Children's home run by Aspris Children’s Service in Hammersmith and Fulham

Inspection report for children’s home: 1234621 1 Registered provider: Aspris Children’s Service

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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 five children with social and emotional difficulties aged between eight and 18 years old. Two children currently live at the home.

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Information about this children’s home

The manager registered with Ofsted in April 2023.

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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

Overall judgement at last inspection: good

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good

Enforcement action since last inspection: none Inspection report for children’s home: 1234621 2

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

13/08/2024 Full Good 27/02/2024 Full Good 05/07/2022 Full Good 22/03/2022 Interim Improved effectiveness Inspection report for children’s home: 1234621 3

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

At the time of inspection, two children were living at the home. The inspector met both children during the inspection. The children expressed broadly positive views. Family members also gave positive feedback.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff are warm and friendly and treat children with respect and dignity. Staff speak positively about the relationships they have with the children. Staff have a nice manner and a nurturing approach. This helps children to feel safe and cared for. Staff want children to feel safe and happy and want to help them make progress.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff support the children with their physical and emotional health. Staff have registered the child with all local health services and support them to attend routine appointments. The home also has access to an in-house therapeutic provision, which is flexible and tailored to the therapeutic needs of each child.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff support children’s education. The manager has worked with local education authorities and the virtual headteacher to get an individualised education programme for one child. When children are out of education, staff support them with learning at home. Supporting children’s education helps the children to attain better educational outcomes.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff and managers go to great lengths to encourage and support family relationships where they are safe for the child. This includes staff travelling out of the area with children on a regular basis so they can spend time with their families.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children’s day-to-day experiences are positive. Staff encourage children to do activities or go out, and a range of activities are promoted including trips to local activity centres or theme parks. One child has been supported to improve their cooking skills, and they now enjoy making meals or baking cakes most days.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

The home is well furnished, tidy and nicely decorated. Bedrooms are large and personalised. Shared spaces are also well furnished. There is a large outdoor space, which has a variety of equipment for the children.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Two children have moved out since the last inspection. One child had lived at the home for over a year and successfully moved into semi-independent living. The other child lived at the home for three months and left in an unplanned way. This occurred after another child moved into the home and staff were unable to manage the dynamics. The manager has failed to provide care planning and matching that ensures children are compatible.

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

Inspection report for children’s home: 1234621 4 Children are safeguarded and supported to be safe. Staff know their safeguarding responsibilities and understand whistle-blowing procedures.

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

Staff have a good knowledge of children’s strengths and vulnerabilities. Staff have access to risk assessments and care plans for children. Children have behaviour support plans and targets, which are individualised. This helps staff to support children’s specific vulnerabilities when they are working with them. Staff have also recently created child- friendly versions of care plans and risk assessments so that children understand how they will be helped.

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

Staff manage incidents well. Staff focus on using de-escalation techniques, and physical intervention only occurs occasionally. On each occasion, staff actions have been justified and necessary. Staff have had training in how to use physical interventions and have followed the training. Debriefs with children always take place and records capture children’s feelings. This helps children feel that they are important and respected and helps them to feel safe.

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

When children go missing from the home, staff follow procedures and react responsibly, such as contacting other agencies, particularly the police. Staff also undertake enquiries and conduct searches where suitable and in line with plans. For one child who was going missing from home frequently, the manager worked with a multi-agency framework to try and reduce these incidents.

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

Fire and safety checks are conducted routinely. Fire drills take place regularly and all children have personal emergency evacuation plans. Health and safety risks are monitored and managed effectively.

