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

Good

The children's home provides effective services that meet the requirements for good.

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The children's home provision is good because:

 Children like living here in a busy, happy, clean and well-maintained home.  Staff and the manager work tirelessly with relevant professionals to resolve children’s difficulties with education and schooling.  Children have secure attachments to the manager and many staff.  Children’s moves into the home are well managed so that children settle and progress quickly.  Children are safe because staff are alert and vigilant.  The registered manager provides an excellent example of a warm, nurturing leader and is trusted by all the children.  Staff are very committed to children. They give their whole-hearted attention to them and can interpret the reasons why, at certain times, their emotional and behavioural difficulties boil over.  Children enjoy a wide variety of activities that develop interests that they already have and give them good opportunities to make friends.  Children feel confident to speak up to staff about their worries and

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The children's home provision is good because:

concerns.  There are a few areas that require improvement. The manager and staff do not make best use of written plans and records. Not all staff achieve a suitable qualification in the required time. Children have restrictions imposed on accessing some parts of their home. Not enough is done to help children to collect and celebrate their memories. Consultation is underdeveloped in the manager’s quality of care review.

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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 (England) Regulations 2015 and the ‘Guide to the children's homes regulations including the quality standards’. The registered person(s) must comply with the given timescales.

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Requirement Due date

Staff must have the appropriate qualification for the work that they perform by the date which falls 2 years after the date on which the individual started working in a care role in a home (Regulation 32 (4) and (5)). 13 July 2016

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Recommendations

To improve the quality and standards of care further, the service should take account of the following recommendations:

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Recommendations

 Ensure that staff understand their important role in encouraging the child to reflect on and understand their history, according to their age and understanding. Staff should keep and encourage children to keep appropriate memorabilia of the time spent living at the home and help them record significant life events ('Guide to the children's homes regulations including the quality standards', page 62, paragraph 14.5).  Ensure that staff understand and meet expectations about building a positive relationship with each child and helping the child develop skills to have positive relationships with others. 'Others' includes individuals both inside and outside the home such as other children in the home, staff, family members, siblings, previous carers and friends (in accordance with their relevant plans) ('Guide to the children's homes regulations including the quality standards', page 38, paragraph 8.6).

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Recommendations

 Ensure that children are encouraged by staff to see the home's records as 'living documents' supporting them to view, and contribute to, the record in a way that reflects their voice on a regular basis ('Guide to the children's homes regulations including the quality standards', page 58, paragraph 11.19).  Ensure that the registered person undertakes reviews that focus on the quality of the care provided by the home, the experiences of children living there and the impact that the care is having on outcomes and improvements for the children ('Guide to the children's homes regulations including the quality standards', page 64, paragraph 15.2).  Ensure that the registered person oversees the welfare of the children in their care through observation and engagement with each child, the home's staff, each child's family/carers where appropriate and professionals involved in the care or protection of each child, including their social worker, independent

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Recommendations

reviewing officer, teachers, clinicians and other health professionals. This is with particular reference to using the messages from these engagements and consultations to inform the review of the quality of care and plan improvements ('Guide to the children's homes regulations including the quality standards', page 54, paragraph 10.23).  Ensure that just as in a family home, children should be able to access all shared areas of their home unless there are specific reasons why this would not meet a child's needs. Any decisions to limit a child's access to any area of the home and any modifications to the environment of the home, must only be made where this is intended to safeguard the child's welfare. All decisions should be informed by a rigorous assessment of that individual child's needs, be properly recorded and be kept under regular review ('Guide to the children's homes regulations including the quality standards', page 15, paragraph 3.10).

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Information about this children's home

The home is registered to provide care for three children with emotional and/or behavioural difficulties. The home prepares children for placement in foster homes. The home forms part of a large social care company.

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Recent inspection history

Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

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Recent inspection history

2 February 2016 Interim Declined in effectiveness

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Recent inspection history

18 September 2014 Interim Improved effectiveness

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Good

Children receive good-quality individualised care. It makes a positive difference to their experiences and their social and emotional well-being. Children like being here and enjoy spending time with staff. Staff create a warm and busy atmosphere. They actively listen to children and help them learn to live with others. Staff include children and nurture their confidence. They teach them to cook and encourage them to express themselves through play, dance and games. Staff and children eat healthy meals together and talk about relevant topics, such as getting on with one another and what they have been learning. Children get special individual time with staff, for example, a trip to the cinema or swimming. They have individual time with staff who help them with their contact visits to family members. One child recently wrote, ‘Thank you for taking me to the cinema and helping my friendships with others in the house carry on. You are all doing a

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Good

good job.’ Children receive good help to overcome significant issues with their education. Staff give children daily help with their reading and provide a school day routine and tutoring for children not currently in school. They talk to children and help them to overcome their fears and difficulties with managing in education, including when things have gone wrong and an education placement is no longer right for them. Staff and the manager use their relationships with social workers, the virtual school head and special educational needs coordinators effectively. This ensures that the right provision is identified with minimum delay for each child. Children are welcomed into the house well and soon feel a part of things. Staff do well at balancing children’s individual needs with necessary routines of the home. For example, they ensure that children have an appropriate bedtime that they are used to. One child is happy that he can have the same room that his older brother

