Children's home run by Hennessy Living Group Limited in Kirklees

Inspection report children’s home: SC482418 1 SC482418 Registered provider: Hennessy Living Group 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

The home is registered to provide care and accommodation for up to three children and young people who have physical and learning difficulties, two of whom may be placed under short-break arrangements. A private company operates the home. The manager has been registered since 2018.

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Information about this children’s home

Inspection dates: 12 to 13 November 2019

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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 good

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good

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

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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: SC482418 2

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

17/07/2018 Full Good 07/02/2018 Interim Sustained effectiveness 25/07/2017 Full Good 21/03/2017 Interim Improved effectiveness Inspection report children’s home: SC482418 3

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

The children are provided with good care and support from the staff team. The home provides children with their own apartments; these are both spacious and comfortable. They are, however, in need of some repair and personalisation. Other aspects of the living environment have been improved since the last inspection. Responding quickly to repairs and being able to personalise their space helps children feel valued.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

The children have complex needs and the staff are skilled and knowledgeable in their approach to addressing these. The staff ratios are high to ensure that needs are met and that safe care is a priority. The staff are attentive and skilled in developing relationships and responding sensitively to individual assessed needs. A child said, ‘The staff look after me really well and it is a nice home. The staff keep me on track.’

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children attend their respective education provisions and have made good progress from their starting points given their respective needs. The staff and management provide reassurance and praise to keep them on task. This helps children gain a sense of self- worth and achievement.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children’s general health needs are well met through local healthcare services. The children lead healthy lifestyles and significantly one child’s health condition is no longer of concern as a direct result of staff support and careful planning.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

The children have little or no contact with families, in accordance with their plans. However, staff strive to ensure that children develop a sense of belonging and engage in a range of activities with staff. Where appropriate, children enjoy time together, sharing a meal or attending an activity together. This is closely monitored due to individual needs. This helps children develop socially acceptable behaviours that enable them to become more confident and resilient.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Independence is encouraged for children. However, although records noted when a child has completed an independence task, there is not a formal process that would allow for monitoring and evaluating progress. This limits the opportunity for achievements to be recognised and celebrated.

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

The children are kept safe in this home. The management and staff team proactively engage with all relevant agencies in the protection of children. This supports and enables effective risk assessments and behaviour support plans to be implemented. The staff know the children and they follow effective strategies to maintain their safety.

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

Behaviour management of children has led to the need for physical intervention to keep children safe and to avoid unintentional harm to others. The management team ensures that good communication is maintained with the police, health and social care Inspection report children’s home: SC482418 4 professionals. This multi-agency response safeguards children, and strategies are kept under review and their effectiveness is evaluated.

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

The nurturing and respectful care provided by staff ensures that children are supported to regulate their emotions and understand what acceptable behaviour is. The relationships between staff and children are respectful and trusting. This ensures that children feel safe and maintain a sense of well-being.

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

When children go missing from the home, the staff follow agreed protocols with the police and respective local authorities. The coordinated and professional response ensures that children are returned safely and receive appropriate support when they return. This provides a consistent and powerful message that staff care for children.

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

The home has a good locality risk assessment. The staff have local community knowledge and positive relationships with the community police officers. This supports safe care and enables children to see the police in a social capacity.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The registered manager is committed and dedicated to ensuring that the children in her care make good progress. She leads by example and is an effective role model for her staff. This approach has enabled a relatively new staff team to form positive relationships effectively with the children, through the provision of good-quality care.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Since the last full inspection there has been a high turnover of staff and staff sickness. A core group of staff and the use of regular agency staff ensured that children’s daily needs were met. However, some disruption was felt by the children. One child stated, ‘The staff team has changed during my time here, changes for the better in my opinion. The manager has ensured they can do their job better. All staff are very capable and know what they are doing.’

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The staff feel valued and supported. A staff member stated that the registered manager is ‘brilliant, approachable, confident and knows what a good team is about’. Staff and management are provided with comprehensive monthly supervision, ensuring that staff development and safeguarding are at the forefront of the discussions. The staff participate in team meetings that are described by them as open and inclusive. This provides for reflection on practice and education. This supports good care practice and ensures that children receive care from skilled staff.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The admission process for one child, who has subsequently moved on, was not effective in assessing compatible needs with other children in the home. This is a shortfall and as such a recommendation is made to ensure that impact risk assessments consider the specific supervision needs of children already living in the home and that of any child being placed.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The manager provides monthly monitoring reports for senior management. These reports, and those of the independent visitor, enable the review of quality of care to be Inspection report children’s home: SC482418 5 completed and forwarded to relevant parties. A shortfall occurred on this occasion as the manager has not sent the review to HMCI to enable the regulator to monitor progress.

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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, the 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 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— ensure that the home’s workforce provides continuity of care to each child. (Regulation 13(1)(a)(b)(2)(e)) 02/01/2020

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Recommendations

 For children’s homes to be nurturing and supportive environments that meet the needs of 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, the registered manager should ensure that repairs are completed in a timely manner and further decoration involves input from children and young people who live in the home.  Staff should help each child to prepare for any moves from the home, whether they are returning home, moving to another placement or adult care, or to live independently. This includes supporting the child to develop emotional and mental resilience to cope without the home’s support and, where the child is moving to live independently, practical skills such as cooking, housework, budgeting and personal self-care. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations

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Recommendations

including the quality standards’, page 17, paragraph 3.27) In particular, the registered manager should ensure that a system is in place to monitor and review progress formally. Inspection report children’s home: SC482418 6  The registered person should only accept placements for children where they are satisfied that the home can respond effectively to the child’s assessed needs as recorded in the child’s relevant plans and where they have fully considered the impact that the placement will have on the existing group of children. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 56, paragraph 11.4)  The processes the registered person puts in place to enable such a review to take place, should allow for a report to be generated at least once every six months. The generated report should be sent to Ofsted and the placing authority for all children in the home who are looked-after children. (‘Guide to the children’s

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Recommendations

homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 65, paragraph 15.3)

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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: SC482418 7

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Children’s home details

Registered provider: Hennessy Living Group Limited

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: Helme Hall, Helme Lane, Holmfirth, West Yorkshire HD9 5RL

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Inspector

Michael Dack, social care inspector Inspection report children’s home: SC482418 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.

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Inspector

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Inspector

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Inspector

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