Children's Home run by Esland South Limited in Hertfordshire

Inspection report children’s home: SC425418 1 SC425418 Registered provider: Esland South Limited

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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 home provides care for a maximum of four children who have emotional and behavioural difficulties, including but not exclusively mild to moderate learning disabilities. The home aims to look after children aged between 10 and 17. The manager has been registered since November 2017 and is in the process of completing a relevant level 5 qualification.

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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 requires improvement to be 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: SC425418 2

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

03/05/2018 Full Good 26/04/2017 Full Good 27/10/2016 Interim Improved effectiveness 24/05/2016 Full Good Inspection report children’s home: SC425418 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.

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Requirement Due date

In particular, the standard in paragraph (1) requires the registered person to ensure— that staff assess—

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Requirement Due date

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))

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Requirement Due date

In particular, ensure that risk assessments and behaviour plans are updated, that the content is shared with the staff and that risk-reduction measures are acted on. 02/08/2019

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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—

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Requirement Due date

helps children aspire to their full potential; and

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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

use monitoring and review systems to make continuous improvements in the quality of care provided at the home. (Regulation 13(1)(2)(h)) 02/08/2019

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must recruit staff using recruitment procedures that are designed to ensure children’s safety. (Regulation 32(1))

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Requirement Due date

In particular, ensure that recruitment arrangements consider the risks of unchecked people coming to the home. 18/07/2019

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Requirement Due date

Subject to paragraph (6), the registered person must establish a 31/07/2019 Inspection report children’s home: SC425418 4 procedure for considering complaints made by or on behalf of children.

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must ensure that a record is made of any complaint, the action taken in response, and the outcome of any investigation. (Regulation 39(1)(3))

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Requirement Due date

In particular, establish and record whether children are happy with the outcome of their complaint.

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Recommendations

 The registered person should actively seek independent scrutiny of the home and make best use of information from independent and internal monitoring (including under regulations 44 and 45) to ensure continuous improvement. They should be skilled in anticipating difficulties and reviewing incidents, such as learning from disruptions and placement breakdowns. They are responsible for proactively implementing lessons learned and sustaining good practice. (‘Guide to the children’s home regulations including the quality standards’, page 55, paragraph 10.24)  A record of supervision should be kept for staff, including the manager. The record should provide evidence that supervision is being delivered in line with regulation 33(4)(b). (‘Guide to the children’s home regulations including the quality standards’, page 61, paragraph 13.3)  The location review should include the identification of any risks and opportunities

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Recommendations

presented by the home’s location and strategies for managing these. (‘Guide to the children’s home regulations including the quality standards’, page 64, paragraph 15.1)

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children make good progress. Behaviours displayed in the children’s previous placements have not been repeated since they moved into this home. Children have built positive, trusting relationships with a staff team that understands children’s past trauma and the impact that trauma can have on their behaviour.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Two children have recently moved into semi-independent living. They remain in contact with the staff. This shows that children value the relationships that they build with staff.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children spoke positively about the staff, and it was evident that children enjoy spending time with them. Staff understand the importance of celebrating children’s achievements; they use positive rewards to reinforce and acknowledge these achievements. Children have photo albums, with pictures of activities and records of their achievements, which they can take with them when they leave. This means that children will have positive memories of their time at the home. Inspection report children’s home: SC425418 5 Staff actively encourage children to engage in education; attendance in education is high. Two children sat their GCSEs. An education provider said that a child’s attendance before moving to the home was less than 10%; it is now 85%. This professional said that the increased attendance is due to the perseverance and support of the staff.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children’s individual plans are informative and are regularly reviewed by staff. Children are involved in and understand their plans. However, staff are in the process of using a new system that needs to be fully implemented to ensure continuity.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children feel valued and listened to. They attend weekly house meetings, during which they discuss a wide variety of topics with the staff. Staff can show that children’s requests have been met when possible.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff have a good understanding of children’s individual complex needs. They have accessed additional, relevant training so that they can support a child’s specific needs effectively. The child’s therapist said that she was very impressed with how staff have supported the child and the difference that the support has made.

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improvement to be good

Children know how to complain. However, although the manager has responded to children’s complaints, there is no evidence that the children were informed of the outcome of the complaint or able to express whether they were happy with the outcome.

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improvement to be good

Children’s behaviour risk management plans are not stored consistently, and some held conflicting information. Children’s individual risk assessments fail to set out clearly the specific risks and risk-reduction strategies. This means that staff are not guided properly to manage risk effectively.

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improvement to be good

Recruitment processes are not safe. People are invited to the home for interview without having any checks completed. This means that potentially unsuitable people know the location of the home.

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improvement to be good

The manager has not sought information from external agencies to inform the location risk assessment. The location risk assessment does not consider potential risks in the area and risk-reduction strategies.

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improvement to be good

Staff use physical restraint as a last resort to safeguard the children. The incidents are well recorded. Staff provide a debriefing with children after each incident. This helps the children to reflect on their experiences and to look at ways to manage similar situations in the future.

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improvement to be good

There has been a reduction in the frequency of children going missing from the home. Staff follow up any missing-from-home incidents with key-work sessions. Children have a return home interview with their social workers. These actions help to identify the Inspection report children’s home: SC425418 6 reasons that children go missing.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Children have built positive relationships with a staff team that knows and understands them. The dedicated staff clearly want to work with the children to help them to progress and move on successfully from the home.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Staff have undertaken the organisation’s mandatory training and additional training to support a child who has complex needs. Staff have achieved, or are in the process of achieving, a relevant level 3 diploma.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The manager has met the requirement and recommendations from the last inspection.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

External reporting is comprehensive. The independent visitor’s reports are thorough and give clear guidance when shortfalls are identified.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

New staff benefit from a detailed induction that helps them to understand their role and responsibilities. Staff spoken with said that they find supervision supportive and can request extra supervision if they wish. However, supervision notes are not recorded in a timely way or consistently signed by the staff member.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Monitoring systems are not always updated or easy to follow. This means that the children’s progress, patterns and trends of behaviour and evaluation of the impact of the home on the children cannot be easily identified.

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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: SC425418 7

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Children’s home details

Registered provider: Esland South Limited

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: Suites 1 & 5, Riverside Business Centre, Foundry Lane, Milford, Belper, Derbyshire DE56 0RN

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Inspectors

Trish Palmer, social care inspector Inspection report children’s home: SC425418 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 children looked after, safeguarding and child protection.

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Inspectors

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Inspectors

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Inspectors

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