Children's Home run by Surrey County Council in Surrey

Inspection report children’s home: SC370703 1 SC370703

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Registered provider: Surrey County Council Full inspection Inspected under the social care common inspection framework

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Information about this children’s home

This service is owned and run by the local authority, and provides care, support and accommodation for up to 20 children who have an autism spectrum disorder diagnosis and/or learning disabilities. The home is split into four flats for long-term placements and short breaks.

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Information about this children’s home

The manager has been registered with Ofsted since April 2013.

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Information about this children’s home

Due to COVID-19 (coronavirus), at the request of the Secretary of State, we suspended all routine inspections of social care providers on 17 March 2020.

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Information about this children’s home

We last visited this setting on 16 December 2020 to carry out a monitoring visit. The report is published on our website.

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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: 13 November 2019

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requires improvement to be good

Overall judgement at last inspection: good

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requires improvement to be good

Enforcement action since last inspection: Not applicable. Inspection report children’s home: SC370703 2

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

13/11/2019 Full Good 05/02/2019 Full Good 16/11/2017 Interim Sustained effectiveness 16/05/2017 Full Good Inspection report children’s home: SC370703 3

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improvement to be good

Children are cared for by too many different staff. The use of agency and temporary staff, while currently essential, continues to have a negative impact on the continuity of care given to children. Shifts are being planned effectively, but the need to swap staff to meet some children’s needs continues to prevent other children being with their preferred members of staff. Additionally, some staff’s skills are not sufficient to meet children’s needs. The more competent staff on shift are having to compensate for other staff members’ weaknesses.

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improvement to be good

Staff are not consistently following children’s care plans, and at times they do not appear to know the content of these plans. Approaches to recording and reporting incidents are not followed, and at times information is contradictory across a child’s plans. This leads to difficulty in tracking children’s progress.

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improvement to be good

Staff have improved the way they work with the professional network to meet children’s needs. However, children’s plans do not always show effective joint working with other professionals regarding the agreed approaches to meeting children’s targets. For example, a child’s speech development plan does not show consultation with the speech and language therapist and does not describe the school’s approach to meeting this child’s communication development needs.

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improvement to be good

Children are making progress through their positive relationships with staff. Parents and social workers are complimentary about the recent changes made in the approach to caring for children. Staff are committed to ensuring that children have positive experiences, including an increased number of trips out in the community. The staff’s engagement with education providers has improved and there is increased liaison with the virtual headteacher. Children are beginning to receive more joined-up care as a result.

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improvement to be good

Children are not yet living in an environment where they can flourish. While there has been significant improvement in the decor and condition of many areas of the home, there are still concerns. These include mould and mildew in bathrooms, poor cleanliness in a communal area and undated food in the fridge. Unstable furniture has been removed, although a rocking chair with dangerous moving parts was still in the home. These issues were rectified during the inspection.

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improvement to be good

Staff are not consistently clear about reporting procedures in respect of safeguarding. Often safeguarding is subjective, depending on what staff deem to be serious. There is no clear understanding of what constitutes a safeguarding concern, Inspection report children’s home: SC370703 4 how to record concerns and who to report them to. A recent allegation against a member of staff had not been reported to the managers or fully recorded.

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improvement to be good

Children’s behaviour support plans do not include all aspects of the escalation stages they display. Staff are inconsistent in deciding what should be recorded as a significant incident. Some concerning behaviours are normalised because they happen regularly. This has a negative impact on the monitoring of the behavioural support children require. Physical interventions are used as a last resort. However, the planned use of handheld pads to support one child has not been agreed by a relevant health professional, which means that this practice has not been fully assessed regarding the physical and emotional impact it could have on the. Some staff require refresher training in the home’s prescribed approach to behaviour management.

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improvement to be good

Children’s actions and demeanour show that they feel safe in the home. They are confident and comfortable in their surroundings and with the staff who support them. Workshops are helping staff to increase their understanding of what children’s behaviour is communicating. This has led to a reduction in the number of incidents for some children. The changes in living groups have had a positive impact on the experience of children. Children are now grouped together only if their behaviours and needs are compatible. Staff say that they feel confident about challenging or reporting poor practice, and feel that managers will respond effectively. .

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good

The registered manager has been away from the home for a significant period due to ill health. This, coupled with the change in responsible individual in March 2021, has led to some instability in the home, with staff unsure about when the registered manager will return. A new responsible individual has been appointed and a manager from another service in the local authority is currently providing management support in the home.

