Children's Home run by Horizon Care and Education Group Limited in Derbyshire

Inspection report children’s home: SC483710 1 SC483710 Registered provider: Horizon Care And Education Group Limited

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Full inspection Inspected under the social care common inspection framework

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Information about this children’s home

This home is privately owned and is registered to provide care and accommodation for three children who have emotional and/or behavioural difficulties.

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Overall experiences and progress of

children and young people, taking into account

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Good

How well children and young people are helped and protected Good

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Good

The effectiveness of leaders and managers Requires improvement to be good

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Good

The children’s home provides effective services that meet the requirements for good.

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Good

Date of last inspection: 19 October 2016

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Good

Overall judgement at last inspection: Declined in effectiveness

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Key findings from this inspection

 Young people are making progress and have positive experiences. This helps improve the quality of their lives. They have good relationships with staff, and they feel safe and are settled. Inspection report children’s home: SC483710 2  The new manager is driving forward changes to the functioning of the home. This is reflected in the positive outcomes young people are achieving and is confirmed in positive feedback received from young people, professionals and parents.  Successful placement matching means that young people live together amicably. This creates the right environment for them to flourish and make progress.  Young people feel able to express their wishes, views and feelings with staff. They are listened to and are able make decisions about important things affecting their lives.

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Key findings from this inspection

The children’s home’s areas for development

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Key findings from this inspection

 Young people’s experience of continuity of care and support is at risk due to the instability and turnover within the staff team. Despite the manager’s efforts to provide consistency, the staff team is very new and there is a reliance on using agency members of staff.  Although there are good recruitment systems in place for permanent members of staff, there is a lack of recording in relation to how the manager has assessed whether agency staff are suitable to work with young people. In addition, there is not a consistent induction process for agency staff when they start working at the home.  The registered provider has not developed a system to ensure that safeguarding information is shared between children’s homes in the company in the event of the redeployment of staff.

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

19/10/2016 Interim Declined in effectiveness 03/08/2016 Full Requires improvement 14/01/2016 Interim Declined in effectiveness 28/07/2015 Full Requires improvement Inspection report children’s home: SC483710 3

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Statutory requirements

This section sets out the actions that the registered person(s) must take to meet 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

13: The leadership and management standard The leadership and management standard is that the registered person enables, inspires and leads a culture in relation to the children’s home that: (1) (e) ensures that the home’s workforce provides continuity of care to each child. 31/05/2017

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must prepare and implement a policy that describes the measures which may be necessary to protect children following an allegation of abuse or neglect. This specifically relates to staff redeployed within the organisation. (Regulation 34 (2)(e)) 08/05/2017

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Recommendations

 The registered person must ensure that recruitment, supervision and performance management of staff safeguards children and minimises potential risks to them. This specifically relates to recording assessment of risk in relation to agency workers. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations, including the quality standards’, page 61, paragraph 13.1)  Any external agency staff should meet the requirements in regulation 32(4) regarding mandatory qualifications, and the registered person should consider their skills, qualifications and any induction necessary before they commence work in the home. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations, including the quality standards’, page 54, paragraph 10.16) Inspection report children’s home: SC483710 4

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: Good

Young people are settled and are positive about the care they receive. They are making good progress and having positive experiences by living at the home. Both the young people currently living at the home have moved in relatively recently and have settled quickly. A parent said, ‘My child seems a lot happier now than at a previous placement.’ Young people’s education is a priority and staff maintain contact with education providers, ensuring that existing education plans are continued or are quickly put into place for young people who are new to the home. One young person has made significant progress with attendance at school since moving in. Prior to living at the home, her attendance was under 20%, but it is now above 80%. The young person is benefiting from the high expectations, consistent routines and boundaries she receives from staff. Staff sensitively and gently support young people’s health needs. Young people are

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: Good

encouraged to be active, such as going on walks with staff to ‘Pokémon’ hunt in the local area. They are sensitively encouraged to manage their own personal hygiene and young people begin to take pride in their personal appearance. Where young people struggle to access health services, such as their statutory looked after health review, staff engage other health professionals, such as the children’s nurse, to help ensure that young people’s health needs are recognised and met. The importance of young people maintaining links with their friends and home towns is recognised. One young person regularly attends their place of worship and is very involved with community events and activities linked with this. Another young person regularly sees friends and family members. Sometimes, young people struggle to understand formal contact arrangements with loved ones. Staff sensitively explain this and support them to understand the judgements and decisions that social workers and

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: Good

the courts have made about young people’s lives. Young people are supported to prepare for their independence, in an age-appropriate way. Young people who are getting ready to move out of the home are supported to get to grips with cooking and budgeting by managing their own money and following a semi- independence plan. Staff recognise that, although young people may have the practical skills for living independently, they may require ongoing emotional support during this time of transition, and plans are in place for ongoing support when a young person leaves the home. This helps ensure that moving to their new home or accommodation is as successful as it can be. Young people have a range of positive experiences both inside and outside of the home. At the time of the inspection, it was the school holidays. Young people had a variety of activities planned and had thoroughly enjoyed a trip to the seaside. Photographs of their

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: Good

ride on a rollercoaster were proudly displayed. Young people say they are listened to, would feel confident raising any concerns with staff and, importantly, that their concerns would be acted on. They are supported to be involved in decision making about their lives, whether that be attending care proceedings or choosing menu choices. Young Inspection report children’s home: SC483710 5 people influence the activities they take part in and how the home is run. Where possible, the manager acts on young people’s expressed wishes. For instance, during the inspection, young people were helping staff pick new pictures for the communal areas. This shows young people that their views matter and are valued.

