Children's home run by Area Camden Limited

Inspection report for children’s home: 1272461 1 Registered provider: Area Camden Limited Full inspection Inspected under the social care common inspection framework

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Information about this children’s home

The home is owned by a limited company. It provides care for up to four children who experience social and emotional difficulties.

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Information about this children’s home

The home and the manager registered with Ofsted in February 2018. The manager is suitably qualified.

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Information about this children’s home

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

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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: outstanding

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good

Enforcement action since last inspection: none Inspection report for children’s home: 1272461 2

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

02/03/2022 Full Outstanding 28/01/2020 Full Good 06/03/2019 Interim Sustained effectiveness 05/11/2018 Full Good Inspection report for children’s home: 1272461 3

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

This home provides good-quality care for children. Since the last inspection, two children have moved into the home and one child has moved out. This was a planned move to supported accommodation.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

The home is decorated to a high standard and provides a clean and spacious environment for children to live comfortably. Children’s bedrooms are individualised and presented well, which gives children a sense of ownership in the home.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children participate in enjoyable and exciting activities with staff. Memory books capture children enjoying themselves. Children are encouraged to bring their friends over for meals and sleepovers, which normalises their daily lived experiences. The home promotes diversity, and each child is encouraged to express their individuality and uniqueness without judgement.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children’s meetings include topical discussions, such as substance misuse and different types of bullying. These meetings are recorded in pictorial images, which ensures that the children can read and understand them.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children are healthy and staff promote healthy eating at mealtimes. When necessary, children are referred to specialist services, such as child and adolescent mental health services, for additional assessment and support. Staff ensure that children receive support from counselling services to help them understand and talk about difficult feelings.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

All children attend education in either mainstream school or specialist provision. Children’s education plans are up to date. Staff attend meetings with education providers, and teachers report good communication between staff and school.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

The inspector spoke with three children during the inspection. Two children said that staff changes have negatively impacted on them. One child said, ‘New staff come, and it takes time to get to know them. We get to know them and then they leave.’ One child told the inspector that staff did not support her at a sixth-form open evening, which left her feeling unsupported by her carers.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Complaints made by children are listened and responded to. However, at times, children feel ‘let down’ by the outcome of their complaint despite this being a fair and thorough process.

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

Children do not present with risks relating to criminal and/or sexual exploitation. There have been no incidents that have required physical intervention. Assessments Inspection report for children’s home: 1272461 4 of risks and strategies to help manage unwanted behaviour are written in clear and detailed documents. These documents are updated regularly.

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

Pictorial images are used to support a child to express their emotions. As a result, the child can communicate and express their feelings to staff effectively.

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

Although consequences used by staff are proportionate, on one occasion a child did not feel that consequences were distributed fairly. Subsequently, a serious incident occurred in the home.

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

Group living assessments are carried out by the manager before children come to live in the home. Staff attempt to address and promote positive relationships between children. However, further work is required to ensure that all children, according to their age and emotional understanding, fully understand the consequences and impact of name-calling and bullying.

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

At times, children spend time together in each other’s bedrooms. There is no clear guidance to help staff support children to safely spend time together in the home.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The registered manager is organised and experienced. She has high aspirations for the children and her staff team. When possible, the manager encourages pictorial images in documents to ensure a child-friendly format. Professionals report good leadership and communication from the home.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The manager has carried out a detailed review of the home, which helps her to evaluate the progress and development of the home and set goals for the coming months.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Staff recruitment is carried out with all the necessary identity and qualifications checks in place.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Staff supervision records are detailed. When necessary, the manager addresses any issues with the individual staff member during supervision, for example medication errors and complaints.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Leaders and managers openly acknowledge that recent staff changes have impacted on the dynamics in the home. For some children, these changes have created a barrier to them forming secure attachments with their carers.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Despite staff receiving a comprehensive training programme, they do not always put their learning into practice. The manager has not always swiftly shared lessons learned from incidents with the wider staff team to ensure a consistent approach to staff’s practice.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

On occasions, the language used in records and during conversations with staff is child-blaming. Inspection report for children’s home: 1272461 5

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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 positive relationships standard is that children are helped to develop, and to benefit from, relationships based on—

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Requirement Due date

an understanding about acceptable behaviour; and

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Requirement Due date

positive responses to other children and adults.

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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

help each child to develop socially aware behaviour;

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Requirement Due date

encourage each child to take responsibility for the child’s behaviour, in accordance with the child’s age and understanding;

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Requirement Due date

help each child to develop and practise skills to resolve conflicts positively and without harm to anyone;

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Requirement Due date

that each child is encouraged to build and maintain positive relationships with others. (Regulation 11 (1)(a)(b)(c) (2)(a)(ii)(iii)(iv)(v)(b))

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Requirement Due date

This relates to addressing bullying between children and carrying out targeted work with children on positive relationships. 31 March 2023 Inspection report for children’s home: 1272461 6

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Recommendations

 The registered person should ensure that the necessary support is given to children to enable them to access their education and training, including staff attending school and college open evenings with children. (‘Guide to the Children’s Homes Regulations, including the quality standards’, page 28, paragraph 5.13)  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. In particular, they should not use language that is child- blaming. (‘Guide to the Children’s Homes Regulations, including the quality standards’, page 22, paragraph 4.3)  The registered person should ensure that staff understand how to put their knowledge from training into practice. This includes sharing lessons learned from specific incidents and using their learned skills to communicate to children with specific needs. (‘Guide to the Children’s Homes Regulations, including the quality

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Recommendations

standards’, page 53, paragraph 10.11)  The registered person should ensure that there is effective care planning and strong working relationships between the staff and family as these are essential to the success of placements. (‘Guide to the Children’s Home Regulations, including the standards’, page 56, paragraph 11.2)

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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: 1272461 7

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Children’s home details

Registered provider: Area Camden Limited

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: Malvern View, Hanbury Road, Stoke Prior, Bromsgrove B60 4AD

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Inspector

Kamal Bhamra, Social Care Inspector Inspection report for children’s home: 1272461 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 looked after children, safeguarding and child protection.

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Inspector

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Inspector

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Inspector

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