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

Inspection report for children’s home: 2589392 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

This is a private children’s home that provides care for up to three children. The home’s statement of purpose states that children living in this home may have a range of social and emotional difficulties.

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Information about this children’s home

The previous manager left their role in September 2021. The new manager registered with Ofsted in April 2022. She is appropriately experienced and is working towards her management qualification in residential childcare.

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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: good

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good

Enforcement action since last inspection: none Inspection report for children’s home: 2589392 2

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

02/06/2021 Full Good Inspection report for children’s home: 2589392 3

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children are generally happy in their home. They develop positive relationships with the staff team and enjoy spending time with them. The staff team has a good understanding of children’s needs, and they help children to talk about their feelings. Children’s time with their family is promoted regularly. The staff team helps to arrange this to ensure that children maintain positive relationships with people who are important to them.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

The home environment has been refurbished to make it homely and modern. Children are encouraged to personalise and take pride in their bedrooms. They are provided with clear boundaries, structures and daily routines. This includes an effective independence planning programme, which supports children to develop age-appropriate independence skills.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children’s health and well-being are monitored closely by the staff team. Therapeutic support is overseen by a clinical team, which meets with both the manager and the staff team on a regular basis. Children are encouraged to participate in regular exercise such as football training, mountain walking, bike rides and swimming. Additionally, children’s pursue their hobbies at weekly community-based clubs.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

When children move out of the home, these moves have mostly been because of children’s wishes to be closer to family. When children’s placements have come to an end unexpectedly, these have been safeguarding decisions. In these instances, children have been well supported by staff, with children having an opportunity to experience well-managed closure to their time at the home.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children’s education attendance is good. The staff team advocates on children’s behalf to ensure that education is tailored to their needs and wishes. One child has successfully earned a football academy placement at college and another child is being supported to obtain a full-time placement at a school of their choice. Children’s progress since their arrival at the home is tracked through life-story progression books and memory books.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children are provided with lots of opportunities to ensure that their views and feelings are heard. They all have access to an independent advocate. Children share their views about their care through regular house meetings. However, children are not given feedback in relation to the outcomes of these house meetings. This means that children do not see how their views have been considered or the reasons when their requests are not agreed.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Key-work sessions are structured and are in line with children’s care plan objectives. This work is a strength of the staff team. These sessions engage children in purposeful discussions about their emotional well-being, risk-taking behaviour and planning for their future. Inspection report for children’s home: 2589392 4

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

Children feel safe in their home. Staff help children develop their social awareness skills to be able to make safer choices. Social workers reported that the staff team implements precautionary measures to ensure children’s safety. One social worker said, ‘The staff team responds brilliantly to [name’s] behaviour and helps him to identify alternative strategies to manage their behaviour.’

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

The current group of children is relatively settled together. There is no reported bullying and children’s relationships are well monitored by the staff team. Children are supported to work through any difficulties and ensure that any conflict does not escalate further. Matching risk assessments evidence that children’s individual risk is carefully considered and understood. Control measures are identified and implemented to reduce risk-taking behaviour, in readiness for when children move into the home.

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

Therapeutic behaviour support plans evidence that the clinical team works closely with the staff team to help them understand childhood trauma and associated behaviours. Children rarely go missing from the home. When children have gone missing, staff take prompt action to locate and return them safely. Overall, serious incidents are managed appropriately, and staff implement immediate safeguards to keep children safe. The senior manager’s oversight of incident records identifies when practice could be changed to improve outcomes for children.

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

The use of restraint is rare, and staff use de-escalation strategies effectively. However, some restraint records do not detail the duration of the restraint or the correct terminology for the hold used. This has not always been identified in the evaluation of the records.

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

Senior managers’ approach to allegations and complaints is transparent, to ensure that children and staff are safeguarded. Lessons-learned debriefs are used to reflect on outcomes of the investigations. Consequently, staff have a good understanding of safe allegation management. Immediate action was taken by the management team to safeguard two children following an alleged serious incident. Following this, reflective clinical consultation was provided to the staff team to help them review the incident and agree safety plans.

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

The safe area risk assessment does not include children’s views about the area their home is situated. Equally, it does not evidence consultation with safeguarding professionals about services available to children or significant risks in the local community that should be considered in relation to the children currently living in the home. Inspection report for children’s home: 2589392 5

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good

The new manager has provided stability to the children and staff team, following a very unsettled period when the previous registered manager left their role. The manager has developed positive relationships with the children. The staff team is reassured by her presence and her positive vision for the home. The workforce development plan shows that the manager sets realistic and achievable targets to secure improvement.

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good

Staff morale has improved. The core staff team has started to stabilise following a period of high turnover. The manager is working to promote continuity of care for children, by ensuring that there is a consistent staff team. Staff receive regular practice-related supervisions. The manager is focused on developing staff skills and abilities.

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good

The manager’s oversight of the quality of some risk management plans is not thorough. For example, risk management plan chronologies are not up to date, strategies to manage the risks of children living together are not identified and safeguards to support children to manage their relationships out of the home are not clear. Additionally, risk assessments relating to allegation management do not provide a balanced approach to reflect that children’s concerns will be taken seriously. However, the shortfalls in the quality of assessments have had no impact on children’s safety.

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good

Team meetings are purposeful. They provide the staff team with clear guidance about how to support children to keep themselves safe. They are child-focused and review children’s progress. The clinical team also provides debriefs in team meetings following any significant incident or at the manager’s request. This gives staff a forum to discuss practice and time to reflect on how they feel.

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good

Staff are trained in subjects that are specific to the needs and risks for children living in the home. The training levels for staff are monitored well and additional courses are sought when required. However, a senior manager requested that all staff should be trained in safer working practice as part of their ongoing learning relating to allegation management. The staff team has not yet been provided with this training.

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good

The manager’s quality of care report provides an evaluative account of children’s achievements and the effectiveness of the care provided. However, the independent visitor reports do not include regular feedback from children, families, staff or professionals. This means that the reports are not effective in providing a clear overview of the quality of the service provided to children. Inspection report for children’s home: 2589392 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

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)) 29 July 2022

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Requirement Due date

within 24 hours of the use of a measure of control, discipline or restraint in relation to a child in the home, a record is made which includes—

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Requirement Due date

a description of the measure and its duration. (Regulation 35 (3)(a)(iv)) 29 July 2022

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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. (Regulation 44 (2)(a)) 29 July 2022

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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). 29 July 2022 Inspection report for children’s home: 2589392 7 When conducting the review, the registered person must consult, and take into account the views of, each relevant person. (Regulation 46 (1) (2))

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Recommendations

 The registered person should ensure that children are consulted regularly on their views about the home’s care, to inform and support continued improvement in the quality of care provided. Children should be able to see the results of their views being listened to and acted upon. Specifically, the manager should provide feedback to children regarding their views and feelings shared at house meetings. (‘Guide to the Children’s Homes Regulations, including the quality standards’, page 22, paragraph 4.11)  The registered person should ensure that staff can access appropriate resources to support their training needs and should understand the key role they play in the training and development of staff in the home. (‘Guide to the Children’s Homes Regulations, including the quality standards’, page 53, paragraph 10.11)

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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 for children’s home: 2589392 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, Prospect Business Park, Longford Road, Cannock WS11 0LG

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Inspector

Cheryl Field, Social Care Inspector Inspection report for children’s home: 2589392 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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