Children's home run by Hertfordshire County Council in Dacorum

Inspection report for children’s home: SC400301 1 SC400301 Registered provider: Hertfordshire County Council

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Full inspection Inspected under the social care common inspection framework

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Information about this children’s home

This home is owned and operated by a local authority and provides care for up to five children aged between 11 and 18 who experience social and emotional difficulties.

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Information about this children’s home

The manager registered with Ofsted in May 2021.

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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 requires improvement to be 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: SC400301 2

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

29/08/2023 Full Good 05/10/2022 Full Good 08/02/2022 Full Good 20/11/2019 Interim Improved effectiveness Inspection report for children’s home: SC400301 3

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Since the last inspection, two children have moved into the home, and two children have moved into supported accommodation. Four children were residing in the home at the time of the inspection.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children experience consistent care and are settled. Staff know children well, understand their needs and speak proudly of the positive changes that they have made. Most children are making good progress, particularly in their education. Two children who were taking exams have achieved good outcomes and begun higher education. One child was supported to complete work experience during the summer holidays. This led to a joint project being completed in the home’s garden.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff complete work with children that is meaningful and emotionally attuned. They acknowledge children’s struggles and provide empathy, but also sensitively challenge children if needed. The interactions between children and staff are familiar and appropriately playful, and some children actively seek out the company of staff they have strong relationships with. Where children find it harder to meaningfully build relationships and engage with others, staff remain creative in their attempts to establish relationships. This includes writing thoughtful letters of encouragement for the children.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff collaborate with children to provide a wide range of activities and holidays. These are well planned and reflect children’s hobbies and interests. For example, staff bought a fishing license for one child who is a keen fisher. Staff capture these experiences through photos, which are compiled in scrapbooks for children. This provides children with fond memories and promotes their self-worth.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff support children’s interests. The manager and staff advocate strongly for children. For example, when one child experienced barriers accessing a specific educational course, the registered manager escalated this as needed. Children are confident in expressing their views and asking for things they want; the manager and leaders place strong emphasis on their input. Staff use house meetings and key-work sessions to gather children’s views. Children are also aware of how to make a complaint if they need to. One child spoke to inspectors knowingly about the advocacy services available to them and expressed confidence to voice their opinions.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children live in a bright and spacious home. Communal living spaces are homely and are decorated with framed puzzles that the children have completed. The garden houses two pet rabbits, a flower and vegetable patch and an apple tree, which a child planted with staff, and the children are encouraged to help look after these. Inspection report for children’s home: SC400301 4

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

Relationships between staff and children are at the centre of safeguarding practice. Staff help children to understand their past traumas and recognise how these experiences impact on current behaviour. Nurturing relationships help the children feel safe and enable them to feel comfortable to discuss any concerns or risks with staff.

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

Staff understand children’s risks well. Children have individualised care plans that outline what may cause distress in children. Risk assessments are regularly updated following incidents. However, they do not always reflect the full knowledge staff have about children and how they manage risk. Some aspects of children’s risk assessments lack personalisation and are overly descriptive instead of providing detailed strategies.

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

Children told inspectors that they feel safe in the home. Staff manage the children’s relationships well. Staff use house meetings and key-work sessions to help children understand other children’s needs. Incidents between children are rare, and when they do happen, these approaches help create effective understanding.

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

Staff mostly manage the administration of medication for children well. If errors do happen, managers take action to support staff to learn from these. However, the learning is not shared widely across the team, which is a missed opportunity to reinforce good practice. Staff have good knowledge about children’s medical and medication needs, but records do not always reflect consultation with medical professionals. For example, when children assert their right to stop taking medication, the views and confirmation from medical professionals are not always noted in records.

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

Managers and leaders work well with multi-agency partners to support children’s more complex needs. As a result, partners have supported staff to be risk informed, which has led to a reduction in incidents. Managers are thoughtful in their consideration of the need for room searches as part of children’s plans. Staff work with children with empathy, clarity and kindness to help them understand the reasons these are necessary.

