Children's Home run by Horizon Care and Education Group Limited in Staffordshire

Inspection report children’s home: 1249184 1 Registered provider: Horizon Care and Education Group Limited Full inspection Inspected under the social care common inspection framework

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Information about this children’s home

This home is one of a group of homes operated by the same organisation. The statement of purpose indicates that the home provides up to three young people with a period of stability to reflect on their difficulties and make future plans. Staff aim to promote self-esteem through recognition, achievement and praise. A new manager has just come into post and is going through the process of registration with Ofsted.

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Overall experiences and progress of

children and young people, taking into account

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requires improvement to be good

How well children and young people are helped and protected requires improvement to be good

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requires improvement to be good

The effectiveness of leaders and managers requires improvement to be good

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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.

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requires improvement to be good

Date of last inspection: 25 October 2017

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requires improvement to be good

Overall judgement at last inspection: sustained effectiveness

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requires improvement to be good

Enforcement action since last inspection: none Inspection report children’s home: 1249184 2

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

25/10/2017 Interim Sustained effectiveness 12/06/2017 Full Requires improvement to be good Inspection report children’s home: 1249184 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 education standard is that children make measurable progress towards achieving their educational potential and are helped to do so.

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Requirement Due date

In particular, the standard in paragraph (1) requires the registered person to ensure that staff help each child to achieve the child’s education and training targets, as recorded in the child’s relevant plans. (Regulation 8 (1)(2)(a)(i)) 30/05/2018

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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 on from the home.

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Requirement Due date

In particular, the standard in paragraph (1) requires the registered person to ensure that each child’s relevant plans are followed. (Regulation 14 (1)(a)(b)(2)(c)) 30/05/2018

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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 on from the home.

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Requirement Due date

In particular, the standard in paragraph (1) requires the registered person to manage and review the placement of each child in the home. (Regulation 14 (1)(a)(b)(2)(b)(ii)) 30/05/2018

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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 on from the home.

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Requirement Due date

In particular, the standard in paragraph (1) requires the registered person to ensure that staff help each child to access and contribute to the records kept by the registered person in relation to the child. (Regulation 14 (1)(a)(b)(2)(f)) 30/05/2018

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Requirement Due date

In meeting the quality standards, the registered person must, and must ensure that staff, seek to involve each child’s placing authority effectively in the child’s care, in accordance with the child’s relevant plans. (Regulation 5 (a)) 30/05/2018

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Requirement Due date

The health and well-being standard is that the health and well- being needs of children are met, children receive advice, 30/05/2018 Inspection report children’s home: 1249184 4 services and support in relation to their health and well-being and children are helped to lead healthy lifestyles.

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Requirement Due date

In particular, the standard in paragraph (1) requires the registered person to ensure that staff help each child to achieve the health and well-being outcomes that are recorded in the child’s relevant plans. (Regulation 10 (1)(a)(b)(c)(2)(a)(i)) 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 help each child to understand how to keep safe and take effective action whenever there is a serious concern about a child’s welfare. (Regulation 12 (1)(2)(a)(ii)(vi)) 30/05/2018

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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 helps children aspire to fulfil their potential and promotes their welfare.

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Requirement Due date

In particular, the standard in paragraph (1) requires the registered person to ensure that staff work as a team where appropriate and ensure that the home’s workforce provides continuity of care to each child. (Regulation 13 (1)(a)(b)(2)(b)(e)) 30/05/2018

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Recommendations

 Emergency admissions should not be taken unless the home’s statement of purpose and its capacity and support systems mean that it has the capability to care for children admitted at very short notice while continuing to offer high quality care to children already living in the home. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 15, paragraph 3.6)  As the home will have a day-to-day understanding of young people’s capabilities and needs, children’s homes staff will have a valuable contribution to make to the pathway planning process. They should actively seek to make the fullest contribution, working with other relevant persons. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 17, paragraph 3.28)  The home’s records on each child represent a significant contribution to their life history. Children and their parents should be supported to understand the nature

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Recommendations

of records kept by the home and how to access them. Staff should understand their important role in encouraging the child to reflect on and understand their history, according to their age and understanding. Staff should keep and encourage children to keep appropriate memorabilia of the time spent living at the home and help them record significant life events. (‘Guide to the children’s Inspection report children’s home: 1249184 5 homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 62, paragraph 14.5)

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improvement to be good

Staff are caring and attentive to young people, but they do not all know, follow or contribute to young people’s care plans. For example, one young person’s care plan says that he needs ‘work about boundaries, relationships and consequences of inappropriate behaviour’. However, staff are not doing this work. Similarly, young people are not getting planned help to meet their physical and emotional health needs, to understand their life story or to cope with their relationships with family and friends. As a result, young people are not making sufficient progress.

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improvement to be good

Two young people have moved out of the home since the last inspection. Both young people had a poorly planned ending to their placements. This resulted in both young people leaving without any memorabilia of their time at the home. The two remaining young people are also not helped by staff to collect memorabilia. This creates a missed opportunity to enable young people to have a point of reference that they can look back at in years to come.

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improvement to be good

Young people are not getting enough help with their emotional and behaviour issues, which is preventing them from learning and attending full-time education. As a result, young people are frequently sent home or are placed in isolation because of their poor behaviour.

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improvement to be good

Staff do not record their help and advice in simple or useful ways to help to encourage young people to be actively involved in their care planning.

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improvement to be good

Young people do enjoy various activities with staff, both inside and outside the home. However, sometimes staff report difficulties in securing the right funding.

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improvement to be good

Some staff manage situations and behaviour well. However, other staff lack the confidence and skill to do this, especially when they are working alone.

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improvement to be good

The support and care provided by numerous cover members of staff does not help young people to feel secure or for their behaviour to become increasingly safe. There have been numerous incidents when adults and young people have been hurt and when the house has been damaged. At these times, senior staff and managers safeguard young people by working openly with social workers and the police. However, young people’s placements have broken down and some members of staff are away from work for extended periods due to injuries and internal investigations. Inspection report children’s home: 1249184 6 Young people do not go missing from the home. However, young people are not getting coordinated help with their anger, anxiety, sexualised behaviour and their deep-seated difficulties in making and sustaining relationships with other young people and adults. This means that young people do not have the required understanding to keep

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

The registered manager left in April 2018. The new manager has been in the home only a few days and is undergoing the registration process. Young people and staff are optimistic that the new leadership will improve practice.

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

Senior staff have failed to record discussions and observations during a young person’s home visits, which is part of his rehabilitation plan. This means that staff do not know about the important issues that arise from these visits so that essential information is shared with the placing social worker.

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

The staff team is small and young people experience constant staff changes due to vacancies, sickness, holidays and allegations. Staff from other homes and agency staff do not undertake meaningful work with young people or understand young people’s individual plans and priorities. One young person told the inspector, ‘We need a staff team. When I need support they dump cover staff on me because I am supposed to be mature.’ The organisation’s senior leaders are currently exercising caution about filling the third placement while they address staffing issues.

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

Staff express frustration over having poor computer signals and malfunctioning equipment that hinder them in planning their work so that they can help young people to make good 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 Inspection report children’s home: 1249184 7 children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’. Inspection report children’s home: 1249184 8

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Children’s home details

Registered provider: Horizon Care and Education Group Limited

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: Venture House, Unit 12, Prospect Business Park, Longford Road, Cannock WS11 0LG

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Children’s home details

Registered manager: Post vacant. Valerie McKean undergoing registration process.

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Inspector

Rachel Britten: social care inspector Inspection report children’s home: 1249184 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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Inspector

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