LVS Hassocks

Inspection report for residential special school - LVS Hassocks 1 LVS Hassocks London Road, Sayers Commons, Hassocks, West Sussex BN6 9HT Residential provision inspected under the social care common inspection framework

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Information about this residential special school

The school is an independent residential special school located on the outskirts of Brighton. The school provides education and care for children and young people who have special educational needs. The school offers education for children aged eight to 19. Residential pupils are weekly boarders. The accommodation is in one house area on the school site.

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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 residential special school provides effective services that meet the requirements for good.

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good

Date of previous inspection: 12 September 2017

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good

Overall judgement at last inspection: requires improvement to be good Inspection report for residential special school - LVS Hassocks 2

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Key findings from this inspection

This residential special school is good because:

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Key findings from this inspection

 Students make good progress. They develop good personal and social skills. They develop positive and trusting relationships with staff and peers.  Staff provide good-quality, individualised child-focused care that supports each student to make good progress. Staff know the students well.  Students enjoy their time in the residential provision. They like the varied activities and opportunities available to them.  Staff provide students with practical advice, information and guidance that help them to develop skills that keep them safe.  Staff have developed a wide variety of skills and activities that support students to manage their behaviours, emotions and anxieties.

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Key findings from this inspection

The residential special school’s areas for development are:

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Key findings from this inspection

 To develop care plans to contain all strategies and approaches used across the whole school and therapy programmes followed to support the student.  To ensure that safeguarding referrals to others gain an outcome or response in a timely manner.  To ensure that all current fire risk assessments and information are collated. Ensure that all records that evidence decisions and rationales are included. For example, if a second opinion is gained regarding fire risk management, that this is provided alongside the current risk assessment. Inspection report for residential special school - LVS Hassocks 3

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Recommendations

 To ensure that all fire risk assessments are maintained and provide all pertinent information.  To collate all plans and approaches followed and make them available to all staff.  When making a safeguarding referral, ensure that a timely response and outcome is received. Inspection report for residential special school - LVS Hassocks 4

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Students make good progress while at the school. They develop essential life and social skills that benefit them. They all achieve academic and functional qualifications and awards.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

The residential provision of the school will close at the end of the summer term. Staff have effectively supported students to explore and prepare for placement moves and next steps into adulthood.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff are caring, nurturing and child-focused. They have good relationships with students. Students seek support and guidance from known staff when needed. Staff work well together to share information that supports and promotes seamless transitions and information sharing in the school.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Students are well supported and encouraged to develop independence, life and social skills through their daily activity and individualised plans. Students learn to cook, travel independently and carry out basic household chores and personal care routines. Staff offer a wide variety of individualised and personalised activities to students through timetabled activities. Students access activities and hobbies that complement and enable them to develop strategies that assist them to self-regulate their emotions and behaviours. Students are involved and part of the local community and access services and facilities.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff support students to address their physical and emotional health and well-being needs, but plans do not evidence all the support that students access while at the school. Those with complex health needs do have specific protocols for staff to follow if the need arises. One plan viewed by the inspector did not have the most up-to- date protocol within it.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

The voice of students is very apparent in the school. Students are given daily opportunities to share their views and opinions, for example through the school council, house meetings, comments cards and conversations with staff.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Students are supported to maintain contact with their families and friends when away from home. Staff maintain regular communication with families via the weekly emails and other forms of contact.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff support students using a wide variety of communication aids and tools in every aspect of school life. Staff provide verbal and visual cues that support students with routines, managing anxiety, describing their feelings and socialising with peers. Staff also support students to prepare and communicate with families using lists, visual aids and prompt sheets to promote and encourage good-quality conversations with families via telephone and Skype. Inspection report for residential special school - LVS Hassocks 5

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

An open and transparent safeguarding culture is embedded in the school, and everyone’s safety is valued. All staff have a clear understanding of their roles, responsibilities and how to report a concern to others. Students are clear about how and what to do if they are worried or anxious.

