Children's Home run by New Horizons (Stockport) Limited in Manchester

Inspection report children’s home: SC472680 1 SC472680 Registered provider: New Horizons (Stockport) Limited

p.1

Full inspection Inspected under the social care common inspection framework

p.1

Information about this children’s home

The home is registered to provide care for five children who may have emotional and/or behavioural difficulties. The home is owned by a private company.

p.1

Overall experiences and progress of

children and young people, taking into account

p.1

requires improvement to be good

How well children and young people are helped and protected good

p.1

requires improvement to be good

The effectiveness of leaders and managers requires improvement to be good

p.1

requires improvement to be good

The children’s home is not yet delivering good help and care for children and young people. However, there are no serious or widespread failures that result in their welfare not being safeguarded or promoted.

p.1

requires improvement to be good

Date of last inspection: 13 December 2017

p.1

requires improvement to be good

Overall judgement at last inspection: Inadequate

p.1

Enforcement action since last inspection:

On 13 December 2017, following a full inspection, two compliance notices were issued. A monitoring visit completed on 31 January 2018 identified that these compliance notices had been met. Inspection report children’s home: SC472680 2

p.1

Key findings from this inspection

This children’s home requires improvement to be good because:

p.2

Key findings from this inspection

 Staff are not always proactive in planning and promoting young people’s transitions out of the home in line with their care plans.  Staff are slow to support young people to overcome the barriers to education.  Staff’s indiscriminate use of bedroom door alarms impacts on young people’s privacy.  Staff do not always review the effectiveness of incentives used to promote positive behaviour.  There are missed opportunities to help young people to develop the skills and knowledge to keep themselves safe both online and in the community.  The manager does not ensure that all staff receive practice-led supervision.  In one instance, a member of staff has not received the necessary training to undertake her role and ensure that she is able to respond to the needs of young people.  Managers are not effective at using the learning from internal and external monitoring to develop clear plans to improve the quality of care provided to

p.2

Key findings from this inspection

young people.  Staff are not always effective advocates for young people.

p.2

Key findings from this inspection

 Young people experience warm, nurturing relationships with staff.  Young people feel that staff listen to them and care about them.  Staff ensure that young people live in a pleasant and homely environment.  Staff have a good understanding of young people’s vulnerabilities.

p.2

Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

13/12/2017 Full Inadequate 27/02/2017 Interim Sustained effectiveness 15/11/2016 Full Good 23/02/2016 Interim Improved effectiveness Inspection report children’s home: SC472680 3

p.2

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.

p.3

Requirement Due date

The education standard is that children make measurable progress towards achieving their educational potential and are helped to do so. In particular, the standard in paragraph (1) required the registered person to ensure that staff— help a child who is excluded from school, or who is of compulsory school age but not attending school, to access educational and training support throughout the period of exclusion or non-attendance and to return to school as soon as possible; (Regulation 8(1) and (2)(a)(i)(viii)) Specifically, when a young person is not accessing education, there should be a clear plan as to how to support the young person to overcome the barriers to them being able to receive appropriate education provision. 30/04/2018

p.3

Requirement Due date

The leadership and management standard is that the registered person enables, inspires and leads a culture in relation to the children’s home that helps children aspire to fulfil their potential and promotes their welfare. In particular, the standard in paragraph (1) requires the registered person to— use monitoring and review systems to make continuous improvements in the quality of care provided in the home. (Regulation 13(1)(a)(b)(2)(h)) Specifically, the registered manager should use internal and external monitoring to develop a clear plan to improve the quality of care provided to young people. 30/04/2018

p.3

Requirement Due date

The care planning standard is that children receive effectively planned care in or through the children’s home; and have a positive experience of arriving at or moving from the home. In order to meet the care planning standard the registered person must ensure— 30/04/2018 Inspection report children’s home: SC472680 4 that arrangements are in place to— plan for, and help, each child to prepare to leave the home or to move into adult care in a way that is consistent with arrangements agreed with the child placing authority; that each child’s relevant plans are followed; (Regulation 14(1)(a)(b)(2)(b)(iii)(c)) Specifically, staff should be familiar with the local authority’s care plan for each young person. Staff should work with young people, families and local authorities to achieve the aims of the care plans. The registered person may only use devices for the monitoring or surveillance of children if it is for the purpose of safeguarding

