Children's home run by Hexagon Care Services Limited

Inspection report for children’s home: 2530832 1 Registered provider: Hexagon Care Services Limited Full inspection Inspected under the social care common inspection framework

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Information about this children’s home

The home is owned by a private company. The home provides care for up to four children aged 11 to 17 years who have experienced adverse childhood experiences that have led to associated trauma and presenting complex behaviours.

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Information about this children’s home

The manager holds the level 5 diploma in leadership and management and registered with Ofsted in July 2019.

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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

Overall judgement at last inspection: good

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good

Enforcement action since last inspection: none Inspection report for children’s home: 2530832 2

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

08/03/2022 Full Good Inspection report for children’s home: 2530832 3

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Four children live in this home. Since the last inspection, two children have moved out to live independently. Both of these children are making good progress. They reminisce to professionals in a positive way about their time living in the home.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children say they are happy living in the home. The environment is clean and homely, and any repairs are undertaken promptly. Children take pride in their home, particularly their bedrooms and enjoy personalising them. This encourages children to develop a sense of belonging and self-worth.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children trust staff and confide in them about any worries they have. All children speak positively about staff and about living in the home. Children feel listened to, and they feel that they have choices about how they are being cared for.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff encourage children to express their views about the care they receive. Since living at the home, one child has attended their looked after review meeting for the first time. Staff help children to increase their confidence and develop their self- esteem. Another child now chairs their own looked after review meeting. Their independent reviewing officer said, ‘He [the child] is making his own decisions, it’s empowering.’

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff help children to develop their independence skills. They work with children to help them to develop tools to keep themselves safe. Children have the opportunity to practise the tools they learn, such as travelling to and from school on their own. As a result, children feel a sense of achievement and responsibility. This helps them to develop positive self-esteem.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children are making progress with their education in comparison to their starting points. The registered manager goes above and beyond to ensure equal opportunities for children. One child, who has not been engaging in education due to their poor mental health, is now attending school. Education professionals describe the registered manager as being ‘instrumental’ in making this happen.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff support children to maintain relationships with people who are important to them. Children and their families value the support of staff when helping them to reconnect. Staff play an active role in helping children maintain their individual interests. Children take part in a wide range of activites and hobbies. One child plays rugby for a local team. This helps them to form friendships and maintain a healthy emotional well-being. As a result, children develop a positive sense of their identity.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Sometimes, children feel uncomfortable. This is due to the behaviour of other children living in the home. The registered manager has implemented measures to keep children safe. These measures sometimes have a negative impact on children’s experiences and are not realistic in the long term. For example, high levels of Inspection report for children’s home: 2530832 4 supervision in the home impact on an otherwise homely environment. The registered manager has escalated their concern with the children’s placing authorities. However, there has been a delay in senior managers, such as the responsible individual, escalating the concerns further.

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

The registered manager and staff understand their safeguarding roles and responsibilities and respond well to safeguarding concerns. They have a good understanding of the risks to children and take action to safeguard them.

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

Staff know children well; they are supportive and nurturing. Staff recognise signs in children’s behaviour that indicate they may self-harm. Staff take appropriate action to increase children’s safety. They help children to develop safer strategies to manage their feelings and emotions. The registered manager uses external support well to educate staff about self-harm and to support them to reflect on their responses to children. This approach has had a positive impact and helped children to significantly reduce their self-harm.

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

Risk assessments contain important information which helps staff to keep children safe. Staff understand each child’s risks and vulnerabilities. Sometimes, children display behaviours which may present as a challenge for staff. The manager provides clear guidance in safety plans that staff follow to keep children safe.

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

Staff follow missing-from-care plans when children go missing. However, one child’s missing-from-care plan did not contain up-to-date information, for example information on recent incidents of self-harm. This does not ensure that other professionals receive all the information they need to determine the risk to the child, should they go missing. Nevertheless, external professionals report that staff follow local missing-from-care procedures ‘meticulously’ and continue to search for children until they locate them.

