Children's home run by Hillcrest Children’s Services Ltd in Havant

Inadequate

There are serious and widespread failures that mean children and young people are not protected and their welfare is not promoted or safeguarded.

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The children's home provision is inadequate because:

 The registered manager does not effectively manage the home in such a way as to ensure that young people are safe and appropriately protected.  The registered manager has failed to take effective safeguarding action to protect young people from some staff members. Consequently, staff have harmed young people by engaging them in inappropriate interactions.  The registered manager has failed to consider the possibility that adults in positions of trust can be sexually harmful in their behaviours.  Some staff create a culture of collusion and secrecy that enables the exploitation of some young people. This culture has gone unrecognised and unchallenged by the registered manager. The registered manager does not fully investigate or assess the impact on young people of the abuse that they have suffered because of staff behaviour.  There has been a failure by the registered manager to promote safe relationships between young people and staff.

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The children's home provision is inadequate because:

 The registered manager has failed to ensure that staff have sufficient skills and training to keep young people safe.  Staff do not consistently adhere to safeguarding procedures.  The registered manager has not worked effectively with other agencies to ensure that they identify and meet the needs of young people.  The registered manager has failed to recognise that young people continue to be at risk due to her not comprehensively and effectively addressing the issues.  The registered manager has failed to notify HMCI of a serious incident regarding a young person in their care.  Previous outstanding practice has significantly declined. Managers and staff no longer understand and practice in a way that appropriately reflects the importance of safeguarding and the need for vigilance and transparency in their everyday care of vulnerable young people.

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The children's home strengths

 Most young people say that they are happy here and are making progress in their social and emotional development and independence skills.  Young people’s attendance at school is over 95% and many are undertaking exams, which will support their future aspirations.  Young people enjoy a comfortable environment where they can personalise their rooms. The homes are welcoming and young people benefit from the large grounds and spending time with a range of animals, which the home owns. This supports their emotional and physical well-being.  Many young people enjoy warm and trusting relationships with staff, who listen to and take into account their views, wishes and feelings.  Staff supervision and record keeping are up to date.  Childcare professionals and parents praise the achievements of the home and express satisfaction with the care that the young people receive.

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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 within the given timescales.

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Requirement Due date

5: Engaging with the wider system to ensure children's needs are met: In order to meet the engaging with the wider system to ensure children's needs are met standard the registered person must ensure that— (c) if the registered person considers, or staff consider, a placing authority's or a relevant person's performance or response to be inadequate in relation to their role, challenge the placing authority or the relevant person to seek to ensure that each child's needs are met in accordance with the child's relevant plans. 14 July 2016

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Requirement Due date

7: The children's views, wishes and feelings standard: In order to meet the children's views, wishes and feelings standard the registered person must ensure that— 1) The children's views, wishes and feelings standard is that children receive care from staff who— (a) develop positive relationships with them; (b) engage with them; and (c) take their views, wishes and feelings into account in relation to matters affecting the children's care and welfare and their lives. 14 July 2016

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Requirement Due date

12: The protection of children standard: In order to meet the protection of children standard the registered person must ensure that— Children are protected from harm and enabled to keep themselves safe. (2) In particular, the standard in paragraph (1) requires the registered person to ensure— 14 July 2016 (a) that staff— (i) assess whether each child is at risk of harm, taking into account information in the child's relevant plans, and, if necessary, make arrangements to reduce the risk of any harm to the child; (ii) help each child to understand how to keep safe; (iii) have the skills to identify and act upon signs that a child is at risk of harm; (v) understand the roles and responsibilities in relation to protecting children that are assigned to them by the registered person; (vi) take effective action whenever there is a serious concern about a child's welfare; and (vii) are familiar with, and act in accordance with, the home's

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Requirement Due date

child protection policies; (b) that the home's day-to-day care is arranged and delivered so as to keep each child safe and to protect each child effectively from harm.

