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

Outstanding

The children's home provides highly effective services that consistently exceeds the standards of good. The actions of the home contribute to significantly improved outcomes for children and young people who need help, protection and care.

p.2

The children's home provision is outstanding because:

 The home has an exceptional manager who provides a high level of stimulating support to children and staff. It is important to her that the service continues to improve. The qualities she brings have been recognised at a national level.  Staff are enthusiastic about the children and are keen to help them succeed. This has been sustained over several years.  Children do remarkably well. They like the staff and respond positively to their guidance. Negative incidents are relatively few and children are safe. There is lots of fun.  The service is exceptionally well organised. There is close attention to detail and high standards are sustained in care of children and also in the administration of the service. Opportunities are readily taken to make improvements.  The standard of networking and collaboration with other professionals is unusually high. This stimulates the achievement of higher standards and

p.3

The children's home provision is outstanding because:

contributes to high levels of safeguarding.  People who know the service well say it is excellent.

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Information about this children's home

This service is part of a large organisation. It provides care and accommodation for up to five children. Children are likely to be at the younger end of the age range. The property is in a rural location.

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Recent inspection history

Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

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Recent inspection history

26/03/2015 CH - Interim Sustained effectiveness

p.4

outstanding

Children benefit from an extraordinarily effective service. An excellent standard of care continues to be given, which helps children achieve. Children flourish because the staff care deeply about them.

p.5

outstanding

Potential admissions are carefully assessed for compatibility with the existing group. The concerns of existing children are taken into account when a vacancy arises. These concerns are given appropriate weighting and influence the decisions. Discussions occur to allay any fears. As a result, the matching process is highly effective. This gives both new children and the whole group the best chance of success. In addition, it means that the home is almost always fully occupied and placement disruptions are very rare.

p.5

outstanding

Members of the staff team are highly enthusiastic about the children. A social worker commented: ‘My child is always excited to see staff and vice versa.’ The staff display a particularly high level of positive regard for every child, which is the basis of their excellent relationships. Children are emotionally sustained whether they succeed or have a setback. As a result, they feel secure and develop the resilience to progress. One child said, ‘The staff are really kind here; it’s probably the best home I’ve been to.’ Children who have previously experienced severe disruptions benefit substantially from a high level of stability in an extremely nurturing environment. Ex-residents who keep in touch with staff reflect the success of this approach. As part of the development programme, the manager is devising new ways of accumulating more information from ex-residents. One reviewing officer said, ‘The therapeutic element of the placement is helping my

p.5

outstanding

child to understand his triggers and responses. His progress has been immense since being in this home.’

p.5

outstanding

Children enjoy a large, comfortable house in a rural setting that addresses the needs of this younger age group well. There is generous space for each person and many play and recreational facilities are available on site. For example, football and trampolining occur in the garden. There is a pool table, drum kit and piano indoors. Children recently improved the garden by setting-up feeding stations for wild birds and creating mini-allotments in old tractor tyres. Imaginative work like this means they have fun and learn while making a valuable contribution to their environment. They also contribute ideas to the vast range of activities that occur off site. A member of staff reported, ‘As a staff team we give our children as many life chances and positive experiences as possible.’ The outcome of this was described by one social worker as follows: ‘The home provides an excellent place for children to develop and gives them lots of fond memories.’ Children gain

p.5

outstanding

sufficient confidence to develop and sustain new friendship groups in local clubs. When they leave, children take with them bound books with photographs and comments about events, as well as a bound copy of their monthly reports. This gives them an exceptionally clear understanding about how decisions were reached and what happened during their stays.

p.6

outstanding

Children have a clear grasp of their daily routines. These programmes are followed carefully and form the basis of children’s progress. New children progress quickly with their self-care and monetary skills. The routines include sociable mealtimes during which there are clear expectations of children’s behaviour. Mealtimes are also fun. Children learn to try new and exotic foods, such as kangaroo meat, and conversations occur about the geographical source of ingredients. Children receive positive messages from staff about social diversity via conversations and role- modelling. All the children consume a healthy diet with regular vegetables and salads. They all enjoy sports and some are particularly successful and have recently gained awards. On return from school, everyone participates in homework and a communal review of their day. This helps them reflect on their activities and responsibilities. Children learn to articulate their feelings and devise strategies to

p.6

outstanding

deal with difficulties. This improves their self-confidence and social skills substantially.

