Children's Home run by Hillcrest Children‟s Services (2) Limited in Staffordshire

Inspection report children’s home: SC398482 1 SC398482 Registered provider: Hillcrest Children’s Services (2) 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 part of a large private children’s care organisation, and is registered to provide care and accommodation for up to three young people who have emotional and 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 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: 8 February 2017

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good

Overall judgement at last inspection: Sustained effectiveness

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good

Enforcement action since last inspection: None

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Key findings from this inspection

 Staff value the views and opinions of young people.  Young people are encouraged to keep in contact with their family.  Staff base their management of behaviour on positive encouragement that Inspection report children’s home: SC398482 2 helps young people to manage their behaviour to an acceptable standard.  Staff are positive in their approach to education and the values that this gives to young people’s academic achievements.  Collaborative working between staff and the therapy team helps young people to become more emotionally resilient.  The registered manager is child focused, committed and motivated to ensure that young people receive the very best care.  Effective communication between staff, placing authorities, police and schools helps to strengthen young people’s progress.

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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

 Staff do not consistently monitor or review young people’s use of the internet to ensure that any potential risk of child sexual exploitation is minimised.  Staff do not always identify the risks when young people go missing from home.  Staff do not consider the need to prepare young people for potential moves to new placements.  The registered manager has not completed a quality of care review within the expected time period.

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

08/02/2017 Interim Sustained effectiveness 22/08/2016 Full Requires improvement 09/03/2016 Interim Improved effectiveness 03/09/2015 Full Good Inspection report children’s home: SC398482 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

The protection of children standard is that children are protected from harm and enabled to keep themselves safe. In particular, the standard in paragraph (1) requires the registered person to ensure- that staff have the skills to identify and act upon signs that a child is at risk of harm; that understand the roles and responsibilities in relation to protecting children that are assigned to them by the registered person; and staff are familiar with, and act in accordance with, the home’s child protection policies. (Regulation 12(1)(2)(iii)(v)(vii))

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Requirement Due date

In particular, staff must ensure that there are appropriate safeguards in place to keep young people safe from child sexual exploitation and radicalisation when they are online or in the community. 07/07/2017

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must complete a review of the quality of care provided for children ("a quality of care review") at least once every 6 months. (Regulation 45(1)) 07/07/2017

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Recommendations

 Ensure that staff prepare each child to prepare for any moves from the home, whether they are returning home, moving to another placement or to live independently. This includes supporting the child to develop emotional resilience to cope without the home’s support and, where the child is moving to live independently, practical skills such as cooking, housework, budgeting and personal self-care. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 17, paragraph 3.27)

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Recommendations

 Ensure that staff have clear procedures and processes to follow and specify the roles and responsibilities of staff when a child is missing from care or away from the home without permission and how staff should support the child on return to the home. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 45, paragraph 9.28) Inspection report children’s home: SC398482 4

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff are proactive in developing and maintaining meaningful relationships with young people who have historically struggled to trust professionals. These relationships form the cornerstone of support that young people receive. Young people make good progress in respect of their education, health and emotional well-being, because staff invest time in helping them to succeed.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff give practical and emotional support to help young people to engage in education. Staff use their positive relationships with young people to encourage and support young people to work through the barriers that impact on their learning. For example, when a young person was excluded from school, staff ensured that short-term arrangements were put in place to maintain the young person’s learning. At the same time, the staff championed the young person to secure their swift return to school.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff ensure that the healthcare needs of young people are met. Staff’s recording and monitoring of one young person’s specific health needs are helping to inform specialist input from the child and adolescent mental health services. As a result, the young person is being support to manage their health needs well, so that it does not affect their daily functioning or sense of identity.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff tailor the care that young people receive to ensure that young people’s individual needs are met. For example, one young person has made significant improvements in being able to meet their own personal care needs, due to staff encouragement and prompting. The young person is now able to keep to a morning bathing routine. This has improved their physical health considerably.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff encourage young people to express their wishes and have a say in matters such as daily routines and activities. When issues or requests arise, young people receive feedback during targeted key-work sessions or during feedback at house meeting. This means that young people feel listened to and that their opinions matter.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff are proactive in facilitating and coordinating contact arrangements between young people and their families. Staff work collaboratively with social workers and families to enable contact to increase in duration and frequency. For some young people, this now includes overnight stays. As a result, young people do not feel isolated and families continue to feel a part of their loved one’s lives.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff have worked hard to improve the appearance of the home to ensure that young people live in a pleasant and comfortable place. Newly painted walls and fresh carpet have made a positive difference. Furthermore, young people are encouraged to personalise their bedrooms to develop their sense of belonging. One young person has chosen a bold colour scheme for his bedroom, allowing him to express his personality and identity. This openness to participation reflects the autonomy that staff allow young people in decisions that affect their everyday life. Inspection report children’s home: SC398482 5 Staff encourage young people to complete household chores and cook with staff, so that they develop the basic skills that they will need for adulthood. However, staff planning about how to best support one young person’s return to foster care is not well coordinated. As a result, the young person is not receiving the support required to

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

Staff have a good understanding of young people’s individual needs and vulnerabilities, and take appropriate action to address them.