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Requirement Due date

13: The leadership and management standard: In order to meet the leadership and management standard the registered person must ensure that— 13.—(1) The leadership and management standard is that the registered person enables, inspires and leads a culture in relation to the children's home that— (b) promotes their welfare. (2) In particular, the standard in paragraph (1) requires the registered person to— (a) lead and manage the home in a way that is consistent with the approach and ethos, and delivers the outcomes, set out in the home's statement of purpose; (b) ensure that staff work as a team where appropriate; (c) ensure that staff have the experience, qualifications and skills to meet the needs of each child; (e) ensure that the home's workforce provides continuity of care to each child; (f) understand the impact that the quality of care provided in the home is having on the progress and experiences of each child and

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Requirement Due date

use this understanding to inform the development of the quality 29 July 2016 of care provided in the home; (h) use monitoring and review systems to make continuous improvements in the quality of care provided in the home.

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Requirement Due date

40: Notification of a serious event: Notification of a serious event (4) The registered person must notify HMCI and each other relevant person without delay if— (a) a child is involved in or subject to, or is suspected of being involved in or subject to, sexual exploitation. 14 July 2016

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Information about this children's home

This privately owned children’s home is registered to care for up to 21 children and young people with emotional and behavioural difficulties. The home offers an on-site college educational facility, which is registered with the Department for Education. The majority of the young people attend the college. The home currently offers care for children and young people aged 12 to 19 years.

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Recent inspection history

Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

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Recent inspection history

31 March 2016 Interim Declined in effectiveness

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Inadequate

Some staff fail to provide young people with positive role models, resulting in young people being vulnerable to inappropriate behaviours by staff and managers. These behaviours have included inappropriate comments and physical contact with young people. A complaint by one young person highlighted the issue. The behaviour of some staff has impacted negatively on young people’s emotional well-being and development. Staff have not formed the positive, trusting relationships with all young people that would enable them to make significant progress in understanding child sexual exploitation, which is a strong focus of this service. The young people in one house experienced significant confusion and emotional turmoil, but staff have not addressed this with them and rumours abound among the young people regarding the events that led them to feeling this way. The impact of one of the managers being removed from the home was reflected in

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Inadequate

young people displaying heightened emotions and challenging behaviour. The home is not meeting the emotional needs of these highly vulnerable young people. The registered manager has not provided them with counselling or psychological support to help them understand the suspension and subsequent resignation of a manager. Young people live in three small homes on the site. Some staff have isolated their home from the other homes and made other staff teams and young people feel unwelcome. Consequently, young people have missed opportunities to engage in an open and inclusive home life, which should support their social and emotional development. The majority of the young people live a long way from their family homes and have been placed here, in large part, to keep them safe from child sexual exploitation. While staff support them to maintain family contact, the locality of this home can be isolating. The actions of the staff in that home has

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Inadequate

added to this experience of isolation for some young people. The lack of trust in staff led one young person, who had 100% school attendance, to stop engaging fully in her education, demonstrating a significant change in her ability to make sustained progress. Another young person confided her pregnancy to a staff member, who undertook a pregnancy test, which was positive. That staff member then promptly resigned from the home without informing anyone of the young person’s physical and emotional vulnerability and support needs. Once the young person disclosed the pregnancy to staff, a month later, she did receive antenatal care and good care. One young person was challenged by a member of non-care staff, regarding a complaint that she had made against him. His questioning upset the young person. Having followed the complaints procedure herself, she had rightly expected that care managers would deal with the matter.

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Inadequate

This previously outstanding home still provides young people with many positive and warm interactions with some staff, which young people enjoy and that support their emotional well-being. However, some young people comment that some staff groups have a less positive impact on the atmosphere and behaviour in the homes. Young people engage in regular residents’ meetings where they can express their views, wishes and feelings. They benefit from working with their peers to agree weekly menus and activities, which support their social and physical development and independence skills. Young people enjoy spending time with and helping to care for the animals, which include a horse, donkeys, goats and geese. Staff work with young people to address their emotional issues, undertaking key work and finding alternative ways to address feelings when, for example, young people self- harm. The programme of support and opportunities that has been at the heart of this

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Inadequate

home’s success remains, but a significant and recent change in culture has served to undermine the excellent experience and progress that young people have been making. Issues of trust have not affected all young people to the same extent, but some simply do not perceive the impact on their experiences and progress. Some young people continue to feel very positive about the care that they receive and the progress that they are making. One young person wrote to say, ‘The placement has helped me change my life around. I was a prolific absconder going 42 times in a month. I have not absconded once since I came to [the home] I won’t forget the staff who helped me succeed, so thank you [the home]. Feedback from professionals and family members continues to be highly positive. The social worker for one young person, who was very recently admitted, says that the young person 'is delighted' and thanked him for placing her here. The parent of

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Inadequate

another young person said that he is impressed with the level of care that she receives at [the home] and the support that staff provided for him if he is ‘struggling with her behaviour’. A parent commented that staff have been extremely helpful and supported their daughter to maintain the relationship with her family to the point where she is due to return to the full-time care of her family next month, ‘The placement has really been a great success.’

