Children's home run by Horizon Care Limited in Cannock Chase

inspection

Ofsted received concerns about the home in August 2015 and a monitoring visit was conducted. As a result of this monitoring visit, further requirements were made to address shortfalls. A six-week notice restricting accommodation was also put in place due to concerns over the safety and welfare of young people living in the home.

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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:

 Young people are well settled and are in good daily routines.  Young people help one another to feel welcome when they are new.  A stable staff team that young people get on well with is now established.  The manager makes good matching decisions to ensure that each young person’s needs are met.  Young people are no longer going missing and they are mostly able to manage their emotional difficulties without unsafe incidents happening.  Staff enable young people to continue with activities and hobbies at clubs and venues that they are already familiar with.  Staff and the manager take a balanced, ‘can do’ approach to potential risk, so that young people can safely do the things that they choose whenever possible.  Staff and the manager are proactive about helping young people to have positive contact with family and friends.  The manager works effectively with social workers, youth offending teams,

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The children's home provision is good because:

police and education professionals to help young people to make progress in all areas.  The manager and staff do not always plan clearly, or act quickly and skilfully enough, to ensure that young people’s needs are all met to best effect. This includes enhancing learning, the development of care planning, strengthening the quality assurance process, and ensuring all notifications are sent into Ofsted.

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Statutory requirements

This section sets out the actions that must be taken so that the registered persons meet 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 persons must comply within the given timescales.

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must notify HMCI and each other relevant person without delay if a child protection enquiry involving a child is instigated or concludes (in which case, the notification must include the outcome of the child protection enquiry) or if there is an allegation of abuse against the home or a person working there (Regulation 40(4)(c)(d)). 27 June 2016

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Recommendations

To improve the quality and standards of care further, the service should take account of the following recommendations:  Ensure that the necessary support is given to children to enable them to access their education or training ('Guide to the children's homes regulations including the quality standards', page 28, paragraph 5.13).  Ensure that staff encourage children to see the home's records as living documents supporting them to view and contribute to the records in a way that reflects their voices on a regular basis ('Guide to the children's homes regulations including the quality standards', page 58, paragraph 11.19).  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

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Recommendations

significant life events ('Guide to the children's homes regulations including the quality standards', page 62, paragraph 14.5).  Ensure that staff understand factors that affect children's motivation to behave in a socially acceptable way. Staff should encourage an enthusiasm for positive behaviour through the use of positive behaviour strategies in line with the child's relevant plans. This is with particular respect to improving the skill and speed with which advice and adapted strategies are shared and used ('Guide to the children's homes regulations including the quality standards', page 39, paragraph 8.13).  Ensure that the registered person uses their professional judgement to decide on which factors to focus their care quality reviews. The review should enable the registered person to identify areas of strength and possible weakness in the home's care, which will be captured in the written report. The report should

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Recommendations

clearly identify any actions required for the next six months of delivery within the home and how those actions will be addressed. The whole review process and the resulting report should be used as tools for continuous improvement in the home ('Guide to the children's homes regulations including the quality standards', page 65, paragraph 15.4).

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Information about this children's home

The home provides care and accommodation for up to three children or young people with emotional and/or behavioural difficulties. The home is privately owned and operated and forms part of a larger organisation.

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Recent inspection history

Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

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Recent inspection history

10 November 2015 Interim Sustained effectiveness

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Good

Young people placed here since the last inspection are making progress in all areas. They like the house and its location. They visited the home before choosing to come here. They get on together and they respond to staff. One young person has drawn portraits of all the staff and displays them in the entrance to the home. Her social worker said, ‘She has come on leaps and bounds as the placement is right for her.’ Young people receive good-quality individualised care because a stable staff team is now established. A core group of staff has worked together for over six months. The staff are committed to each young person and understands each young person’s needs. A social worker said, ‘The staff team are consistently proactive and supportive in meeting the objectives of the care plan. I am impressed with the level of progress and interaction my young person has demonstrated. This is undoubtedly due to the relationships the staff have with her and their commitment

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Good

to making this a positive experience.’ Staff successfully ensure that young people are well settled and are in good daily routines. They meet young people’s individual needs, but also encourage and help them to consider one another. For example, young people make new residents and staff feel welcome by choosing various items for their rooms and writing them welcome messages. As a result, young people are learning to think of others and are developing healthy friendships and relationships with peers and with staff. Staff work hard to enable young people to continue with activities and hobbies at clubs and venues that they are already familiar with. They facilitate travel back to areas where young people have established friends and family contacts. Staff help young people to make the most of these times and ensure that the experience is enjoyable and positive. For example, young people regularly go to visit friends on a

