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

Inspection report children’s home: SC033805 1 SC033805 Registered provider: London Borough of Barnet Full inspection Inspected under the social care common inspection framework

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Information about this children’s home

This home is owned by the local authority and provides care for up to six children. The home’s statement of purpose states that it is a home for children between the ages of 12 and 18 with emotional and/or mild learning difficulties.

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Information about this children’s home

The manager registered with Ofsted in December 2020.

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Information about this children’s home

At the time of the inspection, three children were living at the home.

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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 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: 14 January 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: SC033805 2

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

14/01/2020 Full Good 18/02/2019 Full Good 06/11/2018 Full Inadequate 23/05/2017 Full Good Inspection report children’s home: SC033805 3

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children living at the home have good experiences and make steady progress. They enjoy mutually trusting relationships with staff. Staff talk confidently about the children and work diligently to meet their needs.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children have the opportunity to express their views and opinions. However, more consideration should be given to making information easily available to children who are non-verbal or who do not speak or read English. This relates, for example, to the children’s guide, food menus and notices around the home. Children new to the home settle in quickly. One child said, ‘Staff come and go but it feels like my home.’

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children know who they can talk to if they are not happy or have concerns. Staff manage complaints effectively and children are informed of how their complaints have been addressed. Staff support children to be linked with independent advocates where necessary.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children are supported in their education. One child has a strong interest in animals and was supported to access a relevant college course through The Prince’s Trust. Barriers to learning are addressed effectively through consultation with children, virtual schools and social workers. Children’s achievements are rewarded and celebrated.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children are provided with a range of activities in the home and in the community. They are encouraged to develop their own interests. Children benefit from staff’s particular skills in activities such as vegan cooking, boxing and exercise routines. Children’s identity needs are well met. For example, children have access to interpreters and practise their chosen faith if they wish to do so.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children have good opportunities to develop their independent living skills. Staff offer a practical skills programme with agreed incentives and objectives. The home operates an outreach service for a limited period of time after children leave. This facilitates children’s smooth transition to their new living arrangements. When children leave, staff ensure that their endings are positive. Staff report that former residents, some now adults, regularly return to say hello.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children enjoy good health. Staff encourage them to attend primary care medical appointments and are proactive in identifying specialist support for children, for example therapeutic services for unaccompanied asylum-seeking children who have experienced trauma. Staff’s medication practices are safe.

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

Children said that they feel safe in the care of staff. Children’s safety and well-being are at the centre of practice at the home. Staff protect children from neglect, harm and abuse. Staff have a clear understanding of the organisation’s child-protection policies and procedures, and they complete child-protection training. This helps to keep children safe. Inspection report children’s home: SC033805 4 Risk assessments identify known and anticipated risks to children. Staff keep these assessments under review and up to date. Assessments include plans that help to reduce risks. This is particularly the case for staff’s management of challenging behaviour.

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

The home’s matching procedures need review. In a recent case, the behaviour of one child posed significant risks to staff and children already living in the home. As a result, for a very short period of time, children’s experiences were not positive.

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

There have been recent bullying incidents at the home. Staff maintain clear records about each incident and how these situations are managed. Records include staff’s discussions with all children involved. Central records ensure that managers are aware of trends and are taking effective action to curb bullying behaviour. This helps to safeguard children.

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

Children benefit from clear boundaries set by staff, which help to keep children safe. Staff are familiar with missing person’s protocols, and they take effective action if children are missing from home or are away from the home without permission. Staff’s communication with safeguarding professionals, including the police, is consistent. This ensures that there is a coordinated effort to encourage the safe return of children.

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

Staff supervision of children is effective, and they manage children’s behaviour well. Critical incidents involving offending behaviour, substance misuse, self-harm, affiliation with gangs or being sexually exploited do not happen or are extremely rare.

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

Staff promote children’s positive behaviour. They use physical intervention as a last resort to keep children and others safe from harm. However, records of physical intervention need some attention. This is to ensure that records are appropriately reviewed and signed off by managers. Staff do not consistently record these incidents in the home’s central restraints log as required.

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

The home’s premises are safe and secure and meet the needs of children well. However, staff do not consistently record the temperature of fridges and freezers. This is important to ensure that foods are kept at the right temperature and are safely consumed.

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

The recruitment of staff is in line with safe-recruitment policies and practices. Managers ensure that required vetting checks are in place. This confirms that staff are suitable to work with children.

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good

The registered manager is appropriately experienced and qualified to lead the team. Leaders and managers have high expectations for children’s achievements. Inspection report children’s home: SC033805 5 However, the effectiveness of the management of the home is hampered by a number of long-standing issues.

