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

Inspection report for 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

The home is managed by a suitably qualified and experienced registered manager. They were registered with Ofsted in November 2021.

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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

Date of last inspection: 19 October 2021

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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: 2562675 2

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

19/10/2021 Full Good Inspection report for children’s home: 2562675 3

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Since the last inspection, one child has moved into the home and two children have moved on. At the time of the inspection, there was one child living at the home. This child has lived in the home for over three years.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children are cared for by a committed staff team who provide them with thoughtful, nurturing care. Children and staff enjoy spending time together and hold each other in mutual high regard. Children develop trusting relationships with staff who care for them. They know they can talk to staff if they have any worries or concerns. This caring and supportive environment enables children to make progress and have positive experiences of living in the home.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Most children have positive experiences when moving into or out of the home. For example, prior to moving in, children visit the home to see what it is like and to meet the staff. This supports children to reduce their anxieties about the move and settle into their new home. When children move out, staff ensure that, where possible, children are supported to have a positive ending to their placement. Staff take children out for a leaving meal and give children a memory book. This supports children to reflect on their journey and the memories they have of their time living in this home.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff support children to achieve in their learning. They ensure that they communicate regularly with school and will advocate for children when there are barriers that are impacting on children’s learning. As a result, one child moved to a school closer to the home to reduce their journey time. Another child has recently completed a six-week bespoke educational course to improve their behaviours in school and access to learning. This supports the children to progress educationally.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff support children with all their health needs. They support children to attend routine health appointments and access specialist physical and mental health services when required. Managers and staff have implemented a new key-working programme, which incorporates work around children’s individual life stories, needs and risks. This helps children to understand their life journey and how this impacts on their behaviours and supports them to develop coping strategies and resilience.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff encourage children to develop hobbies and interests. One child attended a variety of weekly clubs, including police cadets and a local football club and went rock climbing. The child achieved bronze, silver and gold awards in rock climbing while they were living in the home. They also went on regular hikes with staff, including climbing Snowdon. Another child has joined the Girl Guides and a local girls’ club. Sharing activities enables children to grow in confidence and improve their self-esteem. They also help to build relationships with carers and support children to improve their social skills. Inspection report for children’s home: 2562675 4 Staff support children to spend family time with people who are important to them. This helps them to maintain a sense of belonging and promotes their sense of identity. Staff will advocate for children when there are concerns around family time and this is having a negative impact on children’s well-being.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff take children’s views seriously. One child told the inspector that they feel listened to. Children have multiple opportunities to have their say, for example, through general conversation, children’s meetings, debriefs and key-working sessions. This allows the children to share and talk about their achievements, reflect on events and learn how to manage conflict. These opportunities are valuable for children to learn how to communicate and listen effectively.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

The home is clean and tidy. Children’s bedrooms are personalised. There are communal areas where children can spend time with each other and staff, as well as areas where children can be alone. Children help to choose the home’s decor. However, some areas of the home are looking tired and worn. For example, the front door is scuffed and damaged, and the dining table is also damaged. This detracts from the overall appearance of the home and does not provide a welcoming and nurturing environment for children.

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

Staff know the children’s triggers and risks well. They work hard to keep children safe and manage complex risks well. Staff understand safeguarding procedures and the actions they need to take to keep children safe. As a result, children’s incidents have reduced.

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

When children make allegations, the manager and staff act quickly to keep children safe. Managers carry out a thorough investigation. The manager ensures that information is shared with safeguarding professionals. This external oversight and scrutiny help to protect children from harm.

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

Incidents of children going missing from home have reduced. Staff follow missing- from-home procedures when children go missing. Staff search for children and liaise with the local police until they are found. Staff ensure that return home interviews are carried out with children, so they can share their concerns.

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

Staff respond well to children who self-harm. They provide good emotional support and, as a result, incidents are reducing. Staff work closely with children’s therapists and the organisation’s clinical psychologist to help children to develop self-soothing strategies and build their emotional resilience.

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

Staff only use physical intervention when necessary to keep children and others safe. When children have been held, the incidents are well recorded and there is reflection afterwards. Inspection report for children’s home: 2562675 5 Staff respond promptly when children are aggressive and unkind to each other. Staff will intervene, talk to children about their behaviour and carry out restorative work with children. This helps children to understand socially acceptable behaviour and build more positive relationships.

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

Staff have carried out extensive work with children to help them to understand how their behaviours can impact on others and how to keep themselves safe. Staff have worked with external agencies, including youth offending, local police and child and adult mental health services, to support this work and ensure a multi-agency approach.

