Majestic Family Services - The Laurels

Inspection report for residential family centre: Majestic Family Services - The Laurels 1 Majestic Family Services - The Laurels Majestic Family Services Limited 16 Freemans Road, Minster, Ramsgate, Kent CT12 4EL Inspected under the social care common inspection framework

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Information about this residential family centre

Majestic Family Services supported residential accommodation in which children can live with their families while parents’ parenting skills are assessed and developed. The centre can accommodate up to five families. The centre offers a service to parents and children of all ages who are referred from the courts and local authorities. The registered manager has been in post since 13 November 2011.

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Overall experiences and progress of

children and parents, taking into account outstanding

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Overall experiences and progress of

How well children and parents are helped and protected good

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Overall experiences and progress of

The effectiveness of leaders and managers good

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Overall experiences and progress of

The residential family centre provides highly effective services that consistently exceed the standards of good. The actions of the residential family centre contribute to significantly improved outcomes and positive experiences for children and parents.

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Overall experiences and progress of

Date of previous inspection: 29 March 2016

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Overall experiences and progress of

Overall judgement at last inspection: good

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Overall experiences and progress of

Enforcement action since last inspection: none Inspection report for residential family centre: Majestic Family Services - The Laurels 2

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Key findings from this inspection

This residential family centre is outstanding because:

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Key findings from this inspection

 Thorough and individual assessment programmes focus on the needs of the child while sensitively taking account of parents’ needs.  Final reports are well written and helpfully support decisions about whether a child should remain with their parents.  Staff work effectively and conscientiously as a team to provide a range of appropriate services.  Parents build good relationships with the staff.  Staff understand how to safeguard both children and parents well.

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Key findings from this inspection

The residential family centre’s areas for development:

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Key findings from this inspection

 Risk assessments are not all recorded well.  Information prepared for families prior to coming to the centre is very detailed but is not as appealing as possible.  The monthly visits that the provider undertakes do not review the balance between privacy and surveillance sufficiently well. Inspection report for residential family centre: Majestic Family Services - The Laurels 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, Residential Family Centre Regulations 2002 and the national minimum standards. The registered person(s) must comply within the given timescales.

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Requirement Due date

The registered person shall ensure that the residential family centre is conducted so as to— (a) promote and make proper provision for the health and welfare of residents. (Regulation 10 (a))

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Requirement Due date

In particular, the registered person must ensure that all risk assessments are amended promptly after an incident. The registered person must also ensure that staff always have detailed guidance on how they should minimise and respond to risks for a child or adult. 31/03/2019

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Recommendations

 The registered person prepares a resident’s guide which includes a summary of the statement of purpose, and provides a copy for every parent and child (of appropriate age) resident in the centre and for prospective residents. (NMS 8.6) In particular, the registered person should review whether every part of the resident’s guide is written in plain, simple language and make the necessary amendments. The registered person should also ensure that the guide supplies all the necessary information about the surveillance systems in place at the centre.  Visits of the centre carried out under Regulation 25 include checks of any disciplinary measures and use of restraint and records of missing person’s reports. They also include an assessment of the balance of privacy and supervision of families at the centre. (NMS 19.5) Inspection report for residential family centre: Majestic Family Services - The Laurels 4

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Overall experiences and progress of children and parents: outstanding

Assessments are conducted extremely well. The balance between assessment, support and guidance is thoughtful and reflective. Assessments change to consider the current parenting issues and parents progress quickly and responsively. One parent said in feedback to the centre: ‘Everyone works as a team. I could not ask for more support from [name of centre]. They have made me more confident.’

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Overall experiences and progress of children and parents: outstanding

The final reports which commissioners receive are detailed and written well. Points made are supported by clear evidence. The report brings together well the story of a family’s time at the centre, the journey that parents have been on and the progress that they make. The reports clearly outline the centre’s recommendations about whether a child should remain in their parents’ care. The reports also outline any aftercare that members of the family might need once they leave the centre.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and parents: outstanding

The staff consistently concentrate on what is in a child’s best interests and they work hard to help parents to develop a similar focus. The staff are clear about what skills and attitudes parents must demonstrate to show that they have ‘good enough’ parenting skills.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and parents: outstanding

The staff take every opportunity to let parents know what is going well and what could improve. They successfully use theory to support their understanding of how change occurs. Managers have a good understanding of the barriers to good assessment practice and work hard to prevent these from occurring. For example, when a parent became overwhelmed by receiving feedback twice a day, the staff reduced this to once a day.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and parents: outstanding

Relationships between families and staff are very good. Even when assessments are indicating that the child will not remain with their parents, parents generally remain positive about the staff team and how they interact with them.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and parents: outstanding

Parents views are respected and valued. House meetings are regular and provide good opportunities for parents to discuss and resolve any problems. Three parents were very positive about how the staff listen to their views and take these into account.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and parents: outstanding

