Children's Home run by Footsteps Care Limited in Waltham Forest

Inspection report for children’s home: SC481293 1 SC481293 Registered provider: Footsteps Care Limited Full inspection Inspected under the social care common inspection framework

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Information about this children’s home

This privately owned home provides care for up to eight children. The home’s statement of purpose states that the home looks after children who have a learning/physical disability and/or complex health care needs.

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Information about this children’s home

The manager registered with Ofsted in May 2020 and is working towards his level 5 qualification in children’s residential care.

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Information about this children’s home

There were six children living in the home at the time of this inspection.

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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: SC481293 2

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

27/04/2021 Full Good 03/12/2019 Full Good 02/10/2018 Full Good 30/01/2018 Interim Sustained effectiveness Inspection report for children’s home: SC481293 3

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Inspectors spoke with two children and observed four children during the inspection. Children were observed to play happily and have good relationships with staff. Children were eager to show inspectors their excellent dance skills and enjoyed imitating staff’s dance skills.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff help children to understand their rights. They actively and regularly gather children’s views and ensure that children have advocates when necessary. For example, one child was supported to understand the court process and their hospital appointments by using social stories, pictures and symbols. This demonstrates that children feel listened to and are supported to be actively involved in decisions that affect their lives.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children receive personalised care in relation to their physical health, emotional, social and psychological well-being. As a result, they make steady progress.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children are supported extremely well to keep in touch with their families and those who are important to them. One parent said, ‘They do take care of my son well. I am happy with that, he is safe. They take him out to Friday prayer and he has halal food. When we visit the home, the atmosphere seems good, everything seems to be calm.’

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children attend school regularly and their learning outcomes are positive. One child is receiving education at home and staff offer support to help the child to make good progress. Leaders and managers have worked well with the placing authority in exploring education options.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children are supported well when they move in and out of the home. Young people are prepared well to move on to semi-independence and benefit from staff’s continued support. However, the information included in the home’s statement of purpose is not in line with the home’s conditions of registration. This misrepresents the services the home can offer.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

The home environment is generally well kept. Children have personalised bedrooms and are helped to decorate their rooms with their special interests in mind. However, there are often delays to repairs in the home. For example, repairs to a toilet seat, two radiators and the bungalow door are still outstanding. This does not support a homely environment.

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

One child spoken to during the inspection said, ‘I am happy here. I can speak to two staff if I feel sad.’ Staff protect children from harm, abuse and neglect. Children benefit from staff’s understanding of the impact their disabilities have on their daily Inspection report for children’s home: SC481293 4 lives. The inspector observed children making choices, moving around freely and having warm interactions with staff.

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

Staff promote children’s positive behaviour. Children are only restrained when risks are posed to them, staff or others. Staff plan for children’s daily experiences well. They are able to balance how best to keep children safe with ensuring that they have fun. However, staff do not benefit from regular debriefs following serious incidents or the use of restraint. This compromises management oversight of behaviour management and restraint practice.

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

Staff understand and manage children’s behaviours and risk effectively. Individualised risk assessments and behaviour support plans generally address all known behaviours and risks to children. They provide staff with effective strategies to manage children’s complex behaviours and risks. However, one child’s risk assessment does not include details of an emerging risk. Furthermore, there is no evidence to demonstrate effective management oversight of plans.

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

Allegations against staff are managed well. However, one staff member spoken to during the inspection did not demonstrate a good understanding of the home’s child protection and whistle-blowing policies. This compromises safeguarding practice.

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good

The registered manager is ambitious for the home and committed to making the necessary changes. The manager knows the children in his care well. The home is staffed by a diverse team. Staff are committed to improving the experiences and outcomes of the children that they care for.

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good

Staff say that they feel well supported by leaders and managers. However, the quality and frequency of staff supervision is not in line with the home’s supervision policy. Supervision records do not capture key information discussed and do not capture the progress and safeguarding of children in a meaningful way. This compromises leaders’ and managers’ evaluation of the quality of care provided to children.

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good

Personal evacuation plans are in place for children in the event of a fire. However, the home’s fire risk assessment is not completed by a competent person who is able to suitably assess the property for fire hazards. Therefore, the fire risk assessment does not help to safeguard children from the risk of fire effectively. The manager took swift action during this inspection to book a fire risk assessment.

