Children's home run by Action for Children in Watford

Inspection report children’s home: SC020675 1 SC020675 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 is registered to provide long-term care and shared care (of over 75 nights) for four young people. The home provides care for young people with learning and/or multiple disabilities.

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Information about this children’s home

Since the last inspection, the home has closed and re-opened with a revised remit and a new staff team and registered manager.

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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

Overall judgement at last inspection: not judged

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requires improvement to be good

Enforcement action since last inspection: none Inspection report children’s home: SC020675 2

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

07/03/2018 Interim Not judged 19/12/2017 Full Good 23/03/2017 Interim Improved effectiveness 30/11/2016 Full Requires improvement Inspection report children’s home: SC020675 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 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; have the skills to identify and act upon signs that a child is at risk of harm; manage relationships between children to prevent them from harming each other. (Regulation 12 (1)(2)(a)(i)(iii)(iv)) 31/01/2019

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Recommendations

 For children’s homes to be nurturing and supportive environments that meet the needs of their children, they will, in most cases, be homely, domestic environments. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards,’ page 15, paragraph 3.9)  Staff should understand the system for rewarding and celebrating positive behaviour and recognising where children have managed situations well. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 47, paragraph 9.39)  Keep all children’s case records up to date. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 62, paragraph 14.3)  The registered person must ensure that staff have the relevant skills and knowledge to be able to: respond to the health needs of children; administer basic first aid and minor illness treatment. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 32, paragraph 7.14)

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Recommendations

Inspection report children’s home: SC020675 4

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improvement to be good

Staff have developed secure and trusting relationships with the young people and relate to them with warmth and affection.

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improvement to be good

Staff support young people to have regular contact with their family, friends and other people who are important to them. Staff understand the importance of these relationships and they work hard with parents to make contact a success. One parent was very complimentary about the quality of care and said that staff had worked with her to sort out difficulties.

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improvement to be good

Staff do not always communicate well with schools and social workers about young people’s care plans. For example, staff do not always consult or follow up on the outcomes of crucial meetings relating to young people’s education. This is particularly important when young people are in a new school or have had time away from formal education. This means that staff are missing a valuable opportunity to fully support young people with their learning.

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improvement to be good

Staff are aware of the emotional as well as the physical impact on young people when they need to undergo medical procedures. They support young people by staying with them when they are in hospital. They give important information to hospital staff to make sure that they fully understand young people’s needs. Therefore, young people feel emotionally safe at a time when they are particularly vulnerable.

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improvement to be good

One young person has unpredictable behaviour. This unpredictability has resulted in an incident occurring where he physically assaulted another young person. This incident put one young person with limited mobility at significant risk of harm. Although the staff acted quickly to respond to the incident, measures subsequently put in place mean that staff now separate the two young people when they are in the home together. This has compromised the young people’s ability to experience and enjoy a homely atmosphere.

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improvement to be good

Staff do not always read or understand young people’s risk assessments before working with them. This is a concern, especially as staff are caring for young people who have complex behaviours and high levels of need.

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improvement to be good

Although young people have risk assessments in place to address their vulnerabilities, it is not always clear that staff are referring to the most up-to-date risk assessment in respect of some activities. Young people do not have risk assessments that address the risk of harm related to going missing from care. As a result, staff are not clear about the level of risk or how to prevent young people from going missing. Inspection report children’s home: SC020675 5 Staff try to be consistent when managing young people’s behaviour by implementing firm boundaries and offering verbal praise. They liaise with the young people’s school to make sure that they use the same words when talking with young people about their behaviour. However, staff do not reward behaviour in a way that helps young people to develop their social skills. Staff are therefore missing an opportunity to promote kind and caring behaviour with young people and to be clear that unkind behaviour and bullying is

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improvement to be good

Staff make sure that medication is safely and securely stored, and processes around administering medication are safe.

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

Leaders and managers have not always made child-centred decisions concerning young people coming to live at the home. They have not considered young people’s past behaviours and the impact this may have on other young people. This poor matching has put young people at risk and threatened the security and stability of the young people’s placements.

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

The registered manager has worked hard to develop the staff team in the short time that the home has been open. Staff have appreciated the opportunity to have induction training together and they said that this has helped them to work together to meet the young people’s needs. Staff benefit from regular supervision and team meetings. An induction training package is in place and the registered manager monitors the completion of this by staff. However, some staff have not completed mandatory first aid training. Therefore, not all staff can meet young people’s care needs and keep them safe.

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

Leaders and staff work proactively and positively with agencies. They build effective working relationships with parents, social workers and other professionals. A therapist working with one young person said that multi-disciplinary working is excellent.

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

One young person was encouraged by staff to choose the name of the home when it re- opened.

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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. Inspection report children’s home: SC020675 6 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

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Information about this inspection

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: SC020675 7

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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

Karen Gillingwater, social care inspector Inspection report children’s home: SC020675 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 looked after children, safeguarding and child protection.

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Inspector

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Inspector

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Inspector

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