Children's Home run by Horizon Care and Education Group Limited in Coventry

Inspection report children’s home: 2578355 1 Registered provider: Horizon Care and Education Group Limited Full inspection Inspected under the social care common inspection framework

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Information about this children’s home

The home is operated by a private company. It is registered to provide care and accommodation for up to four children who have experienced adverse childhood experiences.

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Information about this children’s home

The current manager was registered with Ofsted in July 2020.

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Information about this children’s home

Due to COVID-19 (coronavirus), at the request of the Secretary of State, we suspended all routine inspections of social care providers on 17 March 2020.

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Information about this children’s home

We last visited this setting on 11 November 2020 to carry out a monitoring visit. The report is published on the Ofsted website.

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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: not previously inspected

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good

Overall judgement at last inspection: not applicable

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good

Enforcement action since last inspection: none Inspection report children’s home: 2578355 2

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

This is the home’s first full inspection since registration in July 2020. The home received a monitoring visit in November 2020. Since the monitoring visit, one child has left the home and moved on to a different placement. One child has recently moved into the home.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children receive good levels of support from a committed staff team. Staff have a positive view of the children and work hard to engage with them. This helps children to feel confident about their relationships with staff and supports their progress.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children’s health and well-being are promoted. Staff ensure that healthcare plans identify children’s individual health needs. Statutory health assessments have been completed and all children have attended all required medical appointments. Specialist support is in place to meet children’s emotional needs through the organisation’s therapeutic team, who support the staff through case consultation and training. This enables staff to support children in crisis and helps children to regulate their emotions and create a nurturing environment.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children attend a variety of educational settings, dependent on their needs and abilities. Some children maintain good school attendance and are making good academic progress. However, other children lack motivation to attend education placements, despite staff encouragement and support. Because of this, some children have not made academic progress and are left without meaningful activity during the day.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff have helped children to stay in touch with their families throughout the COVID- 19 pandemic. Staff have supported children to make telephone and video calls to their families. For some children, time spent with family members has increased. This has helped children to sustain important links with people who are important to them.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff engage in conversations with children that are informal and planned. These sessions cover a range of subjects. As a result, children are able to express their views and feel listened to.

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

Staff respond to children’s challenging behaviours in a positive way, with the use of restraints and sanctions kept to a minimum. Rewards systems, encouragement and praise are all used, with positive behaviours actively rewarded. However, one of the reward systems is confusing. One of the children told the inspectors that she did not understand how it worked. This lack of clarity does not motivate children to earn rewards. Inspection report children’s home: 2578355 3 When children go missing from the home, staff make sure that a detailed record is made that reflects a rigorous response. Staff are diligent in their efforts to ascertain the whereabouts of children by searching and contacting family and friends. Staff will contact the police and other relevant agencies to share information and promote the child’s safe return. Children can discuss any issues with an independent person. This gives them the opportunity to discuss the reasons why they went missing and

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

for staff to take action to minimise this happening again in the future.

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

Staff ensure that the home environment is safe for children to live in. A range of health and safety checks are completed to assess whether there are any hazards which could pose risks to children. Children take part in regular fire drills to ensure that they know how to safely evacuate the home in case of an emergency.

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

Children are protected by the organisation’s safe recruitment practice. Staff are vetted and assessed as suitable before any appointment is confirmed. These procedures promote the safety of children by preventing unsuitable adults from working with them.

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good

Managers do not always plan well for new children moving into the home. Consequently, managers have failed to consider all known risks for children. This has the potential to place both new and existing children living at the home at unnecessary risk of harm.

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good

An independent visitor calls at the home once a month to monitor and report on the quality of care. The quality of the reporting is not effective. For example, reports arising from these visits contain incorrect dates and the wrong initials of children at the home. This does not ensure that Ofsted has a good overview of the home between inspections.

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good

Managers have failed to pick up that some children’s risk assessments have been cut and pasted from other documents and refer to different homes. This means that there is a lack of consistently clear and effective guidance for the staff on keeping children safe.

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good

There has been some damage to a child’s bedroom. Managers have not ensured that the damage is quickly repaired. This delay leaves the child’s room in a less than suitable condition and is not conducive to creating a homely environment where children feel valued.

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good

Staff report that they find supervision helpful and supportive. Annual appraisals are used well to ensure that staff are provided with appropriate development opportunities.

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good

Staff receive regular training to make sure that they have the skills and competencies necessary to meet the diverse needs of the children who they Inspection report children’s home: 2578355 4 look after. There are systems in place to make sure that training is regularly updated or refreshed. New staff undergo a thorough induction programme, and most staff who are through their probationary period are qualified or are working towards the required level 3 diploma in residential childcare.

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good

The manager and staff work collaboratively with other professionals and family members to ensure that children receive good quality of care. This partnership working results in children receiving the best possible care to meet their individual needs. A commissioning officer told the inspector that ‘the staff have worked well with us. They are very open, and communication with them has been good.’ Inspection report children’s home: 2578355 5

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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

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

enable each child to participate in the daily life of the home. (Regulation 6 (1)(a)(b) (2)(c)(i)(ii))

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Requirement Due date

This specifically relates to damage to the environment in one child’s bedroom. 30 May 2021

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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.

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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

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.

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Requirement Due date

(Regulation 12 (1) (2)(a)(i)) 30 May 2021 Inspection report children’s home: 2578355 6 This specifically relates to risk assessments being a unique and individualised document.

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Requirement Due date

This requirement was made at the last inspection and is restated. The care planning standard is that children—

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Requirement Due date

receive effectively planned care in or through the children’s home. (Regulation 14 (1)(a))

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Requirement Due date

This specifically relates to impact risk assessments and including consultation with others as part of the assessment process.

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Requirement Due date

This requirement was made at the last inspection and is restated. 30 May 2021

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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.

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Requirement Due date

A visit by the independent person to the home may be unannounced.

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Requirement Due date

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

(Regulation 44 (1) (2)(a)(b) (3) (4)(a)(b))

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Requirement Due date

This specifically relates to regulation 44 reports containing information that is relevant to the home. 30 May 2021 Inspection report children’s home: 2578355 7

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Recommendations

 The registered person should ensure that staff understand factors that affect children’s motivation to behave in a socially acceptable way. Staff should encourage an enthusiasm for positive behaviour using an understandable rewards system and positive behaviour strategies in line with the child’s relevant plans. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 39, paragraph 8.13)  The registered person should ensure that 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

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Recommendations

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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Information about this inspection

Inspectors have looked closely at the experiences and progress of children and young people, 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: 2578355 8

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Children’s home details

Registered provider: Horizon Care and Education Group Limited

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Children’s home details

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

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Inspectors

Dave Carrigan, Social Care Inspector Kev Brammer, Social Care Inspector Inspection report children’s home: 2578355 9 to 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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Inspectors

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Inspectors

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Inspectors

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