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Good

once had. Social workers and staff plan transitions into the home together and with care. For example, social workers are welcome to spend time with children. This helps children to settle in quickly. A social worker said, ‘They settled him very well and helped him understand boundaries.’ Children’s views are understood well by staff because staff make themselves available to them and are alert to their concerns. A consistent staff team means that staff and children know one another well and have developed good attachments. Staff regularly sit down with children individually to talk about things. There is an agenda in a child-friendly format for a weekly individual meeting. Any comments, concerns and complaints children make are recorded and passed to the manager who responds to them in writing. This adds to children’s feelings of security and belonging here. A social worker said that over one year ‘staff have

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Good

made the world of difference to my child’. Staff miss some opportunities to maximise children’s progress and experiences. They are good at analysing the reasons for children’s difficulties with relationships, but they do not do enough to help children understand what to do to improve these relationships. Staff do not talk to children enough about how to make and continue healthy friendships with peers and relatives. They are not proactive enough about helping children to collect and celebrate memories of their time here. Staff do not give children any records or notes about the things that they have talked about or the things that are planned. This means that children have nothing to refer to for reminding themselves about what they have decided, agreed or planned to do.

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Good

Staff and the manager identify, understand and manage children’s risks well overall. They make sure that they have good information about the emotional and behavioural difficulties that children have before they move into the home. They are careful about matching children to fit with the group who already live here. A child who had not experienced a children’s home before said, ‘You can do a lot more in foster care but I understand why they have more rules here, they are there to keep you safe.’ However, staff cannot explain why it is safer for the downstairs bathroom to be locked and available only to adults. There has been a consistent staff team over the last three months. They know children well enough to ensure that they experience good individualised help and protection. Staff allow children to take reasonable risks according to their age and stage of development. For example, children have recently walked to school on

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Good

their own and are able to behave well while on their own at community clubs and activities, such as guides, karate and table tennis club. Teenagers are allowed time in the community with peers and are expected to keep in touch by phone and be at the arranged meeting place to come home at an agreed time. Occasional serious incidents have happened since the last inspection, but staff and managers have responded well. For example, they acted quickly when young people went missing from free time or came home under the influence of drugs. There is always close and effective dialogue and planning with social workers. If proximity to increasing risks is the agreed issue, children move on a planned basis within the organisation to another home that is safe for them. Similarly, staff and social workers immediately respond and address isolated incidents between children within the home. One social worker said, ‘I was impressed with the way it

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Good

(the incident) was managed. I came round and spent time, and my child still felt safe and protected.’ Staff plan how they are going to help minimise children’s risky behaviour and set this out in behaviour management plans that are updated with information about any behaviour incidents that occur. They make sure that they have enough staff to provide one adult to each child. They keep children separate or supervise them closely when there are tensions between them. They use de-escalation techniques such as distraction and humour to help the tension between children to diffuse. These practices ensure that children feel safe and bullying is addressed. However, staff do not take every opportunity to teach children the skills that they need to develop and sustain good, safe relationships with friends. Documented strategies aimed at minimising risks are not recorded in sufficient detail, or regularly amended in the light of what works well or less well. This makes it hard for all staff

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Good

to know exactly what they should be saying and doing to best help each child with their individual difficulties. Nevertheless, the staff’s help and protection mean that children’s regulation of emotions and being able to talk about any troubles or thoughts have all improved.

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Good

The new manager has been in post for nine months. She enjoys the confidence of staff and children alike because she is well organised, warm and nurturing. She has many years of experience in the organisation and is within timescales to complete her leadership and management level 5 diploma within three years. Social workers and education professionals find her proactive and engaging. The manager successfully prioritises the needs of children in her management of the home. For example, she gives time to helping children visit and engage with appropriate new education venues. She prioritises placement planning and ensures that being here is meeting children’s needs. She makes time for listening and being with children, for example, helping them play their chosen music for a dance performance or taking them swimming. She leads by example at the meal table and around the house, communicating high expectations of staff and children. She

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Good

ensures that the staff team are well supervised and know each child’s current needs well. Since the last inspection, staffing issues have been resolved because there is now a nurturing, stable staff team providing children with good experiences. One experienced member of staff who has worked a number of years in the organisation has not yet completed the required level 3 diploma. All other staff are within regulatory timescales for achieving their qualifications. Issues with keeping well-organised children’s and central records are resolved since the last inspection. The manager has reorganised all files and ensured that staff understand where things are kept. The manager has also improved her understanding of notifiable events and keeps up to date with ensuring that all incidents are properly reviewed, debriefed and lessons learned. These improvements underpin safe practice that adapts to children’s different needs.

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Good

The manager is more confident and competent in the manager role now. She has completed a full six month review of the quality of care. She is committed to finding a way of making children’s records more available and useful to them day- by-day. However, she is not yet collating messages from consultation with children, families and professionals in a way that usefully informs her reviews of care. In addition, she is not focusing enough on evaluating the strengths and weaknesses of staff practice with children. This means that she is spending a long time auditing records to produce a report that gives her few clear messages for improving staff practice and children’s outcomes.

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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 that 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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