Children's Home run by Wessex College Limited in Wiltshire

Inspection report children’s home: SC037596 1 SC037596 Registered provider: Wessex College

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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 can provide care for up to four children aged 11 years and over, who may have experienced trauma, abuse or attachment difficulties. The home is one of six homes operated by a private organisation. The organisation also owns a school, which children from this home may attend. The registered manager has been registered with Ofsted since 2007 and has had a period of absence since the previous inspection. A new manager has been in post to cover this absence and has submitted an application to register with Ofsted.

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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

Date of last inspection: 18 September 2018

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good

Overall judgement at last inspection: requires improvement to be good

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good

Enforcement action since last inspection: none Inspection report children’s home: SC037596 2

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

19/09/2018 Monitoring Requires improvement to be good 06/08/2018 Full Inadequate 03/01/2018 Interim Declined in effectiveness 11/05/2017 Full Good Inspection report children’s home: SC037596 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

44: Independent person: visits and reports

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Requirement Due date

The independent person must provide a copy of the independent person’s report to HMCI.

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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, continue to improve the quality of the home and garden.  Staff should be 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. Information about the child must always be recorded in a way that will be helpful to the child (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 62, paragraph 14.4). In particular, improve restraint records to provide detail which will be helpful to the child. In addition, improve records so they do not

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Recommendations

label children with risks that are not associated with that child.  The registered person should oversee the welfare of the children in their care through observation and engagement with: each child; the home’s staff; each child’s family/carers where appropriate; and professionals involved in the care or protection of each child including their social worker, Independent Reviewing Officer (IRO), teachers, clinicians and other health professionals etc. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 54, paragraph 10.23). In particular, show more clearly the monitoring of incidents and restraints. Inspection report children’s home: SC037596 4

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Leaders and managers have made significant improvement since the previous inspection to consistently provide children with good experiences. Clear and achievable aims, targets and goals are individual to each child and support them effectively to make progress. An example of significant progress includes a child starting to communicate again when they had stopped all methods of communication at the point they moved into the home.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children move into the home successfully and quickly respond well to the help and support they receive from staff. Careful consideration of the needs of children living in the home and those moving in ensures that children are suitably matched. This enables children to build positive relationships with one another. Children are sensitive to each other’s needs.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Relationships between the staff and children are positive. Staff are enthusiastic and interested in the children. Staff and children spend good-quality time together making plans for the day and understanding each other’s experiences since they were last together. Children benefit greatly from these positive relationships.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

The clinical team successfully help the care team to fully understand how children’s previous experiences may have an impact on their current behaviour. This is positive for children as staff have a good understanding of how to support them in ways that enables them to succeed. Children engage well with the clinical team as soon as they move in because the clinical team quickly builds positive relationships with children. Staff receive regular clinical support and guidance to ensure that they continue to meet children’s therapeutic needs.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff have a positive attitude and are attuned to the needs of children. They provide care which is sensitive, thoughtful and respectful of each child. This care is accurately represented in children’s records.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

The education progress of some children has been slow. Not all children had a place in education when they moved in. Despite leaders and managers advocating strongly on behalf of children, there remain some gaps in education provision. However, because of the persistence of the manager, most children will be going to school or college from September 2019.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children are fully involved in the day-to-day running of the home. The staff value children’s input and consult with them regularly. For example, children have picked new carpets, bedroom decor and garden furniture. This is part of the plan to continue to make the environment homelier.

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

Inspection report children’s home: SC037596 5 Children feel safe and receive effective support to help them to understand risk. Staff able to talk to children about difficult and challenging topics due to their positive relationships. Children do not go missing from home as often as they did before, they stop misusing substances and they now talk more openly about their feelings and experiences.

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

Leaders and managers advocated strongly on one child’s behalf when they had significant concerns about his safety. Staff identified the signs of criminal exploitation effectively and took action to try to keep the child safe. The child moved on from this home. Good and insightful reflective work took place by managers who identified and acted on lessons learned. Following this learning, leaders and managers built better relationships with other agencies and are now clearer about the expectations of the home and model of care provided.

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

Leaders and managers take appropriate action to report safeguarding concerns to designated professionals. Risk is understood and well managed by the staff. However, written risk assessments include some risks that are not relevant to the child. This may put unnecessary labels on children.

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

When children are missing from home, staff immediately search for them and report them missing. Staff always welcome children home after they have been missing and ensure that they receive an independent return home interview. The manager receives regular feedback from professionals who conduct the return home interview and uses this feedback to inform care plans.

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

Good incentives and consistent boundaries from staff support children to behave positively. Restraint is rarely used and has only been used to prevent incidents of children hurting themselves. Children and staff receive a debrief after these events, and the manager reviews what happened and why. However, this good practice is not signposted well within the restraint records.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

For a short period, no children were living in the home while it was refurbished, and a new staff team was recruited and inducted. Since children moved in, leaders and managers have successfully changed the ethos and culture in the home and ensure that children are well cared for and nurtured. These improvements are fully embedded and are having a positive impact on children.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Leaders and managers integrate well into the home and prioritise building positive relationships with children by spending quality time with them. Good monitoring supports leaders and managers to fully understanding of the needs of children. This enables them to role model practice which helps staff to develop this same depth and understanding. Children benefit from this approach which supports them to make progress. Inspection report children’s home: SC037596 6 The manager consults with children to understand their experiences and to identify the home’s strengths and weaknesses. The development plan suitably addresses any weaknesses. For a period of time, the independent visitor’s reports were not sent to Ofsted in a timely manner. The manager has since taken action to address this.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Good collaborative work with other professionals keeps children’s care under close review. In particular, the home facilitates weekly visits from their social worker for one child and fortnightly meetings with an extensive professional team. This ensures that the child’s very complex needs continue to be met.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Training is extensive and targeted to ensure that staff understand how children’s previous trauma may impact on them. Staff implement well the skills they learn in how they care for children. One member of staff said, ‘The therapeutic training helps us to understand trauma, the brain and adverse childhood experiences. It helps us to help children in different ways.’

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Staff are inducted effectively and have good opportunities to discuss their work with children. Team meetings and supervision sessions are regular and enable staff to reflect on their practice and discuss how they can continue to meet the needs of children and improve. Staff receive good support from the clinical team who also attend the team meetings and provide clinical supervision.

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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: SC037596 7

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: Wessex College Limited, 4 Cedar Park, Cobham Road, Ferndown Industrial Estate, Wimborne BH21 7SF

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Inspector

Nicola Lownds, social care inspector Inspection report children’s home: SC037596 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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Inspector

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Inspector

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Inspector

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