Children's home run by Hillcrest Children’s Services Ltd in Havant

Inspection report children’s home: SC482293 1 SC482293 Registered provider: Hillcrest Children’s Services Ltd Full inspection Inspected under the social care common inspection framework

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Information about this children’s home

This privately owned children’s home provides care and accommodation for up to seven young males with complex social, emotional and behavioural difficulties, who may have also suffered traumas such as physical, emotional or sexual abuse. Young people are supported towards independence by using the two self-contained flats on the premises.

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Information about this children’s home

Ofsted registered the manager on 21 November 2019.

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Information about this children’s home

Inspection dates: 17 to 18 December 2019

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Overall experiences and progress of

children and young people, taking into account

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inadequate

How well children and young people are helped and protected inadequate

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inadequate

The effectiveness of leaders and managers inadequate

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inadequate

There are serious and/or widespread failures that mean children and young people are not protected or their welfare is not promoted or safeguarded and/or the care and experiences of children and young people are poor and they are not making progress.

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inadequate

Date of last inspection: 19 September 2018

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inadequate

Overall judgement at last inspection: outstanding

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Enforcement action since last inspection:

A compliance notice was served in relation to regulation 12 on 18 March 2019. Following a monitoring visit, a further compliance notice was served under regulation 12 on 2 June 2019. On 12 June 2019, the compliance notice was deemed to have been met. Inspection report children’s home: SC482293 2

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

19/09/2018 Full Outstanding 30/08/2017 Full Outstanding 12/12/2016 Full Good 18/05/2016 Interim Improved effectiveness Inspection report children’s home: SC482293 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

In order to meet the protection of children standard, the registered person must ensure–

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Requirement Due date

that the home’s day-to-day care is arranged and delivered so as to keep each child safe and to protect each child effectively from harm. (Regulation 12(2)(b)) 19/12/2019

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Requirement Due date

The positive relationships standard is that children are helped to develop, and to benefit from, relationships based on–

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Requirement Due date

an understanding about acceptable behaviour; and

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Requirement Due date

positive responses to other children and adults.

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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

that each child is encouraged to build and maintain positive relationships with others. (Regulation 11(1)(a)(b)(c), (2)(b))

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Requirement Due date

In particular, ensure that there is absolute clarity about the boundaries and status of any contact between staff and any child who has left the home. 26/01/2020

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Requirement Due date

In order to meet the positive relationship standard, the registered person must ensure–

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Requirement Due date

are provided with supervision and support to enable them to understand and manage their own feelings and responses to the behaviour and emotions of children, and to help children to do the same. (Regulation 11(2)(a)(x)) 26/01/2020 Inspection report children’s home: SC482293 4 In particular, managers should provide individual supervision sessions at the frequency indicated in the home’s workforce plan. The advice and information given in supervision should be accurate and the records should provide a clear synopsis of the salient points of discussion, especially when addressing practice issues. In order to meet the protection of children standard the registered person must ensure–

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Requirement Due date

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; and

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Requirement Due date

have the skills to identify and act upon signs that a child is at risk of harm. (Regulation 12(2)(a)(i)(iii)) 26/01/2020

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Requirement Due date

In order to meet the leadership and management standard the registered person is required 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

ensure that staff have the experience, qualifications and skills to meet the needs of each child; and

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Requirement Due date

understand the impact that the quality of care provided in the home is having on the progress and experiences of each child; and use this understanding to inform the development of the quality of care provided in the home. (Regulation 13(2)(a)(c)(f))* 26/01/2020*

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must ensure that an independent person visits the children’s home at least once each month.

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Requirement Due date

When the independent person is carrying out a visit, the registered person must help the independent person–

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Requirement Due date

if they consent, to interview in private such of the children, their parents, relatives and persons working at the home as the independent person requires; and

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Requirement Due date

to inspect the premises of the home and such of the home’s records (except for a child’s case records, unless the child and the child’s placing authority consent) as the independent person requires. 26/01/2020 Inspection report children’s home: SC482293 5 The independent person must produce a report about a visit (“the independent person’s report”) which sets out, in particular, the independent person’s opinion as to whether–

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Requirement Due date

children are effectively safeguarded; and

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Requirement Due date

the conduct of the home promotes children’s well-being.

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Requirement Due date

The independent person’s report may recommend actions that the registered person may take in relation to the home and timescales within which the registered person must consider whether or not to take those actions. (Regulation 44(1), (2)(a)(b), (4)(a)(b), (5))

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Requirement Due date

* These requirements are subject to a compliance notice.

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Recommendations

 The home should play a full part in promoting the best interests of the child, proactively advocating for the child to ensure that others play their role and deliver the high quality support that is needed. Such partnership working should always take place: before a child arrives; while the child lives in the home and where the child prepares to return home, move to another setting or leave care. Where a placement is made in an emergency, the registered person should quickly engage with relevant persons to provide the best immediate care. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 11, paragraph 2.4)  The registered person should ensure that all incidents of control, discipline and restraint are subject to systems of regular scrutiny to ensure that their use is fair and the general principles for behaviour management in children’s homes are respected. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality

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Recommendations

standards’, page 46, paragraph 9.36) In particular, where a member of the management team has implemented such a measure, a more senior manager should monitor its use.  As set out in regulations 31-33, the registered person is responsible for maintaining good employment practice. They must ensure that recruitment, supervision and performance management of staff safeguards children and minimises potential risks to them. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 61, paragraph 13.1) In particular, ensure that full employment histories are obtained before an applicant is offered a post. Inspection report children’s home: SC482293 6

