Children's home run by Jamores Limited in Bexley

Inspection report children's home: SC459354 1 SC459354 Registered provider: Jamores Limited Full inspection Inspected under the social care common inspection framework

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Information about this children’s home

This privately owned children’s home provides care for up to three children who have difficulty regulating their emotions and behaviours.

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Information about this children’s home

The home was registered with Ofsted in 2013. The home has not had a registered manager since August 2021.

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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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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

Date of last inspection: 3 September 2019

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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: SC459354 2

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

03/09/2019 Full Good 07/01/2019 Interim Declined in effectiveness 21/08/2018 Full Good 19/02/2018 Interim Declined in effectiveness Inspection report children's home: SC459354 3

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

When children move into the home, they settle quickly and develop trusting relationships with staff. Children thrive from their positive experiences at the home and make good progress. Children’s notable achievements include improvements in their socialisation skills, healthier diets and personal-care routines.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff help children to develop age-appropriate independence skills. Staff encourage children to plan and cook their own meals. Children learn to budget and open their own bank accounts. Financial incentives are awarded for washing-up and folding away their clothes, and this helps contribute to the running of the home.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

The staff team successfully encourages children to attend their school or college, and children complete their exams. Children also choose to undertake practical tasks, such as gardening and carpentry, which further enhance their skills.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children participate in a wide range of activities. These include trips to London landmarks, holiday parks and safari parks. At home, children enjoy movie nights and pamper nights. Staff celebrate children’s time living in the home with annual anniversary parties. Staff organise children’s birthday treats. For example, staff arranged for one child to see a particular stage show they had wished for, featuring their favourite comedian.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children contribute to their care planning. They attend their care planning meetings either face to face or remotely. Children help to complete their six-monthly review reports and reflect on what they have achieved and what further help they want from staff. This helps staff to support children’s continued progress and development.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

The home is a three-bedroom terraced property. A large lounge encourages children and staff to socialise together, and the garden’s log cabin provides a suitable space for private meetings. Institutional fixtures detract from the homely environment, such as numbered bedroom doors and unpainted kitchen doors. The inspector also found several shortfalls in the home which must be fixed: the children’s bathroom shower is broken, a bedroom window restrictor is broken, a bedroom carpet is stained, and a bedroom wardrobe door is loose. Leaders and managers have been made aware of these shortfalls.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

As a result of their complex behavioural needs, some of the children’s bedrooms are dirty and cluttered, and their bedding is insanitary. Staff reported that they work hard to support children to maintain suitable bedroom living environments. However, the inspectors found that staff were unsure about their roles, responsibilities and the frequency of children’s bedroom checks. Inspection report children's home: SC459354 4

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

Risk assessments are clear and reflect each child’s individual needs. In most cases, specific risk assessments are created or updated following changes in the children’s behaviours. However, this has not been consistent across all areas of risk, for instance bullying. This demonstrates that staff do not have a consistent approach to these situations, which has a detrimental impact on children’s experiences and feelings of safety.

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

Incidents within the home are recorded, but records are not always consistent. For example, incidents of bullying were not recorded in the incident records and only found in records of children’s key-work sessions. This makes it unclear how many incidents of bullying have happened in the home and what action was taken to address the concerns.

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

Children informed inspectors that they feel supported in understanding themselves and managing their own risks, through key-work sessions. The care provided to children has significantly reduced the number of missing-from-home episodes and helped children to become increasingly safe. Children rarely go missing from the home, but when they do, staff act appropriately and follow the correct procedures.

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

The use of restraint is minimal and only used in exceptional circumstances to prevent children from harming themselves or others. Staff are suitably trained in the use of restraint. When incidents requiring the use of restraint have occurred, records evidence that there has been a debrief with the child, following the incident.

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

Staff recognise that the use of financial sanctions is ineffective in bringing about positive change to children’s behaviour. Therefore, they have recently changed their approach by introducing a rewards structure to promote positive behaviour; this is more effective in managing children’s behaviour.