All parents could identify staff who they would speak to about concerns. They were especially positive about the organisation’s social workers and their individual key workers, who they considered to be extremely approachable. Parents were also positive about the ways in which staff keep information about them confidential. A parent said that here ‘the staff respect you, take time to find out about you and are very welcoming’. This was not her experience previously. Such action supports parents to have trust that the assessment is fair and balanced. Inspection report for residential family centre: Majestic Family Services - The Laurels 5 Careful matching of families promotes community cohesion at the centre. The staff quickly identify anything that may impede good relationships between families and act to rectify these. As a result, relationships between families are generally positive and few incidents occur between them.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and parents: outstanding

Information available for parents before they move in is very detailed. However, the material is not inviting and uses terminology which staff would not use in general conversation with parents. Some information about how surveillance systems monitor parents is lacking. This is a missed opportunity to ensure that this is a positive document and that it provides parents with all the necessary information.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and parents: outstanding

Staff thoughtfully support families when they move out. Regardless of their findings, they show compassion and respect for parents and children. They create photo albums of important milestones, which parents can keep. This enables the family to have as positive an ending as possible to their time at the centre.

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How well children and parents are helped and protected: good

Safety is a primary concern for all staff, whose forethought and appropriate practice result in few safeguarding incidents occurring. The staff’s knowledge is continually updated and reviewed to ensure that this remains fresh and that they can manage difficult situations well.

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How well children and parents are helped and protected: good

Initial risk assessments are thorough and clear. The risk assessments which follow are not as well written. These are not reviewed and changed when necessary. However, discussions with staff demonstrate that they consistently use risk assessment in everyday practice. However, this means that accurate guidance for staff on how to manage risks is not always available. Nevertheless, incident records are recorded well and included appropriately in the staff’s regular reviews of a parent’s progress.

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How well children and parents are helped and protected: good

No major incidents occur. Staff manage to defuse situations well and reflect on how their own practice can create tensions. For example, staff recently gave parents inconsistent guidance on basic childcare practice, such as changing nappies. Managers increased staff guidance to ensure that this was rectified quickly.

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How well children and parents are helped and protected: good

Fire safety is taken seriously. When parents did not engage in fire drills, the staff asked them to undertake fire training. This, parents confirmed, increased their awareness and reduced the likelihood that they would not take part in future drills. During the inspection, a fire door was propped open. Immediate action was taken to prevent this occurring and plans were put in place to add a more appropriate self- closing door retainer.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The registered manager is a passionate, knowledgeable professional who has a good Inspection report for residential family centre: Majestic Family Services - The Laurels 6 overview of what she wants to achieve. She constantly looks for ways to improve the services. For example, she has made improvements to the centre’s recording systems and developed a range of support, such as helping parents to learn baby massage. The increase in the numbers of families which the centre can accommodate has been managed well. It has not affected the quality of provision provided.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The home’s statement of purpose is well written and provides a good description of the ethos and theoretical basis of the service. The monitoring systems meet requirements but do not ambitiously evaluate and analyse the quality of the services. For example, the monthly monitoring visits do not clearly monitor the balance of privacy and surveillance and do not interrogate issues in any depth to support improvement.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The range of staff and their diverse abilities provide focused complementary support that works well around the family. The staff collaboratively interrogate and assess what is best for a child, looking at all the concerns from the perspective of a variety of disciplines such as early years, social work and health. The staff work hard to identify and consider whether they have any biases which may affect their assessments, support and guidance to families.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Training prepares the staff well for their individual roles. The staff are also very positive about the support that they receive. They say that both training and support help them to develop reflective practice and to extend their skills.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Staffing levels and deployment are very effective. Each family has an individual worker allocated to them throughout the day. The staffing levels support parents to have some autonomy about how they manage their days. This assists staff in seeing the natural parenting patterns that parents have, enables staff to provide advice and information quickly to parents and provides a detailed account of each day to add as evidence to the assessment.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Links with outside agencies are promoted and maintained well. This provides parents and staff with a range of professional advice and support, which assists the aims of the service. Inspection report for residential family centre: Majestic Family Services - The Laurels 7

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Information about this inspection

Inspectors have looked closely at the experiences and progress of children and parents. Inspectors considered the quality of work and the differences made to the lives of children and parents. They watched how professional staff work with children and parents and each other and discussed the effectiveness of help and care provided. Wherever possible, they talked to children and parents. In addition, the inspectors have tried to understand what the residential family centre knows about how well it is performing, how well it is doing and what difference it is making for the children and parents 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 Residential Family Centre Regulations 2002 and the national minimum standards. Inspection report for residential family centre: Majestic Family Services - The Laurels 8

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Residential family centre details

Registered provider: Majestic Family Services Limited

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Residential family centre details

Registered provider address: 424 Margate Road, Westwood, Ramsgate, Kent CT12 6SJ

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Inspectors

Ruth Coler: social care inspector Sophie Wood: social care regulatory manager Inspection report for residential family centre: Majestic Family Services - The Laurels 9 to 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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Inspectors

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Inspectors

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Inspectors

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