safeguarding events and behaviour incidents enables monitoring to take place effectively. 31/12/18 Inspection report children‟s home: SC470479 4

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improvement to be good

Weaknesses in how well children are helped and protected and in the effectiveness of leaders‟ and managers‟ work mean that the overall experiences of children require improvement. Most of the children are making progress in understanding and managing their behaviours, managing their emotions and building their self-confidence and self- esteem. For some children, this work is ongoing. These children are still placing themselves at risk by going missing and have yet to fully develop the skills to understand the effect their behaviours have on themselves and others.

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improvement to be good

Children receive individualised care from staff with whom they have built good, effective relationships. Staff have a good understanding of the children‟s individual needs and are meeting these needs appropriately in most cases. Since the previous inspection, one child has left the home. Leaders and managers appropriately identified that they were unable to meet this child‟s needs and that the child‟s experiences and progress were declining.

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improvement to be good

Children are engaged in education. For some this is full-time education, and for others this is specialist one-to-one tutoring. Other children are actively applying for apprenticeships and/or employment. Staff support children in this by role playing interviews to develop their confidence.

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improvement to be good

Staff provide children with a welcoming, nurturing environment in which to live. Children are actively involved in choosing the decor of the home and personalising their bedrooms.

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improvement to be good

Children are supported by staff to take part in a wide range of fun and purposeful activities. These include attending local clubs and events. Children are supported by staff to make and maintain links with their friends outside of the home. Friends visiting the home are made to feel welcome. This approach provides children with social networks and builds their self-worth and their confidence.

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improvement to be good

Social workers said that the staff are good at keeping them up to date about the progress children are making.

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improvement to be good

Children‟s behaviour and safeguarding events are managed appropriately, but the records pertaining to these events require improvement to be good. Information about children‟s behaviour, restraints and safeguarding concerns is held in documents kept in several different places. While all of the required information is available, the current storage system does not enable leaders and managers to track and monitor these records effectively. Inspection report children‟s home: SC470479 5 Staff manage risks well, and leaders make appropriate decisions about children‟s placements when risks increase and cannot be managed in the home. Since the previous inspection, the home has had a challenging time, but this has now improved. Risk assessments are detailed documents that provide staff with information about how to reduce the level of risk for children. These documents are reviewed and updated regularly.

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improvement to be good

Staff support children to develop positive behaviour. Each child has a bespoke behaviour management plan that is reviewed regularly to ensure that it meets the child‟s needs. Staff help children to understand their behaviours and to develop self-management techniques. Staff implement clear boundaries and structures. Because of this approach, some children are not going missing as much and other children are learning how to manage their anger. For other children, this work remains ongoing. Social workers and parents report that there has been an improvement in some children‟s behaviours.

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improvement to be good

Restraint is appropriately used as a last resort and is proportionate to the children‟s behaviours. Debrief discussions are carried out with staff and children, and the information gained from these discussions is used to develop behaviour management plans.

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improvement to be good

Incidents of children going missing from the home are managed well. Staff follow children and search for them when they no longer have sight of them. Return home interviews are not routinely carried out by the placing authorities. The manager has escalated her concern about this omission to senior managers within these authorities.

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

Since the previous inspection, the home has been through an unsettled and challenging time. This has improved since the registered manager returned from maternity leave and because of the action taken by leaders and managers to resolve the situation. The home is now more settled, but it is still early days in relation to developing the necessary improvements.

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

The monitoring of the quality of care requires improvement to be good as it has not been used effectively to identify all of the shortfalls found at this inspection. Prior to the inspection, the manager recognised this weakness and had started to implement a new monitoring system. This is yet to be embedded in practice.

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

The manager does understand the strengths of the home and has identified most of the areas for improvement. The home‟s development plan reflects her plans to address these areas.

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

The quality of records pertaining to restraint, behaviour incidents and safeguarding events require improvement. Records do not clearly detail all of the work staff undertake with children. In addition, this important information is stored across a variety of documents, which makes it difficult to monitor it effectively. Inspection report children‟s home: SC470479 6 The systems available to support staff require improvement. Staff are not receiving regular annual appraisals, and the frequency of supervision varies. Records of these sessions are not consistently good. They do not always reflect the discussions that take place or describe the actions set by the supervisor. Actions are not always reviewed regularly. As a result, neither the supervisor nor member of staff can accurately assess progress.

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

Staffing levels are sufficient to meet the children‟s needs. The use of agency staff has reduced. When agency staff are used, the manager strives to use the same people, so that children are cared for by people who know them and understand their needs.

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

The registered manager is experienced in residential care and appropriately qualified for the role. Staff feel well supported by the manager and each other.

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

Professionals and some parents provided positive feedback about the staff team and the quality of care provided for the children.

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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: SC470479 7

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Children’s home details

Registered provider: Beaufort Care Group

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: 42 Lytton Road, New Barnet, Barnet EN5 5BY

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Children’s home details

Responsible individual: Jennifer Kendall

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Inspector

Wendy Anderson, social care inspector Inspection report children‟s home: SC470479 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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