Children's Home run by Hampshire County Council in Hampshire

Inspection report children’s home: 1254782 1 Registered provider: Hampshire County Council Full inspection Inspected under the social care common inspection framework

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Information about this children’s home

This home is owned and run by the local authority. It is registered to provide care and accommodation for up to four young people who have emotional and/or behavioural difficulties.

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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: this is the home’s first inspection

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good

Overall judgement at last inspection: N/A

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good

Enforcement action since last inspection: none Inspection report children’s home: 1254782 2

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Key findings from this inspection

 The managers have an exceptional understanding of the children’s histories and their needs and know how best to support them.

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Key findings from this inspection

 The children experience trusting relationships with the staff and benefit from their guidance and support.

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Key findings from this inspection

 All of the children engage in education, have good attendance and are progressing well in their studies.

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Key findings from this inspection

 The children are developing their interests and are learning to take care of themselves.

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Key findings from this inspection

 The children are learning to regulate their emotions, leading to improvements in their behaviours.

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Key findings from this inspection

 The managers have a good understanding of the home’s strengths and weaknesses and have ambitious plans for the home’s development.

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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

 The home’s workforce development plan is yet to be implemented and systems for monitoring staff’s training do not allow for gaps in the staff’s knowledge to be easily identified.

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Key findings from this inspection

 The impact risk assessment for one child contained limited analysis of the impact of the child’s behaviour on the existing children.

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Key findings from this inspection

 Recruitment checks are not consistently carried out in line with the regulations. The verification of the reasons why members of staff left previous employment with children or vulnerable adults has not always taken place.

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Recent inspection history

This is the home’s first inspection. Inspection report children’s home: 1254782 3

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Recommendations

 The registered person must ensure that there is a workforce plan in place which contains the information required by guidance. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 54, paragraph 10.8)

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Recommendations

 The workforce plan should be updated to include any new training and qualifications completed by staff while working at the home, and used to record the ongoing training and continuing professional development needs of staff – including the home’s manager. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 54, paragraph 10.8) In particular, systems for monitoring the staff’s training should allow for any gaps in the staff team’s knowledge to be identified.

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Recommendations

 Records must be kept detailing all individual incidents when children go missing from the home (Regulation 36 (Schedule 3 (14)). (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 45, paragraph 9.31) In particular, records must detail all of the actions taken by the staff, including what actions the staff took to search for the child.

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Recommendations

 Children should have access to a computer and the internet to support their education and learning, unless there are specific safeguarding reasons why this would be inappropriate. In such cases, the home should consider whether and how it can support the child to access a computer and the internet safely. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 29, paragraph 5.19)

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Recommendations

 The registered persons must ensure that recruitment procedures safeguard children and minimise potential risks to them. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 61, paragraph 13.1) In particular, ensure that all the required checks as specified in Schedule 2 are completed.

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Recommendations

 The registered manager should fully consider the impact that new admissions will have on the existing group of children. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 56, paragraph 11.4)

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

In line with the organisation’s residential plan, the staff team and the children moved from another of the organisation’s homes into this new, purpose-built home. The Inspection report children’s home: 1254782 4 building is custom built and decorated to a high standard. It provides a homely, domestic environment, which ensures that the children feel comfortable and valued. The children were well prepared, resulting in a successful move.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

The managers and the staff have gone to extensive efforts to adapt the children’s records and the home’s processes to reflect the quality standards. Records are completed to a high standard and focus on the children’s experiences and their journeys through their placement. The use of short-term targets as stepping stones to reach children’s long-term goals ensures that the staff’s strategies effectively support the children to progress. Consequently, the children develop well in all aspects of their lives and are beginning to realise their potential.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Trusting and secure relationships with the staff enable the children to feel safe and to be able to confide in staff. As a result, the children listen to staff and respond to their advice and guidance. The children’s engagement in education has significantly improved and they are progressing well with their studies. The staff use creative strategies to engage the children in their education, which include ‘golden ticket’ rewards to incentivise the children to complete their homework. The staff spend time with the children to develop their reading and spelling skills. As a result, one child’s reading age has increased by seven years in a matter of months.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Opportunities to try new things combined with access to a variety of activities encourages the children to develop their interests and to extend their social networks. Children are supported to develop their friendships with their peers and are able to have their friends round to the home for dinner. As a result, the children are developing their social skills and becoming more confident.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Preparation for adulthood is a focus of the home. Through set goals, children are developing their independence skills and learning to take care of themselves. The children are encouraged to complete AQA modules to evidence their achievements and are building on their confidence. For example, one child is now able to travel to school independently using public transport and such an achievement has had a positive effect on his self-esteem.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Effective coping strategies and the ability to approach staff to talk things through with them has enabled the children to regulate their emotions, resulting in a reduction in aggressive outbursts.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff support the children to lead healthy lifestyles. Staff arrange for the children to see specialist professionals as well as use innovative approaches to engage the children in healthy eating, such as the ‘veggie challenge’ where the children are rewarded with a token for the vegetables that they eat and can collect the tokens to use towards an activity.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

The creative strategies used by staff have helped the children to find their voice and encourage them to participate in the management of the home. The home’s wishes and feelings wall supports the children to express how they are feeling while also celebrating Inspection report children’s home: 1254782 5 the children’s achievements and progress. Staff have designed a game board to support the children to learn the rules and expectations of the home.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Support offered to the children to help them reconnect with their birth families is a strength of this home. The staff have advocated on the children’s behalf and worked with other professionals to devise progressive plans to enable the children to increase contact and develop their relationships with their birth families in a planned way. As a result, the children gain an understanding of their pasts, develop a sense of belonging within their families and will benefit from their ongoing support.

