Children's home run by Exitus Children‟s Care Limited

Inspection report children‟s home: 1255095 1 Registered provider: Exitus Children’s Care Limited Full inspection Inspected under the social care common inspection framework

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Information about this children’s home

This privately owned home provides care and accommodation for up to three young people who have complex needs. The home’s statement of purpose states that staff provide a warm and caring environment, with a focus on building positive, nurturing relationships with all the young people whom they care for. The home offers planned placements and will consider emergency placements.

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Information about this children’s home

The registered manager was registered with Ofsted in July 2017 and is appropriately experienced.

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Overall experiences and progress of

children and young people, taking into account

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requires improvement to be good

How well children and young people are helped and protected requires improvement to be good

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requires improvement to be good

The effectiveness of leaders and managers requires improvement to be good

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requires improvement to be good

The children’s home is not yet delivering good help and care for children and young people. However, there are no serious or widespread failures that result in their welfare not being safeguarded or promoted.

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requires improvement to be good

Date of last inspection: 16 January 2019

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requires improvement to be good

Overall judgement at last inspection: improved effectiveness

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requires improvement to be good

Enforcement action since last inspection: none Inspection report children‟s home: 1255095 2

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

16/01/2019 Interim Improved effectiveness 01/05/2018 Full Good 06/11/2017 Full Requires improvement to be good Inspection report children‟s home: 1255095 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

In meeting the quality standards, the registered person must, and must ensure that staff–

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Requirement Due date

seek to involve each child’s placing authority effectively in the child’s care, in accordance with the child’s relevant plans;

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Requirement Due date

seek to secure the input and services required to meet each child’s needs; and

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Requirement Due date

if the registered person considers, or staff consider, a placing authority’s or a relevant person’s performance or response to be inadequate in relation to their role, challenge the placing authority or the relevant person to seek to ensure that each child’s needs are met in accordance with the child’s relevant plans. (Regulation 5(a)(b)(c)) 17/01/2020

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Requirement Due date

The education standard is that children make measurable progress towards achieving their educational potential and are helped to do so.

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Requirement Due date

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

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Requirement Due date

help each child to achieve the child’s education and training targets, as recorded in the child’s relevant plans;

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Requirement Due date

maintain regular contact with each child’s education and training provider, including engaging with the provider and the placing authority to support the child’s education and training and to maximise the child’s achievement; and

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Requirement Due date

help each child to attend education or training in accordance with the expectations in the child’s relevant plans. (Regulation 8(1), (2)(a)(i)(vi)(x)) 17/01/2020

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Requirement Due date

The positive relationships standard is that children are helped to 17/01/2020 Inspection report children‟s home: 1255095 4 develop, and to benefit from, relationships based on–

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Requirement Due date

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

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Requirement Due date

help each child to understand, in a way that is appropriate according to the child’s age and understanding, personal, sexual and social relationships, and how those relationships can be supportive or harmful; and

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Requirement Due date

help each child to develop the understanding and skills to recognise or withdraw from a damaging, exploitative or harmful relationship. (Regulation 11(1)(a), (2)(a)(vi)(vii)(viii)) The leadership and management standard is that the registered person enables, inspires and leads a culture in relation to the children’s home that–

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Requirement Due date

helps children aspire to fulfil their potential; and

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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

ensure that staff have the experience, qualifications and skills to meet the needs of each child; and

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Requirement Due date

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)) 17/01/2020

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Requirement Due date

After consultation with the fire and rescue authority, the registered person must–

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Requirement Due date

take adequate precautions against the risk of fire, including the provision of suitable fire equipment in the children’s home. (Regulation 25(1)(a))

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Requirement Due date

This relates to carrying out in a timely manner the work that has been recommended in the fire safety officer’s risk assessment. 17/01/2020

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must recruit staff using recruitment procedures that are designed to ensure children’s safety. The registered person may only– 17/01/2020 Inspection report children‟s home: 1255095 5 employ an individual to work at the children’s home; or

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Requirement Due date

if an individual is employed by a person other than the registered person to work at the home in a position in which the individual may have regular contact with children, allow that individual to work at the home,

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Requirement Due date

if the individual satisfies the requirements in paragraph (3).

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Requirement Due date

the individual has the appropriate experience, qualification and skills for the work that the individual is to perform.

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Requirement Due date

For the purposes of paragraph (3)(b), an individual who works in the home in a care role has the appropriate qualification if, by the relevant date, the individual has attained–

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Requirement Due date

the Level 3 Diploma for Residential Childcare (England) (“the Level 3 Diploma”); or

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Requirement Due date

a qualification which the registered person considers to be equivalent to the Level 3 Diploma.

