Children's home run by Hexagon Care Services Limited in Preston

Inspection report children’s home: SC479647 1 SC479647 Registered provider: Hexagon Care Services 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 six children who have emotional and/or behavioural difficulties. However, the home is currently only working with four boys, aged between 11 and 17. The current admission criteria are for young people with social, emotional and behavioural difficulties, and who require a medium- to long-term placement. The home forms part of a large social care company. The home has been without a permanent manager for over 26 weeks.

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Overall experiences and progress of

children and young people, taking into account

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inadequate

How well children and young people are helped and protected inadequate

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inadequate

The effectiveness of leaders and managers inadequate

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inadequate

There are serious and widespread failures that mean that children and young people are not protected, and the care and experiences of children and young people are poor, and they are not making progress.

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inadequate

Overall judgement at last inspection: good

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inadequate

Enforcement action since last inspection: none Inspection report children’s home: SC479647 2

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

02/05/2017 Full Good 13/12/2016 Full Good 01/11/2016 Full Inadequate 08/03/2016 Full Requires improvement Inspection report children’s home: SC479647 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

In meeting the quality standards, the registered person must, and must ensure that staff—

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Requirement Due date

if the registered person considers, or staff consider, a placing authority’s or a relevant person’s performance or response to be inadequate in relation to their role, challenge the placing authority to seek to ensure that each child’s needs are met in accordance with the child’s relevant plans. (Regulation 5(c)) 24/05/2018

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Requirement Due date

In order to meet the quality and purpose of care standard the registered person must ensure that staff: help each child to develop resilience and skills that prepare the child to return home, to live in a new placement or to live independently as an adult. (Regulation 6(2)(b)(vi)) 24/05/2018

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Requirement Due date

*In order to meet the education standard, the registered person must ensure that staff—

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Requirement Due date

promote opportunities for each child to learn informally; help each child to attend education or training, in accordance with the expectations in the child’s relevant plans. (Regulation 8(2)(v)(x)) 24/05/2018

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Requirement Due date

*The protection of children standard is that children are protected from harm and enabled to keep themselves safe.

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Requirement Due date

In particular, the standard in paragraph (1) requires the registered person to ensure that staff—

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Requirement Due date

assess whether each child is at risk of harm, taking into account information in the child’s relevant plans, and, if necessary, make arrangements to reduce the risk of any harm to the child

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Requirement Due date

manage relationships between children to prevent them harming each other 24/05/2018 Inspection report children’s home: SC479647 4 take effective action whenever there is a serious concern about a child’s welfare. (Regulation 12(2)(a)(i)(iv)(vi))

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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 promotes their welfare. (Regulation 13(1)(b)) (2) in particular, the standard in paragraph (1) requires the registered person to— Lead and manage the home in a way which is consistent with the approach and ethos, and deliver the outcomes set out in the homes statement of purpose; ensure that the staff have the experience, qualifications and skills to meet the needs of each child. (Regulation 13(2)(a)(c)) 24/05/2018

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Requirement Due date

*In order to ensure that the care planning standard is met, the registered person must ensure that—

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Requirement Due date

children receive effectively planned care in or through the children’s home and have a positive experience of arriving at or moving on from the home. (Regulation 14(1)(a)(b)) 24/05/2018

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must keep the statement of purpose under review and, where appropriate, revise it; and notify HMCI of any revision and send HMCI a copy of the revised statement within 28 days. (Regulation 16(3)(a)(b)) 24/05/2018

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must ensure that each employee completes and appropriate induction. (Regulation 33(1)(a)) 24/05/2018

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must ensure that within 48 hours of the use of a measure of control, discipline or restraint in relation to a child in the home, the registered person, or a person who is authorised by the registered person to do so, has spoken to the user about the measure and has signed the record to confirm it is accurate. (Regulation 35(b)(i)(ii)) 24/05/2018

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Requirement Due date

* These requirements are subject to a compliance notice.

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Recommendations

 The registered person must ensure that the behaviour management strategy is 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)  Evaluation of missing incidents should be undertaken to identify any gaps in training, skills or knowledge for staff or to record or retain evidence of what worked well. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 46, paragraph 9.31) Inspection report children’s home: SC479647 5  When a child returns to the home after being missing from care or away from the home without permission, the responsible local authority must provide an opportunity for the child to have an independent return interview. Homes should take account of information provided by such interviews when assessing risks and

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Recommendations

putting arrangements in place to protect each child. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, Page 45, Paragraph 9.30)

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: inadequate

The care and experiences of young people is poor. In the 12-month period since the last inspection, there have been six admissions to the home and seven young people have been discharged. The placements for four of these young people were ended within two to four months because staff were unable to meet their individual needs. This means that the placements for these young people were short term. This does not promote continuity and stability for the young people and has resulted in an unsettled environment for those young people already living in the home. In addition, the aim in the home’s statement of purpose is to provide medium- to long-term placements. This aim is not being met.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: inadequate

Throughout the last year, there have been periods of unsettlement in the home. There have been incidents where young people have assaulted staff, harmed each other and caused damage to the home. Police intervention has been required to support the staff in managing these behaviours. This has meant that the day-to-day experiences of young people living in the home have been poor. Ineffective care planning and poor matching has led to poor outcomes for young people. The deputy manager said that, ‘We have been firefighting since last year. The young people that have been in (living in the home) have affected the whole unit, and we have had young people that thrive off disrupting the whole environment.’

