Children's Home run by Hampshire County Council in Hampshire

Inspection report children‟s home: 1254782 1 Registered provider: Hampshire County Council

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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 home is owned and run by the local authority. It provides care and accommodation for up to four children and young people who have social and/or emotional difficulties.

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Information about this children’s home

The registered manager has been registered with Ofsted since May 2012.

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Information about this children’s home

Inspection dates: 13 to 14 November 2018

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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 good

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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

Overall judgement at last inspection: good

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outstanding

Enforcement action since last inspection: none Inspection report children‟s home: 1254782 2

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Inspection judgement

Good Inspection report children‟s home: 1254782 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 registered person must complete a review of the quality of care provided for children (“a quality of care review”) at least once every 6 months.

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Requirement Due date

In order to complete a quality of care review the registered person must establish and maintain a system for monitoring, reviewing and evaluating—

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Requirement Due date

the quality of care provided for children;

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Requirement Due date

the feedback and opinions of children about the children‟s home, its facilities and the quality of care they receive in it; and any actions that the registered person considers necessary in order to improve or maintain the quality of care provided for children.

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Requirement Due date

After completing a quality of care review, the registered person must produce a written report about the quality of care review and the actions which the registered person intends to take as a result of the quality of care review (“the quality of care review report”).

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Requirement Due date

supply to HMCI a copy of the quality of care review report within 28 days of the date on which the quality of care review is completed; and

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Requirement Due date

the system referred to in paragraph (2) must provide for ascertaining and considering the opinions of children, their parents, placing authorities and staff. (Regulation 45 (1)(2)(a)(b)(c)(3)(4)(a)(5)) 31/03/2019 Inspection report children‟s home: 1254782 4

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Recommendations

 The registered person should monitor and review the patterns and trends of turnover of staff, whether agency or directly employed, and be able to understand and, where possible, address any negative trends. („Guide to the children‟s homes regulations including the quality standards‟, page 54, paragraph 10.19)

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: outstanding

The registered manager stated that her vision for the home is „for it to be the safest place for the children and for them to experience care from positive adults. Children‟s voices and participation are important in their care and we want happy, healthy, thriving children that all feel safe.‟ This aspiration is very visible throughout the home.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: outstanding

Staff successfully create a very real sense of family life in the home, where children‟s needs are of paramount importance. Children respond positively to the genuinely warm and caring staff team.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: outstanding

The purpose-built home provides children with an exceptional modern, spacious and homely environment. Children helped to plan the decoration in the home, and in their bedrooms, and renamed the games room „the snug‟. The registered manager is very clear that „this is the children‟s home‟, and for this reason, staff offices have been located discreetly at the front of the home, away from the children‟s living areas, which helps to minimise any institutional feel in the home.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: outstanding

Children make excellent progress in all areas of their lives and this is a real source of pleasure for both staff and children. Examples are numerous and include children developing much healthier diets, better sleeping patterns and improved communication and social skills. For some children, sitting at a table and eating a meal together as a family, or opening a library account and choosing a book, are significant achievements.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: outstanding

Children help plan their fun activities and unique, once-in-a-lifetime opportunities which enhance their overall experiences. Staff listen to the children and make sure that children‟s requests for swimming or horse-riding lessons, or their wish to join the local football or youth club, are actioned swiftly. Children‟s increased confidence enables them to enjoy visits to premier league football matches or travel in an aeroplane on holiday for the first time.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: outstanding

All children attend school, and their educational progress is highly prioritised. If children do not have a school place, staff advocate effectively for them. This approach includes staff supporting children in their classrooms to enable them to settle.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: outstanding

The staff demonstrate the highly creative use of resources. This helps to encourage children‟s further learning in the home. During the summer‟s football World Cup Inspection report children‟s home: 1254782 5 tournament, children learned about the countries that England was playing against, while also helping to cook the national dishes of Panama, Colombia and Belgium. Another example is how a member of staff with musical skills helped programme an alphabet song on a child‟s keyboard to help them to improve their spelling.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: outstanding

A care professional summed up the home, „I am always greeted with a positive attitude, and I know when I ring the doorbell that I will be met with friendliness and warmth as soon as I walk through the door,‟ Another care professional added, „The staff are always friendly and welcoming, always accommodating and very committed to the children they look after.‟

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

Staff are excellent at understanding each child‟s complex needs. Regular consultation with child and adolescent mental health services and an educational psychologist helps staff to consider and implement new strategies and techniques to provide individualised support for the children. For example, a child with communication challenges has been encouraged to express himself with emoji symbols, which helps to ensure that staff are always aware of the child‟s emotional well-being.

