Children's Home run by Horizon Care Limited in Staffordshire

Unique reference number SC062406 Inspection date 28/06/2012 Inspector Elizabeth Barrett Type of inspection Full Provision subtype Children's home

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Date of last inspection 08/03/2012 Website: www.ofsted.gov.uk

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Brief description of the service

This children's home is operated by a private company. It is located in a rural area on the outskirts of a large town and accommodates up to three young people. The home specialises in offering a service for young people with emotional and behavioural difficulties.

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The inspection judgements and what they mean

Outstanding : a service of exceptional quality that significantly exceeds minimum requirements Good : a service of high quality that exceeds minimum requirements Adequate : a service that only meets minimum requirements Inadequate : a service that does not meet minimum requirements

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Overall effectiveness

The overall effectiveness is judged to be good .

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Overall effectiveness

Young people experience a good quality of care in this home because staff provide consistency, stability and a safe nurturing environment. Outcomes for young people and safeguarding are excellent, with young people making significant progress across all areas of their educational, social and personal development. Some young people have exceeded expectations in relation to developing and sustaining peer friendships in the community, specific educational attainments, participating in exciting activities, and in their individual maturity and preparation for independence.

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Overall effectiveness

Young people receive comprehensive support around all aspects of attachment, and in turn, strive to fulfil their individual potential. Young people receive opportunities to experience new activities and learn new skills. They are encouraged to challenge previously held attitudes, enabling them to grow as individuals and develop their self- esteem and identity. The positive and effective trusting relationships observed between young people and staff, are based on mutual respect and honesty.

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Overall effectiveness

Leadership and management arrangements for this home are good, with the Registered Manager understanding most of the strengths and weaknesses of the home, with work currently underway to address some of these issues. Shortfalls identified at this visit specifically relate to ensuring young people practise skills to maintain positive peer relationships, and that their views influence and drive their individual care plans, the home's development plan, and the monthly monitoring of the home. Young people receive good ongoing and well-organised care and support from a staff team that are dedicated, hardworking and committed to achieving positive outcomes through personalised and inclusive care.

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Recommendations

To improve the quality and standards of care further the service should take account of the following recommendation(s):

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Recommendations

 ensure that all children communicate their views on all aspects of their care and support, particularly in relation to compiling their individual care plans, and the day-to-day care they receive in the home (NMS 1.3)  ensure children know their rights to advocacy and how to access an independent advocate, particularly for those children who do not fully participate in their care planning and reviews (NMS 1.5)  ensure children develop and practise skills to build and maintain positive relationships and resolve conflicts with their peer group within the home (NMS 3.5)  ensure the registered person has a written development plan for the home, including the views of children living in the home, their parents and stakeholders, identifying improvements to be made to the home's operations and practices, including timescales for all actions. (NMS 15.2)

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Outcomes for children and young people

Outcomes for children and young people are outstanding .

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Outcomes for children and young people

Young people make outstanding progress in this home. The service has well-defined boundaries, while remaining both homely and supportive. Young people thrive and develop due to the consistent care provided by an extremely competent staff team, who have successfully created a nurturing environment where relationships with young people flourish. It is through these relationships that young people improve their self-image, and build confidence and emotional resilience. They enjoy stimulating attachments based upon mutual respect and positive regard, enabling them to grow in maturity and independence, progress educationally, and develop meaningful social relationships.

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Outcomes for children and young people

Young people are successfully encouraged to express their feelings and emotions, through accomplished key working sessions and therapeutic psychological support. Staff are creative in providing new opportunities for young people to explore, attend, and participate in dynamic and exciting activities and pursuits. This means young people are empowered to exceed expectations, while ensuring continuous progress across all areas of their social, learning, and personal development. They make positive choices in their friendships with peers in the community and in sustaining these relationships, with age appropriate behaviours displayed outside of the home. Comments received from one stakeholder includes, 'The home meets the needs of my young person very well, they enjoy living in the home having grown significantly in emotional resilience and in developing towards independence.'

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Outcomes for children and young people

Young people's attendance and educational attainment since their admission to this home is excellent, which has done much to improve some young people's self-image, reduce isolation, and develop their social skills. Young people are engaged in educational provision that is suitable to their individual needs and future preferences, such as mainstream schools and colleges, with all young people attaining or working towards educational qualifications. Staff place great importance on young people achieving educationally, and are proactive and consistent in supporting their individual placements and attainment, with some young people excelling in relation to their academic profile.

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Outcomes for children and young people

Young people grow in maturity because they enjoy personal responsibility, individual support, and good practical guidance to prepare for independent living. Young people are very confident and proud of their abilities to budget, cook, participate in household chores, and in making positive life choices. Young people enjoy consistently improved health and well-being, because they are encouraged to understand and be proactive about their own medical and health needs. Contact arrangements for young people with family and significant others in their lives has greatly improved, with well-structured plans for regular contact and overnight stays in place.

