Children's Home run by Kent County Council in Kent

Inspection report children’s home: SC403850 1 SC403850 Registered provider: Kent County Council

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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 is a local authority managed, short-break service for children and young people. The home caters for up to six children and young people who have complex needs and/or learning disabilities and/or associated difficulties. The home’s manager was registered with Ofsted on 26 November 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 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: improved effectiveness

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good

Enforcement action since last inspection: none Inspection report children’s home: SC403850 2

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

08/01/2019 Interim Improved effectiveness 22/08/2018 Full Requires improvement to be good 06/09/2017 Full Requires improvement to be good 07/03/2017 Full Requires improvement Inspection report children’s home: SC403850 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 registered person must make arrangements for the handling, recording, safekeeping, safe administration and disposal of medicines received into the children’s home.

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Requirement Due date

In particular, the registered person must ensure that— medicine which is prescribed for a child is administered as prescribed to the child for whom it is prescribed and to no other child. (Regulation 23 (1)(2)(b))

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Requirement Due date

In particular, ensure that staff know why they give individual medicines and what they are prescribed for. 29/11/2019

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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. In particular, the standard in paragraph (1) requires the registered person to ensure— the premises used for the purpose of the home are designed, furnished and maintained so as to protect each child from avoidable hazards to the child’s health. (Regulation 12 (2)(d))

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Requirement Due date

In particular, ensure that joint maintenance contracts between the local authority and National Health Service do not hinder timely and/or immediate responses to maintenance work requested by the registered manager. 29/11/2019

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Recommendations

 The home should be located in an area that supports children’s safety, well- being and personal development. The location of the home should support its aims, objectives and ethos, as described in its statement of purpose. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 17, paragraph 3.23) Inspection report children’s home: SC403850 4 In particular, the home’s location risk assessment needs to be a much more accessible document that staff can refer to on a daily basis for both the staff and the children’s continued safety.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children and their families or carers receive a warm welcome when they visit the home. After a day at their school, and on arrival at the service for their short-break stay, the children are greeted by the staff at the front door with a smile and a very warm welcome. The staff are well informed about each child who comes to stay and are prepared well for children’s arrival. They know individual children’s needs, likes and dislikes and plan for a smooth arrival so that the children have an enjoyable and exciting stay at the home.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

The children make friends during their stays at the home. The staff take great care when planning individual children’s stays. They use a dependency criteria system whereby children are awarded points to assess their level of ability in all areas of their lives. This assures a good mix of children and sufficient staff to meet their different needs. Another factor the staff consider when planning is the compatibility of the groups, and, where possible, they use their experience and knowledge of the children to promote peer friendships. This can be seen in feedback to the manager from one child who said, ‘A big thank you to all my friends at (the service). I have enjoyed coming to stay so much over the years and it’s so sad to not be able to again. I won’t forget you all and thank you all for my memory book of pictures.’

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

In this short-break service, the consistent and good-quality care children receive is critical to their experiences, progress and development. This is achieved through a wide range of additional experiences and care, including interaction with peers, opportunities to develop their independence skills and being able to participate in local community provisions.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

The manager and her staff team have focused their development activity on areas such as providing a more colourful and child-friendly setting, increasing the quality and range of sensory, garden and wheelchair-friendly play equipment. The staff have also worked hard to improve the use of different forms of communication, increasing the children’s participation and involvement in making choices. The children make choices about activities, food likes and dislikes and play equipment. The home has a range of excellent communication aids and staff can clearly evidence the link between what children say they want and what they receive. Overall, participation has improved greatly. Consultations with children have resulted in theme nights and an overall improved understanding of children’s views about their stay experience. Families are increasingly being offered new ways to feel part of the home. This can be seen in the

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

introduction of parental workshops and coffee mornings. The registered manager is Inspection report children’s home: SC403850 5 working on developing a sibling group where joint activities and trips can be organised.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children’s health needs are supported through close working relationships between health and social care. Joint planning means that the staff are able to streamline the response to children’s care and needs. The staff work closely with paediatricians and general practitioners to deliver individual healthcare. The in-house health provision consists of health professionals, including medication specialists. This has a positive impact on the children’s quality of life. In particular, the practice educator, who is a qualified and experienced nurse, works as part of the team, offering specialist advice, up-to-date and evidence-based teaching and assessment of clinical skills to the staff team. One area that needs continued monitoring is the staff’s knowledge about individual medicines that they administer to children.

