Children's Home run by Care 2 Share Ltd in Waltham Forest

Inspection report children’s home: 1264016 1 Registered provider: Care 2 Share Limited

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Inspected under the social care common inspection framework

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Information about this children’s home

This children’s home provides short-term/emergency placements for up to six young people who are in crisis and may present with a range of complex needs and behaviours. The registered provider supports placing authorities in assessing future placement or transitional needs of young people. The maximum period of placement is 42 days.

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Information about this children’s home

The home is privately owned and is one of three children’s homes run by the same company. The company also provides a range of other services for children and adults, such as residential family centres, supported living provisions, outreach support, family support in the community and community-based parenting assessments.

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Information about this children’s home

The registered manager has been registered since the home’s registration on 7 September 2017.

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Information about this children’s home

Inspection dates: 29 to 30 November 2018

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outstanding

How well children and young people are helped and protected outstanding

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outstanding

The effectiveness of leaders and managers outstanding

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outstanding

The children’s home provides highly effective services that consistently exceed the standards of good. The actions of the children’s home contribute to significantly improved outcomes and positive experiences for children and young people who Inspection report children’s home: 1264016 2 need help, protection and care.

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outstanding

Overall judgement at last inspection: good

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outstanding

Enforcement action since last inspection: none

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

20 March 2018 Full Good Inspection report children’s home: 1264016 3

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Recommendations

 Staff should understand the importance of careful recording. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 62, paragraph 14.4) Specifically, the registered person should ensure that all documents on children’s files are updated swiftly when new information comes to light.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: outstanding

Young people receive an excellent quality of care and have very positive experiences. They make significant progress in changing their lives for the better. The progress that young people make in becoming safer is particularly impressive. One mother described the home as ‘a lifesaver’.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: outstanding

Staff have an extraordinary capacity to build emotional rapport with young people. Young people said that they felt welcomed from the beginning and that they knew instantly that they were in a good place. Many young people, for whom the plan was to stay in care for a long period of time, did not want to leave at the end of their placement.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: outstanding

The trust between young people and staff is the key to young people’s positive engagement and the excellent progress that they have made in many areas of their lives. All young people said that the best thing about the home is the staff who work there. One young person said: ‘Because of what happened to me, I didn’t think I could trust anyone. But here, I trust all staff.’

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: outstanding

Staff provide highly individualised support that recognises and nurtures the uniqueness of young people. All of the young people said that the staff members listen to them, respect them and genuinely want to help them. By exemplifying non-judgmental and respectful attitudes towards others, staff inspire young people to see diversity, equality and inclusion as values that they want to live by.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: outstanding

Young people are resolute about changing their lives. They receive effective help to create their own solutions for whatever issues they face. The improved resilience, critical thinking and moral discernment prepare them well for the next stages of their lives.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: outstanding

Staff help young people to develop confidence in their ability to learn and have successful futures. While insistently pursuing placing authorities to make appropriate arrangements for young people’s education, staff help young people to improve their Inspection report children’s home: 1264016 4 personal and living skills and increase their general knowledge by using online resources. Young people have received training in first aid, fire safety, food hygiene, health and safety, and diversity and equality.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: outstanding

Staff promote a good family life and support young people’s relationships with their families exceptionally well. One young person’s grandmother said: ‘My grandson was very happy there. They have shown me and him the best care. I cannot praise them enough.’

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

The excellent practices in the home have an exceptionally positive impact on the safety of young people across a wide range of their safeguarding outcomes. The young people’s safety, self-regulation and resilience have increased significantly since coming to live in this home.

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

The risk management practices in the home are collaborative, holistic, insightful and highly effective in helping young people to be safer. All decisions, from the point of considering referrals to planning how to end placements, are based on robust risk assessments. The leaders, managers and staff continually reassess the risks and take appropriate actions rapidly to help young people to be safe and protected.

