Setting run by The Laurels Family Assessment Limited

Inspected under the social care common inspection framework

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Information about this residential family centre

This residential family centre is registered for up to five families at any one time. The centre is privately owned. Families access the centre at the direction of the family court or the local authority for the purposes of assessment. Parenting assessments are usually completed over a 12-week period but may be extended if agreed with the referring local authority and/or following court instruction.

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Information about this residential family centre

The manager registered with Ofsted in July 2021, when the residential family centre became operational. This is the family centre’s first inspection since it registered.

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Overall experiences and progress of

children and parents, taking into account

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good

How well children and parents 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 residential family centre provides effective services that meet the requirements for good.

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good

Overall judgement at last inspection: not applicable

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good

Enforcement action since last inspection: not applicable

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Overall experiences and progress of children and parents: good

The staff team provides a good balance of support and guidance to parents. This is done in a way that does not undermine parents and, because of this, parents are responsive to the guidance they receive from the staff team. Consequently, families are making good progress in their parenting and children are thriving.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and parents: good

Parents are comfortable in the centre and say that the staff provide nurturing and supportive care. Professionals reported that there are effective lines of communication and multi-agency practice between the staff team and the assessing social worker. One social worker said, ‘The staff team empowers parents and helps them to grow in confidence.’

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Overall experiences and progress of children and parents: good

Staff spoken to were knowledgeable about the families living in the centre. They understand what is expected of them in relation to direct work and observations as part of the parenting assessment. Direct work is creative in helping develop parenting capabilities, including the use of visual toolkits which educate parents about creating a positive environment for their children.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and parents: good

Parents are encouraged to engage in consistent daily routines and house chores. A range of in-house daily baby clubs, activities and training courses are provided by the staff team to support parents to develop their parenting skills. Parent-led activities with a volunteer worker give parents an opportunity to engage in creative activities and sessions to enhance their independence skills.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and parents: good

A qualified social worker undertakes the family assessments. She ensures that parents are involved in their assessments and their views are always considered. The social worker meets regularly with key workers to undertake consultation sessions. This entails tracking parents’ progress, reviewing areas for development and evaluating parents’ abilities in support of the assessment process. The social worker assessment reports are balanced and of good quality. They make clear recommendations relating to strengths and weaknesses and the current parental capacity.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and parents: good

Family placement plans are ineffective in evidencing the care arrangements that are currently in place for parents and their children. Specifically, there are no details about parents’ and children’s routine healthcare, including support required to meet their additional physical and emotional health needs.

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How well children and parents are helped and protected: good

Staff understand the individual risks for families and how they should be supported to reduce these risks. Through regular key-work sessions, parents are encouraged to talk about their feelings and identify coping strategies. Staff work effectively with parents to encourage them to make positive and safe decisions. This helps parents to understand how their behaviour and choices impact on their child.

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How well children and parents are helped and protected: good

Parents access weekly external groups, to support them with positive mental health and to address trauma relating to domestic violence. Risk assessments evidence the progress that parents make and the reduction of risk relating to substance misuse, healthy relationships and keeping themselves safe in the community.

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How well children and parents are helped and protected: good

Impact risk assessments are not always thorough in assessing the suitability of the centre to meet families’ needs. The manager has not evidenced that he considers staff’s experience or any training required to meet the needs of the families. Additionally, some risks are not proportionately risk graded to reflect a true account of parents’ historical risk-taking behaviour. This means that there is not an accurate assessment in place for families on their admission to the centre.

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How well children and parents are helped and protected: good

However, parents are provided with a detailed induction to the centre, which includes clear expectations relating to acceptable behaviour. The centre operates an effective approach to safeguarding, risk reduction and implementing preventative measures to keep families safe. Consequently, there have been no serious incidents, no requirement for police involvement, and no reports of going missing or safeguarding referrals.

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How well children and parents are helped and protected: good

Safer recruitment is not always robust. The manager has failed to complete overseas checks for one staff member who has worked with children abroad. This means that there is an employment period that has not been accounted for, as the manager has not obtained the appropriate additional police checks. The manager was taking immediate action to resolve this shortfall.

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How well children and parents are helped and protected: good

There have been no formal complaints made by parents. Parents say that they are listened to and can share their views openly and honestly with the staff team. Parents benefit from regular house meetings where they can collectively discuss issues. Staff resolve any conflicts between families quickly and effectively. This ensures that the environment remains relaxed and harmonious.

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good

The manager is still developing in his role and in his own professional development. His oversight of systems and monitoring of records is not yet effective or consistent. The manager has failed to complete and provide Ofsted with a review of the quality of care for the centre for the time the centre has been operating.

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good

Letters of court instruction are not on families’ case files. This makes it difficult to evidence that the centre is doing what is expected of them to support and develop parenting capacity. The manager has not taken action to obtain these documents from the placing authorities or requested them on families’ admission to the centre. Risk assessments do not contain up-to-date information about parents allocated unsupervised time in the community. Additionally, they do not consider high-risk historical behaviour for parents, such as suicidal ideation. This means that staff are not provided with accurate risk documents to support families safely. However, this has not had an impact on the safety of parents or their children.

