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

Inspection report children’s home: SC475347 1 SC475347 Registered provider: Horizon Care And Education Group Limited 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 for up to two young people who have emotional and/or behavioural difficulties.

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Information about this children’s home

Inspection dates: 31 August to 1 September 2017

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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: 22 February 2017

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good

Overall judgement at last inspection: improved effectiveness

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good

Enforcement action since last inspection: none

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Key findings from this inspection

 Young people are happy and settled here.  Young people have experienced stability and good routines for two years.  Staff make warm, positive and lasting relationships with young people. Inspection report children’s home: SC475347 2  Young people enjoy a wealth of activities and an active lifestyle.  Young people attend education and get very good support from staff to sustain attendance.  Young people enjoy good amounts of quality time with their relatives.  Young people get good help from staff and professionals in relation to their physical and emotional health.  Young people get good advice and guidance about staying safe.  Staff and the manager are organised and work well with young people’s social workers, relatives, therapists and teachers.

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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 sometimes remove privileges and fall back on using sanctions that undermine their usual restorative, positive, therapeutic approaches.  Staff and the manager do not consult enough about young people’s long-term plans to best prepare young people for the future.  The manager does not always inform Ofsted about incidents that he has deemed to be serious.

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

22/02/2017 Interim Improved effectiveness 01/09/2016 Full Good 15/03/2016 Interim Improved effectiveness 30/06/2015 Full Good Inspection report children’s home: SC475347 3

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Recommendations

 Ensure that children are supported to develop understanding and empathy towards each other. Positive behaviour and relationships should be reinforced, praised and encouraged; poor behaviour should be challenged and discussed. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 39, paragraph 8.11)

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Recommendations

 Ensure that the registered person and their staff engage proactively with the placing authority to contribute fully to the relevant plans for the child’s care on an ongoing basis. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 56, paragraph 11.3.) This is with particular reference to having timely, regular conversations with independent reviewing officers and social workers about children’s long-term care plans, in order for staff to play a full role in helping children to understand, adjust and prepare for changes.

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Recommendations

 Ensure that serious concerns over a child’s missing behaviour are notified to Ofsted, particularly where the child is considered to be at grave risk due to age or vulnerability or where they have been missing for a considerable period of time and their whereabouts is unknown. Homes should also consider the frequency of incidents and judge whether their cumulative effect makes notification appropriate even if in isolation each event would not warrant this. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 63, paragraph 14.11)

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Two young people have lived here for two years. Staff consistently show young people genuine warmth and insightful care. Since the last inspection, a few staff members that young people were close to have left. All staff have given young people good help to adjust to these changes. Young people therefore have good memories about staff that have left and enjoy talking about them. Young people have also become more resilient and mature about making new relationships. They report feeling safe, secure and settled with long-standing and new staff alike. The extent to which staff include young people in their own lives is just right. This means that young people trust staff. One young person’s social worker said, ‘They genuinely care for him. They always have his best interests at heart.’

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Young people live an active, healthy lifestyle and have good daily routines. They particularly enjoy the regular cycling, rock climbing, swimming and camping activities that staff do with them. They have made good progress in using their time productively. Inspection report children’s home: SC475347 4 For example, young people take better care of themselves, their bedrooms and their possessions. They enjoy playing and spending time in the dens under their new raised beds. They help more often with cooking, laundry and shopping. They are more involved in conversations with staff about their behaviour, feelings and relationships. Their progress results clearly from the quality of care given by staff. One member of staff told the inspector that, ‘I want to encourage, motivate and nurture them. It is about being able to build a relationship of trust and understanding. It is providing life coaching and a

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Young people get good-quality help to develop their relationships with their parents and brothers and sisters. Staff are welcoming and friendly to young people’s family members. Staff help young people to plan and have an enjoyable time with their relatives. Staff provide transport and a warm welcome to relatives that come to the house. Staff help and advise young people about how to manage their feelings about their individual situation. They discuss any complex matters with young people’s social workers and therapists, so that young people get sensitive help and consistent messages. This means that young people’s relationships with their families improve and their understanding of their situation improves too.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff support young people with their education. Staff understand that young people’s emotional and behavioural difficulties are the main barrier to success at school. Staff therefore guide and empathise with young people about their daily school experience. Staff come to meetings, celebrations and events at school. Staff make sure that young people are well prepared, emotionally and practically, for the start of new terms. Some young people are making good progress in their learning because of this. When young people continue to struggle in school, the manager works well with social workers, teachers and independent reviewing officers (IROs) to seek out the right alternative placements with minimum interruption to the young person’s routine.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Young people are not clear about their long-term plans and this sometimes unsettles them. Sometimes young people say that they want to move to a foster family rather than be in a children’s home. Social workers and staff sometimes interpret young people’s negative behaviour as an indicator that they do not want to be here. One social worker said, ‘Ideally to move to foster care might be worth talking about, but I want to talk to the home about it and with the IRO.’ Staff and the manager reassure young people that they are cared for here and will get all the help that they need to fulfil their potential. However, staff and the manager do not play the fullest part in helping young people adjust to, and prepare for, changes to their plans. Staff do not have regular enough conversations with independent reviewing officers and social workers about future plans or how best to include and prepare young people.