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

Good risk management strategies ensure that the staff are aware of the specific risks to each individual child and the actions that they must take to protect them. All staff members have undertaken the necessary training in order to protect children and use proactive strategies to increase the children’s safety.

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

No serious safeguarding concerns have arisen since the home opened. However, the staff are alert to the potential of child protection incidents. Staff record any safeguarding events to allow for trends and patterns to be monitored and any concerns quickly identified and reported. The staff work closely with all relevant professionals and the children’s family members to ensure that they are all aware of the actions that they must take to protect the children.

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

Children build trusting relationships with the staff and feel confident in expressing their emotions to them. Consequently, the children no longer feel the need to run when distressed and through the staff’s support, they have learned more positive coping strategies to manage their feelings. As a result, incidents of going missing have significantly reduced. Staff understand the potential for children to go missing from the home and what strategies to use to prevent an incident from occurring. However, records do not always demonstrate the actions that the staff have taken to search for the child when they are missing in line with statutory guidance.

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

Currently, the children do not have regular access to the internet. There are plans in place to educate the children to stay safe online but these are yet to be implemented.

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

Children are learning to feel and be in control of their behaviours, they are learning to regulate their emotions and incidents of aggressive outbursts are reducing. Sanctions used are proportionate and relevant to the child’s behaviour and encourage the children to think about their actions and to learn to make choices that are more positive in the future. Physical interventions are used and recorded appropriately in line with regulation. The staff exhaust de-escalation techniques before resorting to physical interventions.

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

Restorative conversations are used effectively to resolve conflict and to help the children to understand right and wrong and encourage them to take responsibility for their actions. The children are recognising their feelings and the impact of their behaviour. As a result, they are learning to self-regulate their own behaviour and to take ownership Inspection report children’s home: 1254782 6 and responsibility.

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

Generally, the organisation’s implementation of recruitment checks ensures that only people deemed suitable are employed to work in the home. However, verification of the reasons why members of staff left previous employment with children or vulnerable adults has not always taken place.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

This home benefits from a strong leadership management team whose members are passionate about the children they support. The managers and the staff want the best for the children. They are committed to improving the children’s lives and are aspirational about the children’s futures.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Managers have an excellent insight into the children’s histories and needs and know how best to support them. Managers explore all of a child’s risk factors prior to admission and assess the ability of the staff to meet a prospective child’s needs. However, in one case, the impact risk assessment for one child contained limited analysis of the impact of the child’s behaviour on the existing children, as a result the implications of placing the child were not fully explored or evidenced.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Proactive and positive relationships with other agencies allow the manager and the staff to work holistically with other professionals. Managers and staff use the organisation’s approach of ‘pillars of parenting’ effectively to reflect on their practice and to seek specialist advice to guide and inform their strategies. When necessary, managers have strongly challenged and advocated on the children’s behalf to ensure that the children receive high-quality support to help them to progress.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The managers are constantly reviewing the home’s processes and systems to make them more meaningful for children. They use the quality standards to guide the planning and implementation of the care provided to the children, as a result records provide a detailed picture of the child’s journey and experiences. The use of targeted goals ensures that the children are supported to develop across all areas of their functioning.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Regular consultation with the staff and the children and use of the Regulation 44 monitoring reports ensure that the managers have a good understanding of the strengths and weaknesses of the service. The managers have ambitious plans for the home. However, the development plan focused on what is expected by the regulations and fails to demonstrate the manager’s aspirational plans for the service.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The expertise of the staff is used effectively for the benefit of the children. For example, the manager is using her skills as a power kite instructor to provide new and exciting opportunities to the children. In-depth training in the home’s ‘pillars of parenting model’ ensures that the staff have a good understanding of the needs of the children who have experienced rejection or trauma. The staff have also undertaken a range of mandatory training to meet the basic needs of the children. However, current recording systems of the staff’s training do not provide the managers with sufficient oversight to identify the Inspection report children’s home: 1254782 7 gaps in staff knowledge. The mangers are aware of this weakness and are reviewing the systems to increase oversight of the staff’s training. The home’s workforce development plan is due to be signed off by the responsible individual and is yet to be implemented.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Good communication throughout the team ensures that all team members are aware of any changes to children’s care plans and promotes a consistent approach. As a result, the children know what to expect and feel safe and secure. Team meetings provide for effective support and are used as an arena to discuss individual children and their needs and goals. Supervision is used effectively to discuss the children’s progress and staff members’ performance and how this can be improved. Managers and the staff continually review their strategies to ensure that their practice continually evolves and remains effective to support children to develop and progress.

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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: 1254782 8

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Children’s home details

Registered provider: Hampshire County Council

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: The Castle, Winchester SO23 8UG

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Children’s home details

Registered manager: Lorraine Hopkin-Munro

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Inspector

Melissa McMillan: social care inspector Inspection report children’s home: 1254782 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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