Children's home run by London Borough of Waltham Forest in Waltham Forest

Inspection report children’s home: SC036735 1 SC036735 Registered provider: London Borough of Waltham Forest

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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’s statement of purpose confirms that the home provides residential short breaks and day care provision for children who have a disability.

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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: declined in effectiveness

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good

Enforcement action since last inspection: none Inspection report children’s home: SC036735 2

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

29/08/2018 Interim Declined in effectiveness 22/05/2018 Full Good 30/08/2017 Full Good 21/03/2017 Interim Sustained effectiveness Inspection report children’s home: SC036735 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 registered person must ensure that all employees-

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Requirement Due date

receive practice-related supervision by a person with appropriate experience.

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Recommendations

 Ensure the registered person is responsible for deciding what each review should focus on, based on the specific circumstances of the home at that particular time and any areas of high risk to the children that the home is designed to care for, such as missing or exploitation. They will also consider what information or data recorded in the home will form part of the evidence base for their analysis and conclusions. There is no expectation that the registered person will review the home against every part of the Quality Standards every six months – registered persons should use their professional judgement to decide which factors to focus on. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 65, paragraph 15.4)  The registered person must ensure all children’s case records (regulation 36) are kept up to date and stored securely whilst they remain in the home. Case records

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Recommendations

must be kept up-to-date and signed and dated by the author of each entry. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 62, paragraph 14.3) Specifically, this is in relation to updating photographs on medical files and case records.  The registered person must ensure that all managers working in a children’s home have the qualification in regulation 28(2) within the relevant timescales listed in regulation 28(3). All staff in a care role, including external agency or bank staff, must have the qualification in regulation 32(4) within the relevant timescale listed in regulation 32(5). The registered person may extend the time period if the member of staff has not worked in the role for a prolonged period, such as sick leave or maternity leave, or if it is not reasonable to expect the Inspection report children’s home: SC036735 4 member of staff to complete in this timescale due to the nature of the hours they

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Recommendations

work. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 53, paragraph 10.12)

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children receive high-quality care, which meets their individual needs. This short break service and the staff contribute to children’s enjoyment and to the whole family’s well- being. Children enjoy coming to the home, where they benefit from many new experiences and activities.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

There is a consistent and experienced staff team working at the home. Children were observed to be relaxed with staff and enjoying their stay. Staff build up positive relationships with children, parents, schools and social workers. A social worker and a parent both said that the home maintains good communication.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children make progress from their starting points, in line with their abilities and prognosis. Staff are ambitious for children and actively encourage their independence. Small steps can represent a huge achievement for children and support improved independence, for example supporting toileting, brushing teeth, getting dressed or improving language skills.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children have a variety of complex health needs, which staff support and manage. All children have individual healthcare plans and signed medical consents on their files.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Leaders and managers responded quickly to a recent error in the recording of medication. The responsible individual subsequently completed an audit of all medication and introduced new procedures to avoid any further errors. The outcome of this audit is the implementation of a better system, which involves more scrutiny. Most staff have since received updated training and further training is planned.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children’s views on their choices for play, menus and activities are regularly sought. Staff build up relationships with children, which allows them to understand children’s cues and ways of communicating. Staff understand how to communicate with non-verbal children through a variety of tools, including sign language, picture exchange communication systems and body language.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children have good opportunities when they attend the home. They enjoy their time in a spacious building, with a high ratio of staff to children. Therefore, staff can give individual attention to children’s needs and engage them in social activities, such as going out in the minibus or celebrating a special occasion.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children and their families are expected to provide all relevant information prior to coming to stay at the home. Staff observe children in school if necessary and in the care Inspection report children’s home: SC036735 5 of their parent/carer at the home when they attend for a ‘teatime’ visit.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

The process for introducing children to the home has recently been reviewed and updated to provide better supervision and accountability for children’s health and safety during their preliminary visit.

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

Leaders, managers and staff ensure that all risks are taken into account prior to children attending the home for a short stay. Children’s individual needs, skills level and any specialist care required are carefully considered. These assessments determine which day will be most suitable for children to attend, the level of staffing required, and any additional training or specialist equipment that are needed. All children’s needs are written into a plan to help ensure that staff can keep children safe and comfortable throughout their stay.

