Children's Home run by New Horizons NW Limited in Lancashire

Inspection report for children’s home: 2638487 1 Registered provider: New Horizons (NW) Limited Full inspection Inspected under the social care common inspection framework

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Information about this children’s home

This home is owned by a private provider. It offers care for up to four children who experience social and emotional difficulties and/or learning difficulties.

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Information about this children’s home

The registered manager has been in post since May 2023.

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Information about this children’s home

At the time of this inspection, four children were living in the home.

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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

Date of last inspection: 20 September 2023

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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: 2638487 2

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

20/09/2023 Full Good 14/03/2023 Full Good 09/03/2022 Full Good Inspection report for children’s home: 2638487 3

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

The manager ensures that careful and thoughtful planning takes place so that children moving into the home are well matched in line with their individual needs. Staff do all they can to ensure that children are welcomed sensitively into the home. This helps to ease any anxieties children may have and provides them with a positive experience.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

The home environment is warm and welcoming and there are lots of photos of the children on display. Each child has their own bedroom; however, the appearance and cleanliness of the bedrooms are not to an acceptable standard. Children have not personalised their bedrooms, which means that opportunities for children to develop their sense of belonging, identity and pride are missed. Some children’s bedroom furniture is broken, and there are holes in the walls that need to be repaired.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff are warm, nurturing and caring towards children. They spend time with children and know them well. Staff support children to develop their independence skills in line with their age and level of understanding. As a result, children are making progress from their starting points. One child has made significant progress in relation to their self-care and personal hygiene.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff carry out regular, good-quality direct work with children that is purposeful and well planned. This supports the children’s learning and understanding in areas that are relevant to their individual needs, such as healthy choices and safe behaviours.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

The manager and staff advocate strongly on behalf of children to ensure that they receive the education that they need. One social worker said:

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

‘[Name of child] has not been in education for a long time due to his placement moves and we have struggled to get this going but they have been pushing, chasing up, very proactive in terms to getting him back to education, we are glad this is now in place.’

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

When children are not in full-time education, staff ensure that they have a daily planner in place to promote learning in the home. However, they lack structure and are not fully embedded into the routines of the home. As a result, children’s engagement is varied.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children’s health needs are promoted. Staff advocate on behalf of children. They carry out regular direct work with them to explore any worries or anxieties they may have regarding health appointments. One child has made significant progress and has been supported to attend dental appointments to receive treatment. None of the children are in receipt of prescribed medication; however, they do have access to non-prescribed pain relief medication. The manager has not ensured that there are robust systems in place to safely manage medication in the home. Inspection report for children’s home: 2638487 4

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

The manager and staff know children’s risks and understand them. Together, they identify and assess any new risks. The manager ensures that risk management plans are up to date, clear and directive. The plans reflect each child’s personal needs and risks.

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

There have been some occasions when children have displayed behaviours of concern. Staff are proactive in their approach. They respond appropriately and sensitively. Staff carry out meaningful direct work with children that focuses on the risks associated but also supports to children to understand and recognise risk. This helps to keep children safe.

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

There have been occasions when children have damaged property in the home. On most occasions, these incidents have been documented in the children’s daily records, rather than being recorded as an incident. This impacts the manager’s ability to suitably monitor patterns and trends linked to incident, including any learning outcomes, to further develop staff practice.

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

The staff communicate well with children and can support them to safely manage their behaviour and any conflicts or difficult feelings they may have. The manager ensures that positive behaviour is consistently promoted, recognised and rewarded. As a result, there are clear boundaries in place and children are supported to understand what is safe and acceptable.

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

Staff sometimes hold children to keep them safe. This is done as a last resort and in line with the home’s policies and procedures. Staff are trained in the use of physical intervention techniques. Records of interventions are detailed and contain the relevant information. The manager also reviews them. The manager ensures that staff and children have suitable debriefs and opportunities to reflect. This allows children to maintain trusting relationships with staff.