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Good

farm and help with the work that they do there. Young people also continue with hobbies, such as sailing, trampolining and free running. Young people enjoy regular and more enjoyable time with their relatives because staff help them to plan it and make the best of it. These arrangements benefit young people’s confidence and their social, emotional and physical health. Young people feel that the home is a safe and organised place that they come back to. Staff successfully create a purposeful and active lifestyle at the home. They encourage young people with their interests in art, cooking, gardening and the outdoors. Staff organise walks in local countryside and are planning camping activities with young people. Staff focus well on helping young people with the long-standing difficulties that they experience with coping at school. Staff provide direct educational support in- house each day. They proactively address barriers that exist to securing young

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Good

people school places and suitable alternative education provision. Staff have skills in computer technology, maths and English, and in outdoor pursuits, like climbing. They provide young people with past exam papers to test themselves with. Overall, young people engage reasonably well in education with staff. However, staff are less successful at enabling young people to overcome their fears about starting afresh in a new school or provision. Staff support has not yet made enough difference to young people’s confidence. Young people sometimes refuse to engage in visits to schools or to go to introductory meetings with headteachers and education providers. This means that young people are still not receiving all their statutory education hours with registered provisions. One young person said that staff help her by ‘answering questions that I want answering’. Staff listen to young people well and they explain things sensitively and

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Good

helpfully. However, staff and the manager are missing opportunities to use their records to best effect. This potentially holds back the consistency and creativity of their help to young people. For example, staff do not give young people useful written summaries of their relevant plans or discussions. This makes it more difficult for young people to remember and internalise what they have agreed and learnt. Equally, young people’s responses and views about the help that they are receiving are rarely recorded. This makes it harder for young people to see what progress they have actually made and what they now think, feel and know. It also makes it more difficult for staff to see what practice styles work best for each young person and what help young people need next. As a result, staff are insufficiently coordinated and proactive about the individual targets that they are helping young people to achieve every day.

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Good

Staff are not prioritising their important role in encouraging each young person to reflect on and understand their history. They do not talk to young people enough about what has happened to them and what living here can do to help them progress. Positive experiences that young people and staff have shared are not captured and celebrated in an organised way. This is a missed opportunity to record the positive impact that living here is making on young people’s lives.

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Good

Young people receive good support and care that helps them to become increasingly safe. Staff take care to supervise and occupy young people in all aspects of daily life. Staff have forged good relationships with young people and they clearly show young people how much they care. This means that young people are happy to be here. They do not keep going missing as they did in previous placements. If young people do go missing, staff are quick to follow and work hard to encourage young people to return. Staff use an independent local provider to conduct return home interviews. Staff liaise effectively with the interviewers to make sure that all relevant information is shared. A police officer said, ‘Staff manage missing behaviour well, and young people are much more settled than previously.’ Staff and the manager take a balanced, ‘can do’ approach to potential risk, so that young people can safely do the things that they choose whenever possible. For

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Good

example, young people who want to develop skills in tattooing are able to use their equipment under adult supervision and on suitable non-living materials. The equipment is locked away and inaccessible at all other times. Staff and young people discussed and assessed the risks together before going ahead with this, and they took advice from the placing authority. Similarly, young people’s use of sharp knives and their possession of lighters, medication and phones are accurately and sensibly risk assessed in the light of what is known about their current and past behaviour. This means that young people feel that the home is fair. They know that staff respect their privacy and support their participation in normal activities whenever it is reasonable and safe to do so. Staff and the manager are good at managing incidents. They create an atmosphere where young people feel safe, secure and entrusted with some

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Good

appropriate responsibility. This keeps the incidence of self-harm and aggressive behaviour to a minimum. Staff use the advice and strategies suggested by partners, including social workers, youth offending workers, police and the organisation’s clinician. Staff and the manager also work hard at analysing young people’s behaviour, particularly incidents of aggression. They are sensitive to the differing ways young people use to regain their control and composure. For example, staff are aware that some young people need time on their own to calm, while others enjoy the soothing feel of a hot bubble bath or a hot drink, made by staff. As a result, young people’s difficulties with aggression and violence are reducing. A youth offending professional said, ‘The home is really good. My young person was on a course towards custody, but now her behaviour is nothing like it was at the previous placement.’ The police talk to young people about the harmful aspects of drug and alcohol

