Children's Home run by Evoke Care Group Limited in Croydon

Inspection report for children’s home: 1273719 1 Registered provider: Evoke Care Group Limited

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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 privately owned home provides care for up to three children with social or emotional difficulties.

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Information about this children’s home

This home and the manager registered with Ofsted in June 2018. The registered manager is suitably qualified and experienced.

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Information about this children’s home

At the time of this inspection, two children were living in the home. One child was spoken to.

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Overall experiences and progress of

children and young people, taking into account

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requires improvement to be good

How well children and young people are helped and protected requires improvement to be good

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requires improvement to be good

The effectiveness of leaders and managers requires improvement to be good

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requires improvement to be good

The children’s home is not yet delivering good help and care for children and young people. However, there are no serious or widespread failures that result in their welfare not being safeguarded or promoted.

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requires improvement to be good

Date of last inspection: 23 January 2024

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requires improvement to be good

Overall judgement at last inspection: good

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requires improvement to be good

Enforcement action since last inspection: none Inspection report for children’s home: 1273719 2

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

23/01/2024 Full Good 07/03/2023 Full Outstanding 01/11/2021 Full Outstanding 14/08/2019 Full Good Inspection report for children’s home: 1273719 3

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improvement to be good

Children have variable experiences in the home. While some have settled in the home and successfully transitioned to their next home, others have experienced sudden disruption, or placements have ended due to staff being unable to manage behaviour and the level of risk.

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improvement to be good

Children make limited progress with their education. Staff support home tuition arrangements but struggle to encourage children to engage fully in their education. One child’s attendance has reduced over time.

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improvement to be good

Children’s physical health needs are met. They are registered with the local GP, optician, and ophthalmologist, and supported to attend their routine appointments. Children are encouraged to stay healthy with physical exercise and have been provided with equipment in the home to support this.

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improvement to be good

Staff’s practice is not robust in promoting positive relationships in the home. When a child’s behaviour has impacted others, staff have focused more on reducing their time spent together, than supporting their relationship to improve. Children are encouraged to reflect on how their behaviour affects others, but underlying oppressive attitudes are not meaningfully addressed. This has reduced the quality of some children’s experiences in the home.

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improvement to be good

Children are offered a range of activities, both in the home and out in the community. However, one child became distressed when a staff member declined on two occasions to support the child on an outing in the community. Managers responded effectively to the child’s complaint.

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improvement to be good

The home is a safe and comfortable environment for children. It is spacious, warm, and maintained to a good standard. All health and safety checks are in date. Children have large bedrooms, which are personalised to their choice. Children can have their own small pets, which staff support them to care for.

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improvement to be good

Incidents in the home are not always well managed. There are occasions when staff have lacked experience and not had training to help them to de-escalate situations or physically intervene if necessary. As a result, the police have been contacted to manage situations in the home. One incident led directly to the disruption of a child’s placement. Case recordings sometimes lack detail about the actions that staff have taken during incidents. This reduces opportunities to learn from incidents and address any practice issues. Inspection report for children’s home: 1273719 4 Staff understand and follow the home’s protocol when children go missing. They welcome children home when they return, and request return home interviews. However, children’s grab packs do not always contain a full physical description of the child. This means that the subsequent missing reports to the police sometimes lack detail.

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improvement to be good

Children are offered regular key-work sessions to support their progress and development. When these are declined, staff are not proactive in finding other ways to engage children. Direct work that focuses on children’s risks is limited and not always recorded on their files. This means that children are not always given the help they need to understand their risks and how to keep themselves safe.

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improvement to be good

Staff recruitment is safe. The appropriate checks are undertaken, gaps in employment are checked and references are verified.

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improvement to be good

Allegations against staff are well managed. The local authority designated officer is appropriately consulted, and leaders take prompt action to address concerns.

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

The home has a very experienced registered manager who is accessible to provide support and guidance to staff. However, she is not a full-time presence in the home. This arrangement limits both the management capacity in the home and the registered manager’s scope for leading and embedding a systemic therapeutic approach.

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

Staff undertake core training as part of their induction. Further bespoke training is provided in team meetings, such as on deprivation of liberty orders. However, the whole staff team has not had specific training on children’s mental health. This is a shortfall given the complex needs of some children who the staff care for.

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

Staff are provided with supervision by their line manager. However, the registered manager said that supervision meetings are recorded by video, rather than in writing. This means that neither managers nor staff have a written record of supervision discussions and agreed actions.

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

A family therapist provides clinical supervision to staff and consultation at the home’s monthly meetings. The team meetings involve detailed discussions about the children and some challenging situations that staff have managed. These have enabled staff to reflect on their practice. However, this has not always informed direct work with children. For example, a detailed discussion took place about bullying behaviour in the home, but this did not lead to focused work that directly addressed the behaviour and the underlying issues.

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

Children know how to make complaints, and leaders respond to them promptly and effectively. One child’s complaint received a detailed response and specific actions to address the issues. The registered manager had a follow up discussion with the child to Inspection report for children’s home: 1273719 5 check that they were happy with the response. This means that children feel that their voices are heard when they raise a concern. Inspection report for children’s home: 1273719 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

ensure that staff have the experience, qualifications, and skills to meet the needs of each child. (Regulation 13 (1)(a)(b) (2)(c))

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Requirement Due date

In particular, leaders and managers must ensure that staff are appropriately trained and skilled to be able to manage challenging behaviour and de-escalate situations in the home appropriately. 17 March 2025

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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

help each child to understand how to keep safe;

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Requirement Due date

manage relationships between children to prevent them from harming each other. (Regulation 12 (1) (2)(a)(ii)(iv))

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Requirement Due date

In particular, leaders and managers must ensure that work is undertaken with children to help them learn how to keep themselves safe and address bullying behaviour. 17 March 2025 Inspection report for children’s home: 1273719 7 The registered person must maintain records ("case records") for each child which—

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Requirement Due date

are kept up to date. (Regulation 36 (1)(b))

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Requirement Due date

In particular, leaders and managers must ensure that staff record all the work they do with children. 17 March 2025

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Recommendations

 The registered person should ensure that the policies and procedures in place for when children are missing from the home include the requirement for full and accessible information in their grab packs. (‘Guide to the Children’s Homes Regulations, including the quality standards,’ page 44, paragraph 9.19)

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Recommendations

 The registered person should ensure that a written copy of the content, outcomes and actions of supervision sessions are kept and the person giving the supervision and staff member have a copy of the record. (‘Guide to the Children’s Homes Regulations, including the quality standards,’ page 61, paragraph 13.4)

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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: 1273719 8

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Children’s home details

Registered provider: Evoke Care Group Limited

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: Airport House, Purley Way, Croydon CR0 0XZ

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Inspector

Jo Mitchell, Social Care Inspector Inspection report for children’s home: 1273719 9 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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