Children's home run by Horizon Care and Education Group Limited in Cannock Chase

Inspection report children’s home: 1185765 1 Registered provider: Horizon Care and Education Group Limited

p.1

Full inspection Inspected under the social care common inspection framework

p.1

Information about this children’s home

This home is owned by a private company. It is registered to provide care and accommodation for up to four young people aged between eight and 17 years old on admission, who have social and emotional difficulties.

p.1

Information about this children’s home

The registered manager has obtained his level 5 qualification in leadership and management and has worked for the organisation since July 2010 and has over 16 years’ residential experience.

p.1

Overall experiences and progress of

children and young people, taking into account

p.1

requires improvement to be good

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

p.1

requires improvement to be good

The effectiveness of leaders and managers requires improvement to be good

p.1

requires improvement to be good

The children’s home is not yet delivering good help and care for children and young people. However, there are no serious or widespread failures that result in their welfare not being safeguarded or promoted.

p.1

requires improvement to be good

Date of last inspection: 20 February 2019

p.1

requires improvement to be good

Overall judgement at last inspection: requires improvement to be good

p.1

requires improvement to be good

Enforcement action since last inspection: none Inspection report children’s home: 1185765 2

p.1

Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

20/02/2019 Full Requires improvement to be good 07/11/2017 Full Good 21/02/2017 Interim Sustained effectiveness 17/05/2016 Full Good Inspection report children’s home: 1185765 3

p.2

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.

p.3

Requirement Due date

The positive relationships standard is that children are helped to develop, and to benefit from, relationships based on an understanding about acceptable behaviour.

p.3

Requirement Due date

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

p.3

Requirement Due date

meet each child’s behavioural and emotional needs, as set out in the child’s relevant plans;

p.3

Requirement Due date

help each child to understand, in a way that is appropriate according to the child’s age and understanding, personal, sexual and social relationships, and how those relationships can be supportive or harmful;

p.3

Requirement Due date

understand and communicate to children that bullying is unacceptable. (Regulation 11(1)(b) (2)(a)(i)(vi)(xii)) 30/09/2019

p.3

Requirement Due date

The protection of children standard is that children are protected from harm and enabled to keep themselves safe.

p.3

Requirement Due date

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

p.3

Requirement Due date

that staff assess whether each child is at risk of harm, taking into account 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)) 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 promotes their welfare.

p.3

Requirement Due date

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

p.3

Requirement Due date

ensure that staff have the experience, qualifications and skills to meet the needs of each child; 30/09/2019 Inspection report children’s home: 1185765 4 use monitoring and review systems to make continuous improvements in the quality of care provided in the home. (Regulation 13 (1)(b)(2)(c)(h)) The care planning standard is that children receive effectively planned care in or through the children’s home.

p.3

Requirement Due date

In particular, the standard in paragraph (1) requires the registered person to ensure that arrangements are in place to— 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 (1)(a)(2)(b)(iii)) 30/09/2019

p.4

Requirement Due date

The registered person must recruit staff using recruitment procedures that are designed to ensure children’s safety.

p.4

Requirement Due date

The requirements are that full and satisfactory information is available in relation to the individual in respect of each of the matters in Schedule 2. (Regulation 32(1)(3)(d)) 30/09/2019

p.4

Requirement Due date

The registered person must notify HMCI and each other relevant person without delay of serious incidents that occur. (Regulation 40 (4)(a-e)) 30/09/2019

p.4

Recommendations

 Ensure that staff are familiar with the home’s policies on record keeping and understand the importance of careful, objective, and clear recording. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 62, paragraph 14.4)

p.4

improvement to be good

Staff do not provide children with consistently good quality key-work sessions, as identified in their care plans. The opportunity to fully explore issues such as bullying, sexual health and relationships is missed. This means that children are not always being provided with good input to help them understand and improve their behaviours and reduce potential risks to their safety and well-being.

p.4

improvement to be good

Children who are approaching adulthood receive some support to develop practical life skills such as budgeting, cooking and doing laundry. Although children have pathway plans in place, it is not always clear how staff are implementing these. This means that efforts to prepare children for their next steps are not as coordinated as they could be.

p.4

improvement to be good

The home is well presented and maintained. Since the last inspection, children have Inspection report children’s home: 1185765 5 been given the opportunity to add personal touches to their bedrooms. This means that children now reside in a homelier environment.

p.4

improvement to be good

Children know how to complain and they have access to independent advocacy. This allows for children to speak to someone outside the home about any uncertainties they have in respect of their care.

p.5

improvement to be good

Staff support children to attend health appointments. They encourage children to maintain an active and healthy lifestyle. Children enjoy a range of leisure opportunities in the local community. As a result, staff promote children’s health and well-being.

p.5

improvement to be good

Children make good educational progress. All four children access education and are engaging well with their learning. For example, two children have recently completed their GCSEs, with one child having secured an apprenticeship with a garage. Good educational progress helps children to develop aspirations and may provide them with greater opportunities as they move into adulthood.

p.5

improvement to be good

Staff undertake direct work with children in respect of bullying. However, at times this work has been reactive to incidents that happen. As a result, staff do not always carry out proactive and supportive interventions. Children are not consistently being provided with the opportunity to explore and understand how their behaviours can affect others. This continues to have an impact on children’s experiences of living at the home.

p.5

improvement to be good

Risk assessments are generally robust and regularly reviewed by managers. However, on occasions staff do not take into consideration all known risks and behaviours of individual children. This means that some information has the potential to be lost and not acted on appropriately by staff. This does not fully promote children’s welfare.

p.5

improvement to be good

A child reported that she had received inappropriate photo messages. Staff did not share this with the placing authority or conduct any meaningful follow-up work with the child. This was a missed opportunity to provide the child with further knowledge and insight to reduce potential risk and harm. Action is now being taken to address this.

p.5

improvement to be good

Children informed the inspector that they feel safe. Children report that they feel listened to and can identify a trusted member of staff to talk to. This means that children can share their worries and know that they will receive an appropriate response.

p.5

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

Since the last inspection, agency staff have been used to cover staff shortages within the home. This has created some inconsistency for children and limits their opportunity to form positive and lasting relationships with adults who are looking after them.

p.5

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

Managers fail to ensure that suitable recruitment checks of agency workers are Inspection report children’s home: 1185765 6 undertaken. As a result, this increases the risk of potentially unsuitable adults being allowed to work in the home.

p.5

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

Managers have implemented monitoring systems to evaluate and assess the quality of care. However, these are not always effective. For example, the quality of record- keeping continues to be variable and there have been delays in one staff member completing mandatory training. In addition, when incidents have occurred in the home the manager does not always have full oversight of these, to ensure that they have been dealt with accordingly.

p.6

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

When an allegation was made against the registered manager, this was investigated and found to be unsubstantiated. However, this significant incident was not reported to Ofsted in line with regulation. This leaves the regulator without essential information with which to monitor the home.

p.6

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

Managers and staff receive regular supervision and all staff have received an annual appraisal. This provides managers and staff with the opportunity to receive regular feedback on their practice, while having their performance formally reviewed.

p.6

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.6

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: 1185765 7

p.6

Children’s home details

Registered provider: Horizon Care and Education Group Limited

p.7

Children’s home details

Registered provider address: Venture House, Unit 12, Prospect Business Park, Longford Road, Cannock WS11 0LG

p.7

Inspector

Sarah Junor-Fitzpatrick, social care inspector Inspection report children’s home: 1185765 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.

p.7

Inspector

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.8

Inspector

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

p.8

Inspector

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

p.8