Children's home run by Hillcrest Children’s Services Ltd in Havant

Inspection report children’s home: SC482293 1 SC482293 Registered provider: Hillcrest Children’s Services 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 privately owned children’s home provides care and accommodation for up to seven young people who have emotional and/or behavioural difficulties. Young people are supported towards independence through utilising the two self-contained flats on the premises.

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Overall experiences and progress of

children and young people, taking into account

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outstanding

How well children and young people are helped and protected good

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outstanding

The effectiveness of leaders and managers outstanding

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outstanding

The children’s home provides highly effective services that consistently exceed the standards of good. The actions of the children’s home contribute to significantly improved outcomes and positive experiences for children and young people who need help, protection and care.

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outstanding

Date of last inspection: 12 December 2016

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outstanding

Overall judgement at last inspection: Good

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Enforcement action since last inspection:

None Inspection report children’s home: SC482293 2

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Key findings from this inspection

This children’s home is outstanding because:

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Key findings from this inspection

 Young people make outstanding progress while living in the home.  Staff provide excellent quality of care to young people through a consistent approach.  Young people’s life chances are enhanced by living in the home.  Leaders, managers and staff are nurturing and innovative in their practice, constantly striving to support young people to achieve their best.  Young people enjoy a wide variety of activities and experiences which enable them to develop positive life skills, increase in confidence and improve their self-esteem.  Leaders, managers and staff are inspirational and motivational; they have high expectations and aspirations for those in their care.  Young people are fully involved in decisions that are made about their plans and care.  Staff are able to support young people through difficult and challenging situations utilising the excellent relationships they have with them.  Young people lead healthy lifestyles and learn positive ways to manage their

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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

 Safeguarding documentation and records viewed do not provide an explicit record of events, actions and outcomes. In one case, managers had not followed the home’s policies and procedures regarding actions required following a concern being raised.  Records of physical intervention are not consistently clear and, in some cases, include errors which have not been identified through monitoring processes.

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

12/12/2016 Full Good 18/05/2016 Interim Improved effectiveness 12/11/2015 Full Outstanding 28/04/2015 Interim Sustained effectiveness Inspection report children’s home: SC482293 3

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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 to respond promptly where any issues or trends of concern emerge. The review should provide the opportunity for amending practice to ensure it meets the needs of each child, specifically to ensure records are true and accurate. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 49 paragraph 9.59)

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Recommendations

 The policy for the protection of children from abuse of neglect should be available and explained to children and their families as well as to all staff, whatever their role. The registered person must make sure that all staff are familiar with this policy and act in accordance with it, in particular how to use it to report a concern. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 44 paragraph 9.21)

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: outstanding

Young people who have lived at the home for a significant period make outstanding progress. Those who have arrived recently have settled very well. They have built very good relationships with each other and staff, and they do exceptionally well. Young people benefit from living in this home; they learn positive ways to self-regulate and manage their emotions and feelings and, over time, become confident, happy and enthusiastic. They are developing and learning essential life skills which promote their future life chances.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: outstanding

Each young person is fully engaged in education and makes exceptional academic progress. Some young people have taken exams earlier than expected. Young people report that they enjoy and love school. They are all encouraged to take part in extra- curricular activities of their choosing, such as taking up new sports. Staff maintain very good relationships with education providers and, together, consistently ensure a bespoke approach for each young person.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: outstanding

Young people are well supported to seek help and advice for their physical and emotional health needs. Staff help them to overcome fears and anxieties associated with medical care. This has enabled young people to attend routine medical appointments and reviews. A young person asked for help to manage his emotions and staff supported him to refer to specialist health services, which he has begun to engage with. The organisation which owns the home offers young people supplementary health Inspection report children’s home: SC482293 4 therapies and services which young people access; these further promote their emotional well-being. Staff support young people to talk about their emotions and feelings, encouraging them to discuss what they find difficult or the challenging situations that they experience. Staff are always available, and offer lots of opportunities for one-to-one conversations throughout the day. Young people regularly

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: outstanding

use these opportunities for informal chats and find them helpful.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: outstanding

Staff proactively encourage young people to have healthy lifestyles: each has a balanced diet, eats healthily and undertakes daily physical exercise and activity. A young person has benefited by becoming more active, achieving a healthier weight and developing positive ways to manage frustrations and anxieties. Mealtimes are an important time in the home, during which all young people gather together and enjoy talking about the ups and downs of their day. Staff have open and honest conversations with young people, encouraging them to self-review their behaviours and what they could do differently next time. Young people are fully involved in, and positively influence, all decisions made each day, including activities, holidays and improvements made to the home.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: outstanding

Young people enjoy the wide variety of activities on offer in the home, and they make good use of the home’s gym and art area. Young people particularly enjoy the off-site activities. These include bike rides, cinema, skiing, canoeing, swimming, camping and adventure holidays, which they attend several times a year. These activities offer young people new experiences and opportunities which test their fears and anxieties. Young people gain a real sense of achievement and accomplishment from taking part and completing these activities. Young people enjoy playing computer games, chess and other high-quality board games with peers, with lively competitions and tournaments in which young people both compete and support each other to learn the games and their rules.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: outstanding

