Children's Home run by Hillcrest Children‟s Services (2) Limited in Staffordshire

Unique reference number SC437128 Inspection date 14/08/2013 Inspector Martha Nethaway Type of inspection Full Provision subtype Children's home

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Date of last inspection 20/02/2013 Website: www.ofsted.gov.uk

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Brief description of the service

This privately owned children's home is registered to provide care and accommodation for up to three young people, who have emotional and/ or behavioural problems.

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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

The home is effective in meeting the individual needs of young people. Young people are benefiting from good quality care that promotes positive outcomes. Young people’s participation and engagement is actively encouraged. Staff concentrate their efforts in areas related to health, education, contact with friends and family, and ensuring young people are prepared when they leave. Young people themselves feel they are making progress. Overall, relationships between young people and staff are positive.

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Overall effectiveness

Young people are regularly consulted through individual one to one meetings with staff and also during ‘house meetings’ run at the home. Young people are confident with sharing their ideas to help improve the home, from their perspective. They feel listened to and heard.

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Overall effectiveness

Young people say they are safe and feel safe in the home and when out in their local community. They are doing a number of recreational activities that helps them feel good and secure about themselves.

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Overall effectiveness

This is a well-run home. The management team know and understand the strengths and areas for improvement at the home. A strong feature of the home is the caring and nurturing environment for young people to live in. The home has a clear development plan to advance improvement.

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Overall effectiveness

As a result, of this visit the home has two requirements being set. The first relates to continuing the improvement in school attendance in order to provide cohesive support for all young people. The second relates to ensuring young people follow up any dental treatment advice. These two areas do not detract from the continued good outcomes that young people are achieving, given their starting points.

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Statutory Requirements

This section sets out the actions which must be taken so that the registered person/s meets the Care Standards Act 2000, Children's Homes Regulations 2001 and the National Minimum Standards. The registered person(s) must comply with the given timescales.

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Reg. Requirement Due date

(2001) ensure the routine of the home is organised so as to further young people's participation in education, including regular attendance at school (Regulation 18(1)(b)) 30/09/2013

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Reg. Requirement Due date

(2001) ensure each young person has access to dental advice and treatment and other services. (Regulation 20(2)(b)) 30/09/2013

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Outcomes for children and young people

Over time, young people at the home show that they grow in confidence and begin to trust adults around them. They are beginning to develop a sense of self. Young people are responding to staff and working towards strategies that decrease stress and frustration. Consequently, over time their confidence and self-esteem is increasing so that they feel secure and good about themselves.

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Outcomes for children and young people

Young people broadly enjoy good health. Young people benefit from accessing counselling and this helps significantly with their personal problems. As a result, young people get to talk about their experiences and get help to make sense of them. Young people say they are encouraged to eat healthy foods and learn about maintaining a healthy diet. Young people visit their doctor, dentist and optician. However, a very few young people decline dental treatment despite the staffs best efforts to encourage them. As a result, this partly compromises their oral health needs.

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Outcomes for children and young people

Young people’s attendance at school is broadly good. Some young people are attending school regularly and particularly enjoy their work experience placements. One young person commented, ‘I love the experience of working with pets and I have a real interest in this area.’ Where young people are struggling with school attendance, staff treat this as a priority. As a result, young people are now beginning to recognise the importance of becoming engaged and involved in their education. Young people are beginning to overcome attendance problems. Young people’s participation and contribution to their home is good. They regularly plan activities and enjoy a good range of opportunities including trips to their local cinema and playing pool, as well as trips further afield to theme parks and animal zoos. This helps young people to feel part of their local area and beyond.

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Outcomes for children and young people

Young people enjoy positive contact with family and friends. On-going contact helps young people to maintain their sense of identity. One young person commented, ‘I look forward to seeing my mum.’

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Outcomes for children and young people

Young people’s development of their independence skills is good. Young people are being prepared and are encouraged to participate in the assessment and preparation of their pathway plan. Young people are encouraged to develop key skills such as, cleaning and managing their laundry. As young people progress they learn cooking and basic budgeting skills. Young people become confident with using their local public transport and local facilities. Consequently, there is a good emphasis on developing young people’s independence.

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Quality of care

Young people form positive working relationships with care staff. Staff communicate appropriately with young people. Consequently, young people develop good working relationship and successfully express their views. This is well supported and developed.

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Quality of care

Young people say they know and understand how to make a complaint and do so when they are unhappy or concerned.

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Quality of care

Young people’s engagement is well promoted. Young people say they meet regularly with their key worker and value this. The home ensures that keyworker meetings lay the foundation for good working relationships and develop a holistic level of support and advice. In addition, young people regularly attend ‘house meetings’ where they discuss and make decisions about activities, menus and health and safety. Discussions are free-flowing and a two way process. One young person commented, ‘We helped to influence and get the trampoline in the garden, the swing ball and garden plants.’ As a result, young people feel they are making a contribution to the home.

