Children's home run by My Choice Children’s Homes Limited in Mid Sussex

Inspection report children‟s home: SC064011 1 SC064011 Registered provider: My Choice Children‟s Homes Ltd

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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 staff at this home provide care for up to four children whose support needs are primarily in relation to their emotions and behaviours. There is an on-site school which children may attend, and the provider has links with a range of therapeutic services that can be made available to children depending on their needs.

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Information about this children’s home

The manager was registered with Ofsted on 19 April 2012.

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Information about this children’s home

Inspection dates: 20 to 21 February 2019

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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

Overall judgement at last inspection: good

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good

Enforcement action since last inspection: none Inspection report children‟s home: SC064011 2

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

17/05/2017 Full Good 27/01/2017 Interim Declined in effectiveness 11/10/2016 Full Good 22/01/2016 Interim Sustained effectiveness Inspection report children‟s home: SC064011 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 registered person must recruit staff using recruitment procedures that are designed to ensure children‟s safety. The registered person may only— (a) employ an individual to work at the children‟s home; or (b) if an individual is employed by a person other than the registered person to work at the home in a position in which the individual may have regular contact with children, allow that individual to work at the home, if the individual satisfies the requirements in paragraph (3). (4) For the purposes of paragraph (3)(b), an individual who works in the home in a care role has the appropriate qualification if, by the relevant date, the individual has attained— (a) the Level 3 Diploma for Residential Childcare (England) (“the Level 3 Diploma”); or (b) a qualification which the registered person considers to be equivalent to the Level 3 Diploma. (5) The relevant date is— (a) in the case of an individual who starts working in a care role

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Requirement Due date

in a home after 1st April 2014, the date which falls 2 years after the date on which the individual started working in a care role in a home; or (b) in the case of an individual who was working in a care role in a home on 1st April 2014, 1st April 2016. (Regulation 32(4)(a)(b)(5)(a)(b))

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Requirement Due date

In particular, the registered person must ensure that there are clear plans to ensure that staff will meet the relevant timescales for completing their Level 3 Diploma. If an extension is necessary, plans must clearly record, why the plan has been extended, how the registered person will ensure that the member of staff completes the qualification in the shortest time possible and how the registered person will monitor completion timescales. 31/03/2019 Inspection report children‟s home: SC064011 4

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Recommendations

 Regulation 19(2) details sanctions that are prohibited in behaviour management. Any sanctions used to address poor behaviour should be restorative in nature, to help children recognise the impact of their behaviour on themselves, other children, the staff caring for them and the wider community. In some cases it will be important for children to make reparation in some form to anyone hurt by their behaviour and the staff in the home should be skilled to support the child to understand this and carry it out. („Guide to the children‟s homes regulations including the quality standards‟, pages 46-47, paragraph 9.38)

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Recommendations

In particular, the registered person should ensure that any behaviour management strategy does not constitute a sanction.  Regulation 11(2) sets out the expectations on staff in building a positive relationship with each child and helping the child develop skills to have positive relationships with others. „Others‟ includes individuals both inside and outside the home such as other children in the home, staff, family members, siblings, previous carers and friends (in accordance with their relevant plans). The care planning standard (see page 55) provides further detail in respect of contact with parents, relatives and friends. („Guide to the children‟s homes regulations including the quality standards‟, page 89, paragraph 8.6)

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Recommendations

In particular, the registered person should ensure that all staff have a good understanding of the usual child development milestones for a child who lives at the home.  The registered person should ensure that all incidents of control, discipline and restraint are subject to systems of regular scrutiny to ensure that their use is fair and the above principles as set out in 9.35 are respected. („Guide to the children‟s homes regulations including the quality standards‟, page 46, paragraph 9.36)

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Recommendations

In particular, the registered person should ensure that risk assessments are quickly reviewed following an incident and where necessary amendments made.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff develop meaningful and warm relationships with children which support them to make good progress. Three children, when asked by the inspector, gave the home eight or nine out of 10. Two young people said that they gave their scores because of how the staff are with them. Usually, children remain living here until they move to independent living. In the last three years, children have lived here for an average of two years and three months.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Care is individual and takes account of a child‟s needs and circumstances. Staff carefully prepare for a new child to move in. This has resulted in one child settling quickly and Inspection report children‟s home: SC064011 5 being accepted well by other children. Their interests are supported and encouraged. For example, regular meetings are held, and children‟s views are sought and respected.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children‟s health and well-being improve because of living here. Children develop healthier eating patterns and they are supported by appropriate health professionals, such as child and adolescent mental health services. One child has quickly stopped using a sleep medication. One social worker said, „When [name of child] moved into the home the staff immediately sorted out his health checks. I had to do nothing, it was all done for me.‟

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children‟s educational achievement is promoted well. There is a school on-site, but not all of the children attend it. Their individual needs are considered and met. Staff have good knowledge about how well children are doing at school and how they can support them to achieve. One child is not attending school. Staff are working hard to identify a path that the child will accept to enable her to re-engage with her education.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Family contact is promoted well. Staff supervise this contact where appropriate and develop good relationships with families. They keep a child‟s best interests at heart and will challenge issues which are not in a child‟s best interests. Staff have a good understanding of what to do when managing family contact and provide detailed reports on this to the social worker.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children are encouraged to say what they want to happen about both little and big decisions in their lives. They have weekly meetings to discuss issues which cover daily living and activities as well as how they share the space within the home. Their individual ways of engaging with staff are used effectively to talk, such as trips in the car or, for the youngest child, play.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Care planning is good. The staff know what they want to achieve with children each week and plan how they will make this happen. For example, children are supported to develop independence skills in line with their age and overall plans for their care.