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good

The deployment of staff across the home is not fully considered for all shifts. Leaders and managers of the home are aware of who is trained and has the skills to work with each child, but this is not always followed by senior staff allocating who is supporting each child on shift. Senior staff do not consistently know where staff are. For example, a member of staff left the area they were assigned to and this went unnoticed. This potentially left children without the level of support that they need. Shift planning is often lacking and staff do not always work as a team. New staff have, on occasion, been left in charge of agency members of staff.

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good

The induction of new staff does not take into consideration the learning and development styles of staff in terms of their understanding of the children’s complex needs. Some staff do not have the skills or training to fully understand the needs of the children they care for, such as needs that are associated with their diagnosed conditions, and how these may affect their behaviours. Inspection report children’s home: SC370703 5 The quality of supervision records is not consistently good. These records do not evidence that the safeguarding matters relating to children’s welfare are discussed. Supervisors do not always follow up on actions from previous supervisions, particularly with regard to staff training and development.

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good

The acting manager has made significant changes to the processes and procedures in the home. Staff report that she is visible and accessible, and that they are confident about approaching her with any concerns they may have. She has worked extremely hard to improve care practice in the home. The requirements from the previous inspection have been met. There has been a significant improvement in the quality of management oversight and monitoring. In particular, children’s records have been reorganised in order to make information more accessible and accurate. Inspection report children’s home: SC370703 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

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

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Requirement Due date

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

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Requirement Due date

seek to develop and maintain effective professional relationships with such persons, bodies or organisations as the registered person considers appropriate having regard to the range of needs of children. (Regulation 5(b)(d)) 28 May 2021

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Requirement Due date

The protection of children standard is that children are protected from harm and enabled to keep themselves safe.

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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

that the premises used for the purposes of the home are designed, furnished and maintained so as to protect each child from avoidable hazards to the child’s health;

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Requirement Due date

and that the effectiveness of the home’s child protection policies is monitored regularly. (Regulation 12 (2)(d)(e)) 28 May 2021

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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—

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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 work as a team where appropriate; 28 May 2021 Inspection report children’s home: SC370703 7 ensure that staff have the experience, qualifications and skills to meet the needs of each child. (Regulation 13 (2)(b)(c))

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Requirement Due date

The care planning standard is that children—

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Requirement Due date

receive effectively planned care in or through the children’s home; and

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Requirement Due date

have a positive experience of arriving at or moving on from the home.

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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

that each child’s relevant plans are followed. (Regulation 14 (2)(c)) 28 May 2021

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must ensure that the employment of any person on a temporary basis at the children’s home does not prevent children from receiving such continuity of care as is reasonable to meet their needs. (Regulation 31 (1)) 28 May 2021

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must ensure that each employee completes an appropriate induction; and they provide each employee with a job description outlining the employee’s responsibilities. (Regulation 33 (1)(a)(b)) 28 May 2021

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must ensure that all employees receive practice-related supervision by a person with appropriate experience. (Regulation 33 (4)(b)) 28 May 2021

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Recommendations

 The registered person should ensure that the policy for the protection of children from abuse or neglect is available and explained to all staff, whatever their role. The registered person must make sure that all staff are familiar with this policy and act in accordance with it, in particular how to use it to report a concern. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 44, paragraph 9.21)  The registered person should ensure that training in restraint for children’s homes staff fits with the home’s approach to restraint or existing restraint system, and is appropriate to the needs of the children the home is set up to care for. They should see evidence that any restraint techniques the training advocates for have been medically assessed to demonstrate their safety for use in a context of caring for children who are still developing, physically and emotionally. The registered

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Recommendations

Inspection report children’s home: SC370703 8 person should routinely review the effectiveness of any restraint system commissioned. In particular, they should check the medical assessment of the system remains up to date. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 49, paragraph 9.58)  The registered person should plan staffing levels to ensure that they meet the needs of children and can respond flexibly to unexpected events or opportunities. Staffing structures should promote continuity of care from the child’s perspective. If children complain, or give a view on how the staffing structure could be improved to promote the best care for them, appropriate action should be taken. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 54, paragraph 10.15)  The registered person should ensure that staff understand their roles and responsibilities and what they are authorised to decide on their own initiative.

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Recommendations

There should be clear lines of accountability. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 54, paragraph 10.20)

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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: SC370703 9

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: Quadrant Court, 35 Guildford Road, Woking, Surrey GU22 7QQ

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Inspectors

Jennie Christopher, Social Care Inspector Paul Thomas, Social Care Inspector Inspection report children’s home: SC370703 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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Inspectors

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Inspectors

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Inspectors

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