p.3

Requirement Due date

and promoting the welfare of the child concerned, or other children and it is no more intrusive than necessary, having regard to the child’s need for privacy. (Regulation 24(1)(a)(d)) Specifically, the use of bedroom door alarms should be assessed and kept under review to ensure that they are required to meet the needs of young people. 30/04/2018

p.4

Requirement Due date

The registered person must ensure that all employees receive practice-related supervision by a person with appropriate experience. (Regulation 33(4)(b)) Specifically, all staff should receive supervision in line with the provider’s supervision policy. 30/04/2018

p.4

Recommendations

 Ensure that children feel safe and be safe. Staff should support children to be aware of and manage their own safety both inside and outside the home to the extent that any good parent would. Staff should help children to understand how to protect themselves, feel protected and be protected from significant harm. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 43, paragraph 9.9) Specifically, staff should support young people to understand the potential risk of exploitation both online and in the community.  The behaviour management strategy should be understood and applied at all times by staff, and must be kept under review and revised where appropriate. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 46, paragraph 9.34) Specifically, the use of rewards should be recorded and reviewed to consider their effectiveness in promoting positive behaviour.

p.4

Recommendations

 The registered person should ensure that staff can access appropriate facilities and resources to support their training needs, and should undertaken the key role that they play in the training and development of staff in the home. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 53, paragraph 10.11). Specifically, all staff should undertake the required training to enable Inspection report children’s home: SC472680 5 them to manage young people’s behaviour and, where necessary, physically restrain young people.  Ensure that the quality of care review clearly identifies any actions required for the next six months and how those actions will be implemented. The whole review process and the resulting report should be used as a tool for continuous improvement in the home.

p.4

improvement to be good

Staff’s understanding of the local authority’s care plan for some young people is not good enough. For example, staff’s knowledge of the rehabilitation plans for one young person to return home is limited. This means that staff are not able to challenge the local authority about the drift in these plans being progressed. Furthermore, it has left one young person with unrealistic expectations about the timescales of his possible return home. This has the potential to impact on his emotional welfare, as well as his trust in staff and others to be open and honest about transition plans. Staff have mixed success in overcoming the barriers to young people accessing education. For example, staff have been slow to advocate for one young person to return to his full-time education provision following a recent exclusion. This means that the young person is not receiving sufficient opportunities to learn and meet his academic

p.5

improvement to be good

potential. Despite this, in other instances, staff communicate well with relevant partners, such as virtual headteachers, to ensure that appropriate education is in place for young people. Staff use bedroom door alarms indiscriminately to monitor young people at night time. The impact of this is low, and young people have not expressed any objections. However, the use of such monitoring systems impacts on young people’s rights to privacy. Staff support young people to personalise both communal and personal spaces. For example, photos of young people and their families are abundant. This helps to create a homely environment that promotes young people’s sense of belonging. Young people benefit from staff who are enthusiastic, caring and passionate. As a result, young people develop strong relationships with staff. Young people were consistent in telling the inspector how much they liked staff. This helps young people to feel well

p.5

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

Intuitive staff support young people to regulate their emotions effectively. For example, staff use redirection and distraction at the earliest opportunities. This helps young people to stay calm and deal with difficult situations. This means that young people do not go missing, they do not self-harm and there is no need for physical interventions. Inspection report children’s home: SC472680 6 Despite the low presentation of risk-taking behaviours, staff take the necessary action to plan for such behaviours occurring. For example, staff share pen pictures of young people with the police and agree clear plans for what to do should a young person go missing. This means that staff are able to respond swiftly should a young person place themselves at risk. Staff promote positive behaviour with personalised behaviour incentive charts. This is successful and young people are settled and well behaved. Staff also acknowledge

