Children's home run by Hillcrest Children’s Services Ltd

Inspection report children’s home: 1259508 1 Registered provider: Hillcrest Children’s Services Ltd

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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 is a privately owned home. It provides care for up to eight children who have emotional and/or behavioural difficulties. The organisation also runs a registered school that children living in the home may attend. The manager registered with Ofsted 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

Date of last inspection: 26 February 2018

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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: 1259508 2

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

26/02/2018 Full Good Inspection report children’s home: 1259508 3

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Recommendations

 Ensure that the home works in partnership with relevant people as appropriate so that each child is provided with appropriate support to communicate their views, wishes and feelings and participate as fully as possible in all aspects of their care planning and daily care. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 22, paragraph 4.6.) This particularly relates to ensuring that the children’s council meetings have a creative agenda that builds on children’s life skills.  Ensure that the registered person enables staff to access appropriate facilities and resources to support their training needs, and understands the key role they play in the training and development of staff in the home. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 53, paragraph 10.11) This particularly relates to ensuring that all staff promptly complete their

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Recommendations

required training, especially mandatory online training.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: outstanding

The theoretical model underpinning the everyday care of children in this home results in an excellent understanding of individual children’s needs and the consistent delivery of an outstanding standard of care. Because of this personalised approach, children make exceptional progress. For example, many children previously had intermittent or no school attendance. Now, all children have full school attendance every day, only missing days for health reasons. This in itself has greatly improved their life chances. Children also make exceptional progress in improving their basic health, and follow healthy eating and sleeping regimes. Crucially, children’s emotional health improves, and they are happier and less anxious and preoccupied with worries. This gives them new opportunities to develop essential skills and understanding of themselves and the world around them. Carers work extremely hard at forging strong relationships with children. A carer said, ‘I

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: outstanding

say to them, you can say what you like to me, I will keep coming back to you because I care about you.’ For the vast majority of children, this commitment pays off and they begin to forge valuable attachments. Carers are very aware of the lifelong but often fragile bonds between children and their families. Carers provide regular updates to families on the child’s progress, and provide Inspection report children’s home: 1259508 4 practical support to contact arrangements. This has been very successful for some children in that contact has become more regular and unsupervised. This home is excellent at gaining children’s views and then acting on them, particularly in relation to activities, food and the living environment. There is a regular council meeting that children chair. This innovative practice could be further developed by creatively expanding the agenda to maximise children’s involvement. Children all have appropriately packed weekdays involving education, a wide variety of

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: outstanding

activities, and some children are involved in charitable work locally. On-site, the home has very well-developed opportunities for active pursuits such as football on an all- weather pitch and it has a popular gaming lounge. Most children at some time also access reflective activities and, as one young person said, ‘There is always someone to talk to and they are all really caring.’ Independence skills are effectively built into each child’s day from when they arrive at the home. All are expected to keep their rooms clean and do their laundry on a set day, and some enjoy regular baking sessions. Young people have a valuable opportunity to move into the adjacent bungalow where they will be more physically separate from the home, but are still very much involved in its daily life.

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

Thorough and personalised risk assessments begin at the referral stage and are then regularly updated with focused work being done to minimise risks to the child. Over time, children generally become increasingly safe, especially in areas such as aggression and missing from the home. Carers have well-developed strategies in place to help keep children safe on the internet, and children further benefit from attending bespoke training and learning how to keep themselves safe, particularly on social media. There are effective protocols in place to respond to children who go missing from the home, and return home interviews are usually promptly completed. Some children were putting themselves at significant risk by frequently going missing from the home. Carers persistently applied personalised and imaginative strategies to reduce this behaviour, and were successful in achieving a sustained reduction of this risk for most

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

of these children. The highly effective behaviour management in this home is underpinned by a strong understanding of each child’s perceptions of the world and their coping strategies. This approach is very well supported by the professional observations of the clinical team, the resources of which are available to both the staff team and to children. Individualised incentives are key to day-to-day practice, and staff work in partnership with the school staff so that children receive highly consistent behavioural messages. Behaviour management training is a bespoke model to this organisation and has a significant focus on attachment theory and de-escalation. This approach appropriately supports the minimum necessary use of physical intervention and prioritises a non- confrontational tactic whenever possible. The success of this approach is evident in the Inspection report children’s home: 1259508 5 reduction in the frequency of physical interventions.

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

Staff recruitment practice is conscientiously carried out, and is effective in helping to protect children from unsuitable adults. Allegations against staff are robustly and fairly dealt with. Appropriate professionals are involved in investigating these and there are effective working relationships in place with the designated officer. This home has an exceptionally well-maintained and comfortable environment. Essential health and safety checks are carefully carried out and therefore protect children from the risk of harm. A social worker commented, ‘Given the number of children and their sometimes heightened emotional state, it surprises me that on all my visits I have never seen the home’s standards slip.’

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

This home has been managed since its opening in 2017 by a highly effective permanent, appropriately trained registered manager. Her commitment to this home is absolute and she has a clear, unyielding vision for it. As she said, ‘I drive the service and I have the same expectations for these kids as for my own. Only the best is good enough for them.’ This commitment is clearly shared by her management team that is equally passionate and confident about the transformative effects that its care can have on children’s outcomes. The management team aims to inspire new staff with the same enthusiasm and commitment. A member of the team said, for example, ‘The floor is where the magic happens. You can play a part in changing lives for the better.’ This appropriately ambitious vision is backed up by fair staffing and resources. The registered manager has an excellent knowledge of children’s needs and the plans

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

for them. This is partly because she spends her working week living in the home interacting with children at different times, and partly because of the excellent monitoring systems that are in place. Children’s progress across key areas is assessed monthly and used to update the children’s placement plans. Any decline in progress, for example in education, is quickly apparent and immediate strategies can be put into place. These strategies are usually effective in halting any downward spiral. Children’s case records are well kept and involve children whenever possible. Children receive regular key-work sessions, and these are highly valued as they involve children being collected from school and going out for lunch with their key worker. These creative and highly effective strategies help children to commit to making progress. Staff value their regular and reflective supervision and feel well supported in their work.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

Training is good and staff especially value the excellent development opportunities offered by the clinical team. Some staff are slow to complete their mandatory online training, which limits their expertise in certain areas. The home is well monitored by the independent visitor, and the registered manager is proactive in addressing any shortfalls and is constantly looking for and implementing Inspection report children’s home: 1259508 6 new ways to improve practice. The home has strong relationships with external agencies, but is not afraid to challenge decisions made by, for example, the local authority. As a child said, ‘They stand up for me when I need it.’

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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: 1259508 7

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Children’s home details

Registered provider: Hillcrest Children’s Services Ltd

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: Turnpike Gate House, Alcester Heath, Alcester, Warwickshire B49 5JG

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Inspector

Bridget Goddard, social care inspector Inspection report children’s home: 1259508 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 children looked after, safeguarding and child protection.

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Inspector

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Inspector

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Inspector

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