Annex A. Request for information at a full inspection of a children’s home

Inspection report children‟s home: SC477205 1 SC477205 Registered provider: Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea

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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 local authority provides this home for up to seven children. In its statement of purpose, the provider states that care is provided for children who have emotional and/or behavioural difficulties. The manager was registered with Ofsted in November 2017. He is working towards a achieving a suitable qualification.

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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 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: good

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good

Enforcement action since last inspection: none Inspection report children‟s home: SC477205 2

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

21/08/2018 Full Good 18/09/2017 Full Good 26/01/2017 Interim Sustained effectiveness 26/09/2016 Full Good Inspection report children‟s home: SC477205 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 independent person must produce a report about a visit (“the independent person’s s report”) which sets out, in particular, the independent person’s s opinion as to whether— children are effectively safeguarded; and the conduct of the home promotes children’s s well-being. Regulation 44(4)(a)(b)) 30/12/2019

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must recruit staff using recruitment procedures that are designed to ensure children’s s safety. The requirements are that— full and satisfactory information is available in relation to the individual in respect of each of the matters in Schedule 2. (Regulation 32(1)(3)(d)) 30/12/2019

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Recommendations

 Ensure sanctions used to address poor behaviour should be restorative in nature, to help children recognise the impact of their behaviour on themselves, other children, the staff caring for them and the wider community. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations, including the quality standards’, pages 45 and 46, paragraph 9.38)  Where the placing authority or another relevant person does not provide the input and services needed to meet a child’s s needs during their time in the home or in preparation for leaving the home, the home must challenge them to meet the child’s s needs (see regulations 5(c)). (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations, including the quality standards’, page 12, paragraph 2.8) Specifically, staff must challenge placing authorities to offer independent return home interviews when children return home after being missing.  Where there is a possibility that a child will run away or go missing from a

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Recommendations

children’s s home placement, their placement plan should include a strategy to minimise this risk. If the child is looked-after, their care plan (arranged by their placing authority) should include such a strategy. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations, including the quality standards’, page 45, paragraph 9.24) Specifically, managers should consider having firmer boundaries in place to Inspection report children‟s home: SC477205 4 disrupt children’s s missing from home episodes as they begin to increase and should work to reduce the overall high number of missing episodes.  For children’s 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 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’ imp impression.

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Recommendations

(‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations, including the quality standards’, page 15, paragraph 3.9) Specifically, review the use of the door alarm which is excessively noisy and how information in the meeting room is presented.  Children’s s home staff should take every step to make sure that individual children and young people are not subject to discrimination, marginalisation or bullying from their peers by virtue of their gender, religion, ethnicity, cultural and linguistic background, sexual identity, mental health, disability or for any other reason. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations, including the quality standards’, page 16, paragraph 3.12)  Sufficient staff means a home having enough suitably trained staff (including someone in a management role) on duty to meet the assessed needs of all children in the home, and that those staff are able to respond to emergency placements, where accepted. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations,

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Recommendations

including the quality standards’, page 51, paragraph 10.1)

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

On moving into the home, most children are involved in a 10-week assessment of their needs by the resident specialist social worker. This assessment informs care planning and evaluates areas of risk, as well as ascertaining if the home is the correct place to meet children’s s needs. There have been no unplanned endings for children since the last inspection. Most children develop good relationships with staff. A child described what they liked about living in the home: ‘That the staff are welcoming and really understanding of situations. They are always around to talk to. The house itself is really inviting and always kept very clean.’ A professional found the quality of care to be ‘co consistently good’. Staff support children well to prepare for semi-independent living. They talk to children about the realities of living alone and without support. Staff have built children’s s confidence and self-esteem so that they are able to embark on new education ventures

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

or apply for jobs. Some children successfully participated in the local authority ’s ‘Skills for Life’ progr programme to further prepare them for adult life. Children benefit from staying in touch with staff after they move to live elsewhere, either informally or through the home’s s outreach programme. Inspection report children‟s home: SC477205 5 Children are fully supported to re-establish family relationships where this is appropriate. Staff help children to understand why they have become looked after so that they can begin to make sense of what has happened to them. Education outcomes vary. Those children who have a school placement are able to continue attending so that their education is not disrupted when they move into the home. Staff work with local authorities to arrange bespoke education packages to help support those children for whom mainstream education is not an option. Tuition is provided as an interim measure for some children while full-time education is sought.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

However, a number of children do not engage well with tuition, meaning that their progress is limited.

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improvement to be good

Staffing is the main issue affecting the home. There has been a turnover of permanent staff and, despite recruitment drives, appointing to the permanent posts has been difficult. Sessional staff cover vacancies. Managers have employed agency waking night staff in response to children’s changing needs in the home. However, staff find that current staffing levels mean that they are ‘stretched’ to do all of their tasks such as engaging with children, completing paperwork, preparing meals and so on. Additionally, some staff said that they feel that they spend too much of their time reproducing records that have already been made, which detracts from their work with children. Relationships between children are generally positive. However, recently there has been some disruption at night and tension between children. One child has experienced bullying due to their special needs. Staff make some use of restorative justice to help

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improvement to be good

children understand the impact that their behaviour may have on others. However, sometimes staff use sanctions which do not seem to have any connection to the behaviour. A missing person coordinator with the police reports that the staff work effectively with them to safeguard children. Some children’s placements were moved out of the borough to try to improve the children’s s safety and protect them from coercion. The number of incidents of children going missing since the last inspection is high. Staff feel that they should take more decisive action at an earlier stage when children start to go missing so that this is not allowed to continue. About half of children who go missing do not receive a return home interview by someone independent of the home. This is a missed opportunity for staff to learn about children’s s reasons for going missing. Staff recruitment is mostly sound. Children are positively involved in selecting new staff.

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improvement to be good

However, files sampled did not include all the evidence required by regulation. Inspection report children‟s home: SC477205 6

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

There is a stable management team that gives good support and training to the staff team. Recent staff team meetings have focused on behaviour management to help the team respond consistently when challenged. Staff are child focused and want to help children improve their lives. There are effective links with external agencies. A social worker described the staff as ‘good role models’ and reported that ‘efforts have been dynamic here’ t to improve a child’s s life. Staff support children to seek advice and guidance for issues which may affect them such as gangs and drugs and alcohol misuse. Monitoring by an independent visitor is useful in helping the service develop. However, the visitor does not give an explicit opinion on children’s s safety and well-being in their reports as required by regulation . Managers keep the building to a good standard and conduct safety checks. However, the door alarm is excessively noisy. This, together with leaflets displayed in the visitors’

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

room, detract from the homely feel of the rest of the home.

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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: SC477205 7

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Children’s home details

Registered provider: Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: Town Hall, Hornton Street, London W8 7NX

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Inspector

Jacqueline Graves, social care regulatory inspector Inspection report children‟s home: SC477205 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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