Children's Home run by Hazelmont Social Care LTD in Wolverhampton

Inspection report children's home: 2562675 1 Registered provider: Hazelmont Social Care Limited Full inspection Inspected under the social care common inspection framework

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Information about this children’s home

A private provider operates this home. It provides care and accommodation for up to two children who have experienced childhood instability, resulting in trauma and associated complex behaviours.

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Information about this children’s home

A new manager has been appointed to the home and is in the final stages of the registration process with Ofsted.

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Information about this children’s home

Due to COVID-19, at the request of the Secretary of State, we suspended all routine inspections of social care providers carried out under the social care common inspection framework (SCCIF) on 17 March 2020. We returned to routine SCCIF inspections on 12 April 2021.

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Information about this children’s home

We last visited this setting on 3 February 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: 2562675 2

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

One child has moved in since the monitoring visit and no children have moved on. Two children were living at the home at the time of the inspection.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children are cared for by staff who know them well and they have positive relationships with staff. The home environment is welcoming and homely. This helps children to develop a sense of belonging. Children enjoy living at the home and one child told the inspector they would give it ‘10 out of 10’.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children have opportunities to talk about their feelings and share their views. This is evidenced in the range of direct work that staff undertake with children, as well as in weekly meetings that children have with staff. Children talk to staff about things that are worrying them, they reflect on recent incidents and they share their views on things like food they want to eat and the activities they would like to do. These opportunities and the prompt staff responses help children feel listened to and valued.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Both children are in school full time and doing well. They have good attendance, with one child’s attendance improving from 84% to 96%. Another child is developing friendships, something that they struggled with previously. One child successfully made the transition to secondary school. Good support from staff helps children to make progress with their learning.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff ensure that children’s health needs are met well. Children attend routine and specialist health appointments. In addition, children are encouraged by staff to learn about important topics such as puberty, the importance of healthy eating and taking regular exercise. Children enjoy home-cooked meals. Staff ensure that children have access to therapeutic support when needed. There is also good consultation between staff and the therapeutic team, which provides staff with ongoing guidance to help them understand and manage children’s emotional needs. This promotes children’s physical and emotional well-being.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children see people who are important to them. Staff have a good understanding of how to support children with family visits and understand that such visits can present some challenges with children’s behaviours and emotions. These arrangements are supported and managed well.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children enjoy a range of activities, for example, going to dance class, going fishing and playing Pokémon Go. The children were looking forward to going pumpkin picking with staff and both had a lovely time when they went on a caravan holiday. These leisure opportunities enable children to try new things, develop confidence and make friendships while having fun. Inspection report children's home: 2562675 3

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

Good work has been undertaken with the children to help them get along, which they generally do. When one child told staff that they did not like the way their peer spoke to them sometimes, this was addressed promptly. Talking it through helped the child to understand how words can be upsetting and they took this on board.

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

Staff vigilance identified when a child was using the internet inappropriately. Work was undertaken with the child to help them to understand the risks around what they were doing, how to keep safe and that parental controls are in place for good reason. This shows that staff are quick to identify and respond to risk, which keeps children safe.

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

The location risk assessment is detailed. Recently it has been updated, following consultation with the police in relation to concerns about local youth gangs in the community. Staff were provided with external training to help them gain a better understanding about gangs and county lines, and about how to respond to potential risks and vulnerabilities that may affect children’s welfare. Staff have also undertaken work with children to help them keep safe when in the community.

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

Both children told the inspector that they feel safe and know how to complain. Children’s complaints are taken seriously, which promotes their safety. On one occasion, a child was confused about the outcome as it was not given to them in writing.

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

Most risk assessments provide clear guidance to staff about known risks and how to manage these. However, following an incident of a child going missing from home, managers did not review the risk assessment to update it and include information about when the child should be reported missing to the police and procedures to follow in light of what had happened. Missing-from-home incidents are rare, with two occurrences since February 2021. The child who went missing had the opportunity to talk to someone independent on their return and some follow-up work was undertaken with the child about the dangers of going missing, needing to keep in touch with staff and keep to coming-in times.

