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

Inspection report children’s home: SC475323 1 SC475323 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 provide care for three young people who have emotional and/or behavioural difficulties. The home forms part of a large social care company.

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Information about this children’s home

Inspection dates: 28 February to 1 March 2018

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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

Overall judgement at last inspection: sustained effectiveness

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good

Enforcement action since last inspection: none Inspection report children’s home: SC475323 2

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Key findings from this inspection

 Staff are warm, approachable and empathic towards young people.  Young people trust staff and like living here.  New young people receive a warm welcome to the home.  Staff and managers show skill in helping and protecting young people from exploitation.  Young people feel safe and their risk-taking behaviour reduces.  Staff help young people to stay in contact with friends and family.  Staff and managers engage well with young people’s family and friends.  Staff and managers listen to young people and advocate for them.  Staff and managers provide good quality support when young people move out of the home.

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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

 Incidents and complaints occur when young people do not get continuity of care from staff that they know well.  Staff and managers do not review their reasons for using alarms on each young person’s bedroom door.  Staff and managers are not proactive or consistent in helping young people collect memorabilia of their time here.  Young people experience sudden changes of care plan because the organisation and placing authorities do not always plan and communicate effectively.

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

29/03/2017 Interim Sustained effectiveness 25/08/2016 Full Outstanding 23/03/2016 Interim Sustained effectiveness 06/10/2015 Full Good Inspection report children’s home: SC475323 3

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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 ensuring that staff, social workers and young people regularly discuss and review long-term plans and the appropriateness of changes and moves, in an open and skilled manner.  Ensure that the responsible individual supervises the management of the home as set out in the definition of a Responsible Individual in regulation 2. They should have an understanding of both effective practice in responding to the needs of looked-after children and of local authority care planning duties and how children’s homes are required to support these. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 60, paragraph 12.3)

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Recommendations

This is with particular reference to ensuring that communication and decision- making is in place when young people are being moved between homes, so that young people are not let down at the last minute unnecessarily.  Ensure that the home’s records on each child represent a significant contribution to their life history. Children and their parents should be supported to understand the nature of records kept by the home and how to access them. Staff should understand their important role in encouraging the child to reflect on and understand their history, according to their age and understanding. Staff should keep and encourage children to keep appropriate memorabilia of the time spent living at the home and help them record significant life events. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 62, paragraph 14.5)  Ensure that staff continually and actively assess the risks to each child and the

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Recommendations

arrangements in place to protect them. Where there are safeguarding concerns for a child, their placement plan, agreed between the home and their placing authority, must include details of the steps the home will take to manage any assessed risks on a day to day basis. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 42, paragraph 9.5) This is with particular reference to continually assessing whether each young person requires the use of bedroom door alarms to safeguard them from harm.  Plan staffing levels to ensure that they meet the needs of children and can respond flexibly to unexpected events or opportunities. Staffing structures should promote continuity of care from the child’s perspective. If children complain, or give a view on how the staffing structure could be improved to promote the best care for them, appropriate action should be taken. (‘Guide to the children’s

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Recommendations

homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 54, paragraph 10.15) This is with particular reference to having a staffing structure that provides a Inspection report children’s home: SC475323 4 large enough core team so that young people are cared for by, and spend time with, staff that they know.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Five young people have lived here in the 11 months since the last inspection. Young people receive good quality care from staff who are trained in therapeutic ways of working. Staff are warm, approachable and empathic towards young people. One young person who recently moved out said, ‘It was a great house – I loved all the staff.’

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Two young people, who had lived here for over a year, recently moved out. One young person moved to local independent living. The other young person moved back to his home area to be nearer to his family and friends. Both young people trusted the staff, and looked to them for advice and help Both young people made good progress in their emotional health and their competence in making and maintaining safe and purposeful relationships. One young person said, ‘They are caring and listen and support. They help us to see our families too.’ The other young person said, ‘They helped me loads with family contact; they also gave me my own furniture.’

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff sensitively welcome new young people to the home. Staff reassure young people and listen to them. Staff know what is important to young people and they are skilful in helping young people to explore educational and healthy activities. Staff take young people to see potential colleges and alternative work experience placements. They support young people in part-time working. Staff cook, shop and maintain the house together with young people, so that young people learn essential life skills. Staff use the internet and local resources to find relevant information and advice for young people. For example, one member of staff worked together with a young person on their joint goal of giving up smoking.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff give young people good send-offs and sustain a commitment to them after they have left. Young people value this. However, one young person left without a record of positive memories of his time at the home. Staff are also slow at helping new young people to start collecting memorabilia. This represents a missed opportunity for young people to have a visual reminder of their positive experiences.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff and the manager communicate well with young people’s placing authorities. A new young person’s social worker told the inspector, ‘They are really proactive. They’ve made a realistic plan and parameters and keep her distracted, and that is really positive.’ However, staff and the manager do not talk regularly with young people and their social workers about the long-term plan, and the timing and advisability of moves. Inspection report children’s home: SC475323 5

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

Staff and managers show skill in helping and protecting young people from exploitation. They use their therapeutic practice training and regularly take clinicians’ advice about how to help young people be safe. Young people’s risk-taking behaviour goes down while they are living here, and they feel better equipped to keep themselves safe when they leave. For example, one young person was going missing from home for weeks at a time before he came here. There were concerns about drug running and criminal behaviour. However, staff helped the young person to see authority figures differently, and incidents have decreased. This progress is because staff show how much they care. One young person’s social worker said, ‘She is keeping in touch and that is down to the staff really.’

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

Staff manage unsafe situations well. They work well with young people’s parents and friends, and make sure that young people feel protected and understood by all those around them. Staff do not criminalise young people unnecessarily if they damage the home or hurt others. Instead, staff help young people with their anger and frustration that gives rise to incidents. For example, staff have helped young people to calm down when misunderstandings or unrealistic expectations occur. Staff also source help for young people from health and other advisers.

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

The quality of safe practice is sometimes compromised when the home’s own staff are not working. Young people rarely complain, but when they do it is because they are unsure about staff cover. Similarly, a few serious incidents, such as young people taking car keys and driving a vehicle around the car park, have happened when agency and cover staff are working.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The home’s registered manager has ambitious vision and ensures that high standards of individualised care are sustained. She knows each young person well and thoroughly oversees each young person’s matching, admission and progress. She supports and supervises staff well.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The registered manager and her acting manager both show good skills in reflecting on the strengths and weaknesses of the home. They know that staff skills in therapeutic care are key to the good progress that young people make. They also know that there is a link between incidents occurring on days when bank and agency members of staff are working. They have also identified that a young person was let down unnecessarily when a move to another of the organisation’s homes was stopped at the very last minute due to poor communication between the homes’ registered managers and regional managers. While staff minimised the negative impact of this on the young person, it was an unnecessary blow that resulted in him refusing to attend school.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Managers make sure that young people are heard, and that they participate in the life of the home. Managers advocate well for each young person and tirelessly seek relevant Inspection report children’s home: SC475323 6 outside support that is specific to their difficulties. Managers actively promote tolerance and challenge ineffective responses from other services. Their practice is individualised overall, and they successfully avoid an institutionalised feel to the home. However, managers do not keep the use of bedroom door alarms under regular review. They do not know if each young person actually needs them in order to be safe.

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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: SC475323 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: SC475323 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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