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: inadequate

Serious concerns about how children are helped and protected, and the effectiveness of leaders and managers, results in the home being judged inadequate.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: inadequate

The discussions between staff demonstrate their detailed understanding of children and a desire to develop this and to communicate difficult issues to children sensitively. In turn, children are open with staff about their struggles and concerns. The staff prepare well in advance for potentially difficult situations so that these are as positive experiences as possible for children.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: inadequate

Staff listen to children and encourage and assist them to express their views in meetings. This helps children to achieve their aspirations, as they are better able to articulate their hopes and plans with those people who make decisions about their futures. However, staff do not always advocate for children when they can. For example, on one occasion the staff did not approach a statutory agency that had been slow to resolve an issue for a child.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: inadequate

The manager and staff have created an environment where many of the children regard themselves as living together as a family. One child said that he thought of the others as ‘my brothers’. Another said that it had been the pulling together of boys and staff that had got him through a very difficult experience.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: inadequate

Some older boys believe that there is too wide an age range of children living at the home, because the younger ones take up too much staff time. The manager and staff are aware of this and are attempting to engage with all the children regularly in meaningful conversations and to promote their personal interests. Nonetheless, several children have made substantial progress since they have been living at the home, particularly in regard to their education and level of independence. Staff arrange individual and group activities for the children that expand the range of their experiences, help them to gain self-confidence and develop skills for their futures.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: inadequate

The manager and staff have supported well young people who have moved on from the home, both before and after leaving. Considerable work has been done to assist a young person whose move was unplanned. This is to maintain his relationship with the home and to keep open the possibility of continuing support. However, there is some confusion as to the personal/professional status of the contact that the member of staff has with this young person, and this has not been recorded.

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

There is a confused approach to risk assessments with various, and sometimes contradictory, guidance in place. Inspectors were shown a risk assessment which stated that a ligature cutter was located in a specific place. This cutter was not located in the stated place and it took approximately two minutes to find it. However, other risk assessments contradicted the location of this cutter. This means that there is a confused Inspection report children’s home: SC482293 7 approach to how risk is managed and the potential for staff to follow guidance which is not accurate. This has the potential to be a serious and widespread failure. This is because other risk management documents also contain potentially contradictory information. For example, a further risk assessment states a child is to be staffed at one level and another assessment states a different ratio of staffing.

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

Not all children regard themselves as being well supported and protected by staff yet, despite the potentially significant shortfalls in how risk is sometimes managed, some children do report that they have trust in the staff. For example, a child told the inspectors that sanctions were fair and that the staff ‘would never go over the top’ when implementing one.

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

Staff did not update one child’s risk assessment in a way that conformed with the home’s policy. Furthermore, there was no record of other staff being informed of the incident or of the control measures to be used by staff. This makes it harder to avoid a recurrence.

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

Staff only use physical intervention in extreme circumstances to keep children and or themselves safe. The records contain the required information; however on one occasion a manager monitored a physical intervention that they had been involved in. This does not allow for the appropriate level of scrutiny that is needed.

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

One of the recruitment files viewed by the inspectors does not contain a complete employment history. The record has an employment gap of two months. No other files had errors.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

There have been extensive efforts to improve the quality of risk assessments, yet this has not prevented some critical failings in practice and oversight. The registered manager has failed to identify the discrepancies between different risk assessments and behaviour support plans. These shortfalls have led to children being at greater risk than should have been the case.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

The manager’s monitoring of her staff’s training is compromised by an electronic system that does not provide up-to-date information about the courses that they have undertaken. Leaders and managers could not readily evidence that staff have received appropriate training to meet the needs of all of the children. For example, not all staff have completed training in working with children who display harmful behaviour or who have a particular need. Some staff thought that they needed to acquire more understanding about these issues.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

Staff are not consistently receiving regular supervision as frequently as the home’s workforce plan specifies. The records show that misinformation about the care of children has been perpetuated in supervision and that the records do not always contain sufficient evidence that managers have adequately or promptly addressed incidents of poor practice. However, staff members feel well supported by leaders and managers, particularly following a serious incident which was distressing for both staff and children. Inspection report children’s home: SC482293 8 Professionals appreciate the level of communication by staff with them and others in children’s networks, and regard them as collaborating effectively.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

Leaders and managers know, and can demonstrate, the home’s strengths yet, despite the monitoring systems in place, they have not identified serious and potentially widespread weaknesses and therefore have not taken effective action to address them. The reviews of the quality of care do not demonstrate an ambition to make continuous improvements to the home. The action points recorded in them, such as to ‘support staff in their professional development’, have no specific strategies to achieve them or any means to assess whether or not the action results in improvement.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

The independent person appointed to carry out visits under regulation 44 has not identified the underlying problems that have led to the ineffective safeguarding practice. The children report that they rarely see or speak to the independent person, which is evident in the absence of comments about the children’s views in these reports. This is a missed opportunity to ensure that there is an additional layer of monitoring and review in the home. Inspection report children’s home: SC482293 9

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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 difference 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: SC482293 10

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Children’s home details

Registered provider: Hillcrest Children’s Services Ltd

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: Turnpike Gate House, Alcester Heath, Alcester, Warwickshire B49 5JG

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Children’s home details

Responsible individual: Rodrigo Ferreira

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Inspectors

Chris Peel, social care inspector Dan Healy, social care inspector Inspection report children’s home: SC482293 11 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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Inspectors

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Inspectors

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Inspectors

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