New Park Project (The)

Inspection report children’s home: SC065046 1 SC065046 Registered provider: Beaufort Care Group Full inspection Inspected under the social care common inspection framework

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Information about this children’s home

The home is registered for up to four children. It provides care for children who have emotional and/or behavioural difficulties. The home is operated by a private provider which has three other homes in the area. The manager is new in post and is applying 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 requires improvement to be 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: 11 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: SC065046 2

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

11/02/2019 Interim Sustained effectiveness 19/06/2018 Full Requires improvement to be good 21/02/2018 Interim Sustained effectiveness 05/09/2017 Full Requires improvement to be good Inspection report children’s home: SC065046 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 must comply within the given timescales.

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Requirement Due date

13: The leadership and management standard

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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.

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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

ensure that staff have the experience, qualifications and skills to meet the needs of each child; and

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Requirement Due date

use monitoring and review systems to make continuous improvements in the quality of care provided in the home. (Regulation 13(1)(a)(b), (2)(c)(h))

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Requirement Due date

In particular, develop an effective system for monitoring staff training.

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Requirement Due date

In addition, determine the suitability of having staff who are still in their probationary period in sole charge of the home. 01/10/2019

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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. Children’s homes must comply with relevant health and safety legislations (alarms, food hygiene etc.); however in doing so, homes should seek as far as possible to maintain a domestic rather than ‘institutional’ impression. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 15, paragraph 3.9)  As set out in regulations 31–33, the registered person is responsible for maintaining good employment practice. They must ensure that recruitment, supervision and performance management of staff safeguards children and minimises potential risks to them. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations Inspection report children’s home: SC065046 4 including the quality standards’, page 61, paragraph 13.1)  The registered person must have systems in place so that all staff, including the

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Recommendations

manager, receive supervision of their practice from an appropriately qualified and experienced professional, which allows them to reflect on their practice and the needs of the children assigned to their care. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 61, paragraph 13.2) In particular, ensure that agency staff working at the home receive regular supervision of their practice.  Regulations 35–39 detail the records that must be kept in children’s homes. All children’s case records (regulation 36) must be kept up to date and stored securely whilst they remain in the home. Case records 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) I n particular, ensure that the records maintained on children’s hard copy files are up to date and reflect the records held online.

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Recommendations

Inspection report children’s home: SC065046 5

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children are making good progress. This is evident in their increased understanding and self-management of their behaviours, personal development and progress with their education. Children are growing in self-confidence, which is helping them to become more involved in their local community and in building friendships. Children take part in local clubs and one child is a member of a community action group.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children’s day-to-day experiences are good. Staff support children to take part in a wide range of fun activities that are linked to each child’s interests and give the child new experiences. One child is very proud of having had the opportunity to lead out his favourite football club with his favourite player. Photographs of these positive experiences are displayed around the home.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff have strong relationships with the children and provide children and their families with good support. Staff will supervise visits and family holidays as needed to ensure that these visits are positive experiences for everyone. This has led to children having improved relationships with their families. Parents and social workers praised the staff for their work in this area.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children are doing well in their education and making good progress. Due to the progress that they are making, some children are moving to full-time education in September and another child has now left school and successfully gained employment.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff ensure that children have a comfortable, welcoming home in which to live and thrive. There is ample space for each child and they are involved in the choice of decor and furnishing. Currently, one bathroom has a deadbolt on it, which is an unsuitable lock for use in a children’s home as the door cannot be opened easily in an emergency.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff ensure that children receive the extra support that they may need from external agencies and help them to attend required appointments. Positive feedback was received from external specialist services about the quality of the support that the staff give to children. This support has enabled external agencies to work effectively with the children.

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

Safeguarding arrangements are good, and children say that they feel safe living here. Records relating to safeguarding events have improved and now provide a clear account of the actions taken to keep children safe. Leaders and managers review these events and use the lessons learned to develop and improve staff practice.

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

Behaviour is managed effectively. This has resulted in a reduction in both the number of incidents and the use of restraint. Staff support children in developing their understanding of their feelings and help them to create strategies to manage their Inspection report children’s home: SC065046 6 anxieties. Records of incidents and restraints are of a good quality and information from these events is used to inform children’s behaviour management plans. The manager monitors these events effectively to identify any patterns or trends and uses the information as discussion points at team meetings and staff supervision sessions.

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

Incidents of children going missing from the home have reduced. Staff work effectively with children in developing their understanding of risk and their behaviours that place them at risk. Through individualised safeguarding work with children, children are improving their skills in keeping themselves safe.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: requires improvement to be good

Management arrangements require improvement because, although the leaders have implemented new monitoring systems to evaluate the quality of the work undertaken in the home, they have not identified all the improvement areas noted at this inspection. Since the previous inspection, a new manager has been appointed and is in the process of registering with Ofsted.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: requires improvement to be good

Since the previous inspection, there have been five occasions when staff members in their probationary period have been in sole charge of the home overnight. Leaders and managers are on call, but this is not good practice because the capability of staff in their probationary period is not yet confirmed by leaders and managers.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: requires improvement to be good

The monitoring of staff training is not effective because information about the training that the staff have completed and when they need an update is currently not laid out in an accessible format.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: requires improvement to be good

The quality of records that staff keep has improved. Files are organised, and most of the information is clear and current, providing staff with good information about how to care for children. Staff currently keep two copies of children’s records, one online version and one in a hard copy file. Information updated on the online version is not always reflected in the hard copy file. If this issue is not rectified, it could lead to confusion about which version is accurate.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: requires improvement to be good

The manager has recently started to provide supervision for agency staff. Currently, only two agency staff have received supervision. The remaining agency staff who work in the home have not received supervision as required.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: requires improvement to be good

Overall, the quality of staff supervision has improved. Staff, apart from most agency staff, are receiving good-quality reflective supervision that helps them to improve their practice. Where needed, leaders and managers are effectively addressing staff practice issues in a supportive way.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: requires improvement to be good

Staff have effective working relationships with external professionals, and they appropriately challenge placing authorities when required in the best interests of the children. Inspection report children’s home: SC065046 7

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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 difference 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: SC065046 8

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Children’s home details

Registered provider: Beaufort Care Group

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: 42 Lytton Road, New Barnet, Barnet EN5 5BY

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Children’s home details

Responsible individual: Jennifer Kendall

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Inspector

Wendy Anderson, social care inspector Inspection report children’s home: SC065046 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 looked after children, safeguarding and child protection.

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Inspector

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Inspector

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Inspector

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