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:

 Staff invest their time in understanding young people and building positive relationships with them. As a result, young people understand that staff care about them.  The registered manager is robust in addressing shortfalls in practice and pushing to continually improve outcomes for young people. Consequently, there has been considerable improvement since the last inspection.  The registered manager and staff ensure that they prioritise young people‟s engagement with education.  Staff are proactive in looking for young people when they are missing. They work in partnership with the police to make sure that they are away from home for the minimum time.  Staff promote young people‟s carefully assessed contact with families and friends. This maintains young people‟s sense of identity.  There remain some areas for further development. The registered manager does not ensure that staff debriefs are recorded following the use of

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The children's home provision is good because:

restraint and that placing authorities always conduct independent return interviews. Staff have improved the quality of their case recording. However, there is insufficient clarity of recording in assessments following substance misuse protocols. The registered manager began to address these shortfalls during the inspection.

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Recommendations

To improve the quality and standards of care further the service should take account of the following recommendation(s):

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Recommendations

 Staff should be familiar with the home's policies on record-keeping and understand the importance of careful, objective and clear recording. In particular, staff should record their risk assessments regarding the appropriateness of following substance misuse protocols. („Guide to the children's homes regulations including the quality standards‟, page 62, paragraph 14.4)

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Recommendations

 When a child returns to the home after being missing from care or away from the home without permission, the responsible local authority must provide an opportunity for the child to have an independent return interview. Homes should take account of information provided by such interviews when assessing risks and putting arrangements in place to protect each child. („Guide to the children's homes regulations including the quality standards‟, page 45, paragraph 9.30)

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Recommendations

 Records of restraint must be kept and should enable the registered person and staff to review the use of control, discipline and restraint to identify effective practice and respond promptly when any issues or trends of concern emerge. The review should provide the opportunity to amend practice to ensure that it meets the needs of each child. In particular, the registered manager should provide staff with an opportunity to reflect on their use of restraint. („Guide to the children's homes regulations including the quality standards‟, page 49, paragraph 9.59)

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Information about this children's home

The home is registered to provide care for six children who have 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 01/11/2016 Full Inadequate 08/03/2016 Full Requires improvement 03/09/2015 Interim Sustained effectiveness 13/11/2014 Full Adequate

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Good

Staff develop positive relationships with young people. Staff are rebuilding those relationships which were damaged during a recent challenging period and re- engaging young people in sharing activities. This commitment is valued by placing authorities, as one independent reviewing officer said: „During this time the placement have not made any suggestion that they would cease being available to my young person, which shows “stickability”, which is good.‟ Young people benefit from living in a stable environment where staff genuinely care about them and spend time understanding what is important to them. One young person said: „I still get on well with staff.‟ Young people are able to talk about what is important to them with staff and to make use of the complaints process effectively. Staff listen to young people and place their wishes and feelings at the centre of staff practice.

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Good

Staff develop education plans for young people. Currently neither young person is receiving 25 hours of education a week. However, staff are working with schools, virtual school heads and placing authorities to improve young people‟s engagement with education. As a result, one young person has secured a new school placement and his attendance is starting to improve. Staff work with the school attendance officer to encourage his attendance. Staff have appealed a school decision not to accept a young person and the registered manager challenges the placing authority to consider other options when progress is slow. A home tutor is attempting to engage with the young person with limited success. Staff offer educational activities to the young person to prepare him for returning to the school environment.

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Good

Staff promote independence skills so that young people can develop life skills such as budgeting, cooking and sewing. Young people enjoy learning these life skills and become proficient in making food from scratch. This promotes their self-confidence as well as developing their skills. Staff promote healthy lifestyles. They encourage young people to take part in physical activities such as trampolining and going to skate parks. They complete key-work sessions to address issues around substance misuse, and work with partner agencies who come to the home to address substance misuse and sexual health issues with young people.

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Good

Staff promote family contact for young people, including those who live a long way from home. Staff always ensure that young people maximise the time they spend with their families. This develops their sense of identity. Staff work in partnership with families so that young people benefit from a consistent response. Judgement grade

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Requires improvement

Staff have improved their identification and management of risk since the last inspection. They have improved the detail of their recording. However, risk assessments about how staff use substance misuse protocols are not clear. The registered manager began addressing this shortfall during the inspection.

