Children's home run by Horizon Care and Education Group Limited in Cannock Chase

Inspection report for children’s home: SC475323 1 SC475323 Registered provider: Horizon Care and Education Group 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 home is owned by a private company. It provides care for up to three children who may experience social and emotional difficulties.

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Information about this children’s home

The registered manager is suitably qualified.

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Information about this children’s home

At the time of the inspection, two children were living in the home. One child has lived in the home for over two years. The other child moved into the home in August 2025. Both children were spoken with during the inspection.

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Overall experiences and progress of

children and young people, taking into account

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inadequate

How well children and young people are helped and protected inadequate

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inadequate

The effectiveness of leaders and managers inadequate

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inadequate

There are serious and/or widespread failures that mean that the child is not protected and their welfare is not promoted or safeguarded and the care and experiences of the child is poor.

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inadequate

Date of last inspection: 17 December 2024

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inadequate

Overall judgement at last inspection: good

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inadequate

Enforcement action since last inspection: none Inspection report for children’s home: SC475323 2

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

17/12/2024 Full Good 02/05/2023 Full Good 12/07/2022 Full Good 23/08/2021 Full Requires improvement to be good Inspection report for children’s home: SC475323 3

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inadequate

Children’s experiences and progress are significantly affected by shortfalls in how well they are helped and protected and the oversight of leaders and managers. One child stated that they do not like living in the home and that they spend very little time there. One child’s parent said that staff do not meet their child’s day-to-day care needs or provide them with appropriate boundaries.

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inadequate

Staff and managers do not ensure that children’s health needs are met and that they receive the right urgent healthcare. Staff do not ensure that children’s health needs are appropriately explored and that medical appointments are attended. Children’s health plans are not updated with significant information. Staff and managers have not consistently shared important information about children’s health with the local authority or children’s parents.

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inadequate

Children do not receive appropriate help and support with their emotional well-being. Following significant concerns for one child’s mental health, a hospital referred them for urgent support. At the time of the inspection, this child has still not received a service. Due to poor management oversight, the manager was not aware this service was needed, and the delay to this service being provided has not been challenged or escalated.

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inadequate

Staff and managers do not consistently show aspiration for children or show an interest in their education. One child told staff they had become upset at college and changed their course. Staff did not communicate effectively with the college to ensure that they had the details of the new course or to check how the child was settling in. As a result, staff have not provided the child with appropriate support to enable them to achieve and engage with their education. Staff are supporting one child to travel a long distance to maintain their current school placement. This has helped to provide them with some consistency in their education.

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inadequate

Children know how to make a complaint and receive support to do so. However, follow-up actions from complaints are not progressed by the manager, and they do not provide sufficient challenge to external professionals. One child complained that a statutory review of their care plan had been cancelled. At the time of the inspection, a review had still not taken place three months after the child’s complaint. This has had a negative impact on the child’s well-being as they state that they are not being listened to and plans for their care are not up to date.

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inadequate

Children in the home say that they like the staff. A child who recently moved in said that staff have made them feel welcome and that they feel safe in the home. This child is being supported to spend time with their family. Inspection report for children’s home: SC475323 4

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

Children are not safe because staff and managers do not take effective action to safeguard them. When there are serious safeguarding concerns, managers do not follow appropriate procedures. Concerns are not shared with the appropriate agencies in a timely way. When one parent raised concerns about their child being at risk of harm, this was not fully investigated or addressed. As a result, the child was not protected from harm and issues relating to poor staff practice went unresolved.

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

Managers fail to provide staff with clear information about what to do if children do not return home when they should. As a result, staff do not take appropriate action when children go missing. At the time of the inspection, one child had only stayed at the home for two nights during the past 10 weeks. Staff have not encouraged the child to return home, checked who they were with or reported them missing to the police. This practice is compounded further because children’s care and support plans are inadequate. They do not include known concerns or guidance for staff on how to keep children safe.

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

Staff do not understand the risks and signs of exploitation. They have a lack of professional curiosity and have not taken action to ensure that children stay safe from potential sexual exploitation. Staff have taken one child to an unknown person’s address where harm came to the child. Staff and managers did not take appropriate action to keep the child safe, and they did not ensure that the child received appropriate medical attention after this event. Staff have failed to safeguard the child and ensure their welfare. The manager did not identify the shortfalls in practice when reviewing this incident. As a result, poor practice has not been addressed, and action has not been taken to prevent similar concerns from reoccurring in the future.

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

Staff do not fully understand the risks to children from substance and alcohol misuse. They have not provided children with appropriate support when they have become unwell after misusing alcohol and drugs. Staff and managers have incorrectly informed a drug and alcohol support agency that one child is no longer using substances and alcohol. As a result, the agency ended their involvement. Staff have not spoken to the child about who provided them with these substances. Consequently, action has not been taken to explore and better understand the child’s misuse of substances and to help them stop, nor have concerns been shared appropriately with other agencies to safeguard the child in the community.

