Children's Home run by Hygge Care Ltd 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 are well matched and receive good quality individualised transitions into the home.

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The children’s home provision is good because:

 Staff and the managers use a highly nurturing and homely approach, where children’s every success is praised and rewarded relevantly.

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The children’s home provision is good because:

 Staff and the managers create a warm, positive atmosphere because they communicate well together, connected by their constant focus on improving children’s outcomes.

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The children’s home provision is good because:

 Children’s emotional and behaviour difficulties are addressed well, through helpful talks and quality time.

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The children’s home provision is good because:

 Children receive practical help and creative support to overcome their fears and to trust adults.

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The children’s home provision is good because:

 Children feel safe and make significant progress towards overcoming past trauma.

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The children’s home provision is good because:

 Staff and the manager receive highly effective training and support from their commissioned psychologist who has also individually assessed each child.

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The children’s home provision is good because:

 The managers and staff have good relationships with placing authorities so that care planning, education, contact and child protection matters are proactively managed.  A few areas of practice require improvement. The manager has not yet created ways to use records and monitoring to best effect. Children’s targets and progress cannot be measured and children are not sure how they get ready for a foster family. Staff development planning and supervision are not clearly recorded, one member of staff does not meet the qualification requirements and a child protection matter was not notified to Ofsted in a timely way.

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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 two years after the date on which the individual started working in a care role in a home. (Regulation 32 (4) and (5)) 10 July 2016

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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). (Regulation 40 (4)(d)) 10 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:  Ensure that children are encouraged by staff to see the home’s records as ‘living documents’, supporting them to view and contribute to the records in a way that reflects their voice on a regular basis. (‘The guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 58, paragraph 11.19)

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Recommendations

 Ensure that the outcomes identified and progress made by children in building relationships and achieving socially acceptable behaviours, can be recorded and measured. (‘The guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 38, paragraph 8.4)

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Recommendations

 Ensure that managers make best use of information from internal monitoring to ensure continuous improvement. They should be skilled in anticipating difficulties and reviewing incidents. They are responsible for proactively implementing lessons learned and sustaining good practice. (‘The guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 55, paragraph 10.24)

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Recommendations

 Ensure that workforce plans are updated to include any new training and qualifications completed by staff while working at the home, and used to record the ongoing training and continuing professional development needs of staff, including the home’s manager. (‘The guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 53, paragraph 10.8)

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Recommendations

 Ensure that a note of the content and/or outcomes of supervision sessions is kept and ensure that both the person giving the supervision and staff member have a copy of the record. (‘The guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 61, paragraph 13.4)

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Information about this children’s home

This is a newly set up children’s home, run by a small limited company. It specialises in preparing children for foster placements. It provides care and accommodation for up to three children at any time.

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Recent inspection history

Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

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Recent inspection history

4 December 2015 Registration Not applicable

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Good

Two children have lived in the home for a number of months. They are well matched with one another and are making good progress. Very committed staff provide them with high quality, creative, nurturing and individualised care. Staff benefit from good quality and regular psychological advice about their care practice from a clinical psychologist who has assessed each child individually. This means that staff have good insights into children’s emotional and psychological health needs and how to help them. Staff plan innovative ways to provide that help. For example, staff help children understand that they too were children once: they brought in photos of themselves at similar ages to the children. Children enjoyed working out who was who and the idea prompted talk about everyone’s experiences and memories of childhood.

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Good

Individual solutions to children’s worries are devised and tried. For example, staff are helping one child make a ‘worries muncher’. Another child is encouraged to use his diary and poetry to vent his worries. A member of staff is putting together individualised ‘happy bags’ for children, containing things that they like to do and things that soothe them. One female and one male staff member are on the rota most days, so that children experience care that resembles the structure of a conventional family. Children experience well thought out care in a good family atmosphere. A social worker said, ‘Staff work extraordinarily hard to ensure maximum outcomes for children.’