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

Staff encourage positive behaviour and respond to children when they make poor choices. Consequences are given, although they are not always consistent or recorded clearly. Measures for repeated behavioural difficulties are not challenged effectively. For example, one child reacted strongly to staff on multiple occasions when the Wi-Fi was turned off each evening, but there is no clear or consistent plan for how staff should respond to this to try and reduce this behaviour. There is little oversight of any consequence, which fails to provide a consistent approach.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The registered person was on annual leave during the inspection, and the home is currently operating without a deputy manager. However, a senior support worker has deputised for the manager and has shown excellent leadership skills for a person in this position. The responsible individual was also present for most of the inspection.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The feedback from the staffing team as well as external professionals has been broadly positive. They feel the manager acts diligently and competently, and they feel supported by the manager. Inspection report for children’s home: 1234621 5 The home has a small but stable workforce, many of whom have a good level of experience. Staff turnover is low, and morale amongst the staff team is mostly high. Staff speak positively about working at the home, and in their support of each other to work together to support children. Staff show a positive and child-focused ethos about work and strive for good outcomes for children.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Leaders and managers ensure that there is a good staff induction process for new staff. Staff spoke positively about having a range of training, which they felt gave them all the necessary tools to be able to support children in the home competently. The manager ensures that the home follows safe recruitment protocols.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Staff have regular supervision sessions, which they say are helpful and supportive. The supervision records are detailed and reflective. Staff speak about a culture that welcomes informal ad hoc advice, supervision, or discussion, as part of a positive and supportive team ethos.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Most children’s records and incident reports had a review by a manager when this was required. However, reviews on some incident reports took place a long time after the report was made. There are also other reviews that do not show a high level of scrutiny or curiosity. This fails to provide good monitoring, auditing and reviewing to ensure that records and reports are of a good standard. This should help to improve outcomes for children.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The staffing team is small, and most staff work over their contracted hours. Some staff have fed back this can be a strain. The home is operating without a deputy manager, and when the manager had an unplanned absence this left a senior support worker in day-to-day charge. Children said that they feel there are not enough staff. Although staffing levels have not left children unsafe, they do not flexibly meet children’s needs or provide enough staff to respond to unexpected events. Inspection report for children’s home: 1234621 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;

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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 the care provided in the home. (Regulation 13 (1)(a)(b) (2)(h))

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Requirement Due date

In particular, ensure that management oversight makes sure that records and incident reports are monitored and reviewed in a timely manner. 30 September 2025

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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; and

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Requirement Due date

have a positive experience of arriving at or moving on from the 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 30 September 2025 Inspection report for children’s home: 1234621 7 plan for, and help, each child to prepare to leave the home or to move into adult care in a way that is consistent with arrangements agreed with the child’s placing authority; (Regulation 14 (1)(a)(b) (2)(b)(ii)(iii))

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Requirement Due date

In particular, ensure that planning and matching assessments for children are robust and include an effective evaluation of children’s impact on each other in the home, and that contingency measures are considered to ensure that children’s needs can be met when additional needs arise.

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Recommendations

 The registered person should ensure that the home’s behaviour management policy, and the approach to promoting positive behaviour and any measures of control, discipline, and restraint that may be used in the home, are consistently applied. In particular, any measures including rewards, consequences, or actions such as key- working conversations should be consistently applied and recorded as outlined in the behaviour support policy, or children’s behaviour plans. (‘Guide to the Children’s Homes Regulations, including the quality standards’, page 46, paragraphs 9.33)  The registered person should ensure that staffing levels meet the needs of children and that staff can respond flexibly to unexpected events or opportunities. Staffing structures should promote continuity of care from the child’s perspective. If children make a complaint or give a view on how the staffing structure could be improved to

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Recommendations

promote the best care for them, appropriate action should be taken. (‘Guide to the Children’s Homes Regulations, including the quality standards’, page 54, paragraphs 10.15)

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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: 1234621 8

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Children’s home details

Registered provider: Aspris Children’s Service

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: Aspris, 2 Barton Close, Grove Park, Enderby, Leicester LE19 1SJ

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Children’s home details

Responsible individual: Michelle Batchelor

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Inspector

Daniel Rankin, Social Care Inspector Inspection report for children’s home: 1234621 9 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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Inspector

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Inspector

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