Children's Home run by London Borough of Hounslow in Hounslow

Inspection report children’s home: SC062128 1 SC062128 Registered provider: London Borough of Hounslow Full inspection Inspected under the social care common inspection framework

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Information about this children’s home

This local authority home provides care and accommodation for up to six children. The home’s statement of purpose states that care is provided for children with social and/or emotional difficulties who have faced significant loss and trauma in their lives.

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Information about this children’s home

The home has not had a registered manager in post since 12 January 2020. The home’s new manager has been in post since March 2021 and has applied for registration with Ofsted.

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Information about this children’s home

Due to COVID-19, at the request of the Secretary of State, we suspended all routine inspections of social care providers carried out under the social care common inspection framework (SCCIF) on 17 March 2020. We returned to routine SCCIF inspections on 12 April 2021.

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Information about this children’s home

We last visited this setting on 2 September 2021, to carry out a monitoring visit. The report is published on the Ofsted 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 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: 20 July 2021 Inspection report children’s home: SC062128 2 Overall judgement at last inspection: inadequate

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Enforcement action since last inspection:

This children’s home was judged inadequate at the full inspection on 20 July 2021. As a result, three compliance notices were issued under regulations 12, 13 and 35. All three compliance notices have now been met. Inspection report children’s home: SC062128 3

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

20/07/2021 Full Inadequate 18/02/2020 Full Good 20/11/2018 Full Good 14/11/2017 Full Outstanding Inspection report children’s home: SC062128 4

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improvement to be good

Children have mixed feelings about the quality of care and relationships in the home. Some children described recent incidents at the home as causing a disturbance to their routine and peace. Two children have recently complained about this and the manager is addressing their complaints.

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improvement to be good

Staff make attempts to resolve issues between children and to build positive relationships between them. However, their attempts are not robust, and the impact is not clear. The needs and risks for one child have changed, but the child’s impact risk assessment has not been updated. This resulted in there being a difficult group dynamic between children. Leaders and managers consider how they can resolve this with mediation meetings and other creative ways involving all children’s social workers.

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improvement to be good

Staff attempt to include children in the running of the home. Children are invited to take part in interviews for new members of staff, attend house meetings and have a say in the food menu and weekly activity plans. However, evidence of this is not clear. For example, actions agreed in the children’s house meetings are not recorded. This makes it difficult for leaders and managers and the inspector to evaluate whether children are listened to and the impact of their engagement in the house meetings.

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improvement to be good

Children’s education, aspirations and interests are supported. Children are offered a wide range of activities. Their art and knitting pieces are displayed in the home. Children learn to live independently and learn basic skills to support themselves effectively in adulthood. These include budgeting, shopping and cooking.

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improvement to be good

The children’s progress is captured in their key-work sessions. However, the aims, outcomes and actions identified during key-work sessions are not recorded clearly. Therefore, the impact of key-work sessions is not clear.

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improvement to be good

Staff communicate well with parents and professionals. Collaborative working with the professional network, such as weekly care planning meetings for some children, has helped staff to understand and meet children’s needs better. Staff write to children in their ‘positive books’, to praise their progress and achievements. This helps children to feel appreciated and valued.

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improvement to be good

The designated officer was invited to, and attended, a children’s house meeting to enable children to voice their concerns. Children know how to make complaint when they are worried about staff in the home.

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improvement to be good

Children live in a warm and welcoming home environment. The home is clean, comfortable, spacious and bright, and is decorated to a good standard. Inspection report children’s home: SC062128 5

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improvement to be good

The risk assessments and care plans for two children are not always updated following incidents. Safety plans do not clearly articulate the action that staff should take if children refuse a bag search to allow staff to remove inappropriate or unsafe items, such as drugs, alcohol or sharp objects used for self-harming. This makes it difficult for staff to understand and follow the plans. The manager acknowledged this shortfall and agreed to take action to ensure that children’s files include a copy of the most up-to-date risk assessments and care plans.

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improvement to be good

Professionals and parents informed the inspector that they feel that staff do not clearly understand and respond appropriately to manage the risks to children in relation to child sexual exploitation, criminal exploitation and mental health. Leaders and managers have arranged additional training in these areas.

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improvement to be good

There is good evidence of multi-agency work with the police when children go missing from home. However, on one occasion, when a child was with their family, the child was reported to the police as being missing from home. This demonstrates that the missing-from-home policy and procedures are not always followed correctly.

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improvement to be good

The recording of incidents has improved. Clear and specific actions are recorded in response to incidents, and strategies are identified to help staff to manage such incidents in the future. The manager and staff have utilised specialist support to reduce alcohol-related incidents for one child.

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improvement to be good

Professionals praised the manager and staff for their commitment to the children, for having a stable team, for their openness to constructive criticism and to learn and develop.