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

Staff combine their considerable skills with a model of positive behavioural support in the home. An educational psychologist complimented staff, saying, „I believe that the emotional warmth of the staff greatly assisted a child with his social and emotional progress and I am seeing this with the other children, too.‟ This care professional also praised the staff in their approach to supporting children‟s bedtime routines, „family‟ mealtimes, the way that staff speak affectionately to the children and ensure that they spend quality time with each of them, and the manner in which the staff support peer relationships in the home.

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

Children spoken with during the inspection said that they felt safe living in the home, and parents said their children are kept safe. Staff prioritise children‟s safety in all areas of their lives, including physical and mental health, friendships and the internet. A child said, „This is the best home I have ever lived in.‟

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

Children receive outstanding support and guidance from staff to help them to behave well. Positive behaviour is consistently promoted, and staff rarely need to use sanctions. If children‟s behaviour becomes challenging, staff actively strive to avoid criminalising children in the home. Staff support children to participate in restorative approaches to resolve any conflicts, including writing letters of apology. Leaders and managers have recently hosted a visit from a national penal reform charity in order to share their innovative best practice.

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

An excellent and robust admissions policy ensures that children are admitted to the home in a suitable manner In-depth assessments and meticulous planning help to ensure that new admissions to the home are handled very carefully. Children already living in the home are consulted and invited to prepare „welcome‟ cards for any new children. This excellent attention to detail includes helping a child to familiarise himself, Inspection report children‟s home: 1254782 6 and settle in the home, by arranging for the child‟s current carers to stay overnight in the home.

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

All staff receive training in child protection and safeguarding vulnerable children. Training to meet the individual needs of children is further enhanced by the regular input from an educational psychologist to the staff team meetings. Such bespoke training coupled with the expert advice and sharing of strategies in relation to each child helps to ensure that the care and support provided to children is appropriate and dynamic to meet their changing needs.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The knowledgeable registered manager draws on more than 17 years of residential children‟s home experience to help drive the service forward. Leaders and managers have actioned all of the requirements and recommendations made at the last inspection.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The application of research-informed practice is central to the home‟s ethos. All staff receive training in a well-known therapeutic model of care with emotional warmth at its core. This means that children receive consistently high-quality and meaningful levels of care and support.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The registered manager‟s view of sharing best practice also encompasses inviting prospective foster carers and adopters to visit the home as part of their training and understanding of looking after vulnerable children.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

A professional said that leaders and managers are „ambitious to provide the highest level of care and are always seeking to improve, using the quality standards as a tool to do so. Staff are enthusiastic to learn and always take any feedback on board.‟ A member of staff said, „I love coming to work and being able to be part of the children‟s lives and making a difference.‟

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Children living in the home benefit from the registered manager‟s active involvement with the local community. Local businesses donate Christmas presents for the children while another business is currently running a raffle, with all the money raised going towards a once-in-a-lifetime holiday for the children in the home.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The registered manager has considerable insight into the home‟s strengths and areas for development. She actively gathers the feedback and opinions of children, parents, professionals and staff. However, these opinions are not consistently incorporated into the quality of care review.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The home is fully staffed. However, since the last inspection, the deputy manager has taken an extended leave of absence and several staff have left the service. While this has not affected the outstanding quality of care provided to the children, two staff members spoken with during the inspection said that they currently felt less supported and that there was less time for individual reflective supervision. The responsible individual and registered manager are aware of these shortfalls and there are plans in Inspection report children‟s home: 1254782 7 place to address these concerns.

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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: 1254782 8

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: Hampshire Council, The Castle, Winchester, Hampshire SO23 8UG

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Children’s home details

Registered manager: Lorraine Hopkin-Munro

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Inspector

Victoria Jones, social care inspector Inspection report children‟s home: 1254782 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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