Children's home run by The National Autistic Society in Islington

Inspection report children’s home: SC032154 1 SC032154 Registered provider: National Autistic Society Full inspection Inspected under the social care common inspection framework

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Information about this children’s home

This home is part of a charitable trust. It is registered to provide care for up to eight children who may have autism spectrum disorder. Children may have other associated difficulties, such as sensory impairment and/or physical disabilities.

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Information about this children’s home

The home is divided into two houses, with a communal hub and garden. The home is part of a special school that provides education on site.

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Information about this children’s home

The manager has been in post since November 2021 and has applied to register with Ofsted.

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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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outstanding

How well children and young people are helped and protected outstanding

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outstanding

The effectiveness of leaders and managers good

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outstanding

The children’s home provides highly effective services that consistently exceed the standards of good. The actions of the children’s home contribute to significantly improved outcomes and positive experiences for children and young people who need help, protection, and care.

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outstanding

Date of last inspection: 21 January 2020

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outstanding

Overall judgement at last inspection: outstanding Inspection report children’s home: SC032154 2 Enforcement action since last inspection: none Inspection report children’s home: SC032154 3

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

21/01/2020 Full Outstanding 08/01/2019 Full Outstanding 18/01/2018 Full Outstanding 15/03/2017 Interim Sustained effectiveness Inspection report children’s home: SC032154 4

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outstanding

Children make substantial progress from the time of their admission to the home. They become increasingly less anxious and respond well to the consistent care and routines. The children’s communication skills significantly improve as they respond to the methods used by staff. This helps to build children’s confidence and self-esteem.

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outstanding

Children are increasingly able to attend to aspects of their own care and they have become more independent. They attend health appointments, go to school and access the community. This greatly expands their experiences and involvement in the world around them.

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outstanding

Children have built strong relationships with the staff who care for them. This helps children to build trust and to feel safer and relaxed in their surroundings.

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outstanding

Staff communicate with the children verbally and through Picture Exchange Communication System boards and symbols. This enables the children to give their views and be actively involved in decisions about their daily life, such as choosing meals and leisure activities.

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outstanding

Children’s attendance at school is excellent, which supports their continued academic achievements and progress.

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outstanding

Great importance is given to the health needs of the children, which considerably improves their health outcomes. The children benefit immensely from having access to the home’s health team, occupational therapist, speech and language specialist and clinical psychologist. This helps to ensure that their health needs are consistently met.

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outstanding

Children’s emotional health needs are expertly addressed. There are strong links with mental health professionals and specialist learning disability nurses. During this inspection, professionals told the inspector that the staff work collaboratively with them to meet the health needs of the children.

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outstanding

Children immensely enjoy spending regular time with their families. Staff have established a great rapport with parents. When parents visit the home, they are made most welcome. In addition, staff go that extra mile to ensure that children go on home visits to see their parents. This ensures that children maintain strong and positive connections with those who are important to them.

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outstanding

Staff make every effort and dedicate an immeasurable amount of time to attain the opinions of the children. Staff listen to the children’s views and act on the choices they make. Additional work has been undertaken to help children to choose their Inspection report children’s home: SC032154 5 daily meals. This has been exceptionally successful and has resulted in children enjoying their meals more.

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outstanding

Proactive planning and attention are given to supporting children who are moving on to adult placements. Comprehensive plans are in place. This includes consulting with the child and seeking the views of their parents. Staff organise for the child to visit their new home several times and meet the new staff who will be caring for them. This helps to ensure that the child has a positive move to their new home.

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outstanding

The home is well furnished. There are several communal areas, and children’s bedrooms are personalised. This presents a welcoming environment. Currently, some children’s bedrooms and en-suite facilities are being decorated and refurbished. However, the decoration in several communal areas is showing signs of wear and tear, with walls marked and scuffed.

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outstanding

The staff are fully aware of each child’s vulnerabilities and know the children exceptionally well. Keeping children safe is seen as paramount. The children’s support plans and risk assessments set out, in specific detail, how the children are to be cared for to keep them safe. These plans are regularly reviewed. The identified safety strategies and measures are implemented by staff. This has resulted in the individual risks to children reducing. Therefore, children are better protected from harm.

