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

Outstanding

The children's home provides highly effective services that consistently exceed the standards of good. The actions of the home contribute to significantly improved outcomes for children and young people who need help, protection and care.

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The children's home provision is outstanding because:

 Young people have close relationships with highly insightful and immensely skilled staff.  Young people live in a home where every member of staff’s practice consistently exceeds the standard of good. Without exception, staff are extremely nurturing, positive and sensitive.  Young people make exceptional progress based on their starting points, particularly with regard to their self-awareness and their commitment to achieving a positive, independent future through education and healthy relationships with family and friends.  Young people feel exceptionally safe and are able to disclose the extent of past experiences of exploitation because they know that staff and the manager will help them.  Staff respond to young people’s complex and challenging behaviour in a consistently therapeutic way. They are unswerving in their collective commitment to help each young person to achieve their highest potential.

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The children's home provision is outstanding because:

 Staff sustain their care and understanding particularly well at times of crisis and at times of transition into and out of the home.  Young people can say how much difference being here has made to their lives.  The manager is an exceptional and proactive practitioner and leader.  The manager shows her care for young people through daily acts of kindness and skilful conversations that nurture and help young people.  The manager trains, supports and shows her experienced staff team how to reflect, sustain and build on their already high standards of care. This includes using research to inform practice.  The manager ensures that young people’s voices are not only heard, but that every source of help and advocacy is provided to them.  The manager is extremely well respected by parents, stakeholders and providers of services, because she is totally child centred, organised, well informed and innovative.

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Information about this children's home

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

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Recent inspection history

Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

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Recent inspection history

23/03/2016 Interim Sustained effectiveness

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Recent inspection history

29/01/2015 Interim Sustained effectiveness

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Outstanding

Young people’s life chances are enhanced significantly by the experience of living here. This is because each young person receives from staff a level of nurture, help and input that far exceeds the standard of good. Every member of staff, (including some agency staff who work here very regularly), is extremely well organised and as a team they work seamlessly together. They provide well-informed, consistent, unreserved and unconditional kindness, inclusion, support and guidance to each young person. Staff are alert and attuned to each young person’s priorities, feelings, needs and wishes. Staff listen and make every conversation count. The home’s monthly visitor says that staff place 'huge emphasis on young people achieving their highest potential.' As a result, young people want to stay here until they are 18. One young person said: ‘The staff are all lovely. Seriously, this is the best place that I have ever been in, and I’ve been in a lot.’ Another young person

p.5

Outstanding

said: ‘They listen to you and look after you when you are ill.’ Young people aspire to future careers. Given their starting points, young people are making excellent progress with their education. They are developing a mature and responsible attitude to study. This follows years of refusing to attend or being unable to concentrate or conform. Staff and the manager have helped them to make this change. They tirelessly encourage, support and inform young people. Staff seek out and provide information, learning materials and sources of additional education for young people. They spend all their time with young people, and advocate for them with education providers and employers. This gives young people the understanding, confidence and motivation to prepare CVs and apply for casual work. In addition, they engage in extra maths tuition, and one/ some embark on a college course that could lead to a psychology career, mentor

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Outstanding

younger students at school and sit GCSEs early. One young person has just written to her headteacher, asking if she can help to advise new students about the benefits of behaving well and engaging in school when the autumn term starts. In June, the home’s visitor reported ‘All three of the young people are continuing to progress and this is most especially noted regarding educational achievements.’ Young people enjoy the best opportunities to manage their complex needs and cope well independently. This is because staff are ambitious, skilful and empathic in their practice. Staff rehearse, use and reflect on their practice every day and confidently apply models of care that are therapeutic and effective. A local authority professional recently said: ‘Staff’s professional conduct is exceptional and they are always looking at the needs of the young person first and making that young person the centre of the planning and support, so that they can reach their

