Children's home run by Action for Children in Watford

Inspection report children’s home: SC438751 1 SC438751 Registered provider: Action for Children

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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 provides short breaks for up to eight children who have diagnosed learning difficulties and/or complex health needs. A charitable organisation operates this setting.

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Information about this children’s home

The registered manager has been in post for two years and 10 months.

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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 requires improvement to be good

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good

The children’s home provides effective services that meet the requirements for good.

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good

Overall judgement at last inspection: requires improvement to be good

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good

Enforcement action since last inspection: none

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

22/06/2017 Full Requires improvement to be good Inspection report children’s home: SC438751 2 24/01/2017 Interim Declined in effectiveness 24/10/2016 Full Good 21/03/2016 Interim Improved effectiveness Inspection report children’s home: SC438751 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 quality and purpose of care standard is that children receive care from staff who—

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Requirement Due date

understand the children’s home’s overall aims and the outcomes it seeks to achieve for children;

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Requirement Due date

use this understanding to deliver care that meets children’s needs and supports them to fulfil their potential.

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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 the premises used for the purposes of the home are designed and furnished so as to—

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Requirement Due date

enable each child to participate in the daily life of the home. (Regulation 6 (1)(a)(b)(2)(c)(i)(ii)) 28/02/2019

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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 (1)(2)(d))

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Requirement Due date

This is with particular reference to keeping medicine cabinet keys safely. 31/01/2019

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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— 31/03/2019 Inspection report children’s home: SC438751 4 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 skills to meet the needs of each child. (Regulation 13 (1)(a)(b)(2)(c))

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Requirement Due date

In particular, this relates to making sure that staff are provided with training in areas such as de-escalation and safeguarding in a timely way, and that staff have opportunities to undertake training in alternative methods of communication. 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

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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

use monitoring and review systems to make continuous improvements in the quality of care provided in the home. (Regulation 13 (1)(a)(b)(2)(h))

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Requirement Due date

In particular, this relates to making sure that records are reviewed in a timely way and that risk assessments are reviewed in line with the home’s development plans. 31/01/2019

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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)) 31/01/2019

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Recommendations

 The registered person should have a workforce plan which can fulfil the workforce-related requirements of regulation 16, schedule 1 (paragraphs 19 and 20). The plan should: detail the process and timescales for supervision of practice (see regulation 33 (4) (b)) and keep appropriate records for staff in the home. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 53, paragraph 10.8)  Staff should be familiar with the home’s policies on record keeping and understand the importance of careful, objective and clear recording. (‘Guide to Inspection report children’s home: SC438751 5 the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 62, paragraph 14.4) This is with particular reference to the clarity and appropriateness of language that is used in records, and ensuring that the home’s internal plans help staff to consistently encourage children’s independence.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

The children benefit from their stays at this home. A placing social worker said that the stays make a positive difference to the child with whom they work. The children get opportunities to socialise with other children and take part in activities that they enjoy, such as craft work and playing in the garden. The home has increased its range of play equipment, which now includes a wheelchair swing so that more of the children can enjoy playing outside. The children go out and take part in activities that widen their experiences. During the summer holidays, children went on trips to the National Space Centre, Cadbury World, parks, a golf course and driving range and a bowling alley.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Some staff and external professionals felt that trips such as this could be limited due to available staffing. However, the organisation has recruited six more staff members, who are due to start working at the home soon.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

The registered manager and staff work effectively with parents and social workers. A social worker said that the staff know the child and their family well, and have good relationships with the child’s parents. A parent said that the staff are good at keeping him informed and, although there are some small issues (such as losing children’s clothes), the home gets the big things right.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

The children’s health and education remain the primary responsibility of the parents. However, the staff work with schools to get a shared understanding of children’s health needs. When the staff do not get the information or documentation they require, such as education plans, they ask for it. The organisation has a qualified nurse who provides training for staff to help them to meet children’s specific health needs. This includes using gastrostomy feeds and nebulisers.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

The staff help the children to develop their levels of independence in line with their individual needs and abilities. For some children, this can be limited to helping the staff to dress or wash them. One child had been able to order his own taxi for a trip out with staff, and pay at the cinema and the restaurant. Some staff have helped one child to manage to unpack her own bag and prepare some of her own snacks. However, this is not included in the child’s plans and so staff have not been consistent in encouraging her to do this. Although this child is making progress, the lack of consistency can limit this.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

The staff take account of the children’s views and choices. For some children, this includes interpreting their body language. Some of the children at the home use signing Inspection report children’s home: SC438751 6 to communicate. Some of the staff have a basic awareness of signing, but have not had training to help them communicate with these children as effectively as possible. The children’s service manager has recognised the limitations that this imposes and has agreed for a member of staff to train as a trainer in signing, so that they can in turn train other staff.

