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 registered manager left the home in August 2023. The deputy manager is overseeing the management of the home, with support from the responsible individual and a senior manager in the organisation.

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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: 2562675 2

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

14/03/2023 Full Good 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 one child has recently left. There was one child living in the home at the time of the inspection. The inspector considered both children’s experiences.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children receive thoughtful care from staff who look after them well and help them to develop. The inspector observed that children have trusted and meaningful relationships with most staff. Children who no longer live in the home keep in regular contact with staff.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff provide children with good support with their education. Staff work in partnership with education services and other relevant professionals to ensure that children have appropriate educational opportunities and reach their full potential. When children struggle to attend school, staff ensure a tailored programme is in place to sustain their learning.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff prioritise children’s health needs and support children to attend routine appointments. When needed, staff seek specialist health and emotional support for children. Staff also have regular consultation with the organisation’s clinical psychologist. This supports staff’s understanding of how to better work with the children. This commitment to joint working helps to improve children’s physical, psychological and emotional health.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff support children to develop hobbies and interests. They encourage children to take part in a wide range of activities. These include cinema trips, basketball, bowling, a day at the seaside and pamper nights.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Planning for children is good. Staff regularly review children’s written plans. Staff encourage children to attend and be involved in their child in care meetings. Children’s views about their feelings and day-to-day experiences are also frequently sought by staff and managers. This means that children positively influence their day-to-day care. However, when children are asked for their views about their care, managers do not always give them feedback. As a result, children are not always able to see that their views are being listened to and acted on.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

The home is generally clean and tidy. The lounge and dining area is warm and welcoming. There are pictures around the home of children and staff encourage children to personalise their bedrooms. There is an ongoing maintenance programme. Repairs and refurbishment to the home have been completed. This includes the addition of a new garden room and new dining room furniture. However, some areas of the home are looking tired and worn. For example, the paint in the hall is scuffed, the kitchen worktop needs sealing and one of the walls in the child’s bedroom has minor damage. This detracts from the homely feeling. Inspection report for children’s home: 2562675 4

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

Safeguarding practices in the home are effective. Staff understand risks and potential triggers for children. They use this knowledge, along with clear risk management strategies, to promote children’s safety and well-being.

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

Managers ensure that there are comprehensive behaviour support plans in place for children. They ensure that these are regularly reviewed, with clear strategies in place for staff to follow to reduce risks for the children. As a result, children’s risks are reducing. For example, one child’s incidents of self-harm have reduced, as they are able to manage their emotions better.

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

Managers take prompt action when there are allegations, complaints or serious concerns regarding staff practice. Managers ensure that the appropriate people are informed, and investigations are carried out thoroughly. Managers act quickly to rectify shortfalls in staff practice, including taking disciplinary action when required. This helps children to feel safe and listened to.

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

There are few incidents of children going missing from the home. When children are absent from the home without permission, staff follow the missing-from-home protocols. They search the local area and, when required, report to the police. When children return, staff warmly welcome them back. Children are also offered the opportunity to talk to an independent person. This means they can talk about the reasons why they were missing, raise any concerns they may have and feel reassured.

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

Staff talk to children about important topics, such as stranger danger, keeping safe when they are out in the community by themselves, child criminal and sexual exploitation, grooming and online safety. This supports children to be informed and helps to keep them safe.

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

Managers and staff understand the importance of keeping children safe online. Staff ensure that there are safeguards in place. This includes ensuring that safeguarding apps are applied to children’s phones and that there are regular phone checks and restrictions on the internet. Staff also carry out extensive work with children around the dangers of the internet.

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

Incidents when staff are required to use physical intervention are rare. Staff will normally only use restraint as a last resort to keep children safe. There has been one occasion when staff used an intervention which was not necessary. This was investigated by managers and action taken with staff to prevent reoccurrence. However, the manager’s oversight of intervention records is not consistent. For example, managers do not always ensure that staff are spoken to following an intervention and not all records state the effectiveness and any consequences of the use of the measure. This shortfall does not give the manager the full information to review the physical intervention effectively. Inspection report for children’s home: 2562675 5

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good

The previous registered manager’s oversight was not effective. For example, there were shortfalls in his oversight of physical interventions, he did not consistently respond to children’s views and there were delays in the reporting of significant incidents to Ofsted. In addition, the registered manager did not manage the home in line with the ethos of the organisation as stated in the statement of purpose. He did not always respond in a timely or appropriate manner to conflict within the staff team. As a result, there was a brief period when the team was not working together effectively. The responsible individual identified this and stepped in to support the management of the home. This helped to improve the staff’s relationships and morale and reduce the impact on the quality of care children receive.

