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

p.1

Full inspection Inspected under the social care common inspection framework

p.1

Information about this children’s home

This home is privately owned and run. It is registered to provide care and accommodation for up to five children who may have emotional and/or behavioural difficulties. The registered manager is suitably qualified and experienced and was registered by Ofsted in November 2018.

p.1

Overall experiences and progress of

children and young people, taking into account

p.1

Good

How well children and young people are helped and protected requires improvement to be good

p.1

Good

The effectiveness of leaders and managers requires improvement to be good

p.1

Good

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

p.1

Good

Overall judgement at last inspection: Improved effectiveness

p.1

Good

Enforcement action since last inspection: none Inspection report children’s home: SC472680 2

p.1

Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

19/03/2019 Interim Improved effectiveness 04/09/2018 Full Requires improvement to be good 13/03/2018 Full Requires improvement to be good 13/12/2017 Full Inadequate Inspection report children’s home: SC472680 3

p.2

Statutory requirements

This section sets out the actions that the registered person 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 must comply within the given timescales.

p.3

Requirement Due date

The registered person must ensure that a record is made of any complaint, the action taken in response, and the outcome of any investigation. (Regulation 39(3)) In particular, that young people are given a written response to their complaints and that the outcome is reviewed for its effectiveness. 31/08/2019

p.3

Requirement Due date

The care planning standard is that children— receive effectively planned care in or through the children’s home; and have a positive experience of arriving at or moving on from the home. In particular, the standard in paragraph (1) requires the registered person to ensure— that children are admitted to the home only if their needs are within the range of needs of children for whom it is intended that the home is to provide care and accommodation, as set out in the home’s statement of purpose; that arrangements are in place to— manage and review the placement of each child in the home; and plan for, and help, each child to prepare to leave the home or to move into adult care in a way that is consistent with arrangements agreed with the child’s placing authority. (Regulation 14(2)(a)(b)(ii)(iii)) 30/09/2019

p.3

Requirement Due date

The leadership and management standard is that the registered person enables, inspires and leads a culture in relation to the children’s home that— (a) helps children aspire to fulfil their potential; and (b) promotes their welfare. In particular, the standard in paragraph (1) requires the registered person to— ensure that staff have the experience, qualifications and skills to 30/11/2019 Inspection report children’s home: SC472680 4 meet the needs of each child. (Regulation 13(1)(a )(b)(2)(c)) In particular, that training provided is of a high quality, reviewed for its effectiveness and reflects the needs of the children placed at the home. The protection of children standard is that children are protected from harm and enabled to keep themselves safe. In particular, the standard in paragraph (1) requires the registered person to ensure— that staff— assess whether each child is at risk of harm, taking into account

p.3

Requirement Due date

information in the child’s relevant plans, and, if necessary, make arrangements to reduce the risk of any harm to the child. (Regulation 12(1)(2)(a)(i)) In particular, that the arrangements for managing children’s risks are informed by all professionals involved, have regard to specialist risk assessments completed and steps formulated to manage or reduce risks are agreed by professionals involved with the child. 15/08/2019

p.4

Requirement Due date

The registered person must ensure that— within 48 hours of the use of the measure, the registered person, or a person who is authorised by the registered person to do so ("the authorised person")— has signed the record to confirm that it is accurate. (Regulation 35 (3)(b)(ii)) In particular, that the manager has fully evaluated any incident and that the recording by staff is sufficiently detailed for evaluation to take place. 31/08/2019

p.4

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) In particular, improve the format and content of the home’s internal quality of care review.  Whilst the duty is on the young person themselves, it is important that children’s

p.4

Recommendations

Inspection report children’s home: SC472680 5 homes’ staff encourage the young person to continue their education or training and support them to develop the skills necessary to succeed in the option they choose. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations, including the quality standards’, page 28, paragraph 5.16)  For children’s homes to be nurturing and supportive environments that meet the needs of their children, they will, in most cases, be homely, domestic environments (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 15, paragraph 3.9) In particular, that children’s views about the decoration and furnishing of the home are sought and taken into account, the garden is furnished with suitable equipment such as outdoor furniture, and broken access points are repaired and/or replaced.  A record of supervision should be kept, including for the manager. The record should provide evidence that supervision is being delivered in line with regulation

p.5

Recommendations

33(4)(b). (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 61, paragraph 13.3) In particular, that supervision is carried out within company timescales.

