Children's Home run by Ownlife Residential Limited in Lewisham

Inspection report children’s home: SC025664 1 SC025664 Registered provider: Ownlife Limited 02932099

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Inspected under the social care common inspection framework

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Information about this children’s home

This privately owned home provides care for up to three young people. The home’s statement of purpose states that it is a home for young people who present with social, emotional and behavioural difficulties and as a result may display challenging behaviour because of their early traumatic life experiences.

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Information about this children’s home

The home has recently reopened after refurbishment. The registered manager has been registered since October 2018.

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Information about this children’s home

Inspection dates: 29 to 30 November 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 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

Date of last inspection: 19 February 2018

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good

Overall judgement at last inspection: not judged

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good

Enforcement action since last inspection: none Inspection report children’s home: SC025664 2

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

19/02/2018 Interim Not judged 08/06/2017 Interim Not judged 24/01/2017 Interim Not judged 08/09/2016 Interim Not judged Inspection report children’s home: SC025664 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 registered person must make arrangements for the handling, recording, safekeeping, safe administration and disposal of medicines received into the children’s home.

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Requirement Due date

In particular, the registered person must ensure that—

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Requirement Due date

medicine which is prescribed for a child is administered as prescribed to the child for whom it is prescribed and to no other child. (Regulation 23 (1)(2)(b))

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Requirement Due date

In particular, the registered person must ensure that young people’s new and repeat prescriptions are checked and recorded accurately in the medicine administration records by staff. 31/03/2019

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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

include the information and documents listed in Schedule 3 in relation to each child;

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Requirement Due date

are signed and dated by the author of each entry. (Regulation 36 (1)(a)(b)(c)) 31/03/2019

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Requirement Due date

Behaviour management policies and records

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Requirement Due date

within 24 hours of the use of a measure of control, discipline or restraint in relation to a child in the home, a record is made which includes—

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Requirement Due date

the name of the child; 31/03/2019 Inspection report children’s home: SC025664 4 details of the child’s behaviour leading to the use of the measure;

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Requirement Due date

the date, time and location of the use of the measure;

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Requirement Due date

a description of the measure and its duration;

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Requirement Due date

details of any methods used or steps taken to avoid the need to use the measure;

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Requirement Due date

the name of the person who used the measure (‘the user’), and of any other person present when the measure was used;

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Requirement Due date

the effectiveness and any consequences of the use of the measure; and

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Requirement Due date

a description of any injury to the child or any other person, and any medical treatment administered, as a result of the measure;

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Requirement Due date

within 48 hours of the use of the measure, the registered person, or a person who is authorised by the registered person to do so (‘the authorised person’)—

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Requirement Due date

has spoken to the user about the measure; and

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Requirement Due date

has signed the record to confirm it is accurate; and

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Requirement Due date

within 5 days of the use of the measure, the registered person or the authorised person adds to the record confirmation that they have spoken to the child about the measure. (Regulation 35 (3)(a)(i)(ii)(iii)(iv)(v)(vi)(vii)(viii)(b)(i)(ii)(c)(iv)) The protection of children standard

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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— that staff—

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Requirement Due date

understand the roles and responsibilities in relation to protecting children that are assigned to them by the registered person;

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Requirement Due date

take effective action whenever there is a serious concern about a child’s welfare. (Regulation 12 (1)(2)(a)(v)(vi)) 31/03/2019 Inspection report children’s home: SC025664 5 In particular, the registered person must ensure that placing authorities provide clear guidance to the home in relation to the delegation and allocation of responsibilities and duties they have to help protect young people placed in the home. Review of quality of care

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must complete a review of the quality of care provided for children (‘a quality of care review’) at least once every 6 months.

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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 for monitoring, reviewing and evaluating—

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Requirement Due date

the quality of care provided for children;

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Requirement Due date

the feedback and opinions of children about the children’s home, its facilities and the quality of care they receive in it; and

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Requirement Due date

any actions that the registered person considers necessary in order to improve or maintain the quality of care provided for children.

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Requirement Due date

The system referred to in paragraph (2) must provide for ascertaining and considering the opinions of children, their parents, placing authorities and staff. (Regulation 45 (1)(2)(a)(b)(5)) 31/03/2019

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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

there is any other incident relating to a child which the registered person considers to be serious. (Regulation 40 (4)(e)) 31/03/2019