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Inadequate

Despite the service having a clear and supportive whistleblowing policy, staff failed to pass their concerns, regarding the behaviour of one of the managers, to the registered manager or to human resources. The behaviour of this manager, is subject to formal investigation following a complaint by a young person. This manager exhibited behaviours that staff and the registered manager could potentially have viewed as grooming. He engaged in inappropriate physical contact and conversations with the young people in the home. In addition, both this manager and his shift team isolated themselves from the other homes on-site, making it difficult for staff outside the home to see the concerning behaviours. When staff in his team expressed concerns about him to a senior staff member, the senior staff member actively dismissed their concerns. One staff member informed the senior staff member of a very worrying situation,

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Inadequate

but that senior staff member did not pass this onto the registered manager, despite having stated that she would. Prior to their admission, all of the young people in the care of this service have been subject to child sexual exploitation. Consequently, the activities that occurred in one of the homes served to exacerbate the harm that they have previously experienced. The subsequent failure by the registered manager and by staff to provide these young people with counselling and the opportunity to discuss and understand what has happened has left them at continued risk of harm. The activities of the manager and staff have served to reinforce the young people’s previous responses to secrecy and collusion. Staff have not given the young people the message that the actions of the adults were wrong and exploitative, thereby failing to help them to understand how to keep themselves safe. Staff failed to follow safeguarding procedures to protect young people. They did

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Inadequate

not report their concerns to the registered manager or ensure that young people were kept safe. One of the manager’s practice was questioned by nursing staff when a young person was admitted to hospital after self-harming. A complaint was made to the registered manager who suspended him. At no point have staff told the young person that she had been subject to potentially harmful behaviour or given her the opportunity to make a complaint, should she wish. Again, staff have reinforced her previous experiences towards adults in positions of trust and authority. Staff have not helped her to understand the full implications of what she experienced or to learn how to keep herself safe. With regard to the manager in question, the registered manager concluded that his behaviour had been naive and that he needed to have further training in how to behave with young females. However, he has been returned to a management role

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Inadequate

prior to receiving the training. He is now managing the home where another manager exploited the young people. One young person went missing from the home for four days, during which staff and young people maintained contact with her over social media. When she returned with two mobile telephones, staff were unable to remove them from her and they remained in circulation in the home for several days. This potentially exposed other young people to making contact with abusers outside the home. Staff did not comply with the safeguarding policy, which expressly forbids young people having mobile phones in order to keep them safe. There was no notification of this event made to Ofsted. The risk of ongoing harm continues. While staff present as being fully aware of safeguarding procedures and of the signs of grooming behaviours, some staff fail to apply this knowledge to practice. Staff were inconsistent in following

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Inadequate

safeguarding procedures, as they were not child focused at all times. Those staff, who did recognise the risks, did not act on their concerns in order to protect the young people. Following all of these incidents, staff missed opportunities not only to protect young people, but to involve them in their risk assessments and helping them to develop the strategies essential to recognise risk and keep themselves safe.