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

Staff use physical interventions rarely, and only as a last resort, to ensure children’s safety. Staff are appropriately trained, and debriefs take place with children soon after incidents to promote reflection on behaviour and incidents. The manager responds appropriately to any allegations about staff. Children are regularly updated, and appropriate safeguarding measures are put in place throughout investigations.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: requires improvement to be good

The manager and leaders recognise that there are areas for development and have plans in place to make improvements. Due to unforeseen circumstances, there have been periods where management presence has been limited. This has led to some inconsistency in oversight of records, including children’s individual records. However, this has not impacted on the progress children make. Inspection report for children’s home: SC400301 5 Not all staff receive regular supervision and appraisals. Supervision quality varies, and there is a lack of targets and actions in records. Managers and leaders have struggled to recruit permanent members of staff. They have used a familiar group of agency staff, which has provided children with consistency of care. This has been an effective strategy that has reduced the number of incidents taking place. Arrangements for supervision for these consistent agency staff are not yet fully embedded. However, all staff speak

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: requires improvement to be good

positively about the managers and feel well supported.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: requires improvement to be good

Leaders and managers have not completed a clear workforce development plan. Staff speak positively about training and development opportunities, but records of attendance are not kept up to date. The lack of a workforce plan and poor training records hinders managers and leaders overview of staff’s development needs and progress in practice.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: requires improvement to be good

The manager understands the principles of safe recruitment and their responsibilities. However, some parts of the recruitment process, which are carried out by a separate department, were not fully completed, and managers were unaware of this until inspectors raised this with them. For example, gaps in employment for one member of staff were not explored or accounted for.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: requires improvement to be good

Leaders and managers do not always share incidences of concern regarding staff practice with external partners. For example, concerns about one member of agency staff were not shared with the local authority designated officer (LADO) or Ofsted. This incident was investigated, and an appropriate outcome achieved. However, the failure to share these concerns means that external scrutiny is restricted, which could impact on children’s safety. Written records are inconsistent, and management oversight of significant incidents is also inconsistent. This limits the manager’s opportunity to reflect with staff and support them to develop their practice. Inspection report for children’s home: SC400301 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, The 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 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 there is consistent management oversight of children’s records, staff training records and key documents, including incident reports.

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Requirement Due date

This requirement was made at the last inspection and is restated. 30 November 2024

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must ensure that all employees—

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Requirement Due date

undertake appropriate continuing professional development;

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Requirement Due date

receive practice-related supervision by a person with appropriate experience; and

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Requirement Due date

have their performance and fitness to perform their roles appraised at least once every year. (Regulation 33 (4)(a)(b)(c))

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Requirement Due date

In particular, ensure that all staff, including regular agency staff, receive regular and purposeful supervision and have their performance reviewed annually. In addition, staff should 30 November 2024 Inspection report for children’s home: SC400301 7 complete relevant training as identified by the manager and their records should reflect this.

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Requirement Due date

This requirement was made at the last inspection and is restated.

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must notify HMCI and each other relevant person without delay if—

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Requirement Due date

there is any other incident relating to a child which the registered person considers to be serious.

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Requirement Due date

A notification made under this regulation—

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Requirement Due date

the other persons, bodies or organisations (if any) who or which have been notified; and

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Requirement Due date

any actions taken by the registered person as a result of the matter;

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Requirement Due date

must be made or confirmed in writing. (Regulation 40 (4)(e) (5)(a)(i)(ii)(iii)(b))

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Requirement Due date

In particular, the registered manager must ensure that all significant incidents are reported to Ofsted and the LADO in a timely manner and ensure there are clear, detailed records of these concerns, discussions, actions and outcomes. 14 November 2024

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must recruit staff using recruitment procedures that are designed to ensure children’s safety.

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Requirement Due date

full and satisfactory information is available in relation to the individual in respect of each of the matters in Schedule 2. (Regulation 32 (1) (3)(d))

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Requirement Due date

In particular, the registered manager must ensure that a full work history is received prior to appointment and any gaps in employment are explored and recorded. 4 November 2024 Inspection report for children’s home: SC400301 8

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Recommendations

 The registered person should ensure that each child’s medication records are kept to date and reflect advice from medical physicians. Records must be kept of the administration of all medication, which includes occasions when prescribed medication is refused. (‘Guide to the Children’s Homes Regulations, including the quality standards’, page 35, paragraph 7.15)  The registered person should ensure that a workforce development plan is in place which fulfils all the related requirements of regulation 16, schedule 1 (paragraphs 19 and 20) and should be regularly updated, including any new qualifications and training by staff. (‘Guide to the Children’s Homes Regulations, including the quality standards’, page 53, paragraph 10.8)  The registered person should ensure that risk assessments are continually updated and personalised to reflect ongoing and emerging risks. (‘Guide to the Children’s Homes Regulations, including the quality standards’, page 42, paragraph 9.5)

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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: SC400301 9

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: Farnham House, Six Hills Way, Stevenage SG1 2ST

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Inspectors

Rachel McIntyre, Social Care Inspector Karol Keenan, Social Care Inspector Inspection report for children’s home: SC400301 10 regulates and 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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