Children's Home run by Kent County Council in Kent

Inspection report children’s home: SC037282 1 SC037282 Registered provider: Kent County Council

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Inspected under the social care common inspection framework

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Information about this children’s home

This children’s home is operated by a local authority and provides short-break care for children aged between five and 17 years who have learning difficulties, physical disabilities and other associated complex needs. The maximum number of children who can stay at the home at any time is seven.

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Information about this children’s home

The manager was registered with Ofsted on 26 February 2016.

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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

Overall judgement at last inspection: outstanding

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outstanding

Enforcement action since last inspection: none Inspection report children’s home: SC037282 2

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

07/03/2018 Full Outstanding 30/03/2017 Interim Sustained effectiveness 23/08/2016 Full Outstanding 21/03/2016 Interim Improved effectiveness

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: outstanding

This short-break service provides care that continually exceeds the quality standards for children’s homes. The local authority’s model of in-house support works very well and is considered by other local authorities as good practice.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: outstanding

The children benefit from spending time in an environment that is extremely well resourced and staffed to meet their individual needs. From the minute you enter the front door it feels like a warm and welcoming home. Thorough pre-placement assessment ensures the correct level, and the safe delivery, of care. Plans for short- break stays are organised six months in advance, giving the staff and the parents time to plan. Each child has a dependency-level assessment undertaken so that staffing levels can be set according to their needs, which ensures that the staff have the skills to meet those needs. This is important as dependency levels can vary as a result of the children’s complex health needs.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: outstanding

The staff develop strong relationships with the parents, families and carers. A parent said, ‘My child loves it here, he is always happy to come here and happy when he arrives back home; there is excellent communication between the families and parents.’ Through their body language and verbal skills, the children show how much they enjoy their time at the service.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: outstanding

The home identifies its strengths as children benefiting from new experiences, promoting independence and feeling safe. Each child is given equal priority and importance. In addition, the staff take time to build excellent relationships with the families and carers and are able to empathise with their daily challenges. Collaborative working with a wide range of professionals ensures that all children receive the care they are entitled to.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: outstanding

The children receive an excellent standard of healthcare. In line with the local authority model, the service benefits from having a designated on-site practice educator. The practice educator assesses the health needs of children and supports staff in drawing up individual care plans. In addition, she provides on-site training for the staff, so they can safely deliver delegated healthcare tasks and medication. There is a clear distinction Inspection report children’s home: SC037282 3 between healthcare tasks that staff can deliver and those they cannot. Having the on- site practice educator means that training is bespoke to individual needs. The staff find this a highly beneficial resource.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: outstanding

The children enjoy the time they spend at the home; they play and have fun. The staff look forward to them arriving and provide a warm welcome. The children’s body language shows that they feel comfortable in the presence of the staff. The staff team invests in the children and uses many different forms of communication to ensure that each child can communicate their wishes and opinions. The staff know the children’s likes and dislikes well and can arrange activities to suit, or at the request of the child. Externally, the grounds are extensive, with many well-resourced separate play areas.

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

The management of safeguarding overall is outstanding. Staff work in accordance with the local safeguarding and child protection policies and procedures. The priority that safeguarding is given ensures that children are safe, and their well-being is promoted at all times during their stay and when out in the community. The registered manager and deputy manager both have high expectations of the quality of staff practice. They lead a team of staff who are consistently focused on the children’s safety. All staff meetings and supervisions have a strong focus on safeguarding.

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

The staff are clear about their responsibilities relating to the many areas of safeguarding. All the staff undertake appropriate safeguarding training to ensure safe practice, robust safeguarding management and the swift referral of any child protection concerns. Any concerns are efficiently managed and referred to the correct safeguarding agency. The staff have good links with the designated officer and other safeguarding agencies. Organised and well-maintained records of safeguarding concerns are kept. The registered manager attends the Kent police forum where she gains up-to-date information about any local concerns and national trends. This enables her to identify additional training that the staff can benefit from. For example, training recently included suicide awareness and mental health and well-being.

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

The staff support the children in a highly nurturing and supportive way. They are aware of each child’s vulnerabilities and provide close and sensitive support, which helps to keep children safe. The staff know the children’s individual triggers and skilfully de- escalate potentially challenging or unsafe situations. The children show that they feel safe in the home, through their verbal and non-verbal communication.

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

The children’s emotional well-being is a priority to the staff. Physical interventions are rare. Low-level, soft interventions are used, mainly to guide or refocus a child. A move away from the home having individual, child-positive handling plans to positive behaviour plans, that focuses practice on de-escalation rather than intervention, is an example of how the manager continually looks to develop practice. Risk assessments inform the staff about how to reduce known risks and respond to emergencies. Team meetings enable the staff to discuss the children’s stays and review care plans and risk Inspection report children’s home: SC037282 4 assessments. Since the last inspection, no child has been absent or missing. High staffing levels and clear shift plans ensure that the staff always know the whereabouts of the children.

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

The home is extremely well maintained and provides a safe and secure physical environment. All required health and safety checks and procedures, including the routine servicing of equipment, are up to date. Fire safety precautions are robust. A recent issue with a contracted fire safety company, which was out of the manager’s control, resulted in the registered manager making a difficult decision to close the home for three weeks. This shows that the registered manager takes children’s safety very seriously, as she was not able to fully guarantee their safety while waiting for works to be carried out.

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

Careful recruitment and monitoring of staff help prevent unsuitable people from working with the children.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

The registered manager is very suitably experienced, skilled and qualified. She is confident, ambitious and passionate about the children in her care. She inspires the staff to deliver high standards of care while always aiming to improve.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

The registered manager leads a stable staff team whose members enjoy working in an environment that has a culture of continuous improvement. This can be seen through regular team meetings, supervisions, sharing and gaining information with the wider establishment, personal development plans and regular training. The staff team is mainly female and lacks diversity. Senior leaders are aware of this and are looking at their recruitment procedures to try to change this.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

Since the last inspection, the registered manager has focused on areas such as the development of a positive staff supervision culture, increasing parent/carer engagement, increasing staff accountability and ownership of recording practice, embedding the deputy manager role and increasing staff expertise. Her six-monthly reviews of care and practice identify areas for development, including additional ways to promote participation and capturing the children’s views and wishes.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

The registered manager continues to focus on her own professional development, such as through her additional studies in developing her understanding of complex behaviours and how these can be positively responded to. In addition, she has recently focused on increasing her knowledge of mental health and well-being.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

This is a service that exceeds its aims. It is a service whose priority is to consistently provide a safe, enjoyable and stimulating short-break experience for children and their families who have complex needs. The commitment to continually developing the service has resulted in no requirements or recommendations being made as a result of this inspection. Inspection report children’s home: SC037282 5

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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: SC037282 6

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Children’s home details

Registered provider: Kent County Council

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Children’s home details

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

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Inspector

Liz Driver, social care inspector Inspection report children’s home: SC037282 7 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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