Children's Home, Residential special school run by The Partnership of The Chartwell Group in Cambridgeshire

Inspection report children’s home: SC015264 1 SC015264 Registered provider: The Chartwell Group of Companies Limited

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Full inspection Inspected under the social care common inspection framework

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Information about this children’s home

This privately owned home provides accommodation and education in a small group setting for up to five children who have emotional and/or behavioural and/or learning difficulties. The home specialises in offering long-term placements to boys. The on-site school is registered with the Department for Education.

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Information about this children’s home

The manager has been registered with Ofsted since September 2016

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Information about this children’s home

Inspection dates: 18 to 19 December 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

Overall judgement at last inspection: good

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good

Enforcement action since last inspection: none Inspection report children’s home: SC015264 2

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

31/05/2017 Full Good 23/03/2017 Interim Sustained effectiveness 19/12/2016 Full Good 08/03/2016 Interim Improved effectiveness Inspection report children’s home: SC015264 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 ─ that staff ─

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Requirement Due date

assess whether each child is at risk of harm, taking into account information in the child’s relevant plans, and, if necessary, make arrangements to reduce the risk of any harm to the child. (Regulation 12 (1)(2)(a)(i))

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Requirement Due date

In particular, ensure that risk assessments are updated, the content is shared with the staff and risk-reduction measures are acted on. 31/01/2019

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must ensure that all employees ─

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Requirement Due date

receive practice-related supervision by a person with appropriate experience. (Regulation 33 (4)(a)(b)) 31/01/2019

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must ensure that a record is made of any complaint, the action taken in response, and the outcome of any investigation. (Regulation 39 (3))

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Requirement Due date

In particular, ensure that all complaints made by children are followed up comprehensively. 31/01/2019

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Recommendations

 The children’s guide should help children to understand the day-to-day routines of the home, and what care they can expect to receive while living at the home. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 24, paragraph 4.22)

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Recommendations

In particular, provide contact telephone numbers of adults whom children can contact if they do not wish to speak to staff at the home about their concerns. Inspection report children’s home: SC015264 4  Any allegation of harm or abuse must be addressed in line with the home’s child protection policy. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 44, paragraph 9.17) In particular, ensure that records clearly evidence all action taken in response to the allegation.  The registered person should ensure that staff can access appropriate facilities and resources to support their training needs and should understand the key role that they play in the training and development of staff at the home. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 53, paragraph 10.11) In particular, provide staff with training in understanding and managing issues

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Recommendations

relating to county lines and gang culture.  The review of the appropriateness and suitably of the location and the premises of the home should include the identification of any risks and opportunities presented by the home’s location and strategies for managing these. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 64, paragraph 15.1)

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children have made good progress socially, emotionally and educationally. The staff work well with external professionals to achieve this. Children have built strong trusting relationships with a consistent and motivated staff team that knows and understands the children’s individual needs.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children’s education attendance is high. Staff proactively support children to attend school. Communication between the staff and the children’s school staff is excellent. Children spoken to during the inspection were able to recognise their educational achievements since moving to the home.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff understand the importance of children developing friendships outside the home. One child has regular play dates with a child from school. Children have opportunities to build relationships with their friends.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Individual placement plans support the staff in working with the children effectively. Children are supported to comment throughout their plans and they review their plans regularly with the staff. Children understand their plans and contribute to the care- planning process.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

There is a grumbles book in place. However, this is not frequently reviewed and there is no evidence that staff act on children’s comments. Children have written complaints forms, but these have not been dealt with effectively. Children have not had the opportunity to comment on the outcome of a complaint, and there is no evidence that Inspection report children’s home: SC015264 5 the children are aware of how their complaint was dealt with.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

A children’s guide is in place. However, it lacks some information, such as the contact details of other agencies that children can contact if they do not wish to speak to staff.

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improvement to be good

Children spoken to during the inspection said that they feel safe living at the home because there are always staff whom they can speak to. Lovely interactions were seen between the children and staff.

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improvement to be good

Staff have a good understanding of how to keep children safe and the importance of teaching children how to keep themselves safe. A social worker said that this was an important part of their managing a child’s independence.

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improvement to be good

Staff challenge unwanted behaviours. Staff were observed during the inspection supporting children to make the right choices to avoid confrontations. Children were able to listen to and act on staff advice. This meant that potential conflict was avoided.

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improvement to be good

Staff record any concerns about the children. However, in the case of one child, there was no evidence that the social worker had been informed of a concern.

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improvement to be good

Risk assessments guide staff to safeguard the children. Children are involved in reviewing these assessments with staff. This helps the children to understand their individual risks and how to reduce them. However, after a safeguarding incident, the children’s risk assessments were not updated to reflect the concern.

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improvement to be good

The staff have undertaken training in safeguarding and the ‘Prevent’ duty. However, the staff lack knowledge of issues relating to gangs and county lines. This lack of knowledge means that they may not be able to recognise the risks related to these issues.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The manager is in the process of training an experienced member of staff who has worked in the home for several years to take over the manager’s role in the new year. Both have a clear vision of how they want the home to develop.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The staff understand the importance of listening to children’s wishes and feelings. These are gained through link-work sessions, house meetings and reviewing of placement plans.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Most staff receive regular supervision to support them in working with the children. However, a new member of staff has only received one supervision since starting in September 2018. This is not in line with the home’s supervision policy and does not support new staff to understand the expectations of them. There is clear evidence that the manager confidently raises issues with external Inspection report children’s home: SC015264 6 professionals if he feels that actions or proposed actions are not in the best interest of the child.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The manager has not sought information from external agencies to inform the location risk assessment and has not included risks to children if they go missing from the home. Some risks have been identified, but the assessment does not say how these can be reduced. Not all risks have been identified in the local area.

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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: SC015264 7

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Children’s home details

Registered provider: The Chartwell Group of Companies Limited

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Children’s home details

Responsible individual: Christopher Wright

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Children’s home details

Registered manager: Richard Ogle-Welbourn

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Inspector

Trish Palmer: social care inspector Inspection report children’s home: SC015264 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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