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

The physical environment of the home is not safe. The garden is not secure, and as a result, dogs from the local area have defecated in the garden. Staff have not cleaned this up. This presents a health risk to children and prevents them from using this outdoor space. The home’s fire risk assessment is out of date. The manager had not identified this. This does not ensure that risks from fire are well managed or understood.

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

Door alarms have been used on children’s bedroom doors without rationale or justification. For one child, their placing authority had not given agreement for this. Inspection report for children’s home: SC475323 5 The use of this alarm was not recorded in the child’s plans, and the child had not been spoken to about why this alarm was in place. This has placed an unnecessary restriction on children’s movements in the home.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

Leaders and managers do not have effective oversight of the home. They do not identify shortfalls in staff practice that leave children at risk of harm. At times, senior staff members have praised staff for poor practice.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

The manager does not have a good understanding of each child’s progress or of children’s individual needs and risks. The manager fails to ensure that care and support plans for children comprehensively identify their needs or provide clear and effective guidance to staff. Care and support plans in the home also do not consider the local authority care plan for each child. This has negatively impacted on the consistency and quality of care provided to children at this home.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

Leaders and managers do not ensure that staff have the skills and experience to meet the needs of the children that live in this home. Senior leaders do not ensure that staff or managers have the required training to meet children’s needs. As a result, the manager and staff have not recognised situations where children may be at risk of harm and have not taken appropriate action to safeguard them.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

Team meetings and staff supervision take place regularly. During these sessions, the manager provides appropriate emotional support to staff. However, poor staff practice is not always identified or challenged. This is a missed opportunity for learning and improving the care provided to children and fails to safeguard them.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

The manager does not receive enough support from senior leaders. The manager had a six-month period where they had no supervision. This has reduced the manager’s own opportunities to reflect on incidents and for him to receive support in identifying and addressing shortfalls in the home.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

Leaders and managers do not always notify external agencies appropriately when there are serious incidents. When incidents have been reported, important and relevant information has not always been included. This lack of information-sharing has compromised external scrutiny of the home and of action taken to safeguard children. Inspection report for children’s home: SC475323 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 protection of children standard is that children are protected from harm and enabled to keep themselves safe.

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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

assess whether each child is at risk of harm, taking into account information in the child’s relevant plans, and, if necessary, make arrangements to reduce the risk of any harm to the child;

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Requirement Due date

help each child to understand how to keep safe;

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Requirement Due date

have the skills to identify and act upon signs that a child is at risk of harm;

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Requirement Due date

understand the roles and responsibilities in relation to protecting children that are assigned to them by the registered person;

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Requirement Due date

take effective action whenever there is a serious concern about a child’s welfare; and

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Requirement Due date

are familiar with, and act in accordance with, the home’s child protection policies;

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Requirement Due date

that the home’s day-to-day care is arranged and delivered so as to keep each child safe and to protect each child effectively from harm;

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Requirement Due date

that the premises used for the purposes of the home are designed, furnished and maintained so as to protect each child from avoidable hazards to the child’s health. (Regulation 12 (1) (2)(a)(i)(ii)(iii)(v)(vi)(vii)(b)(d))

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Requirement Due date

Leaders and managers must ensure that staff, including managers, have the skills to recognise when a child may have 26 October Inspection report for children’s home: SC475323 7 been harmed or at risk of harm. Leaders and managers must ensure that all staff, including managers, have sufficient knowledge and understanding of their role and responsibilities in protecting children.

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Requirement Due date

Leaders, managers and staff must understand what they need to do when there are concerns about children and follow policy and procedures without delay to reduce and mitigate risk.

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Requirement Due date

Children must have clear plans that reflect their risks, needs and expectations on staff to manage those risks. Managers and staff should follow children’s care plans. Children’s records must be kept up to date to include their known and emerging risks and vulnerabilities. Staff should be supported to understand children’s behaviours, and strategies should be in place to reduce the risk of any harm to the children. These strategies should be clear in their plans and evident in practice.

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Requirement Due date

Leaders, managers and staff must ensure that the home and garden are cleaned and maintained appropriately.

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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 the approach and ethos, and delivers the outcomes, set out in the home’s statement of purpose;

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Requirement Due date

ensure that staff have the experience, qualifications and skills to meet the needs of each child;

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Requirement Due date

ensure that the home’s workforce provides continuity of care to each child;

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Requirement Due date

understand the impact that the quality of care provided in the home is having on the progress and experiences of each child and use this understanding to inform the development of the quality of care provided in the home; 26 October Inspection report for children’s home: SC475323 8 demonstrate that practice in the home is informed and improved by taking into account and acting on—

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Requirement Due date

research and developments in relation to the ways in which the needs of children are best met; and

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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)(c)(e)(f)(g)(i)(ii)(h))

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Requirement Due date

Leaders and managers must ensure that there is effective monitoring and oversight of the quality of care children receive and take action when needed to bring about improvement.

