Children's Home run by Ravensbourne Project in Lewisham

Inspection report children’s home: 1257289 1 Registered provider: Ravensbourne Project

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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 is a short-breaks residential home and day service. It provides care and accommodation for young people with learning or physical disabilities and/or sensory impairments. The home can provide overnight short breaks for up to five young people (providing that two of the five young people are brothers or sisters, of the same gender) aged between eight and 18 years of age. The home operates at weekends during term time only and during all holiday periods.

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Information about this children’s home

The manager has commenced her registered manager registration process for this home 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: 20 February 2019

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good

Overall judgement at last inspection: sustained effectiveness

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good

Enforcement action since last inspection: none Inspection report children’s home: 1257289 2

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

20/02/2019 Interim Sustained effectiveness 07/08/2018 Full Good 02/11/2017 Full Good Inspection report children’s home: 1257289 3

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Recommendations

 Children’s homes should be nurturing and supportive environments that meet the needs of the 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, accumulations of waste paper inside the radiator vents must be removed and all stair treads must be properly secured to avoid trip hazards. The chipped paintwork on walls in the communal areas should be repainted.  The registered person should ensure that, in line with their individual health plans and the ethos of the home, children are offered advice, support and guidance on health and well-being. Staff should have the relevant skills and knowledge to be able to help children understand in key areas of health and well-being such as sexual relationships and sexual health. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 35, paragraph 7.18)

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Recommendations

In particular, staff should be knowledgeable about adolescence and puberty in children with complex needs and work in partnership with parents and schools to provide timely and appropriate advice to those children.  Staff should be familiar with the home’s policies on record keeping and understand the importance of careful and clear recording. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 62, paragraph 14.4)

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children participate safely in a broad range of exciting activities inside the home and in the community. Children have fun visiting farms and parks and they enjoy cooking, painting and karaoke singalong. The home’s annual summer party adds to their experiences. Where appropriate, staff and children use public transport to travel to community activities, which helps children develop their confidence and social integration skills.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff make very good use of interactive technology in the home. Children can choose their favourite music using the newly installed voice-controlled smart speakers in the communal rooms. In addition, the mobile interactive floor projector enables children to have fun while learning.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

During their short breaks, children make good progress from their starting points. Staff Inspection report children’s home: 1257289 4 praise the children and award them with stars for their achievements. Children are helped to develop their independence skills such as learning to make a sandwich or helping to set the dinner table.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff understand children’s individual communication styles. Staff’s attention to the children’s body language alongside the extensive use of picture exchange systems ensures that staff provide children with care that is dynamic and responsive. Children are successfully encouraged to feed back at the end of each short-break stay and choose their activities, meals and preferred friendship groups for their next stay.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children stay in an environment that is suited to their needs. A sensory room, soft play area and a large garden provide children with space to explore. Some children sleep in bedrooms that are suitably adapted to meet their higher support needs, while other children choose to personalise their bedrooms with familiar bedding from home. Despite this, the home would benefit from some redecoration, radiator vents contained debris, and some stair treads were not securely fixed to carpets.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff’s effective use of social stories and visual planners helps minimise the challenges children may experience during transitions. Children are helped to understand when it is a school day, when it is a short-break stay and when they will return home. This practice is enhanced by the children’s individualised resource boxes, which contain their favourite and familiar toys, which help them settle when they stay at the home.

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

Children do not go missing from the home. Individual risk assessments inform staff how to keep children safe. Staff always accompany children in the community to ensure that they are kept safe without limiting the children’s experiences.

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

Staff are risk aware but not risk averse. For example, with detailed planning and staff’s consultation and agreement with a parent, a child with a high risk of running away was enabled to enjoy a supervised walk in the park without the need for his safety harness.

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

Positive behaviour support plans help staff respond to children with more complex needs. Staff proactively identify any child’s challenging behaviour triggers and re- direction or de-escalation techniques are successful. There have been no incidents of physical restraint since the last inspection.

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

Collaborative work undertaken with parents is highly effective. The responsible individual and registered manager have delivered a positive behaviour support training course to parents. The parents have now created their own positive behaviour support plans for their children at home. Parents said that this has been very helpful.

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

Children’s keyworkers meet parents on a regular basis. Keyworkers provide parents with their children’s essential updates and comprehensive advice and guidance on supporting any concerns or challenging behaviours at home. Inspection report children’s home: 1257289 5 Nurse specialists provide in-house training to the staff team. This ensures that every child’s specific health needs are met. Staff also consider children’s emotional health to be as important as their physical health. Keywork sessions help children to understand their feelings. However, staff’s knowledge of the impact of adolescence and puberty on children with complex needs is not sufficiently detailed.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Formal staff training is up to date and effective. Staff said that the training that they receive is very helpful, and it evolves to ensure that they can meet the needs of all the children who stay in the home. Staff are encouraged to develop their wider skills and responsibilities in the home. They manage their own staffing rota and help update some of the home’s key documents. However, some case records inspected contained inaccurate information.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The responsible individual, registered manager and staff team share their knowledge and experience with the wider community. Local families who do not access the short- break service benefit from staff’s home visits, which provide them with support and advice.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The responsible individual has provided behaviour support training to a local children’s day care centre. There are also plans to provide training to the local authority children’s social care teams in areas such as autism and specialist communication skills for communicating with children with complex needs.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Feedback received from staff confirmed that they hold the registered manager and responsible individual in high regard. Comments noted that they value the support and advice given to them both informally and during their regular supervision sessions. Staff are positive about the openness and availability of the management team and value managers’ support and advice.

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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 Inspection report children’s home: 1257289 6 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: 1257289 7

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Children’s home details

Registered provider: Ravensbourne Project

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Children’s home details

Registered Manager: application in progress

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Inspector

Victoria Jones, social care inspector Inspection report children’s home: 1257289 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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