Children's home run by Chailey Heritage Foundation

Inspection report children‘s home: SC396813 1 SC396813 Registered provider: Chailey Heritage Foundation

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Full inspection Inspected under the social care common inspection framework

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Information about this children’s home

This setting is owned by a charity and is registered to accommodate up to 27 children who have profound physical disabilities, sensory impairments and complex medical needs, including some with learning disabilities. On site is a non-maintained special school catering for children and young people aged three to 19 years. Adults receive residential care in Care Quality Commission-registered homes on the same site. A team of nurses, therapists and specialists, provided by Sussex Community Foundation Trust, is also based on site and provides medical support.

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Information about this children’s home

The manager was registered with Ofsted on 19 October 2016.

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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 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: 30 October 2018

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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: SC396813 2

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

30/10/2018 Full Good 01/11/2017 Full Good 01/03/2017 Interim Sustained effectiveness 18/07/2016 Full Good Inspection report children‘s home: SC396813 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—

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Requirement Due date

assess 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; help each child to understand how to keep safe; have the skills to identify and act upon signs that a child is at risk of harm; understand the roles and responsibilities in relation to protecting children that are assigned to them by the registered person; take effective action whenever there is a serious concern about a child‘s welfare; and are familiar with, and act in accordance with, the home‘s child protection policies; that the premises used for the purposes of the home are designed, furnished and maintained so as to protect each child from avoidable hazards to the child‘s health.

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Requirement Due date

(Regulation 12 (2)(a)(i)(iii)(v)(vi)(vii)(d)) 18/11/2019

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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 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— use monitoring and review systems to make continuous improvements in the quality of care provided in the home. 18/11/2019 Inspection report children‘s home: SC396813 4 (Regulation 13 (1)(a)(b)(2)(h))

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must recruit staff using recruitment procedures that are designed to ensure children‘s safety.

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Requirement Due date

The requirements are that the individual has the appropriate experience, qualification and skills for the work that the individual is to perform.

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Requirement Due date

In particular, the verification of references must always be recorded to evidence that safer recruitment principles have been followed. 18/11/2019

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must complete a review of the quality of care provided for children (―a quality of care review‖) at least once every 6 months.

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Requirement Due date

In order to complete a quality of care review the registered person must establish and maintain a system for monitoring, reviewing and evaluating— the quality of care provided for children; the feedback and opinions of children about the children‘s home, its facilities and the quality of care they receive in it; and any actions that the registered person considers necessary in order to improve or maintain the quality of care provided for children.

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Requirement Due date

After completing a quality of care review, the registered person must produce a written report about the quality of care review and the actions which the registered person intends to take as a result of the quality of care review (―the quality of care review report‖).

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must— supply to HMCI a copy of the quality of care review report within 28 days of the date on which the quality of care review is completed; and make a copy of the quality of care review report available on request to a placing authority, if the placing authority is not the parent of a child accommodated in the home. The system referred to in paragraph (2) must provide for ascertaining and considering the opinions of children, their parents, placing authorities and staff.

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Requirement Due date

(Regulation 45 (1)(2)(a)(b)(c)(3)(4)(a)(b)(5)) 18/09/2019 Inspection report children‘s home: SC396813 5

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Recommendations

 Each child should have their own personal space which will usually be their bedroom. (‗Guide to the children‘s homes regulations including the quality standards‘, page 16, paragraph 3.18)  Restraint also includes restricting a child‘s liberty of movement. This includes, for example, changes to the physical environment of the home (such as using high door handles) and removal of physical aids (such as turning off a child‘s electric wheelchair). Restrictions such as these, and all other restrictions of liberty of movement, should be recorded as restraint. Some children, perhaps due to impairment or disability, may not offer any resistance, but such measures should still constitute a restraint. (‗Guide to the children‘s homes regulations including the quality standards‘, page 47, paragraph 9.42)  As set out in regulations 31–33, the registered person is responsible for maintaining good employment practice. They must ensure that recruitment, supervision and

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Recommendations

performance management of staff safeguards children and minimises potential risks to them. (‗Guide to the children‘s homes regulations including the quality standards‘, page 61, paragraph 13.1)

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Recommendations

In particular, all staff should receive high-quality, regular supervision.  The registered person should have a workforce plan which can fulfil the workforce related requirements of regulation 16, schedule 1 (paragraphs 19 and 20). The plan should: o detail the necessary management and staffing structure, (including any staff commissioned to provide health and education), the experience and qualifications of staff currently working within the staffing structure and any further training required for those staff, to enable the delivery of the home‘s Statement of Purpose; o detail the processes and agreed timescales for staff to achieve induction, probation and any core training (such as safeguarding, health and safety and mandatory qualifications); o detail the process for managing and improving poor performance; o detail the process and timescales for supervision of practice (see regulation 33 (4) (b)) and keep appropriate records for staff in the home.