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

Children say that they feel safe here. One young person said that the staff helped her to understand the risks she is taking and another that he did not know how, but they had made a real difference to how he feels.

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

Behaviour is managed well here. Incentives support children to develop good daily living patterns. Goals are relevant to what children find difficult, decided with them and are changed when this is beneficial to a child. Clear guidelines about how goal money should be used are provided. Some is saved for a child, which has enabled them to buy bigger items that they want. This increases children‟s engagement with meeting their goals and increases their understanding of the benefits of saving money.

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

Children rarely go missing. If they do, staff work hard to find them quickly and work in Inspection report children‟s home: SC064011 6 partnership with other agencies. No restraints have occurred since 2016. Managers have not regularly reviewed staff‟s understanding of restraint holds. Given that restraint training occurs every two years, there is a risk that staff‟s knowledge will be impaired.

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

Sanctions are rarely used. However, for one child, it is not clear that what is described as a behaviour management strategy at times is a sanction on their behaviour. Managers cannot therefore fully review whether this action is always being used appropriately.

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

Staff‟s understanding of safeguarding and child protection systems is good. The staff have a good understanding of what to do if they may be concerned about child sexual exploitation and work with others when concerns become more prevalent. Where necessary, appropriate assessments are put in place.

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

Staff follow safeguarding procedures well. They have a wide understanding of the contextual issues which affect children‟s safety. For example, how to support a younger child when supporting them with personal care and what to consider when undertaking supervised contact with a child‟s family.

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

Well-implemented systems are in place to check and manage children‟s access to online media. If concerns arise, the staff tackle these immediately. The staff are good role models for how to behave online. In one instance, when a member of staff used a code to start up a new online game for children, he made sure that the code was not seen by them and explained to children why he did this.

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

Risk assessments are appropriately recorded about issues which relate to children. Staff are aware of what they are expected to do and follow the guidance well. However, the assessments are not always updated as quickly as they could be following an incident.

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

Health and safety issues are well identified, reviewed and remedied. For example, in 2018, the registered manager undertook a full and detailed review of fire safety after a fire incident that year. This has resulted in greater staff awareness of fire safety and a full check of fire safety within the premises being completed.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The registered manager is a very competent and passionate leader who works hard to ensure that children‟s needs are continually identified and met. Well-considered development plans are in place which will increase staff‟s capacity to meet children‟s needs. For example, the manager aims for 50% of the staff team to have completed a therapeutic qualification by 2020. The manager and several staff were already enrolled on such courses at the time of inspection.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Staff are very complimentary about the leadership and management style of the registered manager. Several staff said that his leadership has made significant difference to how the home is run. His leadership has resulted in them working well as a team. One member of staff said that he paid attention to staff‟s needs as well as focusing on Inspection report children‟s home: SC064011 7 children. She said that he notices „if you are having a difficult day and finds out what he can do to help‟.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The manager has strengthened his management oversight since the last inspection and knows what the home does well and what needs to improve. The independent visitor‟s monthly monitoring reports are used well by the registered manager to quickly rectify any shortfalls. He uses team meetings to discuss what the visitor has identified so that staff are informed about what needs to change.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

There are good numbers of staff on duty who are deployed effectively. Staff are working towards appropriate qualifications or have obtained these already. However, the timescales some staff are taking to complete their qualification are not satisfactory. One member of staff has not completed the qualification which she commenced in 2015. While this is in part due to changes in qualification assessors, it remains unacceptable that leaders and managers have not prioritised this issue.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Training needs are identified well. When a decision was made to admit a new child, who is considerably younger than other children in the home, additional guidance was provided. However, staff have not had any additional training about the developmental milestones they should expect to see for a child his age. This is a missed opportunity to ensure that staff have a consistent view of what is expected, which they can use to identify where he is developing within expected parameters and where he is not.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Staff receive regular and well-considered supervision which supports them to develop their skills effectively. Supervision occurs monthly and covers a good range of topics which: puts children at the centre of discussion; praises and challenges a member of staff‟s practice; extends and tests staff‟s knowledge; and takes account of the staff‟s career aspirations.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Good relationships exist between the staff and professionals. One social worker was positive about their strong focus on the child and the ways in which they work with her. Staff prepare children well before they meet professionals, which helps a child to know what to expect and therefore helps the professionals to engage well with the child. Inspection report children‟s home: SC064011 8

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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: SC064011 9

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Children’s home details

Registered provider: My Choice Children‟s Homes Ltd

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: Unit 3a, Mill Green Business Estate, Mill Green Road, Haywards Heath RH16 1XQ

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Inspector

Ruth Coler, social care inspector Inspection report children‟s home: SC064011 10 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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