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

Staff are not always as vigilant as they could be. For example, on the day of the inspection, staff gave the child a sharp knife, without checking with staff who were responsible for monitoring the child. On another occasion, when a child told staff that they had paracetamol, staff did not consider carrying out a room search. While these incidents have not caused children to come to any harm, they did have the potential to do so. Leaders and managers have taken action to address these shortfalls in practice, including reviewing children’s safety plans. This ensures that staff have clearer guidance on the actions they should take if these incidents were to reoccur.

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

On one occasion, due to changes in staffing support levels at night, children who display sexualised behaviours have gained access to each other’s bedrooms. Following this incident, the manager took prompt action to ensure this did not reoccur and there have been no further incidents.

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

The manager follows safer recruitment processes. This ensures that only staff who have been appropriately vetted work in the home.

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good

The manager’s monitoring systems for the home are not always effective. While the manager has a good working knowledge of the home and the children, their monitoring does not consistently identify shortfalls and errors in the children’s records and plans. For example, some missing-from-care records lack details of all the actions staff took to locate children. There were inconsistencies in the details of the frequency of staff supervision in the statement of purpose and there was a discrepancy in one child’s missing-from-home protocol. Managers corrected the statement of purpose and the missing-from-care protocol during the inspection. However, this inconsistency in oversight and due diligence impact on the quality of records and staff practice.

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good

The manager has not always ensured that staff support levels for children align with ratios given in the statement of purpose. There have been two occasions when, due to staff absence and sickness, sleep-in staff have been used instead of waking night staff. While the manager has ensured continuity of care for children, they have failed to consider if the change in supervision levels compromises children’s care. Inspection report for children’s home: 2562675 6 Staff are positive about the support they receive from the manager. Staff receive regular practice-related supervision and annual appraisals. Team meetings are frequent and there are monthly reflective sessions with the clinical psychologist, to reflect on the children’s needs and risks, and to support staff to know how to work best together to meet the needs of the children. This makes the staff feel valued and supports their development. It also ensures children receive consistent, good-

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good

The manager ensures that staff have training to meet the children’s individual needs. Staff have a variety of skills, experience and qualifications. All staff have the skills and training necessary to work with the children.

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good

The manager and staff work proactively with a variety of professionals to secure positive outcomes for children. Overall, the feedback from professionals about the care children receive is positive. When children have struggled to settle in the home, the manager has ensured that children’s plans have been reviewed with the placing authority, to ensure that action is taken to keep children safe. Leaders and managers will challenge those they feel are not meeting children’s needs effectively.

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good

A conscientious and knowledgeable responsible individual supports the manager. She is realistic about the home’s areas for development and has taken action to support the registered manager. She has increased her oversight and presence in the home. A deputy manager has also been employed to strengthen the management team.

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good

One requirement raised at the last inspection has not been met and has been raised again. This contributes to the requires improvement judgement in leadership and management. Inspection report for children’s home: 2562675 7

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Statutory requirements

This section sets out the actions that the registered person 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

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

have the skills to identify and act upon signs that a child is at risk of harm;

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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)(i)(iii)(v))

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Requirement Due date

This specifically relates to staff being vigilant around children’s known risks and for the manager to ensure that any changes in children’s supervision levels are fully considered to ensure they do not place children at risk of harm. 28 April 2023

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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 promotes their welfare.

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Requirement Due date

In particular, the standard in paragraph (1) requires the registered person to— 28 April 2023 Inspection report for children’s home: 2562675 8 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;

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Requirement Due date

ensure that the home has sufficient staff to provide care for each child; 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. (Regulation 13 (1)(a)(b) (2)(a)(d)(h))

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Requirement Due date

This specifically relates to ensuring that managers have effective monitoring in place to ensure consistent oversight of the home. In addition, managers must ensure that staffing arrangements are sufficient to provide care for each child and align with what is stated in the statement of purpose.

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Requirement Due date

This requirement was raised at the last inspection and has been restated.

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must maintain records ("case records") for each child which—

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Requirement Due date

include the information and documents listed in Schedule 3 in relation to each child;

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Requirement Due date

are signed and dated by the author of each entry. (Regulation 36 (1)(a)(b)(c))

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Requirement Due date

This specifically relates to the manager ensuring that missing-from-care records contain all the details of actions staff have taken to locate children and that their oversight improves the quality of the children’s records. 28 April 2023

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Recommendation

 The registered person should ensure that the home is a nurturing environment that meets the needs of the children. In particular, ensure the home is suitably furnished and external areas are maintained to a good standard. (‘Guide to the Children’s Homes Regulations, including the quality standards’, page 15, paragraph 3.9) Inspection report for children’s home: 2562675 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 for children’s home: 2562675 10

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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, West Midlands WV13 2HA

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Children’s home details

Responsible individual: Elizabeth Barrett

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Inspector

Sonia Sullivan, Social Care Inspector Inspection report for children’s home: 2562675 11 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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