Children's Home run by Aspris Children’s Services Limited in Somerset

Inspection report children‟s home: SC465940 1 SC465940 Registered provider: Priory Education Services Limited

p.1

Full inspection Inspected under the social care common inspection framework

p.1

Information about this children’s home

The home can provide care for up to seven children and young people who have a learning disability.

p.1

Information about this children’s home

The home is part of a large private organisation.

p.1

Information about this children’s home

Children who live in this home attend a school run by the same organisation.

p.1

Information about this children’s home

The manager has been registered with Ofsted since 4 November 2018.

p.1

Overall experiences and progress of

children and young people, taking into account

p.1

good

How well children and young people are helped and protected good

p.1

good

The effectiveness of leaders and managers requires improvement to be good

p.1

good

The children’s home provides effective services that meet the requirements for good.

p.1

good

Date of last inspection: 29 October 2018

p.1

good

Overall judgement at last inspection: good

p.1

good

Enforcement action since last inspection: none Inspection report children‟s home: SC465940 2

p.1

Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

29/10/2018 Full Good 30/10/2017 Full Good 25/07/2017 Full Inadequate 01/02/2017 Interim Declined in effectiveness Inspection report children‟s home: SC465940 3

p.2

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.

p.3

Requirement Due date

13: The leadership and management standard

p.3

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.

p.3

Requirement Due date

In particular, the standard in paragraph (1) requires the registered person to—

p.3

Requirement Due date

use monitoring and review systems to make continuous improvements in the quality of care provided in the home.

p.3

Requirement Due date

(Regulation 13(1)(a)(b)(2)(h)) 31/12/2019

p.3

Requirement Due date

The registered person must ensure that all employees receive practice-related supervision by a person with appropriate experience.

p.3

Requirement Due date

In particular, ensure that the registered manager receives regular good-quality supervision from their line manager. 31/12/2019

p.3

Requirement Due date

The registered person must maintain records (“case records”) for each child which—

p.3

Requirement Due date

include the information and documents listed in Schedule 3 in relation to each child; are kept up to date; and are signed and dated by the author of each entry.

p.3

Requirement Due date

(Regulation 36(1)(a)(b)(c)) 31/12/2019 Inspection report children‟s home: SC465940 4 44: Independent person: visits and reports

p.3

Requirement Due date

The registered person must ensure that an independent person visits the children’s home at least once each month. When the independent person is carrying out a visit, the registered person must help the independent person—

p.4

Requirement Due date

if they consent, to interview in private such of the children, their parents, relatives and persons working at the home as the independent person requires.

p.4

Requirement Due date

In particular, ensure that the independent visitor visits the home when the children are there and consistently seeks the views of parents and social workers on the quality of care provided. 31/01/2020

p.4

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’, page 15, paragraph 3.9) In particular, ensure that maintenance issues are addressed in a timely manner.  Records of restraint must be kept and should enable the registered person and staff to review the use of control, discipline and restraint to identify effective practice and respond promptly where any issues or trends of concern emerge. The review should provide the opportunity for amending practice to ensure it meets the needs of each child. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations

p.4

Recommendations

including the quality standards’, page 49, paragraph 9.59) In particular, ensure that the records of conversations with staff involved in a restraint are of a consistently good quality.  The registered person should monitor and review the patterns and trends of turnover of staff, whether agency or directly employed, and be able understand and where possible, address any negative trends. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 54, paragraph 10.19) In particular, ensure that staff rotas clearly identify the designation of staff to assist monitoring. Inspection report children‟s home: SC465940 5

p.4

Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children make consistently good progress. Staff provide children with good-quality care and individualised support. Staff understand each child’s needs, their means of communication and their individual characteristics very well. Staff treat children with respect and dignity.

p.5

Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff are skilled at accessing resources and encouraging activities that support children to develop. Consequently, children develop independence and communication skills and they are helped to re-engage with education. Detailed plans are created; however, one child’s education, health and care plan and personal education plan are not up to date.

p.5

Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

The approach to children’s care is holistic and cohesive. Children are supported by staff to spend good-quality time with their families, and there are positive and proactive working relations with other professionals. Parents commented that they feel listened to by staff who include them in planning their child’s care.