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

Allegations and complaints are managed in line with the home’s policies and procedures, including statutory guidance. Safeguarding concerns are appropriately investigated by a senior manager in the organisation and any learning outcomes identified are shared with the relevant professionals.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The home is led by a manager who is ambitious for children. She is a positive role model and has high expectations for the staff and their development. She has a good understanding of the home’s strengths and areas for development.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Staff receive regular supervision in line with the home’s statement of purpose. Staff say that they find supervision sessions to be supportive and that they feel listened to and valued by the managers. However, the records of supervision sessions lack detail. Staff do not always receive opportunities to reflect on their practice and any training that they receive to support their continued development. Inspection report for children’s home: 2638487 5 The manager ensures that regular team meetings take place. On most occasions, these occur weekly. Children’s progress and well-being are regularly discussed; however, the records are not detailed, and staff are not consistently provided with opportunities to reflect together as a team. As a result, opportunities to identify new learning or to develop practice are missed.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The team of staff are relatively new and inexperienced. They are developing with support and guidance from the manager. New staff receive a comprehensive induction and training package. This helps to prepare them for their role and gives them a greater understanding of children’s individual needs.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The manager has developed positive working relationships with professionals, parents and family members. The manager understands the importance of effective partnership working and how this contributes to children’s positive experiences. One social worker said, ‘The new management team is hands on, and communication has improved, they consult with me more often.’ Inspection report for children’s home: 2638487 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 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

understand and apply the home’s statement of purpose;

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Requirement Due date

provide to children living in the home the physical necessities they need in order to live there comfortably;

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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)(a)(b)(vii)(c)(i)(ii))

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Requirement Due date

In particular, the registered person must ensure that children are supported to personalise their bedrooms. Children’s bedrooms must be clean and well maintained. Damaged furniture must be replaced in a timely manner. 14 June 2024

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must make arrangements for the handling, recording, safekeeping, safe administration and disposal of medicines received into the children’s home.

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Requirement Due date

In particular the registered person must ensure that— 14 June 2024 Inspection report for children’s home: 2638487 7 medicines kept in the home are stored in a secure place so as to prevent any child from having unsupervised access to them;

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Requirement Due date

medicine which is prescribed for a child is administered as prescribed to the child for whom it is prescribed and to no other child; and

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Requirement Due date

a record is kept of the administration of medicine to each child. (Regulation 23 (1) (2)(a)(b)(c))

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Requirement Due date

In particular, the registered person must ensure that medication is securely stored and that clear, robust systems are in place to record the administration of medication.

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Recommendations

 The registered person should ensure that when children have displayed behaviours of concern, the records of these incidents are recorded in a way that allows them to be reviewed, to ensure that any learning outcomes are identified to support the development of staff practice. (‘Guide to the Children’s Homes Regulations, including the quality standards’, page 54, paragraph 10.23)  The registered person should ensure that staff are provided with good-quality supervision which gives them opportunities to reflect on their practice and any training that they receive to support their continued development. (‘Guide to the Children’s Homes Regulations, including the quality standards’, page 61, paragraph 13.2)  The registered person should ensure that staff can access appropriate facilities and resources to support their training needs. This particularly relates to ensuring that team meetings are reflective and the records of these are detailed. (‘Guide to the

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Recommendations

Children’s Homes Regulations, including the quality standards’, page 53, paragraph 10.11)  The registered person should ensure that all children are supported and encouraged to take part in education and to engage in suitable structured activities throughout the day. (‘Guide to the Children’s Homes Regulations, including the quality standards’, page 28, paragraph 5.15) Inspection report for children’s home: 2638487 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: 2638487 9

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Children’s home details

Registered provider: New Horizons (NW) Limited

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: Units 17 and 18 Navigation Business Park, Navigation Way, Ashton-on-Ribble, Preston PR2 2YP

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Children’s home details

Responsible individual: Natalie Waterhouse

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Inspectors

Kimmy Feeley, Social Care Inspector Angeline Clarke, Social Care Inspector Inspection report for children’s home: 2638487 10 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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Inspectors

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Inspectors

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Inspectors

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