Children's home run by Castle Homes Care Limited in Hammersmith and Fulham

Inspection report children’s home: SC065378 1 SC065378 Registered provider: Castle Homes Care Ltd

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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 home is part of a large private organisation. It offers care for up to three young people who have social and/or emotional difficulties.

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Information about this children’s home

The manager was registered with Ofsted in 2008.

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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 outstanding

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good

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

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good

Date of last inspection: 6 November 2018

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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: SC065378 2

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

06/11/2018 Full Good 10/01/2018 Full Good 04/01/2017 Interim Sustained effectiveness 27/09/2016 Full Good Inspection report children’s home: SC065378 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 registered person must ensure that within 24 hours of the use of a measure of control, discipline or restraint in relation to a child in the home, a record is made which includes details of any methods used or steps taken to avoid the need to use the measure. (Regulation 35 ((3)(a)(v))

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Requirement Due date

This is in specific reference to sanction records. 06/03/2020

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Recommendations

 Limits on privacy and access may only be put in place to safeguard each child in the home (regulation 21(c)(i)). Any decisions to limit a child’s access to any area of the home and any modifications to the environment of the home, must only be made where this is intended to safeguard the child’s welfare. All decisions should be informed by a rigorous assessment of that individual child’s needs, be properly recorded and kept under regular review. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 15, paragraph 3.10) This is in specific reference to bedroom door alarms.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children are making good progress in all areas of their development. This is because the manager and staff support children well and work closely with family members, teachers and health professionals to obtain the best possible care.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children benefit from the care that is provided to them by a stable staff team. Staff understand the children well, appreciating the implications of their earlier life experiences on their current behaviour and presentation. Children enjoy the time that they spend with staff and have developed positive relationships with them. All the children have lived in the home since the last inspection.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children engage in a wide range of activities with staff, for example camping and Inspection report children’s home: SC065378 4 swimming trips. Staff support children to pursue their individual interests, such as dance and football. As a consequence, children are afforded opportunities to develop their skills. For example, one child supports younger children at her dance school while another has been selected by his local football club to undertake a referee qualification. Children get involved in their local community, for example fundraising for a local homeless shelter. Consequently, improvements in children’s confidence and self-esteem are evident.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Educational attainment is fundamental to the culture and ethos of the home. The development of an education champion role has ensured that staff develop positive working relationships with education professionals. This collaboration means that children are supported to access appropriate education. Staff help children to address any issues that arise in school. As a result, detentions and exclusions have significantly reduced. This approach enables children to overcome barriers to learning, so that academic success can be achieved.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff support children to access health services to meet their physical and emotional needs. When children are reluctant to engage with health professionals, staff are encouraging and persistent. As result, children’s physical and emotional well-being improves. For one child, this improvement has meant that he no longer requires medication to manage his health conditions.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

The manager and staff know the importance to children of maintaining family relationships. They support children to spend positive and safe time with their families. This has meant for some children their contact being extended to overnight stays.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children are encouraged to express their views on all aspects of the home through meetings with staff. Regular individual key-work sessions focus on identifying and prioritising areas of need and risk. Consequently, staff help children to improve their behaviour and discuss any worries.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

The children’s handbook is good. It provides children with comprehensive information on life at the home.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children enjoy living in a comfortable, spacious and very well maintained environment. Children enjoy and take pride in their home. Staff encourage children to take care of their home. This helps children to learn important self-care skills. However, the universal setting of bedroom door alarms does not meet each child’s need, contribute to a homely environment or enhance a sense of belonging for children.

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

Children feel safe and secure in the home. This is because staff are consistent in setting boundaries for children. Behaviour management plans are clear and individual to each child. Inspection report children’s home: SC065378 5 Staff promote positive behaviour. Children have reward systems in place to reinforce positive behaviours. Staff work consistently with children to assist them to make positive choices. Staff are trained in physical restraint. However, no restraints have been used since the last inspection. This demonstrates staff’s commitment to supporting children to manage their own behaviours to good effect.

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

Staff focus on praising and rewarding positive behaviour, which motivates children to respect rules and boundaries and keep themselves safe. Sanctions are rarely used and are proportionate. Staff recording of sanctions, however, does not reflect the steps taken by staff to de-escalate children’s behaviour.

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

Staff ensure that risk assessments are regularly updated and reflect the level of current risk that the child presents. Clear risk assessments help staff to understand and manage potential risks.

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

The risks of children going missing from the home have continued to reduce. No children have gone missing since the last inspection. There is a clear plan if children do go missing, to ensure that staff respond appropriately and swiftly to ensure their safe return.

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

Staff receive a wide range of training to enable them to be able to keep children safe. This is supplemented in team meeting workshops, for example on county lines and self- harm. This ensures that staff fully understand the risks children face.

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

Safe recruitment practice ensures that everyone employed in the home is safe to work with children.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

The home is led by a highly experienced and suitably qualified manager. She has high aspirations both for children and staff. There are excellent internal and external monitoring systems in place. The manager evaluates the quality of care provided to ensure that each child is making progress and that the care provided makes a positive difference. Her passion influences the staff, who share her enthusiasm and drive for achieving the best possible outcomes for children.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

The staff team is very stable. Those who are unqualified are in the regulatory period to obtain their qualification. There is a thorough induction process in place for new staff and an extensive ongoing training package for staff who are employed to work in the home. External training that is specific to the children is sourced appropriately.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

Staff consistently have high-quality supervision which focuses on the needs of children. This means that there are opportunities to reflect and to learn from current practice. The stability of the team supports positive staff morale and there is a desire to improve Inspection report children’s home: SC065378 6 outcomes for children. Staff report that they feel are very well supported by the manager.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

The manager advocates strongly on behalf of children in her care. All professionals speak highly of her work in helping children to achieve better outcomes. They speak positively about her enthusiasm and commitment. Social workers and family members say that staff keep them up to date with any developments and they always feel welcome when they visit the home.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

The manager is very aware of the strengths and weaknesses of the home. She is keen to drive forward improvements. Action has been taken to meet the two requirements and two recommendations resulting from the last full inspection 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: SC065378 7

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Children’s home details

Registered provider: Castle Homes Care Ltd

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Children’s home details

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

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Inspector

Anne Daly, ofsted inspector Inspection report children’s home: SC065378 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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