Children's home run by Hexagon Care Services Limited

Inspection report for children’s home: 2636991 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. It provides care for two children who have experienced childhood trauma.

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Information about this children’s home

The manager registered with Ofsted on 26 August 2021 and is suitably qualified.

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Overall experiences and progress of

children and young people, taking into account

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outstanding

How well children and young people are helped and protected good

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outstanding

The effectiveness of leaders and managers outstanding

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outstanding

The children’s home provides highly effective services that consistently exceed the standards of good. The actions of the children’s home contribute to significantly improved outcomes and positive experiences for children and young people who need help, protection and care.

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outstanding

Date of last inspection: 25 January 2022

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outstanding

Overall judgement at last inspection: good

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outstanding

Enforcement action since last inspection: none Inspection report for children’s home: 2636991 2

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

25/01/2022 Full Good Inspection report for children’s home: 2636991 3

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outstanding

Two children were living at the home at the time of the inspection. Since the last inspection, one child moved from the home after living there for a short period of time. Despite challenging circumstances for this child, she was supported to move into and on from the home positively and safely.

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outstanding

Staff provide children with individualised care that promotes their welfare and progress. Staff receive specialist training to enable them to do so. For example, staff work closely with the clinical team and use dyadic developmental practice, which incorporates elements of the PACE playfulness, acceptance, curiosity and empathy training model of care. This enables staff to provide positive parenting which takes account of children’s lived trauma. As a result, children’s emotional well-being and mental health are improving.

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outstanding

The children have made excellent progress considering their starting points. For example, one child was out of education for a long period of time. With staff support, she has been able to sit her exams and progress to college, where she is attaining distinctions in most of her assignments. She is now looking forward to the future and considering various career pathways. Another child has been supported by staff to gain excellent independence skills, such as seeking and gaining employment, sitting their driving theory tests, creating a scrapbook with recipes for food they enjoy eating, cooking and managing their finances.

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outstanding

Staff and the manager support children to live a healthy lifestyle. When staff observed that planning menus in advance was impacting on a child’s eating habits, they promptly changed this to meet the child’s needs. This improved the child’s eating habits at the home and when in education. The child has subsequently been able to socialise with friends during mealtimes and has expanded their social network. This has had a positive and significant impact on the child.

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outstanding

Staff and the manager go above and beyond to ensure that the children have experiences similar to most of their friends. The children celebrate their birthdays, go on holidays, go to football matches, attend music concerts, visit the cinema and have house pets. Friends and family visit them at the home, and they in turn are supported to visit their friends.

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outstanding

Staff and managers creatively gather the children’s wishes and feelings to inform their care planning and enable children to progress. For example, when they noticed that children were not fully engaging in weekly children’s meetings, they quickly changed the frequency and format of the meetings. This resulted in increased participation from children in talking about things that matter to them. Inspection report for children’s home: 2636991 4 Staff spend quality time with children and explore what life is like for them at the home, what areas they have done well in and areas that they need to work on with staff support. Children are happy and settled, and they feel listened to and have extremely good relationships with staff. One child told the inspector, ‘Staff treat us as if we were their own children. They work here because they really care for us. It’s more than just a job for them; it’s like a family here, which l really needed.’

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outstanding

Staff and the manager provide the children with an amazing family environment. They are warm and welcoming and, together with the children, they have created a lovely home which the children are proud to live in and where family and friends can visit them.

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outstanding

On the first day of the inspection, one child was moving on from the home in a planned way. It was an emotional day for both the staff and the child due to the child having had an incredible experience of living at the home. Staff supported him to move into his new placement and stayed with him to settle him in. An outreach plan has been put in place to enable staff to continue to support the child.

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

Staff, with support from the clinical team, have a sound knowledge and understanding of children’s lived trauma and experiences. Robust therapeutic support plans, risk assessments and opportunities for staff to reflect on practice provide staff with sound guidance on how to support children and keep them safe.

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

Staff training continuously evolves to keep up with the children’s changing needs. This enables staff to support children well. Subsequently, children are beginning to understand their life experiences and risks a lot more. Some of their risk-taking behaviours are reducing, such as self-injurious behaviour and going missing from home.

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

One child told the inspector that they feel safe living at the home as staff have supported them to have a good routine, which they previously did not have. Consistent boundaries enable children to know what is expected of them. Good staff support has helped children to learn from incidents and manage their emotions better. Positive behaviours are also rewarded with a lot of praise and celebration.

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

Partner agencies report that managers and staff work collaboratively with them and follow safeguarding policies and procedures to keep children safe. When children go missing from home, staff promptly conduct local searches and communicate with relevant agencies, such as the police and children’s social workers. When children return home, staff exercise professional curiosity through speaking with the children and understanding where they went, why they felt the need to go missing from home and how staff can support them to prevent similar incidents from happening.

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

Allegations are meticulously managed and, where appropriate, they are investigated to keep the children safe. Inspection report for children’s home: 2636991 5

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

The home is run by an ambitious manager who is highly experienced and knowledgeable. She is extremely passionate about the children and staff that she supports. The registered manager role models positive parenting, which ensures that the children receive the best quality of care. She advocates on behalf of the children to ensure that they receive the right level of support.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

The manager’s monitoring and reviewing systems are highly effective as she is fully aware of the strengths of the home and areas for development. She promptly addresses any shortfalls identified in the home. This helps to maintain excellent standards of care for children.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

Staff report that they have very positive working relationships with the manager and feel well supported by her. They have high-quality supervision sessions, where continual professional development and effective practice are discussed and promoted.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

Staff have monthly team meetings that are chaired by the manager and fortnightly therapeutic support meetings with the clinical team. The meetings are in depth and have clearly set agendas. Staff training requirements are discussed in line with children’s needs. The staff and manager use the meetings to track the children’s progress. They consider what the children’s targets are and how they can help them to achieve these. Staff support meetings with the organisation’s therapist are very reflective. Staff look at children’s behaviours and lived trauma, what they are doing to support the child and what they can do differently. Consequently, children have made outstanding progress in different aspects of their development.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

The manager promotes equality and diversity in the home, and staff receive relevant training. Consequently, staff are supporting children to learn about prejudice, discrimination, human rights, stereotypes and hate crimes, and children are embracing difference. This has helped children to learn to live together in harmony and to respect each other. Inspection report for children’s home: 2636991 6

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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: 2636991 7

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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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Inspector

Rumbi Mangoma, Social Care Inspector Inspection report for children’s home: 2636991 8 regulates and inspects 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 looked after children, safeguarding and child protection.

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Inspector

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Inspector

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Inspector

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