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Good

misuse and about the impact of anti-social and aggressive behaviour. The fire service also visits to help to teach young people about fire safety indoors and outdoors, in particular, about the dangers of misusing lighters. However, staff do not routinely review their own practice. They do not spend enough time looking for ways to improve their practice style and skills, so that they do not annoy young people or inflame situations. Each young person has varying behaviour difficulties. Their care plans say that these need to be overcome if young people are to have a successful future. However, staff and managers do not focus enough on addressing these behaviour difficulties throughout their daily practice. Staff’s key-work sessions and daily conversations do not cover the essential areas in which young people most need to progress. Staff and the manager do not incorporate all the advice that they receive

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Good

and the insights that they have into clearly targeted, creative work and an agenda that all staff know and use. Young people, therefore, make good progress with their behaviour, but not outstanding progress. Staff and the manager have a good understanding of child protection procedures. They act on all allegations and whistle blowing. They refer them to the local safeguarding children services. If young people make allegations about staff, careful assessment of the likely risks is made in conjunction with the local authority designated officer, in order to decide how best to ensure young people’s safety during any investigation. Careful consideration is also usually given to the practice and behaviour of staff during incidents that give rise to allegations. However, in one instance, Ofsted was not notified of the allegation. Learning from the incident debrief did not lead to practice changes or improved behaviour management

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Good

planning, with respect to room searches and young people handing in lighters.

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Good

The registered manager has a level 5 diploma in leadership and management of residential care. She has worked in three homes. She enjoys working for this organisation and feels well supported.

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Good

The registered manager prioritises the needs of young people and has successfully overcome the issues with staffing and poor matching that caused the home’s serious difficulties during 2015. She said, ‘Where we are now, compared to where we were, is a massive change, and we have worked really hard. It has been upsetting at times, but we feel a sense of achievement. The young people are on a journey and are progressing, and the staff can have a conversation with them as appropriate adults.’

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Good

The manager is skilled and accessible to staff and young people alike. She focuses well on recruiting staff that offer the right mix of skills, personality and gender for the young people here. The manager involves young people in the interview process and listens closely to their feedback about potential new staff. She continues to upskill and support staff well, creating good morale and laying good foundations for staff retention and succession. All staff are either qualified or are undertaking required training within the timescales required in children’s homes regulations. The local police officer said, ‘I think the home has gone up and up. There seems to be a good core of regular staff now.’

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Good

Young people find the manager approachable and engaging. She explains things to them and takes their concerns seriously. She has a good understanding of each young person’s plan and knows where the strengths and weaknesses of the staff team lie. She coordinates meetings, supervision and handovers and keeps a strong overview of what needs doing to meet young people’s needs. She is aware that she needs to address young people’s difficulties with less delay and with more creative, responsive and targeted care. For example, she usually replies to young people in writing, answering the questions that they ask in their young people’s meeting. She acknowledges that this has slipped in the last few weeks and therefore no action or decisions have been made about young people’s request to go camping. Similarly, the manager has received detailed clinical advice about care strategies for young people, but has not implemented these into young people’s

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Good

behaviour management plans. She knows that staff need to review trends and patterns in behaviour incidents more effectively, but she has not yet introduced her new tool for this or designed it to include a critique of the impact of staff practice. Nevertheless, young people feel listened to and are making good progress.

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Good

The manager knows and understands the strengths and weaknesses of the home. She has secured good support and help from senior managers and the organisation to meet the requirements and recommendations made at the last inspection. The home’s conditions of registration have been changed to reflect that there will be fewer young people living here. These changes ensure that the home provides good care that is in line with its statement of purpose. In particular, the manager is making well-thought-out impact risk assessments for new placements, which are based on detailed information that she seeks out. She is preparing staff and young people well for admissions and providing well-planned care from the start. She advocates well for young people and communicates well with relatives and former carers, social workers, youth offending workers, police, the virtual school headteacher and education providers. This is much improved practice that

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Good

The manager is confident that the home has improved significantly and that previous shortfalls are overcome. Stakeholder feedback confirms this. However, the manager’s reviews of the quality of care have few clear messages from young people to draw on. In addition, the reviews contain too little emphasis, scrutiny or analysis of recent difficulties or the contribution of staff. There is, therefore, little gain from the time spent on conducting the reviews. Nevertheless, the manager keeps up to date with residential social care issues. For example, she is sourcing information and guidance for herself and staff about deprivation of liberty, self- harm and better key working. These are relevant areas for staff to improve their understanding and practice in order to benefit young people.

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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 children looked after 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 that 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 whom 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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