p.5

Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

From their starting points, all young people make progress in various aspects of their lives. For example, for some young people their educational attendance has increased, and others have ceased to engage in criminal behaviours. All young people establish trusting relationships with staff that underpin this individual progress. One social worker commenting on a young person’s placement at the home said: ‘The difference has been unbelievable. They have built great relationships with him.’ Young people are supported and enabled to engage in the therapeutic input that contributes to their current and future progress. For those awaiting additional services, the staff and manager advocate fully on their behalf to ensure that other agencies respond in a timely way. Most young people have good routines that support their learning and overall health and development. Staff ensure that young people are offered a lot of activities and young

p.5

Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

people appreciate and value this time spent with staff. For some young people that struggle with full-time attendance, they are given structured additional educational work and activities by staff. One young person, however, is not engaged in post-16 education or training, and does not engage with staff in learning the skills that will be necessary to ensure successful transition into adulthood. Staff are active in establishing and maintaining relationships with families and others who are important to young people. Young people’s contact plans are well supported by the staff. This supports their identity and the plans for young people to be eventually Inspection report children’s home: SC472680 6 returned to their families. Overall, the home is well maintained. However, young people have not been consulted in terms of the home’s decor or furnishings. Although the home benefits from a large rear garden, the use of outside space is limited due to there being only two garden chairs

p.5

Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

and no table. Additionally, a set of patio doors that could offer fair weather access to the garden is permanently locked due to the frame being rotten.

p.6

improvement to be good

Incidents of missing from home are infrequent. When incidents do occur, staff go looking for young people, try to stay in contact with them and are successful in returning them back to the home. The majority of young people’s misuse of drugs is reducing and, for some young people, there has been a significant decline. Staff ensure that there are appropriate conversations held with young people following incidents of missing from home, drug misuse or other negative behaviour. Praise, direct work and a high level of activities are the preferred approaches used by staff to effect change in young people. Young people feel that the ‘rules’ are fair and that the ‘sanctions’ used by staff are infrequent. Some young people have independent specialist risk assessments on their files; however, these have not informed the guidance given to staff in reducing and managing risks. In addition, the guidance is not thoroughly updated and is confusing with regards

p.6

improvement to be good

to certain restrictions. For example, the conditions around free time and the use of mobile phones have not been informed by the views of other professionals, nor the specialist risk assessments. Complaints by young people have been responded to in a timely manner. However, the means of resolving these complaints have not been subject to review for their effectiveness. As a result, a young person continued to be the subject of bullying. In addition, the young person did not receive a written response to their complaint. Incidents requiring physical intervention are rare and this reflects the relationships that exist between young people and the staff and the progress that young people make. However, when restraint has been used by the staff, it is not clear from records why the actions of staff were necessary, nor have the accounts written by staff been effectively evaluated by the manager.

p.6

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

The registered manager is suitably qualified and experienced and was registered by Ofsted in November 2018. Since that time, she has worked to address previous shortfalls and improve the care offered to young people. A particular strength of the home is the amount of time that staff spend on positive leisure activities with young people and the relationships that are forged. Work is Inspection report children’s home: SC472680 7 completed by staff with young people following any incidents or concerns regarding behaviour. However, this work does not always follow clear plans of intervention and, on the whole, is reactionary rather than proactive. The manager offers good levels of advice and support to staff via formal and informal supervision. However, she herself has not received supervision in line with company timescales, nor received written records that reflect the supervision she has received. While the staff try to manage the compatibility of young people living in the home, a

p.6

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

management decision to monitor the negative influence that one young person had on other young people in the home was not subject to timely review or evaluation. The manager did not consider the sustainability of the individual’s placement soon enough to help manage the negative effects of the individual’s presenting behaviour on other young people. All staff receive training on various aspects of their role. However, this training is solely provided via online means and does not afford staff the opportunity to discuss and reflect within a group learning experience with a suitably qualified trainer. Opportunities to deepen staff understanding in practice areas are therefore missed, which is especially relevant with training regarding young people’s risk of harming others. At the previous inspection, a recommendation was made regarding the format that the manager was using to report on the quality of care at the home. Since the last

p.7

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

inspection, insufficient time has elapsed for this report to be due for submission to Ofsted. Therefore, this recommendation is reinstated.

p.7

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.

p.7

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: SC472680 8

p.7

Children’s home details

Registered provider: New Horizons (Stockport) Limited

p.8

Children’s home details

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

p.8

Inspectors

Pauline Yates, social care inspector Dawn Parton, social care inspector Inspection report children’s home: SC472680 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 children looked after, safeguarding and child protection.

p.8

Inspectors

If you would like a copy of this document in a different format, such as large print or Braille, please telephone 0300 123 1231, or email enquiries@ofsted.gov.uk . You may reuse this information (not including logos) free of charge in any format or medium, under the terms of the Open Government Licence. To view this licence, visit http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/doc/open-government-licence , write to the Information Policy Team, The National Archives, Kew, London TW9 4DU, or email: psi@nationalarchives.gsi.gov.uk .

p.9

Inspectors

Interested in our work? You can subscribe to our monthly newsletter for more information and updates: http://eepurl.com/iTrDn .

p.9

Inspectors

T: 0300 123 1231 Textphone: 0161 618 8524 E: enquiries@ofsted.gov.uk W: http://www.gov.uk/ofsted

p.9