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

Young people get good help to become increasingly safe. They continue to struggle with anger and frustration, but staff quickly identify when tension is ‘bubbling up’. Staff often look behind the behaviour to see what reasons may lie behind it. Staff talk things through with young people, give lots of reassurance and plenty of chances to learn from Inspection report children’s home: SC475347 5 mistakes. When young people fight, run away, dash into the road or break and damage things, staff act swiftly and supportively to calm the situation down. Afterwards, staff use good learning materials to educate and help young people understand their problems and act more safely. However, staff have recently returned to removing privileges as consequences for fighting, running off in busy roads and unsafe behaviour in the car. Removing privileges, such as access to the television or computer, is inconsistent with

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

the staff’s usual empathic, advisory, therapeutic and restorative approach. It is not in line with the clinician’s behaviour management advice. She said, ‘Stick with the restorative work and wait for an effect over a longer period. Set limits with high levels of empathy for how hard it must be for [young person].’ Nevertheless, the manager said that young people have ‘settled down following a seriously unsettled time’.

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

Young people trust all staff and the manager. Young people have not made any complaints or allegations about any staff members. They know that staff listen to them, help them and keep social workers up to date about any unsafe situations. Staff and the manager follow local authority safeguarding procedures well. For example, they report all incidents of young people going missing to the police. Staff follow young people if they see them go and keep searching for them. Staff make sure that an independent person talks to young people afterwards about why they went missing. Despite taking such incidents seriously, the manager does not always notify Ofsted about them.

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

Staff continuously strive to develop young people’s social lives in a positive way. For example, staff encourage young people to invite friends to the home. Staff show an interest in those that young people mix with in school or at clubs. Staff help young people to use the internet with an awareness that they should only share information with people who they know. If young people make any allegations about other adults, staff report these to the local authority designated officer. Consequently, appropriate professionals undertake investigations and young people are safeguarded.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The long-standing registered manager is present each weekday. He is an effective leader for the staff team, despite holding some wider management responsibilities in the organisation. Young people love to talk to him about what they are doing. Staff understand his well-organised systems and make sure that they are used to them to ensure that young people know what is happening and who is looking after them. Staff are well prepared for their shifts and provide young people with stable routines, fun and opportunities. The manager maintains good oversight of the day-to-day care of the home. For example, he reads the notes of young people’s weekly meeting and writes back to them individually about all the matters that they raise.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The manager comes to the home in the evenings and weekends if crises arise. He supports the staff team well and provides both young people with unconditional positive regard. He uses good humour and reassurance to very good effect. He finds that it gives young people a way of calming down from serious incidents without suffering any humiliation. The manager actively promotes tolerance as a skill for living. He provides both staff and young people with time to reflect on the feelings that incidents give rise Inspection report children’s home: SC475347 6 to.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The manager has good working relationships with all other professionals. He ensures that the work that they all do with young people is effective and understood. For example, he negotiated for one young person to receive a few more visits from a trusted professional who had helped with his family contact meetings for a number of years. This gave the young person time to get used to the fact that he would no longer see a trusted adult who played an important part in his life. Similarly, the manager and a young person’s therapist discuss the likely impact on the young person of meeting family members that they had not seen for a number of years. The manager and therapist planned carefully, aiming to maximise the benefits to the young person, while minimising further stress to him.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The manager discusses young people’s care plans with social workers, but does not go as far as he could in consulting with social workers and independent reviewing officers about the timing and content of young people’s long-term options. As a result, young people are not sure if their behaviour and progress affect whether they stay here or move on to foster care.

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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: SC475347 7

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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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Inspector

Rachel Britten: social care inspector Inspection report children’s home: SC475347 8 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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