Annex A. Request for information at a full inspection of a children’s home

Inspection report for children’s home: SC477205 1 SC477205 Registered provider: Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea 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 for up to seven children who have social and emotional difficulties.

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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 8 February 2021 to carry out a monitoring visit. The report is published on the Ofsted website.

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Information about this children’s home

This inspection was conducted as a blended visit on and off site and involved meetings with staff and children. Feedback was received from social care professionals as well as parents.

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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

Overall judgement at last inspection: good

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good

Enforcement action since last inspection: none Inspection report for children’s home: SC477205 2

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

08/10/2019 Full Good 21/08/2018 Full Good 18/09/2017 Full Good 26/01/2017 Interim Sustained effectiveness Inspection report for children’s home: SC477205 3

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children make good progress. Staff understand children’s starting points. Leaders and managers use recommendations from children’s multi-disciplinary plans to track progress and create personal targets for children. This ensures that children achieve their best outcomes.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

The impact and influence that staff members have on children are variable. Staff work with and interact positively with some children. However, there have been challenges with others, and one child stated that they ‘have no trust in staff’. Therefore, some children remain remote and detached despite having been in the home for a number of months.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff show perseverance in offering consistent and healthy messages to children. Staff have clear behaviour management plans which children participate in constructing. Individualised documents refer to each child’s strengths, triggers and strategies to manage distressed behaviours. This ensures that the staff have detailed knowledge on how to provide the best care for children.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children share their views on decision-making about their care. There are regular meetings for children in which they discuss relevant issues, such as how the building is used, sanctions and the meaning of consent in relationships. Staff provide children with regular updates and share information with them about staff changes. Furthermore, children are involved in interviewing sessional workers. This helps staff create a culture of positive regard and respect towards children.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff offer support to children in work-based opportunities and provide clear transition plans in preparation for children leaving the home. Staff use their developing relationships with children to advocate for their wishes and feelings. This occurs in a context of balancing the risks against promoting the child’s welfare. Consequently, children feel supported and that their views are appreciated.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children know how to make a complaint. Children in the home have chosen to approach staff with their concerns rather than use a suggestion box. They also have information about advocates for independent and objective support. Where there are more complex concerns, staff include children and their main professionals in reflective discussions about their care in order to create positive change.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children have access to universal health services. All children are registered with doctors, dentists and opticians. As a result, children’s health needs are significantly improved. Inspection report for children’s home: SC477205 4

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improvement to be good

Risk assessments begin prior to children arriving at the home. Leaders and managers seek valuable information about children from other professionals and use this to inform practice. However, when multiple birth siblings were being considered to live in the home, their matching information was not documented in a way that was consistent with the practice for single children, emphasising that these siblings were seen as a unit rather than as individuals.

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improvement to be good

Managers appropriately refer allegations of abuse or harm to relevant agencies and work in partnership with these agencies to keep children safe. However, some care staff do not have a good understanding of their roles and responsibilities in relation to protecting children. On one occasion, staff did not fully inform managers of an incident, which lead to unnecessary delays in the incident being managed effectively and an increase in a child’s negative feelings.

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improvement to be good

Recording of incidents is not always consistent with practice. Therefore, managers are unable to make decisions on further work or professional involvement required for the children. This means that children are not always given the support and care that they require.

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improvement to be good

Communication within the team is not always clear. Information is not always clearly shared or updated. This could lead to tasks not always being implemented and being subject to drift.

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improvement to be good

Children have regular key-work sessions to discuss their care plans, contextual risks, behaviour management plans and more general topics. However, not all key-work session records include children’s and staff’s signatures, and they do not consistently reflect creative attempts to engage children.

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improvement to be good

The home’s location risk assessment has been updated. Information regarding children missing from home, exploitation and anti-social behaviour is considered. However, the document does not highlight the leisure, religion and learning opportunities available to children. This does not present a balanced view of what is available, to ensure children have normal childhood experiences.

