Children's home run by Hexagon Care Services Limited in Preston

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:

 The staff have built secure and trusting relationships with all the children and young people. They listen to them, ensure that they feel safe and are excellent advocates for them.  Children and young people are supported to engage with education and employment. They all have made excellent progress. The manager ensures excellent links with educational professionals.  The manager and staff team have a very clear understanding of how to keep children and young people safe and well. They work well within multi-agency safeguarding processes, ensuring that the children and young people’s voice is heard and listened to.  Placement plans and risks assessments are thorough and cover all aspects of risk. They are reviewed regularly and demonstrate a clear understanding of the impact of previous experience and trauma on the children and young people.  Children and young people are not unnecessarily criminalised. The manager

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The children’s home provision is good because:

and staff team use a restorative approach to dealing with challenging and difficult behaviour.  The manager is very supportive of her staff team. She promotes a reflective approach to supervision. She is confident to challenge poor practice and promotes staff development and training.

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Recommendations

To improve the quality and standards of care further, the service should take account of the following recommendation(s):  Ensure the home’s records on each child represent a significant contribution to their life history. Children and their parents should be supported to understand the nature of records kept by the home and how to access them. (‘Guide to the children’s home regulations including the quality standards’, page 62, paragraph 14.5)  Ensure children are actively encouraged to read their records and to add further information to them. They should be regularly reminded of their rights to see information kept about them and be given information about how they might be supported to access their records in later life. (‘Guide to the children’s home regulations including the quality standards’, page 62, paragraph 14.6)  Ensure staff should respect children’s privacy and support the other children

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Recommendations

living in the home to do so. In particular, ensure that confidentiality is maintained in the office. (‘Guide to the children’s home regulations including the quality standards’, page 16, paragraph 3.17)

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Information about this children’s home

This is a privately run home. It is registered to provide care and accommodation for up to six young people who may have emotional and behavioural difficulties. The home offers medium to long-term care both within the main house and in the attached independence flat

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Recent inspection history

Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

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Recent inspection history

21/03/2016 Interim Improved effectiveness

p.5

Good

The manager and staff team are excellent at building relationships with children and young people. They promote secure attachments by providing consistency and genuine affection. Children and young people said that they felt ‘cared for and loved’ by all the staff team. They suggest that ‘it is the best care home ever’ because ‘they are good huggers and will have a laugh with you’.

p.6

Good

Most of the children and young people had poor school attendance prior to arriving at the home. The positive ethos about education promoted by the manager and staff encourages them to attend. The manager is also confident in challenging professionals when there are delays or misunderstandings. She has built very positive relationships with the virtual head, which supports the progress children and young people are making. One young person told me that before coming to the home he was not attending school, but is now attending a vocational course and has asked to increase his attendance. The positive attitude of the staff increases the children’s and young people’s life opportunities and allows them to celebrate success and increases their self-worth.

p.6

Good

The manager and staff team encourage and support children and young people to take more responsibility for their own health. There is a significant improvement in the health of the children and young people. They attend all routine appointments, have been referred to specialist services and are encouraged to engage with services when they have previously failed to do so. Healthier eating and involvement in a full range of fun physical activities have contributed to children and young people feeling healthier and more positive about themselves.

p.6

Good

A feeling of genuine warmth and commitment is shown by the manager and staff team. They are all passionate about their job and regularly go beyond what would be expected. Children and young people respond to this and despite sometimes exhibiting challenging behaviours, try their hardest to succeed. Achievements are celebrated and challenging behaviour is reflected upon to see what can be learned from the experience.

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Good

Contact with families and important adults is seen as an essential for each child and young person. This may mean supervising contact or in helping children and young people to understand the difficulties contact can involve. A sensitive response to families and important adults in the child’s or young person’s life allows staff to develop trusting relationships with them. One parent wrote, ‘I can’t thank them enough for what they do. I’m kept informed and know my child is well looked after.’

p.6

Good

The trusting and secure relationships that the manager and staff team have built with the children and young people play a vital role in keeping them safe. Key worker sessions and more informal discussions following incidents help the children and young people to understand the risks that their behaviour has exposed them to. Restorative practice rather than criminalising them allows the children and young people to understand the consequences of their behaviour and learn new, positive behaviours.

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Good

Behaviour management plans are individualised and under regular review. Some children and young people have found it hard to control their behaviour. The sensitive but consistent approach the manager and staff have taken has seen a reduction in the number and severity of incidents. The children and young people learn to self-regulate and begin to accept that they have choices in the way they behave.

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Good

The manager and staff have excellent knowledge and understanding of safeguarding processes. This is demonstrated in the way that they manage disclosures and work with other professionals. The manager and staff also have knowledge and understanding of emerging risks, including those from involvement in exploitative relationships and radicalisation. Risk management and care planning to support young people experiencing exploitative relationships and situations demonstrate safe and robust practice, including working closely and openly with relevant agencies.

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Good

Children and young people say that they feel safe and attribute this to the way the manager and staff team look after them and understand them. They frequently share concerns with staff, who respond sensitively and appropriately. This often includes the manager and staff team advocating for the children and young people or ensuring that they are supported by independent advocates. Children and young people have their voices heard and feel more in control of what happens next.

p.7

Good

Children and young people do still go missing from the home. This is managed well by the manager and staff team, who follow robust processes to ensure a safe and speedy return. These processes include looking for the children and young people and building up information of where they have been found previously. The number of episodes of going missing is reducing as children and young people learn that they have safer options than to run away. Judgement grade

p.7

Good

The manager is experienced and suitably qualified. She is a very supportive and an inspirational manager, who is very well thought of by her staff, colleagues, local agencies and placing authorities. Staff describe how she has introduced new ways of dealing with challenging behaviours and has enlightened many of them as to new ways of working.

p.8

Good

Despite shortages of staff in the senior management team, she has managed the home well and maintained high standards of care. Staff have had regular reflective supervision, which has helped them to deal with some difficult and challenging times but has also allowed the manager to offer support and encouragement. The staff respond by often going beyond what is expected, both in covering shifts and in taking on new tasks when required.

p.8

Good

The scrutiny and overview by the manager of case records of the children and young people ensures that they meet regulations and are up to date. Some of the records are very long and adult in the way they are written. Children and young people may find it difficult to read and understand these documents. They should also be encouraged to be involved in the recording in these documents. The current style of recording does not allow for this to happen, therefore children and young people may not feel that they understand their journey in care or be able to access important information about themselves.

p.8

Good

The manager regularly reviews the quality of the care they provide and monitors many different aspects, including consultation. This includes involving the children and young people in appraisals of staff and asking for ideas of how to improve the care they provide. Children and young people said they felt listened to and spoke about how things can change in the home, for example a request to change bedtimes was acted on quickly and improved the way children and young people settled down at night.

p.8

Good

There are many good examples of the manager and staff working with other agencies and the wider community. Social care professionals praised the level of communication and the flexibility the manager and staff demonstrated to ensure contact with families.

p.8

Good

The manager and staff are actively involved in refurbishment of the home. While it is clean and hygienic, there are areas within the home that have suffered damage. The refurbishment is well planned and has involved the children and young people, but has resulted in the possibility of children and young people inadvertently having access to rooms that contain confidential information. Action plans are in place to prevent this recurring.

p.8

Good

All requirements and recommendations from previous inspections have been met and can be seen embedded within the running of the home. The manager has a good development plan, which will ensure that children and young people continue to make good progress.

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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 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 0300 123 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 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

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 Text phone: 0161 618 8524 E: enquiries@ofsted.gov.uk W: www.gov.uk/government/organisations/ofsted

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