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

Staff work with children to promote positive behaviour management and the need for physical intervention as a last resort to keep children safe is low. There have been four such incidents since the monitoring visit in February 2021. Incident records show clearly what happened and what strategies had been used to try and prevent the situation from escalating. However, records do not contain all the required information. For example, staff and children do not always receive a debrief and, when they do, this is not always with someone independent of the incident. This does not give managers all the information they need to inform their review about what happened. This shortfall was identified at the last inspection and has not yet been addressed. Inspection report children's home: 2562675 4 During one physical intervention, a child raised a concern about how a member of staff had managed the restraint. While a social worker was made aware of the

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

concern and visited the child a few days later, information was not shared with the designated officer as outlined in the child’s risk assessment. Not following the guidance set out in the risk assessment has the potential to undermine children’s safety.

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good

The home has experienced a change of managers. The current manager initially took on the management role on a temporary basis but has recently made the decision to stay. This decision has given children and staff a greater sense of stability. The manager is settling into his role and has yet to fully embed his vision and aspirations for the home.

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good

The core staff team is appropriately qualified and experienced. The staff team offers consistent care to children, to a good standard. Staff spoken to during the inspection stated that they felt things are better in the home and they felt reassured with the support received from the new manager.

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good

The inspector received positive feedback about the home from a headteacher, a social worker and a child’s family member. The inspector also saw an example of good partnership working with local police officers who have shared intelligence about concerns in the local area.

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good

The quality of supervision records has improved so that they are more reflective and include discussions about individual staff practice and children’s needs and progress. However, there is some confusion about the frequency of supervision that staff should be receiving. Based on the manager’s and staff’s expectations of supervision, some staff are not having monthly supervision. A regulatory shortfall with regards to staff supervision was raised as a requirement at the monitoring visit and is repeated.

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good

There was some confusion regarding the status of a new staff member. The manager believed that all the relevant checks had been carried out but human resources confirmed that they were still waiting for references and the member of staff was only doing their induction. While the staff member has not had unsupervised contact with children in the days since they started work at the home, this confusion shows a lack of communication about a member of staff’s employment status.

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good

Two requirements raised at the last inspection have not been met and are raised again. This contributes to the requires improvement judgement in leadership and management. Inspection report children's home: 2562675 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 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

understand the roles and responsibilities in relation to protecting children that are assigned to them by the registered person. (Regulation 12 (1) (2)(a)(v))

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Requirement Due date

This specifically relates to updating and following children’s risk assessments and sharing information with the designated officer for the local authority when necessary. 10 December

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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

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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))

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Requirement Due date

Specifically, ensure that requirements and recommendations raised at inspection are addressed. 31 December Inspection report children's home: 2562675 6 The registered person must ensure that all employees—

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Requirement Due date

receive practice-related supervision by a person with appropriate experience.

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Requirement Due date

This specifically relates to ensuring that there is clarity about how often staff should receive supervision and that this takes place as agreed.

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Requirement Due date

This requirement was made at the monitoring visit and is restated. 31 December

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Requirement Due date

within 48 hours of the use of the measure, the registered person, or a person who is authorised by the registered person to do so (“the authorised person”)—

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Requirement Due date

has spoken to the user about the measure; and

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Requirement Due date

has signed the record to confirm it is accurate; and

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Requirement Due date

within 5 days of the use of the measure, the registered person or the authorised person adds to the record confirmation that they have spoken to the child about the measure. (Regulation 35 (3)(b)(i)(ii)(c))

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Requirement Due date

This requirement was made at the monitoring visit and is restated. 10 December

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Recommendation

 The registered person should ensure that when children make a complaint a record of the response to the complaint should be sent to the child in writing. This will avoid any confusion about how the complaint was responded to. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 22, paragraph 4.13)  The registered person show ensure that the recruitment 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) Inspection report children's home: 2562675 7

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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: 2562675 8

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Children’s home details

Registered provider: Hazelmont Social Care Limited

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: West Midlands House, Gipsy Lane, Willenhall WV13 2HA

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Children’s home details

Responsible individual: Elizabeth Barrett

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Inspector

Shazana Jamal, Social Care Inspector Inspection report children's home: 2562675 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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Inspector

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Inspector

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Inspector

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