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Quality of care

Young people receive a good quality of care in this home. They benefit from a competent well-organised and motivated staff team who genuinely care about them, and are passionate about meeting their needs. Young people respond positively to staff whose nurturing and consistent approach helps them to build strong relationships, enabling them to achieve significant outcomes.

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Quality of care

The home has effective individual behaviour management strategies in place, with young people benefiting from positive behavioural rewards linked to their individual needs and aspirations. Young people confirm that the rules of the home are fair, and that staff are generally consistent with boundary setting, with sanctions rarely used. Some young people display difficult and challenging behaviours towards others, with such behaviours supported by clear risk assessments, and daily routines. However, both staff and young people spoken to at this visit comment that relationships between the young people can sometimes be volatile and complex. The home's manager and staff team recognise that these difficulties, although individually well managed, continue to present challenges to peer relationships and the group dynamics.

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Quality of care

The quality of relationships between young people and staff in the home, helps them to become more responsible for their own lives. This ensures they learn how to make good decisions and positive choices about their future preferences. Regular key work sessions ensure that all young people have the opportunity to express their views, and discuss areas of importance. Key workers discuss young people’s achievements with them as well as any key issues they are facing. Young people also attend good quality regular house meetings.

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Quality of care

Good placement planning and assessment identifies young people's individual needs. Individualised care planning focuses interventions on areas such as attachment, behavioural and dissociative issues. Therapeutic support sessions with young people are creative and identified to meet individual placement needs. Planned sessions with a clinical psychologist on a one-to-one basis, and through staff support meetings, continue to provide a greater understanding of individual care needs. Parents comment positively on all aspects of care in the home stating, 'The range of staff at the home ensure that the care and support my child receives is consistently applied, and staff are good at understanding and adopting a parenting role.'

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Quality of care

The service has complaints procedures which are known and understood by staff and young people. Young people say that they are confident that any complaint they may raise will receive a suitable response. However, young people spoken to say that although staff speak with them about their care plans for reviews and meetings, they are not actively involved in compiling their plans. In addition, young people while understanding what an independent advocate is, say they have no contact details should they require independent support or representation.

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Quality of care

Education is very important in this home. Staff talk proudly of the impressive steps forward made by young people in relation to their educational attendance and personal achievements. Young people, who have reached school-leaving age receive staff support to obtain apprenticeships and college placements. Staff provide structured support with young people’s education including helping with homework. This helps maintain the impressive educational successes for young people at the home.

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Quality of care

Young people receive support to maintain contact with family members and to develop social friendships within the community. Friends regularly spend time in the home and individuals are supported to have their peers stay overnight. The service is located in a rural area with the home providing transport so that young people are able to participate in a range of purposeful and enjoyable activities. Leisure activities are planned on an individual basis, with young people pursuing activities best suited to their age and care plan.

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Quality of care

There are good arrangements in place to support young people develop their sense of responsibility and appropriate independent living skills. The home uses individual pathway planning together with one-to-one time spent looking at areas identified for development, and providing opportunities to learn new skills. The home provides warm and homely accommodation, with furnishings and décor of a good standard. Young people personalise their rooms, and confirm that their privacy is well respected. The atmosphere within the home is relaxed and young people say that they enjoy living there.

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Safeguarding children and young people

The service is outstanding at keeping children and young people safe and feeling safe.

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Safeguarding children and young people

Young people live in a very safe, secure, and stable environment, where they say they feel safe, are safe and staff ensure their safety at all times. Levels of safety are highly effective because well-trained and competent staff implement the home's robust and regularly reviewed policies and procedures. Strategies to safeguard young people are comprehensive and structured. The home has a very comprehensive set of individualised assessments for young people, which are proactive, identifying potential risks and providing effective strategies to help to minimise any risks. Risk assessments cover aspects of their potential behaviour, the environment, and the activities they wish to undertake. Young people understand that the boundaries in place are there to ensure their safety and well-being.

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Safeguarding children and young people

Positive behaviour is encouraged and promoted with young people commenting that sanctions are limited, and there is an emphasis on recognising and rewarding positive behaviour. Young people receive rewards, praise, and recognition for their achievements. Staff have an in-depth knowledge of young people’s backgrounds, and work in partnership with other professionals to enable young people to understand and learn strategies to moderate and improve their behaviour. This enables young people to develop more socially acceptable behaviour preparing them to interact more positively with the wider community. Young people rarely go missing from this service and there have been no incidents of missing from home since the last inspection. Young people understand the importance of promoting their own safety, and benefit from significant improvements in their risk-taking behaviour.