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Good

Staff and the managers make very good quality relationships with children. Relationships are based on nurture and a deep understanding of children’s backgrounds and past experiences. Not only do staff listen to children, but they help them move on from their fears and feel secure. For example, staff patiently and consistently help children to overcome fears about being in their bedrooms and going to sleep. Staff continuously review how settling routines, furniture, evening activities, noise and light levels are affecting children’s ability to settle to sleep. Staff read and make up soothing bedtime stories. They are generous with hugs. They involve children sensitively in helping to repair things they have broken. The manager is working closely with one child to help him design and make bedroom furniture that he can feel safe enough to tolerate and not break. Overall, good relationships are enabling children to make significant emotional and

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Good

Children are well supported to participate actively in complex decisions about their lives. They know that they will only be living here for a period of time while they get ready for a foster family. They are sensitively helped to talk about what is difficult and to regain some control over their lives and behaviour. For example, when children want changes to their contact arrangements, staff advocate for them. Staff do this skilfully and insightfully, so that care plans are changed in ways that best help children. An independent reviewing officer said, ‘I will be listening and will be guided by the staff in relation to the plan – I am confident in them.’ As a result, children are reassured that their wishes and feelings are acted upon.

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Good

Staff know how well both children are doing educationally. They are ambitious for them, regardless of the current circumstances. Staff are skilled at weaving learning into everyday living, for example, through shopping, cooking and managing pocket money. They encourage children to develop an interest in gardening and DIY as well as providing help with computer-based and written work. For example, children planted potatoes, beans, chives and peppers and helped to repaint walls and fix damage. They are progressing well with staying on task to finish things and are making strides with using tools for measuring, digging and woodwork. Throughout each shift, staff successfully create a purposeful, yet warm, atmosphere. Children can ‘be themselves’ around staff and are blossoming through the trusting relationships that they enjoy with them.

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Good

Some children are attending school, learning and making good progress. Staff liaise well with school and work hard to ensure that children do not feel different in school because they are ‘looked after’. For example, staff put a stop to daily conversations with a teacher that other children could see. Instead, they talk on the phone or email as necessary. Other children are receiving tutoring in the home and are engaging adequately while special school provision is being sought. Staff maximise learning opportunities and a school hours routine for these children. Staff and the manager are advocating effectively with the virtual school head and social worker to minimise children’s time without a full-time school place.

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Good

Children are developing good social skills and the confidence that they need to manage in a family. They enjoy an active lifestyle and healthy daily routines for meals and personal hygiene. They really enjoy going out as a family group and behave well in shops and cafes. One child is a valued member of the local scout group and the other child takes part in a local children in care project. They also meet other children at the local playground and take part in local community events, like the annual garden scarecrow competition.

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Good

Children are not very involved in reading or adding to their records. Some of the recording tools that staff use combine written and pictorial formats. For example, children’s meetings records, feedback forms and behaviour incident forms are all designed to capture children’s thoughts, feelings and words. However, children rarely write on these and their views do not come across well through them. When children do state their choices or views, staff do not always document how they have acted on them. Children do not have a simple version of their care plan to help them to understand what they have to do in order to be ready for a family. Staff have ideas for ‘social stories’ and child-friendly plans. They know that this adds value to the work they are doing through conversation and activities, but have not yet done this. Overall, the shortfall in using records as ‘living documents’ for children is minor because children are making good progress in all aspects of

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Good

Staff and the manager ensure that staff are with children all the time and that they work with children in a therapeutic way. They do not run the home in a risk-averse way. If children need some private time, staff are still around and nearby, keeping them in mind and offering regular support. A social worker said, ‘My child feels the safest he has ever felt.’ Children say they feel ‘100%’ and ‘96%’ safe here. This represents highly significant progress for them both. Staff identify and quantify risks well and children trust staff to keep them safe.

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Good

Children know that staff minimise and reduce risks without holding back their experiences and progress. For example, staff facilitate and supervise children’s contact visits so that these go ahead in a positive way and children feel safe. Staff go along with children’s choices of key worker and they plan shifts to ensure that key workers are there at the most important times for children. Staff support and teach children to use DIY equipment, gardening tools and cooking implements, helping them learn to do things competently. Children play and learn safely on computers because staff do this alongside them. Staff are also alert to children’s vulnerabilities around people that they do not know well. For example, they make sure that children always know who is in their home and ask all visitors to wear identification.

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Good

Staff respond well to risks that children may go missing or self-harm. These risky behaviours seldom occur despite the previous histories that children came here with. Incidents requiring physical intervention are kept under careful review and are also reducing. This is because staff are available, therapeutic, understanding and vigilant. They work hard to interpret the triggers for children’s ‘muddles’ and create an atmosphere that helps children to talk about things. A social worker said, ‘They talk to children in a therapeutic way and it doesn’t feel like residential care: there are hugs, stories and nice routines.’ As a result, children are able to talk about their past experiences of abuse. They are receiving good help to cope with their feelings without running away, hurting themselves and others, or destroying and damaging things.

