Children's home run by Kent County Council in Ashford

Inspection report children’s home: SC368763 1 SC368763 Registered provider: Kent County Council Full inspection Inspected under the social care common inspection framework

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Information about this children’s home

The home is jointly funded by the health authority and the local authority. The home provides six short-break care residential places for children who have physical disabilities and/or learning difficulties.

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Information about this children’s home

The manager, registered since September 2015, also retains management responsibility for the resource centre attached to the premises.

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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 good

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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: outstanding

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outstanding

Enforcement action since last inspection: none Inspection report children’s home: SC368763 2

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

08/01/2019 Full Outstanding 16/01/2018 Full Outstanding 07/09/2016 Full Outstanding 02/02/2016 Interim Sustained effectiveness Inspection report children’s home: SC368763 3

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outstanding

The staff consider the children as individuals and have built positive and trusting relationships with the children they care for. The children receive highly personalised and innovative care that meets their specific needs. The managers and staff understand the children’s needs and vulnerabilities, and as a result the children make outstanding progress.

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outstanding

The staff meticulously identify key targets in the children’s education, health and care plans. These are translated into daily activities so that the children have every opportunity during their short-break stays to work towards and achieve their goals. The staff team encourages progress sensitively and at a pace suitable to the children. For example, as a result of the staff’s thoughtful work with one child, he can now eat a meal in a restaurant. This has enabled the child to successfully eat a meal in the community with his friends and family.

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outstanding

Skilled staff are relentless in obtaining the children’s views to enable them to contribute to their individual care plans. The children clearly have a voice that is listened to and respected by the staff and managers. The children are also able to share their wishes and opinions on how they are cared for, the activities they take part in, and their environment, through weekly children’s meetings. The home has recently bought a slide for the garden, taken part in ‘art ability’ and made ecobricks to support the topic of recycling.

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outstanding

The staff skilfully provide an excellent range of activities for all the children, to ensure that they participate in life-enhancing opportunities that broaden their horizons. For example, a child was lifted safely from her wheelchair by staff, to enable her to sit in the driving seat of a fire engine. In the home, the children enjoy wide-ranging creative and sensory individual and team activities. Pictorial evidence of children participating in activities is displayed beautifully, promoting a family atmosphere. This shows children clearly enjoying their experiences and participating in meaningful pursuits.

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outstanding

Senior leaders actively promote community inclusion for the children and the most vulnerable in the community. The staff supported the children to visit a local nursing home over Christmas, and they all spent time with the residents who were isolated from their families. Photographs of the children with the nursing home’s residents showed how incredibly life enriching this visit was for all.

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outstanding

Communication and partnership working are excellent and a significant strength in the setting. The home has active and dynamic relationships with a range of healthcare professionals who are part of the team. The staff work diligently with health colleagues who provide training and advice where needed. This collaborative working ensures that the children receive tailored packages of healthcare that meet the children’s complex needs. Inspection report children’s home: SC368763 4

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outstanding

A skilled leadership and management team prioritises the welfare and safety of the children extremely well. Staff are sensitive and insightful regarding the potential for children with disabilities to display challenging behaviours.

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outstanding

The majority of children who attend the service have complex disabilities and medical needs. Some of the children also present with challenging behaviour and have no sense of the danger or risks posed to themselves or others. As a result, managers and the staff maintain full responsibility for ensuring that they are safely cared for and protected from harm. The children’s safety is given top priority. Managers and the staff have a full understanding of each of the children’s known and emerging vulnerabilities.

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outstanding

The staff team responds robustly to any potential safeguarding incident. The staff team’s knowledge of external safeguarding services is comprehensive. The completion of mandatory safeguarding training as part of the induction process ensures that staff have a thorough understanding of safeguarding procedures. The staff are fully aware of the specific vulnerabilities of individual children, and their associated risks. An example of this is a staff member immediately noticing the change in a child’s repetitive language and reporting this to senior managers. Subsequently, this resulted in a clear and swift response from the local authority.