p.5

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

young people’s achievements through spontaneous rewards, for example taking young people out for a takeaway when they have engaged well with their education. However, managers do not routinely monitor the use of such rewards. This limits the manager’s ability to review and improve how good behaviour is recognised and promoted. Staff have a good understanding of young people’s vulnerability to harm. As a result, staff are able to put in place appropriate measures to keep young people safe. For example, staff ensure that there are appropriate restrictions on young people’s access to free time and the internet. A youth offending worker told the inspector that ‘they do regular spot checks on his phone’. The potential for young people to place themselves into risky situations is reduced because of staff’s professional curiosity. Positively, young people are not identified as being at imminent risk of exploitation.

p.6

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

Notwithstanding this, staff have completed limited prevention work to ensure that young people have the skills to keep themselves safe. This is a missed opportunity to further educate young people on potential dangers and help them to develop the skills to make safe choices.

p.6

The effectiveness of leaders and managers: requires improvement to be good

The manager, who is appropriately qualified, has submitted an application to Ofsted to be the registered manager. The manager has overseen a period of significant change during the last three months, with wholesale changes to systems and ways of working. This is showing signs of having a positive impact, with improvements in many aspects of the care that young people receive. However, this is work in progress and, in some instances, the benefits of the changes implemented by the manager still need time to come to fruition. This has contributed to a number of requirements from Ofsted’s last full inspection not being met. For example, staff are not supporting some young people to meet their educational needs, and there are weaknesses in staff’s planning for young people’s transitions out of the home. The manager has mixed success in using learning from internal and external monitoring, to improve the quality of care provided to young people. For example, a recent quality of

p.6

The effectiveness of leaders and managers: requires improvement to be good

care review identified areas of improvement; however, the plan to achieve these objectives is limited and vague. This means that the pathway for continuous improvement is unclear. The manager does not ensure that staff who are new to the home receive supervision in line with expectations. Although there is no obvious impact, this potentially means that Inspection report children’s home: SC472680 7 staff do not receive the necessary support and guidance when they need it the most. In most cases, staff receive the necessary training to undertake their role. However, one member of staff has not completed the required behaviour management and physical intervention training. Managers have given little consideration to the potential risk that this could place the young person, staff and others at. In this instance, managers have shown a lack of critical thinking to the importance of ensuring that staff receive the

p.6

The effectiveness of leaders and managers: requires improvement to be good

necessary mandatory training. Staff recognise the importance of working collaboratively with partner agencies. Positively, there are examples of staff achieving this. For example, a youth offending worker told the inspector, ‘[Staff are] very good at keeping me up to date with everything that is going on. They will always update me on any incident or just regularly touch base.’ However, in other cases, such as working with education partners, partnership working has not been as strong. This means that staff are not always effective advocates for young people.

p.7

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.

p.7

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: SC472680 8

p.7

Children’s home details

Registered provider: New Horizons (Stockport) Limited

p.8

Children’s home details

Registered provider address: 5 Bramhall Park Road, Bramhall, Stockport SK7 3DQ

p.8

Inspector

Paul Robinson, social care inspector Inspection report children’s home: SC472680 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 children looked after, safeguarding and child protection.

p.8

Inspector

If you would like a copy of this document in a different format, such as large print or Braille, please telephone 0300 123 1231, or email enquiries@ofsted.gov.uk . You may reuse this information (not including logos) free of charge in any format or medium, under the terms of the Open Government Licence. To view this licence, visit http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/doc/open-government-licence , write to the Information Policy Team, The National Archives, Kew, London TW9 4DU, or email: psi@nationalarchives.gsi.gov.uk .

p.9

Inspector

Interested in our work? You can subscribe to our monthly newsletter for more information and updates: http://eepurl.com/iTrDn .

p.9

Inspector

T: 0300 123 1231 Textphone: 0161 618 8524 E: enquiries@ofsted.gov.uk W: http://www.gov.uk/ofsted

p.9