Children's home run by Action for Children Services Ltd in Watford

Inspection report children’s home: SC057804 1 SC057804 Registered provider: Action for Children Full inspection Inspected under the social care common inspection framework

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Information about this children’s home

The home provides residential short breaks for children with learning and/or physical disabilities. Children attend short breaks in small groups of up to five children. The service is operated by a charitable organisation in partnership with a local authority.

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Information about this children’s home

There is a suitably qualified and skilled manager appointed to the home. The manager has applied to Ofsted for registration and the completion of this process is imminent.

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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

Date of last inspection: 20 January 2022

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good

Overall judgement at last inspection: good

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good

Enforcement action since last inspection: none Inspection report children’s home: SC057804 2

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

20/01/2022 Full Good 23/01/2020 Full Good 07/03/2019 Full Good 20/02/2018 Full Good Inspection report children’s home: SC057804 3

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children experience lots of fun during their short breaks. Children access a wide range of activities at the home and go out to places for leisure and enjoyment.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children receive care and support to meet their individual needs. Staff are trained and skilled to provide care to meet children’s complex health and care needs. This ensures that children remain healthy during their short breaks.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Introductions to the home are well planned and move at a pace children are comfortable with. The home involves parents and carers in introductions. This fosters good relationships between the home and children’s families.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

The home can accept emergency placements. When such placements are needed, the manager gets enough information to understand the child’s needs. In one example, a child placed in an emergency was able to attend his school prom, which was a wish come true for him.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children have positive relationships with staff as well as the other children who attend for short breaks. Children often stay at the home with the same group of children. This good planning ensures that children can form friendships, which reduces anxieties and conflicts.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

The home provides an inclusive environment. Staff encourage children to enjoy activities together. A key focus of the short break is around socialising with others and building social skills. For example, children worked together to prepare the table for a meal.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children have clear targets and outcomes in place to work towards. Staff measure progress for each short-break stay. Progress is also recognised through an accredited programme. This promotes children’s development and independence. Progress and achievements are shared and celebrated with children and their families.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

The home environment is welcoming. This is enhanced by seasonal decor. For example, at the time of the inspection, the home was decorated for Halloween. This enhances the children’s enjoyment of their short breaks.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Some of the records and care planning documents for children are not kept up to date. In some instances, records include handwritten amendments that are not clear to read. As a result, records do not always provide an accurate reflection of children’s current needs. Inspection report children’s home: SC057804 4

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

Children feel safe at the home. Staff provide high-quality care and support to children. Staff understand children’s risks and vulnerabilities and take steps to keep children safe during their short breaks.

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

The staff care for children in a sensitive and respectful way. For example, they are discreet and use private spaces for personal care tasks, to maintain children’s dignity.

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

Staff give children support and opportunities to identify risks for themselves. Before going out to activities, children take part in group discussions around dangers and how they can keep safe. This raises children’s awareness around risk, which contributes to children’s development and safety beyond their short breaks.

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

Supervision levels are appropriate to mitigate potential risks to children’s safety. Children have opportunity and encouragement for positive risk taking through new activities, such as roller skating and climbing. This well-balanced approach enables children to learn new skills and maximise their independence.

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

The home is well maintained and continuously improved. There are systems in place for monitoring and managing health and safety in the home, which are used consistently. Specialist equipment is in place, such as hoists, and there are arrangements for maintenance and repair. This ensures that the environment is safe for children.

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

The manager ensures that all staff recruited to work in the home, including agency staff, are subject to all the necessary checks. This makes sure that all staff at the home are suitable to work with children.

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

There are appropriate systems in place for medication administration, storage and record-keeping. Staff have had training in safe medication management and are assessed for their competency in safely administrating medication.

