Children's home run by The Beeches UK limited in Redbridge

Inspection report children’s home: SC053529 1 SC053529 Registered provider: The Beeches UK Limited Full inspection Inspected under the social care common inspection framework

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Information about this children’s home

This home, which is run by a private organisation, provides care and respite for children and young people. The home’s aim is to focus on meeting the individual needs of children and young people within a group living experience. The registered manager has been in post since 26 March 2018.

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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: SC053529 2

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

24/05/2017 Full Good 21/02/2017 Interim Improved effectiveness 21/09/2016 Full Good 09/03/2016 Interim Improved effectiveness Inspection report children’s home: SC053529 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 quality and purpose of care standard is that children receive care from staff who—

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Requirement Due date

understand the children’s home’s overall aims and the outcomes it seeks to achieve for children;

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Requirement Due date

use this understanding to deliver care that meets children’s needs and supports them to fulfil their potential.

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Requirement Due date

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

meet the needs of each child. (Regulation 6 (1)(a)(b)(2)(c)(i))

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Requirement Due date

In particular, ensure that children’s bedrooms are homely and reflect children’s individual tastes. 30/04/2019

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must recruit staff using recruitment procedures that are designed to ensure children’s safety.

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Requirement Due date

employ an individual to work at the children’s home; or

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Requirement Due date

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).

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Requirement Due date

the individual is of integrity and good character; 30/06/2019 Inspection report children’s home: SC053529 4 the individual has the appropriate experience, qualification and skills for the work that the individual is to perform;

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Requirement Due date

the individual is mentally and physically fit for the purposes of the work that the individual is to perform; and

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Requirement Due date

full and satisfactory information is available in relation to the individual in respect of each of the matters in Schedule 2.

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Requirement Due date

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—

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Requirement Due date

the Level 3 Diploma for Residential Childcare (England) (‘the Level 3 Diploma’); or

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Requirement Due date

a qualification which the registered person considers to be equivalent to the Level 3 Diploma.

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Requirement Due date

in the case of an individual who starts working in a care role 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

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Requirement Due date

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 (1)(2)(a)(b)(3)(a)(b)(c)(d)(4)(a)(b)(5)(a)(b)) The registered person must ensure that an independent person visits the children’s home at least once each month.

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Requirement Due date

When the independent person is carrying out a visit, the registered person must help the independent person—

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Requirement Due date

if they consent, to interview in private such of the children, their parents, relatives and persons working at the home as the independent person requires; and

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Requirement Due date

to inspect the premises of the home and such of the home’s records (except for a child’s case records, unless the child and the child’s placing authority consent) as the independent person requires.

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Requirement Due date

The independent person must produce a report about a visit (‘the independent person’s report’) which sets out, in particular, the independent person’s opinion as to whether— 30/04/2019 Inspection report children’s home: SC053529 5 children are effectively safeguarded; and

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Requirement Due date

the conduct of the home promotes children’s well-being.

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Requirement Due date

The independent person’s report may recommend actions that the registered person may take in relation to the home and timescales within which the registered person must consider whether or not to take those actions.

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Requirement Due date

The independent person must provide a copy of the independent person’s report to—

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Requirement Due date

HMCI. (Regulation 44 (1)(2)(a)(b)(4)(a)(b)(5)(7)(a))

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Recommendations

 The registered person must have systems in place so that all staff, including the manager, receive supervision of their practice from an appropriately qualified and experienced professional, which allows them to reflect on their practice and the needs of the children assigned to their care. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 61, paragraph 13.2) This is with particular reference to the supervision of agency staff.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children come to live and stay in a friendly and supportive home. The staff provide children and their families with the help that they need. Children make progress in most aspects of their lives. For example, a child who was non-verbal and did not go out in the community now says some words and goes out shopping with staff.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

The arrangements for children’s care and support are carefully planned. The manager makes sure that the staff have the expertise to meet the aims of each child’s plan and assessed needs. Staff are involved in the design and implementation of children’s plans and make sure that they are carried out. Staff work effectively with other professionals to make sure that children and families get the right support.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

The staff are highly skilled at engaging naturally with children and making them feel at ease. Staff’s patience, creativity and warmth help them to build positive relationships with children, including children who find it difficult to trust adults. These relationships were observed during the inspection. One child had written a lovely greeting on a poster for a new child coming into the home. The child said how welcome she had been made to feel when she came to live at the home. Inspection report children’s home: SC053529 6 Staff’s calm, understanding and reliable approach is helping children and families to sort out their difficulties. Staff help children to find ways to manage their anxieties and frustrations and reduce aggressive and violent behaviour. A parent spoken with said, ‘[My child] has made progress in language, independence skills and confidence, and is less aggressive. This is like home from home. [My child] is confident, happy and very

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

safe. The staff have been absolutely brilliant. I could not ask any more of them.’

