Children's home run by Esland North Limited in Preston

Inspection report children’s home: SC480161 1 SC480161 Registered provider: Hexagon Care Services Limited 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 up to six young people who may have emotional, behavioural and/or learning difficulties. The home is owned and managed by a private company. The home has a registered manager who was approved in September 2017.

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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

Overall judgement at last inspection: outstanding

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outstanding

Enforcement action since last inspection: none Inspection report children’s home: SC480161 2

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

28/06/2017 Full Outstanding 13/03/2017 Interim Sustained effectiveness 19/10/2016 Full Outstanding 21/03/2016 Interim Improved effectiveness Inspection report children’s home: SC480161 3

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Recommendations

 Homes are required to develop and keep under review a "Statement of Purpose" (regulation 16 and schedule 1). (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 14, paragraph 3.5). This relates specifically to ensuring that a copy of the revised Statement of Purpose is sent to Ofsted.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: outstanding

The needs of young people are carefully assessed prior to their admission. This ensures that young people living at the home are appropriately matched. Young people benefit from very well-planned, highly individualised care that promotes their needs effectively and contributes to continuing change and improvement in their lives. A social worker reported, ‘[Young person] has made great progress since the start of his placement. He presents as a happy individual.’ An independent reviewing officer reported, ‘The quality of care provided is excellent.’

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: outstanding

There has been a change in the group dynamics since the last inspection. Young people recently admitted have settled in well and say that they have been made to feel welcome by staff. A young person reported, ‘It’s alright. Staff helped me settle in. I’m getting used to it.’ Young people that have left the home since the last inspection have made a positive transition to semi-independence or other alternative care provision.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: outstanding

Young people make significant progress in relation to their individual starting points. They enjoy good-quality relationships with staff and develop a sense of permanence and belonging. They benefit from continuity of care and have consistency and stability in their lives. The home provides young people with a safe, supportive, caring and nurturing environment. Young people described the home as being ‘homely’, ‘kind’, ‘polite’, ‘caring’ and ‘it’s a fun and nice place to live in’.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: outstanding

Young people benefit from highly effective support from staff to promote their positive health. They are registered with a doctor, a dentist and an optician and have access to these services when they need them. Young people attend therapy with skilled, well- qualified, trained and highly experienced staff. This enables them to make sense of their earlier childhood experiences and to begin their own unique therapeutic journeys to promote their emotional resilience and psychological well-being. Qualified therapists support young people in coming to terms with their past. The home maintains highly effective partnerships with health professionals to ensure that young people’s specific health needs are consistently met. Inspection report children’s home: SC480161 4 Young people benefit from excellent support to attend school or other alternative educational provision. Staff work closely with the education provider to promote young

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: outstanding

people’s educational achievement and learning. Young people are learning and receive the support that they need to pursue their career aspirations, training and educational goals. Staff consistently have high aspirations for young people.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: outstanding

The home promotes contact for young people and their families. As a result, young people can sustain their close relationships with the people who are most important to them. Young people benefit from a diverse range of popular and positive activities, both at the home and in the wider community. They enjoy going to the cinema, bowling, the gym, horse riding, pool and gaming. They can pursue activities of specific interest to them. Staff encourage young people’s interests and hobbies and promote their inclusion in the wider community.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: outstanding

Young people are supported to take appropriate and well-managed risks to promote their growth and natural development. They benefit from the Individual Community Opportunities Plans Experience programme (ICOPE) to enable them to work towards supervised and unsupervised time in the community in line with their specific risk assessments and personal safety plans. This is a controlled experience for young people that involves the input and involvement of their social workers, therapists and staff.

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

Health and safety matters are addressed effectively by staff. Young people benefit from a physically safe, appropriately secure, warm, comfortable and homely environment. There is an effective programme of redecoration and repair to ensure that the home is consistently maintained to a high-quality standard for young people. Plans to revamp and improve the home’s existing washing facilities for young people are soon to be implemented. Staff reported, ‘The setting is very homely and looks like a home rather than a children’s home. Both staff and young people have a say in how the home is decorated and the young people take pride in their surroundings.’

