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

Inspection report children’s home: 1234243 1 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

The home is registered to care for up to three children and young people who have emotional and/or behavioural difficulties. The home is operated by a large privately owned organisation.

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Information about this children’s home

Inspection dates: 19 to 20 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: 6 December 2016

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good

Overall judgement at last inspection: Requires improvement

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Enforcement action since last inspection:

None Inspection report children’s home: 1234243 2

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Key findings from this inspection

 The home is well led and managed. The manager has taken time to reflect and to implement lessons learned from a difficult previous 12 months. She is child- focused.  The manager provides effective leadership and staff feel well supported.  Staff benefit from regular supervision, team meetings and clinical consultation sessions. These support systems enable staff to offer quality care to the young person who lives at the home. Staff morale is high, care is provided consistently and staff are confident in their roles.  Multi-agency working is effective. Staff communicate well with external agencies. This promotes the young person’s safety.  Direct work with the young person is effective in increasing the young person’s awareness of how to keep safe. Staff make direct work fun and easy to engage with.  The young person enjoys a variety of activities of their choice, both in the home and further afield. This promotes positive emotional well-being and increases

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

06/12/2016 Full Requires improvement 12/10/2016 Full Inadequate Inspection report children’s home: 1234243 3

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Since the last inspection, the home voluntarily closed for a period of several months. It reopened during the summer and a young person was admitted. At the time of this inspection, there was one young person in placement.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff and the managers carefully planned and prepared for the new young person to move into the home. As a result, the transition was smooth and the young person quickly settled. In a short time, the young person has made important progress, especially regarding their behaviour and ability to keep themselves safe. This is significant, as the young person has previously struggled to manage their behaviour and frustration.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

The young person has maintained the education placement they had prior to moving to the home. This has helped to promote continuity. The young person can sometimes struggle with boundaries and with social situations at school. Staff from the home and from school work very closely together to ensure that the young person is given appropriate support in both settings. This helps to make education more accessible. The young person continues to achieve well and has a very good attendance record.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Supported by staff, the young person has taken responsibility for their own health. They attend health appointments and have shown staff that they are capable of administering their own medication. As a result, the young person is able to have their own medication stored in their room. This also helps to promote the young person’s independence. Managers and staff make good use of consultation sessions with a psychologist from the company’s clinical service. Sessions are used to consider how to best meet the young person’s emotional needs. As a result, the young person receives highly nurturing and individualised care, which enables them to feel safe and secure. A previous carer said: ‘the young person is more relaxed and is happier’.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff support contact with friends and family. Staff recognise the importance of the young person having social time with their friends but put boundaries in place, and make checks, like any parent would. The young person enjoys spending time with staff and engaging in a variety of activities. The young person has taken up horse-riding, goes trampolining and enjoys watching films with staff. The home environment feels warm and friendly. The walls are adorned with pictures of staff and the young person. There are books to read, crafting activities to pick up and a large garden to spend time in. At the young person’s request, the garden will soon have a rabbit and hutch. This demonstrates how staff listen to the young person’s views and requests, which helps the young person feel valued. In discussion with the inspector, the young person said that they felt things were getting better, they liked their room and were looking forward to

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

caring for their pet rabbit. Inspection report children’s home: 1234243 4

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

Staff have worked closely with the young person to support them to understand how to keep themselves safe. Staff have used imaginative ways of making learning about safety fun and exciting. For example, the staff and young person played a card game which has been designed to raise awareness about sexting.

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

There is a comprehensive risk management document which helps to identify any risks or areas of concern for the young person. This document provides staff with strategies to prevent and respond to any incidents of concern. If new risks emerge or situations change, the risk assessment is amended accordingly. This helps to ensure that the young person becomes increasingly safe. In addition, close multi-agency working and information sharing ensure that the young person is kept safe. Staff are trained in safeguarding children and they demonstrate a good understanding of their responsibilities to protect children from harm, including the home’s whistleblowing policy.

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

The young person currently living at the home has not had any periods of unauthorised absence or going missing since they moved in to the home. This is significant progress, as being missing from home was a concern for the young person previously. If the young person were to go missing, staff have a clear protocol to follow, which would include searching for the young person and alerting relevant authorities.

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

Behaviour is managed well. Staff use a variety of techniques, including de-escalation techniques, to calm situations down. As a result, there have been no incidents of negative behaviour and the home is calm and settled. Physical intervention has not been used since the home reopened; however, staff are trained should the need arise in the future.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The home is led by an experienced manager. She holds the appropriate qualifications to manage a children’s home. A dedicated staff team, some of whom have worked at the home for a number of years, supports her.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The manager is reflective about the home’s performance over the last 12 months. She and the staff have had opportunities to use team meetings and clinical consultation sessions to reflect on lessons learned. She is putting this learning into practice. For example, the manager is determined to ensure that any new placements are well matched and that the staff can meet young people’s needs. This is working, as the young person currently living in the home is thriving.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

New staff are supported well through their probationary period and benefit from a thorough induction. Staff have access to a variety of online and face-to-face training and have already completed, or are in the process of completing, their level 3 qualification in residential childcare. This will ensure that a skilled and well-qualified staff team cares for young people who live in the home. Inspection report children’s home: 1234243 5 Multi-agency working is a strength of the home. All stakeholders contacted as part of the inspection confirmed that communication is of good quality and frequent and that the manager and staff advocate for the young person when needed. This means that partnership working is effective in promoting consistent care and support to meet the young person’s needs.

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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: 1234243 6

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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

Catherine Honey, social care inspector Inspection report children’s home: 1234243 7 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

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Inspector

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Inspector

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