Children's home run by The Vine Residential Services (TVRS) Ltd

Inspection report for children’s home: 2532471 1 Registered provider: The Vine Residential Services (TVRS) Ltd Full inspection Inspected under the social care common inspection framework

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Information about this children’s home

This privately owned home provides care for up to four children with autism spectrum disorder and/or learning difficulties and associated emotional and/or behavioural difficulties.

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Information about this children’s home

The home and its manager registered with Ofsted in October 2019.

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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

Date of last inspection: 10 January 2023

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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: 2532471 2

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

10/01/2023 Full Outstanding 21/04/2021 Full Good Inspection report for children’s home: 2532471 3

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children who live in this home receive good-quality care and enjoy positive experiences. Children are supported to access and engage in a wide range of activities that include baking, shopping and various art and craft activities. Children are also supported to enjoy activities in the community, including cable car activities, trips to local funfairs, and visits to the seaside and local parks.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children make significant progress from their individual starting points. Staff support children with their individual needs and help them to develop important life skills, including personal care and independence skills, such as cleaning their bedrooms and cooking. Parents say that their children have made good progress and are calmer and happier since living in the home.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff understand how children communicate. A number of children are non-verbal, and staff use various forms of communication methods to engage with children, including gestures, social stories and simple language. Staff seek to understand children’s wishes and feelings through one-to-one interactions and close observations. This also supports children to build positive relationships with staff. As a result of feeling understood and heard, one child’s challenging behaviours that were previously a concern have stopped.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children are supported to spend time with their families in the provider’s activity centre. Staff also keep children’s families updated of their progress through monthly newsletters. This helps children and their families to maintain important relationships.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children’s health needs are understood and met well. Staff support children to attend their routine health appointments, so their general health is maintained. Staff also engage with children’s specialist health services, when needed, to ensure that their good health is encouraged. Staff closely monitor children with special health needs.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children engage in education and make good progress. One child’s school reports that the child has improved their vocabulary since living at the home. If children are out of mainstream education, they are supported to attend and engage in the provider’s own learning centre as part of their daily routine.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children’s wishes and feelings are sought and understood by staff. However, children’s monthly forum meetings are not regular, as outlined in the home’s statement of purpose, and not all of the meetings provide children with opportunities to give their feedback about the home. Inspection report for children’s home: 2532471 4

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

Staff have a good understanding of children’s emotional needs and take appropriate action when incidents occur. They use effective de-escalation techniques, and are able to help children to calm down when their emotions are heightened. Some children’s risks and incidents have reduced since they have come to live at the home. However, not all children’s risk assessments reflect all known risks, or correctly identify risk levels. Incidents involving more than one child are not carefully recorded on their files or their daily logs. This potentially limits the staff team’s awareness of any changes in children’s behaviours and their ability to implement strategies to prevent similar incidents from occurring in the future.

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

Safeguarding practice is strong. Leaders and managers take allegations of harm seriously and act promptly when issues arise. They notify the appropriate authorities of all significant events, which increases children’s safety in the home. The emotional impact of allegations against staff is recognised and managed well by leaders and managers.

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

Staffing arrangements ensure that there are sufficient staff to meet children’s needs. Children living in the home receive constant supervision, where there are one or two adults working with them. Some children with particularly complex health needs have extra support and monitoring through the night, which ensures children’s safety at all times.

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

Medication procedures are organised well, and medication is administered safely. No medication errors have occurred, and there are weekly audits on children’s medication files, which further reduces the risk of errors. This enables staff to meet children’s medical health needs appropriately.

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

Children experience thoughtful and considerate transitions out of the home. The provider has an adult provision where children are supported to move after they turn 18 years old. That home is designed to look like this home, and the staff transition along with children into their new home. This ensures continuity of care for children when they reach adulthood. A parent said that their child settled very well when they moved in to the adult provision.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The home is managed effectively by an experienced and knowledgeable registered manager, who is strongly supported by the responsible individual. They have a strong understanding of children’s needs and the progress that they are making.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The manager and responsible individual challenge placing authorities if they have concerns about children’s individual future plans, and advocate for children’s best interests. Consequently, children receive support that is right for them. Inspection report for children’s home: 2532471 5 Staff are motivated and say that they work in a supportive environment. Staff benefit from an informative induction programme and can access a wide range of training to increase their skills and knowledge. However, when new children’s placements are being considered, leaders and managers do not fully take into account the staff skillset or identify training needs. For example, staff have not been offered training to meet the specific needs of children, such as training that is specifically related to deprivation of liberty orders.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Staff receive regular supervision, which focuses on their personal development and child-related practice. However, supervision is not always effective, and the minutes of the sessions are often repeated.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Team meetings take place regularly and they are effective. The manager and staff discuss relevant topics, such as the children’s needs, safeguarding, and training. The managers are respectful yet assertive in challenging staff to improve and develop their practice. Staff are given recognition for good practice, which demonstrates that staff are valued and respected. Inspection report for children’s home: 2532471 6

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Recommendations

 The registered person should only accept placements for children when they have fully considered the skills and training of staff and the impact that the placement will have for the child in the future and for other children in the home. (‘Guide to the Children’s Homes Regulations, including the quality standards’, page 56, paragraph 11.4)

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Recommendations

 The registered person should ensure that the staff understand the importance of careful, objective and clear recording. In particular, daily logs should reflect incidents that occur. (‘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 each child’s day-to-day health and well- being needs are met in line with the approach set out in the home’s statement of purpose. In particular, how and when children’s house meetings are held should be reflected in the statement of purpose. (‘Guide to the Children’s Homes Regulations, including the quality standards’, page 33, paragraph 7.3)

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Recommendations

 The registered person should ensure that children’s risk management plans include details of the steps the home will take to manage any assessed risks on a day-to-day basis. (‘Guide to the Children’s Homes Regulations, including the quality standards’, page 42, paragraph 9.5)

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Recommendations

 The registered person should ensure that the training required for staff, to enable the delivery of the home’s statement of purpose, is undertaken to meet children’s specific needs. In particular, deprivation of liberty training should be undertaken if the home admits children who will have such conditions imposed on them. (‘Guide to the Children’s Homes Regulations, including the quality standards’, page 53, paragraph 10.8)

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Recommendations

 The registered person should ensure that all staff supervision supports them to reflect on their practice and the needs of the children assigned to their care, and that this is recorded effectively. (‘Guide to the Children’s Homes Regulations, including the quality standards’, page 61, paragraph 13.2)

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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: 2532471 7

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Children’s home details

Registered provider: The Vine Residential Services (TVRS) Ltd

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: The Granary Studio 4, 1st Floor, 80 Abbey Road, Barking IG11 7BT

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Inspector

Amena Begum, Social Care Inspector Inspection report for children’s home: 2532471 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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