Children's home run by Blue Mountain Homes Ltd in Ealing

Inspection report children’s home: SC414516 1 SC414516 Registered provider: Blue Mountain Homes Limited Full inspection Inspected under the social care common inspection framework

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Information about this children’s home

This home is privately owned and provides care and accommodation to four young people who have emotional, behavioural and social difficulties. The manager was registered with Ofsted for this home in June 2010. He is suitably qualified and experienced.

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Overall experiences and progress of

children and young people, taking into account

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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 good

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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 need help, protection and care.

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outstanding

Overall judgement at last inspection: outstanding

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outstanding

Enforcement action since last inspection: none Inspection report children’s home: SC414516 2

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

23/05/2017 Full Outstanding 05/01/2017 Interim Improved effectiveness 20/09/2016 Full Good 08/03/2016 Interim Declined in effectiveness Inspection report children’s home: SC414516 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 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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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: outstanding

Young people benefit from and enjoy nurturing relationships with staff. One young person said, ‘It is great here. I have made so much progress and don’t know where I would be without them.’ Staff are patient and persevere with young people through some difficult times. This leads to strong bonds between young people and staff. As a result, young people become very settled and develop healthy relationships with those caring for them.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: outstanding

Managers and staff maximise young people’s educational potential. Managers have worked with education professionals to develop a bespoke on-site school for young people. Care and education staff work to an integrated model. This means that young people receive the educational support that they need, combined with care. Care and education staff work efficiently and effectively to jointly agreed aims and objectives. Consequently, young people have made excellent progress.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: outstanding

Young people have expanded their knowledge and skills. Managers and staff have developed a very good outdoor pursuits programme. Young people now enjoy learning skills in camping, bushcraft, walking and orienteering. These skills are linked to an accredited award scheme, enabling these new skills to be formally recognised. Young people learn about teamwork and persevering, even when the going gets tough. This develops their confidence, self-esteem and sense of achievement in what they can accomplish. Inspection report children’s home: SC414516 4 Relationships between young people and their families are valued by staff. Staff have developed good relationships with young people’s family members. This helps to ensure that family meetings are both enjoyable and safe. Additionally, because staff have good relationships with families, they can predict potential problems. This enables staff to act quickly, avoiding any disappointment for young people. One young person described the

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: outstanding

staff as being ‘brilliant’. Young people say that the staff are there for them emotionally.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: outstanding

Staff understand that the transition from care to independent living is daunting and represents a major life change for young people. To help this transition, a highly effective independent living programme is individually tailored to young people’s needs. This programme is started early with young people and is kept under constant review. The programme changes and adapts to keep pace with the changing needs of the young person as they develop their skills. This work provides young people with the best possible prospect of stepping into adulthood successfully.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: outstanding

Young people are valued for their individuality. Young people are encouraged to express themselves through what they wear, their friendships, likes and dislikes. This leads to young people receiving positive affirmation from staff, further reinforcing the already very positive relationships.

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

Managers and staff have made considerable progress in reducing risk to young people. This is a real strength in the home. Concerns over young people going missing from care, potential exploitation and involvement with drugs and gangs have subsided. Staff have achieved this by having a detailed understanding of the risks that young people face. Staff take effective action in line with risk and behaviour management plans. This is a very effective safeguarding practice and makes young people safer.

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

The behaviour of young people continues to improve and there has been a marked reduction of incidents of poor behaviour. This is helped greatly by the strength of relationships between the young people and staff. Young people have very positive role models in the staff team, who spend time with them, listen to them and want to help them. This has led to:

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

 a reduction in the frequency of missing from care episodes  incidents of violence requiring physical intervention decreasing in number and intensity  very little damage being caused in the home  young people apologising and showing remorse if they have behaved inappropriately, signifying a real step change in young people’s behaviour.

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

Staff complete very detailed individual work with young people if there has been any negative behaviour. Staff provide emotional support to the young person and also try to ascertain the triggers for poor and disruptive behaviour. These sessions are of high quality and enable the managers and staff to analyse such incidents to learn valuable Inspection report children’s home: SC414516 5 lessons.

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

The manager ensures that safe recruitment practices are effective. This minimises the risk to young people from those in positions of trust. The manager undertakes a comprehensive range of checks on prospective new employees. New employees will not be able to work with young people until the manager is completely satisfied about their background and that their intentions are good.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The registered manager and deputy manager maintain consistently high aspirations for young people. Managers are experienced and retain a confidence in the staff team to deliver a very high standard of care. Young people are happy, settled and make progress.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The manager understands that monitoring the quality of care is crucial to an effective service. So, in addition to receiving very good monthly independent visitor reports, the manager completes his own quality of care reviews on a three-monthly basis. The manager analyses patterns and trends in care and seeks the views of young people, staff and other professionals. This helps the manager to respond effectively to any emerging concerns. He is proactive, and this leads to a well-run and settled home.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Staff have very high morale. They enjoy their work and gain a sense of pride and achievement in the progress that young people make. Staff have said that their views are important and matter. They have a tangible input into how the home is run. As a result, staff turnover is very low. There is no reliance on agency or relief staff. If required, staff will work additional hours to ensure that young people receive continuity of care from staff they know.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Staff training and development are very important to the manager. Most staff have now completed the level 3 qualification in social care. Those on the programme will complete within the expected timeframe. Additionally, staff undertake a wide range of training that reflects the needs of the young people they care for.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The manager and staff work very well with partner agencies. This means that young people have services in place to help them move forward with their lives. The manager and staff maintain good and effective communication with these agencies to coordinate their efforts to help young people.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The manager has not ensured that staff carry out regular checks of young people’s rooms. Subsequently, young people have obtained games and DVDs which are not appropriate for their ages. This is a shortfall as these materials may be harmful to young people’s emotional well-being and negatively impact on their behaviour. Inspection report children’s home: SC414516 6

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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: SC414516 7

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Children’s home details

Registered provider: Blue Mountain Homes Limited

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: 17 Leeland Mansions, Leeland Road, West Ealing, London W13 9HE

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Children’s home details

Responsible individual: Pradeep Manaktala

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Inspector:

Phillip Morris: social care regulatory inspector Inspection report children’s home: SC414516 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:

T: 0300 123 1231 Textphone: 0161 618 8524 E: enquiries@ofsted.gov.uk W: http://www.gov.uk/ofsted

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