Children's home run by Kent County Council in Maidstone

Inspection report children’s home: SC068511 1 SC068511 Registered provider: Kent County Council

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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 children’s home is a purpose-built local authority-run home. It offers a short- break service for up to six children who have learning and/or physical disabilities. It currently offers short breaks to 61 children.

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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 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 need help, protection and care.

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outstanding

Date of last inspection: 23 January 2018

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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: SC068511 2

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

23/01/2018 Full Outstanding 15/02/2017 Full Outstanding 14/09/2016 Interim Improved effectiveness 24/02/2016 Interim Sustained effectiveness Inspection report children’s home: SC068511 3

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Recommendations

 The registered person should ensure that staff can access appropriate facilities and resources to support their training needs, and should understand the key role they play in training and development of staff in the home. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 53, paragraph 10.11) Specifically, in relation to ensuring that all staff have attained the Level 3 Diploma for Residential Childcare (England) ("the Level 3 Diploma") by the relevant date. The relevant date is, in the case of an individual who was working in a care role in a home on 1 April 2014, 1 April 2016.  Ensure that staff are familiar with the home’s policies on record keeping and understand the importance of careful, objective, and clear recording. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 62, paragraph 14.4) Specifically in relation to clearly identifying who the shift leader

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: outstanding

Children staying at this home receive exceptional individualised care. Detailed assessment and care planning ensures that children’s needs are identified and regular reviews ensure that these needs are met. Collaborative, consistent parenting and clear routines support children to achieve individual targets. Communication and relationship building is a key strength of this home. The process of establishing secure relationships starts early through a carefully planned transition with introductions, fun play sessions and tea visits. Every important person surrounding the child is included in this process. An education worker said, ‘What is key, and they do so well, is sharing information, which helps us to understand how children are different in different environments.’ Children are set achievable targets and they make excellent progress relevant to their starting points. Targets are simple and, although progress can be slow, small

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: outstanding

achievements such as dressing themselves, or toileting independently, make significant differences to children and their families’ lives. A social worker said, ‘Their communication is brilliant, they hold regular reviews and we work well together towards targets.’ The detailed attention paid to each child’s needs during a short break is exceptional. After their stay, each child is individually discussed at the team meeting to ensure that all staff understand their needs. This ensures that children benefit from consistent care and established routines. One parent said, ‘No detail is too small for staff. It’s a relief to be able to leave and know our child is safe, happy and well looked after. The care is Inspection report children’s home: SC068511 4 outstanding, we receive full reports on every stay.’ Children’s views are listened to, recorded in care plans and acted on. For example, children are allocated their preferred bedroom when they come to stay and have their

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: outstanding

personalised picture and length of stay displayed on the door ready for when they arrive. Staff hold regular meetings with children to seek their views and to raise awareness of specific topics, such as teeth cleaning or worries. Staff use picture exchange systems and Makaton to communicate with non-verbal children during meetings. Various props are also used, such as the worry monster who eats worries, the worry hand which changes colour as it takes away anxiety, and a giant set of teeth to learn teeth hygiene and brushing. Children develop positive relationships with the staff team and their peers and broaden their experiences by attending this short-break service. The registered manager carefully matches children on their short breaks, considering a wide range of differing needs, to ensure that they gain the most benefit from their stay. Children coming for a short break have fantastic opportunities to use the resources at the purpose-built centre. Resources

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: outstanding

include a jacuzzi pool, a soft play room, a sensory room, a kitchen with height-adjustable worktops and many other arts, crafts, toys and relaxation areas. The unit is a fantastic resource for disabled children. In addition to short breaks, the wider community also benefits from ‘Fun Days’ which are run during the school holidays by the centre. This affords children more opportunities for outings, activities and interactions outside their usual network of family and friends. Regular outings from the centre during school holidays give children opportunities that they may never experience at home, such as going to the zoo, the seaside or the cinema. The centre is run with great efficiency by the registered manager and the staff team, making this a very special resource for the children and families who use it. One social worker said, ‘I think the service is amazing, it’s a precious service.’ Transitions are exceptionally well managed. One senior staff member maintains a

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: outstanding

tracking file to ensure clear communication and oversight of the whole admission service. There is a core plan for each admission; however, this is paced to suit the needs of each child and changed depending on how they respond to the process. The registered manager has worked hard to develop a smooth transition to adult services. In response to joint working and feedback, the placing authority’s 16 to 25 team has appointed a transitions co-ordinator who understands the process and resources and works closely with the centre to plan transitions.

