Children's Home run by London Borough of Brent in Brent

Inspection report children’s home: SC457780 1 SC457780 Registered provider: London Borough of Brent Full inspection Inspected under the social care common inspection framework

p.1

Information about this children’s home

The home is a short-breaks service for disabled children. The service is registered to provide short-breaks for up to eight children living with physical and/or learning disabilities and/or sensory impairment. This includes children with autism spectrum disorder.

p.1

Information about this children’s home

The registered manager has been registered since 2007.

p.1

Overall experiences and progress of

children and young people, taking into account

p.1

outstanding

How well children and young people are helped and protected good

p.1

outstanding

The effectiveness of leaders and managers outstanding

p.1

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.

p.1

outstanding

Overall judgement at last inspection: good

p.1

outstanding

Enforcement action since last inspection: none Inspection report children’s home: SC457780 2

p.1

Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

10/05/2018 Full Good 09/05/2017 Full Outstanding 19/01/2017 Interim Declined in effectiveness 01/09/2016 Full Outstanding Inspection report children’s home: SC457780 3

p.2

Recommendations

 For children’s homes to be nurturing and supportive environments that meet the needs of their children, they will, in most cases, be homely domestic environments. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 15, paragraph 3.9) In particular, ensure that minor repairs are undertaken quickly.  Regulations 35–39 detail the records that must be kept in children’s homes. All children’s case records (regulation 36) must be kept up to date. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 62, paragraph 14.3) In particular, leaders and managers should ensure consistency of practice in recording risk assessments and case audits.  Any child who has been restrained should be given the opportunity to express their feelings about their experience of the restraint as soon as is practicable, ideally within 24 hours of the restraint incident. In some cases, children may

p.3

Recommendations

need longer to work through feelings, so a record that the children has talked about their feelings should be made no longer than 5 days after the incident of restraint (regulation 35(3)(c)). (‘Guide to the children’s home regulations including the quality standards’, page 49, paragraph 9.60) Inspection report children’s home: SC457780 4

p.3

Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: outstanding

Children receive exceptional, individualised care from staff, who understand their needs very well. Children thrive due to their positive experiences in the home and make excellent progress in their personal development. Notable achievements include improved sleeping patterns, improved independence skills, learning to share and a longer concentration span.

p.4

Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: outstanding

Staff care and support the children, focusing on their individual needs. They understand the children’s individual communication styles and listen, observe and act upon children’s body language, eye gaze or picture exchange systems. All of this ensures that the children’s care is dynamic and responsive to their changing needs.

p.4

Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: outstanding

The highly creative team of staff identify excellent developmental opportunities for children. Children have been involved in Youth Stories project in the lead up to the London Borough of Culture Year 2020. Invaluable experiences such as autism-friendly cinema screenings and a visit to an international orchestra’s open day for children with learning difficulties have significantly enhanced children’s day-to-day experiences.

p.4

Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: outstanding

Children have a voice in the home. They are successfully encouraged to feed back at the end of each short-break stay and to choose favourite activities for their next stay. Children have helped to recruit staff. With meticulous planning and encouragement, staff have supported children to help to interview potential staff. This has helped to inform new appointments.

p.4

Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: outstanding

Staff work collaboratively with parents and other professionals to ensure consistency in children’s care and support. Staff make regular visits to the children’s schools and their family homes. This ensures that children’s care plans are comprehensive and up to date.

p.4

Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: outstanding

The impressive purpose-built children’s home provides children with a clean and bright environment. Adaptations throughout the home ensure that children can access all the communal areas. Children choose from an extensive range of activities, both inside and outside the home, including specialist outside play equipment and a newly built raised sensory garden. At the time of the inspection, there were a small number of minor issues awaiting maintenance.

p.4

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

The home provides a very safe physical environment for children. An electronic front door key-pad system helps to keep the children safe. Children do not go missing from the home. Staff always supervise the children in the community. This ensures that they are protected without limiting their experiences.

p.4

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

Parents tell staff about any changes to their child’s welfare, diet or healthcare needs Inspection report children’s home: SC457780 5 before their child’s short-break stay. Care plans and shift handovers incorporate any changes, ensuring that children’s care and support are appropriate and comprehensive.

p.4

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

Since the last inspection, leaders and managers have introduced staff ‘aprons’ to further enhance children’s safety in the home. Any small day-to-day items, such as pens, are removed from surfaces and kept in staff’s aprons. This minimises the risks to vulnerable children of accidentally injuring themselves or others.

p.5

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

Children’s risk assessments are comprehensive. Good risk management strategies ensure that the staff are aware of the specific risks to each child and the actions that they must take to minimise those risks. However, risk assessment documents are not consistent in their use of risk matrices, which may be confusing for staff.

p.5

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

Physical restraint is rarely used to manage any challenging behaviour in the home. There have been four episodes of restraint since the last inspection. However, the restraint records do not routinely include confirmation that children have talked about their feelings about their experience of the restraint.

p.5

The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

The management team provides exceptional leadership. Leaders and managers are determined to provide the highest level of care and are always seeking to improve the service. The highly skilled and knowledgeable registered manager has high expectations of her staff team.

p.5

The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

Leaders and managers continue to embed research-informed practice in the home. Staff training is comprehensive and evolves to meet the individual needs of the children who stay at the home. For example, a disability sports training package and equipment have enabled children with physical disabilities to take part in basketball and other popular sports.

p.5

The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

The registered manager is happy to share her knowledge and experience with the wider community. Staff from other short-break services visit the home for ideas and advice. The registered manager’s knowledge and skills add to the local authority’s children and young people’s panel, and she is part of a working group to develop an adult autism service.

p.5

The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

Parents praise the service. Regular parent coffee mornings and the home’s newsletter provide updates and information about developments in the service. Parents particularly enjoyed a coffee morning visit from a specialist learning disability yoga teacher, learning yoga techniques to support their children at home.

p.5

The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

Leaders and managers undertake regular audits, stakeholder surveys and quality of care reviews. Recommendations are acted upon, helping to further improve the service. However, the recording of audits is not consistently robust. Inspection report children’s home: SC457780 6

p.5

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 difference 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.

p.6

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: SC457780 7

p.6

Children’s home details

Registered provider address: Brent Civic Centre, Engineers Way, Wembley, Middlesex HA9 0FJ

p.7

Inspector(s)

Victoria Jones, social care inspector Inspection report children’s home: SC457780 8 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.

p.7

Inspector(s)

If you would like a copy of this document in a different format, such as large print or Braille, please telephone 0300 123 1231, or email enquiries@ofsted.gov.uk . You may reuse this information (not including logos) free of charge in any format or medium, under the terms of the Open Government Licence. To view this licence, visit www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/doc/open-government-licence , write to the Information Policy Team, The National Archives, Kew, London TW9 4DU, or email: psi@nationalarchives.gsi.gov.uk .

p.8

Inspector(s)

Interested in our work? You can subscribe to our monthly newsletter for more information and updates: http://eepurl.com/iTrDn .

p.8

Inspector(s)

T: 0300 123 1231 Textphone: 0161 618 8524 E: enquiries@ofsted.gov.uk W: www.gov.uk/ofsted

p.8