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

The children are protected by a staff team that has a good understanding and knowledge of safeguarding practices. Individual risk assessments and safety plans are comprehensive and regularly updated.

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

The identification, reporting and management of safeguarding is good. All the staff are suitably trained and receive refresher training twice a year. The training provided covers a wide range of appropriate safeguarding areas. The impact of staff training on the safeguarding of children is illustrated by the low number of incidents that occur. Staff have a good awareness and understanding of the protection needs of children who use this service. Intimate care needs are risk-assessed and sensitively managed by the staff team. The staff respond to triggers or changes in behaviour, such as unusual patterns of bruising or injury that may indicate that children could have been harmed. Monitoring systems, in line with the overall safeguarding monitoring, ensure that a suitably qualified and experienced senior member of staff carries out weekly, monthly and quarterly analyses of body maps. Body maps are completed by the staff

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

every time a child stays at the home. The registered manager has good oversight of this analysis and uses it to focus discussion at staff meetings and to identify training needs. Records show that there is a good understanding of the need to escalate if necessary and that there is an awareness of when the safeguarding threshold is reached.

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

For those children who have complex medical needs, all necessary safety arrangements are in place. Medical information is clearly recorded and accessible to all staff to ensure children’s safe healthcare. Emergency protocols are in place and are written by appropriately qualified health professionals.

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

The children are supervised according to their needs, abilities and cognitive understanding. They do not have the chance to go missing due to their close supervision by staff. However, the staff are aware of the missing from home policy and the procedures to follow. The children do not have unsupervised access to the Inspection report children’s home: SC403850 6 internet.

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

The staff undertake regular health and safety checks, supported by external service checks. The registered manager faces unnecessary challenges in getting some maintenance works completed due to the service being jointly run by the local authority and the National Health Service. The service contracts that are in place are confusing and do not always allow for a timely response to problems. If needed, and on occasion, senior leaders do override contractual arrangements in the interests of children’s safety. However, this requires further attention from the provider to ensure that there is a smoother and more timely process in place.

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

Recruitment procedures are robust and meet the required standard. This means that children are cared for by adults who have been properly checked and have gone through a robust selection process.

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

During the inspection, the children appeared to be happy and very comfortable with the staff team.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The registered manager has suitable experience and qualifications to fulfil her role. She has an excellent understanding of the children’s needs, with a clear focus on the children and families’ participation. In the last year she has focused appropriately on the home’s action and development plan. Overall, the manager has had a very positive impact on the service since she commenced. She has a clear vision for the service.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Recruitment measures have proved to be a success over the last year. The home is properly staffed and resourced to meet the needs of the children. Staff are suitably qualified and are able to deliver good-quality services to children and their families.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The registered manager is focused on ensuring that the staff team can offer the best care and service to the children and their families. Biannual training is of good quality. The registered manager demonstrates a continued commitment to the development of the staff team. She is able to identify the skills of individuals, utilise these skills and encourage the staff to continually update their knowledge.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Monitoring of the service is an area the manager continues to improve. She has developed evaluative systems that improve practice and enable the staff to be increasingly reflective. Monitoring informs the manager’s understanding of the strengths and weaknesses of the home.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Staff have warm and positive relationships with parents and carers. This means that families feel confident leaving their child for their stay and they understand what the service can offer. Parents are increasingly involved in the running of the home. There are numerous ways for parents to raise concerns, but they rarely do. The staff are visible and keep parents informed about their child’s stay at the home. Inspection report children’s home: SC403850 7 An established programme of consultation includes monthly meetings, questionnaires for parents and feedback forms for children. Children are encouraged to be involved in and make decisions regarding all aspects of their care. The staff use this feedback well to inform practice.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The home’s location risk assessment is detailed and is updated regularly to include local police statistics for the local area. However, it is not used as a day-to-day resource to ensure that the staff know the risks of the location to themselves and the children.

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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: SC403850 8

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Children’s home details

Registered provider: Kent County Council

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: Sessions House, County Road, Maidstone, Kent ME14 1XQ

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Inspector

Liz Driver, social care inspector Inspection report children’s home: SC403850 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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Inspector

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Inspector

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Inspector

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