Children's home run by Able Health Care Ltd

Inspection report for children's home: 2529815 1 Registered provider: Able Health 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 children’s home provides care for up to four children. Three children can be accommodated in the house and one child in the adjoining annex.

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Information about this children’s home

The manager registered with Ofsted on 1 October 2022.

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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

Overall judgement at last inspection: good

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good

Enforcement action since last inspection: none Inspection report for children's home: 2529815 2

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

24/06/2021 Full Good 20/11/2019 Full Requires improvement to be good Inspection report for children's home: 2529815 3

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

At the time of this inspection, three children were living at the home. Since the last inspection, three children have left and two children have moved in. Thorough planning and matching assessments considered children already living at the home. As a result, children have a positive experience of arriving at the home and have settled well.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children receive good-quality support and individualised care. Staff are experienced and dedicated. Interactions between the staff and children are compassionate and reassuring. This nurturing approach is modelled consistently by the managers and the staff. Children develop the sense of security and stability that they need to make progress and thrive.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff support a range of activities that reflect each child’s interests and hobbies. Children have joined cadets and football clubs and take part in community activities. There have been planned London theatre trips and short breaks at theme parks. Community engagement increases the children’s social networks and their understanding of social settings.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children are making steady progress with their education. Professionals spoken with said that children’s attendance and engagement with learning have improved since moving to the home. One child who had previously not attended school is now attending a local high school. Regular communication between the home and school ensures that children benefit from a coordinated approach to their learning.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children’s meetings are held weekly. Staff seek and record children’s views. However, it is unclear from the records whether children’s suggestions and ideas were responded to by the manager. The meetings do not provide the children with reassurance that their suggestions will be considered.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children said that they like living at the home. However, on occasion, children have said that they do not like their key worker and that they would not tell someone at the home if they felt sad. Children do not have regular access to appropriate advocacy support and therefore do not have an independent trusted person to confide in should they need to.

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

Children’s plans are clearly written. Risk assessments for children are detailed and include appropriate strategies to support staff in managing risks. These assessments are regularly reviewed and updated following any incidents. This helps the staff to feel confident and respond consistently to the children. Inspection report for children's home: 2529815 4 Staff are well trained in and understand effective safeguarding practice. They are clear about their roles and responsibilities to safeguard the children. Targeted training and planned sessions with a consultant clinical psychologist provide a forum for specific case consultation. These sessions develop staff’s awareness and enable staff to meet children’s individual needs.

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

There have been incidents of a child going missing from the home. Staff have responded in line with the child’s missing-from-care protocol to help find and return the child to the home as soon as possible on each occasion. Responsive and flexible arrangements for free time in the community, along with carefully planned strategies, have reduced the number of missing-from–home incidents for the child.

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

Staff do not consistently ensure that the office is kept secure to prevent children from entering it unsupervised. On several occasions, staff have failed to ensure that their personal belongings, such as car keys and mobile phones, are securely stored. Lack of supervision and security has allowed children to have access to money stored in the office and to staff’s possessions. This means that staff have to focus on reacting to reduce risk instead of working in a preventative way.

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

Physical intervention is used appropriately to keep children safe. Children and the staff involved receive debriefs. However, some records fail to show that the manager had oversight of the restraint within the required time frame. On occasion, children’s debriefs have been completed by staff involved in the restraint. This reduces the opportunity for objective oversight.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Managers work proactively and effectively with external agencies. Professionals including youth justice service workers, a psychotherapist and social workers provided consistently strong feedback about the quality of care and communication and the positive impact that the home has on children’s lives.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The managers make themselves available to staff for advice and guidance. Staff feel well supported and valued. They receive regular supervisions and performance reviews. Staff said that staff morale has improved since the new manager started in post. This helps to provide children with a positive atmosphere.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Managers regularly work shifts. They act as positive role models for the staff and establish trusted relationships with the children. Staff cover additional shifts and support each other to make sure that the required number of staff are always available. Children benefit from consistent and familiar staff at the home each day.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The manager’s oversight of the day-to-day running of the home is generally effective. However, lack of regular oversight of the home’s fire checks has meant that they have not consistently been carried out in line with the home’s policy.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The manager completes a six-monthly review of the quality of care provided for the children. However, the manager has not demonstrated how she has responded to Inspection report for children's home: 2529815 5 children’s feedback and opinions in the report. This weakens the evaluation of the care provided.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

External monitoring supports the manager to make improvements at the home. However, the manager has not ensured that the independent person consistently seeks a full range of views from the children and their parents. This reduces the capacity of the manager to have a thorough understanding of the strengths and development areas of the home. Inspection report for children's home: 2529815 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 children’s views, wishes and feelings standard is that children receive care from staff who—

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Requirement Due date

develop positive relationships with them;

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Requirement Due date

take their views, wishes and feelings into account in relation to matters affecting the children’s care and welfare and their lives.

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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

ensure that an explanation is given to each child as soon as reasonably practicable after the child’s arrival about—

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Requirement Due date

what advocacy support or services are available to the child, how the child may access that support or those services and any entitlement the child may have to independent advocacy provision. (Regulation 7 (1)(a)(c) (2)(d)(iii))

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Requirement Due date

In particular, ensure that children’s suggestions raised in children’s meetings are responded to and that children have access to independent advocacy support. 17 February 2023

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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

that the home’s day-to-day care is arranged and delivered so as to keep each child safe and to protect each child effectively from harm. (Regulation 12 (1) (2)(b))

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Requirement Due date

In particular, ensure that staff securely store their personal belongings and keep the office secure at all times. 6 January 2023 Inspection report for children's home: 2529815 7 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, ensure that the case files and fire files are regularly monitored to ensure that staff practice reflects the home’s policies. 6 January 2023

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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

the effectiveness and any consequences of the use of the measure; and

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Requirement Due date

within 48 hours of the use of the measure, the registered person, or a person who is authorised by the registered person to do so (“the authorised person”)—

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Requirement Due date

has spoken to the user about the measure; and has signed the record to confirm it is accurate; and

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Requirement Due date

within 5 days of the use of the measure, the registered person or the authorised person adds to the record confirmation that they have spoken to the child about the measure. (Regulation 35 (3)(a)(vii) (b)(i)(ii) (c))

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Requirement Due date

In particular, ensure that records clearly state the authorised person and the date when staff were spoken to about the measure. Also, ensure that the registered person has oversight of the record within the required time frame. 6 January 2023

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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— 17 February 2023 Inspection report for children's home: 2529815 8 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

After completing a quality of care review, the registered person must produce a written report about the quality of care review and the actions which the registered person intends to take as a result of the quality of care review (“the quality of care review report”). (Regulation 45 (2)(a)(b)(c) (3))

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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, objective and clear recording. Information about the child must always be recorded in a way that will be helpful to the child. (‘Guide to the Children’s Homes Regulations, including the quality standards’, page 62, paragraph 14.4)  The registered person should ensure that any individual appointed to carry out visits to the home as an independent person makes a rigorous and impartial assessment of the home’s arrangements for promoting the welfare of the children in the home’s care. In particular, ensure that the views of parents and carers are sought. (‘Guide to the Children’s Homes Regulations, including the quality standards’, page 65, paragraph 15.5)

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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: 2529815 9

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Children’s home details

Registered provider: Able Health Care Limited

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: c/o Argyle House, 3rd Floor Northside, Joel Street, Northwood Hills HA6 1NW

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Inspector

Rachel Watkinson, Social Care Inspector Inspection report for children's home: 2529815 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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Inspector

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Inspector

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Inspector

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