Children's Home run by Hexagon Care Services Limited in Lancashire

Inspection report for children’s home: SC479649 1 SC479649 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 registered to provide care for six children who have emotional, social and mental health needs. Each child lives in one of the service’s six houses. Each property has its own staff team, but the whole service is managed by one registered manager.

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Information about this children’s home

The service offers short-term emergency care for children. It also provides longer term placements for some children when it is in their best interests. The home forms part of a large social care company.

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Information about this children’s home

The home has had a permanent and qualified registered manager since February 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 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: SC479649 2

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

21/03/2022 Full Good 10/03/2020 Interim Improved effectiveness 19/11/2019 Full Good 28/02/2019 Interim Sustained effectiveness Inspection report for children’s home: SC479649 3

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

There are six individual homes within the service. Each home is nicely decorated, and children said that they like living in their home and feel safe. The homes are warm and welcoming; however, the inclusion of locks on internal doors detracts from the homely environment. This may also restrict children’s access to communal areas in their home, although there was no evidence that the locks were being used in this way during the inspection.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children are happy and settled in their homes. Staff encourage them to eat a healthy and balanced diet. Children also take part in activities such as swimming, boxing and walking. This helps to promote their physical and emotional health. One child said, ‘I went on my first ever holiday last summer, and this year I’m planning to go to Spain with staff.’

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Relationships between staff and children are based on mutual respect. The relationships were observed to be warm, kind and child-centred, with staff being motivated to do what is best for children. Practice in this area was particularly strong and was consistent across the settings. One child said, ‘Staff don’t do this job for the money; they do it because they really care.’

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff encourage children to attend education. Most children engage well in education and benefit from a clear structure and routine to their day. Staff use games creatively, such as pool, to re-engage children in education. Staff also go the extra mile to secure work experience for children in line with their interests. A social worker said, ‘The child’s progress from his starting point was amazing. He had developed a strong work ethic since staff had secured paid work experience for him as a plasterer.’

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff undertake specific training to ensure that they understand children’s health needs. This ensures that staff support children to manage their health conditions.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff support children to develop independent living skills. Staff also support children to settle into their new placements and provide ongoing outreach support. The team provides training for other staff in relation to meeting children’s health needs.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff help children to have regular time with their family and adults who are important to them. Staff transport children over large distances to facilitate family time, which includes going out for meals together. This helps children to maintain and strengthen relationships with their family. One adult said, ‘The staff are a really good bunch; I would have classed them all as family.’

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff help children to access their files and contribute to child-friendly plans. Children’s voices are consistently present in their records. However, for one child, their care plan was not up to date. Additionally, children are not always clear on Inspection report for children’s home: SC479649 4 their immediate future, including the length of their placement. This can detrimentally affect children’s education plans and result in children feeling anxious.

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

Staff use a model of care that is relationship-based and trauma-informed. This helps children to regulate their emotions. As a result, there have been no physical interventions since the last inspection.

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

Staff work well with a range of agencies to help protect children. Staff respond quickly to incidents to ensure that children are safe. Staff also build close working links with local programmes that help children to reduce risks relating to child exploitation and their physical health.

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

Staff follow risk management plans for each child. This ensures that staff know the risks associated with each child and how to keep them safe. Staff also talk to children about specific dangers, such as online harms. This helps children to identify dangers in their lives and reduce the risk of harm.

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

Staff training is comprehensive, which supports the delivery of good-quality care across the service. Staff are familiar with internal whistle-blowing and safeguarding procedures. They know how to respond to safeguarding issues and how to report their concerns.

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

Children have clear missing-from-home risk management strategies. This helps to reduce the likelihood of children going missing and the length of time of each episode. As a result, there are fewer missing-from-home episodes.

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

Staff listen to children and help them to reflect on incidents. This promotes the children’s self-awareness and helps them to manage their behaviour.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The service is managed by an experienced and qualified manager. A well-trained and passionate staff team supports the manager. Managers visit each house throughout the week and know the children well. A social worker said, ‘The home has gone above and beyond to make sure [name of child] is safe, and they are absolutely brilliant.’

