Children's home run by Blue Mountain Homes Ltd in Ealing

Inspection report for children's home: SC490364 1 SC490364 Registered provider: Blue Mountain Homes 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. It provides care for up to five children who may have social, emotional and/or behavioural difficulties.

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Information about this children’s home

The manager is relatively new and not yet registered with Ofsted.

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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: requires improvement to be good

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good

Enforcement action since last inspection: none Inspection report for children's home: SC490364 2

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

08/03/2022 Full Requires improvement to be good 05/02/2020 Full Outstanding 06/02/2019 Full Outstanding 06/06/2017 Full Good Inspection report for children's home: SC490364 3

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children and staff have good relationships. Staff are nurturing and supportive towards the children. The staff celebrate children’s achievements, no matter how small, because they know this helps children develop confidence. When children have additional needs, the staff understand these needs and meet them.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff ensure that children’s enthusiasm to attend school is maintained. Some children are making good progress and working towards the aim of being in full-time education. Other children’s successes with education are variable and at times they struggle with attendance. The staff are persistent. They encourage the children to attend school and focus on learning.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

As children become older, they are provided with good opportunities to gain crucial independent living skills. For example, some children take responsibility for the weekly food shopping. They have prepared meals for other children and staff. When children are ready to look for employment, the staff support and encourage this.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Some children face challenges with their mental health. Managers ensure that appropriate specialist mental healthcare is made available. More informally, staff encourage children to share their worries in several ways. For example, children produce mind maps, and write down their worries and thoughts on paper. This encourages children to express themselves and their feelings.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

The home is a large, detached house. Children are provided with several living areas and have their own bedrooms and bathrooms. Outside there is a large garden. This garden has not been monitored effectively to ensure that all hazards have been removed. However, this does not detract from what is generally a pleasant family home environment.

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

Children’s behaviour has improved over time. Staff make good use of key-work sessions with the children to raise any concerns about behaviour. Together, they look for ways to improve behaviour. Children also undertake short courses to learn how to keep safe. Children are encouraged to talk about their emotions and feelings. As a result, negative behaviour decreases.

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

Staff follow procedures when children go missing from home or if they are away without permission. Staff actively look for children. They share information with external safeguarding agencies. Children are offered opportunities to talk about why they went missing, to try and prevent a reoccurrence. Inspection report for children's home: SC490364 4 Staff are confident in their safeguarding roles and responsibilities. They receive regular safeguarding training. Staff are motivated and remain curious about the children who are in their care. This means children are safer.

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

The location of the home and the environment are reviewed on a regular basis by a manager. Local environmental risk factors are considered. This helps to keep children safer while in the community.

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

Some children smoke tobacco. Staff have offered advice and guidance to promote a healthier lifestyle. However, staff have failed to identify the risk of children having cigarette lighters in their bedrooms. This means that the risk of fire is increased.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

This home has been through a period of management instability. Stakeholders say this has had some impact on the children’s care. However, a dedicated and enthusiastic deputy manager has driven forward development in several areas. A new manager has now been recruited and is settling into the home.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Staff are now receiving regular supervision. This has improved. This means that staff now have a formal opportunity to speak to a senior member of staff or manager about the children’s development and welfare. Additionally, staff are encouraged and supported to develop, and have opportunities for promotion.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The staff team provides children with consistent approaches to care. There has been stability in the staff team. Staff are committed to their work with the children at this home. There is a culture of nurturing care and high expectations for all the children.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

When a specific care need is identified, managers usually ensure that staff are provided with training. However, there are children at this home who use sign language to communicate. Staff have been unable to access deaf awareness training quickly enough. Additionally, not all staff are proficient in sign language. This means that staff have relied on the proficiency of the child’s lip-reading ability. Inspection report for children's home: SC490364 5

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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 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 home’s day-to-day care is arranged and delivered so as to keep each child safe and to protect each child effectively from harm. (Regulation 12 (1) (2)(b))

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Requirement Due date

This specifically relates to children having cigarette lighters in their bedrooms. 10 June 2022

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Recommendations

 The registered person should ensure that the children’s home provides a nurturing and supportive environment that meets the needs of their children and is a homely, domestic environment. This relates to the tidiness and safety of garden. (‘Guide to the Children’s Homes Regulations, including the quality standards’, page 15, paragraph 3.9)  The registered person should support staff to be ambitious for every child in the home and to gain skills and experience that enable them to actively support each child to achieve their potential. To ensure staff can understand and can meet each child’s needs, in line with their responsibilities, the registered person themselves will need to have a high level of understanding of the needs of the children in their care. This is to ensure that staff continue to maintain their sign language and deaf awareness skills. (‘Guide to the Children’s Homes Regulations, including the quality standards’, page 52, paragraph 10.5)

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Recommendations

Inspection report for children's home: SC490364 6

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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: SC490364 7

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Children’s home details

Registered provider: Blue Mountain Homes

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: Flat 17, Leeland Mansions, Leeland Road, London W13 9HE

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Children’s home details

Responsible individual: Pradeep Manaktala

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Inspector

Simon Hunter, Social Care Inspector Inspection report for children's home: SC490364 8 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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