p.6

outstanding

Attendance rates at school are extremely high. School attendance and performance are top priorities. Staff have a very clear understanding of how well each child is doing and any obstacles to progress are tackled promptly. Close liaison occurs with other professionals, such as the headteachers of the placing authorities virtual schools. This has resulted in the home providing direct support to avoid exclusions and arranging meetings with teaching staff to devise imaginative new strategies. Such promotion sustains educational placements and promotes academic success.

p.6

outstanding

The children use the complaints procedure whenever they want. They know that their views are important and make a difference. As a result they learn to contribute meaningfully to meetings they would previously have avoided. Additional support is provided by an advocate who visits the home routinely. This investment contributes to children understanding the importance of their views and contributions. They support each other, take an interest in national campaigns, and support local fund-raising activities. Because of such initiatives, their horizons and expectations are raised significantly. This culminates in children routinely and successfully progressing enough to move into foster care. Judgement grade

p.6

outstanding

The informed use of a good range of measures provides children and staff with an extremely safe environment. Because staff understand the processes well and set a high standard, any shortfalls that occur in the systems or in children’s understanding are addressed promptly. As a result, health and safety standards are high and children know how to keep themselves safe. One child learnt to swim recently so is much safer around water.

p.7

outstanding

Personal risks are minimised well. For example, self-harming behaviours quickly cease after admission because of the close engagement between staff and children. Other types of dangerous behaviour are relatively rare. Children occasionally leave school unsupervised because of pressures from their peers. However, such incidents are few. Children are thoroughly educated about the risks during sensitive de-briefs afterwards by staff and social workers.

p.7

outstanding

The manager ensures that team members are up-to-date with relevant training. This includes subjects such as child sexual exploitation and radicalisation. This promotes the awareness of staff. Positive links are sustained with other professionals, such as the police. Officers consider that the staff provide a high standard of communication with them and contribute well to new initiatives, including those for children who go missing. For example, this has improved the standard of safeguarding by increasing the communication with other children’s homes in the area.

p.7

outstanding

Children contribute to their own behaviour management plans. Consequently, they have a very clear understanding of the expectations and boundaries. They discuss their targets regularly with staff and they are applied consistently. Children’s substantial progress is encouraged by a clear system of rewards. This successfully encourages them to behave well and drives down the number of negative incidents. Patterns of incidents are analysed carefully so that staff obtain an impressively clear understanding of each child’s triggers. This allows them to plan strategies accurately. Consequently, the number of physical interventions is successfully kept low. On the other hand, there is plenty of nurturing physical contact between staff and children. Children learn to seek the latter as part of their fruitful relationships with staff. For most of them this is further evidence of critical emotional progress. Judgement grade

p.7

outstanding

The service benefits from excellent leadership. The manager has been in post since 2004. She is suitably qualified and her service has been judged as outstanding by Ofsted for the last four years. This is an unusually high standard. Her remarkable achievements were recognised earlier this year when she won the award for the best registered manager of a children’s home in a national competition. One social worker said, ‘The manager runs the home with a fantastic mix of approachability, empathy, fun and no nonsense.’ Staff members are inspired to provide a similar standard of care and are equally willing to hear about ways to improve the service further.

p.8

outstanding

Each shift is particularly well organised. Events are carefully planned to address each child’s needs in detail and then reviewed afterwards; lessons are learnt whenever possible. This attention to detail means that exemplary standards are consistently achieved at every level. It is to the credit of the team that a high quality service is maintained despite minor turnover in staff. All staff are carefully vetted and inducted into the home, and changes in adults are kept to a minimum.