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Recommendations

 Progress can be measured and evidenced in various ways. The child’s personal circumstances, individual needs and educational history are relevant in considering what might constitute progress. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 26, paragraph 5.2) In particular, staff must ensure that young people’s targets and progress are clear and consistently recorded. Inspection report children’s home: SC025664 6  As set out in regulations 31-33, the registered person is responsible for maintaining good employment practice. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 61, paragraph 13.1) In particular, the registered person must consider and make further enquiries, where appropriate, in relation to the feedback that they receive from any prospective employees’ referee.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Young people receive good individualised care from managers and staff who understand their needs very well. As a result, young people have positive experiences in the home and make good progress from their challenging starting points.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Examples include a young person gaining the confidence to spend time socialising with his peers, sitting at the dining table and eating meals together, alongside increasing their engagement in education. However, staff’s recording of young people’s progress and outcomes is inconsistent, which limits staff’s understanding of young people’s overall development potential.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

The newly refurbished home is very homely, and staff successfully create a genuinely warm and convivial atmosphere in the home. Young people choose to leave their slippers at the front door and typical day-to-day conversations and humour between young people and staff enhance the family home atmosphere.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff know the young people very well and young people develop positive and trusting relationships with them. Staff support young people’s diversity in all its forms. Whether it is a cultural diet or a chosen gender identity, staff make sure that they respond to young people’s requests to help meet their needs.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Young people enjoy their chosen activities. Examples include staff supporting young people with appointments at a familiar hair salon, seeking out bespoke clothing shops and arranging membership of a local youth club. A comprehensive independence training programme provides young people with additional learning and experiences in the home.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Despite the progress that young people make, some of them are not attending mainstream education. Staff understand the barriers to education and try hard to encourage young people to attend and challenge placing authorities appropriately to provide young people with further support.

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improvement to be good

Young people are successfully encouraged by staff to attend their medical appointments. Staff support young people to manage their health needs, including taking any regular Inspection report children’s home: SC025664 7 medication. However, during the inspection one new prescription did not match the administration records, which could have resulted in the young person concerned not receiving their recommended medicine dosage.

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improvement to be good

A recruitment programme has ensured that the home has reopened with a fully staffed and suitably qualified staff team. However, one staff record did not have any evidence that leaders and managers had explored a written reference in the detail necessary to ensure safe recruitment.

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improvement to be good

The home operates a no-physical-restraint policy. Positive behaviour is encouraged and if young people become challenging, staff use de-escalation techniques effectively and record any incidents. Despite this, incident records do not consistently show that the staff and young people have had the opportunity to discuss and reflect on the incident in question. This limits the opportunities for staff and young people to learn from any episodes of challenging behaviour.

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improvement to be good

Care plans and risk assessments are comprehensive, kept up to date and provide staff with effective guidance to help them manage any risks to young people when they are out in the community. However, not all the documents are signed and dated by the relevant staff member.

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improvement to be good

Staff understand each young person’s complex needs. The home’s clinical therapist provides regular consultation to the staff team. New strategies or techniques to provide young people with individualised support are discussed and implemented to enhance young people’s care and support.

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improvement to be good

Young people have developed effective coping strategies and have improved their ability to approach staff to talk things through with them. As a result this has enabled young people to better regulate their emotions, resulting in a reduction in their challenging behaviours.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The home is managed effectively by a suitably qualified registered manager. The registered manager is child-focused and highly visible in the home and staff praised him as ‘inclusive, caring and brilliant’. The registered manager and management team provide good leadership and they are ambitious to provide the highest level of care to young people.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The new staff team members describe themselves as ‘building and gelling together’. Fortnightly staff team meetings and regular supervision provide staff with appropriate support and guidance in their new roles in the home. A child and adolescent mental health worker said she was, ‘impressed by the dedication of staff to young people’, in the home.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Staff training is comprehensive, and all staff receive training in child protection and safeguarding vulnerable young people. Staff’s knowledge is further enhanced with Inspection report children’s home: SC025664 8 specialist training to enable them to meet the individual needs of the young people living in the home. This helps to ensure that young people receive care and support tailored to their specific needs.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Leaders’, managers’ and staff’s multidisciplinary working is good. Staff attend and contribute to young people’s professional reviews. A professional said, ‘This is a truly amazing team that clearly cares what happens to the young people.’

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

While the registered manager conducts monthly audits and understands the home’s strengths and areas for development, his quality of care review does not capture the views and opinions of young people, professionals, parents or staff. This is a missed opportunity to consider any feedback to further inform the home’s development plan.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The registered manager has worked hard to ensure that all the home’s policies, procedures and statement of purpose met regulatory requirements before re-opening the service. The new staff team benefited from an intensive induction period before the home welcomed young people to the home. However, the registered manager and staff have not consistently notified HMCI of every significant incident in the home, which is a regulatory requirement.

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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: SC025664 9

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Children’s home details

Registered provider: Ownlife Limited 02932099

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: 8 Poole Hill, Bournemouth BH2 5PS

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Inspector

Victoria Jones, social care inspector Inspection report children’s home: SC025664 10 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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