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

Inspection report children’s home: 1241789 1 Registered provider: Horizon Care And Education Group Limited

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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 operated by a private organisation. It is registered to provide care and accommodation for up to three children and young people who have emotional, social and behavioural difficulties. There is currently no registered manager.

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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: 5 February 2018

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requires improvement to be good

Overall judgement at last inspection: good

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requires improvement to be good

Enforcement action since last inspection: none

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

05/02/2018 Full Good 14/12/2016 Full Outstanding Inspection report children’s home: 1241789 2

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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 positive relationship standard is that children are helped to develop, and to benefit from, relationships based on—

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Requirement Due date

mutual respect and trust; an understanding about acceptable behaviour; and positive responses to other children and adults.

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Requirement Due date

In particular, the standard in paragraph (1) requires the registered person to ensure that staff—

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Requirement Due date

communicate to each child expectations about the child’s behaviour, in accordance with the child’s age and understanding. (Regulation 11 (1)(a)(b)(c)(2)(1)(a)(v)) 12/04/2019

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Requirement Due date

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—

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Requirement Due date

have the skills to identify and act upon signs that a child is at risk of harm; and understand the roles and responsibilities in relation to protecting children that are assigned to them by the registered person; and that the home’s day-to-day care is arranged and delivered so as to keep each child safe and protect each child effectively from harm. (Regulation 12 (1)(2)(1)(a)(iii)(vi)(b)) 12/04/2019

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Recommendations

 The registered person should ensure that, in line with their individual healthcare plans and the ethos of the home, children are offered advice, support and Inspection report children’s home: 1241789 3 guidance on health and well-being to enhance, and supplement that provided by their school through Personal, Social and Health Education (PSHE). Staff should have the relevant skills and knowledge to be able to help children understand, and where necessary work to change, negative behaviours in key areas of health and well-being such as, but not limited to, nutrition and healthy diet, exercise, mental health, sexual relationships, sexual health, contraception and use of legal highs, drugs, alcohol and tobacco. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 35, paragraph 7.18)

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Recommendations

 Staff should be familiar with the home’s policies on record keeping and understand the importance of careful, objective, and clear recording. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 62, paragraph 14.4)

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improvement to be good

Young people and staff have experienced instability over the past few months. Some very concerning incidents have not been managed effectively by staff. The registered manager resigned from the home in January 2019. The organisation has now appointed a new manager. The new manager is beginning to make progress to improve the overall care that staff provide to young people.

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improvement to be good

Staff have not supported young people to reduce or stop smoking. Young people regularly smoke. Young people have also jeopardised their health and well-being through cannabis use, and they have managed to bring alcohol into the home. Insufficient work has taken place with young people to ensure that they have the information and support from partner agencies to help them stop smoking, using cannabis and placing their health at risk.

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improvement to be good

Young people have made good educational progress. They are now in full-time education. Young people have achieved improved attendance and punctuality at school. Education staff report that young people are ready for learning when they arrive at school, and they are now motivated to learn. One young person is taking GCSE and functional skills exams and she recently completed a successful work placement, at which her contribution was greatly valued. Their educational progress helps young people to fulfil their potential and achieve success, leading to better future prospects.

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improvement to be good

The manager and staff value the views of the young people, and they have recently developed good systems for collating young people’s views. The manager has instated young people’s meetings, so now these meetings take place regularly with the staff. The manager has implemented young people’s questionnaires to capture the views, ideas and the suggestions of young people about the care they receive and about living in the home. These are new developments and require time to become rooted in day-to-day Inspection report children’s home: 1241789 4 care practice.

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improvement to be good

Relationships between staff and young people have improved over recent months. The young people report that they feel happier and more settled. One young person said that the staff are really supportive. Young people are becoming more settled because of these improved relationships with staff. For example, they have redecorated their rooms to their tastes, and they are taking part in more activities with staff. These activities are helping to improve these important relationships.

