Children's home run by Holibrook House Limited

Inspection report for children’s home: SC377702 1 SC377702 Registered provider: Holibrook House Limited Full inspection Inspected under the social care common inspection framework

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Information about this children’s home

This home is privately owned and provides care and accommodation for up to six children. The home’s statement of purpose states that it cares for children who present with emotional and/or social difficulties. In addition to having two other children’s homes, the company is also a registered education provider.

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Information about this children’s home

The manager registered with Ofsted in January 2018.

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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 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: SC377702 2

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

20/04/2021 Full Good 26/02/2020 Full Good 11/03/2019 Interim Sustained effectiveness 24/07/2018 Full Good Inspection report for children’s home: SC377702 3

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

There were two children living in the home at the time of this inspection. One child declined to speak to the inspector. One child spoken to said that he is happy and well supported. He has formed close and trusting relationships with staff. This home has provided care for children with high levels of risk, such as sexual and/or criminal exploitation, high frequency of going missing from care, self-harm and mental health concerns.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff understand the impact on children’s behaviour of their past experiences and trauma they have suffered. Staff sensitively explore areas of risk, such as the possible triggers for going missing from care or their involvement in negative behaviour. This helps children to feel understood and cared for.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff encourage children to attend their education provisions. However, some children’s high levels of going missing from care disrupt efforts to establish patterns of sustained attendance. Staff have made efforts to seek alternative forms of education in line with the child’s views, for example arranging a construction course for one child. However, the child has chosen not to attend.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children benefit from direct work sessions that are creative. However, not all children’s day-to-day experiences are well recorded. For example, one child’s chronology had inaccurate dates for key events, non-engagement of children in direct work sessions and children’s views following debriefs are not fully recorded. Children’s records do not always include what is said and done by staff to interact with children, and catch-all phrases, such as ‘banter’, are used to describe interactions. This does not demonstrate good record-keeping.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff support and play an instrumental role in repairing family relationships where appropriate to do so. One parent said: ‘I am thankful that they supported us all as a family, grateful that they supported us to engage with each other after months of [the child] refusing to talk to us.’

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff support and encourage children to have fun. However, not all children take up opportunities to engage in activities outside the home. Children have instead engaged in activities such as baking, playing board games and going for walks with staff members.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Not all children who live in the home have positive endings; serious threats of harm and violence against staff have meant that some endings have been unplanned.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

The manager and staff support children’s mental health needs well. For example, one child was supported to develop his musical talent by purchasing him musical instruments and engaging him with a music therapist. The child played his guitar for Inspection report for children’s home: SC377702 4 staff at his leaving party. This helped the child to make some progress in improving his mood and confidence.

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

Staff complete clear and detailed risk assessments for children. These alert staff to children’s known risks and help staff to keep children safe in the home and out in the community. One social worker reported one child as being at high risk of being missing from care and child sexual exploitation. The social worker reported that when the child is missing from home, staff do everything that they can to get her back home safely.

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

When children are missing from home, managers and staff report children missing and work to agreed missing-from-home plans to safeguard children. Managers maintain good oversight of these processes and in one instance managers identified a delay in reporting a child missing from home and action was taken to address this within one hour of the child going missing. Staff stay in touch with children when they are missing and try to visit children where staff suspect they may be, when it is safe to do so.

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

Staff understand the risks to children around exploitation, gang affiliation, mental health and self-harm. Some children’s risks do not reduce despite the best efforts of staff, who are an active part of the professional network, to try and keep children as safe as possible.

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

Significant behaviour incidents are generally managed very well. However, one serious incident required police and local authority designated officer (LADO) involvement. Managers worked with all safeguarding partners and took all necessary action to safeguard children and staff.

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

Allegations against staff are referred to the LADO without delay and are fully investigated. Managers take learning and follow advice from the LADO. The local authority designated officer said: ‘LADO had oversight of the management of these allegations and no concerns have been raised during this time about this process. The home provides accommodation to young people with complex and challenging behaviours, which places additional responsibility, as well as challenge, on the staff.’