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

Staff provide children with clear guidance and boundaries. This helps children to understand what is expected of them during their short breaks. Strategies are used to prevent escalation of behaviours. As a result, there is a low number of incidents. However, there are inconsistencies in recognition and recording of incidents where physical interventions have been used. This reduces the manager’s ability to review incidents.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The home benefits from a qualified and skilled manager. While the manager has been in post for a few months, she has worked at the home, in a senior role, for many years. The manager has been well supported by the organisation and responsible individual. A managers’ induction programme is being followed to upskill Inspection report children’s home: SC057804 5 the manager. The change of manager has been a smooth process. This has sustained stability for the staff team and for the children.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The home has a clear ethos of being aspirational. The manager reviews each child’s record for each stay to ensure that progress is being measured and recorded. This ensures that new targets can be set and progress for children is continual.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The manager has been focusing on building links with the local community. The home hosted a summer fair. This is in keeping with the organisation’s charitable status.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The manager and staff team are proactive in communicating with professionals. One social worker said, ‘Communication with the staff, particularly the manager, is excellent. She is really responsive.’ The staff have good working relationships with parents and carers. The staff are sensitive to the needs and emotions of parents and carers, in entrusting children into their care.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Children have opportunities to express their views, wishes and feelings. Staff support children to use their individual methods of communication. Children’s views are recorded at each short-break stay. The home holds a quarterly children’s forum. This enables children to contribute their ideas and views about the home. The meeting and the outcomes are recorded in an accessible format. This evidences that children’s views are listened to, and children can effect change at the home.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The home has some staff vacancies, and a recruitment campaign is underway. The staff team currently covers any gaps in the rota, with very occasional use of regular agency workers. The manager plans the rota well, and vacancies do not currently impact on children’s safety or the quality of their short-break experience.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The staff team feels well supported by the manager. The manager is fostering a learning culture and shares learning across the team. All staff receive regular supervision, which provides opportunity for reflection and development. There is a detailed induction process in place for new starters.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Staff have training that equips them with the knowledge and skills to provide safe and quality care to children. However, there are some gaps in staff completing specialist training in subjects including communication methods, autism spectrum disorder and safeguarding disabled children. This results in some shortfalls in staff’s knowledge and skills to meet the specialist needs of children with disabilities. Inspection report children’s home: SC057804 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 registered person must prepare and implement a policy (“the behaviour management policy”) which sets out—

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Requirement Due date

how appropriate behaviour is to be promoted in the children’s home; and

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Requirement Due date

the measures of control, discipline and restraint which may be used in relation to children in the home.

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must keep the behaviour management policy under review and, where appropriate, revise it.

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Requirement Due date

within 24 hours of the use of a measure of control, discipline or restraint in relation to a child in the home, a record is made which includes—

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Requirement Due date

details of the child’s behaviour leading to the use of the measure;

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Requirement Due date

the date, time and location of the use of the measure;

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Requirement Due date

a description of the measure and its duration;

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Requirement Due date

details of any methods used or steps taken to avoid the need to use the measure;

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Requirement Due date

the name of the person who used the measure (“the user"), and of any other person present when the measure was used;

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Requirement Due date

the effectiveness and any consequences of the use of the measure; and 6 January 2023 Inspection report children’s home: SC057804 7 a description of any injury to the child or any other person, and any medical treatment administered, as a result of the measure. (Regulation 35 (1)(a)(b) (2) (3)(a)(i)(ii)(iii)(iv)(v)(vi)(vii)(viii))

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Requirement Due date

This specifically relates to following the behaviour management policy in recognising and recording physical interventions and restraints.

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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;

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Requirement Due date

are signed and dated by the author of each entry. (Regulation 36 (1)(a)(b)(c))

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Requirement Due date

This specifically relates to records and plans being accurate, kept up to date and written in a clear and legible format. 6 January 2023

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Recommendation

 The registered person should ensure that staff can access appropriate facilities and resources to support their training needs. This includes specialist training in safeguarding and Makaton to support children with disabilities. (‘Guide to the Children’s Homes Regulations, including the quality standards’, page 53, paragraph 10.11)

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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 children’s home: SC057804 8

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Children’s home details

Registered provider: Action for Children

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: Action for Children, 3 The Boulevard, Ascot Road, Watford WD18 8AG

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Inspector

Alison Snell, Social Care Inspector Inspection report children’s home: SC057804 9 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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