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

Children’s behaviours sometimes have a negative impact on other children. Staff help children to reflect on their behaviours and understand the impact of them. However, this work is not always effective or consistent. Neither are boundaries and expectations routinely reviewed with children. As a result, some children continue to display behaviour that has a negative impact. In addition, not all children in the home have opportunities to speak to staff after significant incidents. This does not help children to communicate their feelings and has the potential to hinder the manager’s oversight of incidents.

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

The manager responds to and investigates any allegations or complaints, although there have been very few. There is good partnership working between the manager and external professionals. This oversight and scrutiny helps to protect children from harm. Inspection report for children’s home: 2530832 5

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The manager is very experienced. She is passionate about improving the quality of care that children receive. There is a stable and consistent staff team in place that provides consistency and continuity of care to children. The manager has been supporting another home within the organisation. She has ensured that there remains strong oversight and leadership in this home. As a result, this arrangement has not impacted on the manager’s oversight of the care that children receive.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The manager has good systems in place to monitor and review the quality of care children receive. She has a good understanding of the areas in need of development in the home and takes action to address them. As a result, the manager is aware of children’s progress and celebrates their achievements.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The manager’s oversight of safeguarding incidents is good. This helps her to identify any shortfalls in staff practice quickly. The manager ensures that staff are able to reflect on their practice and provide additional support, if needed, such as training and internal and external reviews of any physical restraint.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Staff receive good-quality training pertinent to children’s needs. As and when children’s needs change, the manager arranges training to enable staff to support children’s complex needs. As a result, staff continually develop their knowledge and understanding to provide sensitive and supportive care to children.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Staff enjoy working in the home and they strive to achieve good outcomes for children. All staff receive regular and reflective supervision. They explore and discuss each child’s experiences and progress. As a result, children receive care by staff who understand their needs.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Professionals, external agencies and family members provided the inspector unanimous positive feedback. The manager has been able to maintain good working relationships with these professionals. This is despite the challenges different roles may present in understanding children’s needs. The manager is tenacious and a good advocate for children. Inspection report for children’s home: 2530832 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. (Regulation 5 (c))

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Requirement Due date

In particular, that senior managers escalate further when concerns are expressed by the registered manager about the performance of a placing authority. 12 March 2023

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Requirement Due date

The positive relationships standard is that children are helped to develop, and to benefit from, relationships based on—

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Requirement Due date

an understanding about acceptable behaviour;

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Requirement Due date

positive responses to other children and adults.

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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

help each child to develop socially aware behaviour;

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Requirement Due date

help each child to develop and practise skills to resolve conflicts positively and without harm to anyone;

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Requirement Due date

communicate to each child expectations about the child’s behaviour and ensure that the child understands those expectations in accordance with the child’s age and understanding; 12 March 2023 Inspection report for children’s home: 2530832 7 help each child to understand, in a way that is appropriate according to the child’s age and understanding, personal, sexual and social relationships, and how those relationships can be supportive or harmful;

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Requirement Due date

help each child to develop the understanding and skills to recognise or withdraw from a damaging, exploitative or harmful relationship;

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Requirement Due date

that each child is encouraged to build and maintain positive relationships with others. (Regulation 11 (1)(a)(b)(c) (2)(a)(ii)(iv)(v)(vi)(vii)(b))

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Requirement Due date

In particular, that all children living in the home are provided opportunities to talk to staff after every significant incident. In addition, that boundaries and expectations of behaviour are discussed with children more frequently.

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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

that the home’s day-to-day care is arranged and delivered so as to keep each child safe and to protect each child effectively from harm. (Regulation 12 (1) (2)(a)(i)(b))

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Requirement Due date

In particular, that children’s risk assessments contain up-to- date and pertinent information to ensure that staff and external professionals are able to respond effectively to keep children safe. 12 March 2023 Inspection report for children’s home: 2530832 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 for children’s home: 2530832 9

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Children’s home details

Registered provider: Hexagon Care Services Limited

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: Unit 1 Tustin Court, Riversway, Preston, Lancashire PR2 2YQ

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Inspectors

Sarah Berry, Social Care Inspector Sharon Bourne, Social Care Inspector Inspection report for children’s home: 2530832 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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Inspectors

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Inspectors

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Inspectors

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