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good

The manager and staff maintain regular communication with children’s professional networks and ensure that they work in line with the placing authority plans and agreed targets for children. However, two children’s records do not include copies of up-to-date plans from the placing authority. This potentially impacts on the consistency and quality of care provided to children. Inspection report for children’s home: SC481293 5 Managers and staff work very well with other agencies and carers to support the day-to-day care of children. However, safeguarding partners were not consulted when the home’s location risk assessment was updated. This does not equip leaders, managers and staff to respond effectively to risks relating to the location of the children’s home.

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good

There are established audit processes to monitor the home’s records and day-to-day functioning. However, these processes are not yet effective in improving identified shortfalls such as compiling missing-from-care profiles. This has the potential to impact on safeguarding practice.

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good

The recruitment of permanent staff is safe. However, the record of employment for one agency staff member does not demonstrate that managers have assured themselves that the member of staff is safe to work in the home. Inspection report for children’s home: SC481293 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 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

take effective action whenever there is a serious concern about a child’s welfare;

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Requirement Due date

and are familiar with, and act in accordance with, the home’s child protection policies. (Regulation 12 (1) (2)(a)(v)(vi)(vii))

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Requirement Due date

In particular, this relates to ensuring that:

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Requirement Due date

leaders and managers ensure that staff follow the home’s child protection policies in managing allegations;

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Requirement Due date

all leaders and managers follow the home’s child protection policies in developing missing-from-care profiles for children;

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Requirement Due date

all staff know what action to take in relation to whistle- blowing procedures.

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Requirement Due date

Risk assessments should be up to date and demonstrate that staff identify, review and explore the impact of all known risks to children. 3 October 2022

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Requirement Due date

The care planning standard is that children—

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Requirement Due date

receive effectively planned care in or through the children’s home; and 3 October 2022 Inspection report for children’s home: SC481293 7 have a positive experience of arriving at or moving on from the home.

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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 each child’s relevant plans are followed. (Regulation 14 (1)(a)(b) (2)(c))

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Requirement Due date

In particular, this refers to ensuring that the leaders and managers obtain full records of children’s care plans, updated education, health and care plans and records of the review of children’s care plans.

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Requirement Due date

If the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005(a) applies to the home—

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Requirement Due date

the registered person must ensure that the requirements of that Order and any regulations made under it, except for article 23 (duties of employees), are complied with in respect of the home. (Regulation 25 (2)(b)) 9 September 2022

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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

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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

use monitoring and review systems to make continuous improvements in the quality of care provided in the home. (Regulation 13 (1)(a)(b) (2)(h))

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Requirement Due date

In particular, this relates to ensuring that:

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Requirement Due date

leaders and managers make improvements in line with findings from audit processes and regulation 44 recommendations to ensure the continuous improvement of the home;

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Requirement Due date

leaders and managers demonstrate that they monitor and review behaviour support plans; 3 October 2022 Inspection report for children’s home: SC481293 8 leaders and managers review staff actions following serious behaviour incidents for the purposes of service improvement.

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Recommendations

 The registered person should ensure that they review the appropriateness and suitability of the location and premises of the home at least once a year. The review should include the identification of any risks and opportunities presented by the home’s location and strategies for managing these. Providers should refer to the non-statutory advice about the location assessment process. (‘Guide to the Children’s Homes Regulations, including the quality standards’, page 64, paragraph 15.1)  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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Recommendations

 The registered person should ensure that the physical environment is a homely, domestic environment. Children’s homes must comply with relevant health and safety legislation such as ensuring that the home environment is maintained to a good standard. However, in doing so, homes should seek as far as possible to maintain a domestic rather than ‘institutional’ impression. (‘Guide to the Children’s Homes Regulations, including the quality standards’, page 15, paragraph 3.9)  The registered person should ensure that the home’s statement of purpose is reviewed and updated to accurately reflect the home’s conditions of registration. (‘Guide to the Children’s Homes Regulations, including the quality standards’, page 14, paragraph 3.6)  The registered person should ensure that they maintain good employment practice. They must ensure that recruitment, supervision and performance management of staff safeguard children and minimise potential risks to them.

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Recommendations

Specifically, this relates to ensuring good employment records are kept for all agency staff. (‘Guide to the Children’s Homes Regulations, including the quality standards’, page 60, paragraph 13.1)

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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: SC481293 9

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Children’s home details

Registered provider: Footsteps Care Limited

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: The Orchard, Ashmead Drive, Denham, Uxbridge, Buckinghamshire UB9 5BA

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Children’s home details

Responsible individual: Anslim Narinesingh

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Inspectors

Jayshree Pillay, Social Care Inspector Dorothy Thompstone, Social Care Inspector Inspection report for children’s home: SC481293 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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Inspectors

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Inspectors

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Inspectors

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