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

Staff use key-work sessions and informal conversations to help young people to reflect on their behaviour and to consider how their actions affect others. Consequently, young people’s behaviours have improved, and there has been a reduction in incidents of aggression towards others. Staff do their best to acknowledge these positive changes, providing young people with positive feedback and using rewards such as increased free time or a luxury hot chocolate to recognise young people’s good behaviours.

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

When young people display agitation or become upset, staff are intuitive in their approach. For example, staff recognise when a young person needs space to calm down, or when humour and a hug can defuse the situation. Staff are effective at de-escalating situations and, as a result, young people rarely need to be physically restrained.

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

Staff work collaboratively with the clinical therapy team to enable young people to develop their emotional resilience. As a result, young people are more able to talk about how they are feeling. This helps them to manage their feelings of frustration and anxiety. When talking about therapy sessions, one young person said, ‘I like them. It sets me up for the week, and I feel fresh when I come out of it. Sometimes I can feel like I am at checkmate, and can’t do right for doing wrong, but going to those sessions helps me to clear things out.’

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

Until recently, ‘missing’ incidents were not a feature of young people’s behaviour. However, one young person’s frustration at being excluded from school has contributed to a small number of ‘missing’ incidents. In response to these incidents, staff have made good attempts to locate the young person. This has included staying in contact with the young person by phone and completing searches of the areas that he is likely to visit. Staff have completed follow-up work when the young person has been located. This includes key-work sessions to help staff to understand why the young person has gone missing, and to provide advice and support to reduce the likelihood of further episodes. Staff have also worked collaboratively with the police to plan how to manage this new risk. However, despite this, on occasion the staff have been slow to notify the police of a ‘missing’ incident. This has reduced the opportunity to minimise the potential risk of

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

Staff recognise young people’s vulnerability to child sexual exploitation and radicalisation when in the community or online. Restrictions on young people’s internet access and targeted key-work sessions have been used to try to reduce the potential risk to young Inspection report children’s home: SC398482 6 people. However, in some instances, staff have been slow to monitor and review what young people are accessing on the internet. For one young person, this has resulted in being able to access inappropriate social media sites that have the potential to place the young person at risk of exploitation.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The manager has been in post since March 2017 and has applied to Ofsted be the registered manager. The experienced manager has completed the level 5 diploma in leadership for health and social care and children’s and young people’s services. Four staff have completed the level 3 diploma in residential childcare. The reminding four staff are expected to have completed the qualification by June 2017.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The manager ensures that all staff receive regular supervision so that they have the support needed to meet the needs of young people. Staff are consistently positive about the impact that the new manager has had on the home. They feel well supported and have a renewed motivation to ensure that young people consistently receive care in line with the home’s statement of purpose.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

New and existing staff complete a comprehensive range of training, covering topics related to safeguarding, child sexual exploitation and behaviour management. Staff training is complemented by regular input from the clinical therapy team members, who help to guide staff on how to meet the holistic needs of young people. As a result, young people make measureable progress in all aspects of their development.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The manager and staff manage care planning, child protection matters and young people’s contact with family effectively. The manager acts as a champion for young people. This includes ensuring that all stakeholders prioritise young people’s best interests.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The manager has introduced a range of monitoring systems in order to gain a solid understanding of the strengths and weaknesses of the home. However, there has been a missed opportunity to use this learning to complete a formal review of the quality of care and identify a clear plan of action to continue to improve the care provided to young people. This means that a validation of the positive progress that the young people are making as a result of living at the home is not centrally captured.

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Information about this inspection

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 whom it is trying to help, protect and look after. Inspection report children’s home: SC398482 7 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

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Information about this inspection

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: SC398482 8

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Children’s home details

Registered provider: Hillcrest Children’s Services (2) Limited

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: Turnpike Gate House, Alcester Health, Alcester, Warwickshire B49 5JG

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Inspector

Paul Robinson, social care inspector Inspection report children’s home: SC398482 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 looked after children, safeguarding and child protection.

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Inspector

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Inspector

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Inspector

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