Children's Home run by New Horizons NW Limited in Lancashire

Inspection report children’s home: 2509269 1 Registered provider: New Horizons (NW) Limited

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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 privately owned home is registered to provide care and accommodation for up to three children who may have emotional and/or behavioural difficulties.

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Information about this children’s home

The home’s manager has applied to Ofsted to be registered.

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Information about this children’s home

Inspection dates: 10 to 11 September 2019

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Overall experiences and progress of

children and young people, taking into account

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requires improvement to be good

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

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requires improvement to be good

The effectiveness of leaders and managers requires improvement to be good

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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.

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requires improvement to be good

Date of last inspection: This is the homes first inspection

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requires improvement to be good

Overall judgement at last inspection: not applicable

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requires improvement to be good

Enforcement action since last inspection: none Inspection report children’s home: 2509269 2

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

This is the home’s first inspection following registration in January 2019. Inspection report children’s home: 2509269 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 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 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(1)(a)(i)) 10/11/2019

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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— helps children aspire to fulfil their potential; and promotes their welfare. In particular, the standard in paragraph (1) requires the registered person to— 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)) This is with particular regard to completing actions from the young people’s meetings. 10/11/2019

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Requirement Due date

The Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 applies to the home. The registered person must ensure that the requirements of the order and any regulations made under it are complied with in respect of the home. (Regulation 25 (2)(b)) This is with particular regard to the home following its fire safety risk assessment regarding the means of escape from the home in the event of fire. 30/09/2019

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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)) 10/11/2019

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must ensure that within 24 hours of the use of a measure of control, discipline or restraint in relation to a child in the home, a record is made. (Regulation 35 (3)(a)) 10/11/2019

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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 10/11/2019 Inspection report children’s home: 2509269 4 authorised by the registered person to do so, has spoken to the user about the measure; and has signed the record to confirm it is accurate. (Regulation 35 (b)(i)(ii))

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Recommendations

 Where children placed in a home are not participating in education because they have been excluded or are not on a school roll for some other reason, the registered person and staff must work closely with the placing authority so that the child is supported and enabled to resume full-time education as soon as possible. In the interim, the child should be supported to sustain or regain their confidence in education and be engaged in suitable structured activities. If no education place is identified by the placing authority, the registered person must challenge them to meet the child’s needs under regulation 5 (engaging with the wider system to ensure children’s needs are met). (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 28, paragraph 5.15)

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improvement to be good

Generally, children receive a good standard of individualised care and children make good progress. However, staff members were not proactive when a child’s contact with a person outside of the home could have compromised their safety.

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improvement to be good

All children enjoy strong relationships with staff and demonstrate clear signs of trust and belonging. Two social workers confirmed this, making positive comments on how well staff both understand and meet their child’s needs.

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improvement to be good

Educational outcomes for children are varied. One child is making progress in his education. His move to the home coincides with him starting a new school in the area. He had been for an induction and was looking forward to starting later in the week. The other child living in the home has yet to find an educational placement. His placing authority has offered one hour of tutoring a day, but this has not yet commenced. The manager has not implemented an educational programme within the home. This has had an impact on the child’s educational progress.

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improvement to be good

Children’s core health needs are well met. In particular, the home works well with other professionals to ensure that children’s emotional health needs are supported effectively.

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improvement to be good

Children are confident in making their views known to staff and are influential in contributing to the decorating of their own room, and to weekly menus and activities. Despite this, children feel that their requests are not being actioned in a timely manner. Inspection report children’s home: 2509269 5 For example, a request for Wi-Fi signal boosters for their bedrooms was agreed to at the young people’s meeting, but three meetings later the children’s request has still not been actioned.

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improvement to be good

Considerable thought is given to planning new admissions to the home, with attention being paid to matching new children with existing children. Staff arrange planned introductory visits, which include introductions to existing children to smooth the transition for all.

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improvement to be good

Apart from the example of poor practice, children generally have a positive experience in this home. They enjoy a good range of indoor and outdoor activities and benefit strongly from personalised daily routines.

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improvement to be good

Safeguarding practice is inconsistent. Staff have allowed a child to spend periods of time in the home of a recent care leaver. The manager did not know the name of the individual, had not visited the premises and had not risk assessed it as a suitable friendship. This incident did not only reflect poor practice, but also left the child at some risk from exploitation.

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improvement to be good

This isolated incident does not accurately reflect the home’s usual careful approach to keeping children safe. There is robust staff recruitment practice with appropriate checks and validation in place, appropriate induction training, and then further locally sourced safeguarding training.

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improvement to be good

Relationships with local safeguarding colleagues are strong. The home’s missing-from- care procedures are followed thoroughly, and chronologies on individual events are appropriately detailed. Staff are tenacious in keeping in touch with missing children, by following them, or by telephone.

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improvement to be good

Social workers are positive about the home’s overall ability to safeguard their placed child. Risk assessments and individual safety plans are detailed and thorough. They are not always updated promptly in line with the home’s own expectations but do accurately reflect children’s individual risks and the protection in place.

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improvement to be good

Restrictive measures of behaviour management are rarely used in this home, and staff generally rely on their relationships and sound knowledge of children’s attachment styles to create a positive environment. This is usually successful, particularly when staff have known children long enough to jointly develop with them effective strategies to manage their painful emotions. When restrictive measures have been used, they have not been signed off by the manager with a 48-hour period. On one occasion, a physical intervention report was not recorded within the required 24-hour period. iWWhenncident

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

Inspection report children’s home: 2509269 6 The home has seen an unsettled start in the management arrangements. Shortly after registration, the manager was moved to elsewhere within the organisation and the home was left dormant. A new manager was appointed, and an application was submitted and subsequently withdrawn. The deputy manager agreed to step up into the position of manager and has submitted her application to be registered with Ofsted.

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

The management team has a very good knowledge of each child’s needs and aspirations and is confident in challenging the local authority as appropriate. Monitoring systems are developing well, and the manager has an overview of all paper-based activity and helpfully debriefs both staff and children after incidents. Supervision frequency is not yet appropriate to need, and not all staff, including new members, have had regular meetings.

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

Social workers are very positive about communication from staff in the home. Sometimes key documents, such as placement plans, are not updated as regularly as the home’s own procedures state. However, they are still useful and thorough documents that represent the child well.

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

The statement of purpose is regularly updated and generally reflects the type of care offered by the home. However, it is not always submitted to Ofsted following its update.

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

The physical environment of the home is well kept, safe and comfortable, although the appearance of the front of the property is not in keeping with the internal standard of the home. A fire door in the lounge was locked, and the previous manager had taken the only key. Despite attempts to retrieve the key, it had not been made available, and children cannot access the garden through the lounge doors as a result. This is unsafe, as it reduces the number of fire exits from the home.

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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: 2509269 7

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Children’s home details

Registered provider: New Horizons (NW) Ltd

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: Ground Floor, 18–20 Coronation Walk, Southport, Merseyside PR8 1RE

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Children’s home details

Responsible individual: Abbie Rosenblatt

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Children’s home details

Inspector: Elaine Clare, social care inspector Inspection report children’s home: 2509269 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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Children’s home details

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Children’s home details

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Children’s home details

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

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