Children's Home run by Hillcrest Children's Services (2) Limited in Telford and Wrekin

Inspection report children’s home: SC398480 1 SC398480 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

A large, national company operates this service. Ofsted has registered the home to care for up to five children who have emotional and/or behavioural difficulties. The manager must reduce the number of children by the number of people aged 18 and over for which the home also provides care and accommodation.

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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

Overall judgement at last inspection: Sustained effectiveness

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Key findings from this inspection

 Children feel safe and enjoy living here. Inspection report children’s home: SC398480 2  The service benefits from expert, clinical advice.  The majority of children make good progress and pursue enjoyable hobbies.  Staff give education a high priority and seek alternatives, when necessary.  Those children who are moving to greater independence learn the necessary skills.  The manager takes lessons from events and endeavours to implement them in practice.  Children’s lifestyles and activities reflect the good relationships that they enjoy with staff.  Staff treat children with respect and de-escalate difficult situations, which helps minimise the use of physical interventions.

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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

 Some elements of the management of the service are not strong. For example, engagement with children prior to admission, where practicable and appropriate, is lacking.  Children’s involvement with their records is not established.  Insufficiently robust shift handovers and supervision meetings mean that staff do not always update documents or familiarise themselves with new or amended documents. These shortfalls compromise children’s progress.

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

02/03/2017 Interim Sustained effectiveness 30/08/2016 Full Good 10/03/2016 Interim Sustained effectiveness 30/09/2015 Full Good Inspection report children’s home: SC398480 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 care planning standard is that children receive effectively planned care in or through the children’s home. (Regulation 14 (1) (a)) 31/07/2017

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Requirement Due date

Ensure that the manager, having regard to the size of the home, its statement of purpose, and the number and needs of the children, has the appropriate skills to manage the home effectively and lead the care of children. (Regulation 28 (1) (b)) 31/07/2017

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Requirement Due date

Ensure that all employees receive practice-related supervision by a person with appropriate experience. (Regulation 33(4)(b)) This is with regard to ensuring that staff receive supervision that addresses their responsibilities. 31/07/2017

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Recommendations

 Ensure that emergency admissions are not taken unless the home’s statement of purpose and its capacity and support systems mean that it has the capability to care for children admitted at very short notice while continuing to offer high quality care to children already living in the home. This is with regard to making the statement of purpose clear about admissions. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 15, paragraph 3.6)  Ensure that all staff consistently follow the home’s policies and procedures for the benefit of the children in the home’s care. This is with regard to ensuring that all staff are up to date at all times with any new documentation. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 54, paragraph 10.20)  The registered person should have a workforce plan, which can fulfil the workforce related requirements of regulation 16, schedule 1 (paragraphs 19 and

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Recommendations

20). (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 53, paragraph 10.8)  Accept placements for children only where the registered person is satisfied that the home can respond effectively to the child’s assessed needs as recorded in the child’s relevant plans. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the Inspection report children’s home: SC398480 4 quality standards’, page 56, paragraph 11.4)  Ensure that staff are familiar with the home’s policies on record keeping. This is also with regard to providing secure storage on site. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 62, paragraph 14.4)  Ensure that children are actively encouraged to read their records and to add further information to them. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 62, paragraph 14.6)

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

The company has recently begun a series of improvements to the property. As a result, there is now an additional bedroom and a refurbished lounge. The house is clean and comfortable, which addresses a previous inspection requirement. Children have pleasant bedrooms that reflect their individual interests and characters. They have hobbies, including ice-skating, cycling and weight training. The garden now has a large lawn for ball games and other healthy activities.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

After a number of children failed to settle into the home, and the last Ofsted inspection, the manager reviewed the admission processes. The focus is now on slightly younger children. New children benefit from careful consideration of their needs, especially regarding the existing residents. However, staff take insufficient advantage of the time between agreement and admission to obtain as much information as possible about each child. This increases the potential risk of placements breaking down. All the children are extremely sensitive to the impact that a new child can have, and staff handle their feelings sensitively. Staff liaise closely with parents and social workers, however far away they are. The statement of purpose does not clearly describe the preferred, planned, approach to admissions but this shortfall has minimal impact on children.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children feel comfortable once they are accustomed to the boundaries. One social worker reported that her child had settled well compared to his previous placements. She described his engagement with the therapists as a ‘breakthrough’, which was having significant benefits. Children establish good relationships with all the staff, whether they are care staff or therapists. The range of consultation exercises mean that staff understand the children and contribute meaningfully to discussions with therapists or other professionals, such as mental health workers. Consequently, children feel less frustrated and engage well in activities on and off site.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Most children engage thoroughly in their education programmes, which often include attending the organisation’s school. Attendance rates are high, and staff help children progress by providing or seeking additional support. Some children have increased their attendance rates substantially. Older children have packages of education that suit their needs. Inspection report children’s home: SC398480 5 Two young people are currently learning the necessary skills for greater independence. One has the benefit of a self-contained flat. In addition, they are enthusiastically learning new skills that create additional opportunities and improve their self-esteem, including learning to drive. One has completed a refereeing course, which provides a source of income. The social worker for one young person wrote recently, ‘Since moving here, [he] has moved on with his independence skills exceptionally well.’ Young people make