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

High-quality care, communication, assessment and care planning keeps children safe during their short stays at the centre. High staffing levels in relation to children support close monitoring and excellent care, and give staff the ability to pre-empt, distract and divert unwanted behaviours without incident. Children’s risk assessments begin long before their admission for short breaks. Referral information supports staff to form risk assessments and care plans that identify and help staff to meet children’s needs. All aspects of children’s care are considered in the children’s care plans and individual risks are clearly noted and flagged up, for example Inspection report children’s home: SC068511 5 allergies, behaviours, challenges and obsessions. This helps staff to understand needs and to keep children and staff as safe as possible. Prior to admission, leaders and managers use a scoring system to rate children’s

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

dependency levels and identify risks. The dependency ratings help managers to understand presenting risks and make decisions about the correct level of staffing and support required on individual shifts. This process supports the planning and matching of children coming on short breaks. The overall dependency rating will determine the number of children that is safe to have at the centre at any one time. If a child has a very high dependency rating, then there will be less children or more staff on that shift. Many of the children receiving a short-breaks service are taking medication or have specific health needs. A practice educator offers staff specialist training on any health issues, such as emergency epilepsy treatment or specific peg or nasal feeding. Administration of medication is thorough and all the necessary steps are taken to ensure that safe practice, including consents, medical updates and clear and careful recording,

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

are in place. There are no incidents of children who have gone missing from the centre. The children attending the centre can be very vulnerable and most require constant supervision. A variety of measures are in place to ensure that the children are protected, such as high levels of supervision and key fob entry doors. This helps to ensure that children are kept safe. All restrictions of liberty are clearly assessed, consented to and written into children’s care plans. Behaviour in the home is well managed. Staff are highly skilled and well trained in understanding children’s needs and they use distraction and de-escalation techniques effectively. On occasions, staff have needed to restrain children for their own or others’ safety. Restraints are used as a last resort and are used appropriately, accurately recorded and reported in line with regulations. Clear structures and routines along with calm and predictable behaviours from staff all help to support positive behaviour.

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

The home has access to an excellent safeguarding policy via the host local authority. Safeguarding incidents are appropriately reported and staff are aware of processes and how to manage and report these. Careful recruitment of staff ensures that unsuitable people do not have access to work with children. Visitors to the site attend by appointment and are closely supervised if they need to come on to the site.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

The home benefits from excellent leadership and management with good oversight. Leaders and managers are passionate about the service that they provide for children attending the centre and want to provide the best possible service they can. Leaders and managers are ambitious for children and encourage staff and parents to be ambitious too, with accessible targets set to help support achievements. Leaders and managers are exceptionally child focused. They know all the children well and often spend time working on shifts to understand children’s complex needs, Inspection report children’s home: SC068511 6 behaviours and appropriate levels of care. Leaders and managers ensure that each child is discussed after their short break at the next team meeting. This discussion considers children’s progress, situations and challenges and then considers if changes are required to the individual care plan. Leaders and managers provide a supportive environment for staff to learn. They are also

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

determined to enhance and develop the services provided for children and families. Staff describe a high-quality induction, including opportunities to shadow more experienced staff members. Staff said that they felt they were given opportunities to build their confidence and ensure that they could provide the right quality of care before being asked to provide it themselves. Managers use appraisals to set targets for staff. Supervision is regular and is used to discuss individual children and issues affecting them. Staff have protected time for their learning and development. The centre closes for two weeks and the staff all train together as a group. This ensures that staff are up to date with everything that they need to know without the complication of trying to provide care at the same time. The team has an opportunity to meet and do team building activities during this time. Staff say that they feel supported, valued and respected. They are encouraged to provide the

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

best care that they can offer. Leaders and managers continually seek to improve the service that the centre provides. Leaders and managers want to learn and improve, and this ethos is reflected throughout the staff team and the whole service. Where there are areas for improvement, they have discussed these issues in team meetings and changed practice accordingly, such as fitting door alarms and increases in staffing when dependency ratings change. The home has a clear statement of purpose and it is operating within this to provide extremely high-quality care for children. Despite some real challenges over the past year, leaders and managers have consistently maintained an exceptional service. Professional working relationships are excellent. Links with the police, a local university, school links, outreach and other residential services for children and adults have all helped to improve the service. All these links have helped to improve outcomes for

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

children through better communication and supporting an understanding of children’s needs. The registered manager continuously seeks new partnerships to develop and improve services. Working relationships with parents are exceptional. Parents feel valued, supported and that staff do not judge them. They are carefully supported to build up trust and this allows them to have a break while their children experience new opportunities. Families are also welcome, being able to spend quality time with their other children while their sibling has a short break. The registered manager is a strong advocate for children. She sits on the placing authority’s funding panel and brings her extensive knowledge of children and families to this meeting. This enables her to support the correct level of care when needed and challenge the panel on behalf of children and families when required. Leaders and managers actively promote tolerance, equality and diversity. The home has

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

a multi-cultural calendar which gives a steer on celebratory days and learning about Inspection report children’s home: SC068511 7 different cultures and practices. Relevant days are celebrated depending on children’s needs. Children are enabled to succeed through the promotion of learning and the provision of necessary equipment to support them to become as independent as they can be. Two minor shortfalls were found during this inspection; however, neither has had any direct impact on children or the services that they receive. Firstly, one staff member has not completed the Level 3 Diploma for Residential Childcare (England) ("the Level 3 Diploma") by the relevant date, due to a change in educational provider. Secondly, the written record of the shift plan does not always clearly identify the shift leader.

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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’.

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Children’s home details

Inspection report children’s home: SC068511 8 Unique reference number: SC068511

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: Kent County Council, Sessions House, County Road, Maidstone, Kent ME14 1XQ

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Inspector

Christine Kennet, social care inspector Inspection report children’s home: SC068511 9 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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