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Outstanding

goals and aspirations for their future independence, as well as embedding life skills, structure and confidence.’ For example, staff embed life skills, such as cooking and cleaning up, through talking with young people and doing jobs for them, but alongside them. Staff embody and demonstrate the qualities that they want young people to learn, with an emphasis on giving and providing not only for themselves, but also for those they live with. This is made clear to young people every day. Staff make boiled eggs and ‘toast soldiers’ for young people and they eat breakfast and discuss their day together. They spend time together budgeting, shopping and making meals, doing their washing and ironing, keeping their rooms and communal areas clean and hygienic, using public transport, making their own appointments and dressing appropriately for the activity and occasion. At the same time, staff teach young people valuable lessons about how to share, compromise,

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Outstanding

participate and include others. Young people are fully engaged and learn these lessons because they feel very well cared for. Staff pamper young people in whatever ways they need. For example, they dye and style their hair, make them a supper tray of their favourite nibbles, play a board game with them, take them on day trips and short holidays and tuck them into bed. Young people really feel listened to and included in the life of the home. They are particularly well engaged here because of the excellent-quality relationships that the manager and staff have forged with them. For example, all young people take full part in their house meetings because they can say freely what they feel and what they want. They know that staff listen and take action. They happily meet prospective new staff for the home and feed back to the manager their thoughts about them. They freely give the manager feedback on individual staff members’

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Outstanding

strengths and weaknesses to help with staff’s annual appraisals. One young person said about a member of staff: ‘She is really organised, always helpful, listens to me, good to talk to. We always have a laugh. Nan of the house. I love her lots. She listens and gets my point across.’ Young people trust staff and the manager. They bring complaints or concerns to staff members individually. Their concerns are resolved fully to their satisfaction. Young people also benefit enormously from well thought-out conversations and help from staff. Staff plan and research individual sessions carefully to make sure that they helpfully address the difficulties that the young people are experiencing. Staff will give young people notes and information to read and refer to. This helps them learn positive ways to deal with things that affect them. For example, staff explain clearly what mental health, counselling, orthodontic, sexual health and

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Outstanding

drug and alcohol services are like. They browse the internet with them for helpful information and go with young people to appointments, so that young people know where to go and feel more confident about engaging. The staff input demonstrates unswerving commitment and maximises the progress that young people make. Young people say about staff: ‘You’re all fabulous, ‘I’m listened to and you care about us.’ Young people experience positive contact with family and friends. This enables them to make outstanding progress in building and sustaining healthy relationships. The manager and staff’s practice is individualised and skilful. They remove institutional barriers through effort, commitment and excellent work with parents and local authorities. For example, young people enjoy very regular and sometimes spontaneous contact with family members, former carers and friends, even when they live a long way apart. Staff help young people to organise happy

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Outstanding

occasions in suitable locations and they welcome friends and relatives to the home. Staff engage independent advocates for young people to help them to re-establish contact with family members that has been lost or restricted in the past. They also help young people to attend family occasions and have longer, more regular contact and overnight stays, whenever risks can be minimised to acceptable levels. Staff help young people to continue to meet existing friends and peers that they have lived with. A parent said that her relationship with her daughter is much better since she came to live here, and that this may be because her daughter is happier and she sees her more. A previous carer said that her young person, ‘has made brilliant progress and I am really glad that she is not moving.’ The manager said that a young person who has now left ‘made massive progress in building relationships and making healthy bonds, and was dealing with her aggression so

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Outstanding

much better.’ Young people experience continuing valuable contact with staff and young people after they leave. When young people are moving, staff help them to do so gradually. Moves are extremely well planned. Staff and young people mark departures with group celebrations and gifts, including albums of photos and memories. After the young person has moved staff keep in touch helpfully and positively. They visit young people after they have left and buy presents for their birthdays as well as assisting the new home with advice and information. Staff also prepare young people well for new arrivals to the home. Together with young people, staff think of ways to help each new person feel welcome. Staff practice relating to contact and transitions is underpinned by their understanding of attachment theory. They address and minimise the sense of loss and isolation that young people often feel when they move. Their practice promotes lasting positive

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Outstanding

relationships and enhances young people’s emotional health enormously.