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

Children rarely go missing from the home. The main risk for children is their level of understanding, which makes them vulnerable as they can be unaware of danger. Staff receive regular child protection training and safeguarding updates, which help them to understand children’s vulnerabilities and how to report any issues of concern to the appropriate authorities.

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

Leaders and managers ensure that risk reduction factors are in place to make children as safe as possible throughout their stay. Emergency contacts are kept up to date, and the doors in and out of the centre have key fob access, which reduces the risk of children going missing. Children could be further safeguarded by updating their photographs on medical and other files to ensure that there is a recent photograph in the event it were to be needed.

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

Children all have personal emergency evacuation plans, and there are regular fire evacuation practices. This helps to ensure that staff and children are familiar with evacuation plans so that they know how to safely leave the building if necessary. All other health and safety processes are in place for the safe running of the home.

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

Staff are guided by behaviour management plans and give children clear guidance about appropriate behaviour. Children are closely supervised while staying at the centre and have a high ratio of staff to children to ensure their safety.

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

There are revised safeguarding arrangements in place in the London borough of Waltham Forest, and the home’s own procedures have been updated to reflect these. Staff are aware of the process to follow in a situation where there are concerns about a child’s safety or a staff member’s conduct towards children. All staff are aware of the whistle-blowing policy and who to speak to if they have any concerns.

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

Child protection incidents and concerns are being responded to and discussed with the appropriate designated officer. An oversight in reporting an incident last year has been Inspection report children’s home: SC036735 6 resolved, and the registered manager’s response has allowed learning from this incident and more robust monitoring as a result.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The home is run by an experienced registered manager, deputy and senior shift leader team. They have worked hard to create a safe and ambitious short breaks service for children in the borough and local area. There is a high expectation to provide a good standard of care and positive individual experiences for children, while providing their parents/carers with a break from caring.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Leaders and managers know the children well. They understand that the children they care for require a coordinated response from staff. Staff are well trained and work well together to meet children’s needs.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

There have been some areas of concern within the staff team, which have had an impact on working relationships. Although there continue to be some issues within the staff team, there is now no evidence of any impact on the care provided for children. Leaders and managers are aware of the staff issues and have held some team-building days run by a facilitator.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

There is some evidence that staff are resolving these issues and that leaders and managers are setting boundaries for staff to continue to promote a more positive working environment for all.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Staff spoken to said that they feel supported by managers, that they receive regular supervision and good personal development and that managers are accessible when needed.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The training provided for staff is helping them to feel more confident in meeting some of the children’s most complex needs. There remains a shortfall in the supervision of night staff, and this has had some minor impact on children. Several practice issues have been raised, including staff’s understanding of some medical issues, the recording of case records and levels of communication between the day and night staff.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Most of the staff team working at the home now have the national vocational qualification (NVQ) level 3 by the relevant date or are actively working towards this. There are two staff who are coming close to their relevant date and have not yet begun their training. The registered manager has a level 4 qualification and is currently undertaking the level 5 diploma in leadership and management.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The registered manager knows the home’s strengths and areas of development and responds well to issues as they arise. However, the registered manager’s review of the home’s quality of care is not rigorous and has been narrow in its scope. The review has not covered areas of care which have revealed themselves in the preceding six months; nor has it included an action plan for the forthcoming six months. Inspection report children’s home: SC036735 7 The registered manager has submitted an up-to-date statement of purpose, which outlines the plans for the new home, which is currently being built. The registered manager is aware that a new registration application must be submitted to Ofsted to ensure compliance.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Good professional working relationships exist between the home, parents, schools and social workers. There are records of a good relationship between the registered manager and the designated officer for discussions about safeguarding and child protection issues.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Leaders and managers actively promote tolerance, equality and diversity through practice at the home. This was evident in the way in which children’s planning, and identity and dietary needs are met and in staff employment and care.

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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: SC036735 8

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Children’s home details

Registered provider: London Borough of Waltham Forest

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: Corporate Parenting Service, Ground Floor, Sycamore House, Town Hall Complex, Forest Road, Walthamstow, London E17 4SU

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Children’s home details

Registered manager: Anthony Lyseight-Goslin

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Inspector

Christine Kennet, social care inspector Inspection report children’s home: SC036735 9 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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