Children's Home run by New Horizons (Stockport) Limited in Manchester

Inspection report children’s home: SC472680 1 SC472680 Registered provider: New Horizons (Stockport) Limited Interim inspection Inspected under the social care common inspection framework

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Information about this children’s home

This privately owned children’s home is registered to care for up to five children who may have emotional and/or behavioural difficulties.

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Information about this children’s home

The home’s manager is registered with Ofsted.

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Information about this children’s home

Judgement at last inspection: requires improvement to be good

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Information about this children’s home

Date of last inspection: 4 September 2018

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Information about this children’s home

Enforcement action since last inspection: none

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and young people since the most recent full inspection

This home required improvement to be good at the last full inspection. At the interim inspection, Ofsted judges that it has improved effectiveness.

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and young people since the most recent full inspection

Young people benefit from receiving well-planned, highly personalised care that promotes their needs effectively and contributes to change and improvement in their lives. They make good progress in relation to their individual starting points across aspects of their emotional and behavioural development. Young people are kept safe and they develop a strong sense of personal safety.

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and young people since the most recent full inspection

Several new members of staff have been recruited since the last inspection and the use of agency staff has reduced considerably. A stable staff team is now employed to meet the specific needs of the young people. Young people benefit from having continuity of care, and have consistency and stability in their lives. They have good relationships with staff and benefit from having positive role models in the adults they look up to and learn from. Inspection report children’s home: SC472680 2 Staff ensure that the accommodation provided is consistently maintained to a high standard for young people. The home provides young people with a warm, comfortable and homely living environment.

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and young people since the most recent full inspection

Young people know how to make a complaint and their rights are promoted effectively. However, the recording of complaints could be improved, for example by providing young people with letters to acknowledge the complaints and ensuring that the outcomes of complaints are formally recorded.

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and young people since the most recent full inspection

Young people attend school or alternative educational provision and show improvements in respect of their educational achievements and learning. However, not all young people are engaged in full-time education or other supplementary educational activities to maximise their educational achievements and learning. That said, young people make measurable progress considering their individual starting points.

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and young people since the most recent full inspection

The manager of the home is now registered with Ofsted. She demonstrates strong and effective leadership of the operation of the home. Staff are happy with the changes and improvements introduced and implemented by the registered manager since the last inspection. They confirmed that the home is now more child focused.

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and young people since the most recent full inspection

The performance of the home is monitored effectively by an independent person who visits the home each month. The independent person reviews the quality of young people’s care and the arrangements made to safeguard young people and promote their well-being. This enables the registered manager to have a good understanding of the strengths and weaknesses of the home. Consequently, the registered manager makes good use of the home’s external and internal monitoring activities to secure continuing improvement. However, the formats and content of the registered manager’s own monitoring systems could be improved.

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and young people since the most recent full inspection

The home has met and addressed the requirements and recommendations from the previous inspection. As a result, the home has demonstrated that it has improved in its effectiveness.

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and young people since the most recent full inspection

Relevant plans are now in place to meet the specific needs of young people and any necessary actions identified through health assessments are acted upon and addressed by staff. Risk impact assessments are now completed by the registered manager to ensure that young people admitted to the home are compatible with each other and are appropriately matched.

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and young people since the most recent full inspection

Staff have looked at how they use financial reparation, to make sure that their practice is in keeping with regulation and that young people are not subjected to any unreasonable and unnecessary use of such measures. The recording of fire drills has improved. If young people go missing from the home, they now receive independent return home interviews to ascertain any underlying reasons why they might have gone missing. Inspection report children’s home: SC472680 3

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

04/09/2018 Full Requires improvement to be good 13/03/2018 Full Requires improvement to be good 13/12/2017 Full Inadequate 27/02/2017 Interim Sustained effectiveness

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Recommendations

 The registered person should actively seek independent scrutiny of the home and make best use of information from independent and internal monitoring (including under regulations 44 and 45) to ensure continuous improvement. They should be skilled in anticipating difficulties and reviewing incidents, such as learning from disruptions and placement breakdowns. They are responsible for proactively implementing lessons learned and sustaining good practice. The review should focus on the quality of care provided by the home, the experiences of children living there and the impact the care is having on outcomes and improvements for the children (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 55, paragraph 10.24). This relates specifically to improving the format and content of the home’s internal quality of care review.  Ensure that children are in full-time education whilst they are of compulsory

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Recommendations

school age, unless their personal education plan contained within the care plan or other relevant plan states otherwise. The home must aim to support full-time attendance at school unless the child’s relevant plan indicates this is not in their best interests. (‘Guide to children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 28, paragraph 5.14)  Staff should encourage children to share any concerns about their care or other matters as soon as they arise. Children must be able to take up issues or make a complaint with support and without any fear that this will result in any adverse consequences. Regulation 39 sets out the requirements on the registered person to have a complaints procedure. Children must be aware of this procedure and be reminded of it as necessary (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 22, paragraph 4.13). This relates specifically to

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Recommendations

ensuring that young people’s complaints are formally acknowledged and a written outcome is kept of all complaints. Inspection report children’s home: SC472680 4

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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

This inspection focused on the effectiveness of the home and the progress and experiences of children and young people since the most recent full inspection.

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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’.

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Children’s home details

Registered provider: New Horizons (Stockport) Limited

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: 5 Bramhall Park Road, Bramhall, Stockport SK7 3DQ

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Inspector

Anthony Kyem, social care inspector Inspection report children’s home: SC472680 5 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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