Children's home run by McRae Residential Care Services Limited in Croydon

Inspection report children’s home: SC025812 1 SC025812 Registered provider: McRae Residential Care Services Limited Full inspection Inspected under the social care common inspection framework

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Information about this children’s home

This privately owned home provides care for up to four children. The provider states in its statement of purpose that care is provided for teenage boys who experience emotional and behavioural difficulties.

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Information about this children’s home

The home registered with Ofsted in 1996. The registered manager has been registered with Ofsted since 2012.

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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 requires improvement to be 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: 19 February 2020

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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: SC025812 2

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

19/02/2020 Full Good 17/05/2018 Full Good 05/07/2017 Full Good 09/03/2017 Interim Sustained effectiveness Inspection report children’s home: SC025812 3

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children make good progress in the social and emotional aspects of their lives while living in the home. They become more confident, and their self-esteem improves. Children say that they enjoy living in the home and feel safe. One child who has moved on from the home said, ‘I am in a much better place and I want to thank everyone here for supporting me.’

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

The home’s independence training programme is one of its strengths. Children learn to manage their individual independence training allowance. They shop for themselves, learn to store food in their own fridges and cook their own meals. The home’s weekly cookery club also enhances children’s cooking skills. Carers guide and demonstrate basic daily living skills with the children.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Carers place a great emphasis on children’s education. This helps children to re- engage in education when they have been out of education for some time. Children have examination successes in practical and academic subjects and receive school achievement certificates, for example for the most progress in their year group. One teacher said, ‘If they (the carers) had not supported [name of child], he may not have completed his qualification.’ Carers celebrate children’s successes with them. After a celebratory restaurant meal with his carers, one child said, ‘No one has ever taken me out for a meal before. It made my day.’

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Carers work hard to help children overcome any difficulties they may have with their family relationships. As a result, children rebuild relationships and connections with their family members and enjoy family time in the community. Where possible, children invite their families to the home to spend time together and to share meals.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Positive behaviour is encouraged in the home. Children agree to their target behaviour rewards. These financial incentives help to encourage children’s positive behaviour in the home, such as being up in time for school, tidying their bedrooms, and carrying out household chores on Saturdays. Carers regularly review and amend children’s targets, which helps to keep children motivated.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children have a voice in the home. They visit their favourite barbers and help to plan their weekly activities. Carers change the weekly meal planner according to children’s wishes. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, some community activities have been restricted. However, carers encourage children to join in physical exercise and play football with them. When it has been possible, children have attended the gym and boxing classes. One child said, ‘My life has been much better since living here.’

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

The home is a four-bedroom terraced property and is suitable to meet the needs of the children. During the inspection, the home was being redecorated. However, leaders and managers should consider removing the children’s bedroom door numbers to promote a more homely environment. Inspection report children’s home: SC025812 4

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improvement to be good

Children receive significant support and guidance to help them to keep themselves safe. Children engage in regular key-work sessions alongside ‘teen talk/hard talk’ meetings with carers. The carer team helps children to understand a range of risks and contemporary issues, including drug misuse, gang culture, knife crime, how to stay safe online, and the consequences of criminal behaviour. One parent described their child’s key-worker support as ‘invaluable.’

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improvement to be good

An emotional-health support worker visits the home weekly. He provides the children with additional help and advice. The support worker shares any concerns about children and provides guidance to the carer team. As a result, carers understand children’s risks and complex behavioural needs very well.

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improvement to be good

The home’s location risk assessment is kept up to date and reflects any emerging risks to children in the wider community. When children move into the home, carers make sure that they are shown around the local area and made aware of any particular areas of risk and vulnerability. This helps children to stay safe in the community.

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improvement to be good

Carers ensure that all relevant professionals and support agencies are involved in the detailed care planning for children. Carers attend all children’s care and planning meetings. However, while carers have worked dynamically and consistently to support the children, some of the children’s complex behavioural needs and high risk-taking behaviours have resulted in several unplanned placement endings in the preceding 12 months.

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improvement to be good

When children go missing from the home, carers always follow the missing-from- home procedures, which includes notifying the police. However, the inspector found that, on occasion, carers have not followed the agreed police online reporting procedures. This means that the police may not have a comprehensive profile of the missing child.

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improvement to be good

Children’s risk assessments are detailed and regularly reviewed. Any emerging risks are identified promptly. However, the inspector found that one risk assessment does not include an assessment of a child’s particular risk. This shortfall was being addressed during the inspection.

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improvement to be good

The inspector identified that several documents in a child’s care folder were incomplete or not up to date. This shortfall was being addressed during the inspection.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Inspection report children’s home: SC025812 5 The home is managed effectively by the registered manager alongside the home’s manager. The registered manager and the home’s manager have a wealth of experience. The registered manager shares his wide-ranging knowledge through delivering university lectures on practice leadership in social work.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The members of the leadership and management team are strong advocates for the children in their care. They appropriately challenge placing authorities and other professionals on behalf of the children. For example, carers’ concerns in relation to the effect of placement disruption, school discipline or lack of mental health support, are escalated so that additional resources can be accessed. When describing the home’s nurturing ethos, one carer said, ‘We collectively strive to make a difference, and the rewards are priceless when a young person’s life changes for the better.’

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The home has a stable and experienced team of carers. All the carers have a suitable residential children’s home qualification. Carers receive a wide range of training to help them meet the specific needs of the children living in the home. All staff undertake training in advanced safeguarding, autism spectrum disorder, knife crime, racism, gang crime and offending behaviours.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The home’s updated statement of purpose was not available on its website and had not been sent to Ofsted as required. The registered manager addressed this shortfall during the inspection. Inspection report children’s home: SC025812 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 registered person must maintain records ("case records") for each child which—

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Requirement Due date

include the information and documents listed in Schedule 3 in relation to each child;

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Requirement Due date

are signed and dated by the author of each entry. (Regulation 36 (1)(a)(b)(c)) 31 December

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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

understand the roles and responsibilities in relation to protecting children that are assigned to them by the registered person. (Regulation 12 (1) (2)(a)(i)(v))

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Requirement Due date

In particular, the registered person must ensure that carers follow the agreed police reporting procedures when a child goes missing from the home, and that all of the children’s risks are recorded. 31 December

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Recommendation

 The registered person should ensure that the home is a homely, domestic environment. In particular, they should consider removing or adapting children’s bedroom door numbers to improve the homely environment. (‘Guide to the Inspection report children’s home: SC025812 7 children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 15, paragraph 3.9)

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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: SC025812 8

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Children’s home details

Registered provider: McRae Residential Care Services Limited

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: 57 to 61 Lodge Road, Croydon CR0 2PH

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Inspector

Victoria Jones, Social Care Inspector Inspection report children’s home: SC025812 9 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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