Children's home run by Hillcrest Children’s Services Ltd in Havant

Inspection report children’s home: SC482303 1 SC482303 Registered provider: Hillcrest Children’s Services Ltd Full inspection Inspected under the social care common inspection framework

p.1

Information about this children’s home

This is a privately owned children’s home providing care and accommodation for up to eight girls. The home’s statement of purpose describes placements as being for ‘young people who have often experienced a fragmented education and lifestyle and who also exhibit behaviour difficulties as a result of past emotional and physical trauma.’ It is one of several children’s homes owned by this organisation. The home has a self-contained flat used to help a young person to experience semi-independent living.

p.1

Information about this children’s home

The organisation has a school that provides education for many of the children placed in its local homes.

p.1

Information about this children’s home

The manager was registered in October 2017.

p.1

Overall experiences and progress of

children and young people, taking into account

p.1

outstanding

How well children and young people are helped and protected outstanding

p.1

outstanding

The effectiveness of leaders and managers outstanding

p.1

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.

p.1

outstanding

Date of last inspection: 30 October 2017

p.1

outstanding

Overall judgement at last inspection: outstanding Inspection report children’s home: SC482303 2

p.1

Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

30/10/2017 Full Outstanding 21/03/2017 Full Outstanding 05/05/2016 Interim Sustained effectiveness 26/11/2015 Interim Improved effectiveness Inspection report children’s home: SC482303 3

p.2

Recommendations

 Staff should encourage children to share any concerns about their care or other matters as soon as they arise. Children must be able to take up issues or make a complaint with support and without any fear that this will result in any adverse consequences. Regulation 39 sets out the requirements on the registered person to have a complaints procedure. Children must be aware of this procedure and be reminded of it as necessary. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 23, paragraph 4.13) In particular, records should contain what the complaint was, the action taken and the outcome of investigations so that the process and how it led to the outcome is clear. The record should include whether the complainant was satisfied with the outcome or not.  Case records must be kept up to date, signed, and dated by the author of each entry. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’,

p.3

Recommendations

page 62, paragraph 14.3) Inspection report children’s home: SC482303 4

p.3

Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: outstanding

Most children in this home have experienced a significant number of placement breakdowns of both homes and schools. They arrive with little trust in adults, but the remarkable level of nurturing and personal care given by the staff enables children to develop supportive relationships and find the strength to overcome hurdles to happier lives and greater achievement. Typically, children initially resist the care being provided, through non-compliance, running away or physical altercations, yet over time their attitudes change. One girl told the person who conducts regulation 44 visits that ‘It is healthy here, and I like how that makes me feel,’ adding, ‘there are lots of rules. I didn’t like that at first, but I really do now.’ The rules are contained in a ‘boundary bible’ written by both staff and children, which helps everyone to have a commitment to them. It is one of a range of methods that the home employs to create a shared ethos. This helps to establish the expectations that

p.4

Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: outstanding

children and staff have of each other and which newly admitted children quickly come to accept. Planned moves out of the home are organised extremely well. Young people are prepared for independence through bespoke programmes that are provided by a worker employed to focus on this work. A flat is used creatively to ease children into the experience of living more self-sufficiently, taken in steps that they are comfortable with. Children can reflect on the considerable progress that they have made since coming to the home. ‘It has changed me a lot’ was a phrase used by children to describe the impact that living here has had. This includes no longer misusing substances or running away, learning ‘not to flip out for no reason’, talking to adults more and developing respect for others. The staff, managers and children have made great efforts to make the home a delightful place to live. There are scores of photographs of them all and other memorabilia on

p.4

Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: outstanding

display. The whole environment conveys warmth and welcome. As one child said, ‘if you have got to be away from your home, this is a lush place to be.’