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Outstanding

Young people receive excellent levels of protection and help because staff and the manager are confident and consistent in their safeguarding practice. Staff and the manager demonstrate unconditional positive regard towards young people, regardless of their behaviour. Young people have developed real trust in the staff’s ability to help them with their unsafe behaviours and as a result confide in staff. One young person said: ‘They are bothered and concerned about me. They took me to the hospital where the other home did not even notice that I’d self-harmed.’ The home’s monthly independent visitor said in May of this year ‘The staff are very nurturing, and it is apparent that the girls feel cared for in the home. I have no issues or concerns around the safeguarding of young people. Overall, the professionalism with which staff practise results in sustained improvement to the lives of young people’. Young people receive excellent help with substance misuse and protection from

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Outstanding

sexual exploitation and feel able to disclose to staff what has happened to them. Staff give young people sensitive and effective support so that they are able to talk to police and social workers to aid investigations. All intelligence is shared with the police which adds value to young people’s own disclosures. Good work by staff successfully teaches young people the difference between positive and abusive relationships. They know young people thoroughly enough to do this in ways that young people can understand and apply for themselves. For example, staff taught a young person how to report inappropriate sexual communications on Facebook. This learning is regularly revisited to remind the young person about it. Further, staff supported a young person to engage in a local weekly course designed to help young people with online safety issues. As a direct result of staff’s help and protection, young people are making considerable progress to develop positive and

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Outstanding

safe friendship groups and intimate relationships. One young person’s parent said: ‘The team are working hard with her to identify her issues and help her to deal with them. I have seen huge progress in her behaviour since being placed at the home and I feel that she is safe.’ Highly effective planning by the manager and staff manages and minimises young people’s risks when they go missing. Young people still do sometimes go missing from the home, but now they rarely get into situations where they could suffer harm. They are usually staying with known friends in the local community. They are fit and well when they return. Some young people are anxious to see their families and have a history of going missing in order to see them. Staff and the manager are well prepared for this and empathise with young people’s needs. They minimise the need to go missing by establishing fair, regular and open communication and meetings between family members, staff and each young

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Outstanding

person. Staff are always proactive in searching for young people and keeping in close communication with them. Police are impressed by how well staff know their young people and their links, so that they know where to look for them. Staff help young people to have reasonable freedoms whenever this is safe. They do this by guiding and advising young people how to conduct their social lives safely. For example, staff make young people’s friends welcome here. Staff get to know the parents and carers of young people’s friends, in order to satisfy themselves about where young people are. Staff reward young people with extra praise, treats, quality time and outings when they do not go missing. They ensure that someone independent of the home talks to young people when they return from a missing episode. Staff are well trained and experienced in safeguarding procedures. They also undertake specific training about young people’s particular risks before those

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Outstanding

young people come to the home. Staff are therefore well equipped to address, as well as extremely sensitive and alert to notice, any indicators that unsafe behaviour may occur or has occurred. They create a culture in which young people are valued, respected and listened to and this enables young people to open up and talk about what is happening and how they are feeling. Staff then provide specific, individualised help, advice and protection that fit each young person’s needs. For example, staff guide and advise young people about safe ways to find entertainment and to enjoy themselves without resorting to self-harm, violence, bullying and competitive or confrontational interactions. They turn learning about problem behaviour into project and research activities. This helps young people to find new ways to ‘be’, without feeling too much under the spotlight. Staff give young people support and encouragement to make their bedrooms into

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Outstanding

pleasant, modern places to relax. Staff help young people to get specialist help with substance misuse, self-harm, exploitation and anger issues. One young person told the inspector that staff could not do any more or be any more patient. She said that staff stay up with them if they cannot sleep and make sure that they are warm enough with blankets and hot drinks if they will not come indoors. Staff pick the right time to reflect and talk about things after they have gone wrong. Their creative strategies lead young people to accept help and move on from unsafe and damaging behaviour that previously led to periods in secure accommodation. Young people now see a good future ahead of them and engage with all that is on offer here.