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff are creative and resourceful in finding what works with individual children and families. They adapt their way of working to meet each child’s needs and circumstances. All of the children receive letters in widget form explaining to them if they are going to visit the hospital or going on contact with parents and what they can expect. Observational records clearly demonstrate in picture form the positive outcomes of those experiences. Staff encourage and challenge children to make positive changes. Staff sensitively encouraged a child to get up and get dressed in the morning and to have a better daily routine. This led to improved emotional well-being and return to education.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff make sure that when children come to live or stay, it is a positive experience from the start. There are always plenty of interesting things to do and children have fun. Children have opportunities to enjoy and achieve new things, such as horse riding and going for a bike ride for the first time. Children take part in various activities and holidays, all of which are documented and photographed so that children have a keepsake.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children have exceeded expectations in their education attainment and attendance. The head of education said, ‘[The child] had not been in education for one year prior to coming into the home. The very next morning he was up, dressed and in class at 9.05am.’

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

The large detached house is pleasantly decorated and furnished. However, the children’s bedrooms lack warmth and colour. Bedrooms are clinical in their appearance and lack accessories, furniture and personalisation. The bedrooms are not child-friendly.

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

The manager and staff make sure that children are safe. Practice and safeguarding arrangements protect children from harm and support their emotional well-being.

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

Staff understand the vulnerabilities of each child and any concerns about their safety. Staff have the expertise to recognise any signs that indicate that a child may be at risk of abuse, neglect or harmful sexualised behaviour. The staff are vigilant and act whenever they are concerned about a child’s welfare.

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

Staff work effectively with families, social workers and safeguarding services to identify the risks that children face and take appropriate action that protects them. Staff consistently follow children’s safety plans. Inspection report children’s home: SC053529 7 Staff actively support children to understand risks and manage their safety. This includes helping children to use technology safely and recognising negative relationships. Staff help children to make choices that protect them and other children from harm.

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

Staff help parents to feel more confident and to manage their children’s behaviour at home. The staff have helped parents to understand and listen to their children and to find the right strategies to deal with problems. Staff have helped parents to work together consistently to put in place suitable boundaries that help children understand the expected standards of behaviour. On the day of the inspection, a training course in speech and language was being delivered, which included a parent who had been invited so that she will be able to support her child at home.

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

There have been no incidents of children going missing. Only two sanctions have been used since the last inspection. These are fair and proportionate. Physical intervention is used only when necessary to ensure children’s safety and welfare. The records of these incidents are carefully monitored by the manager and deputy manager.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The registered manager is competent and experienced. She manages this service efficiently and effectively with the support of a deputy manager who is equally competent and skilled in childcare. Both are very focused and well organised.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The manager and staff are ambitious for children to do well. They make sure that children have a safe, friendly, fun and supportive home in which to live or stay. The manager makes sure that children and their families receive a high standard of support tailored to their individual needs.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The manager has an accurate understanding of the home’s strengths and the areas that need to improve. She recognises the importance of the time that staff spend getting to know children and supporting them before they come to live or stay at the home. This helps children to start to build relationships with staff and to feel at ease about spending time away from their family home.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The children’s case records are of an excellent standard. They include the information needed to measure children’s progress and the effectiveness of the service. Summaries and picture stories of children’s involvement at the home help the manager to evaluate the impact of practice on children’s experiences and outcomes. This gives the manager a good insight into the things that work and the obstacles to progress. The manager shares good practice and continuously makes improvements.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The selection and vetting process for the recruitment of permanent staff is robust. However, not all relevant checks could be evidenced for some agency staff who had recently been employed to work at the home. This does not ensure that all staff have been adequately checked prior to working with the children.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

All permanent staff receive regular planned supervision. Records highlight a consistent Inspection report children’s home: SC053529 8 approach to maintaining the high standards at the home. However, not all agency staff have received regular supervision. This does not enable them to fully reflect on their practice. Staff have access to a range of training opportunities that enable them to acquire the necessary skills and knowledge to support children. However, one member of staff has not achieved a suitable level 3 qualification within the required timeframe.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The manager continues to review the quality of care provided to children. Monthly monitoring is undertaken by the independent visitor. However, the reports do not contain all of the relevant information required. The independent visitor does not always give their opinion of whether children are safeguarded effectively.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The manager has met the one requirement and two recommendations raised at the last inspection to good effect.

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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: SC053529 9

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Children’s home details

Registered provider: The Beeches UK Limited

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: 14 Poland Street, London W1F 8QD

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Children’s home details

Registered manager: Lyana Sinclair Russell

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Inspector

Cathy Russell: social care inspector Inspection report children’s home: SC053529 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 looked after children, safeguarding and child protection.

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Inspector

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Inspector

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Inspector

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