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improvement to be good

Managers have clear and effective responses when working with children who are at risk of harm. Each child has a clearly documented safety plan which is regularly updated and followed by staff. These include the strategies for staff to use when responding to children. This demonstrates that there is a united approach to keeping children safe. Children were observed acting freely and comfortably in the home. Children have not been restrained, because staff prefer to use reason to explain day- to-day decisions to them. Inspection report for children’s home: SC477205 5

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Leaders and managers have good oversight of their service and have effective quality assurance processes in place to understand their strengths and areas for development. Recommendations from the independent visitor, previous Ofsted inspections and feedback from children and stakeholders have led to clear improvements and developments.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The manager is clear about her role and maximises opportunities to oversee staff practices to ensure that the home is achieving its aims and objectives. New members of staff have a thorough and clear induction. Team meetings occur regularly, and staff discuss matters relating to children. Staff receive regular supervision from managers. There are systemic and restorative discussions led by trained professionals to support staff’s work with children with complex needs.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Leaders and managers follow safe recruitment practices and are clear that recruitment and retention of staff are an ongoing challenge. Despite this, managers ensure that the right staff are in the home. Performance management processes are used to manage staff conduct. Although agency staff are recruited through the local authority central system, the manager requires them to complete the same interview process as permanent staff. Rotas ensure that there is consistency of staff and that children know each staff member. This ensures that children are cared for by a competent and able staff team.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Leaders and managers use safeguarding arrangements appropriately. Agreed information is openly and routinely shared with the children’s professional and family network. Appropriate referrals are made to the safeguarding lead and notifications are made to Ofsted in line with regulation. This enables strong partnership working, which helps to minimise the risks to children.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Senior management role model positive behaviours. There are good-quality professional relationships. Professionals stated that staff regularly update them and work hard to manage risks. A family member spoke about the thoughtful care staff gave to a child and felt that the child had made good progress in the home. Inspection report for children’s home: SC477205 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; and

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Requirement Due date

use this understanding to deliver care that meets children’s needs and supports them to fulfil their potential.

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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 personalised care that meets each child’s needs, as recorded in the child’s relevant plans, taking account of the child’s background. (Regulation 6 (1)(a)(b) (2)(b)(iv))

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Requirement Due date

This specifically refers to ensuring that multiple birth children are reviewed with individual and personalised information on their initial matching documents. 21 February 2022

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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

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

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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; 21 February 2022 Inspection report for children’s home: SC477205 7 take effective action whenever there is a serious concern about a child’s welfare; and

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Requirement Due date

are familiar with, and act in accordance with, the home’s child protection policies. (Regulation 12 (1) (2)(a)(iii)(v)(vi)(vii))

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Requirement Due date

This specifically refers to staff, including agency, bank and sessional staff, being able to recognise potentially harmful behaviours from others, to follow safeguarding processes and to escalate as required.

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Recommendations

 The registered person should ensure that the home is suitably located so that children are effectively safeguarded and can access services to meet needs identified in their relevant plans (see regulations 12 (2)(c)). This includes outlining leisure, religious, health and educational activities in the area. (‘Guide to the Children’s Homes Regulations, including the quality standards, page 64, paragraph 15.1).  The registered person should ensure that staff are familiar with the home’s policies on record-keeping and understand the importance of careful, objective, and clear recording. Key-work session records should consistently reflect the creative attempts staff have taken to engage children. (‘Guide to the Children’s Homes Regulations, including the quality standards, page 62, paragraph 14.4)  The registered person should ensure that case records, including key-work session records, are signed and dated by staff and children. (‘Guide to the

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Recommendations

Children’s Homes Regulations, including the quality standards, page 62, paragraph 14.3)

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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 for children’s home: SC477205 8

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: Town Hall, Hornton Street, London W8 7NX

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Inspector

Tolulope Sawyerr, Social Care Inspector Inspection report for children’s home: SC477205 9 regulates and inspects 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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