Children's home run by St Christopher’s Fellowship in Wandsworth

Inspection report children’s home: SC422415 1 SC422415 Registered provider: St Christopher’s Fellowship

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Full inspection Inspected under the social care common inspection framework

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Information about this children’s home

This home is managed by a charitable organisation. It is registered to provide care and accommodation for one child whose assessed needs require a solo placement. The registered manager left in May 2019. A new manager is in post but is not yet registered with Ofsted.

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Overall experiences and progress of

children and young people, taking into account

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requires improvement to be good

How well children and young people are helped and protected requires improvement to be good

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requires improvement to be good

The effectiveness of leaders and managers inadequate

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requires improvement to be good

The children’s home is not yet delivering good help and care for children and young people. However, there are no serious or widespread failures that result in their welfare not being safeguarded or promoted.

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requires improvement to be good

Overall judgement at last inspection: sustained effectiveness

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requires improvement to be good

Enforcement action since last inspection: none Inspection report children’s home: SC422415 2

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

03/01/2019 Interim Sustained effectiveness 16/04/2018 Full Good 16/08/2017 Full Requires improvement to be good 08/03/2017 Interim Improved effectiveness Inspection report children’s home: SC422415 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 protection of children standard is that children are protected from harm and enabled to keep themselves safe. In particular, the standard in paragraph (1) requires the registered person to ensure— that staff— assess whether each child is at risk of harm, taking into account information in the child’s relevant plans, and, if necessary, make arrangements to reduce the risk of any harm to the child. (Regulation 12(1)(2)(a)(i)) 12/07/2019

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Requirement Due date

The protection of children standard is that children are protected from harm and enabled to keep themselves safe. In particular, the standard in paragraph (1) requires the registered person to ensure— that the premises used for the purposes of the home are designed, furnished and maintained so as to protect each child from avoidable hazards to the child’s health. (Regulation 12(1)(2)(d)) 05/07/2019

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Requirement Due date

The leadership and management standard is that the registered person enables, inspires and leads a culture in relation to the children’s home that— helps children aspire to fulfil their potential; and promotes their welfare. In particular, the standard in paragraph (1) requires the registered person to— lead and manage the home in a way that is consistent with the approach and ethos, and delivers the outcomes, set out in the home’s statement of purpose; ensure that staff have the experience, qualifications and skills to meet the needs of each child; and ensure that the home’s workforce provides continuity of care to 30/08/2019 Inspection report children’s home: SC422415 4 each child. (Regulation 13(1)(a)(b)(2)(a)(c)(e)) The leadership and management standard is that the registered person enables, inspires and leads a culture in relation to the children’s home that— helps children aspire to fulfil their potential; and

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Requirement Due date

promotes their welfare. In particular, the standard in paragraph (1) requires the registered person to— use monitoring and review systems to make continuous improvements in the quality of care provided in the home. (Regulation 13(1)(a)(b)(2)(h)) 30/08/2019

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must— keep the statement of purpose under review and, where appropriate, revise it; and notify HMCI of any revisions and send HMCI a copy of the revised statement within 28 days of the revision. (Regulation 16 (3)(a)(b)) 12/07/2019

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must recruit staff using recruitment procedures that are designed to ensure children’s safety. The registered person may only— employ an individual to work at the children’s home; or 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). The requirements are that— the individual is of integrity and good character; the individual has the appropriate experience, qualification and skills for the work that the individual is to perform; the individual is mentally and physically fit for the purposes of the work that the individual is to perform; and 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

(Regulation 32(1)(2)(a)(b)(3)(a)(b)(c)(d)) 12/07/2019

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must ensure that all employees— receive practice-related supervision by a person with appropriate experience. (Regulation 33(4)(b)) In particular, ensure that all agency staff working at the home 02/08/2019 Inspection report children’s home: SC422415 5 receive supervision. Schedule 4 sets out the other information that the registered person must keep in relation to a children’s home. The registered person must— maintain in the home the records in Schedule 4; ensure that the records are kept up to date; and retain the records for at least 15 years from the date of the last entry. (Regulation 37(1)(2)(a)(b)) In particular, ensure that the rota states which staff actually worked at the home on each day. 30/08/2019

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Recommendations

 Provide a nurturing environment that is welcoming. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 15, paragraph 3.7) In particular, ensure that the bathroom gives children privacy.  Ensure that staff help each child to prepare for any move from the home, whether they are returning home, moving to another placement or adult care, or to live independently. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 17, paragraph 3.27) In particular, ensure that children receive factually correct information regarding their placement transition.  Ensure that staff are familiar with the home’s policies on record keeping and understand the importance of careful, objective, and clear recording. Staff should record information on individual children in a non-stigmatising way that distinguishes between fact, opinion and third-party information. (‘Guide to the

