Children's Home run by London Borough of Barnet in Barnet

Inspection report for children’s home: SC033805 1 SC033805 Registered provider: London Borough of Barnet

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Inspected under the social care common inspection framework

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Information about this children’s home

This local authority home provides medium- to long-term care for up to six children who may experience social and emotional difficulties. The home also provides emergency provision for children.

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Information about this children’s home

The manager registered with Ofsted in December 2020.

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Information about this children’s home

At the time of the 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 requires improvement to be 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: 21 February 2023

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good

Overall judgement at last inspection: requires improvement to be good

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good

Enforcement action since last inspection: none Inspection report for children’s home: SC033805 2

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

21/02/2023 Full Requires improvement to be good 02/03/2022 Full Good 14/01/2020 Full Good 18/02/2019 Full Good Inspection report for children’s home: SC033805 3

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

The quality of care provided to children in this home is good. Staff place children at the centre of their practice and ensure that children’s day-to-day needs are met. Nevertheless, not all children engage well with the support offered.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children build positive relationships with staff. Staff show care, compassion and warmth towards children. They have a good understanding of children’s past experiences and their individual needs. This helps children to settle into the home, speak about their worries and to tell staff their views about the care that they receive.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff recognise the importance and value of children maintaining family relationships. Children are sensitively supported to spend time with their families and others who are important to them. The manager and staff support children and families to overcome any difficulties in these relationships. Staff work with parents when children return home. As a result, children spend more quality time with their families.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children receive appropriate help and support to better manage their behaviours and feelings. Appropriate behaviour is encouraged with positive reinforcement and praise, which some children respond to well. This has resulted in a reduction in incidents and provides children with positive experiences of care.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children are supported to develop their independence skills. Staff help children to learn how to budget and cook their own meals. However, children are not always supported to keep their bedrooms clean and tidy. This was evident at the time of this inspection as the condition of one child’s bedroom was a cause for concern. The manager and staff do not consistently take action to address the poor and potentially unsafe condition of children’s bedrooms.

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improvement to be good

The admissions process for new children moving into the home is not sufficiently robust. This limits the manager’s and staff’s ability to provide the most appropriate care to meet children’s needs during their stay. For example, on one occasion, senior managers overruled the registered manager’s assessment of the suitability to place a new child in the home. As a result, the home became unsettled due to the difficult dynamics, and one child had to be moved to another home for their safety. Leaders and managers have taken steps to address the referral process.

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improvement to be good

Staff understand and manage risks to children’s safety well. However, potential fire safety risks identified in children’s bedrooms by inspectors have not been fully considered by the manager and staff. Furthermore, children’s risk assessments do Inspection report for children’s home: SC033805 4 not consistently include information about all known risks and the strategies in place to manage these. This has the potential to lead to inconsistent practice.

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improvement to be good

Staff are proactive when children go missing from the home. They contact the children and/or their families and work with other agencies to help ensure that children remain safe. Records of missing-from-home incidents are reviewed, and debriefs are completed with staff and children. However, feedback from the police is mixed on the quality of information shared when contacting them. This means that potentially, important information is not shared with the police to manage and reduce risks to children’s safety.

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improvement to be good

Children are supported to understand risks. However, key-work sessions do not consistently discuss children’s individual risks, and children do not always engage despite staff attempts and creativity. This is a missed opportunity to help children to learn how to keep themselves safe.

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improvement to be good

Leaders and managers have failed to action all the recommendations from a fire risk assessment. In addition, repairs in the home are not always completed promptly. For example, two of the children’s window restrictors were broken at the time of this inspection.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The home is led and managed by a committed and experienced registered manager, who oversees two children’s homes. A new manager has been recruited to work full time at the home. The current registered manager and staff know the children well and have high aspirations for them. Feedback from professionals and parents about managers and staff is positive.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Leaders and managers work proactively with other professionals and build positive relationships with parents. Professionals and parents receive regular updates on the progress and experiences of children. This results in a shared approach to providing children with good-quality care and support.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Staff understand their roles and responsibilities. Team meetings demonstrate that staff are able to reflect on practice and the needs of children. Staff benefit from regular supervision, covering a broad agenda. Supervision sessions are reflective, offer staff support and guidance and consider the needs and progress of children. This demonstrates effective management oversight of staff practice and development and supports the progress children are making.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Staff access training in core areas, which includes safeguarding, behaviour management and health and safety. However, staff have not undertaken more targeted training to meet the specific needs of individual children. In addition, some staff have not completed all of their mandatory training. This may limit staff’s understanding of the needs of the children that they care for. Inspection report for children’s home: SC033805 5 Leaders and managers have not yet addressed all of the requirements raised at the last inspection. This does not demonstrate that they have effective systems in place to monitor children’s outcomes and ensure that continuous improvements are made. Inspection report for children’s home: SC033805 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

assess whether each child is at risk of harm, taking into account information in the child’s relevant plans, and, if necessary, make arrangements to reduce the risk of any harm to the child;

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Requirement Due date

help each child to understand how to keep safe;

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Requirement Due date

have the skills to identify and act upon signs that a child is at risk of harm;

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Requirement Due date

that the premises used for the purposes of the home are designed, furnished and maintained so as to protect each child from avoidable hazards to the child’s health; and

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Requirement Due date

that the effectiveness of the home’s child protection policies is monitored regularly. (Regulation 12 (1) (2)(a)(i)(ii)(iii)(d)(e))

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Requirement Due date

In particular, the registered person must ensure that children’s risk assessments include information about all known risks, that children are helped to learn how to keep themselves safe and that the home environment is maintained to a high and safe standard. 31 August 2023

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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 31 August 2023 Inspection report for children’s home: SC033805 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 children are admitted to the home only if their needs are within the range of needs of children for whom it is intended that the home is to provide care and accommodation, as set out in the home’s statement of purpose. (Regulation 14 (1)(a)(b) (2)(a))

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Requirement Due date

In particular, the registered person must ensure that all potential risks to children are thoroughly considered and assessed at the point of referral and that consideration is given to whether staff have the knowledge, skills and experience to meet the needs of children placed in their care.

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Requirement Due date

This requirement was raised at the last inspection and is repeated.

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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

ensure that staff have the experience, qualifications and skills to meet the needs of each child;

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Requirement Due date

understand the impact that the quality of care provided in the home is having on the progress and experiences of each child and use this understanding to inform the development of the quality of care provided in the home; and

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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)(c)(f)(h))

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Requirement Due date

In particular, the registered person must ensure that leaders and managers work together to assess the needs and impact of new children moving into the home, that staff undertake specific training to hep them to meet children’s needs and 31 August 2023 Inspection report for children’s home: SC033805 8 that monitoring systems support the manager to identify and address practice shortfalls.

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Recommendation

 The registered person should ensure that in order for the children’s home to be a nurturing and supportive environment, that they promptly repair and decorate all areas of the homes’ interior. (‘Guide to the Children’s Homes Regulations, including the quality standards’, page 15, paragraph 3.9)

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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: SC033805 9

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: London Borough of Barnet, 2 Bristol Avenue, Colindale NW9 4EW

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Children’s home details

Responsible individual: Nichola Gallagher

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Inspectors

Dorothy Thompstone, Social Care Inspector Julie Cresswell, Social Care Inspector Inspection report for children’s home: SC033805 10 inspects 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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Inspectors

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Inspectors

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Inspectors

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