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: inadequate

Educational outcomes for young people are poor. In the absence of formal education or college placements, the children’s home staff do not provide a sufficient level of structured activity, and particularly during the day. For example, during the first day of the inspection, one young person spent most of the day in bed. Another young person got up late and then left the home and was later reported as missing from care. Staff do not ensure that there are written education plans in place for young people. As a result, staff are unclear about how to promote effectively young people’s education and learning. One staff member said, ‘I don’t think there is anything in place at the moment. It’s just trying to remind him (the young person) that his exams are coming up.’

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: inadequate

Staff promote young people’s health by ensuring that they are registered with relevant health professionals when they are admitted to the home. Staff do not, however, always have the full information about the young people they are looking after, and there was limited evidence to demonstrate the action taken by the manager to obtain all information about young people from the placing authority. For example, staff had not Inspection report children’s home: SC479647 6 obtained a psychological assessment of a young person despite this being a recommendation of a looked after child review. This meant that staff lacked the information which could have informed their work with the young person.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: inadequate

Staff do not support young people to develop independence skills in accordance with their individual needs. Young people do not have plans that identify what their individual needs are in this area and, as a result, staff do not consistently support young people in developing skills that they will require in their adult lives. Staff do promote contact between young people and their families in line with their care plans. This ensures that young people can maintain relationships with people in their lives who are important to them.

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

Staff do not manage relationships in the home effectively in order to prevent or minimise the risk of young people harming each other. This has impacted on the welfare and safety of young people living at the home.

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

Staff are all trained in Team-Teach, which is the model that they are expected to use to manage challenging behaviour. Staff try to de-escalate situations, but this is not always effective. As a result, on several occasions staff have requested police assistance in managing behaviours at the home. The acting manager has identified discrepancies in the recording of restraint practice in her overall evaluation and has recorded that this will be addressed with staff in supervision. However, there is no evidence to demonstrate that concerns have been addressed. Furthermore, staff do not receive debriefs within the required time. This does not ensure that the staff’s practice is safe or that any areas of concern are addressed. There is a lack of consistency from staff in how they manage behaviour; this was reported by staff throughout the inspection.

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

When young people go missing from the home, staff report them to the police and local authorities, but they do not consistently look for young people or follow them. There is a lack of clarity within the staff team about when to report young people as being missing. When young people are located, often they are returned home in taxis due to staffing levels in the home or drivers not being on shift, which is not good practice. Return home interviews are not carried out by an independent person and managers do not consistently challenge the placing authorities when return home interviews are not completed. Furthermore, managers do not evaluate missing episodes, which limits the opportunity to monitor staff practice and patterns of missing behaviour.

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

Staff complete work with young people to try and reduce incidents of bullying in the home, but this is not always effective. There have been incidents of bullying and young people harming each other since the last inspection, as strategies in place are ineffective. This has impacted on the welfare and safety of young people living in the home.

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

Individual risk assessments for young people at risk of self-harm or sexually harmful Inspection report children’s home: SC479647 7 behaviour lack sufficient detail about the specific actions that staff should take to reduce the risk of harm. This means that there is no clear guidance for staff to follow, and young people do not receive a consistent approach from staff in trying to reduce this risk and keep them safe. Staff have demonstrated that they understand and are able to make use of the whistleblowing procedure. Allegations are managed appropriately and staff have followed the correct procedures.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

The home has been without a permanent manager for over 26 weeks. A manager was recruited to this post, but has now been dismissed following whistle-blowing by staff. A new manager has been recruited but he is not yet in post. The deputy manager is currently acting up as manager until the permanent manager takes up his position. This lack of stability in leadership and management has had a negative impact on the stability of the home and the progress young people have made.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

There has been a high staff turnover since the last inspection and this has impacted on the consistency of care to young people. Not all staff receive a sufficient induction when they start working in the home. Staff told the inspector that their induction was poor. This does not ensure that new staff are adequately supported to develop the skills they need for the role. Some staff do not feel that they are supported in their professional development. This does not ensure that they remain motivated in their roles.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

Some staff lack the experience and training required to ensure that they can meet the needs of the young people who they are caring for. Staff have not had training in self- harm or alcohol and drug use, which hinders their ability to understand and manage these risks. Consequently, staff do not have the relevant training to ensure that they are able to safely meet the needs of the young people. One member of staff said, ‘half the time they (young people) say things (talking about drugs) and I don’t know what they are.’‘ A social worker commented, ‘There are major issues with inexperienced and inconsistent staff at the home, which negatively impacts upon behaviour management, the children’s stability of care and routines, relationship building, and the professionalism of the home.’

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

Managers do not make child-centred decisions about the young people coming to live in the home and do not carefully consider the needs of the young people already living at the home. The home is not delivering care that is consistent with the approach and ethos set out in their statement of purpose. This states that their model is to, ‘Minimise the number of moves experienced by the young person, support a programme of work to encourage independence and provide longer-term continuity of care, support and guidance.’

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

The statement of purpose does not reflect the staff team accurately, nor are revisions sent to commissioners and Ofsted as required. Consequently, parents, commissioners and the regulatory bodies cannot be assured that young people are being cared for by a Inspection report children’s home: SC479647 8 staff team that has the skills, knowledge and qualifications to care for young people well.

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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: SC479647 9

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Children’s home details

Registered provider: Hexagon Care Services Limited

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: Unit 1 Tustin Court, Riversway, Preston PR2 2YQ

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Inspector

Sarah Billett, social care inspector Inspection report children’s home: SC479647 10 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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