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Outstanding

The registered manager is inspirational to young people and staff alike. She is ambitious for young people and plays a key role in changing their lives for the better. The home’s independent visitor says 'She leads by example. She is extremely experienced and knowledgeable and has created a culture of child- centred practice which runs through the home.’ From shopping with young people to dyeing their hair, from teaching them to see others’ points of view to hugging them as they disclose bad experiences, the manager is ‘there’ for young people. She writes to them every week, drawing attention to the progress they are making and encouraging them to continue. For example, she recently wrote to one young person: ‘Great progress this week – I am very pleased that you have agreed to do some work with ‘X’ which will aid you to keep yourself safe. There were no incidents this week, which is good progress; I can also see that your relationships

p.9

Outstanding

with staff have been very positive which is great – well done! I see you have started your independence file which is great and you are cooking and ironing more – well done!’ The registered manager creates a culture among the entire staff team of reflective, dedicated, insightful practice. To do this, she ensures and facilitates regular, timely and highly effective support, supervision and training of all staff, including regular agency staff. Together, the staff and manager are a team that is powerful and successful in changing young people’s lives for the better. They do this in an open, sincere, empathic, responsible way that gains young people’s full respect and engagement. For example, they make sure that things they write in records are really helpful to young people. They write simply and clearly and talk through with young people what they have written. The manager designs recording formats that

p.10

Outstanding

young people can understand. She fully explains to staff how they should be used. This means that staff use records to help young people absorb their help and advice and see just how well they are progressing. The registered manager is qualified in both residential care and leadership. She has many years’ experience and has managed this home for over three years. She commands the respect and loyalty of a number of long-standing staff who choose to work with her. Equally, she capitalises on the aptitudes of newer, dynamic and younger staff who feel nurtured and developed by her support. The manager ensures that all staff are qualified in either childcare or working towards their qualification within regulatory timescales. She has developed her staff team so that they are all able, skilled and ambitious for young people. One member of staff summed up her leadership by saying, ‘[X] is really on the ball.’

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Outstanding

The manager is extremely well informed about local and national safeguarding initiatives and she keeps up to date on therapeutic parenting styles. She has good links with all the services that young people can benefit from. She ensures that staff have daily reflective practice conversations about their shift and undertake regular refresher training on relevant subjects, such as substance misuse, child sexual exploitation, radicalisation and first aid. The manager’s networking and advocacy skills are superb. She makes very clear contributions to care planning for each young person, including very thorough matching considerations and decision-making about the timing of, and reasons for, transitions out of the home. Further, she makes sure that young people can express their wishes and feelings in care planning meetings and that they know when things are happening and why. Her work with previous and next care givers

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Outstanding

is effectively ensuring that young people get the best continuity of care. The provider organisation gives her complete autonomy in taking new referrals. This means that young people only come to the home when they are compatible with the young people already living here. Young people’s local authority social workers value the manager’s insights and professional opinions. They agree with her contributions to young people’s care plans, for example in relation to increasing family contact, changing education courses or extending young people’s time in placement to embed safer lifestyles before independent living. The manager’s skills in this area maximise and sustain young people’s positive outcomes. The manager demonstrates outstanding ability to achieve the aims and objectives that are set out in the home’s statement of purpose. However, she does not rest on her laurels and continuously reviews and monitors the impact of the work being

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Outstanding

done with each young person. She thoughtfully looks for trends and patterns in young people’s behaviour and emotions and discusses these with staff. For example, she ensures that staff are aware of, and make allowances for, young women’s hormonal cycles. She goes back through events and incidents that young people have experienced in previous care settings and in families. This way, she identifies ways to support young people that really work. She discusses reflectively with the home’s clinician and will take advice about regulations and care standards from the home’s independent visitor and Ofsted inspector.

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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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