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Recommendations

children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 62, paragraph 14.4)

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improvement to be good

The home requires improvement. Since the last inspection, there have been two admissions and two unplanned endings. Staff lack sufficient experience, knowledge and skills to meet all the children’s complex needs. There are insufficient core staff, resulting in significant use of agency staff and staff from other homes to meet the high staffing levels required. As a result, children’s placements end sooner than planned. The child in placement has not been provided with clear and agreed information by the manager about her imminent transition from the home. This has resulted in the child believing that her transition arrangements are different to the actual plan. A contingency Inspection report children’s home: SC422415 6 plan has been implemented to support her transition to her new placement. The child’s living environment is clean and homely. The conservatory roof has been fixed, providing additional communal space. However, damage to the bathroom door has

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improvement to be good

not been sufficiently rectified to ensure the child’s and staff members’ privacy. The child has made progress in her attendance at education. The manager quickly identified an education provision to meet the child’s needs and support her attendance. The staff have embraced the child’s passion for animals, in particular dogs. Staff bring their dogs in to spend time with the child. The child helps out at a dog boarding kennels every week. This improves her confidence and social skills. The child has built good relationships with core staff. They spend quality time with her and attend to her basic needs. The staff encourage the child to attend a wide variety of activities at the home and in the local community. The child’s engagement improves her social skills and enables opportunities to experience positive engagement with staff. The staff encourage and support the child’s contact with her family. They ensure that

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improvement to be good

contact arrangements are maintained, while helping the child to develop her sense of identity.

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improvement to be good

Recruitment checks on permanent and agency staff are not consistently sufficient. The manager has failed to obtain all required information, such as gaps in work history, references and experience. An agency worker who was assessed as unable to lone work with the child was not consistently supervised. This fails to ensure that the child is cared for by staff who are suitably vetted and that strategies identified to safeguard have been fully adhered to. This may place the child at risk of harm. The manager has failed to take all possible action to reduce the risk posed by the environment to the child. The child has a historical and existing risk of self-harm by using ligature, yet the manager failed to take sufficient action to reduce the risk. No staff have received training in the use of a ligature cutter. This may place the child at risk of harm. Individual risk assessments fail to inform staff of all possible action to reduce known

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improvement to be good

risks. Strategies discussed in team meetings that were attended by core staff were not included on the child’s risk assessment. This was significant given the number of non- core staff who work with the child. The child has made progress in some areas of known risk. Incidents of self-injurious behaviour and aggression towards staff have reduced and there have been no incidents of the child going missing. De-escalation techniques help the child to manage her behaviour positively. Effective incentive schemes have helped the child to make positive changes to her behaviour. Physical intervention is rarely used and only when necessary to keep the child and staff safe. Inspection report children’s home: SC422415 7

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

The registered manager left, and a new manager was appointed in May 2019. The new manager is not registered with Ofsted. He is currently working towards a relevant level 5 qualification. The manager has not provided Ofsted with information on the change of the home’s statement of purpose from longer-term planned care to short-term assessment and changes to staffing. This fails to ensure that Ofsted is fully informed. A sufficient number of staff care for the child. This is achieved through the use of agency staff and staff from other homes that are run by the organisation. However, two of the four core staff lack experience and some agency staff’s work history, training and qualifications are unknown. The high use of non-permanent staff means that the child is not provided with care from a consistent, experienced and knowledgeable staff team. Staff undertake mandatory training and some basic level additional training. However,

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

no staff have undertaken specific training in understanding trauma, loss and attachment. It is of significant concern that the manager has no training in self-harm awareness and suicidal ideation. Training is insufficient to meet the level of individual need for the child. The rota does not accurately reflect which staff have worked on each shift. It is difficult to determine how many non-core staff have provided care for the child. Permanent staff have received regular supervision. However, no agency staff have received supervision, despite some working full-time hours. This fails to ensure that all staff receive a formal review of their practice, or opportunities to discuss the child’s care and address any concerns that they may have. Some of the child’s records do not give information on the child’s progress. Staff’s views are inconsistent with the assessments made by health professionals and the records fail

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

to clearly demonstrate some of the decisions that have been made. Internal monitoring is ineffective. It lacks the rigour to identify shortfalls. The feedback gained from children, placing authorities and staff is not reflected in monitoring reports to improve the quality of care provided to the child.

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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 Inspection report children’s home: SC422415 8 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: SC422415 9

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Children’s home details

Registered provider: St Christopher’s Fellowship

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: St Christopher’s Fellowship, 1 Putney High Street, Wandsworth, London SW15 1SZ

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Inspector

Natalie Burton: social care inspector Inspection report children’s home: SC422415 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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