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

Staff are aware that some children do not always feel safe living at the home due to recent incidents of bullying. However, staff try to resolve these situations to improve children’s feelings of safety. Staff undertake specific individual key-work sessions with children and facilitate house meetings, sessions with the psychotherapist and referrals to the police mentor, and they support children to access other relevant services. All children have access to their own advocates.

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

Safer recruitment and employment practices are sufficiently robust and ensure that staff are suitably is thoroughly checked. This prevents unsuitable people from working at the home and helps to ensure the safety of children.

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

Staff and therapists help children to express their identity. This has helped children to make significant progress and improve their confidence and self-esteem. Inspection report children's home: SC459354 5

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The home has not had a registered manager since August 2021. A suitably qualified deputy manager has been in day-to-day charge of home. The responsible individual and director have provided additional support. A new manager has recently been appointed. The new manager plans to apply to register with Ofsted.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Some children have been unsettled due to the recent changes in the staff team. However, the dedicated staff team has supported the children to re-establish and maintain their positive relationships with staff. This has helped children to feel secure in the home again.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

There is good evidence of effective multi-agency working, which helps to ensure that children have access to additional needs-specific services. Staff say that they enjoy working in the home, and a placing social worker wrote, ‘I am impressed by their commitment to [name of child] and their professionalism.’

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Staff receive suitable training to meet the needs of the children living in the home. New staff undertake a thorough three-day induction programme. The home’s training calendar highlights the wide range of support available to staff. However, not all staff have a suitable qualification for residential childcare.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The registered manager’s quality of care review report does not include the feedback and opinions from professionals and others. This is a missed opportunity to further develop the service. Leaders and managers have taken action to meet four of the six requirements set at the last inspection. Inspection report children's home: SC459354 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

The quality and purpose of care standard is that children receive care from staff who—

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Requirement Due date

understand the children’s home’s overall aims and the outcomes it seeks to achieve for children.

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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

provide to children living in the home the physical necessities they need in order to live there comfortably. (Regulation 6 (1)(a) (2)(b)(vii))

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Requirement Due date

In particular, leaders and managers must repair the broken shower, clean the children’s bedroom carpets, repair or replace a child’s broken wardrobe, re-install a child’s bedroom window restrictor, and children’s bedrooms must provide sanitary living conditions. Leaders and managers must also review the institutional elements in the home such as removing bedroom door numbers and repainting the kitchen doors.

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Requirement Due date

This requirement was made at the last inspection and is restated. 30 November

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Requirement Due date

For the purposes of paragraph (3)(b), an individual who works in the home in a care role has the appropriate qualification if, by the relevant date, the individual has attained—

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Requirement Due date

the Level 3 Diploma for Residential Childcare (England) ("the Level 3 Diploma"); or

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Requirement Due date

a qualification which the registered person considers to be equivalent to the Level 3 Diploma. 31 December Inspection report children's home: SC459354 7 The relevant date is—

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Requirement Due date

in the case of an individual who starts working in a care role in a home after 1st April 2014, the date which falls 2 years after the date on which the individual started working in a care role in a home; or

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Requirement Due date

in the case of an individual who was working in a care role in a home on 1st April 2014, 1st April 2016.

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Requirement Due date

The registered person may defer the relevant date if the individual—

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Requirement Due date

does not work, or has not worked, in a care role in a home for a prolonged period; or

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Requirement Due date

works, or has worked, in a care role in a home on a part- time basis. (Regulation 32 (4)(a)(b) (5)(a)(b) (6)(a)(b)) 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 31 December Inspection report children's home: SC459354 8 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))

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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

have the skills to identify and act upon signs that a child is at risk of harm;

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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

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)(iii)(iv)(vi)(b))

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Requirement Due date

This requirement was made at the last inspection and is restated 30 November

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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) Inspection report children's home: SC459354 9 Regulations 2015 and the ‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’. Inspection report children's home: SC459354 10

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: 2 Thames Innovation Centre, Studio 52, Veridion Way, Erith DA18 4AL

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Inspectors

Victoria Jones, Social Care Inspector Leanne Grant, Social Care Inspector Inspection report children's home: SC459354 11 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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