Children's home run by Horizon Transitional Care Ltd

Inspection report children’s home: 1268535 1 Registered provider: Horizon Transitional Care 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 accommodate up to three young people aged eight to 17 years, who have a range of complex needs including autism spectrum disorder. The registered manager is suitably qualified and holds a level 5 diploma.

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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: 22 January 2019

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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: 1268535 2

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

22/01/2019 Full Good Inspection report children’s home: 1268535 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 quality and purpose of care standard is that children receive care from staff who—

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Requirement Due date

understand the children’s home’s overall aims and the outcomes it seeks to achieve for children;

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Requirement Due date

use this understanding to deliver care that meets children’s needs and supports them to fulfil their potential.

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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

provide to children living in the home the physical necessities they need in order to live there comfortably;

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Requirement Due date

ensure that the premises used for the purposes of the home are designed and furnished so as to—

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Requirement Due date

(Regulation 6 (1)(a)(b)(2)(b)(vii)(c)(i)) 29/12/2019

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Requirement Due date

The education standard is that children make measurable progress towards achieving their educational potential and are helped to do so.

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Requirement Due date

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

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Requirement Due date

help each child to achieve the child’s education and training targets, as recorded in the child’s relevant plans;

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Requirement Due date

support each child’s learning and development, including helping 29/12/2019 Inspection report children’s home: 1268535 4 the child to develop independent study skills and, where appropriate, helping the child to complete independent study;

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Requirement Due date

maintain regular contact with each child’s education and training provider, including engaging with the provider and the placing authority to support the child’s education and training and to maximise the child’s achievement;

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Requirement Due date

help each child to attend education or training in accordance with the expectations in the child’s relevant plans. (Regulation 8 (1)(2)(a)(i)(ii)(vi)(x)) 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;

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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

lead and manage the home in a way that is consistent with the approach and ethos, and delivers the outcomes, set out in the home’s statement of purpose;

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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)(a)(h)) 29/12/2019

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Requirement Due date

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

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Requirement Due date

full and satisfactory information is available in relation to the individual in respect of each of the matters in Schedule 2. (Regulation 32 (1)(2)(3)(d)) 29/12/2019

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Requirement Due date

After consultation with the fire and rescue authority, the registered person must-

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Requirement Due date

Take adequate precautions against the risk of fire, including the provision of suitable fire equipment in the children’s home. (regulation 25(1)(a))

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Requirement Due date

This relates to carrying out work that has been recommended in the fire risk assessment in a timely manner. 29/12/2019 Inspection report children’s home: 1268535 5

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Recommendations

The Statement of Purpose is of particular importance to this Standard (regulation 6(2)(a) and (b)(i)). Homes are required to develop and keep under review a ‘Statement of Purpose’ (regulation 16 and schedule 1). (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 14, paragraph 3.5) In particular, the registered manager should ensure that the statement of purpose accurately reflects staffing at the home and therapeutic services.

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Recommendations

 Regulations 35-39 details the records that must be kept t in children's homes. All children's records must be kept up to date and stored securely whilst they remain in the home. Case records must be kept up to date. (Guide to the children's homes regulations including the quality standards, page 62 paragraph 14.3). In particular, risk assessment and behaviour management plans need to be updated.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Young people feel listened to and highly respected. As a result, they feel confident that the staff do value their opinions and views.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff promote young people’s physical and emotional well-being. When young people struggle to attend routine health appointments, staff look at creative ways to help young people overcome their barriers to accessing healthcare.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff praise and reward young people’s positive behaviour. They ensure that rewards are individualised. For example, one young person has a star chart. This incentive has helped the young person to achieve their goal and resulted in a visit to their favourite football team stadium.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff work hard to ensure that young people stay in touch with people who are important to them.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Most young people make good academic progress. However, when young people struggle to maintain regular school attendance, staff are too slow to escalate concerns with the young person’s local placing authority. This creates a missed opportunity to help improve young people’s school attendance.

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

Young people have confidence that staff will keep them safe. This enables young people to feel secure.

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

Young people benefit from regular key-work sessions with the staff. These sessions help to keep young people safe. For instance, staff have talked to young people about the dangers when accessing online social media sites and playing online gaming. Inspection report children’s home: 1268535 6 Staff use de-escalation techniques effectively to help to safeguard young people. When staff are required to physically intervene to protect young people, these incidents are recorded.

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

There have been no incidents of young people going missing from the home. The manager and staff are clear about the policies and procedures that must be followed when young people go missing from the home.

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

Managers ensure that risk assessments and behavioural management plans are kept up to date. However, these documents are not specific to the young person. This leaves staff with inaccurate information about how to best support individual young people.

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

Some practices compromise achieving a homely environment. For example, young people have to watch the television through a glass cabinet without a clear reason why this is deemed necessary. No consideration has been given that young people have free- standing televisions in their bedrooms.

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

The manager does not have good monitoring and review systems. For example, the manager has not picked up that the home’s statement of purpose needs to be brought up to date to reflect changes in the staff structure.

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

There has been a lack of oversight by the manager to ensure that the staff are given an opportunity to receive a debrief after an incident has occurred. This creates a missed opportunity to enable staff to reflect on incidents.

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

Managers have failed to carry out all required suitability checks when recruiting new members of staff. For example, managers have not verified references before someone has started working in the home. This weakness in safe recruitment practice has the potential to compromise young people’s safety.

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

Managers are occasionally too slow in ensuring that fire safety work is carried out. This omission was corrected during the inspection.

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

The manager ensures that staff receive a range of training. This includes securing training that is specific to young people’s individual needs. As a result, staff have received awareness training in understanding epilepsy and autism spectrum disorder. This focused training helps to increase staff knowledge in how to support young people’s additional needs.

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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 Inspection report children’s home: 1268535 7 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: 1268535 8

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Children’s home details

Registered provider: Horizon Transitional Care Limited

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: 73 Dudley Road, Dudley DY3 1TF

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Inspector

Patrick McIntosh, social care inspector Inspection report children’s home: 1268535 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.

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Inspector

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Inspector

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Inspector

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