Children's home run by New Horizons NW Limited

Inspection report for children’s home: 2697159 1 Registered provider: New Horizons NW Limited

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Full inspection Inspected under the social care common inspection framework

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Information about this children’s home

This is a private children’s home that provides care for up to five children. The home’s statement of purpose states that children living in this home may have a range of social and emotional difficulties and learning disabilities.

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Information about this children’s home

The manager registered with Ofsted in November 2022. She is suitably experienced and qualified.

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Information about this children’s home

At the time of the inspection, five children were living in the home. All children spoke to the inspector about their experiences of living 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: outstanding

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outstanding

Enforcement action since last inspection: none Inspection report for children’s home: 2697159 2

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

28/06/2023 Full Outstanding Inspection report for children’s home: 2697159 3

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outstanding

Children have positive and trusting relationships with the staff team. Children respond well to the staff team’s nurturing approach. Staff know children exceptionally well, and they talk about children with high regard and warmth. Their home is beautifully decorated and welcoming. Children’s photos and school pictures are displayed around the home. A family dog lives at the home. Children like looking after him. His presence provides children with comfort and security, adding to the normalised family feel in the home.

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outstanding

Children benefit from stable and long-term placements, where they are supported to flourish and feel valued. A headteacher said about one child, ‘It has transformed his life being there.’

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outstanding

Children make excellent progress in many areas of their lives, such as with their speech, self-confidence, social skills and self-care. Children’s progress is captured and reviewed through individualised internal care plans. Families and social workers were all very positive about the quality of care that children receive. An independent reviewing officer said, ‘The progress has been phenomenal from the start of his placement.’

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outstanding

Children have lots of new opportunities and experiences. This supports them to step out of their comfort zones. Children’s friends visit them at the home and can stay overnight. Children have experienced holidays abroad and have accessed new clubs and hobbies to promote their social skills, such as ice-skating clubs, art workshops and basketball training sessions. They have also been involved in charity work to support the local community. The staff team recognises and rewards children’s achievements through incentive systems, certificates and awards nights.

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outstanding

Children have excellent education attendance. The staff team works effectively with all education providers to ensure that children access education specific to their needs. The staff team took prompt action to support one child when their school attendance started to reduce. Achievable targets were introduced to improve the child’s engagement in their education, and staff worked with teachers to share effective relationship-building strategies. Staff encourage children to be aspirational about their future careers. They are supported to complete their homework and to attend regular revision classes in preparation for their exams.

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outstanding

Children are listened to and involved in decisions about their care. They are empowered to share their views, wishes and feelings through a variety of forums. Regular well-planned and resourceful key-work sessions with children capture their views well and evidence the excellent relationships that children have with the staff team. Children’s family meetings are fun and informative. The meetings provide Inspection report for children’s home: 2697159 4 children with an opportunity to share their views about the home life and to make suggestions about improvements that can be made.

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outstanding

Children’s key workers closely monitor children’s health to ensure their needs are met. They access a range of health professionals when children require additional intervention to support their well-being, such as child and adolescent mental health services, physiotherapists, speech and language specialists and dieticians.

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outstanding

Children’s time with their families is prioritised as part of their emotional well-being. They are supported to reconnect with their families, have overnight stays and breaks away with family members. When children have suffered bereavement, staff sensitively support children to understand loss and trauma.

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outstanding

Children’s identities are respected, supported and embraced. Discussions with children to explore their identities are managed sensitively by staff, and children respond well to this. The staff team works with external agencies to ensure that children are supported, guided and advised correctly in relation to their identity choices.

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outstanding

When children have moved out of the home, they have moved to semi-independence accommodation with meticulous planning. Children’s transitions are individualised to their needs and vulnerabilities to ensure that they have the support they require to live confidently and safely in the community. In consultation with placing authorities, staff remain in contact with children who have moved out, and they promote planned activities for children who used to live together and had formed close bonds.

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outstanding

Children have a strong sense of safety and security. They respond positively to the clear and consistent boundaries that are implemented by the staff team. Highly effective planning takes place to ensure that risks are well managed and children are kept safe. Leaders and managers have a thorough oversight of safeguarding. This ensures that staff have an excellent understanding of children’s risks and respond appropriately to children, using de-escalation strategies and individualised support. The manager promotes a positive parenting approach with children, rather than using consequences to manage children’s behaviour.

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outstanding

Care planning when new children move into the home is carefully considered. The mix of children living together is managed well, with older children encouraged to be role models for the younger children. The manager consults with numerous professionals and the staff team before agreeing to a child’s move into the home. Risk assessments are reviewed regularly to ensure that children continue to be suitable to live together. However, the review of the location of the premises risk assessment does not include intelligence from professionals and children about the local area. This is a missed opportunity to gather safeguarding information that may be key when considering new children moving into the home. Inspection report for children’s home: 2697159 5 Staff work proactively when children are missing or at risk of going missing from the home. They understand children’s missing-from-home protocols and respond quickly.