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

One staff member did not demonstrate a good understanding of whistle-blowing procedures when discussing this with the inspector. This does not demonstrate that all staff are able to respond appropriately to safeguarding concerns relating to other staff and managers.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The home is managed by an experienced and qualified registered manager. The manager has retained a core staff group with diverse skills and experiences. However, the manager has struggled to recruit new staff. The manager and staff have demonstrated their commitment to children by undertaking more shifts to Inspection report for children’s home: SC377702 5 ensure that they continue to provide consistency for children and have only used agency staff as a last resort.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Leaders and managers know children very well and advocate effectively on their behalf. Managers ensure that new strategies and interventions from specialist providers are considered, to address children’s changing needs. This ensures that children remain the focus of interventions. This helps children to develop necessary life skills and helps to keep children safe.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Leaders and managers work very well with other agencies and carers to support the day-to-day care of children, both in the home and in the community.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Leaders and managers plan well for children moving into the home. They carefully consider the needs of all children living in the home. Leaders have been responsive to the difficulties they are facing in recruiting new staff and have made the decision to limit the number of children in the home to three children until more staff are recruited and trained. This helps keep staff and children safe.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Staff benefit from regular supervision and online training; however, records of supervision do not consistently reflect the content of supervision. Staff provide nurture and care to children. However, staff were unable to explain the home’s therapeutic approach to the inspector and not all staff have received training in relation to the therapeutic approach at the home. This is not in line with the home’s statement of purpose.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Most staff say that they feel supported. However, some staff members feel that there should be improved communication between staff members. Some staff members say that they feel uncomfortable with the use of banter between staff; however, this is never in the presence of children. Managers and staff have put measures in place to improve staff morale, dynamics and communication to reduce the impact of this on children. This includes additional support in the form of mentoring for some staff, on-the-job coaching for others and workshops on ‘norming and storming’ for the team. This work has progressed but these issues could still potentially have an impact on children. Inspection report for children’s home: SC377702 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 promotes their welfare.

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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

ensure that staff work as a team where appropriate. (Regulation 13 (1)(b))

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Requirement Due date

In particular, this refers to improving team dynamics and the quality of communication between staff to ensure that they consistently work as a team. 7 July 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

understand the roles and responsibilities in relation to protecting children that are assigned to them by the registered person;

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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)(v)(vii)) 7 July 2022

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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; 7 July 2022 Inspection report for children’s home: SC377702 7 are kept up to date; and

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Requirement Due date

are signed and dated by the author of each entry.

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Requirement Due date

if the child dies before attaining the age of 18, for 15 years from the date of the child’s death;

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Requirement Due date

in cases not falling within sub-paragraph (a), for 75 years from the child’s date of birth;

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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; and

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Requirement Due date

in a secure place after the child has ceased to be accommodated in the home. (Regulation 36 (1)(a)(b)(c) (2)(a)(b)(c)(d))

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Requirement Due date

In particular, this refers to ensuring that:

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Requirement Due date

 children’s records are complete and accurate and reflect children’s day-to-day experiences;  children’s records state what staff say and do to interact/communicate with children and to avoid using generic terms, such as ‘staff bantered with child’.

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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))

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Requirement Due date

In particular, this refers to ensuring that the home operates in line with the statement of purpose in the provision of therapeutically trained staff for the day-to-day care of children. Where this is not possible, the statement of purpose must be amended to reflect this. 7 July 2022 Inspection report for children’s home: SC377702 8

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Recommendation

 The registered person should ensure that notes of the content and/or outcomes of supervision sessions are kept and that both the person giving the supervision and staff member have a copy of the record. Specifically, this relates to ensuring that good records of the content of supervision are maintained for the purposes of staff development. (‘Guide to the Children’s Homes Regulations, including the quality standards’, page 61, paragraph 13.4)

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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: SC377702 9

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Children’s home details

Registered provider: Holibrook House Limited

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: First Floor, 172 Hoe Street, Walthamstow, London E17 4QH

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Inspector

Jayshree Pillay, Social Care Inspector Inspection report for children’s home: SC377702 10 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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