Children's home run by Royal Borough of Greenwich

Inspection report for children’s home: 2728035 1 Registered provider: Royal Borough of Greenwich Full inspection Inspected under the social care common inspection framework

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Information about this children’s home

This local authority run home offers emergency and planned short-term residential care for up to six children who may experience social and/or emotional difficulties.

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Information about this children’s home

The home and the manager registered with Ofsted in October 2023. The registered manager is suitably qualified and experienced.

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Information about this children’s home

At the time of the inspection, four children were living at the home. The inspector spoke with three children during the inspection.

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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: 7 February 2024

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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: 2728035 2

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

07/02/2024 Full Good Inspection report for children’s home: 2728035 3

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

The home was set up to provide a safe and supportive environment for children while assessments are carried out to inform their longer-term plans. Some children stay in the home when a bridging placement is necessary, during reunification efforts or in emergency situations.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Since the last inspection, 15 children have lived at the home. Staff have successfully supported some of these children to transition to long-term placements or return to the care of their families.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children are positive about the care they receive from staff. Two children said they would like to continue living at the home.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff support children in learning essential life skills, such as cooking and personal care, and in helping them prepare for their moves to new homes. One child, who has lived at the home for over a year, can identify a trusted member of staff who they can talk to if they have any concerns.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

All children are attending school. Staff maintain close links with the children’s schools and attend network meetings to ensure that children’s educational needs are regularly reviewed.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children have been registered with the relevant health services and receive support from staff to attend medical appointments. Staff promote healthy eating, cook fresh meals and encourage the children to eat together. Recently, two experienced mental health practitioners have joined the team. They work directly with the children, their families and the staff. These practitioners help in the planning for new children moving into the home and provide consultation to staff about the children’s social and emotional needs. They are also actively involved in carrying out the children’s assessments. Staff have found this opportunity to reflect on the children’s needs to be helpful.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff create an inclusive environment by celebrating children’s diversity and valuing individual identities. Children’s families often live nearby, and staff recognise the importance of maintaining these relationships. They work diligently to help children overcome any difficulties with their family relationships. Parents are welcome to visit the children at the home, provided that it has been determined to be safe.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

The home is spacious, clean and well decorated. It has a games room with a pool table and a recently landscaped garden, where some children have helped plant flowers. The staff organise summer barbecues and celebrate children’s birthdays. Children enjoy engaging in various activities, including dining out, bowling and going to the cinema. Inspection report for children’s home: 2728035 4

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improvement to be good

The security and monitoring of the home require improvement. Before the inspection, a non-resident child managed to spend time in a child’s bedroom for 48 hours without staff noticing. Staff did not follow the home’s procedures for carrying out bedroom searches. On the first night, staff could smell cannabis coming from the child’s bedroom but did not carry out a room search. This was a missed opportunity to discover another child in the bedroom and address any health and safety concerns relating to the potential use of cannabis.

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improvement to be good

The registered manager reviewed the incident and implemented additional safeguards to reduce the risk of a similar incident happening again. However, the review did not fully address the weaknesses in staff practice. In particular, children’s individual risk assessments were not updated, and long-term arrangements to ensure that the home has adequate checks in place are still not agreed.

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improvement to be good

Leaders and managers ensure that they share information about children’s needs and risks at weekly multiagency meetings. Staff work closely with colleagues from Youth Justice, the Gangs unit and the police to ensure that children are offered additional services and support when needed.

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improvement to be good

Some children living at the home have experienced a number of missing-from-home episodes. Staff inform the police, the child’s parents and social workers about these incidents. They also request network and strategy meetings with partner agencies. Staff had shared knowledge about a child’s whereabouts with the network that helped to interrupt the trend in the child’s absences. However, strategies on missing-from-home episodes are not routinely recorded in the children’s risk assessments.

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improvement to be good

Staff have access to Local Authority placement plans, care plans, and various progress reports that include targets and reviews of those targets. However, children do not have residential support plans, as outlined in the home’s statement of purpose, that are more bespoke to children’s time at the home. The risk assessments for children are brief and do not include details of all known risks and vulnerabilities.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The manager maintains strong relationships with the senior leadership team and receives regular support. They are motivated and enthusiastic about providing high- quality care and are knowledgeable about children’s individual needs.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The staff team is stable, consisting of an experienced deputy manager and two experienced team leaders. Staff feel well supported by managers, who are available and approachable. However, the home does not have an up-to-date workforce development plan. Inspection report for children’s home: 2728035 5 There have been several serious incidents where the police have been called to manage children’s behaviour, resulting in some children being unable to return to the home after being taken to the police station. The leadership and management team has reflected on these incidents and implemented additional safeguards. Procedures for emergency admissions have been reviewed and updated. Since these changes, there have been no further incidents requiring police intervention.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Leaders and managers proactively address the needs of children by increasing staffing levels when necessary. In some instances, this has involved the use of agency staff to provide immediate support. A recent decision has been made to employ additional bank staff to ensure that children’s needs are met by more familiar and consistent staff. Recruitment for these roles is currently in progress.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Staff benefit from regular supervision and team meetings. However, they have not received an annual appraisal, which is a missed opportunity for them to understand their strengths and identify areas for improvement. Despite some members of staff being in post for two years, they have only recently been enrolled on the relevant training course for attaining their residential childcare qualification. This puts them outside the time frame outlined in the regulation for achieving the qualification.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Leaders and managers work closely with children’s networks, and feedback from professionals and families is mostly positive. This results in a shared approach to providing the children with the support they need. Inspection report for children’s home: 2728035 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 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

understand the roles and responsibilities in relation to protecting children that are assigned to them by the registered person;

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Requirement Due date

take effective action whenever there is a serious concern about a child’s welfare; and

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Requirement Due date

that the home’s day-to-day care is arranged and delivered so as to keep each child safe and to protect each child effectively from harm. (Regulation 12 (1) (2)(a)(v)(vi)(b)(e))

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Requirement Due date

In particular, leaders and managers must ensure that staff understand their roles and responsibilities and that the safety plans for children include clear strategies for staff to follow to keep children safe. This includes updating risk assessments. 17 May 2025

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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— 17 May 2025 Inspection report for children’s home: 2728035 7 lead and manage the home in a way that is consistent with the approach and ethos, and delivers the outcomes, set out in the home’s statement of purpose;

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Requirement Due date

ensure the staff work as a team where appropriate;

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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)(a)(b)(e)(f))

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Requirement Due date

In particular, leaders and managers must ensure that children have a residential support plan, as outlined in the home’s statement of purpose. These plans should be regularly updated and reviewed. Additionally, the workforce development plan must be reviewed and updated.

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Recommendations

 The registered person should ensure that all staff have their performance and fitness to carry out their role formally appraised at least once annually. This appraisal should consider, where reasonable and practical, the views of other professionals who have worked with the staff member over the year and children in the home’s care. As part of the performance management process, poor performance should be addressed with a timely plan to bring about improvement. (‘Guide to the Children’s Homes Regulations, including the quality standards’, page 61, paragraph 13.5)  The registered person should identify any gaps in staff’s qualifications and ensure that relevant units or qualifications are completed on time and at an appropriate level. (‘Guide to the Children’s Homes Regulations, including the quality standards’, page 68, paragraph 1.4)

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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: 2728035 8

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Children’s home details

Registered provider: Royal Borough of Greenwich

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: The Woolwich Centre, 35 Wellington Street, London SE18 6HQ

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Inspector

Matilda Clode, Social Care Inspector Inspection report for children’s home: 2728035 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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