Annex A. Request for information at a full inspection of a children’s home

Inspection report for children’s home: SC477205 1 SC477205 Registered provider: Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea Full inspection Inspected under the social care common inspection framework

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Information about this children’s home

This local authority home provides care for up to seven children with social and emotional difficulties.

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Information about this children’s home

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

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Information about this children’s home

The home registered with Ofsted in May 2014 and the manager registered in September 2020.

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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: 18 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: SC477205 2

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

18/01/2022 Full Good 08/10/2019 Full Good 21/08/2018 Full Good 18/09/2017 Full Good Inspection report children’s home: SC477205 3

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

The quality of care provided to children is good. Children have positive experiences and receive appropriate care that meets their needs. This helps them to make good progress. Children enjoy positive and trusting relationships with staff. These relationships are warm and nurturing. Children feel genuinely cared for.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff work closely with children and their families to improve their relationships. A specialist practitioner completes a 10-week assessment when children move into the home. This helps to identify any areas of support needed, and brings children and parents together. Leaders and managers offer additional support to parents that helps them to understand their children’s needs better. Parents say that staff are very helpful and keep them updated about their children’s progress. Children invite their families to the home to celebrate special events, such as birthdays. This helps children to maintain important relationships with their family.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children enjoy a range of activities that are specific to their interests and talents. They enjoy celebrating different cultural events together, such as Black History Month. This gives children a positive experience and builds their confidence.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children’s health needs are well understood and met well. Staff work closely with health professionals to ensure that children receive the appropriate support. Children are helped to attend all their regular health checks. As a result, children engage in their healthcare plans and make positive progress.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children’s views are listened to. They have the opportunity to share their views in weekly house meetings and individually. Children’s complaints are recorded and responded to appropriately. As a result, children contribute to their care planning, have positive experiences and are settled.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children make good progress in developing their independence skills. Staff support and encourage children to develop their interests and talents, such as cooking. One child was able to talk about their passion for baking and proudly shared their favourite recipes. This helps children to learn and develop their skills, and supports their plans for the future.

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

Children say that they feel safe in the home. They can identify a trusted staff member who they can talk to about any worries. All children say that staff listen to and respond promptly to their worries. This underpins the good safeguarding practice in the home.

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

Children’s risks and vulnerabilities are well understood by staff. Staff work closely with other agencies to ensure that appropriate action is taken to keep children safe. Inspection report children’s home: SC477205 4 Safeguarding practice is strong and leaders and managers take allegations of harm seriously and act promptly when issues arise. Feedback from the local authority designated officer is positive, and they report a good level of communication about safeguarding issues. This increases children’s safety.

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

Children receive appropriate help and support to manage their behaviour and feelings safely. Staff provide clear boundaries and use a restorative approach to help children to develop better ways of coping with difficult feelings, such as anger. There have not been any incidents that require the use of physical restraint.

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

Children who go missing from home receive a well-coordinated response. Staff are proactive when children go missing and maintain contact with them. Missing incidents are thoroughly reviewed and debriefs are completed with staff and children. Staff have a good understanding of the risks relating to child sexual and criminal exploitation and work jointly with children’s professional network to safeguard children from these risks. This demonstrates that staff continually reflect on their practice, and this helps to reduce the risks to children.

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

Children are supported to understand the risks when they access the internet. Discussions take place in house meetings and individual sessions with children, and staff receive appropriate training, which helps them to develop children’s knowledge and understanding of the risks. Consequently, children are kept safe when they are online.

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

The home’s physical environment is well maintained and safe for children. The home is warm and welcoming and has a family atmosphere. However, a fire risk assessment recommendation in respect of the exterior cladding was outstanding at the time of this inspection. However, following the inspection, the inspector arranged for a fire safety officer to undertake an assessment of the cladding and they confirmed that this did not pose a fire safety risk. Leaders and managers also plan to remove the wooden cladding from the premises.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The home is managed by an experienced registered manager, who has high aspirations for children that are shared by all staff. The child-focused approach and therapeutic ethos is clearly embedded in their practice. Staff provide children with opportunities to grow and develop, through their sensitive care of the children.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Staff attend regular team meetings that help them to improve their practice. Staff also benefit from the advice of a psychologist and a full-time specialist practitioner who help them to reflect on the children’s needs and behaviours. This helps staff to identify the most-appropriate ways to support children and improve their outcomes.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Leaders and managers know the home’s strengths and areas for development. There are effective monitoring systems in place to ensure that leaders and managers constantly review the quality of care provided to children. However, recordings are not always consistent with practice due to minor recording shortfalls. Inspection report children’s home: SC477205 5 Recruitment practice is safe. All the necessary recruitment checks are undertaken to ensure that staff have the necessary skills and experience to care for the children in their care. Staff have completed specialist training on trauma-informed practice and are able to respond to the children’s individual needs. Staff receive a comprehensive induction that is well thought out and set at the right pace. Staff say that they are well supported despite staff morale being varied due to regular use of agency staff. However, the agency staff are consistent and know the children well.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Leaders, managers and staff are good advocates for children. They appropriately challenge others to ensure that children receive the right support. Feedback from professionals is positive and confirms that children receive a good quality of care and that the level of communication from staff is good. Inspection report children’s home: SC477205 6

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Recommendations

 The registered person should ensure that staff are familiar with the home’s policies on record-keeping and understand the importance of careful and clear recording. This refers to the recording of key-work sessions, daily logs and activities. (‘Guide to the Children’s Homes Regulations, including the quality standards’, page 62, paragraph 14.4)

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Recommendations

 The registered person should ensure that the use of agency staff should be carefully monitored and reviewed to ensure that children receive continuity of care. No more than half the staff on duty at any one time, by day or night, at the home should be from an external agency. (‘Guide to the Children’s Homes Regulations, including the quality standards’, page 54, paragraphs 10.16 and 10.17)

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Information about this inspection

The inspector 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: SC477205 7

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: Town Hall, Hornton Street, London W8 7NX

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Inspector

Dorothy Thompstone, Social Care Inspector Inspection report children’s home: SC477205 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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