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Requirement Due date

Leaders and managers must ensure that they communicate all significant events and concerns effectively.

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Requirement Due date

Leaders, managers and staff must have the required experience, skills and knowledge to provide safe and effective care to each child.

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Requirement Due date

Leaders and managers must ensure that complaints are dealt with effectively and promptly. Complaints should be fully investigated and any learning applied.

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Requirement Due date

*The health and well-being standard is that—

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Requirement Due date

the health and well-being needs of children are met;

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Requirement Due date

children receive advice, services and support in relation to their health and well-being; and

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Requirement Due date

children are helped to lead healthy lifestyles.

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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

achieve the health and well-being outcomes that are recorded in the child’s relevant plans;

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Requirement Due date

understand the child’s health and well-being needs and the options that are available in relation to the child’s health and 26 October Inspection report for children’s home: SC475323 9 well-being, in a way that is appropriate to the child’s age and understanding;

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Requirement Due date

take part in activities, and attend any appointments, for the purpose of meeting the child’s health and well-being needs; and

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Requirement Due date

understand and develop skills to promote the child’s well-being;

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Requirement Due date

that each child has access to such dental, medical, nursing, psychiatric and psychological advice, treatment and other services as the child may require. (Regulation 10 (1)(a)(b)(c) (2)(a)(i)(ii)(iii)(iv)(c))

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Requirement Due date

Leaders and managers must ensure that children’s health plans are regularly updated to reflect children’s current and emerging holistic health needs. Leaders and managers must ensure that all staff have the skills and knowledge to understand their role and meet their responsibilities in promoting children’s health and well-being.

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Requirement Due date

Leaders and managers must ensure that when children require treatment for their emotional and physical health, this is accessed promptly, and children receive the right support and intervention without delay.

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Requirement Due date

In meeting the quality standards, the registered person must, and must ensure that staff—

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Requirement Due date

seek to involve each child’s placing authority effectively in the child’s care, in accordance with the child’s relevant plans;

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Requirement Due date

seek to secure the input and services required to meet each child’s needs;

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Requirement Due date

if the registered person considers, or staff consider, a placing authority’s or a relevant person’s performance or response to be inadequate in relation to their role, challenge the placing authority or the relevant person to seek to ensure that each child’s needs are met in accordance with the child’s relevant plans; and

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Requirement Due date

seek to develop and maintain effective professional relationships with such persons, bodies or organisations as the registered person considers appropriate having regard to the range of needs of children for whom it is intended that the children’s home is to provide care and accommodation. (Regulation 5 (a)(b)(c)(d)) 26 October Inspection report for children’s home: SC475323 10 In particular, the manager must challenge the placing authority when children do not have up-to-date plans. They must liaise with other professionals to ensure that children’s health and educational needs are met.

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Requirement Due date

If the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005(a) applies to the home—

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Requirement Due date

the registered person must ensure that the requirements of that Order and any regulations made under it, except for article 23 (duties of employees), are complied with in respect of the home. (Regulation 25 (2)(b))

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Requirement Due date

In particular, the manager and leaders of the home must ensure that fire risk assessments are up to date. They must also ensure that action is taken to meet fire precautions. 26 October

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Requirement Due date

The registered person may only use devices for the monitoring or surveillance of children if—

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Requirement Due date

the monitoring or surveillance is for the purpose of safeguarding and promoting the welfare of the child concerned, or other children;

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Requirement Due date

the child’s placing authority consents in writing to the monitoring or surveillance;

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Requirement Due date

so far as reasonably practicable in the light of the child’s age and understanding, the child is informed in advance of the intention to do the monitoring or surveillance; and

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Requirement Due date

the monitoring or surveillance is no more intrusive than necessary, having regard to the child’s need for privacy. (Regulation 24 (1)(a)(b)(c)(d))

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Requirement Due date

In particular, the use of bedroom door alarms should be proportionate and agreed with the placing authority. 26 October

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Requirement Due date

*These requirements are subject to a compliance notice. Inspection report for children’s home: SC475323 11

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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: SC475323 12

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Children’s home details

Registered provider: Horizon Care and Education Group Limited

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: C/O DWF Company Secretarial Services Limited, 1 Scott Place, 2 Hardman Street, Manchester M3 3AA

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Inspector

Jenny Smith, Social Care Inspector Inspection report for children’s home: SC475323 13 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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