Children's home run by CareTech Community Services Limited in Hertsmere

Inspection report children’s home: SC376211 1 SC376211 Registered provider: CareTech Community Services Limited

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Inspected under the social care common inspection framework

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Information about this children’s home

The home is registered to provide care and accommodation for six children who have learning disabilities. The home forms part of a large social care company.

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Information about this children’s home

The home has an experienced and qualified registered manager.

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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 good

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good

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

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good

Date of last inspection: 15 February 2018

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good

Overall judgement at last inspection: outstanding

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good

Enforcement action since last inspection: none Inspection report children’s home: SC376211 2

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

15/02/2018 Full Outstanding 28/02/2017 Interim Sustained effectiveness 12/10/2016 Full Good 15/03/2016 Interim Sustained effectiveness Inspection report children’s home: SC376211 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

In meeting the quality standards, the registered person must, and must ensure that staff—

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Requirement Due date

seek to involve each child’s placing authority effectively in the child’s care, in accordance with the child’s relevant plans. (Regulation 5 (a))

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Requirement Due date

In particular, the registered provider must escalate concerns to ensure that they obtain copies of local authority care plans, looked after children review minutes and education, health and care plans. 01/03/2019

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Requirement Due date

The quality and purpose of care standard is that children receive care from staff. 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)(2)(c)(i)(ii)) 01/03/2019

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Requirement Due date

Schedule 4 sets out the other information that the registered person must keep in relation to a children’s home. The registered person must—

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Requirement Due date

ensure that the records are kept up to date. (Regulation 37 (1)(2)(b))

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Requirement Due date

This is in relation to the children’s register. 01/03/2019 Inspection report children’s home: SC376211 4

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Recommendations

 It is good practice for a note of the content and/or outcomes of supervision sessions to be kept and to ensure that both the person giving the supervision and staff member have a copy of the record. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 61, paragraph 13.4)

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff provide good individualised care to young people. The registered manager and staff know the young people well and understand each of the young people’s varying needs. Staff use different communication methods to help young people communicate, such as Makaton, picture exchange communication and objects of reference. This is effective and reduces young people’s frustrations as they are understood by staff and can communicate their needs.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Young people move into the home and settle quickly and remain settled, with no placements breaking down. Transitions are planned and generally happen when young people reach adulthood. Young people are supported by a stable staff team, with many of the staff working at the home for several years. This provides stability for young people and promotes positive relationships.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Young people make good progress that is proportional to their ability. Staff understand young people’s abilities and positively challenge them to achieve all they can. Staff continually support young people’s independence skills and encourage them to prepare meals, use their cutlery and become more independent in self-care skills. The staff have a good balance of providing care to the young people while not doing everything for them.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff enjoy their job roles and spoke positively about seeing the progression young people make while living in the home. Parents appreciate the support and care that staff provide to their children and feel confident that their children are well cared for and are kept safe. Staff have built positive relationships with parents and keep them continually informed about their children. One parent shared that the support from the staff team has been life-changing for her and her family and has had a positive impact on her son, who now receives consistent care since living at the home.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Young people enjoy a range of activities. Staff support young people to engage with the wider community, ensuring that the young people’s needs and disabilities are not a barrier. Staff take photos to capture the positive memories made.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Overall, young people engage in education and have good attendance. Staff Inspection report children’s home: SC376211 5 communicate well with school staff. When needed, they support young people in school until they feel settled and confident.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

The home environment is comfortable and has lots of equipment and toys to keep the young people entertained. Each young person’s room is personalised to their individual taste and needs. However, the house decor is dated, and carpeted areas are stained and thin. Maintenance repair jobs are of poor quality, with a lack of attention to detail. Some doors and cupboards in the house are locked: while this may be necessary, these risks are not assessed or regularly reviewed.

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

Staff continually support and supervise young people in the home and community. This is necessary to keep young people safe because of their vulnerability and lack of safety awareness. Through these means, staff keep young people safe. Safeguarding incidents rarely happen and children do not go missing.

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

Staff are skilled at using behaviour management strategies to distract young people from engaging in unsafe behaviours. Because of this, physical restraint of young people is infrequent. Staff use other strategies to keep young people safe and quickly defuse situations using redirection and distraction.

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

Staff have a good understanding of the young people’s needs. Risk assessment and behaviour management plans support staff in reducing risks and promoting positive behaviour for young people.

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

Training identified for staff is specific to the young people they care for. This improves knowledge and ensures that staff can act quickly in a medical emergency because of the training they have received in regard to each young person’s condition and/or diagnosis.

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

Staff use key-work sessions where appropriate to help young people become more aware of keeping safe and prepare them for adulthood. Staff understand the risks for young people and have good safeguarding knowledge.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The registered manager is well established in her role. She is supported by an equally dedicated deputy manager. Both are skilled and experienced in promoting positive outcomes for young people in the home.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The staff team is supported well by the management team. Its members receive regular supervision, which staff report is beneficial to them and their practice. Supervision notes are written up and available to staff. However, best practice would be for staff to have their own copy to refer to.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Managers and staff have excellent communication with professionals and parents. Inspection report children’s home: SC376211 6 Everyone the inspector spoke to was positive about the communication they receive about the young people. This ensures that collaborative working is effective and reduces anxieties for parents and carers when they are not with their children.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Training for staff is good. Additionally, staff read further literature to support their knowledge and skills to provide tailored care to the young people.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Managers attend all meetings relevant to the young people. When paperwork and minutes are not received from the local authority, the registered manager requests that these are provided. However, the registered manager does not escalate her concerns over missing paperwork quickly enough, which can cause drift and delay for young people.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The registered manager keeps the children’s register up to date; however the document for storing this information is not long-lasting and causes some information to become loose and lost. This information is important as it captures a child’s or young person’s time in care and is a document that is legally required to be kept.

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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: SC376211 7

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Children’s home details

Registered provider: CareTech Community Services Limited

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: 5th Floor Metropolitan House, 3 Darkes Lane, Potters Bar, Hertfordshire EN6 1AG

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Inspector

Lisa O’Donovan, social care inspector Inspection report children’s home: SC376211 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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