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outstanding

High staffing levels maintain elevated levels of supervision for the children. This ensures that the children receive care and support in line with their plans.

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outstanding

Children respond well to the consistent approach and boundaries implemented by the staff. This assists children to become less anxious, and, in time, considerably reduces the number and/or severity of serious incidents.

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outstanding

Staff promote a calm and low-arousal environment to support the children positively. The staff support the children, predominantly by using de-escalation strategies. When children do go into crisis, staff will physically hold children as a last resort. This is to prevent them from hurting themselves or others. The staff are trained in how to physically hold children safely. The staff implement the specific individual behaviour management strategies to keep children safe. The manager and senior team regularly review any instance when a child is held to ensure that safe practice is used. This helps to protect children from harm.

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outstanding

There is thorough monitoring of the administration, storage and recording of medication. Trained staff make sure that they administer medication to the children safely, in line with the doctor’s instructions.

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outstanding

Staff are fully aware and demonstrate a comprehensive knowledge of safeguarding policies and protocols to keep the children safe. This includes what to do if a child Inspection report children’s home: SC032154 6 goes missing and in the event an allegation is made. There have been no instances when children have gone missing.

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outstanding

Safer recruitment practices are followed, with all required safeguarding checks being undertaken. This means that all staff working at the home are safe to work with children.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The new manager and senior team lead by example and support the staff to provide the very best care to the children. The manager has quickly assessed and identified the home’s strengths and areas for development. She has prioritised areas to improve the quality of care, starting with those that will positively impact on children the most.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The children are cared for by an exceptionally experienced, child-centred and caring staff team. The staff have expertise and are dedicated to the children who they care for.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Most staff hold the level 3 qualification in caring for children. Most staff have up-to- date mandatory training, including safeguarding, first aid, health and safety. Staff have more specialist training in areas such as child development, deprivation of liberty and autism spectrum disorder. However, some staff require a food hygiene refresher and risk assessment training.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

There is a stable team of core of staff who, along with a few regular agency staff, cover for the vacant posts. This ensures that the consistency of care is maintained.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Internal and external monitoring of the quality of care forms an important part of maintaining high standards. There is a wealth of health and safety audits and scrutiny. The manager has devised a new monitoring tool for her own use. This is still to be implemented. The inspector found that the case file information for the children is comprehensive. However, some information is duplicated in a few sections, progress on targets is not always kept up to date and not all documents have been reviewed. Inspection report children’s home: SC032154 7

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Recommendations

 The registered person should ensure that the home provides a nurturing and supportive environment that meets the needs of the children. Children’s homes are, in most cases, homely, domestic environments. The registered person should seek as far as possible to maintain a domestic rather than ‘institutional’ impression. In particular, the registered person should ensure that all rooms in the home are decorated to a good standard and all floor coverings are in good order. (‘Guide to the Children’s Homes Regulations, including the quality standards’, page 15, paragraph 3.9)  The registered person should ensure that all children’s case records are kept up to date and stored securely while they remain in the home. In particular, staff should routinely record the progress of children’s targets, and case file records should be reviewed to minimise duplication and give clarity for all who access the information, including children. (‘Guide to the Children’s Homes Regulations,

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Recommendations

including the quality standards’, page 15, paragraph 3.9)  The registered person should ensure that staff can access appropriate facilities and resources to support their training needs and should understand the key role they play in the training and development of staff in the home. In particular, the registered person should ensure that all staff receive up-to-date food hygiene training and the senior team receives relevant risk assessment training. (‘Guide to the Children’s Homes Regulations, including the quality standards’, page 53, paragraph 10.11)  The registered person should oversee the welfare of the children in their care through observation and engagement with each child; the home’s staff; each child’s family/carers where appropriate; and professionals involved in the care or protection of each child, including their social worker, independent reviewing officer, teachers, clinicians and other health professionals. In particular, the

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Recommendations

registered person should ensure that the proposed new monitoring system is implemented and that there is up-to-date overview and oversight. (‘Guide to the Children’s Homes Regulations, including the quality standards’, page 54, paragraph 10.23)

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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: SC032154 8

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Children’s home details

Registered provider: National Autistic Society (The)

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: 393 City Road, London EC1V 1NG

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Inspector

Debbie Foster, Social Care Inspector Inspection report children’s home: SC032154 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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