Children's Home run by Blandford House (UK) Limited in Hillingdon

SC484912 Registered provider: David Knox Full inspection Inspected under the social care common inspection framework

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Information about this children’s home

This is a private children’s home that can provide care for up to 10 children. Staff offer long-term care to children with autism spectrum disorders and learning disabilities.

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Information about this children’s home

The registered manager is suitably qualified and has been registered with Ofsted since 9 June 2020.

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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

This inspection was conducted on site and involved meetings with children and staff. Feedback was received from social care and education professionals as well as parents. A staff questionnaire was also shared for those staff who were not on site but wished to contribute their views.

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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 requires improvement to be 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: 9 December 2019

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good

Overall judgement at last inspection: good

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good

Enforcement action since last inspection: none

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

09/12/2019 Full Good 17/12/2018 Full Good 21/03/2018 Interim Sustained effectiveness 13/11/2017 Full Good

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

At the time of the inspection, there were three children living in the home, all of whom have lived there for over a year. Although the home is registered to care for up to 10 children, leaders and managers have made a conscious commitment to having fewer children to ensure that staff can provide the appropriate level of support.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children make good progress in this home. Leaders and managers understand children’s starting points and their care plans identify future targets. Families, professionals and staff members report that children have improved behaviours and relationships with others and that living in this home has had a positive impact on their lives.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

There is a small permanent staff team. Children report that they feel comfortable with staff and they know the routine and structure of the home. However, children’s planners are not consistently used to ensure that children know the plans for their day or week. Children report that they feel happy and safe in this home. They have a relaxed and comfortable relationship with the manager. Children develop a good knowledge of staff and are familiar with those working in their home.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children receive specialist help when required. One child with significant health needs has been well supported by staff during their complex medical journey. This has been particularly significant when the risk from COVID-19 has been high. Children receive their prescribed medication from staff to maintain or improve their health. All children are in education and have education plans to support their educational needs. As a result, children’s life chances are significantly improved.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff regularly seek children’s views, wishes and feelings through house meetings and key-work sessions with children. Staff support children to develop skills to learn how to manage and understand their behaviours. Children know how to make a complaint. However, staff do not consistently record or let children know the outcome of issues that they raise. Consequently, opportunities for children to know that they are listened to are missed.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children have positive day-to-day experiences in the home. They take age- appropriate risks such as learning to be safe in the community by going shopping. They are supported with learning and developing their independent living skills such as self-care and preparing for mealtimes. Mealtimes are a communal time, when children choose their meals, set the table and have conversations with staff, who eat with them. This helps children to build their confidence and to build trusting relationships with staff.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Leaders and managers work proactively with professionals and families in order to meet children’s needs. They challenge others, such as parents, education and social care professionals when necessary, to promote children’s welfare and well-being. Staff are strong advocates for children and ensure that they have access to appropriate help and support services to help to improve outcomes for them.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Leaders and managers work hard to ensure that children maintain relationships with their families. Staff actively try to minimise any barriers that have an impact on children’s time with their family. For example, children are encouraged to have regular phone and video calls with family members. Staff mediate around difficult family relationships for the benefit of children. Staff also take children to family visits and buy food for family members to support family time. This focus allows children and families to create and sustain positive relationships with each other.

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

Leaders and managers ensure that they can care appropriately for children new to the home. Before any new admission to the home, senior staff review known information about children’s health, education and social needs as well as any associated behavioural risks. Children are matched appropriately and move into the home in a planned way, after a robust impact risk assessment is completed. The needs and behaviours of children already in the home are balanced against those of children new to the home. Admissions are subject to a careful decision-making process. This ensures appropriate safeguarding decisions are made and minimises unnecessary disruption for children. Senior staff visit children prior to them moving into the home and when possible invite children to visit the home. Leaders and managers make child-focused decisions as to whether staff can meet children’s holistic care needs.

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

Staff are proactive in managing safeguarding concerns and respond appropriately and efficiently to safeguarding allegations. Safeguarding processes are followed in a timely manner and immediate safety plans are implemented. This demonstrates that children are safeguarded and protected effectively. Staff regularly review and update children’s risk assessments. Risk assessments are detailed and include clear strategies for staff to follow. This contributes to the need for physical interventions with children being rare.

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

Staff support children through formal and informal discussions to help them understand what safe and acceptable behaviour is. Behaviour management plans outline children’s triggers, staff strategies and de-escalation techniques. However, targets are not always set for children and behaviour management plans are not regularly reviewed and updated. This compromises the staff team’s understanding and response to children’s behaviour.

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

There is a collaborative approach to managing risks to children. Leaders and managers ensure that staff have the opportunity to work with all other members of the staff team to promote learning. Staff work in partnership with external professionals, parents and carers to understand and manage risks to children. Due to the children’s complex and high level of need they are supervised at all times. Consequently, there have been no incidents of child exploitation, children being missing from care or offending behaviour.

