Children's home run by PJL Healthcare Limited in Wealden

Inspection report children’s home: SC486879 1 SC486879 Registered provider: PJL Healthcare 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

This privately owned children’s home is registered to provide care and accommodation for up to five children. The statement of purpose (SoP) states that the home accommodates children and young people ‘with mild to moderate learning disabilities, autistic spectrum disorder, ADHD, social/emotional difficulties and associated challenging behaviours, to include attachment disorders, post-traumatic stress disorders and mental health problems’.

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Information about this children’s home

The registered manager has been registered with Ofsted since August 2019.

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Information about this children’s home

A monitoring visit took place on 10 July 2018, following several serious safeguarding notifications to Ofsted, for which a separate report is available. An additional requirement was made under Regulation 12, the protection of children standard. This was considered at this inspection.

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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: good Inspection report children’s home: SC486879 2 Enforcement action since last inspection: none

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

01/05/2018 Full Good 16/05/2017 Full Good 05/10/2016 Full Good 04/05/2016 Interim Improved effectiveness Inspection report children’s home: SC486879 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 quality and purpose of care standard is that children receive care from staff who—

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Requirement Due date

understand the children’s home’s overall aims and the outcomes it seeks to achieve for children;

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Requirement Due date

use this understanding to deliver care that meets children’s needs and supports them to fulfil their potential.

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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

provide to children living in the home the physical necessities they need in order to live there comfortably. (Regulation 6 (1)(a)(b)(2)(b)(vii)) 09/04/2020

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Requirement Due date

keep the statement of purpose under review and, where appropriate, revise it. (Regulation 16 (3)(a)) 09/11/2019

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Requirement Due date

The registered person may only use devices for the monitoring or surveillance of children if—

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Requirement Due date

the monitoring or surveillance is no more intrusive than necessary, having regard to the child’s need for privacy. (Regulation 24 (1)(d)) 09/11/2019 Inspection report children’s home: SC486879 4

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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’, paragraph 3.9, page 15)

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Recommendations

 Whenever possible, staff in day to day contact with children should include staff from the different gender groups. Where the home’s Statement of Purpose makes it explicit that the home uses staff of one sex only, clear guidance will need to be in place and followed as to how children are enabled to maintain relationships with people of a different gender. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, paragraph 10.22, page 54)

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Young people live in a warm, cosy environment where they have been able to decorate their bedrooms according to their individual tastes. Staff have reconfigured doors and pathways so that young people have their personal home separate from office and administration facilities. Young people say that the communal areas could be improved further; for example, by removing some signage. Some minor maintenance is needed, such as some internal high-level dusting and the maintenance of gutters and drains externally. Senior leaders have identified the need to relocate the laundry room, which is currently in an external building. This will require some reconfiguration of the kitchen area but there is no clear timescale to complete this work.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff demonstrate a wisdom in their approach. For example, they use a pet therapist who brings a variety of animals into the home for the young people to pet. Some young people, who previously have been cruel to animals, are able to stroke them and play with them appropriately. Staff may bring in their new-born babies for young people to cuddle. Young people, who have historically found it hard to show love, are able to demonstrate affection to the babies.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff know how to put on a party. Young people who have never had a birthday party or have unpleasant memories of key moments in their life are able to build momentous memories. Young people can invite the people who are important in their lives to come and celebrate such events. This includes having a sleepover for their friends. When asked if the friendships and relationships are good, a young person said, ‘Defo’.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

The appointment of an activities and goals coordinator has been a success. She ensures that goals are precise, laying out the necessary steps for young people to achieve them. The results are astonishing. Young people lose weight, feel better about themselves, Inspection report children’s home: SC486879 5 take a pride in their personal appearance, travel independently, budget for and prepare their own meals and get a paid job. Young people have a newly found confidence that enables them to make friends, some from a starting point of having no friends. Young people engage with other professionals, such as the looked after child nurse, for the first time.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff demonstrate an understanding of the underlying psychological reasons for young people’s behaviour. They respond appropriately, in a calm, loving fashion, allowing young people to express their painful emotions. A professional said, ‘(Name) has made excellent use of the nurturing environment in the home.’ A statutory report stated that the approach of staff enables a young person to ‘bounce back quickly from her unresolved trauma’. Young people who have behaviour such as self-harming make significant progress. There has not been such an incident for some months as young people improve their emotional well-being.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Young people can see the individuals who are important to them, such as their family. Staff engage fully with this process to make this a positive experience for all. A placing social worker said that the family arrangements could not happen without the support of the staff, speaking in the most positive terms of their approach.