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

The staff manage the children’s behaviour effectively. A social worker said that the staff have a good understanding of when one child is becoming agitated, and have strategies for helping the child calm down. The social worker also said that the child’s key worker has visited the child’s home to help the parents develop strategies for managing their child’s behaviour. This approach is in line with the home’s stated aims, and helps to reduce the need for staff to physically intervene. There is a very low use of sanctions at the home.

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

The staff help the children to become safer. They have undertaken some road safety work with some children. Because of this, one of these children stopped his brother from stepping into the road. The registered manager and staff recognised this and presented the child with a certificate. There is a photograph of this on display at the home.

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

The registered manager responds appropriately to any safeguarding concerns. The designated officer said that the registered manager works really well with them, and cooperates fully in any investigations. The staff know how to raise any concerns that they have about children’s safety, and if necessary, to whistle-blow. The practice and knowledge of the manager and staff help to protect the children who use this home.

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

The registered manager has written a risk assessment on the location of the home. This assessment recognised that when a site opposite the home began to be developed for housing, the risk assessment would need to be reviewed. However, the work has started and the review has not yet taken place. While this is of limited impact, it does mean that the potential risks have not been fully recorded and considered.

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

The building is generally safe for the children to stay in, but at the time of the inspection the medicine cabinet keys had been left hanging close to the cabinet. This was inside a locked room, so the risk was limited, but it did mean that the planned safeguards were not as effective as they could have been.

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

The manager and the children’s service manager of this home have a good understanding of the home’s areas of strength and areas for development. They have begun to address several of the shortfalls. In some areas, the work is planned or at an early stage. In other areas, there is more progress. For example, six new staff have been recruited and are due to start their employment at the home in the forthcoming Inspection report children’s home: SC438751 7 weeks. In addition to this, managers are in the process of recruiting two additional team leaders.

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

The registered manager has a good awareness of the children and their individual needs. The frequency of staff supervisions has increased and is being closely monitored. The staff described the supervisions as useful and said that they get a lot out of them. However, the records of the supervisions do not reflect the quality of the discussions. Good supervision will help to monitor and improve the way that the staff care for the children, but poor records can lead to issues not being followed up.

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

The records that the staff make contain, in some examples, some unclear or emotive language. This results in unclear records of incidents, which makes it more difficult for managers and leaders to monitor the records and make sure that the staff are responding to incidents appropriately. The registered manager and children’s services manager are aware of this and have arranged training for the staff on recording, but this has not yet taken place.

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

Monitoring of some incidents has not happened in a timely way. A selection of incident reports from late July 2018 and throughout August 2018 were not signed as being monitored by a team leader or manager until 26 September 2018. Such delays can mean that concerns or practice issues may not be identified for several weeks and this can limit the practice of staff and outcomes for the children. A planned review of risk assessments has been delayed due to staff illness.

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

Training is mostly suitable for giving staff the skills and knowledge that they need in order to care for the children well, but there are some exceptions. As well as a current lack of training in sign language, some staff have had to wait several months for training in de-escalation and one staff member has waited nine months for safeguarding training. Although formal training is only one way for staff to gain this knowledge, it is a major one, so delays in training have the potential to leave staff without the skills that they need in some areas.

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

The house is well equipped to meet the needs of the children who stay there. For example, there are hoists in some bedrooms and bathrooms, a good selection of play equipment in the garden and different communal areas so that the children can be together or apart. However, there is some damage to furniture, two wardrobes have their doors missing and the conservatory area can be cold. These issues can make the home less comfortable 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 Inspection report children’s home: SC438751 8 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: SC438751 9

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Children’s home details

Registered provider: Action for Children

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: 3 The Boulevard, Ascot Road, Watford WD18 8AG

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Inspector

Clive Lucas: social care inspector Inspection report children’s home: SC438751 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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