Children's Home run by Hillcrest Children‟s Services (2) Limited in Staffordshire

Inspection report children’s home: SC437128 1 SC437128 Registered provider: Hillcrest Children’s Services (2) Limited Full inspection Inspected under the social care common inspection framework

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Information about this children’s home

This home provides care for up to three children whose adverse childhood experiences and trauma can lead to them exhibiting complex behaviours. A large national provider operates this home.

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Information about this children’s home

The manager was registered with Ofsted to manage the home in November 2019.

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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

Ofsted last visited this setting on 15 January 2020, to carry out a full inspection. The home was judged to be good and the report is published on our 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 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: 15 January 2020

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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: SC437128 2

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

15/01/2020 Full Good 27/02/2019 Full Outstanding 13/11/2017 Full Outstanding 18/01/2017 Interim Sustained effectiveness Inspection report children’s home: SC437128 3

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

The home is homely, welcoming and personalised to meet children’s needs. It is decorated, furnished and maintained to a high standard. There are photographs of the children on display in the home, which adds to the homely atmosphere. The environment is warm and relaxed, and children take pride in their bedrooms. As a result, children stated that they like living in the home.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff build strong and trusting relationships with children. Also, staff ensure that children celebrate special occasions and key milestones in their lives. For example, one child had recently celebrated her birthday, and was able to enjoy the experience with her friends. Staff had arranged a party at the home and an arrangement of balloons remained on display. In addition, staff also capture children’s memories of living in the home by creating photo albums and monthly newsletters. This means that children feel valued and respected, and are able to create memories of their time living in the home.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Since the last inspection, two children have moved into the home and three children have left. Staff have supported these transitions on from the home well, and two children have successfully moved into semi-independence accommodation. The care provided by staff for these children has enabled the children to make very good progress in all areas of their lives. In contrast, two children who moved into the home in an emergency were not given the opportunity to speak with staff or the manager before they arrived. Furthermore, they were not provided with the home’s children’s guide prior to moving in. These shortfalls have the potential to affect children’s experiences of moving into the home. However, to counteract this, staff worked hard to ensure that the children were able to settle into the home well.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff understand the importance of education for children. As a result, one child is making good progress in school and their attendance is good. Another child is currently refusing to engage with education. However, the staff have supported her to seek a post-16 placement, and have been tenacious in their support to engage her with one-to-one tutoring. This support means that children are provided with the opportunity to engage with education.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff support children to see their families and friends. Children spoke about how important their families and friends are in their lives. Staff listen and act on these views to ensure that children regularly spend time with their friends and families. As a result, children are able to see loved ones and maintain positive relationships.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff understand the complex needs of the children in the home. As a result, the registered manager has secured appropriate therapeutic support for the children. This allows children to receive specific and specialised care that is relevant to their needs. Inspection report children’s home: SC437128 4

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

Staff adopt a therapeutic approach to manage children’s behaviour effectively. Consequently, there have been no incidents requiring physical intervention with children. Furthermore, this approach has ensured that no sanctions have been issued to children in the home. This means that children are able to manage their emotions and express themselves in a safe environment.

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

Staff help children to understand risk by holding regular and specific key-work sessions. For example, staff have helped children to understand danger when using electronic devices to access the internet. These sessions help to keep children safe.

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

Children rarely go missing from the home. When they do, staff understand and follow the children’s missing-from-home protocols well. Staff are able to describe the actions they would take if children were missing from the home. On one occasion, a staff member went ‘above and beyond’ to maintain the safety of a child. These actions resulted in the child returning safely to the home. In contrast, the registered manager has not always followed up concerns with other agencies to ensure that a joined-up approach is in place when children go missing from home. Consequently, the local authority is not always aware of incidents of children going missing from home.

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

Staff understand how to keep children safe and were able to discuss the strategies in place in children’s risk assessments. This means that staff are confident and know what actions to take to safeguard children. However, these strategies are not always recorded effectively in children’s risk assessments. Also, the assessment of risk in relation to children’s behaviours can be difficult to understand, due to recording errors. This has not had an impact on the staff’s ability to safeguard children, but the registered manager has failed to identify these shortfalls.

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

The management of and response to children making allegations against staff is good. On two occasions, the registered manager has acted quickly to involve the relevant agencies and has followed the home’s child protection procedures closely. As a result, investigations have been thorough and appropriate actions have been taken to ensure children’s safety. However, the registered manager has not always ensured that all actions identified for completion by staff from these investigations have been actioned. Consequently, key learning opportunities to support the development of staff have been missed.

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

Staff complete regular health and safety checks of the home’s environment to maintain children’s safety. However, the inspector found that fire doors in the home were not fitted with the correct equipment in order for them to work effectively. This shortfall has the potential to compromise children’s safety in the event of a fire. Leaders took effective action during the inspection to ensure that the appropriate fire equipment was installed to rectify this concern.