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good

There are no arrangements in place for the assessing social worker to receive regular professional supervision. This is required to support effectively the work and assessments that she completes with the families. The manager is responsible for ensuring that this is carried out by someone who is qualified to do so.

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good

There are significant gaps in mandatory training. Most staff have not been provided with training in medication management and fire safety. Additionally, training to ensure that staff know how to promote positive parenting has not been completed by most of the staff team, such as in child development, attachment and trauma.

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good

However, the staff say that they are supported by a manager who provides clear direction and has a positive vision for the progression of the centre. He has a good understanding of the progress that families make and the areas of their parenting that they need to develop. The manager has positive relationships with the families. This is because he makes himself available to support parents and the staff team.

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good

There is a stable and mostly qualified staff team in place. Staff morale is positive and staff enjoy their roles. Staff feel supported and listened to by the manager. They receive regular practice-related supervision to review their roles and professional development. Team meetings take place monthly. The manager uses the meetings as an opportunity to address specific aspects of the service that he feels needs improvement.

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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, Residential Family Centre Regulations, 2002 and the national minimum standards. The registered person(s) must comply within the given timescales.

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Requirement Due date

The registered person shall, before providing a family with accommodation in the residential family centre, or if that is not reasonably practicable, as soon as possible thereafter, draw up in consultation with the placing authority a written plan (in these Regulations referred to as "the placement plan") setting out, in particular—

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Requirement Due date

an assessment of the risks, if any, which a resident at the residential family centre may present to their own health, safety and welfare or that of other residents or staff at the centre. (Regulation 13 (1)(c))

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Requirement Due date

Specifically, the registered manager should ensure that risk assessments include up-to-date information regarding families’ agreed unsupervised time in the community and significant historical risk-taking behaviour for parents, to ensure staff are aware of all potential risks. 18 August 2022

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Requirement Due date

The registered person shall ensure that all persons employed by him—

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Requirement Due date

receive appropriate training, supervision and appraisal. (Regulation 17 (5)(a))

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Requirement Due date

Specifically, the registered manager should ensure that all staff have training in medication management, child development and attachment.

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Requirement Due date

Also, the registered manager should ensure that the assessing social worker is provided with regular professional supervision. 18 August 2022

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Requirement Due date

The registered person shall maintain in respect of each family accommodated in the residential family centre a record which— 18 August 2022 includes the information, documents and other records specified in Schedule 3 relating to the members of the family. (Regulation 19 (1)(a))

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Requirement Due date

Specifically, the registered manager should ensure that a letter of instruction from the court is on all families’ case files.

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Requirement Due date

Subject to paragraph (1A) the registered person] shall after consultation with the [fire and rescue authority]—

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Requirement Due date

make arrangements for persons working at the residential family centre to receive suitable training in fire prevention. (Regulation 22 (1)(d)) 18 August 2022

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Requirement Due date

The registered person shall establish and maintain a system for—

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Requirement Due date

the quality of care provided at the residential family centre.

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Requirement Due date

The system referred to in paragraph (1) must provide for adequate consideration of matters raised under regulation 18 by persons working at the residential family centre.]

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Requirement Due date

The registered person shall supply to the [Chief Inspector] a report in respect of any review con-ducted by him for the purposes of paragraph (1) and make a copy of the report available to residents.

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Requirement Due date

The system referred to in paragraph (1) shall provide for consultation with residents. (Regulation 23 (1)(a)(b) (1A) (2) (3)) 18 August 2022

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Recommendations

 The registered person should ensure that parents’ and children’s physical, emotional and social development needs are identified in their family placement plan and promoted throughout their placement. (‘Residential family centres: national minimum standards’, page 13, 6.1)  The registered person should ensure that prior to a placement, a risk assessment is carried out to ensure both that the centre is well placed to meet the family’s needs and that the family is able to fit in with the centre’s other residents. It informs the level of supervision necessary for the parents and is kept under review throughout the placement. Specifically, impact risk assessments should consider the staff team’s level of experience, skills and training to meet families’ needs. Additionally, risk gradings should be proportionate to reflect all risk-taking behaviour for parents when they move into the centre. (‘Residential family

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Recommendations

centres: national minimum standards’, page 17, 9.1)  The registered person should ensure that the residential family centre has a record of the recruitment and vetting checks which have been carried out on those working (including as volunteers) for the residential family centre. This includes, where the person has lived outside the UK, further checks as are considered appropriate, where obtaining a Disclosure and Barring Service check is not sufficient to establish suitability to work with children. (‘Residential family centres: national minimum standards’, page 22, 14.3 (f))

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Information about this inspection

Inspectors have looked closely at the experiences and progress of children and parents 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 Residential Family Centre Regulations, 2002 and the national minimum standards.

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Inspectors

Cheryl Field, Social Care Inspector Claire Deary, Regulatory Inspection Manager 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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