Children's Home run by Ownlife Residential Limited in Lewisham

Inspection report children's home: SC025664 1 SC025664 Registered provider: Ownlife Limited Full inspection Inspected under the social care common inspection framework

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Information about this children’s home

This is a privately run children’s home. The home’s statement of purpose states that the home cares for up to three children with social, emotional and behavioural difficulties.

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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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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 good

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good

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

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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: SC025664 2

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

12/03/2020 Full Good 29/11/2018 Full Good 19/02/2018 Interim Not judged 08/06/2017 Interim Not judged Inspection report children's home: SC025664 3

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children are provided with a good standard of care from a stable and committed staff team. Children have developed close relationships and bonds with trusted adults at the home.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children receive good-quality individualised care at this home. Children’s experiences and outcomes are directly influenced by the staff team’s approach and the good leadership and management at the home.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children living at the home often have complex needs associated with previous experiences of trauma. However, children make good progress from their starting points. There are some good achievements for children, such as returning to education, seeking and gaining employment, learning how to regulate their emotions and improved relationships with their families.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children who are preparing to leave the home to live more independently learn basic skills to support themselves effectively in adulthood. These include budgeting, shopping and general household tasks.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children’s health needs are met effectively, and staff are able to manage a range of health conditions. Children enjoy a nutritious diet and learn to develop a positive relationship with food. Children also enjoy regular exercise.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

In response to the pandemic and having to be more home-based, staff encourage children’s participation in activities at the home. As outdoor activities and venues open more widely, a plan of structured events, including go-karting, is being discussed for the summer holidays.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children influence the care that they receive at the home. They have access to independent advocacy. Contact with family and friends is arranged and promoted in accordance with care plans.

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

Managers and staff work in partnership with other agencies, to safeguard children who are missing from the home or at risk of harm in the community.

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

There has been a reduction in the number of episodes of children going missing from this home. There are good procedures in place to manage these incidents, which means that staff know what to do should a child go missing from the home. Safeguarding procedures are comprehensive and fully understood by the staff team. Risk assessments are individualised for each child. However, risk assessments and behaviour support plans do not always contain pertinent and up-to-date information. Furthermore, they do not demonstrate that children contribute to their plans. Inspection report children's home: SC025664 4 The staff team have undertaken safeguarding training, including training on enhanced safeguarding topics such as criminal exploitation, substance misuse and epilepsy awareness. This helps staff to understand how to keep children safe.

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

Consequences that are given to children for negative behaviour are proportionate and appropriate. However, they are not always recorded in the manner expected by regulation. The observations of the manager are not always recorded, which does not allow for future analysis of patterns and trends.

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

Children say that they feel safe living at the home. The physical home environment is well maintained and checked regularly for hazards.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The home is managed by an experienced and qualified registered manager who is competent and child centred. He gives careful consideration to any new admissions to the home.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The managers are child focused, ambitious for children and have high expectations of what children can achieve and of what staff are required to do to meet children’s needs. This ethos drives up standards and ensures that children receive good-quality individualised care.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The quality assurance system at the home includes identifying and reflecting on patterns and trends. The independent person’s monthly reports are used by leaders and managers to improve the quality of care provided to children. However, the quality of care review reports are not provided to Ofsted in a timely manner.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Leaders and managers ensure that staff are safely recruited. Safer recruitment processes ensure that only staff suitable staff are offered employment at the home. During the inspection, staff reported feeling well supported and respected in their roles. Staff also described a good induction process and confirmed that they have access to ongoing online training to support them in their role.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Leaders, managers and staff provide good-quality care to children, in line with the aims and objectives outlined in the statement of purpose. They work well with other professionals and partners who provided positive feedback about the home. One social worker said: ‘The home has been excellent. I can’t fault them.’

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The requirements set at the last full inspection have been met. Inspection report children's home: SC025664 5

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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 complete a review of the quality of care provided for children (“a quality of care review”) at least once every 6 months.

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Requirement Due date

In order to complete a quality of care review the registered person must establish and maintain a system for monitoring, reviewing and evaluating—

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Requirement Due date

the quality of care provided for children;

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Requirement Due date

the feedback and opinions of children about the children’s home, its facilities and the quality of care they receive in it; and

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Requirement Due date

any actions that the registered person considers necessary in order to improve or maintain the quality of care provided for children.

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Requirement Due date

After completing a quality of care review, the registered person must produce a written report about the quality of care review and the actions which the registered person intends to take as a result of the quality of care review (“the quality of care review report”).

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Requirement Due date

supply to HMCI a copy of the quality of care review report within 28 days of the date on which the quality of care review is completed; and

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Requirement Due date

make a copy of the quality of care review report available on request to a placing authority, if the placing authority is not the parent of a child accommodated in the home.

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Requirement Due date

The system referred to in paragraph (2) must provide for ascertaining and considering the opinions of children, their parents, placing authorities and staff. (Regulation 45 (1) (2)(a)(b)(c) (3) (4)(a)(b) (5)) 30 November Inspection report children's home: SC025664 6

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Recommendations

 The registered person should ensure that children are supported to contribute to and have a say in their support plans. Where any child expresses unhappiness with support plans, a record of the child’s response must be recorded word for word. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 58, paragraph 11.19)  The registered person should ensure that children’s written records evidence the progress that children have made since being placed at the home. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 31, paragraph 6.4)  The registered person should ensure that the most up-to-date risk assessment and behaviour support plans for children are placed in their care files. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 42, paragraph 9.5)

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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: SC025664 7

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: Legion House, 75 Lower Road, Kenley CR8 5NH

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Inspector

Juanita Mayers, Social Care Inspector Inspection report children's home: SC025664 8 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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