Children's Home run by Hillcrest Children’s Services Ltd in Hampshire

Inspection report children’s home: SC012001 1 SC012001 Registered provider: Hillcrest Children’s Services Limited Full inspection Inspected under the social care common inspection framework

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Information about this children’s home

The home offers care and accommodation for up to six children who have emotional and/or behavioural difficulties. Currently, only girls are accommodated.

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Information about this children’s home

Inspection dates: 31 January to 1 February 2018

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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 outstanding

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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

Overall judgement at last inspection: good

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outstanding

Enforcement action since last inspection: none Inspection report children’s home: SC012001 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

 Children benefit from strong relationships with staff who are skilled at delivering the organisation’s model of care.

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Key findings from this inspection

 The children are making exceptional progress, particularly in relation to their education attendance and attainment.

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Key findings from this inspection

 Behaviour management is extremely effective; children are supported to regulate their behaviour and emotions and they develop coping strategies.

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Key findings from this inspection

 Excellent risk management helps to keep the children safe.

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Key findings from this inspection

 The registered manager is key to the success 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

 Children’s case files do not contain all the required documentation from the placing authority.

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Key findings from this inspection

 Supervision between the responsible individual and the manager does not take place at the frequency outlined in the organisational policy.

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Key findings from this inspection

 Reports from the independent person do not provide sufficient challenge.

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

28/03/2017 Full Good 12/09/2016 Interim Improved effectiveness 18/01/2016 Interim Sustained effectiveness 10/09/2015 Full Good Inspection report children’s home: SC012001 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 registered person must maintain records ("case records") for each child which include the information and documents listed in Schedule 3 in relation to each child. (Regulation 36 (1)(a)) 30/04/2018

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Recommendations

 The registered person must have systems in place so that all staff, including the manager, receive supervision of their practice (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 61, paragraph 13.2). In particular, the registered manager should receive regular supervision from the responsible individual.

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Recommendations

 Any individual appointed to carry out visits to the home as an independent person must make a rigorous and impartial assessment of the home’s arrangements for safeguarding and promoting the welfare of the children in the home’s care (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 65, paragraph 15.5).

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: outstanding

Well-planned moves into the home contribute to the long-term stability of children’s placements. Work undertaken by the manager prior to children moving in includes a process where the children agree to the arrangements, rules and expectations of behaviour that underpin the model of care used. This helps the children to know what to expect, as well as proving an opportunity for them to seek support and ask questions if required. The new cohort of children have settled in extremely well as a result of this approach and are currently in the process of learning what the model of care means to them on a day-to-day basis. Inspection report children’s home: SC012001 4 Children benefit immensely from a consistent approach to their care. Committed staff are adept at combining clear guidance and boundary setting with good physical care, warmth and nurture. Comprehensive care plans guide the staff’s practice, personalised

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: outstanding

bedrooms provide the children with their own space and the numerous inspirational quotes and rules that are sensitively displayed on the walls help to keep the children focused. The home itself is clean, tidy and extremely homely; it provides the children with a safe and secure environment where they are able to develop a strong sense of belonging.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: outstanding

A well-established ‘family’ atmosphere that has been developed and led by the manager, enables the children to build and strengthen their relationships with the staff and the other children. The routine involvement of staff in children’s daily lives enables staff and children to spend quality time together as well as providing an opportunity to learn new personal and social skills. During the inspection, the children were observed sharing staff time, competing for attention, engaging in various activities and testing boundaries as well as undertaking household tasks. As a result, the children are able to express how they feel and they learn from and/or guide each other. More importantly, they live well together.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: outstanding

Children are engaged with full-time education and attend regularly. Recognising that the majority of the children have previously had negative education experiences, including disruption in attendance, the staff and teachers work well in partnership to overcome these barriers. The staff regularly support the children during the school day and teaching staff will often go round to the home and stay for tea. This, coupled with shared goals and targets across both settings and a consistent approach to supporting and rewarding positive behaviour, has encouraged the children to engage in learning.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: outstanding

The staff and managers also have high aspirations for the children and want them to succeed. Their holistic approach includes using educational activities, key-work sessions and workbooks to broaden the children’s knowledge and experiences. As a result, all of the children have made exceptional progress since their arrival.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: outstanding

Great efforts are made to seek the views and opinions of the children, including routinely planning weekly house meetings. However, the meetings are not very well attended. Preferring a less formal approach, the children actively engage in daily conversations and community meetings with the staff about all areas of their lives. Topics discussed range from choosing activities and menus and managing any conflict within the group. Committed to ensuring that the children feel listened to, the manager has introduced a ‘you said – we did’ approach. The children told the inspector about things that had changed because of this, including the purchase of some gym equipment to help children to manage their energy and emotions. This was proving to be very popular.