p.5

Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff provide children with a spacious, well-furnished, comfortable home and display a vast number of photographs showing the children’s experiences. Staff and children are improving the rear garden. They have been making planters and bug hotels together, and children have helped to choose new play equipment.

p.5

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

Safeguarding arrangements are good, and referrals to external safeguarding professionals are made in a timely manner. Safeguarding records are well maintained. Leaders and managers review safeguarding incidents effectively and use information from their reviews to improve future practice.

p.5

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

Behaviour is well managed. The manager has reviewed the use of sanctions, and they are now no longer used. Staff focus instead on praising children and reinforcing positive behaviours. This new approach is proving to be effective in bringing about positive changes in behaviour and a decrease in the number of incidents.

p.5

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

Records of restraint are scrutinised by the manager. This has led to an improvement in the quality of restraint records. However, the quality of the conversations with staff after they have been involved in a restraint requires attention, as these are not always of a consistently good quality.

p.5

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

Safer recruitment practices are implemented, and clear records are maintained. The human resources lead is improving the system for managing the recruitment of staff who transfer between the provider’s different services. This is yet to be embedded into practice. Inspection report children‟s home: SC465940 6 Each child has a personal emergency evacuation plan, and children and staff take part in regular fire evacuations. Fire safety equipment is checked regularly, but there has not been prompt action to replace two fire doors.

p.5

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

Leaders and managers understand most of the home’s strengths and areas for improvement but have not taken enough action to address all of them. Monitoring of the quality of care provided has improved, but further work is required to ensure that the current systems are effective.

p.6

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

Since the previous inspection, the quality and frequency of staff supervision have improved. These sessions now allow time for staff to reflect on and develop their practice. The manager effectively challenges staff practice where necessary and supports staff to improve. However, the same quality of provision is not available for the manager, who is not receiving frequent, good-quality supervision to aid his development.

p.6

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

Staff rotas do not consistently provide enough information about the member of staff who is working in the home and do not state whether they are permanent or temporary staff. This does not aid the manager in monitoring the staffing arrangements.

p.6

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

Since the previous inspection, there have been improvements in the quality and recording of staff training. This has helped the manager to improve the monitoring of the training provided. However, the monitoring of timescales for staff completing their level 3 care diploma is not yet consistently good.

p.6

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

Visits by the independent visitor are not consistently taking place at times when the children are in the home. As a result, the contact with children and observations of staff and children’s interactions are very limited. In addition, the independent visitor is failing to consistently gather feedback from parents, carers or social workers. The home has had nine different independent visitors in the last 12 months; this hinders the effectiveness of the visitor’s monitoring.

p.6

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

There has been an improvement in the quality of the records that staff keep, but further improvement is required. Currently, information is stored in several different locations, which causes a lack of cohesion and does not aid the leaders’ and managers’ monitoring.

p.6

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. Inspection report children‟s home: SC465940 7 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.

p.6

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: SC465940 8

p.7

Children’s home details

Registered provider: Priory Education Services Limited

p.8

Children’s home details

Registered provider address: Fifth Floor, 80 Hammersmith Road, London W14 8UD

p.8

Inspector

Wendy Anderson, social care inspector Inspection report children‟s home: SC465940 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.

p.8

Inspector

If you would like a copy of this document in a different format, such as large print or Braille, please telephone 0300 123 1231, or email enquiries@ofsted.gov.uk . You may reuse this information (not including logos) free of charge in any format or medium, under the terms of the Open Government Licence. To view this licence, visit http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/doc/open-government-licence , write to the Information Policy Team, The National Archives, Kew, London TW9 4DU, or email: psi@nationalarchives.gsi.gov.uk .

p.9

Inspector

Interested in our work? You can subscribe to our monthly newsletter for more information and updates: http://eepurl.com/iTrDn .

p.9

Inspector

T: 0300 123 1231 Textphone: 0161 618 8524 E: enquiries@ofsted.gov.uk W: http://www.gov.uk/ofsted

p.9