p.4

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

Staff place great importance on helping children to reduce risk-taking behaviour and to become safer. This is carried out through informal discussions, key-work sessions and workshops, which may take place in response to issues in the media or events in children’s lives. Children report that they feel safe and are confident in the ability of staff to prevent any conflict from escalating. One child said, with emphasis, that the home ‘does not tolerate bullying’. Children are helped to manage quarrels through a mediation box, which contains tools for them to find resolutions themselves rather than staff having to sort things out. Inspection report children’s home: SC482303 5 The manager and staff have responded with both diligence and sensitivity to occasions when children self-harm or go missing. On each occasion, they follow individual protocols and endeavour to make the child safe as soon as possible. Staff work hard to

p.4

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

help children to feel cared for when such events occur. For example, the manager has worked with a consultant psychiatrist and children’s general practitioners to establish protocols under which injuries sustained by self-harm are treated by staff whenever possible, rather than always having to attend accident and emergency departments. This reduces the ordeal that children experience.

p.5

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

Staff see every event as a potential learning situation. Therefore, a misbehaviour often does not attract a conventional sanction but leads to a workshop, undertaken individually or with others, on why the behaviour was not acceptable.

p.5

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

Children are given targets that are aimed at improving behaviour, developing independence skills or encouraging them to meet challenges. Staff give ‘praise points’ according to how well they are being met. This is a very effective system, contributing to the progress that children make across a range of developmental areas. Education is particularly well supported and, as a result, children’s attendance and academic achievement have often exceeded expectations.

p.5

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

The manager and staff are tenacious in their endeavour to help children succeed, and will always try other options if the first does not work, for example in finding an activity in the community that a child enjoys. This leads to children’s enjoyment of life increasing.

p.5

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

Children highly value having staff who both understood them and go to great lengths to support them. One care leaver said, ‘There is always someone there for you. They could sense if something was wrong and never give up on you. Even now they are only a phone call away and I can still rely on them.’

p.5

The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

The registered manager is hugely influential in establishing the ethos of the home. She enthuses the staff to think creatively about their practice and have the highest ideals for children. One member of staff said, ‘She helps us to be so confident and you end up knowing about loads of stuff and can talk about it forever.’

p.5

The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

The manager’s review of the quality of care is full of how development plans are put into practice, and it has further ideas on what the team wants to achieve in the coming months. The endeavour to continually improve was encapsulated by a professional who said, ‘Just when you think they have got everything sorted, they come up with another good idea.’ Many of these are truly innovative, such as the resource box containing materials to help children following a physical intervention.

p.5

The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

The manager incorporates children’s views well through such statutory monitoring instruments as the quality of care review and review of premises, along with those of other agencies.

p.5

The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

Staff have a comprehensive knowledge of children’s strengths, difficulties and needs, Inspection report children’s home: SC482303 6 assisted by tools to measure and record progress. High-quality plans and assessments are working documents, with updates made when circumstances change. However, dates, signatures and authors’ names are often missing, meaning that accountability is not clear.

p.5

The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

Most recommendations from the last inspection have had a great deal of thought given to them, and practice has been significantly enhanced. For example, the manager has considered the benefits of recording how young people are helped to make moves, and developed personal booklets that contain not just a timetable of events but options for support following departure, inspiring comments from staff and entitlements for care leavers.

p.6

The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

Staff forge excellent relationships with local agencies and community organisations, exemplified by organising a stall at a local fete for children to help raise money to buy a defibrillator for the village. The manager strongly advocates for children and challenges other agencies when their practice has not been in children’s best interests.

p.6

The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

Children know how to complain and have done so. Complaints are promptly responded to and complainants formally told of the outcome. However, records do not always show the process of investigation or how the outcomes were arrived at. It is also often not specified if the child was satisfied.

p.6

The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

The manager has enabled her staff to be highly attuned to each other and to the children. Staff members feel strongly that they can rely on her and their colleagues, and that they have the tools and knowledge to respond effectively in any given situation. The entire team is justifiably proud of the work that it does and the children it cares for. Inspection report children’s home: SC482303 7

p.6

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 difference 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: SC482303 8

p.7

Children’s home details

Registered provider: Hillcrest Children’s Services Ltd

p.8

Children’s home details

Registered provider address: Turnpike Gate House, Alcester Heath, Alcester, Warwickshire B49 5JG

p.8

Inspectors

Chris Peel, social care inspector Ken Smith, regional inspection manager (observing) Inspection report children’s home: SC482303 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.

p.8

Inspectors

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 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

Inspectors

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

p.9

Inspectors

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

p.9