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good

The registered manager’s six-monthly review of the quality of care was poor. There was a lack of analysis of how the care provided impacted on children. The manager had also not consulted with children, external professionals or staff. This impacted on the manager’s ability to effectively review the quality of the care children receive.

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good

The responsible individual has good oversight of the home. She understands the home’s strengths and areas for development. She has supported the managers of the home to develop an action plan to improve the leadership and management of the home. This includes work to be carried out with the staff team to improve the culture in the home and reinforce professional boundaries. This work started recently and is ongoing, therefore its full impact on the care children receive is yet to be realised.

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good

Leaders and managers ensure the staff team is well supported. Staff have regular supervision and annual appraisals that support their development. There are also regular team meetings, and the organisation’s clinical psychologist completes regular reflective consultation with staff. These measures help staff to feel supported and develops their practice. They also ensure children receive consistent, good-quality care.

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good

Staff are well trained. As well as mandatory training, staff have been provided with child-specific training. This means that staff have the skills and knowledge to keep children safe.

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good

The responsible individual challenges those professionals they feel are not acting in the children’s best interests.

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good

Managers and staff work with a range of external support services to meet children’s needs. Feedback from professionals was mostly positive. The local authority designated officer said, ‘Communication is good, and managers take immediate action.’ This gives reassurance that managers and staff are working with the wider network to keep children safe. Inspection report for children’s home: 2562675 6

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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, The Children’s Homes (England) Regulations 2015 and the ‘Guide to the Children’s Homes Regulations, including the quality standards. The registered person must comply within the given timescales.

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Requirement Due date

The quality and purpose of care standard is that children receive care from staff who—

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Requirement Due date

understand the children’s home’s overall aims and the outcomes it seeks to achieve for children;

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Requirement Due date

use this understanding to deliver care that meets children’s needs and supports them to fulfil their potential.

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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

ensure that the premises used for the purposes of the home are designed and furnished so as to—

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Requirement Due date

enable each child to participate in the daily life of the home. (Regulation 6 (1)(a)(b) (2)(c)(i)(ii))

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Requirement Due date

This specifically relates to ensuring that all areas of the home are consistently maintained to a good standard.

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Requirement Due date

This was raised at the last inspection as a recommendation and is restated as a requirement. 23 October 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— 23 October 2023 Inspection report for children’s home: 2562675 7 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; 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)(h))

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Requirement Due date

This specifically relates to the registered person ensuring that managers have effective monitoring systems that support consistent oversight of the home, including staff practice. In addition, managers are to ensure that they manage the home in line with the ethos stated in the statement of purpose.

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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

the effectiveness and any consequences of the use of the measure; and

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Requirement Due date

within 48 hours of the use of the measure, the registered person, or a person who is authorised by the registered person to do so ("the authorised person")—

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Requirement Due date

has spoken to the user about the measure; and

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Requirement Due date

has signed the record to confirm it is accurate. (Regulation 35 (3)(a)(vii)(b)(i)(ii))

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Requirement Due date

Specifically, the registered person must ensure that they speak to staff who were involved in the intervention and they review the effectiveness of the measure. 23 October 2023

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Recommendations

 The registered person should ensure that when consulting children on their views about the home’s care, children receive feedback. This ensures children can see the results of their views being listened to and acted on. (‘Guide to the Children’s Homes Regulations, including the quality standards’, page 22, paragraph 4.11)  The registered person should ensure that they inform Ofsted in a timely manner of any incident relating to the protection, safeguarding or welfare of a child living Inspection report for children’s home: 2562675 8 in the home which the registered person considers to be serious. (‘Guide to the Children’s Homes Regulations, including the quality standards’, page 63, paragraph 14.10)  The registered person should ensure they consult with children, professionals and staff when completing the review of the quality of care. The review should enable the registered person to identify strengths and possible weaknesses in the home’s

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Recommendations

care. The review process should be used as a tool for continuous improvement in the home. (‘Guide to the Children’s Homes Regulations, including the quality standards’, page 64, paragraph 15.2)

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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 9

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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 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 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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