Children's Home run by Horizon Care and Education Group Limited in Staffordshire

Unique reference number SC463852 Inspection date 15/01/2014 Inspector David Morgan Type of inspection Full Provision subtype Children's home

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Date of last inspection 24/06/2013 Website: www.ofsted.gov.uk

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Brief description of the service

This a newly registered home for three children or young people who have emotional and/or behavioural difficulties. It specialises in preparing children and young people for foster care.

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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

Since being registered in May 2013 the service has implemented a new model that prepares children, currently aged between eight and thirteen, for foster placements. It requires all parties to be fully engaged in order to ensure that children are placed with foster carers within a relatively short period of time. Although it has been challenging, the home’s objectives are being strenuously pursued by the manager and the service is providing a good standard of care. In particular, children understand the purpose of their stay and make substantial progress.

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Overall effectiveness

Progress is due in large part to effective staffing arrangements. Staff implement the therapeutic approach well and ensure that each child makes tangible progress. Children feel safe and happy in the home and establish meaningful relationships with staff. They engage in on-going, important and significant conversations with staff which over time lead to positive changes in their understanding and behaviour. Risk- taking behaviours are few overall. The planning and review arrangements for each child are strong.

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Overall effectiveness

One requirement and three recommendations are made. These are mainly administrative and have minimal direct impact on children. However, improvements are necessary to the way that risk assessments are compiled so they are clearer and reduce the potential for misinterpretation.

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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 that if any event listed in column 1 of the table in Schedule 5 takes place, the registered person shall without delay notify the persons indicated in respect of the event in column 2 of the table. This is with regard to notifying Ofsted of any safeguarding issues (Regulation 30(1)) 17/02/2014

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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 decisions about the use of locks is based on a careful risk assessment that allows children as much freedom as possible (Children Act 1989, Guidance and Regulations, Volume 5: Children’s Homes, paragraph 2.108)  ensure that risk assessments of the whole children’s home environment are carried out, to identify any potential sources of harm to the children are recorded in writing and regularly reviewed. This is with regard to such risk assessments being clear, consistent and accurate (NMS 10.8)  implement effective procedures for monitoring the activities of the home. This is with regard to ensuring that the monthly monitoring by the manager identifies patterns and trends and evaluates them as part of a process of improvement (NMS 21.1)

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Outcomes for children and young people

Children make significant progress in all areas of their care. Although they have only lived in the home for a maximum of six months, external professionals confirm that they are making far faster progress than in previous placements. This is evident in the substantial overall reduction in negative incidents. Social workers noted that the improvements are 'measurable'. Children learn to express themselves confidently in positive and appropriate ways. The skills they obtain, for example in expressing their feelings, mean they can contribute appropriately to discussions about their care. It is also evident that children make progress in other areas, including for example their emotional resilience. As a result they are able to enjoy the wide range of opportunities on offer, not just those that would be their first choice. Children benefit from the way in which social diversity is recognised and actively

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Outcomes for children and young people

promoted. Their individual needs are identified and they learn to treat people of different cultures and genders with respect. Discussions about diversity are integrated into daily events and are also reflected in strong and varied role- modelling. Further work is underway to improve children’s experiences in this area. Their links with their own backgrounds, families and friends are maintained, wherever possible. Photographs and other valuable memorabilia ensure they retain clear memories.

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Outcomes for children and young people

School attendance is at a high level for all young people and they each make noticeable progress. They benefit from close liaison between care staff and education professionals and good attention to their individual targets. They are secure in the knowledge that continuity of schooling is a key consideration in the family-finding process. Children also learn about staying healthy and develop good habits in terms of their personal health. There are very few physical health issues. Children’s engagement with the local community is positive and they are encouraged to bring friends home from time to time.

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Quality of care

One professional reflected the views of others by saying, ‘It’s a warm and cohesive environment.’ Staff have excellent understanding of the therapeutic approach and apply it in all aspects of their childcare. This means that their interactions with children are considered and therefore effective. In particular, staff show they understand the emotional causes of children’s behaviour. This is used to benefit children from their first point of contact with staff and continues in the provision of therapeutic care.