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good

The future of the home remains in question. Senior managers have indicated that the service in its current form is due to cease, with an alternative children’s provision taking its place. This is known to the staff team and some children. Both staff and some children are unsettled by this, and are unclear about their futures at the home. Senior managers must formally advise stakeholders of impending changes to the service, to offset the anxiety of some children and the staff team.

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good

The home’s monitoring and review systems are not yet effective. Managers have a development plan that outlines the home’s priorities and areas for improvement.

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good

Managers complete quality-of-care reviews. However, these are not compliant with the regulations and do not help to identify the home’s strengths and weaknesses. Reports are largely descriptive and fail to contain an analysis of the finding. Reports do not include the views of children, parents and local authority staff as required, and there is no action plan. This does not encourage service development and improvement.

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good

Staff receive good guidance from their line managers and feel well supported to care safely for children. Training and induction opportunities are good, and staff receive regular supervision. However, gaps are noted in the recording of some staff’s supervision sessions. This does not demonstrate that line managers and supervisees have a record of discussions and agreed actions.

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good

Staff appraisals do not take place annually. This does not ensure that staff performance and development are reviewed and any shortfalls in care practices are addressed.

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good

The home is meeting the aims and objectives as stated in its statement of purpose. However, a revised statement of purpose is yet to be shared with Ofsted as required.

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good

Managers and staff have good working relationships with other professionals and parents. This ensures that all parties are aware of placement issues and developments.

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good

This inspection has identified a number of weaknesses in the leadership and management of the home. However, these do not adversely affect the progress and experiences of children, which are largely positive. Inspection report children’s home: SC033805 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 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—

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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)(h))

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Requirement Due date

This relates to the registered person’s decision-making about the future of the home. Ensure that changes to the nature of the service are shared with stakeholders, and timescales and action plans are shared and implemented. 1 May 2022

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Requirement Due date

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. 1 May 2022 Inspection report children’s home: SC033805 7 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

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Requirement Due date

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 registered person must ensure that all employees—

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Requirement Due date

have their performance and fitness to perform their roles appraised at least once every year. (Regulation 33 (4)(c)) 1 April 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

that the premises used for the purposes of the home are designed, furnished and maintained so as to protect each child from avoidable hazards to the child’s health. (Regulation 12 (1) (2)(d))

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Requirement Due date

In particular, ensure that staff consistently record fridge and freezer temperatures. 1 April 2022

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Requirement Due date

keep the statement of purpose under review and, where appropriate, revise it; and

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Requirement Due date

notify HMCI of any revisions and send HMCI a copy of the revised statement within 28 days of the revision. (Regulation 16 (3)(a)(b)) 1 April 2022 Inspection report children’s home: SC033805 8 The care planning standard is that children—

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Requirement Due date

receive effectively planned care in or through the children’s home; and

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Requirement Due date

have a positive experience of arriving at or moving on from the home.

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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

that children are admitted to the home only if their needs are within the range of needs of children for whom it is intended that the home is to provide care and accommodation, as set out in the home’s statement of purpose. (Regulation 14 (1)(a)(b) (2)(a)) 1 April 2022

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Recommendations

 The registered person should ensure that, as part of reviewing and revising the statement of purpose, they review and update the children’s guide as necessary, and make sure children are given an explanation of any changes. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations, including the quality standards’, page 24, paragraph 4.23)  The registered person should ensure that a record of supervision is kept for all staff, including the manager. The record should provide evidence that supervision is being delivered in line with regulation 33(4)(b). It is good practice for a note of the content and/or outcomes of supervision sessions to be kept and to ensure that both the person giving the supervision and the staff member have a copy. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations, including the quality standards’, page 61, paragraph 13.3)  The registered person should ensure that records of restraint are kept and enable

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Recommendations

the registered person and staff to review the use of control, discipline and restraint to identify effective practice and respond promptly where any issues or trends of concern emerge. The review should provide the opportunity for amending practice to ensure that it meets the needs of each child. Managers should sign off each entry and ensure the home’s central restraints log is used. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations, including the quality standards’, page 49, paragraph 9.59)

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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 Inspection report children’s home: SC033805 9 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: SC033805 10

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Children’s home details

Registered provider: London Borough of Barnet

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: London Borough of Barnet, 2 Bristol Avenue, Colindale NW9 4EW

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Children’s home details

Responsible individual: Nichola Gallagher

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Inspectors

Sandra Jacobs-Walls, Social Care Inspector Colin Bent, Social Care Inspector Inspection report children’s home: SC033805 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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