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outstanding

Most of the staff have completed their level 3 qualification, or already have an equivalent qualification. This promotes the staff’s understanding of the children’s behaviours and the challenges they face in supporting the children.

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outstanding

The staff actively encourage the children to take part in frequent fire drills and prepare the children on how to respond immediately to a fire. An example of this was captured in a children’s meeting where the children made a pretend fire from yellow and red cellophane and subsequently completed a full fire evacuation. The night staff complete a comprehensive shift plan on evacuation procedures, dynamically risk assessing the children staying in the setting each evening. However, during this inspection period, no actual night-time evacuation practices have occurred. This is a missed opportunity for leaders to be satisfied that these arrangements would work if needed.

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outstanding

The staff do not use physical inventions with the children often. The staff are trained in de-escalation and distraction techniques which promote the homes ethos and directly contribute to the positive relationships between the staff and the children.

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outstanding

The reporting and recording systems for physical invention are not suitable, as the pre-populated questions on the records are not sufficiently specific. This could lead to information not being recorded precisely and being left open to different interpretations. Inspection report children’s home: SC368763 5

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Leaders and managers are hands-on, highly visible and have a dynamic vision for excellence. To provide excellent services, they lead by example and demonstrate an unquestionable commitment and passion with regard to providing the highest possible standards of care for the children.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The setting’s development plan and comprehensive internal and external monitoring systems focus on improving the progress children make, which leads to excellent outcomes. Managers know their strengths and areas to improve on. This is a continually evolving service with a culture of continuous improvement.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The registered manager has responded positively to the recommendations and requirements made from the last inspection. The home has recently commissioned a local artist to produce wonderful bespoke artwork for the children’s bedrooms and the development plan has been reviewed.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Since the previous inspection, a new regulation 44 visitor has been commissioned by the provider. As a direct result, more recent reports show greater rigour, challenge and meaningful evaluation. While this renewed approach is transparent and clearly focused on reporting to senior leaders about the quality of the care provided, the leaders have been slow to respond and introduce the changes suggested. For example, the recommendation about the format used to record physical interventions has not yet been implemented. In this example, the provider’s tendency to use a blanket approach for all of its short-break children’s homes hinders the registered manager’s ability to make improvements at the time and pace that he wants to.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

This is a service of excellence where there is genuine care and enthusiasm, not just to improve progress and experiences for the children, but also to ensure that they have positive life chances and opportunities as they grow. Inspection report children’s home: SC368763 6

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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

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—

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Requirement Due date

details of the child’s behaviour leading to the use of the measure;

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Requirement Due date

the date, time and location of the use of the measure;

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Requirement Due date

a description of the measure and its duration;

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Requirement Due date

details of any methods used or steps taken to avoid the need to use the measure;

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Requirement Due date

the name of the person who used the measure (“the user”), and of any other person present when the measure was used;

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Requirement Due date

the effectiveness and any consequences of the use of the measure; and

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Requirement Due date

a description of any injury to the child or any other person, and any medical treatment administered, as a result of the measure;

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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

has signed the record to confirm it is accurate; and 05/08/2020 Inspection report children’s home: SC368763 7 within 5 days of the use of the measure, the registered person or the authorised person adds to the record confirmation that they have spoken to the child about the measure. (Regulation 35(3)(a)(i)(ii)(iii)(iv)(v)(vi)(vii)(viii)(b)(i)(ii)(c)(iv))

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Requirement Due date

ensure, by means of fire drills and practices at suitable intervals, that persons working at the home and, so far as reasonably practicable, children are aware of the procedures to be followed in case of fire.

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Requirement Due date

In particular, ensure that night staff and all children accessing short breaks are included in fire drills. (Regulation 25(1)(d)) 06/06/2020 Inspection report children’s home: SC368763 8

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Information about this inspection

Inspectors have looked closely at the experiences and progress of children and young people, 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: SC368763 9

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: Kent County Council, Sessions House, County Road, Maidstone, Kent, ME14 1XQ

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Inspector

Kelly Monniot, Social Care Inspector Inspection report children’s home: SC368763 10 to 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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