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

significant progress with tasks such as budgeting and shopping. Whenever possible, their transitions to new placements occur gradually. Young people appreciate this and feel less anxious as a result. It is an important contribution to helping them feel equal to their peers.

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

Serious incidents, such as children going missing, decline markedly over time. New children and those who have decided that they would rather live elsewhere, figure highly in this data. Children change their behaviour as they learn more about the causes. The clinicians help staff adapt their strategies to meet each child’s needs. In the majority of cases, the placing social workers arrange to meet children who have been missing, in order to understand the causes. Where this does not occur, the manager challenges the authority.

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

Staff encourage positive behaviour through a combination of explanation, prevention, rewards and consequences. Since the last inspection, records have started to show how staff utilise the principles of therapeutic parenting when they interact with the children. External professionals note that staff apply boundaries consistently. This is a significant improvement, which is important to children. This contributes to the consistency and effectiveness of staff. However, staff do not routinely read about changes to children’s behaviour management strategies although they usually receive the information verbally. This system is not sufficiently robust.

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

Safety and security in and around the office continues to be a concern. Staff’s attention to this has improved markedly, which has reduced the likelihood of children taking car keys, valuables or other items. Following the last inspection, there is now adequate attention to educating staff and children about fire safety. The organisation treats any fire-safety risks posed by children seriously. For example, one bedroom door opens outwards to prevent a child barricading themselves inside their room.

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

The manager’s closer focus on admissions means that children are more compatible with each other and therefore feel safe in the home. Children tell staff if they feel threatened or bullied and know how to escalate any concerns, if the need arises. Staff educate children to tolerate idiosyncrasies in others. The level of such concerns is low but the company deals thoroughly with each one.

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

Staff understand and address the type and level of risks posed by each child. This effectively reduces the risks that children face. For example, children occasionally benefit from additional staff support. Written assessments describe the risk assessments in Inspection report children’s home: SC398480 6 detail. However, senior staff are not ensuring that staff read such documents. This increases the risk of discrepancies in practice arising between staff. The risks from any sort of radicalisation are low.

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

The manager has a relevant qualification, and Ofsted first registered him in 2010. However, leadership of the service requires improvement to be good. Senior staff pay insufficient attention to ensuring that their teams routinely address some core tasks. The supervision of all staff during the handover of shifts and in their one-to-one meetings lacks sufficient rigour. As a result, staff do not read documents containing important information, such as risk assessments and team meeting minutes. Some staff do not adequately address their delegated responsibilities. For example, some placement plans, key-worker plans, and weekly planners lack sufficient meaningful content. This creates a significant potential risk of children not progressing as well as possible, or of staff not taking important actions. One supervisor takes confidential records of one-to-one meetings off site, which jeopardises confidentiality. This indicates a further shortfall in

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

Children’s engagement in their records is not established. For example, it is not clear that they all understand the plans that staff have for them.

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

The staff team is now complete and is going through a period of consolidation. The team has an appropriate balance of genders and has a sufficient number of qualified and experienced members. About half the team members are qualified, and most staff are up to date with their training. However, the manager does not have a current workforce plan in place with which to coordinate his team.

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

A new computer system is now in use. This substantial change is an improvement over the previous system and aims to reduce the duplication of records. Staff are investigating how children can sign their records.

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

Given the shortfalls identified during this inspection, the formal monitoring systems used to check the quality of the service are insightful. Children’s opinions play a key part and show that children and their social workers feel positive about the service. Until now, staff have consulted children individually. The manager is considering having house meetings that involve everyone. The social workers feel that issues such as the quality of communication by staff and quality of children’s bedrooms are either good or excellent, which is to the credit of the team. Inspection report children’s home: SC398480 7

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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 differences 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.

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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: SC398480 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

David Morgan, social care inspector Inspection report children’s home: SC398480 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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