Each young person makes good progress in developing their independence, life and personal care skills. Some do much better than expected. They assist with daily household chores alongside their weekly ‘independent cooking activity’ for which they choose, plan, shop and cook their meal with support. Young people learn how to live alongside others, and learn to consider how their behaviour impacts on those around them. Staff encourage young people to apologise to peers for their behaviour if it has negatively impacted them.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: outstanding

Regular key-work sessions are used to develop relationships and for staff to provide good-quality and bespoke education and advice about essential topics and information, such as how to keep themselves safe in the community and the possible negative impact of some friendships. Young people are involved and make informed choices about their care and future plans.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: outstanding

Young people have established secure relationships with staff and seek affection and reassurance from them when anxious or upset. The knowledgeable staff demonstrate that they fully understand the needs and challenges that each young person faces; this enables staff to support young people well at times of high anxiety. Staff actively Inspection report children’s home: SC482293 5 encourage all young people to lead active and healthy lifestyles. They offer a wide variety of activities that young people enjoy, which stimulate and promote their growth of confidence and self-esteem.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: outstanding

Staff support young people to establish, maintain and build positive relationships with family and friends. Staff go the extra mile to support young people and their families to have good-quality time with family and friends, and sensitively help young people to manage disappointment when time with family members does not go as planned.

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

There is a good safeguarding culture in the home; staff have a clear knowledge and understanding of the risks that young people face and what is required to manage and minimise them.

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

Staff respond robustly to concerns and make referrals to other professionals when required. Overall, they are swift to respond to concerns and implement strategies to reduce and manage risk. However, staff did not refer one incident as required prior to them internally exploring the matter. The audit trail does not provide an explicit record of this event and staff actions.

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

Staff response to complaints has improved; records detail all concerns raised and investigated. A timely response is provided to the complainant. Staff complete a review of the response with the young person concerned to explore their views and understanding and to ensure that the young person’s worries have been fully addressed

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

Staff continually review and update risk assessments and plans; these provide good practical guidance to staff, which they use well to manage and minimise risk.

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

Staff are clear and consistent about expected behaviours and boundaries in the home. They are proactive in their approach, and they intervene, defuse and de-escalate situations well. Staff are trained in the home’s preferred method of behaviour management. Staff seek to avoid the use of physical intervention, using a wide variety of de-escalation strategies as alternatives. Plans detail agreed approaches for each young person, including calming techniques. Records are detailed but require development as they are not consistently clear or easily interpreted. For example, one record was not sufficiently explicit about how long an intervention should be used for.

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

In general, the sanctions that are used are restorative and are appropriately linked to the underlying cause for the behaviour. Staff initially seek young people’s views, with a more detailed exploration of views gained at a later date. Records show that young people are reviewing their behaviour and its impact and are considering how they can alter their behaviours in future. For example, a young person was unkind to another child and later wrote a letter to apologise. Inspection report children’s home: SC482293 6 Staff celebrate young people’s achievements through praise, rewards, certificates and celebrations. Young people are proud of their personal achievements and support peers by reminding them of their achievements, too. The home has many photographs on display of young people’s achievements, in particular when they have overcome fears or successfully met challenges.

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

Safer recruitment processes are followed, and thorough records demonstrate that all necessary information is gathered pre-employment.

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

The home environment is safe, well presented and maintained, with all required checks completed.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

A confident and ambitious manager and team of senior staff effectively manage the home. Managers have embraced and acted on previous areas of weakness identified, swiftly implementing actions and plans to address and improve these areas. Robust systems monitor and evaluate the quality of care provided by the home. Plans clearly identify areas of weakness, actions and when outcomes are achieved. Minor errors in recording were identified during the inspection. The manager has plans in place to address this.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

Leaders and managers are firmly focused on ensuring good staff knowledge and understanding of the home’s ethos and aims. This is evident in staff practice and interactions with young people. Staff are caring, calm and nurturing in their approach with young people.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

Leaders share with young people their high aspirations for each of them. Young people value and respond positively to these encouraging messages. Leaders demonstrate a good knowledge and understanding of each young person, their needs and circumstances. They act on young people’s comments, thoughts and views and encourage them to raise concerns, worries and complaints with staff.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

Staff access a wide range of training which is suitable for their roles; they have gained level 3 qualifications. Staff are provided with effective, reflective supervision which has a positive impact on their practice. Staff are clear about their professional responsibilities and are accountable for their practice. Managers set targets and review the performance of staff. New staff complete a thorough induction programme, with more frequent supervision sessions throughout.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

Leaders and managers take assertive steps to establish and maintain good links with those outside of the home, and staff support young people to access community events, resources and services. Managers have developed robust, effective working relationships with external professionals and stakeholders, which has a positive impact on plans and consistency of interventions. They have advocated on behalf of young people, helping them to access the services that they are entitled to. Inspection report children’s home: SC482293 7 Managers complete thorough pre-admission processes; placements are successful and well planned due to this. Young people due to arrive at the home are encouraged by the manager to take ownership of their admission by contacting him to discuss their planned move. Those already residing in the home are also fully involved and informed about planned moves to the home.

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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: SC482293 8

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Children’s home details

Registered provider: Hillcrest Children’s Services Limited

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Children’s home details

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

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Inspector(s)

Amanda Maxwell, social care inspector Inspection report children’s home: SC482293 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(s)

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Inspector(s)

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Inspector(s)

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