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good

Leaders and managers share a strong view that all children with disabilities should be valued and treated with respect. They believe that all children should be given opportunities to develop and participate fully in life. However, this is not fully explored with staff in their supervisions or tracked through management oversight of their practice. This means that staff practice is not always consistent in the home. Leaders and managers do not have effective systems to oversee and monitor staff practice. Some documents and vital information are stored haphazardly. Case records are not sufficiently detailed, reviewed, or kept up to date. Case records sometimes lack the voice of the child and are not always signed by staff, managers or the child. Information obtained during the inspection highlighted that the language and actions used by staff towards children could be improved. Leaders and managers do not

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good

consistently identify or respond to areas for development so that decisive action is taken to improve children’s experiences.

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good

Staff report that they receive regular supervision, which was confirmed by leaders and managers. However, there is insufficient documentation to support this assertion as full supervision records were unavailable. Leaders and managers confirmed that they do not keep copies of supervision notes as these are given to staff. This hinders management oversight and monitoring of staff practice and development. It compromises their ability to ensure that staff receive the right support and guidance to undertake their roles effectively.

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good

Leaders and managers undertake safer recruitment checks of all staff, including agency staff. However, safer recruitment and employment practices are not sufficiently thorough and do not demonstrate that leaders and managers have fully explored information received about new staff to demonstrate that they are suitable to work at the home. Furthermore, staff rotas do not correspond with other records showing which agency staff are working at the home. Consequently, this does not help to ensure the safety and well-being of children.

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good

Staff are provided with a wide range training. However, they do not always receive the appropriate training to meet the needs of children in their care. Staff have varied employment backgrounds and skill sets. It is unclear if staff understand how to respond to children with individual learning needs.

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good

The location risk assessment does not appropriately safeguard children, as the exact location of the children’s home is identified in the risk assessment. Furthermore, the location risk assessment does not include feedback from relevant safeguarding professionals to demonstrate that all risks and strategies to manage risks in the location have been identified.

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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—

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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. (Regulation 7 (1)(a)(b)(c) (2)(a)(iii))

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Requirement Due date

This particularly refers to leaders and managers ensuring that children are listened to and action is taken in response to their views. 20 January 2022

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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— 20 January 2022 ensure that staff have the experience, qualifications and skills to meet the needs of each child;

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Requirement Due date

understand the impact that the quality of care provided in the home is having on the progress and experiences of each child and use this understanding to inform the development of the quality of care provided in the home;

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Requirement Due date

use monitoring and review systems to make continuous improvements in the quality of care provided in the home. (Regulation 13 (1)(a)(b) (2)(c)(f)(h))

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Requirement Due date

This specifically relates to the provider ensuring that all staff have the required training to meet the needs of the children in their care. Furthermore, that leaders and managers are fully aware of practice within the home and implement the necessary measures to develop the quality of care to children.

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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

are signed and dated by the author of each entry.

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Requirement Due date

securely in the children’s home during the period when the child to whom the case records relate is accommodated there. (Regulation 36 (1)(b)(c) (2)(c))

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Requirement Due date

This particularly refers to risk assessments, support plans and placement plans being regularly reviewed, updated and signed. 20 January 2022

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must review the appropriateness and suitability of the location of the premises used for the purposes of the children’s home at least once in each calendar year taking into account the requirement in regulation 12(2)(c) (the protection of children standard).

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Requirement Due date

When conducting the review, the registered person must consult, and take into account the views of, each relevant person. (Regulation 46 (1) (2))

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Requirement Due date

This particularly relates to the provider ensuring that the specific location of the home is not identifiable in the location 20 January 2022 risk assessment and that the location risk assessment includes information from their consultation with each relevant person.

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Requirement Due date

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

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Recommendations

 The registered person should ensure that children’s risk assessments are reviewed and updated following all incidents, including incidents of self-harm. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations, including the quality standards’, page 43, paragraph 9.9)  The registered person should ensure that good employment practice is maintained. They must ensure that recruitment, supervision and performance management of staff safeguard children and minimise potential risks to them. In particular, staff recruitment records should include details of discussions and decisions about staff suitability to work at the home. Furthermore, leaders and managers should ensure that they have a copy of all staff supervision records. Leaders and managers should assure themselves that all staff continue to be suitable to undertake their roles. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations, including the quality standards’, page 61, paragraph 13.1)

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Recommendations

 The registered person should ensure that the children’s guide helps children to understand what the day-to-day routines of the home are. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations, including the quality standards’, page 24, paragraph 4.22)

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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’.

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Inspector

Tolulope Sawyerr, Social Care Inspector 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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