Children's Home run by McRae Residential Care Services Limited in Croydon

Inspection report children’s home: SC025813 1 SC025813 Registered provider: McRae Residential Care Services 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 provides care and accommodation for up to eight young people (boys) who have emotional and/or behavioural difficulties.

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Information about this children’s home

The manager has been registered with Ofsted since 2007.

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Overall experiences and progress of

children and young people, taking into account

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outstanding

How well children and young people are helped and protected outstanding

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outstanding

The effectiveness of leaders and managers outstanding

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outstanding

The children’s home provides highly effective services that consistently exceed the standards of good. The actions of the children’s home contribute to significantly improved outcomes and positive experiences for children and young people who need help, protection and care.

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outstanding

Overall judgement at last inspection: good

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outstanding

Enforcement action since last inspection: none Inspection report children’s home: SC025813 2

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

07/03/2019 Full Good 21/11/2017 Full Good 27/02/2017 Interim Sustained effectiveness 08/11/2016 Full Good Inspection report children’s home: SC025813 3

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: outstanding

Managers and carers at this home provide an outstanding quality of care. As a result, young people make excellent progress in all aspects of their social, emotional and educational development.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: outstanding

Carers value the young people in the home and excel at promoting their positive identities. Daily conversations between the carers and the young people always feature positive praise and encouragement. For this reason, young people grow in confidence and develop greater self-esteem. This is a significant strength of the service.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: outstanding

Young people choose their key worker, which helps to develop positive and respectful relationships between them. Genuine relationships with staff help the young people settle and build trust in the adults who care for them. One young person described living in the home as, ‘like being part of a family’, and said he never wants to leave. A former resident of the home added, ‘They [the carers] helped me be the strong independent person that I am today.’

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: outstanding

Staff prioritise the young people’s education and have high expectations for them to attend their school or college. Carers collaborate quickly and effectively with education providers to ensure that young people have education provision in place.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: outstanding

Young people experience a convivial family atmosphere in the home. Young people help unpack the home’s food shopping, and they offer to bake and cook, alongside joining their carers for a ‘family Sunday roast lunch’. They also enjoy visits from family and friends to the home, which helps to maintain their family relationships.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: outstanding

Carers successfully encourage the young people to enjoy new experiences and to develop additional skills. Examples include young people participating in new carer recruitment interviews, and travelling abroad for the first time to enjoy the home’s annual summer holiday in Europe. Young people also volunteer at their local community’s Christmas food bank scheme. They also make progress in their creative hobbies and enjoy planned activities such as go-karting and trips to the cinema and theme parks.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: outstanding

The large, six-bedroomed home is well maintained and provides a spacious, clean and homely environment. Two semi-independent flats on the top floor offer young people the opportunity to develop their skills to live independently before they leave the home.

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

The carers have an excellent understanding of the risks to each young person living in the home, alongside any potential vulnerabilities that male teenagers transitioning into adulthood may experience. Management of the young people’s risks is highly effective. Inspection report children’s home: SC025813 4 Young people living in the home said that they feel safe. Episodes of missing from the home or substance misuse have substantially reduced. A young person said, ‘I am growing up and changing my ways’.

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

Physical restraint is rarely used in the home, with only one incident since the last inspection. Carers make every effort to avoid criminalising the young people living in the home. Carers’ dynamic use of restorative discussions or reflection opportunities with the young people helps to reduce any challenging behaviours in the home. This helps the young people to maintain positive relationships with their carers and their peers in the home.

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

Young people engage in a bespoke range of online education sessions alongside their individual key-work sessions. Examples include individual advice, support and guidance in relation to the risks of gangs, county lines, knife crime and sexual health. Young people take part in quizzes to further embed their learning and understanding. This increases the young people’s understanding of how to stay safe in the community.

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

Managers and carers do not shy away from ‘difficult conversations’ with the young people. Empowering enrichment activities include the young people’s ‘hard talk’ sessions. Carers’ creative use of linking current issues in the media to the young people’s experiences is innovative, and helps keep subjects such as bullying, child sexual exploitation and race discrimination relevant to the young people’s everyday lives.

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

Young people’s weekly planners link into their behaviour reward targets. Individualised examples of positive behaviour such as going to school, returning home on time and settling in bed are suitably rewarded. The incentives are highly effective and the young people develop better routines.

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

Carers’ meticulous care and attention to the young people’s needs include their overall well-being. The young people benefit from carers’ timely referrals to the home’s therapeutic support service and other mentoring services. These early interventions help to rebuild young people’s family relationships alongside improved social and emotional outcomes.

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

When young people move on, carers keep in touch with them. Carers consider the young people’s welfare and provide outreach support and advice to them. A professional described the carers’ outreach support as ‘going above and beyond’.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

The leadership and management of this home are exceptional. The manager has many years’ experience in young people’s residential care. He is dedicated and passionate about improving the lives and outcomes of the young people who live in the home. He is very hands-on while maintaining ‘firm but fair’ boundaries in the home. Inspection report children’s home: SC025813 5 The staff team is stable and is dedicated to the care and well-being of the young people living in the home. Carers’ professionalism is enhanced by their patience and commitment. A member of staff said, ‘We want to be good parents and aim to give our young people the very best start in life.’ This is embedded throughout their practice and is evident from the young people’s positive feedback. A professional said, ‘Staff always go the extra mile.’

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

Leaders and managers value the continuing professional development of the carer team. Carers are supported to ‘aim high’ and complete the level 5 diploma in leadership and management for residential childcare. As a result, carers develop extensive and in-depth knowledge in all aspects of residential childcare.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

Carer training is comprehensive. Bespoke training has evolved to help ensure that carers have all of the necessary skills to support the young people in their care. Training on issues such as specialist gangs and group offending, specialist knife crime prevention and advanced level safeguarding means that carers have extensive and detailed knowledge to help keep the young people living in the home increasingly safe.

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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: SC025813 6

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Children’s home details

Registered provider: McRae Residential Care Services Limited

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Inspector

Victoria Jones, social care inspector Inspection report children’s home: SC025813 7 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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