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Requirement Due date

in the case of an individual who starts working in a care role in a home after 1st April 2014, the date which falls 2 years after the date on which the individual started working in a care role in a home; or

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Requirement Due date

in the case of an individual who was working in a care role in a home on 1st April 2014, 1st April 2016. (Regulation 32(1), (2)(a)(b), (3)(b), (4)(a)(b), (5)(a)(b)) The registered person must ensure that–

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Requirement Due date

within 48 hours of the use of the measure, the registered person, or a person who is authorised by the registered person to do so (“the authorised person”)–

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Requirement Due date

has spoken to the user about the measure; and

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Requirement Due date

the effectiveness and any consequences of the use of the measure; and has signed the record to confirm it is accurate. (Regulation 35(3)(b)(i)(ii)(vii)) 17/01/2020 Inspection report children‟s home: 1255095 6 The registered person must notify HMCI and each other relevant person without delay if–

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Requirement Due date

there is any other incident relating to a child which the registered person considers to be serious. (Regulation 40(4)(e)) 17/01/2020

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Recommendations

 For most-looked after children, many of these planning duties fall to the placing authority. The registered person should ensure that they and their staff engage proactively with the placing authority to contribute fully to the relevant plans for the child’s care on an ongoing basis. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 56, paragraph 11.3) This relates to the registered manager and staff not acting on the recommendation made at the young person’s statutory review.  The registered person must have systems in place so that all staff, including the manager, receive supervision of their practice from an appropriately qualified and experienced professional, which allows them to reflect on their practice and needs of the children assigned to their care. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 61, paragraph 13.2) In particular, the registered manager must ensure that all staff receive regular,

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Recommendations

practice-related supervision.  The home’s records on each child represent a significant contribution to their life history. Children and their parents should be supported to understand the nature of records kept by the home and how to access them. Staff should understand their important role in encouraging the child to reflect on and understand their history, according to their age and understanding. Staff should keep and encourage children to keep appropriate memorabilia of the time spent living at the home and help them record significant events. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 62, paragraph 14.5) Inspection report children‟s home: 1255095 7

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improvement to be good

Young people enjoy living in a home environment that is full of warmth and is welcoming. Young people are cared for by staff who show nurture in their practice and want to help each young person to thrive physically, emotionally and socially. However, a breakdown in communication between the staff and the registered manager can sometimes leave young people vulnerable. For example, after a young person was discharged from hospital, there was no coordinated response to follow up with other professionals the requirement to hold a multi-professional meeting. This has the potential to compromise the young person‟s ongoing care plan.

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improvement to be good

Young people‟s school attendance varies. For example, one young person has sustained excellent college attendance and, as a result, is making good educational progress. However, another young person receives only a few hours of education per day from a visiting tutor. Although this is a temporary measure, the young person is not receiving adequate education.

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improvement to be good

Although staff show nurture in their everyday interactions with young people, this does not translate into applying life-story work, such as by helping young people to gather positive memorabilia from their time at the home. There is an over-reliance on giving this responsibility to the young person to gather their own information, and sometimes at their own cost. This represents a missed opportunity for staff to show young people just how much they are cared about.

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improvement to be good

Staff do not always ensure that the recommendations raised at statutory reviews are promptly actioned. For example, staff have failed to promptly provide hair products for one young person.

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improvement to be good

Staff help and support young people to stay in touch with their families and friends. This enables young people to rebuild and maintain important relationships.

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improvement to be good

Young people‟s risk assessments are not child-centred. This makes it difficult for staff to prioritise young people‟s specific risks.

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improvement to be good

Staff respond well when a young person goes missing from the home. Staff act quickly to try to locate the young person and work well with the young person‟s placing authority and the police to reduce the risks.

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improvement to be good

Staff do not use key-work sessions with young people effectively. For example, when one young person entered a potentially harmful relationship, the staff were far too slow to use their skill to carry out a key-worker session to help the young person to better Inspection report children‟s home: 1255095 8 understand the dangers. This delay resulted in staff missing the opportunity to bring in early help.

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improvement to be good

The registered manager has not taken adequate steps to act on the recommendations raised by the fire safety officer. Ofsted has made a referral to the fire and rescue service, following this inspection, so that additional clarity can be sought.

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

The registered manager is passionate about the young people in her care. However, she does not always use her monitoring and review systems effectively to help her to drive ongoing improvement. For example, she has not identified that some physical intervention records do not contain all the information required by regulation. This means that, when staff use physical intervention, there is insufficient managerial oversight to check that their practice is proportionate and safe.

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

Staff receive formal, practice-related supervision to discuss their performance and learning. However, these sessions are not always regular. This creates a missed opportunity to help the staff to develop their practice.

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

Staff receive a range of mandatory and additional training. This has recently included training to improve their understanding of self-harming, including how to use ligature cutters if these are needed. This provides staff with additional knowledge and skills on how to keep young people safe.

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

The registered manager has forgotten to notify Ofsted of one significant incident. As a result, the regulator has not been able to carry out regulatory surveillance between inspections effectively.

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

Only four out of 10 staff are qualified with the level 3 diploma in residential childcare. In addition, one member of staff has not completed their level 3 qualification within the required timescale. Consequently, young people do not always have staff on duty who are suitably qualified in residential childcare. Inspection report children‟s home: 1255095 9

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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 difference 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: 1255095 10

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Children’s home details

Registered provider: Exitus Children’s Care Limited

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: 1st floor, 2 Woodberry Grove, Finchley, London N12 0DR

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Inspector

Patrick McIntosh, social care inspector Inspection report children‟s home: 1255095 11 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 looked after children, safeguarding and child protection.

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Inspector

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Inspector

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Inspector

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