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Good

Children experience positive behaviour management. All their behaviour that is good is praised and rewarded. Children get cards, cakes, framed certificates, money to choose games and music, and trips out for a milkshake or lunch. Rewards might be for helping a member of staff with a job around the house, or for not getting involved with another child’s difficult behaviour. Throughout every day, staff make their conversations with children count towards learning right behaviour from wrong. Bullying behaviour between children is rare because of this and children feel good about their progress and successes.

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Good

Staff are safely recruited. They are trained in safeguarding and are clear about child protection procedures, including what to do if a child makes an allegation or discloses abuse. There are prompt and open discussions with social workers, police and the designated officer as appropriate. Staff talk and work openly and supportively together with the manager and the home’s psychologist to ensure that their practice is considered and appropriate to the individual safeguarding needs of each child. As a result, children feel safe and have not made any allegations about staff. It is a minor shortfall, that a delay of four days occurred before Ofsted was notified of the instigation of a child protection enquiry following a child’s historical disclosure.

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Good

This is the home’s first inspection. The registered manager and the operations manager run the home as their own business. They take responsibility for its day- to-day running and have created a therapeutic environment that works well. Children have good relationships with both managers and appear to view them like good grandparents. The home delivers all the aims and objectives set out in its statement of purpose. However, the systems for planning and recording children’s care do not set out clearly what children need to achieve, or enable clear measurement of children’s outcomes. Despite this, staff practise with skill, consistency and insight because the managers support them very effectively.

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Good

The registered manager has many years’ experience in residential care and its management. He is suitably qualified and runs the home with passion and skill. For example, he is skilled in evaluating referrals to ensure good matching of children within the home. He also works enthusiastically with the psychologist to ensure that the whole staff team is well trained in therapeutic approaches. He takes many opportunities to work directly with children and they love spending quality time with him. All this maximises the quality of children’s preparation for living in a family.

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Good

The manager utilises the advice of the home’s monthly visitor well. He is also very well informed about education, health, social work and safeguarding developments within the host local authority. He is highly regarded by the host authority. They have placed both children currently living in the home.

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Good

Staff work well as a team because of their careful selection, induction, training and support. For example, staff give comprehensive and insightful handovers to staff coming on shift because they understand the importance of this. Staff enthusiastically enter into training and support meetings with the psychologist because they want to deliver the best opportunities for progress to each child. The psychologist describes staff as, ‘Motivated, keen, engaged in really rich discussion, and asking for more.’ Staff have undertaken training about sexualised behaviour, transactional analysis, communicating with children and understanding behaviour. This training helps them to deliver consistently good care that leads to good outcomes for children. The fact that one member of staff has not achieved her level 3 diploma within two years of working in residential child care, does not detract from the quality of her work. She has enrolled again since coming to work

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Good

at the home and is expected to finish her course during 2016.

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Good

The manager supervises all staff at present. The psychologist also offers group supervisions about practice and occasional one-to-one sessions. This means that staff feel very well supported. However, no records of supervisions with the manager are being kept. In addition, individual staff development plans are not recorded for staff or the manager. These shortfalls do not detract from the quality of care children receive. Nevertheless, the development and focus of staff and the manager are more likely to slow without these records and plans.

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Good

The manager is enthusiastic and highly motivated. He looks for ways to continuously improve the home and the way things are recorded. He is aware from monitoring that many records do not show clearly enough how staff should practise. For example, risk assessments, behaviour support plans, care plans and incident records do not set out clearly enough how staff should respond in practice and what targets they should be striving to help children achieve. The manager has not yet acted on these findings from monitoring. He has not addressed the absence of children’s engagement and voice in their records. He has not helped all staff develop clearer, time-limited, target-based plans for children’s progress. Nevertheless, children receive good quality care and make good progress in all areas of their lives. A social worker who has known one of the children for a long time said: ‘The care team is one of the strongest I have seen – it is a brilliant place

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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 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, work- based learning and skills training, adult and community learning, and education and training in prisons and other secure establishments. It inspects services for children looked after 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

Interested in our work? You can subscribe to our monthly newsletter for more information and updates: http://eepurl.com/iTrDn .

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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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