Children's Home run by Treehouse Educare Limited in West Sussex

Inspection report children’s home: 1241023 1 Registered provider: Treehouse Educare Limited

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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 owned and run by an organisation which also runs a school that is located on the site. The home provides care and accommodation in four houses for up to eight children who have autism spectrum disorder.

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Information about this children’s home

The manager was registered with Ofsted on 26 June 2018.

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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

Overall judgement at last inspection: sustained effectiveness

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good

Enforcement action since last inspection: none Inspection report children’s home: 1241023 2

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

21/03/2019 Interim Sustained effectiveness 04/09/2018 Full Good 21/03/2018 Interim Declined in effectiveness 24/07/2017 Full Requires improvement to be good Inspection report children’s home: 1241023 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 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— ensure that staff have the experience, qualifications and skills to meet the needs of each child; 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)) 01/11/2019

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must ensure that all employees— undertake appropriate continuing professional development. (Regulation 33 (4)(a)) 01/11/2019

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Recommendations

 Children must feel safe and be safe. Staff should support children to be aware of and manage their own safety both inside and outside the home to the extent that any good parent would. Staff should help children to understand how to protect themselves, feel protected and be protected from significant harm. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 43, paragraph 9.9) In particular, staff should advise and educate children on social education topics.  Staff should be familiar with the home’s policies on record keeping and Inspection report children’s home: 1241023 4 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

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Recommendations

quality standards’, page 62, paragraph 14.4)

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children make good progress while living at the home. Staff know each child well and provide them with individual care and support. Children build strong and secure relationships with staff, and are treated with respect and dignity. Staff follow detailed plans which give practical advice, guidance and information that enable them to provide consistent, good-quality care.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

All children attend the school which is on the same site as the home. All children attend regularly and they make good progress within their individual capabilities. Staff help children with their homework and support them to take part in various activities and be involved in the routines of the home. Children have been supported well to achieve qualifications and to cope with the demands of study.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children are offered a wide variety of activities and opportunities, and the recent holiday was a great success. Children are given lots of opportunities to choose and plan their weekly activities, hobbies and clubs. Children are well supported to prepare for adulthood. Staff encourage children to develop a wide variety of skills that benefit them in their preparation for independence and adulthood. Children can describe what they are practising and developing in order to improve their life skills.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff support children to meet their physical and emotional health needs and children attend regular health appointments. Staff refer children to specialist health services when necessary. Children also access specialist support and help from the therapist who is attached to the school. All children are encouraged to access art therapy and this supports them to express their feelings in a safe environment. Staff have regular conversations and key-work sessions with children; they talk with children about their feelings, wishes and the challenges they experience. Staff listen and advise children on how to manage their feelings. Staff provide children with informative education on how to stay safe. However, there is little evidence to show that staff regularly speak with children about sex education and how to stay safe when using the internet.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

The ‘Children’s Guide’ provides easy-to-understand information about the home’s routines, and details about how to access advocacy and how to make a complaint. All children know how to voice their opinions and views. The recent introduction of an independent listener who visits the home regularly has provided another person Inspection report children’s home: 1241023 5 who children can speak with if they wish. Children are fully engaged in making decisions about the home, activities, menus and how the home is presented. Because of this, children care about the home and take pride in it.

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

Staff have good knowledge and understanding of risk, and what is needed to manage and minimise risk. Children have developed good relationships of trust with staff and seek their support, advice and guidance when worried or upset. Staff complete a wide variety of assessments and risk management plans that they follow if the need arises. These plans provide practical strategies that support staff to manage and minimise risk. Children have individual risk management plans that focus on specific risks and risk-taking behaviours, including self-harm, child sexual exploitation and going missing.

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

Staff have good knowledge and understanding of what to do when a concern arises. They have referred concerns to other professionals and records detail the actions taken and outcomes. No complaints or allegations have been made since the previous inspection. Staff have good knowledge of who to speak with if they are concerned, although they have not completed refresher safeguarding training since their inductions into the home, which in some cases were over two years ago. Managers have not used all staff development opportunities to ensure that safeguarding knowledge is up to date and current.

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

Staff are trained in the home’s preferred method of behaviour management. Each child has a behaviour support plan that describes what may cause them to become distressed and how best to support them to become calm. Children are rarely physically restrained. Staff use a wide variety of strategies that prevent children from becoming distressed or upset. When physical intervention has been used, it has been as a last resort and for a short period of time, generally for no longer than a minute. Records demonstrate that children are encouraged to explore their feelings about the intervention and consider what they may do differently next time. Staff review their practice, although some records are reviewed by a member of staff who was involved in the behaviour management approach, potentially reducing the independence of this monitoring. Children’s achievements are celebrated and rewarded. Occasionally consequences are given, and these are appropriately linked

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

The physical environment of the home has undergone some repair and redecoration, but some areas still need improvement. During the inspection it was noted that a fire risk assessment had not yet been acted upon. This was rectified during the inspection and these works were completed within the required timescales. The home’s development plan has not been updated to reflect the areas that continue to require improvement and repair.

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

Staff are vetted appropriately before commencing employment in the home. Inspection report children’s home: 1241023 6

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good

The registered manager has not ensured that he has effective systems in place to monitor and review the quality of care provided by the home. The home’s development plan has not been regularly reviewed and updated to ensure that it reflects the home’s current strengths and weaknesses, or how and when any shortfalls will be addressed.

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good

The recent discharge of a child from the home has not been thoroughly explored or reviewed. The manager attended meetings to review the child’s needs and how these would be met, but the home’s records do not reflect this. The manager has not ensured that his decisions and the rationale behind actions completed are evidenced within the child’s records.

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good

Staff are well motivated and have good knowledge, understanding and insight regarding children’s needs. The home is achieving its goals as described in the home’s statement of purpose. Staff work closely with the other professionals based in the school that is located on the same site as the home.

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good

Staff reported that they are well supported through regular supervision, but records do not evidence that safeguarding is routinely explored or discussed and managers do not routinely record that they have explored the staff’s well-being. Staff are appraised annually, but records do not evidence that this process has been used to develop and progress the staff’s skills.

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good

Staff access basic training when they are inducted into the home, but they have not routinely refreshed or updated their safeguarding or child protection training. Also, staff have not received training to support them to meet children’s specific needs around areas such as self-harm. Staff who have been working in the home for over two years have achieved the required qualification. Inspection report children’s home: 1241023 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 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: 1241023 8

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Children’s home details

Registered provider: Treehouse Educare Limited

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: Boldings Brook, Dorking Road, Warnham, Horsham RH12 3RZ

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Inspectors

Amanda Maxwell: social care inspector Daniel Healy: social care inspector, day 2 Inspection report children’s home: 1241023 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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Inspectors

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Inspectors

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Inspectors

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