Children's home run by Heartwood RSL Ltd

Inspection report for children’s home: 2528264 1 Registered provider: Heartwood RSL Ltd Full inspection Inspected under the social care common inspection framework

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Information about this children’s home

This privately owned children’s home provides care for up to five children. The provider states in its statement of purpose that it provides child-centred care for children with social and/or emotional difficulties.

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Information about this children’s home

The home has been without a registered manager since 24 September 2021. An interim manager has been in post since that time and has submitted their application to register 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 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

Overall judgement at last inspection: good

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good

Enforcement action since last inspection: none Inspection report for children’s home: 2528264 2

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

23/06/2021 Full Good 28/01/2020 Full Requires improvement to be good Inspection report for children’s home: 2528264 3

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children are supported to make good progress while living at this home. A core team of experienced workers knows the children well and picks up on when they need individual care and attention, for example sensing and pre-empting children’s responses by engaging with them or taking them out for an activity. Children form positive relationships with staff and respond to the child-centred approach staff implement. This approach invests in relationships, rewards positive behaviours and seeks to use reparation and understanding to change unwanted responses. The organisation has commissioned a certified behaviour analyst, who will be offering the staff trauma-informed training in July 2022, followed by positive behaviour support training. In addition, the behaviour analyst supports the manager through monthly consultations, helping to provide new concepts and ideas about how to support the children’s positive behaviours.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

When children come to live at the home, staff are quick to organise education or to source educational activities until more formal plans are in place. As a result, all children have made good progress, for example completing GCSEs or functional skills exams or returning to education after a long absence. Children are currently being supported to seek further education and college placements for September. Children spend good-quality time with staff and have organisation and structure to their days. Regular key-work sessions support children to talk about a range of topics that affect them. Staff work closely with health and youth offending services to ensure that children receive the help they need. This is helping to reduce the number of times children go missing from home, and is reducing offending behaviour and improving children’s emotional health and well-being. Children informed the inspector that they would like the home environment to be

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

improved. Overall, the home is clean and tidy; however, parts of the home need some refurbishment and the television in the lounge needs replacing. Currently, there are some limits on access to the lounge and the kitchen. Although these restrictions are in place to safeguard children, they are not yet subject to risk assessment or rigorous review. Children are helped to create a curriculum vitae and supported to look for Saturday jobs or to volunteer to gain work experience. Children are also supported to apply for passports and to learn to drive to prepare for their futures.

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

Children’s written risk assessments are difficult to access on the computer system and are not regularly reviewed. Therefore, new staff working at the home cannot easily access information about the level of risk for each child. Information about Inspection report for children’s home: 2528264 4 children’s needs and risks is held in a variety of different documents, which further hinders access to up-to-date information. Despite the above, children are being helped to understand how to keep themselves safe and avoid putting themselves at risk both in the home and in the community. Effective safeguarding arrangements, which staff understand, are in place to help reduce risks. The staff and manager’s response when children go missing from the home is consistent. They are diligent in following up with placing authorities to request an independent interview when children return to the home. This ensures that they

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

understand if children have any concerns about the home, and this approach supports a reduction in the number of incidents of children going missing from the home. Children benefit from positive relationships with staff, which helps children to feel safe and secure. A social worker and an education worker have both said how positive relationships have helped children to mature and make good progress. Children said that they feel safe living at this home. They are supported to think about how they manage situations and are involved in developing their own behaviour support plans. This approach enables staff to understand what makes children feel angry, sad or frustrated and provides staff with strategies to help children to manage their feelings.

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good

The registered manager left the service in September 2021. Despite the interim manager being in post since then, their completed application to register with Ofsted has only recently been submitted. Ofsted was notified of a change in senior management at the home on 14 March 2022, when a new responsible individual was appointed. The interim manager and wider leadership team have high expectations for children and promote a child-centred approach to ensure that children receive good-quality care. Early signs of the impact of this approach are positive, and a more stable and permanent staff team will help to embed this approach more consistently. Staff said that they feel supported by leaders and managers and are positive about the chosen model of practice to work with children to help promote change. Records of staff supervisions indicate that these are not yet consistent, losing the opportunity to follow up on previous actions set and ensure progress. Team meetings are not

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good

held regularly. This does not support the sharing of knowledge or updates on children’s progress and behaviours, and does not ensure a consistent team response to working with children. Leaders and managers are committed to recruiting the right staff and ensuring that they have a team of staff who work together to implement the desired approach. Leaders and managers promote a positive induction, probationary period and Inspection report for children’s home: 2528264 5 progression of training to support the staff team. Not all staff employed have the required level 3 qualification; however, leaders and managers are aware of this shortfall and are working to address this. A strength of this home is the quality of relationships with wider professionals and safeguarding partners. Very positive feedback was received about the level of communication and the regular updates that keep professionals informed of how

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good

children are progressing and how staff are supporting planning. Not all the children living at the home have up-to-date care plans from their placing authority. Without these plans, ensuring the right care and being able to respond to each child’s assessed needs are difficult. In these circumstances, the manager and staff cannot consider the impact a new child moving into the home will have on existing children already living at the home. Children’s views are sought and recorded in their behaviour support plans and in regular key-work sessions. The interim manager has completed a quality-of-care review; however, this does not include feedback from children, staff and parents or carers. Leaders and managers have not kept appropriate records of children moving into and leaving the home. These records are important for children and represent a part of their life history, which they are entitled to review as adults.