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Requires improvement

The registered manager develops bedtime protocols to ensure that young people do not go into each other‟s bedrooms. She has installed electronic door alarms for which she has the placing authorities‟ consent. The registered manager has moved staff sleeping in rooms so that staff are better able to monitor young people during the night. This has led to improvements with only one incident of young people sleeping in each other‟s rooms since the last inspection.

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Requires improvement

Staff maintain boundaries more consistently. The registered manager and staff have revisited bullying issues with young people, and quickly address any identified concerns through direct work. Staff use de-escalation effectively, and restraint is rarely necessary in the home. The registered manager ensures that she reviews this, and staff offer young people an opportunity to discuss their views. The registered manager has not recorded her discussion with staff regarding a particular restraint, which prevents an opportunity to formally amend practice.

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Requires improvement

Staff understand what to do when young people go missing. They follow individual protocols and ensure that they follow young people or look for them in familiar places. They work in partnership with the police to make sure that young people are missing for the shortest time possible. Staff remind placing authorities of their responsibilities to conduct independent return interviews, although this does not consistently take place. As a result, information to inform strategic planning is not gained from young people. Staff are alert to the risks of sexual exploitation including through online grooming. They are alert to issues of financial exploitation when young people obtain money from card tricks. Staff complete direct work with young people around the dangers of this behaviour and try to redirect their skills. Currently this has limited impact. Young people‟s behaviour of going missing has increased in frequency and length over recent weeks. The registered manager is

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Requires improvement

monitoring this increase and arranges strategy meetings to discuss and understand the risks and how, as a multi-agency team, they can address them.

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Requires improvement

Staff do not unnecessarily criminalise young people. They support young people to understand the impact of their behaviour through reparation work. Some young people do not engage well with their youth offending order. As a result, they are returned to court for re-sentencing. Young people are engaging in increased levels of anti-social behaviour and beginning to engage in new risk-taking behaviour including substance misuse. Staff refer young people to appropriate local substance misuse services and undertake direct work with them to increase young people‟s understanding of the risks associated with this new risk-taking behaviour. A social worker said: „I think my young person is safe because it is a caring home.‟

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Requires improvement

The registered manager contacts the designated officer when there are concerns about staff behaviour. She also notifies Ofsted of any serious incidents within the home. This allows the regulator to monitor and review patterns and trends.

p.8

Good

The registered manager has been in post since May 2016. She brings with her a wealth of experience and appropriate qualifications to fulfil the role. The registered manager and responsible individual work together effectively to address the shortfalls identified at the previous inspection. They have been robust in their management of the issues which led to the inadequate judgement, and the compliance notice and all the requirements raised have been addressed. The registered manager introduces protocols to support staff‟s care of young people and ensures that all staff and young people are aware of these.

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Good

The registered manager addresses inadequate staff practice through disciplinary processes. As a result, she supports some staff to improve their practice and others leave the service when she starts disciplinary procedures. The registered manager prevents unsuitable people from working in the home through appropriate vetting and selection processes. She ensures that when she uses agency staff there is consistency by using the same agency staff, which provides continuity of care for young people. The registered manager listens to young people when they complain about staff, and rearranges staffing to promote the best care for them. The registered manager ensures that new staff receive an appropriate induction to the home and that all staff benefit from training opportunities to improve their ability to meet young people‟s needs, including safeguarding training and child development and attachment training.

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Good

The registered manager understands the strengths and weaknesses of the service. She responds quickly to areas that need improvement, including during this inspection. She is acting to address identified shortfalls in how staff record their risk assessments of how they use protocols regarding substance misuse by developing an assessment tool. She has developed new processes within the home which increase her oversight of staff practice. This demonstrates her ability continually to improve practice.

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Good

The registered manager understands the progress that young people make and ensures that she continually reviews the ability of the home to meet young people‟s needs. She is robust in her challenges to placing authorities when plans are not progressing effectively. She has developed positive relationships with all professional stakeholders and parents so that they can provide a consistent team around the child.

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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 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, 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 ensure that their welfare is 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 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 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

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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