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improvement to be good

The manager has not ensured that there is enough monitoring of young people during the night. The manager has staff who sleep at the home overnight, but there are no other measures in place to ensure the safety of young people at night. There is a risk assessment which covers night-time monitoring, but this is of poor quality and is insufficiently robust to provide assurance about the safety of young people.

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improvement to be good

Over the past few months, staff have struggled to manage young people’s behaviour. There have been numerous concerning incidents during which young people have caused damage to the home. Young people have placed themselves in dangerous situations through going missing from care, and their behaviour in the home has placed them at increased risk. There has been conflict in young people’s relationships, and staff have struggled to determine what actions to take to manage challenging behaviour. The previous manager and staff did not identify the precursors to deteriorating behaviour and did not intervene at an early enough stage. Additionally, the manager and staff had not learned any lessons from these incidents to help them manage future incidents better.

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improvement to be good

The previous manager did not consult with the local authority designated officer or the placing local authority for a young person, when that young person raised concerns over a member of staff. The manager discussed the concerns with the young person and decided to take no further action. This decision should only have been made in conjunction with the responsible partner agencies, to ensure that this decision was the correct course of action.

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improvement to be good

Young people’s behaviour has recently improved. This improvement coincided with a change of manager and one young person leaving the home. The new manager has instilled a greater level of confidence in the staff team. Staff now consistently implement behavioural boundaries which young people are responding to well. Young people enjoy improved daily routines and activities with staff. These recent improvements need time to become embedded and consolidated to keep young people safe.

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improvement to be good

The manager ensures that new staff coming to work at the home are recruited in accordance with safer recruitment procedures. Prospective new staff undergo a wide range of checks, which include criminal disclosure and employment reference checks, to ensure that they are suitable to work with young people. This helps to minimise the risk Inspection report children’s home: 1241789 5 to young people from those caring for them.

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

There is currently no registered manager. The home has an acting manager in post who has applied to Ofsted for registration. The acting manager is currently undertaking the required qualification in leadership and management. She has quickly set about making changes in how the home is run. Staff are positive and young people report that they are happier.

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

The acting manager understands the strengths and the weaknesses of this home. The manager, together with the operations manager, understands and acknowledges that there have been shortfalls in leadership and management, and in the manner that safeguarding concerns have been dealt with over recent months. These shortfalls have amounted to poor oversight of incidents, particularly the way that staff have managed incidents, and very little learning from incidents that may have helped staff practice in the future. There has been a lack of work carried out with young people to understand their feelings and emotions which led to the deterioration in behaviour. To improve the situation, the current manager immediately completed her own quality assurance review, which is detailed. She is collating the views of partner agencies, young people and staff. She has developed an improvement plan and is beginning to put this into operation. The

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

manager and operations manager are focused on improvement in the home and ensuring that young people receive the best possible care, and are kept safe by staff.

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

Staff recording processes are not yet robust. In some areas, recording is poor, with examples of incorrect dates and times on incident forms and a lack of detail in the recording to enable the reader to understand what has taken place. Management oversight of this recording has failed to identify these problems and put them right.

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

Staff are now receiving the help and support they need to complete the required qualification for residential care workers. The manager recognised immediately that some staff were struggling to get this qualification completed in a timely manner. The manager ensured that these staff received additional support from a tutor, and the manager has also spent time with them and helped them to complete this valuable qualification. Staff are now on track for successful completion of this programme.

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

Staff say that they now feel well supported by the manager. They now receive regular supervision and feel better able to complete the required qualification. Staff recognise that young people are more settled and focused on doing well at school. In conjunction with the decrease in incidents, staff have taken part in more recreational activities with young people, and this is helping both the staff and young people to develop strong relationships.

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Information about this inspection

Inspection report children’s home: 1241789 6 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: 1241789 7

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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

Responsible individual: Kenneth Farrimond

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Inspector:

Phillip Morris, social care regulatory inspector Inspection report children’s home: 1241789 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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