Children's home run by Lioncare Ltd Operating as The Lioncare Group

Inspection report for children’s home: 2483691 1 Registered provider: Lioncare Ltd Operating As The Lioncare Group

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Full inspection Inspected under the social care common inspection framework

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Information about this children’s home

The home is privately owned and is registered to provide care for up to six children aged between six and 12.

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Information about this children’s home

At the time of the inspection, there were five children living in the home.

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Information about this children’s home

The manager has been registered with Ofsted since 15 November 2021.

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Information about this children’s home

In this report, the staff are referred to as ‘adults’, as this is the term that is used in the home.

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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 outstanding

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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

Overall judgement at last inspection: good

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outstanding

Enforcement action since last inspection: none Inspection report for children’s home: 2483691 2

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

16/05/2023 Full Good 28/06/2022 Full Good 12/05/2021 Full Good 18/02/2020 Full Good Inspection report for children’s home: 2483691 3

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: outstanding

Children make exceptional progress because they receive extremely well-planned, high- quality care from the adults in the home, who are deeply committed to improving children’s outcomes.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: outstanding

Children benefit from being looked after by the adults in the home, who are fully informed about the therapeutic model that is at the centre of the home’s ethos. This helps children to make excellent progress in managing difficult emotions and expressing themselves in a safe way. When children are ready, they also receive targeted therapy that is carefully matched with their individual needs, and some are supported with life- story work. One child in particular has made remarkable progress, taking important steps in starting to develop a sense of belonging.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: outstanding

Relationships between children and adults are based on trust, respect and humour. The result is an atmosphere in the home that is lively and fun. Adults understand the importance of predictable structures and routines and are adept at gently reminding children about boundaries in a way that is extremely nurturing.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: outstanding

Children are thriving because they are helped to achieve the goals that are important to them, and this has a hugely positive impact on their confidence and self-esteem. Adults speak with a great deal of pride when they describe children’s achievements and make sure that they are captured in reports that are prepared for children’s placing authorities. Children are supported to recognise their own achievements and enthusiastically engage with highly individualised incentive schemes.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: outstanding

All the children attend either the organisation’s own school or a mainstream primary school. Every child is achieving very well in education. One child had not previously attended school until they came to live at the home. They have made remarkable progress from their individual starting points.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: outstanding

Adults provide an excellent level of support to ensure that children’s physical and mental health needs are met. When children need specialist support to improve their health outcomes, or their presentation indicates that they require assessment for neurodiversity, managers ensure that this is secured without delay.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: outstanding

Children participate in daily group meetings, and these give them the opportunity to talk about their day and how they are feeling. Adults help the children to remember to listen to each other and this teaches them important skills about how to build and maintain positive relationships. Recently, there have been times when some children have not been as kind to each other as they could have been. Adults respond robustly to help children to understand that any form of bullying is not acceptable. Inspection report for children’s home: 2483691 4 Children have access to a very wide range of activities that take place in the home and in the local community. They also regularly go on holiday together. At the time of the inspection, there was a great deal of excited planning for the upcoming holiday, which is longer than usual and involves all the children. This ambitious plan demonstrates to children that adults want to spend time with them and that adults have confidence that

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: outstanding

they can work together to make the holiday a success.

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

A strong culture of openness and honesty contributes to children’s safety and sense of security. It is evident in every aspect of the home’s operation. The adults spoken to during the inspection and the local authority designated officer (LADO) all highlighted this as a positive characteristic of the home and a protective factor.

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

When children make allegations about adults, managers follow safeguarding procedures that have been agreed with the LADO. This ensures that there is timely independent scrutiny of the plans which are put in place to safeguard children. The LADO regularly attends safeguarding meetings with all of the organisation’s registered managers and senior leaders. This results in meaningful joint working that ensures that children’s safety and well-being remain as priorities.

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

Children’s risks reduce over time because adults understand and implement children’s therapeutic treatment and intervention programmes. They are incorporated into children’s care and support plans and are evident in the exceptionally sensitive and effective support that children receive.

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

Positive behaviour is noticed and rewarded. Whenever behavioural incidents occur, adults meet with children in a case work session and empathetically help children to think about what went wrong and how they may have responded differently. The outcome of the discussions is used in a meaningful way to help children and adults to identify ways of reducing the risk of a reoccurrence. As a result, the frequency of children’s behavioural incidents reduces over time. Records of case work sessions show that adults fully understand the importance of helping children to swiftly ‘move on’ after incidents and that adults are adept at making appropriate use of humour to achieve this.

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

Incidents that require physical restraint are subject to robust management monitoring and oversight. This includes directly after incidents to ensure that the use of restraint was appropriate and proportionate, and through a tracker that is used to good effect to establish whether there are any patterns and trends. During supervision sessions, managers use the tracker to talk to adults about all the behavioural incidents they have been involved in. This gives adults supportive, protected time to reflect on what went well and what could have been done differently.

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

When children need additional support to understand how to manage their own risks, this is sought for them. Outside agencies such as the police will work in tandem with the adults and children to help children to learn how to change their responses and why this is so important. Inspection report for children’s home: 2483691 5

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

There has been a change in the age range of children accepted for this home since the last inspection. Senior leaders took the decision to take children from a younger age to make the home calmer. This strategy has been extremely successful because children have longer to settle into a pattern of life and behaviour that is conducive to a stable home. Leaders and managers recognise that, by looking after children from a young age, they have an excellent opportunity to improve children’s life chances. Very careful matching takes place to ensure that children being considered for the home do not have a negative impact on the safety and well-being of the children who already live there.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

The registered manager and deputy manager are excellent role models and trusted figures for the children and for the team of adults. This is of particular importance in this home because most of the adults do not have a great deal of experience. Their teamwork and commitment to children are admirable though, and their enthusiasm is infectious. They demonstrate an impressive understanding of the connection between providing high-quality care to children and improving their outcomes.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

Leaders and managers fully understand the importance of recruiting adults who have the values and attitudes that they need to provide therapeutic care to children. They are deeply committed to providing supportive development opportunities to maximise staff retention. Despite these efforts, some adults have not stayed at the home as long as leaders would have liked and, until recently, there has not been a full staff team. Leaders have made sure that there are sufficient adults to safely care for children by accommodating fewer children than the home is currently registered for.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

Monitoring and oversight by the registered manager and deputy manager are excellent. As a result, they have a clear understanding of the strengths and weaknesses of the home. They are committed to continuous improvement and proactively seek ways to achieve this. The registered manager’s review of the quality of care of the home demonstrates that they make very good use of information from a range of sources to provide them with a well-rounded view of the experiences of the children and the impact that the care is having on their outcomes.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

Adults receive high-quality training, supervision and performance reviews. The supervision sessions provide regular opportunities for adults to reflect on their practice and discuss their professional development. Records of supervision sessions demonstrate that managers provide nurturing support to adults, and this helps adults to feel valued and respected and inspires them to support children in the same way.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

The streamlined electronic record-keeping system makes it simple to ascertain the support that children have received and the progress they have made as a result. Importantly, if children seek to read their records later in life, they will be able to easily identify the help they received to overcome their challenges. Inspection report for children’s home: 2483691 6

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Information about this inspection

The inspector has 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: 2483691 7

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Children’s home details

Registered provider: Lioncare Ltd Operating As The Lioncare Group

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: Lioncare House, 58a Livingstone Road, Hove, Sussex BN3 3WL

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Inspector

Helen Simmons, Social Care Regulatory Inspection Manager Inspection report for children’s home: 2483691 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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