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

Staff apply a low threshold to safeguarding, with all concerns explored, referred and reported. Records provide a clear evidence trail that shows actions and outcomes. One matter was referred quickly but records show that a response from the safeguarding agency was not received in a timely manner. Leaders did challenge and pursue this but they were delayed in doing so. All staff in the designated safeguarding team are appropriately trained. They review and evaluate their actions and responses to concerns with lessons learned and practice developed as required.

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

Behaviour is good, well managed and de-escalated at the school. Students are polite and kind to each other. Staff are trained in the school’s preferred behaviour management approach. They have developed skills and strategies that support students to calm and self-regulate their behaviour. There has been a decline in the use of physical intervention in the school. The introduction of the zones of regulation enables students to describe how they are feeling and this has had a positive impact on students and staff. When physical intervention has been used, it has been in its lowest form and for as short a timescale as possible. Staff support students using individualised calming plans, which describe how best to support a student to calm. For example, students will go for short runs when feeling overwhelmed, anxious or excitable and this has helped students to learn positive ways of managing feelings,

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

anxieties and behaviour. Staff rarely give sanctions and consequences but when they have they have been restorative in their nature.

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

Students are well informed about how to make a complaint or raise a concern. Complaints have been responded to, with records evidencing responses and outcomes to complainants.

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

Staff complete detailed risk assessments for all planned on-site and off-site activities. Individual risk assessments focus on individual needs and how to manage and minimise risk.

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

There have been no incidents of going missing and staff have a clear understanding of what is required and procedures to follow if an event occurs. Staff ensure that they always know a student’s whereabouts.

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

Staff educate students about risk through the regular key-work sessions or in-house monthly meetings. Students have explored a variety of topics, which have included e- safety, stranger danger and road safety.

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

Recruitment follows safer recruitment guidance, with all checks completed as required. Inspection report for residential special school - LVS Hassocks 6 The environment is well managed and maintained, though records regarding fire risk assessment were not all present to evidence rationale and decision making. This was rectified during the inspection.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The school is well led by an effective and appropriately qualified senior leadership team, whose members have vision and ambition for students and encourage each student to achieve their best.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Students that reside at the school make good progress. Leaders, managers and staff have a clear understanding of the progress that each student makes. They have developed a clear system that assess and reviews progress. It breaks tasks down into small steps which are regularly reviewed. Leaders and managers are easily able to identify when progress is or is not being made.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Staff have been well supported through a period of change in the school. They receive regular and effective supervision. Staff attend monthly, informative team meetings and explore issues, student need and develop practice. Training is a priority in the school and the weekly professional development session supports this. Staff complete a wide variety of training that is relevant to their roles and all staff have achieved the required qualification.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The school self-assessment and development plan provides clarity regarding weaknesses and actions to improve these. The plan also details aspirational improvements to supplement and improve what the school offers to students. The boarding provision is achieving the aims and objectives as described in the statement of purpose.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Relationships with parents have developed. The school has initiated several methods to ensure that families stay well informed of students’ progress and what is happening at school. The weekly shout out student letter is shared with families, along with weekly email updates and other information sharing events.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Leaders have developed relationships with other agencies and voluntary organisations outside of the school. Students have forged links with other education settings in the local community, with all participants benefiting. Senior leaders challenge others and advocate on behalf of students if needed.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The regular independent visits to the school provide some additional scrutiny and oversight.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Governors apply regular oversight, scrutiny, challenge and review of the school and residential provision. They also focus on the strategic longer-term plans and considerations for the school to ensure that it is sustainable and that it continues to Inspection report for residential special school - LVS Hassocks 7 provide quality education. There has been a decline in student numbers and the governors and senior leaders are addressing this and numbers are beginning to rise.

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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 school 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 Children Act 1989 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 national minimum standards. Inspection report for residential special school - LVS Hassocks 8

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Residential special school details

Social care unique reference number: SC388553

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Residential special school details

Headteacher/teacher in charge: Sarah Sherwood

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Residential special school details

Type of school: Residential special school

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Residential special school details

Email address: sarah.sherwood@lvs-hassocks.org.uk Inspection report for residential special school - LVS Hassocks 9

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Inspector

Amanda Maxwell, social care inspector Inspection report for residential special school - LVS Hassocks 10 to 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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