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How well children and young people are helped and protected: Good

Young people say that they feel safe living at the home. They are settled and do not engage in risk-taking behaviour, such as going missing. Although there have been no recent episodes of going missing from care, staff confidently explain the procedures they would follow if a young person was absent or missing. Comprehensive risk assessments are in place that clearly address all known and identified areas of potential concern. These provide staff with written guidance to enable them to identify potential warning signs and implement strategies to prevent or minimise risk. As a result, young people are as safe as possible. Staff are clear about the safeguarding procedures they would follow if they were concerned about the welfare of a child, or an allegation of harm was made. However, important safeguarding information is not always shared between leaders and managers. The company runs a number of homes in the same area. Where there has been an

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How well children and young people are helped and protected: Good

allegation or complaint about a member of staff, that staff member may be redeployed to a different children’s home while investigations are ongoing, in consultation with the designated person, for safeguarding within the local authority. However, there is no clear procedure in place to ensure that the reasons for redeployment are shared, so that managers can make their own assessment of staff suitability. This means there is no record in place to demonstrate how the manager has made the decision about whether the person was suitable. Young people’s behaviour is positive. Young people feel listened to and respected. If they become frustrated, staff use their skills and knowledge of young people to calmly respond. This helps young people understand what is happening to them. As a result, young people are developing a better awareness of how to manage their behaviour. There has been no use of restraint or physical intervention since before the last

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How well children and young people are helped and protected: Good

inspection. The manager understands safer recruitment practices and ensures that the permanent members of staff who are recruited are suitable to work with young people. When using agency members of staff, the manager carries out additional checks to assure himself of their suitability. For example, he has conversations with the agency, or other managers within the organisation who have previously used that member of staff, to check additional information; however, this not recorded. For example, where there are concerns about information showing on an agency member of staff’s disclosure and barring service record (DBS), there is no record of how the manager has assessed this risk to demonstrate how the decision was made that this person was suitable. In addition, agency members of staff do not receive a consistent induction when working at the home. This risks staff working inconsistently or lacking an understanding of

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How well children and young people are helped and protected: Good

important policies and procedures. The manager acted on this shortfall during the Inspection report children’s home: SC483710 6 inspection and devised an induction protocol.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: Requires improvement to be good

Since the last inspection, a manager has been registered with Ofsted and holds an appropriate childcare qualification. This has helped provide the home with more stability. His vision is to create child-focused care and he has high aspirations for young people and staff. The manager is committed to providing the best possible care and achieving the best outcomes for the young people in the home. He is driving forward positive changes and a clear development plan is helping to bring about these changes. However, the impact of this is limited by current changes and instability in the staff team. The provider has instigated a voluntary block on a third young person moving into the home until there is more stability. A recent turnover of permanent members of staff has meant that there has been a reliance on agency staff. In addition, the majority of permanent employees are new and are still in their probationary period. The manager has tried his best to ensure that there

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: Requires improvement to be good

is consistency for young people wherever possible by covering shortfalls himself, using staff known to young people, or using regular agency staff. While young people told the inspector that they were happy with staffing arrangements and did not feel there was any inconsistency, this arrangement has the potential to risk continuity of care for young people. The company is committed to recruiting quality members of staff and recruitment for permanent staff is ongoing. The manager is committed to building a staff team which works in a child-centred way. The new staff team feels well supported. Staff have regular supervision that enables them to reflect on their practice. New members of staff receive an appropriate basic induction training, before they start working in the home, to enable them to provide good-quality care to young people. The new manager is building positive relationships with local partner agencies, such as

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: Requires improvement to be good

the local police community support officer and care commissioners. The placement matching system used helps ensure that young people are well suited. Social workers comment that communication is generally good and that they are made aware of any issues. Prompt information sharing promotes consistent care and support. Parents also feel valued and included. One parent said, ‘I’d give staff a gold star if I could.’

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Information about this inspection

Inspection report children’s home: SC483710 7 Inspectors have looked closely at the experiences and progress of children and young people. Inspectors considered the quality of work and the difference made to the lives of children and young people. They watched how professional staff work with children and young people and each other and discussed the effectiveness of help and care provided. Wherever possible, they talked to children and 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.

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Information about this inspection

Using the ‘Social care common inspection framework’, this inspection was carried out under the Care Standards Act 2000 to assess the effectiveness of the service, how it meets the core functions of the service as set out in legislation, and to consider how well it complies with the Children’s Homes (England) Regulations 2015 and the ‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’. Inspection report children’s home: SC483710 8

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Children’s home details

Registered provider: Horizon Care And Education Group Limited

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: Venture House, Unit 12, Prospect Business Park, Longford Road, Cannock WS11 0LG

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Children’s home details

Responsible individual: Ann-Cheri Callow

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Inspector(s)

Catherine Honey, social care inspector Inspection report children’s home: SC483710 9 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, further education and skills, adult and community learning, and education and training in prisons and other secure establishments. It assesses council children’s services, and inspects services for children looked after, safeguarding and child protection.

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Inspector(s)

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Inspector(s)

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Inspector(s)

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