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good

Inspection report for children’s home: 2528264 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

maintain in the home the records in Schedule 4;

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Requirement Due date

ensure that the records are kept up to date; and

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Requirement Due date

retain the records for at least 15 years from the date of the last entry. (Regulation 37 (2)(a)(b)(c)) 22 July 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.

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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) (5))

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Requirement Due date

In particular, ensure that feedback is informing the quality-of- care review. 30 September

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Requirement Due date

employ an individual to work at the children’s home; 30 September Inspection report for children’s home: 2528264 7 if the individual satisfies the requirements in paragraph (3).

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Requirement Due date

the individual has the appropriate experience, qualification and skills for the work that the individual is to perform;

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Requirement Due date

For the purposes of paragraph (3)(b), an individual who works in the home in a care role has the appropriate qualification if, by the relevant date, the individual has attained—

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Requirement Due date

the Level 3 Diploma for Residential Childcare (England) ("the Level 3 Diploma"); or

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Requirement Due date

a qualification which the registered person considers to be equivalent to the Level 3 Diploma.

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Requirement Due date

in the case of an individual who starts working in a care role in a home after 1st April 2014, the date which falls 2 years after the date on which the individual started working in a care role in a home; or

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Requirement Due date

in the case of an individual who was working in a care role in a home on 1st April 2014, 1st April 2016.

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Requirement Due date

The registered person may defer the relevant date if the individual—

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Requirement Due date

does not work, or has not worked, in a care role in a home for a prolonged period; or

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Requirement Due date

works, or has worked, in a care role in a home on a part- time basis. (Regulation 32 (1) (2)(a) (3)(b) (4)(a)(b) (5)(a)(b) (6)(a)(b))

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Requirement Due date

In particular, this relates to reviewing all staff qualifications and ensuring that staff are enrolled on appropriate courses.

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Recommendations

 The registered person should ensure that staff continually and actively assess the risks to each child and the arrangements in place to protect them. Where there are safeguarding concerns for a child, their placement plan, agreed between the Inspection report for children’s home: 2528264 8 home and their placing authority, must include details of the steps the home will take to manage any assessed risks on a day-to-day basis. In particular, simplify the risk-assessment format and ensure that risks are reviewed and updated regularly. (‘Guide to the Children’s Homes Regulations, including the quality standards’, page 42, paragraph 9.5)  The registered person should ensure that the home is run as set out in the statement of purpose and carefully consider the impact of new children coming to live at the home on existing children. (‘Guide to the Children’s Homes Regulations, including the quality standards’, page 15, paragraph 3.6)

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Recommendations

 The registered person should ensure that the television in the lounge is replaced and that general refurbishment and decoration take place to ensure a homely environment. (‘Guide to the Children’s Homes Regulations, including the quality standards’, page 15, paragraph 3.9)  The registered person should ensure that, just as in a family home, children are able to access all shared areas of their home unless there are specific reasons why this would not meet a child’s needs. Limits on privacy and access may only be put in place to safeguard each child in the home (regulation 21(c)(i)). Any decisions to limit a child’s access to any area of the home and any modifications to the environment of the home, must only be made where this is intended to safeguard the child’s welfare. All decisions should be informed by a rigorous assessment of that individual child’s needs, be properly recorded and be kept under regular review. Information on restraint and deprivation of liberty is

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Recommendations

contained in the protection of children section of the Guide from paragraph 9.41. In particular, ensure that the lounge and kitchen doors are only locked in line with this guidance. (‘Guide to the Children’s Homes Regulations, including the quality standards’, page 15, paragraph 3.10)  The registered person must challenge (under regulation 5(c)) any placing authority who asks them to accept a child in the absence of a complete and current relevant plan, as the expectation that a placement of a child without the necessary information would go ahead (in circumstances other than an emergency) is inadequate in relation to their role. It is essential that homes understand what will be required of them before they accept responsibility for a child’s placement, to avoid disruption and instability for the child in future and for other children in the home. (‘Guide to the Children’s Homes Regulations, including

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Recommendations

the quality standards’, page 56, paragraph 11.5)  The registered person is responsible for maintaining good employment practice. They must ensure that recruitment, supervision and performance management of staff safeguards children and minimises potential risks to them. In particular, ensure that supervision is regular and continuous and that other supports, such as team meetings, are regular and induction processes are followed. (‘Guide to the Children’s Homes Regulations, including the quality standards’, page 61, paragraph 13.1) Inspection report for children’s home: 2528264 9

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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: 2528264 10

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: 416 Green Lane, Ilford, Essex IG3 9JX

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Inspector

Christine Kennet, Social Care Inspector Inspection report for children’s home: 2528264 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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Inspector

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Inspector

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Inspector

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