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Quality of care

Preparing children for foster care in about six months means that admissions play a central feature in the service. They are always well planned, involve a substantial amount of time, effort and detail and are continually being improved. Children understand why they are at the home and what the future holds. New children are introduced gradually and look forward to their admissions, which are managed extremely effectively. This high level of consultation continues in a wide variety of ways after children have been admitted and includes for example daily recording of their thoughts and feelings. Their views have an impact on the care they receive and also on the running of the house, including house meetings.

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Quality of care

Children recognise that the home provides a high degree of security which they can benefit from. This is reflected in well-organised daily activities and consistent staffing. Children are helped to engage quickly and effectively with the staff team and this is the basis of the good progress they make. They enjoy close relationships with staff and use those relationships to test their understanding of current and previous events. Clear and evaluative placement plans are in place. A wide range of excellent tools show the progress that each child makes, often in helpfully visual formats. The property is well maintained and provides children with a high standard of living. There is easy access to facilities in the town and recreational opportunities on nearby Cannock Chase. All the issues identified at the point of registration have been addressed. However, additional dead-locks have been fitted to the three external

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Quality of care

doors. They increase the risks in the event of an emergency evacuation and are unnecessary and inappropriate in this type of children’s home.

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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

Children feel secure in the home and know that the adults around them provide effective boundaries. This helps them to express themselves and be understood. One professional said, ‘Children feel able to let out the turmoil they feel.’ This can lead to periods of agitation but they are on the decline. Records show a clear pattern of a reduction in the number of incidents involving physical interventions. Occasions when children have gone missing are minimal and have a low impact. There has also been minimal need for police involvement.

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Safeguarding children and young people

Social workers say that the staff maintain a particularly high level of contact with them. Some of this is due to the specialist nature of the service and is in addition to the fact that social workers have direct access to secure computer records about their children. Notifications to other agencies of serious incidents or allegations are for the most part well managed and social workers confirm that staff implement safeguarding procedures well. However, Ofsted has not been routinely notified of any incidents or allegations. While this limits the regulator’s ability to monitor the safety and welfare of children in the home, this oversight has had minimal impact on children.

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Safeguarding children and young people

Behaviour management is applied in a thoughtful and child-centred way. Rewards and sanctions are not used. Discussions occur with children about making the right choices in the light of the possible consequences. This is a strong model that is fully understood and implemented well by staff.

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Safeguarding children and young people

The property is kept in a safe condition and health and safety checks are regularly carried out. Up-to-date risk assessments are also in place for all activities and show the necessary control measures. However, a number of different formats are used and in some cases are completed incorrectly. This raises the possibility of misunderstanding by staff and marginally increases the potential risk to children.

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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 service benefits from clear, effective and innovative leadership. The manager is enthusiastic and knowledgeable about the therapeutic approach and transmits this to his team. He undertakes shifts and at this stage in the home’s development supervises all of the staff. Staff recruitment is coordinated by the home’s manager rather than by the company, which ensures that only those individuals who are particularly suitable for this kind of work are employed. A very high level of continuity of staffing has been achieved by not using staff from outside the home; this is a substantial benefit to children. A review of the Statement of Purpose is underway to ensure it is as accurate as possible.

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Leadership and management

Progress is achieved through strong leadership. The manager is focussed on delivering the highest quality of care possible and has the skills and capacity within his highly motivated team to achieve that. The fact that the organisation is part of a network of therapeutic communities provides an extra layer of quality assurance. Therapists provide additional and specialist supervision for staff and liaise with external therapists about the care of individual children. Social workers unanimously said that they felt ‘entirely positive’ about the service and would definitely use it again.

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Leadership and management

A particularly high level of monitoring is applied by the manager, which is good in most regards and shows imagination. Patterns and trends over a three month period, rather than the usual one month, are summarized and monitored by way of a separate document. However, this means that there are certain gaps in the standard monthly reports which are sent to Ofsted at periodic intervals. Misleadingly for example, the monthly reports that are sent to Ofsted suggest a lack of evaluation of physical interventions and a lack of attention to equality and diversity. That is not the case in practice, but does mean that the documents that are available to Ofsted are not as accurate as they need to be. This shortfall is indicative of the developmental stage which the service is at but has minimal impact on children or the service they receive.

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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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