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

Staff are highly effective in securing young people’s contributions to their safety plans. The staff’s empathic understanding of young people’s vulnerabilities helps young people to accept the safeguarding guidance offered. One young person said that, despite being told by various professionals in the past about the risk of child sexual exploitation, the first time that she was able to understand what this really meant and how it affected her personally was when the staff from this home explained it to her. Understanding a potential grooming process helped this young person to make safer choices.

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

Staff creatively use a structured key-working system to help young people to develop a better understanding of the risks that they face and the strategies that they can use to keep themselves safe. Young people said that staff helped them to see a bigger picture, to put the past behind them and to begin to live a better life. One social worker said that the staff had helped the young person to change his mindset and that this had helped the young person in the longer term.

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

Staff have an excellent understanding of child criminal exploitation and the reasons why some young people become involved in criminal activities. Young people who come to the home with a history of offending are nurtured and helped to gain an insight into their own personal histories and the experiences that lie beneath their vulnerabilities. One social worker said that in his long career within the youth offending service, he has never been as impressed with a children’s home as with this one. The young people at the home who were involved in crime have stopped offending, and they talk enthusiastically about making their positive contributions to building respectful and prosperous communities. Inspection report children’s home: 1264016 5 Staff are highly effective in helping young people to either reduce their missing episodes or to stop going missing completely. None of the young people in placement has gone

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

missing from the home, despite having histories of doing so frequently and for long periods of time. One young person explained the reasons behind the change: ‘The staff are so nice. I just stay with them and hang around them and other young people. It’s a great home and I don’t want to be anywhere else.’

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

The home’s atmosphere is calm and orderly, with staff providing clear, firm and fair boundaries. They support young people to find better and more constructive ways of expressing their feelings than engaging in aggressive, challenging and negative attention-seeking behaviours. The impact of such improved behaviours meant that, for those young people for whom it was appropriate, they were able to go back to live with their families.

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

The strength of the links with other professionals in the local area shows in the quality of the responses to the request for information regarding risks in the locality that the home has received. The excellent multi-professional input meant that the leaders and managers of the home were able to complete a locality risk assessment that is of exemplary quality.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

The leaders and managers are highly ambitious about the service. They aim to go beyond providing a safe place for young people to stay short-term at a time of crisis. Their vision is to provide highly effective interventions and to help young people to gain the skills that they need to improve their life chances and transform their lives.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

A culture of compassionate action and professional reflection that focuses on the outcomes for young people is embedded in the home. Leaders, managers and staff support and challenge each other, always asking the question: ‘What would you do if this was your child?’

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

Leaders, managers and staff make a great contribution to the care planning processes. They advocate exceptionally well for young people and provide insightful information towards assessments of their needs. Staff enable young people to engage in the care planning process more fully and to take more responsibility for their lives, while accepting the help available. Several social workers said that the home’s staff were instrumental in facilitating a better relationship between them and their young person.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

Through the home’s family mediation and rehabilitation programme, staff provide excellent support towards reunification of the family. In addition to the human value of this work, the service provides value for money by minimising the time that young people need to stay in care.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

There are many examples of how this home provides expert support and excellent value for the placing authority. One social worker said that if this home had been unable to provide a placement to a young person with highly complex and specialist needs, the Inspection report children’s home: 1264016 6 only other option would have been an expensive specialist placement abroad. The young person was doing very well in this home, with regular input from a clinical specialist.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

Managers and staff keep detailed records and quality assurance systems are highly developed. However, not all documents on children’s files are updated swiftly when new information comes to light.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

The staff team is strong, and the team spirit is high. With an excellent training programme and regular individual supervision, staff flourish in a culture of high expectations. Staff talk openly and comfortably about their personal feelings relating to work. Being transparent and bringing emotional awareness to the whole home’s environment facilitate authentic and positive relationships across the service.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

The registered provider provides exemplary leadership and shows genuine care in the way that the company is run.

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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: 1264016 7

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Children’s home details

Registered provider: Care 2 Share Limited

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: 46 The Ridgeway, North Harrow, Harrow HA2 7QN

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Children’s home details

Responsible individual: Mehnaaz Chaudhary

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Inspector

Seka Graovac, social care inspector Inspection report children’s home: 1264016 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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