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Quality of care

Care planning and implementation is good. Young people are cared for in line with their placement plan. Young people’s needs relating to their cultural background and personal identity are addressed and supported. Staff ensure that they support the building of relationship between young people. Over time young people make good progress in relation to their emotional development, welfare, safety and progress in their education. One social worker commented, ‘The young person has done extremely well and I am confident this is because of the secure base that the home provides.’ The home’s arrangements for activities are good. Young people say they enjoy going to their local town including shopping trips. Equally, in the home there are a range of resources such as books, games and puzzles that help widen young people’s interests. In addition, young people are keeping small sized pets. One young person commented, ‘I love the companionship and caring for my pet.’

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Quality of care

The home is appropriately located, designed and maintained. Young people are proud of their home. Young people say it’s homely and spacious to live in.

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Safeguarding children and young people

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

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Safeguarding children and young people

Young people say they are safe and feel safe at the home and in their local community. The home promotes young people’s welfare at all times. This is underpinned by a good range of procedures, policies and training. This ensures that safeguarding; child protection; allegations and behaviour management are detailed and show how the home addresses these areas. Staff are alert to the potential risks around unwanted bullying behaviours and bullying behaviours are very rare. As a consequence, young people’s welfare is promoted.

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Safeguarding children and young people

Young people do not go missing from the home. Young people learn to understand staff concerns about vulnerability and consequently are not taking unnecessary risks. Young people’s behaviour is well managed. The use of physical intervention does not take place as a means of controlling young people’s behaviour. Young people’s behaviour is managed through positive reward incentives such as, verbal praise or working towards a preferred activity. As a result, this motivates young people to behave well and provides direct encouragement to do well.

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Safeguarding children and young people

The home has in place a suitable recruitment procedure for employing staff. Since the last inspection there have been no staff recruited to the home.

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Safeguarding children and young people

The home ensures that health and safety is given a good priority. All young people are provided with a personalised risk assessment that is reviewed as circumstances change. The home has in place additional risk assessments for activities both in the home and out in the community. Young people learn about fire safety through participating in fire drills so that they know what to do in the event of an emergency. As a result, young people’s safety and welfare is promoted.

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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

This home is managed effectively, efficiently and is adequately resourced. There is a Registered Manager permanently employed who is also managing another children’s home locally, for the same company. The Registered Manager is ably supported by a senior support worker who deputies in the absence of the manager. Since the last inspection, Ofsted have received no complaints or concerns about this home.

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Leadership and management

The home has in place a Statement of Purpose that is shared with social workers and the placing authority. The home delivers good care that is meeting the needs of young people with emotional difficulties and associated challenging behaviours and educational underachievement.

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Leadership and management

The home has in place a clear development plan which is being progressed well in relation to the home environment, staff training, young people’s resources and consultation. Young people say they have been involved with decision making with buying equipment such as bikes, trampoline, swing ball and the paddling pool. One young person commented, ‘Its made the garden more interesting to play in.’ Young people and other significant stakeholders have provided direct feedback about the quality of the home. Broadly, feedback has been positive.

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Leadership and management

While progress has been made with tackling deep seated school attendance problems, additional innovative work is planned to strengthen this area so that it remains a forthright consideration. Leaders and managers have ensured that social workers, parents and the school cooperate and develop strategies to increase school attendance. Progress is being made to resolve the problem together.

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Leadership and management

The home’s quality assurance programme is good. An independent monthly visitor visits the home spending time with young people, staff and management. The quality of care and outcomes for young people is well scrutinised. The home has made improvements to its behaviour management plans especially relating to implementing age appropriate incentives.

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Leadership and management

The staffing arrangements at the home are good. Over half the staff team are qualified to work in residential care. Those that are not are currently on a training programme. Staff are suitably supervised and supported. Staff attend training that broadly is updating their mandatory core training. Additionally, the management team ensure that the staff team have access to professional and multi-disciplinary teams for specific practice matters.

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Leadership and management

The management of record keeping is good. Young people’s case records reflect the care and support they receive. One social worker highlighted a really positive aspect of the home. ‘I get the monthly reports from the home and I can see what has been taking place including the positive aspect and where additional work is needed.’ Consequently, young people’s progress and development is being effectively shared.

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Leadership and management

The home has in place an effective notification system. The home fully cooperates with the relevant agencies. As a result, this ensures the correct steps and actions are taken to promote the welfare of young people.

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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 and the evaluation schedule for the inspection of children's homes.

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