Children's home run by The Caldecott Foundation Limited in Ashford

Inspection report for children’s home: SC064081 1 SC064081 Registered provider: The Caldecott Foundation Limited Full inspection Inspected under the social care common inspection framework

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Information about this children’s home

This home provides care for up to seven children who experience social, emotional and mental health difficulties. It is part of a charity that has other homes and a school in the local area. The inspector only inspected the social care provision. The staff in the home are referred to as adults. Five children were living in the home at the time of the inspection.

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Information about this children’s home

The manager registered with Ofsted in June 2022 and is suitably qualified.

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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: 29 November 2022

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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: SC064081 2

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

29/11/2022 Full Requires improvement to be good 02/03/2022 Full Outstanding 15/01/2020 Full Outstanding 14/02/2019 Full Outstanding Inspection report for children’s home: SC064081 3

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

The home has undergone development since the last inspection. This includes new furniture and fixtures as well as children’s bedrooms being redecorated to reflect their personal choices and preferences as they have matured. Five children remain living in the home and this has not changed since the last inspection.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

The children and adults share trusting and loving relationships. Many of the children and adults have shared many years together and speak fondly about the experiences they have had, including holidays, campfires and festive celebrations spent together making memories.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

All the children are attending education full time. One child has made the great achievement of moving on from the home’s classroom base to the school’s main building. Feedback from the child’s teacher on the help the adults gave to the child to manage the transition was, ‘I can’t praise them enough, they have been fantastic.’

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

The adults continue to support and advocate for children’s health and well-being. All the children attend therapy, and their care plans are written in collaboration with the adults in the home and the in-house therapy team. Regular appointments are followed up for the children to ensure that their health needs are met, and specialist referrals are made to promote the children’s well-being.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Care plans are written in a child-friendly and caring way by the adults. This has been a development area for the adults to ensure that when the children read their plans, they are kind and nurturing. However, plans are not reflective of the children’s goals and aspirations to continue their progress as they develop. Additionally, some plans from the child’s local authority are not available to staff and there has been insufficient challenge to the local authority to ensure that these are received in a timely way.

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improvement to be good

The adults ensure that boundaries are in place to support children’s safety. Consequences are rarely used to support children’s behaviour. However, when they are used, they are appropriate and proportionate and offer reflection with the children as learning opportunities.

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improvement to be good

The adults very rarely use restraint to support children’s safety. However, on occasions, records do not sufficiently demonstrate preventative measures to avoid the use, nor has one record been made in a timely way. Furthermore, discussions with the adult and child to appropriately review the incident and any learning from this are not always sufficiently recorded to show how this has been reviewed. Inspection report for children’s home: SC064081 4 Plans to guide adults to help children and promote their safety are not always reviewed. For example, some children have restrictive monitoring put on their mobile phone as a safeguarding measure with a plan to carry out work with the children to reduce this risk. However, there is little evidence that this work has been carried out with the children or that plans are in place to do this.

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improvement to be good

There are shortfalls in risk plans to identify the children’s known risks and provide guidance to adults on how to reduce these risks. For example, self-harming behaviour is not recorded in one child’s care plan and there are no strategies to guide the adults on how to support the child through this time. However, adults were able to tell the inspector what action they would take should this happen, and this was appropriate for the child.

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improvement to be good

The adults are aware of their wider safeguarding responsibilities. They have all attended relevant training, and this is discussed as part of their ongoing development. Children say that they feel safe and have a trusted adult who they can talk to if they need to.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The adults have a debrief at the end of each day to reflect on how the day has gone and identify any support they may need. There is also a handover at the start of each day where adults plan the day’s activities and tasks to ensure that all the children receive the care and support they need, such as appointments, clubs and trips.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

All adults have the relevant training and are suitably qualified or working towards their qualification. There are regular opportunities for the adults to meet and have team meetings. These are used to discuss the children as well as general issues in and around the home.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

There is a well-established team of adults working with the children. They receive regular supervision and have opportunities to meet with the clinical team for regular reflection. Equally, the registered manager feels supported by his senior leadership team.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The registered manager has a vision for the home and recognises some of the shortfalls and development areas for him and the team to aspire to for children to receive excellent care. External feedback from children’s professionals is very complimentary of the care for the children and the communication with the whole team.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Since the last inspection, the registered provider has implemented a new electronic recording system. This includes a manager monitoring and auditing tool. However, while the registered manager has completed these audits, they have failed to recognise shortfalls in the children’s care and safety plans. This means that adults’ practice is not reflected in all the children’s records. Inspection report for children’s home: SC064081 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 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. (Regulation 12 (1) (2)(a)(i)(ii))

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Requirement Due date

This specifically relates to ensuring that children’s risk plans provide guidance to staff on how to reduce the risks to children.

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Requirement Due date

Children must be supported to make progress in how they are helped and protected. This specifically relates to restrictions on their devices and online activities. 15 December

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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.

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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

manage and review the placement of each child in the home; and

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Requirement Due date

that each child’s relevant plans are followed. 15 December Inspection report for children’s home: SC064081 6 (Regulation 14 (1)(a) (2)(b)(ii)(c))

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Requirement Due date

In particular, the registered manager should ensure that a copy of the local authority care plan is available for each child and that children’s care plans are updated and reflective of their care and support needs.

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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

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;

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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)(f)(h))

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Requirement Due date

In particular, the registered manager should develop effective systems to ensure that children’s care records reflect the care that they receive and are updated.

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Requirement Due date

The registered manager should review the quality of children’s care and ensure that records detail the goals and aspirations for children to continue to make progress. 15 December

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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; 15 December Inspection report for children’s home: SC064081 7 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

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Requirement Due date

a description of any injury to the child or any other person, and any medical treatment administered, as a result of the measure;

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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

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Requirement Due date

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)(i)(ii)(iii)(iv)(v)(vi)(vii)(viii)(b)(i)(ii)(c))

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Requirement Due date

In particular, the registered provider should ensure that records are made within timescales and have effective and appropriate oversight from senior leaders.

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Recommendation

 The registered person should ensure that where the placing authority or another relevant person does not provide the input and services needed to meet a child’s needs during their time in the home, they challenge them to meet the child’s needs. In particular, ensure that children’s plans are available from the placing authority and where requests to have these are not met, these concerns are duly escalated (see regulations 5(c)). (‘Guide to the Children’s Homes Regulations, including the quality standards’, page 12, paragraph 2.8) Inspection report for children’s home: SC064081 8

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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: SC064081 9

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Children’s home details

Registered provider: The Caldecott Foundation Limited

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: Caldecott House, Hythe Road, Smeeth, Ashford, Kent TN25 6SP

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Children’s home details

Responsible individual: Nicholas Barnett

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Inspector

Sara Stoker, Social Care Inspector Inspection report for children’s home: SC064081 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 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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