Children's Home run by Hexagon Care Services Limited in Blackpool

Inspection report children’s home: SC480704 1 SC480704 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

This is one of several children’s homes operated by a private company. The home is registered to provide care and accommodation for up to six male children and young people who have emotional and/or behavioural difficulties. The current manager has been in post since 7 January 2019. He is in the process of preparing his application to become registered with Ofsted.

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Overall experiences and progress of

children and young people, taking into account

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good

How well children and young people are helped and protected good

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good

The effectiveness of leaders and managers good

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good

The children’s home provides effective services that meet the requirements for good.

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good

Date of last inspection: 20 December 2017

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good

Overall judgement at last inspection: outstanding

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good

Enforcement action since last inspection: none Inspection report children’s home: SC480704 2

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

20/12/2017 Full Outstanding 08/03/2017 Interim Improved effectiveness 19/12/2016 Full Outstanding 23/02/2016 Interim Sustained effectiveness Inspection report children’s home: SC480704 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 or the relevant person to seek to ensure that each child’s needs are met in accordance with the child’s relevant plans. (Regulation 5 (c))

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Requirement Due date

Specifically, challenge the placing authority to ensure that each child’s personal education plan is reviewed and updated within statutory timescales. 27/02/2019

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must make arrangements for the handling, recording, safekeeping, safe administration and disposal of medicines received into the children’s home. (Regulation 23 (1))

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Requirement Due date

Specifically, ensure that a record is maintained of all medication that is brought into the home and dispose of any prescribed medication that is no longer prescribed or required. 27/02/2019

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Requirement Due date

When the independent person is carrying out a visit, the registered person must help the independent person, if they consent, to interview in private such of the children, their parents, relatives and persons working at the home as the independent person requires. (Regulation 44 (2)(c))

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Requirement Due date

Specifically, improve the level of direct consultation between the independent person and third-party stakeholders, including parents and relatives. 27/02/2019

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Recommendations

 The children’s guide must be made available to all children when their placement in the home is agreed (or on arrival at the home if the placement is made in an Inspection report children’s home: SC480704 4 emergency) and explained to each child to make sure they understand it. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 24, paragraph 4.21)  The registered person should ensure that staff can access appropriate facilities and resources to support their training needs. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 53, paragraph 10.11) Specifically, source and provide staff with training that will help them to better understand how to support children with learning difficulties.  All staff in a care role, including external agency or bank staff, must have the qualification in Regulation 32(4) within the relevant timescale listed in Regulation

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Recommendations

32(5). (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 53, paragraph 10.12)  All staff must have their performance and fitness to carry out their role formally appraised at least once annually. This appraisal should take into account, where reasonable and practical, the views of other professionals who have worked with the staff member over the year and children in the home’s care. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 61, paragraph 13.5)

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff work in a determined way to deliver a programme of individualised care and support that provides young people with opportunities to improve their lives. Staff work hard to develop and maintain positive relationships that underpin the ethos and culture of the home. For some young people, this has created a sense of belonging and those who accept the help on offer make excellent progress relative to their starting points and time in placement.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

The current group of young people speak very positively about their care experiences. They appreciate the efforts made by the care team and recognise how they have contributed positively to their lives. Comments from young people included, ‘My life has changed in a positive way’, ‘Staff are always there for me when I need them’ and ‘All of the staff want us to succeed.’

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Managers have found it difficult to match new admissions to the existing group. They have used pre-admission information to determine the suitability of admissions to the home. Despite this, several placements have not been a success due to young people presenting behaviour that has compromised their own safety and the safety of others. Staff did try to engage these young people and have shown a genuine commitment to them, even when their behaviour has been at its most challenging and unsafe. When faced with no alternative, the manager has served notice on the placement, working with the placing authority to achieve as much of a planned transition as possible. Inspection report children’s home: SC480704 5 Young people’s care is planned well and focuses clearly on their individual and diverse needs. Their views are gathered and represented as part of the care planning process and they routinely influence the day-to-day running of the home.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff recognise and promote the importance of education and training. Staff provide high levels of support that have been effective in improving education and training attendance and in helping young people to reach their learning potential. One young person said, ‘I am expected to go to college and staff support me to do this. I am enjoying college and one of the staff has helped me to get a part-time job that I have started recently.’ The young person went on to say, ‘This is the best home that I have been in. Staff are very supportive.’