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Staff attend regular supervision meetings with their manager and have an annual appraisal. Staff also attend regular group supervision. This helps staff to reflect on their practice and provide a consistent level of care for children. It also helps staff to talk about their own development and set their performance targets. This ensures that staff have the right skills to meet children’s needs and keeps staff motivated.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Staff say that they enjoy their work and feel supported by their manager. This means that very few staff leave, which provides stability and continuity of care for Inspection report for children’s home: SC479649 5 children. One staff member said, ‘I can say, hand on heart, that I find it an absolute pleasure to come to work as it is an excellent working environment.’

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The registered manager completes an in-depth monthly audit of the service. However, managers do not consistently evaluate children’s experiences. Additionally, it is not clear who the author is for some incident reports. This means that there are gaps in the manager’s monitoring and evaluation of the service. This reduces opportunities for learning and development of the service.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The registered manager regularly updates the statement of purpose for the service. However, the current version is not clear regarding the accessibility of the service in relation to children’s age, disability and gender identity.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The independent person visits the home monthly and produces a report about their visit. However, the independent person only visits half of the houses at each visit. This means that they are unable to assess the arrangements for safeguarding and promoting the welfare of all children when they visit. It also means that the independent visitor is unable to assess whether each house is providing high-quality care for children. Inspection report for children’s home: SC479649 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, the 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 care planning standard is that children—

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Requirement Due date

receive effectively planned care in or through the children’s home.

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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

manage and review the placement of each child in the home; and

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Requirement Due date

plan for, and help, each child to prepare to leave the home or to move into adult care in a way that is consistent with arrangements agreed with the child’s placing authority;

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Requirement Due date

that each child’s relevant plans are followed. (Regulation 14 (1)(a) (2)(b)(ii)(iii)(c))

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Requirement Due date

Specifically, ensure that children and placing authorities are clear on the length of children’s placements and decisions are communicated at the earliest opportunity and taken in children’s best interest. Ensure that children’s care plans are reviewed and updated when they move into the home. 21 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

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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

lead and manage the home in a way that is consistent with 21 April 2023 Inspection report for children’s home: SC479649 7 the approach and ethos, and delivers the outcomes, set out in the home’s statement of purpose;

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Requirement Due date

demonstrate that practice in the home is informed and improved by taking into account and acting on—

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Requirement Due date

feedback on the experiences of children, including complaints received; 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)(g)(ii)(h))

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Requirement Due date

In particular, ensure that the statement of purpose is clear regarding the accessibility of the service for all children. In addition, ensure that managers evaluate children’s wishes and experiences and use this to inform their quality-of-care review. This includes an evaluation of work completed with children following incidents. It also includes the need for clarity regarding the author for all incident reports.

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must ensure that an independent person visits the children’s home at least once each month.

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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; and

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Requirement Due date

to inspect the premises of the home and such of the home’s records (except for a child’s case records, unless the child and the child’s placing authority consent) as the independent person requires.

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Requirement Due date

The independent person must produce a report about a visit (“the independent person’s report”) which sets out, in particular, the independent person’s opinion as to whether—

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Requirement Due date

children are effectively safeguarded; and

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Requirement Due date

the conduct of the home promotes children’s well-being. (Regulation 44 (1) (2)(a)(b) (4)(a)(b))

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Requirement Due date

Specifically, ensure that the independent person visits all houses within the service at least once each month. 21 April 2023 Inspection report for children’s home: SC479649 8

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Recommendation

 The registered person should ensure that any decision to limit a child’s access to any area of the home, including the use of locks on internal doors, is for safeguarding purposes only. Any such decisions should be informed by a rigorous assessment that is kept under regular review and properly recorded. (‘Guide to the Children’s Homes Regulations, including the quality standards’, page 15, paragraph 3.10)

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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: SC479649 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: 1 Tustin Court, Port Way, Ashton-on-Ribble, Preston PR2 2YQ

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Inspectors

Mark Woodbridge, Social Care Inspector Sarah Urding, Social Care Inspector Inspection report for children’s home: SC479649 10 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 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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