Children's home run by New Forest Care Limited in New Forest

Inspection report children’s home: SC480502 1 SC480502 Registered provider: New Forest Care Ltd

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Full inspection Inspected under the social care common inspection framework

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Information about this children’s home

This is a privately operated children’s home, registered to provide care for up to four children and young people who have emotional and/or behavioural difficulties. Children have access to the organisation’s school and therapeutic services.

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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

Date of last inspection: 28 February 2017

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outstanding

Overall judgement at last inspection: good

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outstanding

Enforcement action since last inspection: none

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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

 Strong leaders and managers ensure that the young people are given the very best opportunity to achieve positive outcomes. Inspection report children’s home: SC480502 2  The therapeutic model of care, outlined in the home’s statement of purpose, is well embedded into practice. The staff team has embraced the principles and use it effectively to help young people feel safe and learn to trust adults.  A resilient staff team, led by a competent manager, has created a stable homely environment that provides young people with a sense of permanency.  Young people benefit from strong attachments with caring and passionate staff who want the very best for them.  An excellent wrap-around service ensures that young people have access to specialist support.  Young people are safe. A positive approach to risk management enables young people to develop greater independence at their own pace.

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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

 Action plans in the independent visitor reports do not reflect the positive action taken by managers to address the shortfalls.  The record of the review of the premises does not reflect the wider consultation that has taken place.

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

28/02/2017 Full Good 03/05/2016 Interim Sustained effectiveness 07/12/2015 Full Outstanding 14/07/2015 Interim Sustained effectiveness Inspection report children’s home: SC480502 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 independent person’s report may recommend actions that the registered person may take in relation to the home and timescales within which the registered person must consider whether or not to take those actions. (Regulation 44 (5)) 31/05/2018

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Recommendations

 Under regulation 46, the registered person should review the appropriateness and suitability of the location and premises of the home at least once a year. The review should include the identification of any risks and opportunities presented by the home’s location and strategies for managing these. Providers should refer to the non-statutory advice about the location assessment process. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 64, paragraph 15.1)

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: outstanding

Young people benefit enormously from long-term stable placements. The staff team, led by a competent manager, has created a warm and nurturing environment where young people thrive. Without exception, all of the young people have made huge progress from their starting points. Working hard to ensure that this continues, the manager describes the staff approach as continuing to explore and finding ways to support this. One young person, who had a long history of being out of education and not going out or speaking to people, now has excellent attendance at school and is involved in lots of groups within the local community.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: outstanding

The manager and staff know the young people extremely well; they have built and sustained strong attachments and effective relationships with them. The care and support provided are tailored to meet young people’s individual needs. Each shift starts with an in-depth discussion about young people, including their routines, activity plans and the type of approach for staff to adopt when engaging with them. This attention to detail demonstrates to the young people that the staff are invested in them and want them to do well every day. Inspection report children’s home: SC480502 4 All staff have embraced the therapeutic model of care described in the statement of purpose and either naturally understand the principles of good parenting or have learned them. They work hard to put the theory into practice and benefit from the manager’s continual guidance and support. This includes him analysing interactions between the

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: outstanding

staff and the young people and giving examples of how to use the skills in their approach.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: outstanding

Care planning is excellent. Documents are clear, detailed and easy for the staff to follow. There is a daily focus on tracking targets, including while the young people are at the organisation’s school. The system used provides the staff with visual information and data ‘live’ in relation to how the young person has been during the day. The system helps staff to provide consistent care as well as monitor patterns and trends, all of which contribute to positive outcomes for the young people.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: outstanding

The physical environment is maintained to a high standard, supported by investment from the organisation. The young people were recently involved in decisions about colours in the redecoration work and, as a result, it has a warm, homely feel. Observations during the inspection showed young people enjoying the different spaces while positively engaging with the staff.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: outstanding

Young people have access to a wide range of support from the organisation’s wrap- around service, including education and health. Acting as good parents, the staff work seamlessly with these services, on a day-to-day basis, to meet the young people’s individual emotional health and well-being needs.

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

Young people are safe. The staff know how to identify and report safeguarding concerns. They also work closely with the young people to educate them about the risks associated with child sexual exploitation and radicalisation. They also know and understand the young people’s individual risks and there are clear strategies in place to manage them. This includes high levels of supervision which are used effectively and positively to engage with the young people and give them the attention they need to develop.

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

On the occasions when safeguarding concerns have arisen, the response has been comprehensive. This includes the action taken immediately after the incident by the staff and the follow-up work done by the manager to see what can be learned from the situation. Further work is also done with the young person to prevent a recurrence. This practice demonstrates a genuine concern for the safety of the young people and also how the team manages to sustain such a high standard of safeguarding practice.

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

Behaviour management is excellent. The model of care is used effectively to work through behaviours that challenge rather than avoid their escalation. Young people are supported to understand and regulate their own emotions and behaviour. As a result, there is a low level of incidents. However, when they do occur they are managed Inspection report children’s home: SC480502 5 appropriately, with physical intervention only used as a last resort. One young person in particular was described as a being a ‘massive success’, including the fact that the level of intervention required to manage his behaviour has come down significantly.

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

The review of the premises document is kept updated and provides evidence of some consultation with the wider network, in particular the local police community support officer. However, despite the manager consulting more widely and about other risks with other professionals, this information was not recorded on the document. This minor shortfall does not affect practice but does not capture the work being done to consider the strengths and weaknesses of the home’s location.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

A passionate, enthusiastic, suitably qualified and experienced manager who consistently role models good practice manages the home. A very competent deputy who complements the leadership by providing balance in style and approach supports him. Between them, they have created a culture which fosters good practice and teamwork. This collaborative approach provides the young people with excellent continuity of care. As a result, they know and understand the rules and boundaries, and they have come to respect them.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

Leaders and managers monitor the quality of the home and children’s plans in detail. This includes using the reports from the independent visitor to improve practice. During the inspection, a minor shortfall was noted in process, which was taken on board by the manager. The response to the suggested action plan did not accurately reflect the current situation or capture the work being undertaken by managers to address issues. However, this had not affected practice, as overall management oversight was excellent.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

The manager strongly advocates on behalf of the young people. This includes robustly challenging placing authorities in circumstances where there is believed to be poor decision-making and/or poor practice as well as following up on missing documentation. Leaders and managers are willing to support placements and keep them open during transitions to other services to their own cost, to ensure that plans are in the young person’s best interest. A recent example includes plans to retain a bed to support a young person’s move to a foster placement.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

The commitment to staff’s continual professional development starts at induction. A real investment in training and development ensures that the staff have the underpinning skills and knowledge to manage the young people’s individual and complex needs. Staff spoken to at the inspection were very complimentary of this and were able to evidence what they had learned during this process, irrespective of whether they were new or established members of the team.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

An organisational policy to avoid the need for temporary staff means that on occasions, internal moves take place to ensure that there are sufficient and experienced staff to cover gaps. However, while the strategy and rationale to balance the resources is clear, the impact on the existing staff team and the young people can still be disruptive. One Inspection report children’s home: SC480502 6 young person spoken to during the inspection felt very strongly about this, describing how sad he was about a member of staff moving. He also said that he would like senior managers to provide him with more explanation about the reasons for this.

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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: SC480502 7

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Children’s home details

Registered provider: New Forest Care Ltd

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: West Shore House, West Street, Hythe, Southampton SO45 6AA

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Inspector

Amanda Harvey, social care inspector Inspection report children’s home: SC480502 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 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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