p.8

outstanding

The manager has a broad range of ways of monitoring the service, which alert her to patterns, trends and gaps. This serves to ensure the service remains focussed on the needs of this young client group. Incremental improvements are ongoing. For example, the methods of obtaining feedback have been changed to make them more useful. The resulting comments are almost entirely highly positive. New ideas are obtained from on-line resources and websites so the service is as up-to-date as possible. Changes have been made to documentation recently because of new regulations.

p.8

outstanding

The manager develops the practical skills of team members systematically so they are as effective as possible. This takes into account the views of children, which are also used when appraising staff. Staff are tested and challenged, when necessary, and have only good things to say about the management team. This consensus was reflected by one member of staff who said, ‘We get very good supervisions, with lots of support and guidance.’ The staff are just as enthusiastic as the manager about the children, including those who have left. Staff encourage children to be playful and also curious enough to find things out independently. This contributes to the positive and welcoming atmosphere in the home. Their knowledge is supplemented by a high quality training programme that is respected by the external professionals who assess the competencies of staff.

p.8

outstanding

The planning for each child’s day-to-day care is as systematic as other parts of the service. It exceeds the expectations of placing social workers. Focussed discussions with each child sometimes occur several times a day and are a vital factor in their progress. As part of the development of the service, the manager is ambitiously seeking to make further improvements. A particular aim is to refine the ways in which children’s progress is recorded. This is linked to the work that is underway with clinical and teaching colleagues to improve the coordination of attention to children’s individual targets.

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What the inspection judgements mean

The experiences and progress of children and young people are at the centre of the inspection. Inspectors will use their professional judgement to determine the weight and significance of their findings in this respect. The judgements included in the report are made against Inspection of children's homes: framework for inspection.

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What the inspection judgements mean

An outstanding children's home provides highly effective services that contribute to significantly improved outcomes for children and young people who need help and protection and care. Their progress exceeds expectations and is sustained over time. A good children's home provides effective services that help, protect and care for children and young people and have their welfare safeguarded and promoted. In a children's home that requires improvement , there are no widespread or serious failures that create or leave children being harmed or at risk of harm. The welfare of looked after children is safeguarded and promoted. Minimum requirements are in place, however, the children's home is not yet delivering good protection, help and care for children and young people. A children's home that is inadequate is providing services where there are widespread or serious failures that create or leave children and young people being

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What the inspection judgements mean

harmed or at risk of harm or result in children looked after not having their welfare safeguarded and promoted.

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Information about this inspection

Inspectors have looked closely at the experiences and progress of children and young people living in the children's home. Inspectors considered the quality of work and the difference adults make to the lives of children and young people. They read case files, watched how professional staff work with children, young people and each other and discussed the effectiveness of help and care given to children and young people. Wherever possible, they talked to children, young people and their families. In addition the inspectors have tried to understand what the children's home knows about how well it is performing, how well it is doing and what difference it is making for the children and young people who it is trying to help, protect and look after. This 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 Children's

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Information about this inspection

Homes (England) Regulations 2015 and the Guide to the children's homes regulations including the quality standards. the guidance raising concerns and making complaints about Ofsted, which is available from Ofsted's website: www.gov.uk/government/organisations/ofsted . If you would like Ofsted to send you a copy of the guidance, please telephone 0300123 4234, or email enquiries@ofsted.gov.uk .

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Information about this inspection

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, workbased learning and skills training, adult and community learning, and education and training in prisons and other secure establishments. It inspects services for looked after children and child protection. If you would like a copy of this document in a different format, such as large print or Braille, please telephone 0300 123 4234, or email enquiries@ofsted.gov.uk . You may reuse this information (not including logos) free of charge in any format or medium, under the terms of the Open Government Licence. To view this licence, visit www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/doc/open-government-licence , write to the Information Policy Team,

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Information about this inspection

The National Archives, Kew, London TW9 4DU, or email: psi@nationalarchives.gsi.gov.uk .

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Information about this inspection

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Information about this inspection

Store Street Manchester M1 2WD T: 0300 123 1231 Textphone: 0161 618 8524 E: enquiries@ofsted.gov.uk W: www.gov.uk/government/organisations/ofsted

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