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improvement to be good

Allegations made against staff are reported to the designated officer. The manager implements the recommendations made by the designated officer following allegation investigations.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Leaders and managers are committed to making positive changes for the children living in the home. They are working hard to ensure that each child feels supported, keeping in mind their diverse and variable needs.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Leaders and managers have commissioned a consultant and a psychologist to support the staff team. They also arranged additional training for staff in relation to behaviour management and trauma-informed practice. This has improved the staff’s confidence and has helped them to support children in more creative ways.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Leaders and managers have implemented new templates for risk assessment, care plans, behaviour support plans and key-work sessions. Staff told the inspector that Inspection report children’s home: SC062128 6 these new templates have made their recording easier and clearer. Staff feel supported and listened to by leaders and managers.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Leaders and managers have introduced a new quality assurance framework and audit practice for the home. This is to ensure that they have effective oversight of the quality of practice in the home. This includes the appointment of a new independent person, whose quality assurance reports provide an accurate picture of the quality of practice in the home.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The manager works closely with the local authority’s human resources department to ensure that staff are safely recruited to work at the home. There are currently three staff vacancies, and leaders and managers are currently recruiting to these positions.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Leaders and managers have a good understanding of the home’s strengths and areas for improvement. They have formulated a clear and well-targeted improvement and action plan that demonstrates how they addressed the requirements made at the last inspection. Some of the requirements made at the previous inspection have been addressed. However, four of the requirements have been repeated at this inspection. Inspection report children’s home: SC062128 7

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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 children’s views, wishes and feelings standard is that children receive care from staff who—

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Requirement Due date

develop positive relationships with them;

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Requirement Due date

take their views, wishes and feelings into account in relation to matters affecting the children’s care and welfare and their lives.

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Requirement Due date

In particular, the standard in paragraph (1) requires the registered person to ensure that staff—

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Requirement Due date

ascertain and consider each child’s views, wishes and feelings, and balance these against what they judge to be in the child’s best interests when making decisions about the child’s care and welfare;

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Requirement Due date

help each child to express views, wishes and feelings;

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Requirement Due date

help each child to understand how the child’s views, wishes and feelings have been taken into account and give the child reasons for decisions in relation to the child;

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Requirement Due date

regularly consult children, and seek their feedback, about the quality of the home’s care. (Regulation 7 (1)(a)(b)(c) (2)(a)(i)(ii)(iii)(iv)) 19 November

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Requirement Due date

The positive relationships standard is that children are helped to develop, and to benefit from, relationships based on—

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Requirement Due date

an understanding about acceptable behaviour; and

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Requirement Due date

positive responses to other children and adults. 19 November Inspection report children’s home: SC062128 8 In particular, the standard in paragraph (1) requires the registered person to ensure—

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Requirement Due date

meet each child’s behavioural and emotional needs, as set out in the child’s relevant plans;

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Requirement Due date

help each child to develop socially aware behaviour;

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Requirement Due date

encourage each child to take responsibility for the child’s behaviour, in accordance with the child’s age and understanding;

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Requirement Due date

help each child to develop and practise skills to resolve conflicts positively and without harm to anyone;

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Requirement Due date

communicate to each child expectations about the child’s behaviour and ensure that the child understands those expectations in accordance with the child’s age and understanding;

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Requirement Due date

help each child to understand, in a way that is appropriate according to the child’s age and understanding, personal, sexual and social relationships, and how those relationships can be supportive or harmful;

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Requirement Due date

help each child to develop the understanding and skills to recognise or withdraw from a damaging, exploitative or harmful relationship;

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Requirement Due date

strive to gain each child’s respect and trust;

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Requirement Due date

understand how children’s previous experiences and present emotions can be communicated through behaviour and have the competence and skills to interpret these and develop positive relationships with children;

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Requirement Due date

are provided with supervision and support to enable them to understand and manage their own feelings and responses to the behaviour and emotions of children, and to help children to do the same;

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Requirement Due date

de-escalate confrontations with or between children, or potentially violent behaviour by children; Inspection report children’s home: SC062128 9 understand and communicate to children that bullying is unacceptable; and

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Requirement Due date

have the skills to recognise incidents or indications of bullying and how to deal with them; and

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Requirement Due date

that each child is encouraged to build and maintain positive relationships with others.

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Requirement Due date

(Regulation 11 (1)(a)(b)(c) (2)(a)(i)(ii)(iii)(iv)(v)(vi)(vii)(viii)(ix)(x)(xi)(xii)(xiii)(b))

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Requirement Due date

This refers specifically to staff creating a culture in which children are supported to understand their own and others’ behaviours in a manner which helps to reduce conflict.

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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

assess whether each child is at risk of harm, taking into account information in the child’s relevant plans, and, if necessary, make arrangements to reduce the risk of any harm to the child;

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Requirement Due date

manage relationships between children to prevent them from harming each other;

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Requirement Due date

understand the roles and responsibilities in relation to protecting children that are assigned to them by the registered person;

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Requirement Due date

take effective action whenever there is a serious concern about a child’s welfare; and

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Requirement Due date

that the home’s day-to-day care is arranged and delivered so as to keep each child safe and to protect each child effectively from harm. (Regulation 12 (1) (2)(a)(i)(iv)(v)(vi) (b))

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Requirement Due date

This relates to the staff’s understanding and implementation of each child’s individual risk assessment, and their role in keeping children safe, particularly with regard to risks of exploitation and self-harm. 19 November Inspection report children’s home: SC062128 10 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

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) (5))

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Requirement Due date

This refers specifically to leaders and managers having clear systems to monitor and evaluate the care provided for children, and ensuring that the views of children, staff and stakeholders are incorporated into the quality of care review. 19 November

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Recommendations

 The registered person should ensure that records include the actions agreed in the children’s house meetings and the aims, outcomes and actions of key-work sessions. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 62, paragraph 14.4)  The registered person should ensure that staff follow the correct procedures when a child is missing from care or away from the home without permission. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 45, paragraph 9.28)

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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, Inspection report children’s home: SC062128 11 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: SC062128 12

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: Civic Centre, Lampton Road, Hounslow TW3 4DN

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Inspector

Gulcin Ardic, Social Care Inspector Inspection report children’s home: SC062128 13 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 looked after children, safeguarding and child protection.

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Inspector

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Inspector

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Inspector

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