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Recommendations

o The plan should be updated to include any new training and qualifications completed by staff while working at the home, and used to record the ongoing training and continuing professional development needs of staff – including the home‘s manager. (‗Guide to the children‘s homes regulations including the quality standards‘, page 53, paragraph 10.8) Inspection report children‘s home: SC396813 6

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff provide children with good-quality, well-planned care. They are child-focused, nurturing, respectful and treat children with dignity. Staff know children well and form good relationships and rapport with them. Children are offered choice and their independence is promoted wherever possible. They have access to advocacy services and an independent person. Children appear happy and staff are attentive to their needs.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Some plans are very detailed and contain current practical advice and information that supports staff in meeting children‘s needs. Others are not up to date and do not reflect recent changes to care plans. Some plans and targets do not evidence that they have been regularly reviewed. However, most children do have targets which they understand, and, in one example, a child was very keen to show the inspector how they are able to meet one of their current targets.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

The home has some shared bedrooms. The senior management team aims to move away from these arrangements over the coming years but currently not all children have access to their own allocated personal space.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children access a wide variety of activities which include bowling, swimming, holidays, meals out, community activities, sensory play, yoga and attending concerts. They frequently access the local community resources and services. This adds to the children‘s sense of belonging and gives them experiences and opportunities to increase their self- confidence and esteem. There is a wealth of facilities for children to experience on site, including a swimming pool, café and small farm.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

All children currently attend the school which is based on the same site as the home. Attendance levels are good and there is effective communication between the home and the school. Transitions between the school and home are seamless.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

All children require a high level of healthcare and support. Some children have complex healthcare needs and these are fulfilled by well-trained staff in the home. These staff work alongside nurses who are also based at the home in order to meet children‘s complex health needs. However, the information sharing between care staff and the nursing team is not always comprehensive or timely. Senior managers have already identified this area for development and have a plan in place to improve communication.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children are supported to maintain contact with their families and friends while at the home and staff maintain regular communication with families.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff support children using a wide variety of communication aids and tools. Staff are knowledgeable and help each child to develop specific communication strategies. Staff encourage children to use communication aids to let them know when they are upset or Inspection report children‘s home: SC396813 7 anxious, enabling staff to respond appropriately and help children to become calmer.

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improvement to be good

Leaders and managers have taken steps to establish a strong safeguarding culture and ethos in the home. However, this ethos is not fully embedded because there have been two concerns which staff did not report and refer in line with the home‘s policy and procedure. Although managers took appropriate action when concerns arose about staff practice, and reported these concerns to relevant professionals, records do not detail a clear evidence trail of managers‘ actions, decisions, rationale and outcomes. Managers did not clearly record, before a member of staff was moved to another area of the home, risk assessments or risk management strategies to ensure that the risks were understood and were being properly managed. Managers did not complete documented investigations or reviews of staff practice to identify whether lessons could be learned or a change to practice was required. The discussions that took place between leaders and

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improvement to be good

managers were not recorded. Following weaknesses being identified, managers did not ensure that staff reviewed or updated their safeguarding training.

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improvement to be good

There is no specific risk assessment or plans in place to consider the use of equipment that restricts a child‘s movement, for example, high-sided beds. Staff use closed circuit television at night with parental consent. During the inspection, it was noted that staff had used this at other times such as during the evening but plans and consents did not reflect this.

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improvement to be good

There is an inconsistent use of the impact risk assessments that are completed for children who share bedrooms. In one instance, this was completed after a child began sharing a bedroom. However, for some children, assessments are detailed and explore children‘s relationships and individual personal care routines.

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improvement to be good

Each child has a positive behaviour support plan which details what staff do to support children and how they should do this. Staff are trained in the home‘s preferred method of behaviour management and avoid the use of physical intervention. They do not routinely give sanctions to children, but they do recognise and reward children‘s achievements through the ‗Wow system‘. It is positive that there is more of an emphasis on celebrating positive behaviour than giving sanctions for negative behaviour.

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improvement to be good

The home environment is generally well managed and safe, although during the inspection some fluids were found not to have been stored securely. It was also noted that staff were not following the guidance from a fire risk assessment that stated that the home should not have combustibles in the laundry rooms. Cleaning cloths were found to be placed around hot pipes for drying. Immediate action was taken during the inspection to address these shortfalls.

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improvement to be good

Staff apply good safer recruitment processes. References are verified but this is not consistently recorded. Steps have been taken to address this. Inspection report children‘s home: SC396813 8

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

The manager demonstrates pride in his staff and holds them in high regard. Leaders and managers have a good understanding of the individual needs of each child who stays at the home and are clear about what is required to care for them well.

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

The managers‘ monitoring and evaluation systems are not effective. They have not identified all the weaknesses that are present in the home, nor have managers sustained improvements to address previous weaknesses and requirements. During the inspection, areas of weakness were identified which the manager was not aware of. The manager does have a clear improvement plan with actions and deadlines to complete tasks although he had relied on others for information and had not ensured that the information was up to date. The manager has not completed reviews of the home or submitted them to Ofsted.

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

There have been staff shortages in the home; there is currently approximately a 30% vacancy rate. Leaders and managers have accessed bank staff and agency staff to address gaps. This has negatively impacted on staff morale and their capacity to complete tasks. There is an action plan in place in an attempt to address recruitment. Managers have also restricted the number of new admissions to the home to alleviate this matter. However, there is no formal workforce plan for the home in place.

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

Regular visits by an independent person are completed. These provide an additional layer of scrutiny and oversight to the home.

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

Staff access supervision but for some staff this is not regular. When supervision does occur, it is of good quality but does not consistently explore safeguarding. This is important to ensure that safeguarding is everyone‘s business and always on the minds of the staff. Staff have their performance formally appraised annually.

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

Staff are inducted into the home well and complete and access a wide variety of training to meet the needs of children. Agency staff also access some of this training, which benefits them. However, some staff have not completed the required level 3 qualification within the expected timescale.

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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. Inspection report children‘s home: SC396813 9 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

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Information about this inspection

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: SC396813 10

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Children’s home details

Provision sub-type: Residential special school

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Children’s home details

Registered provider: Chailey Heritage Foundation

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Inspectors

Daniel Healy, social care inspector Suzy Lemmy, social care inspector Amanda Maxwell, social care inspector Inspection report children‘s home: SC396813 11 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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