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

The registered manager has reviewed the home’s location risk assessment. This has not fully assessed the risks, and the mitigation of risk is not sufficiently detailed. For Inspection report children’s home: SC437128 5 example, risks of child exploitation and known risks posed by local gangs have not been included. Therefore, the local risks to children have not been fully explored.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

There is a registered manager in the home who is suitably qualified and experienced. Staff state that she is supportive and approachable, and that she makes a real effort to welcome new staff into the home. For example, new staff are spoken to and given the opportunity to visit the home before starting work. This means that staff feel valued and supported in their role.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The registered manager and team leaders provide regular supervision for staff. These sessions are reflective and consider the needs of children, as well as strategies to improve day-to-day care. Where there is a need for improvement, the registered manager is not afraid to challenge staff practice. In addition, staff are provided with upskilling opportunities in between sessions. This has a positive impact on the care the children receive.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Staff complete training which is relevant and specific to the needs of the children. For example, staff have completed training in preventing child exploitation, self-harm and internet safety. This means that children are cared for by staff who understand their needs and have the skills to support them.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Overall, the registered manager has good oversight of the home. She makes good use of the monitoring systems in place and, as a result, she understands the home’s strengths and weaknesses. She regularly reviews the quality of care in the home and puts in place actions to improve this, where needed. In contrast, there were shortfalls identified during the inspection which had not been picked up by the manager when completing audits of the home.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The registered manager has completed a review of the quality of care provided by the home and submitted this to Ofsted. This is evaluative and captures children’s and professionals’ views well. Furthermore, external monitoring from the independent visitor has a positive impact on the home. However, these systems do not always seek or gain the views of parents and carers. This means that the key people in children’s lives are not always given the opportunity to contribute.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

External professionals comment positively on the care received by children. One professional stated: ‘There have been significant changes with [the child] for the better since she has been at the home.’ Another professional described positive engagement with the child as a result of the support provided by the staff. In contrast, some professionals have also raised that, at times, communication could be more effective. Inspection report children’s home: SC437128 6

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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 meeting the quality standards, the registered person must, and must ensure that staff—

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Requirement Due date

if the registered person considers, or staff consider, a placing authority’s or a relevant person’s performance or response to be inadequate in relation to their role, challenge the placing authority or the relevant person to seek to ensure that each child’s needs are met in accordance with the child’s relevant plans; and

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Requirement Due date

seek to develop and maintain effective professional relationships with such persons, bodies or organisations as the registered person considers appropriate having regard to the range of needs of children for whom it is intended that the children’s home is to provide care and accommodation. (Regulation 5 (c)(d))

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Requirement Due date

This relates to the registered manager escalating concerns to the police and local authority to ensure that there is a joined- up approach when a child is missing from home. This also relates to effective communication with the key professionals in children’s lives. 22 July 2021

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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—

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Requirement Due date

helps children aspire to fulfil their potential; and promotes their welfare.

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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

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)) 22 July 2021 Inspection report children’s home: SC437128 7 In particular, ensure that the registered manager maintains oversight of records, including records relating to children’s risk. In addition, ensure that actions identified in relation to safeguarding are implemented.

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Requirement Due date

This requirement was also made at the last inspection and is restated.

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must review the appropriateness and suitability of the location of the premises used for the purposes of the children’s home at least once in each calendar year, taking into account the requirement in regulation 12(2)(c) (the protection of children standard). (Regulation 46 (1))

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Requirement Due date

This specifically relates to the home’s location risk assessment and the need for the registered manager to review and update this document, so that it includes all risks posed to children by the home’s location.. 22 July 2021

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Recommendations

 The registered person should ensure that children are in full-time education while they are of compulsory school age, unless their personal education plan contained within the care plan or other relevant plan states otherwise. The home must aim to support full-time attendance at school unless the child’s relevant plan indicates this is not in their best interests. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 28, paragraph 5.14)  The registered person should develop and ensure that the home has effective working relationships with each child’s placing authority and with other relevant persons, which may include services, individuals (including parents), agencies, organisations and establishments that work with children in the local community, such as police, schools, health teams and youth offending teams (regulation 5 – engaging with the wider system to ensure children’s needs are met). These

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Recommendations

working relationships will also be key to success in delivering the care planning standard (regulation 14) In particular, the registered person should work closely with the relevant professionals to ensure that children are given appropriate information and provided with opportunities to speak with staff or the manager prior to moving into the home. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 52, paragraph 10.3). Inspection report children’s home: SC437128 8

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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: SC437128 9

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Children’s home details

Registered provider: Hillcrest Children’s Services (2) Limited

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: Atria, Spa Road, Bolton BL1 4AG

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Inspector

Dean Wilton, Social Care Inspector Inspection report children’s home: SC437128 10 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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Inspector

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Inspector

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Inspector

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