Children's Home run by Hexagon Care Services Limited in Coventry

Inspection report children‟s home: SC482683 1 SC482683 Registered provider: Hexagon Care Services Limited Full inspection Inspected under the social care common inspection framework

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Information about this children’s home

This home is owned by a private company. It is registered for four young people. The home provides care for young people aged 11 to 17 who have experienced adverse childhood experiences that have led to associated trauma and presenting complex behaviours. The registered manager is appropriately qualified and experienced for the role.

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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 requires improvement to be good

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good

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

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good

Date of last inspection: 16 October 2018

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good

Overall judgement at last inspection: good

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good

Enforcement action since last inspection: none Inspection report children‟s home: SC482683 2

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

16/10/2018 Full Good 03/10/2017 Full Good 09/02/2017 Interim Sustained effectiveness 11/10/2016 Full Outstanding Inspection report children‟s home: SC482683 3

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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 health and well-being standard is that—

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Requirement Due date

the health and well-being needs of children are met; and

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Requirement Due date

that each child has access to such dental, medical, nursing, psychiatric and psychological advice, treatment and other services as the child may require. (Regulation 10 (1)(a)(2)(c)) 15/08/2019

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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—

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Requirement Due date

helps children aspire to fulfil their potential; and promotes their welfare.

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Requirement Due date

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

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Requirement Due date

use monitoring and review systems to make continuous improvements in the quality of care provided in the home. (Regulation 13 (1)(a)(b)(2)(h)) 15/09/2019

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must ensure that all employees— receive practice-related supervision by a person with appropriate experience. (Regulation 33 (4)(b)) This is with regard to agency staff. 15/08/2019

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must maintain records (“case records”) for each child which— include the information and documents listed in Schedule 3 in relation to each child and are kept up to date. (Regulation 36 (1)(a)(b)) 15/08/2019

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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, ensure that complaints records are stored in a way that means that they are accessible to those with a legitimate reason to review them. 15/08/2019 Inspection report children‟s home: SC482683 4

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Recommendations

 No more than half the staff on duty at any one time, by day or night at the home should be from an external agency. („Guide to the children‟s homes regulations including the quality standards‟, page 54, paragraph 10.17)  When establishing the home, the registered person must ensure that it is suitably located so that children are effectively safeguarded and can access services to meet needs identified in their relevant plans (see Regulations 12 (2)(c)). Under Regulation 46, the registered person should review the appropriateness and suitability of the location and premises of the home at least once a year. The review should include the identification of any risks and opportunities presented by the home‟s location and strategies for managing these. („Guide to the children‟s homes regulations including the quality standards‟, page 64, paragraph 15.1)

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Core and permanent staff have extensive experience and have worked at the home for several years. As a result, staff know young people‟s strengths and needs. They treat young people with respect and dignity and give them care that meets most of their needs well.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Nurturing and patient staff develop positive relationships with young people. Young people can express their wishes and feelings through key-worker sessions and young people‟s meetings. Young people feel listened to and valued. Staff help young people to maintain links with their close families and friends. Young people form excellent support networks, which reduce social exclusion and isolation.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Young people living at the home and those who have left the home have made significant progress in all aspects of their lives, considering their starting points. For example, staff supported a young person who had not been attending education for a number of years to attend school on a regular basis. Staff equipped two young people with independent life skills, which enabled them to be reunified with family and to travel independently abroad and settle in a new country.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Young people live healthy lifestyles. They are encouraged to eat healthily, to take regular exercise and to develop their self-care skills. Staff generally support young people with attending health appointments. However, on one occasion, they did not support a young person to attend an outstanding health appointment. This does not fully promote young people‟s health. Inspection report children‟s home: SC482683 5 Young people enjoy a variety of activities within their community, such as going to the gym, swimming, shopping and going out on day trips. This helps them to improve their social skills, self-esteem and confidence.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff generally manage young people‟s transitions to and from the home well. Young people are comfortable and happy, and their needs are met. However, two young people moved on from the home earlier than expected. Decisions to end children‟s placements were made to safeguard them and the other young people who live in the home. Staff made every effort to sensitively support their moves on from the home.

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

Safeguarding concerns are well managed by the staff and manager, with prompt monitoring of incidents and quick referrals to safeguarding agencies. The registered manager works in partnership with other professionals to protect young people.

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

Staff routinely notify significant events and concerns about young people‟s welfare to Ofsted and show that appropriate safeguarding action is taken as concerns arise.

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

Behaviour management plans and risk assessments give staff clear guidance, which enables them to manage and reduce risks to young people. Staff use reward programmes and sanctions to help young people to understand how to keep themselves safe and to make positive choices about their behaviour.

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

Records show that restraint is only used as a last resort to keep young people and others around them safe.

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

Good safer recruitment practice means that young people are only looked after by appropriate adults.

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

The manager could not provide evidence to show that she had completed follow up actions from two complaints relating to a member of staff who has left employment, due to files being archived. This made it difficult for the inspector to fully assess whether these complaints had been thoroughly addressed.

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

The home has experienced an unsettled period due to staff vacancies. The home is using a lot of agency staff to cover shifts and on occasion some shifts have had more agency staff than permanent staff caring for children. Some agency staff who do not know the young people as well as permanent staff struggle on occasions to manage behaviours effectively. This puts permanent staff under pressure as they work hard to mitigate any impact on young people. Staff‟s morale has been low but through support from the manager and senior management this is improving.

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

Staff shortages have caused the monitoring and reviewing of the service to be inconsistent in some areas. For example, missing from care records lack sufficient detail Inspection report children‟s home: SC482683 6 and it is not clear when return home interviews have been conducted. The registered manager does not update safer area reports when incidents happen in the local community. This means that managers and staff are not always using information effectively to inform young people‟s plans.

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

Staff receive good-quality, reflective supervision, which focuses on young people‟s needs, and staff training and development. This enables staff to continuously meet the needs of young people. However, the manager has not regularly supervised agency staff who work at the home often. This is a missed opportunity to discuss staff‟s performance and any gaps in training to enable them to meet all young people‟s needs appropriately.

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

The manager is passionate about the well-being and progress of young people. The manager challenges partner agencies to ensure that they fulfil their obligations to enable young people to continue making progress.

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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: SC482683 7

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Children’s home details

Registered provider: Hexagon Care Services Limited

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: Unit 1 Tustin Court, Riversway, Preston, Lancashire PR2 2YQ

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Inspector

Rumbi Mangoma: social care inspector Inspection report children‟s home: SC482683 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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