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Young people’s health needs are met well. They are supported to attend appointments, which ensures that routine checks, such as the dentist and the optician, are up to date. Staff maintain good links with health professionals to ensure that any specific health needs are reviewed regularly.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Young people are offered an extensive range of activities to occupy their recreation time. They are encouraged to develop their confidence, talents and skills by pursuing their personal interests, for example playing football for a local team or visiting car racing events. Young people spoke with enthusiasm about some of the fun and exciting things that they have done but all listed their summer holiday to Barcelona as being their most memorable.

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

Young people are effectively protected from harm by staff who are trained in safeguarding. Staff demonstrate a good insight into each young person’s behaviours, risks and vulnerabilities and they are consistent in their implementation of carefully considered risk management strategies. For example, several young people have presented serious concerns in terms of placing themselves and others at risk through going missing from home. In all cases, missing from care protocols have been followed and there is evidence of a strong multi-agency approach being taken.

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

Group dynamics and behaviour are managed well. Staff take a patient and non- confrontational approach to managing young people’s behaviour, which can be challenging at times. They make good use of the strong relationships that they have with the young people and the de-escalation techniques that they have acquired through behaviour management training. Generally, young people respond positively to this approach, which means that the need for physical intervention is extremely rare. On the eight occasions when physical intervention has been used, it has been done sensitively and in a proportionate and supportive manner.

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

Staff responses to negative behaviour are both proportionate and fair. Young people confirm that staff talk to them about their behaviour and give them opportunities to make amends and to put things right. This helps young people to reflect and develop prosocial behaviour. Inspection report children’s home: SC480704 6 Staff recognise the importance of supporting young people to take age-appropriate risks and to provide them with parent-like advice, support and guidance. This has contributed to young people making good choices about keeping themselves safe. Risk-taking behaviour is exceptionally rare for the current group of young people and the requirement for direct adult supervision is low. This means that young people can spend time in the community having the same social experiences as their friendship group.

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

Medication management requires improvement. Staff are not recording consistently when non-prescribed medication is brought into the home. Also, prescribed medication that is no longer prescribed or required is not disposed of in a timely manner. Although this has not presented actual risk to young people, there is clearly a potential for it to do so.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The current manager has been in post since 7 January 2019. He is in the process of preparing his application to become registered with Ofsted, which will be submitted in the coming weeks. He has extensive experience in working with young people and is due to start the level 5 diploma in leadership and management for residential childcare. He is extremely child-focused and demonstrates a good awareness of his own strengths and has an aspirational vision for the future of the home.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The manager is supported well by a recently promoted and competent deputy manager. Already they have forged a strong working partnership, which was evident throughout this inspection. Together they provide effective leadership for a stable and experienced staff team that remains committed to continuing to deliver the good standard of care that has been evident since the last inspection.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Staff confirm that they feel supported well by the management team. New staff confirm that they are inducted well into the home and all staff benefit from purposeful supervision that is focused on their individual professional development. Individual performance is reviewed regularly and culminates in a formal annual appraisal. It is not yet custom and practice to gather and consider the views of young people or other professionals as part of these annual reviews.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

A good range of mandatory and needs-led training is delivered as part of an ongoing programme of support. However, the manager has not yet sourced training that will help the team to better understand how to support children with learning difficulties, which is an identified need of a young person who was admitted to the home recently.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The expectation to attain a professional qualification is the same for both permanent and casual staff. A significant proportion of the team members are qualified, and the rest are either enrolled on or in the process of completing the level 3 diploma for residential childcare. However, one member of staff is out of regulatory timescale, having recently joined the organisation with extensive residential childcare experience. Inspection report children’s home: SC480704 7 Managers make effective use of internal quality assurance processes that are designed to scrutinise and evaluate the home’s performance and to promote an improvement agenda. This monitoring activity is further enhanced by the monthly scrutiny of an independent visitor who provides a sufficiently detailed report that can be used to address any identified shortfalls. However, these reports do not evidence that the independent visitor is consulting directly with third-party stakeholders, including parents

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The manager and staff have good relationships with professional stakeholders and families to ensure that a collaborative approach is taken to care planning. Managers are proactive in their efforts to remind external bodies of their obligations to the young people. However, a failure to escalate and present an appropriate level of challenge has resulted in the review of personal education plans being significantly overdue for two young people.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Information in the form of a children’s guide is available to young people. This document provides a child-friendly overview of key information such as expectations and rules, daily routines and complaints. However, there is no evidence to confirm that this document is made available to young people when they first arrive at the home.

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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: SC480704 8

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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: 2nd Floor, 1 Tustin Court, Riversway, Preston, Lancashire PR2 2YQ

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Inspector

Paul Scott: social care inspector Inspection report children’s home: SC480704 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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