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Safeguarding children and young people

Staff are trained in behaviour management including physical intervention, and they maintain good and accountable records. Young people confirm that staff use physical interventions infrequently and only as a last resort, when necessary to ensure the safety of all. Most issues are effectively resolved, by the use of consistently applied de-escalation and sensitive conflict resolution techniques. The home’s manager monitors each intervention, ensuring that the intervention is necessary, applied correctly, and comprehensively recorded. The current restraint recording form is in the process of being reviewed, with the intention of completing all records on the home's electronic recording system. The regular and effective monitoring of the home's records and staff practice contribute to ensuring that young people receive safe care, in line with their individual needs.

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Safeguarding children and young people

Staff receive regular and wide-ranging training in safeguarding. As a result, they demonstrate a comprehensive understanding of the action they should take should they have any concerns about a young person's safety or well-being. The home has a good range of detailed policies and procedures covering aspects such as prevention of bullying, complaints, safeguarding, and behaviour management. These policies are effectively understood and implemented by staff. Effective working with external partners means that the staff’s knowledge and understanding of child protection matters is continuously evolving.

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Safeguarding children and young people

Optimum staffing levels further help to keep young people safe and reduce any risk of harm. The organisation’s effective recruitment procedures enable the careful selection, recruitment, and retention of staff. This ensures young people are safe and that there are staff that know and understand them. All new staff undergo a thorough vetting process prior to their deployment in the home and before having unsupervised access to any young person.

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Safeguarding children and young people

Young people live in a safe environment with all health and safety requirements well managed. Fire precautions, drills, and routine equipment servicing consistently meet the timescales set by the relevant regulations. Young people take part in fire drills and evacuations ensuring they understand what procedures to follow in the event of a fire.

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Leadership and management

The leadership and management of the children's home are good .

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Leadership and management

The leadership and management of this home are effective and efficient. Young people benefit from living in a home that is well managed by competent and experienced staff and managers. The team communicates well with each other to ensure that everyone is up-to-date with new and changing information about young people’s needs and circumstances.

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Leadership and management

The Registered Manager ensures all new legislation and practice developments, are shared with staff to improve the quality of service. Additionally, the Registered Manager has enrolled on a management training course in order to obtain a relevant qualification to further enhance his practice, and improve the operations of the home. The acting assistant manager is dedicated and enthusiastic and has the support of well-trained staff, the majority of whom hold a professional qualification or are working towards one.

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Leadership and management

Experienced and knowledgeable staff are committed to promoting good outcomes for the young people in their care. Staff attend regular staff meetings and receive one- to-one supervision, together with annual appraisals. As a result, staff feel supported in their role and are confident in their approach to care arrangements. There is a comprehensive mandatory training programme in place, with additional training provided by the company and external organisations.

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Leadership and management

There have been some staffing changes since the last inspection resulting in the home's manager participating more directly in the day-to-day care of the young people. The manager has identified that this has sometimes meant that staff have not always assumed responsibility in making daily care practice decisions, with young people. This issue will be addressed through staff meetings and development sessions. The home meets the aims and objectives set out in its Statement of Purpose. The young people's guide to the home is clearly written and provides important information, which young people need to know when living in the home. The quality of care that young people receive is monitored by the Registered Manager and by external visitors to the home on a monthly basis. Monitoring findings tend to follow a process-led framework, with limited information on evidencing and measuring outcomes for young people, and improvements to the service. The reports produced

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Leadership and management

do not always show discussions and comments from young people, parents, social workers, and other external organisations about the development of young people and the home. The home's manager acknowledges that the quality assurance monitoring processes are under review, with a proposed change to the current report format.

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Leadership and management

The home's manager understands some of the strengths and weaknesses of the service. The requirement and recommendations made at the last inspection are suitably met. The children's guide is current including the correct Ofsted telephone number, staff recruitment documents are amended, with physical intervention records ensuring any debriefs with young people following physical restraint include an opportunity to seek any necessary medical assistance.

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Leadership and management

A development plan is in place for the home although it is very lengthy, and linked specifically to the standards. It is lacking in sufficient detail as to how the service evaluates and improves in line with the home’s Statement of Purpose, and how it measures the effectiveness of actions taken, outcomes for young people, and in what timescales.

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Leadership and management

Records are clear, up to date and stored securely, and contribute to the young people’s understanding of their life in care. All significant events relating to the protection of young people accommodated in the home are notified by the registered person to the appropriate authorities, including any necessary actions following the incident.

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About this inspection

The purpose of this inspection is to assure children and young people, parents, the public, local authorities and government of the quality and standard of the service provided. The inspection was carried out under the Care Standards Act 2000 to assess the effectiveness of the service and to consider how well it complies with the relevant regulations and meets the national minimum standards.

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About this inspection

The report details the main strengths, any areas for improvement, including any breaches of regulation, and any failure to meet national minimum standards. The judgements included in the report are made against the Inspections of children’s homes – framework for inspection (March 2011) and the evaluation schedule for children's homes.

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