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outstanding

The manager scrutinises records to ensure that staff have taken appropriate action to safeguard the child and to implement preventative strategies. Consequently, children’s risks of going missing from the home have significantly reduced.

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outstanding

When physical restraint has been used, it has been as a last resort to protect the child and others around them. Follow-up discussions with children to explore their feelings related to incidents are pitched at an appropriate level of understanding for each child. Leaders and managers are initiative-taking in their use of reflective practice and behaviour management training reviews to further develop the staff team’s understanding of children’s needs. Incident records show a consistently high level of information-sharing with key professionals and multi-agencies to safeguard children.

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outstanding

Children’s behaviour support plans are child focused, with their views, wishes and feelings fully considered in the creation of the plans and how they wish to be supported to help manage their behaviour. Individualised protocols are also in place and are specific to each child’s risk behaviour, such as substance misuse and going missing from home. They provide staff with up-to-date guidance to follow in an emergency and placed in a grab file so that staff can access them quickly. Focused and well-researched direct work is used to educate children about behaviours that may put them at risk, and it has been effective in supporting risk reduction. Staff carefully address areas such as eating disorders, online safety, healthy relationships and consent.

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outstanding

Allegations made by children are responded to promptly. They are shared with the relevant professionals and explored until there is a clear outcome. Any concerns or complaints are taken seriously, and children are provided with the outcome of any investigations.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

The manager and deputy manager collectively work together and have a shared vision for changing children’s lives and improving children’s experiences of residential care. They promote innovation and are exceptional role models for both the children and staff team. Consequently, the staff team understands the expectations to provide a homely, nurturing and trusting family environment for children to live in.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

The manager’s child-centred approach and organised leadership skills mean that she understands all children’s needs and strives to obtain the best possible outcomes for children. She challenges professionals to benefit children in all areas of their care. The manager uses highly effective systems to track progress and to monitor trends and patterns. Alongside a detailed development plan, these systems evidence progression of the operation of the home, development of the staff team and the sustained high-quality care provided to children. Inspection report for children’s home: 2697159 6 A child-focused development plan reflects the aspirational culture that the staff team has for children, in relation to improving their life opportunities and support into adulthood. Supporting older children to find employment, house family days out, cultural exploration and independence planning are some of the key areas of focus. A

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

strength of the staff team is its approach to developing children’s independence skills. Staff provide creative education and support for children to help them to develop their coping strategies, life skills and work ethic. This has been done through workshops, work experience and voluntary work external to children’s schooling.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

Staff say they feel valued. They report that leaders and managers place high importance on staff well-being and the support systems available to them. This is filtered through the team of staff, who support and respect one another. The manager consistently looks for opportunities to develop her staff team. She empowers her senior staff by involving them in creative ways to promote individual staff professional development. Staff regularly receive highly effective supervision, and they have their practice annually appraised. For staff new to the home, personal development records support them with an effective and staged induction to their role.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

Staff are trained in a variety of areas that are bespoke to children’s needs. They also access workshops and training sessions delivered by a clinical psychologist to develop their knowledge in areas such as healing trauma in residential care. Team meetings are child centred and purposeful, providing staff with up-to-date information and direction about children’s care plans and the support to be implemented. Staff take turns to deliver research they have undertaken in areas that are relevant to individual children.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

The use of research-based practice has made an exceptional difference to the quality of care and underpins the ways in which the staff team supports individual children. It has enabled staff to educate children in areas such as mindfulness, healthy eating, building self-confidence and understanding racism. The manager’s drive on research- based practice means that it runs through staff daily practice and the direct work undertaken with children. This practice is worthy of wider dissemination in the residential sector. Inspection report for children’s home: 2697159 7

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Recommendation

 The registered person should ensure that under regulation 46, they review the appropriateness and suitability of the location and premises of the home. The review should include the identification of any risks and opportunities presented by the home’s location and strategies for managing these. Specifically, it should include intelligence from professionals and children about the local area. This is an opportunity to gather safeguarding information that may be key when considering new children moving into the home. (‘Guide to the Children’s Homes Regulations, including the quality standards’, page 61, paragraph 15.1)

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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: 2697159 8

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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: Unit 17-18, Navigation Business Village, Navigation Way, Ashton-on-Ribble, Preston PR2 2YP

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Children’s home details

Responsible individual: Natalie Waterhouse

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Inspector

Cheryl Field, Social Care Inspector Inspection report for children’s home: 2697159 9 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 who are looked after, safeguarding and child protection.

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Inspector

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Inspector

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Inspector

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