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

The safety of young people is consistently at the centre of staff’s practice, irrespective of the challenges that this presents. Staff have an exceptionally good understanding of young people’s specific needs and emerging vulnerabilities and take appropriate action to address them. Risks associated with young people are well known and understood by staff. The use of robust and clear risk assessments, combined with personal safety plans and highly effective safe working practices, promotes the well-being and safety of young people and others. A social worker reported, ‘The team understands the complexities of caring for this group of young people, and does so with the right balance of care and risk management.’

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

Staff manage the behaviours of young people safely and effectively. Young people are kept safe and feel safe living at the home. Young people become increasingly safer because of the actions that staff take to support and protect them. Due to high staffing ratios and high supervision levels, the frequency with which young people go missing remains low. On the rare occasions when young people have gone missing, staff actively Inspection report children’s home: SC480161 5 look for them and apply the home’s policies and procedures to locate young people quickly and to secure their safe return. Staff maintain highly effective partnerships with the police, social workers and other safeguarding agencies to promote the safety and well-being of young people.

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

Young people are protected from abuse and all other forms of significant harm. Significant incidents are shared with the appropriate authorities and this ensures that the right action is taken by the right professional agencies to protect young people and others from harm. Staff are trained in child protection, including e-safety, training around child sexual exploitation, radicalisation and county lines. Staff have an excellent knowledge and understanding of safeguarding and are alert to the risk of harm.

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

Staff maintain positive relationships with young people and these relationships provide the foundations for managing their behaviour and resolving conflicts positively. The use of restraint is exceptionally rare and, if used at all, restraint is only ever used to protect young people from harm. Staff have high expectations of behaviour. They are trained in Reinforce Appropriate Implode Disruptive (RAID) behaviour, which is an effective approach to working with challenging behaviour. The home has achieved accreditation with the Association for Psychological Therapies as a centre of excellence for implementing this approach outstandingly well.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

The home meets the aims and objectives, as set out in the home’s statement of purpose. The home provides an outstanding quality service for young people that contributes to sustainable change and improvement in their lives. The statement of purpose has been recently updated to include staff changes. However, an updated copy of the statement of purpose has not been submitted to Ofsted. As a result, a recommendation is made in respect of this minor issue.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

The home can evidence the positive impact and difference it has made to the lives of young people. Young people benefit from a home that is managed efficiently and effectively. They benefit from effective, high-quality support from well-qualified, skilled and experienced staff who meet their needs very effectively.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

The home employs a full-time, permanent registered manager who registered with Ofsted in September 2017. The registered manager is extremely well qualified and exercises strong and effective leadership of the home. The manager channels staff’s efforts and stimulates staff’s enthusiasm highly effectively. The manager has high expectations of staff and high aspirations for young people.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

Staff benefit from regular, practice-related supervision. They have supervision with their line manager and benefit from direct consultation with the home’s therapists, which enable them to reflect on their practice and to explore how their own behaviour and feelings can be affected by young people’s behaviours. Staff attend regular team meetings to review the progress and experiences of the young people. Inspection report children’s home: SC480161 6 The registered manager ensures that the home is consistently well staffed and resourced. She ensures that staff are well supported, managed and led and they prioritise the needs of young people. The home maintains highly effective partnerships with social workers and other professional agencies to ensure that young people benefit from the best possible help and all-round support. Staff have access to high-quality training that enables them to meet the specific and complex needs of the young people.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

Staff have a clear sense of purpose and direction. They share and implement the home’s ethos, approach and philosophy in caring for young people. Staff maintain high-quality relationships with young people and these relationships are instrumental to young people’s progress and experiences, placement stability and success. Young people reported, ‘I like most of the staff to be honest with you. Staff are good at listening. They’re good to talk to and they’re always there to help you. Staff help and support me a lot. Like when I’m upset, they help me a lot.’

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

The home is visited, each month, by an independent professional who scrutinises the performance of the home and the arrangements made to safeguard young people and to promote their well-being. Following each visit, a written report is produced about the conduct of the home. This enables the registered manager to have a good understanding of the strengths and weaknesses of the home. The manager makes effective use of the home’s monitoring activities to eradicate any identified shortfalls or weaknesses and to secure the home’s improvement.

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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: SC480161 7

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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, Lancashire PR2 2YQ

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Inspector

Anthony Kyem: social care inspector Inspection report children’s home: SC480161 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 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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