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Inadequate

The registered manager holds a level 4 qualification in residential management and has qualifications and experience in counselling. She has several years’ experience of managing a residential setting. O f the 36 staff team members, 22 currently hold a level 3 qualification and the remaining staff members will complete their level 3 training during 2017. All staff have qualifications in first aid. The registered manager has failed to recognise the culture of secrecy, collusion and isolation that one of the managers and his shift team created in one of the homes. Despite her lengthy discussions with a number of staff members as part of the investigation into what happened, which she recorded, she failed to see the whole picture. Instead she focused on the process rather than on the well-being of the young people. When presented with the evidence of serious inappropriate behaviour by one of her managers, the registered manager expressed sadness at the impact on the

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Inadequate

staff and the home. At no point during the inspection did she appear to understand and regret the impact on the young people of the manager's behaviour. This attitude is in contrast to the child focus that she has demonstrated in previous inspections. She expressed a negative view of the young person who exposed what was happening. She failed to demonstrate a professional curiosity about the potential risks of child sexual exploitation within the home. The registered manager did not arrange for the girls in that home to be offered counselling or support, stating that the police investigation precluded this possibility. She has since accepted that she could have spoken to the police about how the home could meet the emotional needs of the young people without disrupting the investigation. When nurses complained about the conduct of another manager, the registered manager could not contemplate the possibility that he may have actively engaged

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Inadequate

in harmful behaviour. She has inappropriately returned him to a position of trust and authority prior to him receiving the planned training to address how he should behave with young females. This manager is now managing the home where young people experienced inappropriate behaviour from another manager. The evidence is that he currently lacks the understanding or ability to recognise the impact on the young people of the actions of the previous manager and of his own actions. The registered manager has now acknowledged that the recruitment and interview process does not fully explore this issue with prospective employees and that she has taken for granted that they have an in-depth understanding of the consequences of their behaviour as adults in positions of trust. With regard to the young person who became pregnant, the registered manager failed to effectively work with and challenge the placing local authority to

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Inadequate

undertake a child protection enquiry. The young person was under the age of 16 years and had become pregnant during a contact visit. Instead, the registered manager was quick to accept the lack of action by the local authority and failed to focus on the needs of the young person. When staff alerted the registered manager to these events, she ensured that she informed the children’s social worker, safeguarding teams, local authorities and the designated officer in keeping with the safeguarding policy. However, she has failed to ensure that her staff followed safeguarding procedures or that they acted upon concerns. Staff receive regular supervision, but the quality of this has not addressed fundamental failings in the interactions between some staff and young people and between some of the staff groups themselves. In addition, staff have access to a wide range of training, but this has not addressed the issues that led to this

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Inadequate

inadequate judgement. Managerial reviews of the home have not identified the cultural issues that have developed and have harmed young people. The registered manager has not recognised that the manager and senior staff member were manipulating the staff and that some staff clearly felt unable to approach her directly about their concerns. The registered manager has not addressed the culture of secrecy. She has not considered how it arose or discussed it with the staff at the time or since. Consequently, she failed to challenge that culture which, in the past six months, has led to serious concerns about three staff members. One of these staff members remains in a management position. The registered manager has not recognised the significance of the behaviour of the senior staff member who effectively blocked care staff from informing the registered manager of their concerns, thereby supporting the behaviour of her manager. This senior staff

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Inadequate

member also remains in post. In addition, the registered manager has failed to complete any of her investigations in a child-focused way. She has not prioritised young people or helped them to recognise and talk about their experiences in the home. The home is not therefore achieving its aims and objectives as set out in the statement of purpose. When a young person went missing for four days, the registered manager did not notify Ofsted. Records of a conversation with the staff member who had been with the young person in the community when she ran off clearly stated that the young person was ‘at very high risk of danger due to her absconding’. This previously outstanding home has undoubtedly provided young people with excellent experiences and progress in the past, but a lack of managerial vigilance and curiosity has now led to young people sustaining harm. This has led to a significant reduction in quality of their experiences and progress.

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Inadequate

Since the last inspection, the registered manager has had to take on additional managerial duties to cover for vacancies. The consequent pressure on her and on her time has not aided her in engaging with the home, staff and young people. Neither does it appear that she has had the benefit of reflective supervision. The registered manager ensures that the practical running of the home is efficient and that there are sufficient staff to meet the needs of young people. She recognises that the culture of the homes and the way in which staff work together need to change urgently and has begun the process of thinking about how best to proceed. At the previous interim inspection, requirements were made regarding staff failure to follow safeguarding procedures. The registered manager responded to these requirements with a plan, which is now being implemented, for further training for staff and managers, the introduction of a clear flow chart for safeguarding

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Inadequate

procedures and staff being intermittently tested on their knowledge of safeguarding and child protection.

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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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