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

Strong relationships between the staff and the children provide the foundation for behaviour management. Focusing on positive behaviour, the staff help the children to learn strategies to cope and to manage their emotions through a variety of methods, Inspection report children’s home: SC012001 5 some of which include rewarding good behaviour. This approach, combined with the proportionate response and intervention of staff, has resulted in a decrease in children’s negative behaviour. As a result, incidents and notifications to Ofsted are minimal.

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

When children’s behaviour does become challenging, the staff follow the clear protocols that are in place to support them. A restorative approach and close working with the neighbourhood police have reduced offending and prevented the unnecessary criminalisation of the children. This approach recognises the children’s vulnerabilities and the impact a criminal record could have on their future career choices. In-depth follow- up work following incidents, facilitated by the staff in key-work sessions and community meetings, provides children with the opportunity to explore their negative behaviour in a safe environment. As a result, children are learning to regulate their behaviour and emotions and are becoming more resilient.

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

Risk management is embedded into practice. Children’s vulnerabilities are known and understood by the staff and there are clear strategies in place to manage them. Risk assessment documents are ‘live’ and are continually evaluated and updated following any significant event. A recent example of this included allowing a young person to have some planned free time at her request, with the use of a mobile phone for security, having successfully worked towards this goal. This adjustment led to a range of positive outcomes: the child felt trusted by the staff, she became more confident in herself, her self-esteem increased and she learned to become more independent.

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

Close working arrangements with the wider professional network help to keep the children safe. Staff routinely check arrangements with placing social workers to ensure that decisions are appropriate. However, the inspector identified gaps in documentation that should be evident at the time of children’s admission, including placement and care plans. The impact of this on children has been minimal, but the absence of these documents could potentially lead to the staff not knowing the longer-term plan for children or not being clear about their decision-making authority.

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

Established systems for dealing with complaints are effective in resolving issues. Strong relationships with the staff give children the confidence to express their frustrations in the knowledge that they will be listened to. Records show that concerns are thoroughly investigated by the manager in a timely way and that action is taken to provide a satisfactory outcome. Written responses always acknowledge the feelings involved and community meetings provide an opportunity to discuss matters further. The manager has also attempted to address concerns from neighbours and, as a result, relationships are improving.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

The registered manager’s influential style and approach have had a positive impact on both the children and the staff. Using her wealth of knowledge and experience, she has created a learning culture that benefits everyone. The staff have learned how to put the underpinning model of care into practice through her direct work with the children and, as a result, the children have learned how to build and sustain relationships with adults. Inspection report children’s home: SC012001 6 New staff who have been appointed to the team have benefited from a comprehensive induction programme. The manager is in the process of helping these staff members to settle in using her coaching and mentoring style. Staff who were spoken to at the time of the inspection said that they felt the training had prepared them well to undertake the role; they felt supported by the team and described the manager as always being

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

available for advice. This was evident at the time of the inspection.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

Supervision of staff follows good practice guidance. Records viewed during the inspection clearly evidenced discussions that covered all elements of the roles and tasks. The records evidence that staff have the opportunity to reflect on their practice and that they receive debriefs following incidents. This approach helps managers to identify any gaps in staff knowledge, as well as informing their development plans. As a result, all staff are up to date with their training.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

Close working relationships between the registered manager and the responsible individual contribute to the excellent management arrangements that are in place. However, the gaps in the frequency of supervision between them are a missed opportunity to ensure that agreed decisions and actions arising from their frequent discussions are formally recorded. The responsible individual has undertaken to address fully this shortfall in recording.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

Striving for excellence, leaders and managers continually look for ways to improve the service. Effective monitoring arrangements identify areas that need to be addressed in the home as well as common themes within the organisation. One example of this is an analysis of unplanned placement endings for children. Recognising that this is not always in the best interests of children, proactive strategies have been put in place to prevent this becoming a concern. As a result, children move on from the home in a planned way.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

Other systems that are used to monitor the home ensure that the manager is able to maintain the excellent oversight of the service. Using a mixture of direct work, the reviewing of records and direct observation, the review of the service is very comprehensive. However, the visits undertaken by the independent person do not complement this. This lack of scrutiny means that the manager lacks a ‘critical friend’ to help drive improvements from an external perspective.

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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 Inspection report children’s home: SC012001 7 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: SC012001 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 B49 5JG

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Inspector

Amanda Harvey: social care inspector Inspection report children’s home: SC012001 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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