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

The registered manager has considered the requirements made at the monitoring visit in July 2018. She has ensured that there has been learning, such as improving the admissions process and challenging other professionals to provide all the necessary information at the point of referral, before agreeing to a young person coming to live in the home.

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

The registered manager has responded to the previous requirement about electronic surveillance. She has removed door alarms from bathrooms. However, this journey is incomplete. Some bedroom doors have door alarms without clear individual risk assessments to justify their use. Some young people said that they do not like them and do not understand why they are necessary. It is unclear how the use of such a device improves some young people’s safety. Equally, the use of window restrictors is not underpinned by a clear assessment of the risk that justifies their use.

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

Young people learn to trust the adults around them with intimate details of their lives. They are able to disclose, little by little, some of the trauma they have endured. They are confident that the staff will take care of them as they expose this inner disturbance. Other professionals are able to act on this new information.

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

The number of missing from care incidents is small. Staff have an excellent approach when such incidents occur. They search relentlessly for young people who are missing, working with the police and other agencies to ensure a safe return. Staff welcome young people back into the home. They help young people to understand their concern for them; for example, by relating it to an incident when a young person’s pet went missing and how the young person felt about the missing animal. Staff help young people Inspection report children’s home: SC486879 6 understand the impact of their behaviour on the other young people in the home. Consequently, a young person wrote a letter of apology. Staff also help young people to understand the impact on the wider community and especially the police. Young people engaged enthusiastically in a fund-raising project for a police charity, offering free car washes to police officers only. Young people made positive relationships with police who

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

There is minimal use of physical intervention to manage behaviour. Staff use de- escalation and distraction techniques successfully. They record any such interventions to a good standard. The registered manager overviews such techniques to make sure that they are proportionate and appropriate.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The staff team is a strength of the home. Staff are dedicated to meeting the needs of the young people in their care. Their line managers provide the necessary support and guidance. The staff team is predominantly female. Young people would benefit from having male staff caring for them who can role-model appropriate male-female relationships.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The appointment of an induction and rota coordinator has been a positive initiative. She ensures that the right staff are on duty at the right time. The use of technology has made the rota instantly available to staff as well as key messages and appointments. New staff have a mentor available to them for the first six months of employment. The support, training, supervision and guidance means that staff have every chance to achieve the high standards the manager sets.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Staff work well with other professionals to ensure that young people’s needs are being met. They make full use of other agencies who offer bespoke packages, such as healthy living and helping young people understand sexual exploitation. A professional said, ‘It is refreshing to work with professional people.’

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The registered manager and her predecessor have shown good leadership. They have worked on an ethos of continuing improvement. Examples are reformatting documents so that there is less duplication and more efficiency, as well as reconfiguring a former bedroom into a relaxation room. They have shown a good approach to managing staff. Morale is high. The staff team is stabilising and working consistently. A member of staff said, ‘It is a great staff team and the managers are supportive.’

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The SoP is too broad when it describes the needs of the young people that the home can accommodate. It states that the home accommodates four young people when the number registered with Ofsted is five. Senior leaders recognise that the SoP needs to be amended, as well as the category of registration. Inspection report children’s home: SC486879 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: SC486879 8

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Children’s home details

Registered provider: PJL Healthcare Limited

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: Mayfield House, East Street, Mayfield, East Sussex TN20 6TZ

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Inspector

Keith Riley, social care inspector Inspection report children’s home: SC486879 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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