Children's home run by New Horizons NW Limited

Inspection report children’s home: 2567789 1 Registered provider: New Horizons (NW) ltd 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 provide care and accommodation for up to two children who may have emotional and/or behavioural difficulties and learning disabilities.

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Information about this children’s home

The home became operational in April 2020, and the registered manager has been in post since this date.

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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 28 January 2021 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

Overall judgement at last inspection: not applicable

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good

Enforcement action since last inspection: not applicable Inspection report children’s home: 2567789 2

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

Not previously inspected Inspection report children’s home: 2567789 3

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children have developed some positive relationships with the staff and the manager. Staff support children to build and to sustain trusting relationships with adults and peers around them. Children say that they feel listened to, that staff understand them and that staff take into consideration their views.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children benefit from stability since living at the home. An independent reviewing officer for one child said, ‘The staff team have provided a consistent and caring home for [Name], even at times when their behaviour has been increasingly volatile.’

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

School attendance is variable for children. That said, the staff team is proactive in working directly with schools, virtual headteachers and social workers to establish education plans and in obtaining school placements for children. Children are equally involved in decision-making about their school placements.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children have the option to access therapeutic support from a clinical psychologist, who consults regularly with the staff team in relation to positive parenting. The staff team works well with the structures of therapeutic care and keeps children at the centre of the work they do. Consequently, children are making significant progress in terms of their emotional well-being.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children are offered independent advocacy when they need support with prominent issues. Children are consulted to obtain their views about their home and the care they receive. There have been no formal complaints, which evidences that children can be open and honest with staff rather than feel the need to complain.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children engage in fun activities with staff, such as horse riding, walks in the country, pamper days and short breaks away. They spend time with their friends and have enjoyed sleep overs at their friends’ homes. Children’s journeys since living in the home are evidenced in photograph albums for them to keep.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

A recommendation has been made in relation to the home requiring refurbishment. During the visit, areas that had become damaged by children were decorated. However, the manager should ensure that furniture in communal areas is fit for purpose and that the home both internally and externally is clean and tidy.

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

Children have made progress in relation to keeping themselves safe and their risks have reduced since living at the home. Effective key-work sessions and consistent boundaries from staff help children to understand the importance of making safer choices. Inspection report children’s home: 2567789 4 Staff are provided with clear guidance to follow in the event of a safeguarding concern. The quality of risk assessments has improved. Staff have a good understanding of children’s risks and how to support them. Furthermore, incidents of missing-from-home and self-injurious behaviour have reduced since children’s starting points in the home.

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

In recent months, there has been a notable reduction in the use of restraint. Staff work consistently with children to de-escalate situations safely. Debriefs with children are effective in helping them to identify strategies to reduce physically aggressive behaviours and damage in the home.

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

Reward systems help improve key areas in children’s lives where they struggle to manage their behaviour. These systems support positive behaviour; these are time limited and easy for the children to understand. Consequences given for negative behaviour are minimal.

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

Staff personnel files evidence robust safe recruitment. They are well organised, confirm that appropriate checks have been made and are easily accessed.

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good

The manager ensures that children are regularly consulted about the operation of the home. However, the review of quality-of-care report contains no evidence of feedback from children, staff working in the home or social workers. This should be reflected in future reports. Following an investigation relating to alleged poor staff practice, the management team has taken appropriate action to investigate the concern and to notify a child’s social worker and the designated officer. However, the manager has failed to notify Ofsted of the incident in line with regulatory requirements.

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good

The manager’s oversight of children’s mobile phones and e-safety risk assessments is not robust. Risk assessments fail to provide staff with clear direction of the action they should take should a child refuse to allow their mobile phone to be checked or allege they have misplaced their mobile phone. This is following an incident where a child misled the staff team about the whereabouts of her mobile phone.

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good

The manager is nurturing and child centred. She makes appropriate challenges both internally and externally, to benefit the overall care and safety of children. Staff and children are complimentary about the manager and the support she provides. One child said, ‘The manager will fight for things that are important to me, like seeing my family.’

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good

Staff are adequately supported with practice-related supervisions and regular team meetings. The manager promotes a culture of learning and reflection. Staff are provided with additional training that is relevant to children’s needs or risks. Although staff retention has previously been a concern, managers have now Inspection report children’s home: 2567789 5 recruited a full team. The staff team is beginning to stabilise, and communication between the team has improved.

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good

Detailed monthly monitoring enables the manager to review trends and patterns in the home. Incident trackers and rationale reports provide evaluation of outcomes for children and identify action to be taken in the coming months, to improve the quality of care provided in the home. Inspection report children’s home: 2567789 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

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

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; and

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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.

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Requirement Due date

Specifically, the manager should ensure their oversight of children’s mobile phone and e-safety risk assessments is thorough. Risk assessments should provide staff with clear guidance about how they should support young people to manage social media safely and the action they should take should a child refuse to hand their mobile phone in to be checked or if they allege that they have misplaced their mobile phone. 17 September

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must notify HMCI and each other relevant person without delay if—

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Requirement Due date

there is an allegation of abuse against the home or a person working there; or

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Requirement Due date

there is any other incident relating to a child which the registered person considers to be serious.

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Requirement Due date

(Regulation 40 (4)(c)(e)) 17 September Inspection report children’s home: 2567789 7 Specifically, if concerns are raised about staff’s practice or conduct and are referred to the designated officer, the manager must ensure that Ofsted are formally notified.

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Requirement Due date

In order to complete a quality-of-care review, the registered person must establish and maintain a system for monitoring, reviewing and evaluating—

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Requirement Due date

the quality of care provided for children; and

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Requirement Due date

the feedback and opinions of children about the children’s home, its facilities and the quality of care they receive in it.

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Requirement Due date

The system referred to in paragraph (2) must provide for ascertaining and considering the opinions of children, their parents, placing authorities and staff.

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Requirement Due date

(Regulation 45 (2)(a)(b) (5)) 17 September

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Recommendation

 The registered person should ensure that the children’s home is a nurturing and supportive environment that meets the needs of the children. The home will, in most cases, be a homely and domestic environment. Specifically, the home is kept clean and tidy, and any damage caused by children is replenished quickly and the furniture is fit for purpose. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 15, paragraph 3.9)

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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: 2567789 8

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Children’s home details

Registered provider: New Horizons (NW) Limited

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: New Horizons (NW) Ltd, Unit 12, Riversway Business Village, Navigation Way, Ashton-on-ribble, Preston PR2 2YP

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Children’s home details

Responsible individual: Natalie Waterhouse

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Inspectors

Cheryl Field, Social Care Inspector Cathy Wilkins, Social Care Inspector Inspection report children’s home: 2567789 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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