SC398480 Registered provider: Hillcrest Children’s Services (2) Limited Full inspection Inspected under the social care common inspection framework Information about this children’s home
This children’s home is owned by a private company. This company operates a number of children’s homes across the country. The home provides short- and long-term care for children who may have faced adverse childhood experiences.
The manager was registered with Ofsted on 3 June 2014. He holds a level 5 equivalent qualification in leadership and management in health and care services.
Inspection dates: 29 to 30 October 2019
Overall experiences and progress of good children and young people, taking into account How well children and young people are good helped and protected The effectiveness of leaders and managers outstanding
The children’s home provides effective services that meet the requirements for good.
Date of last inspection: 16 April 2018
Overall judgement at last inspection: good
Enforcement action since last inspection: none
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Recent inspection history
Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement
16/04/2018 Full Good 30/11/2017 Interim Declined in effectiveness 12/06/2017 Full Good 02/03/2017 Interim Sustained effectiveness
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What does the children’s home need to do to improve?
Statutory requirements
This section sets out the actions that the registered person(s) must take to meet the Care Standards Act 2000, 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.
Requirement Due date The protection of children standard is that children are protected 13/12/2019 from harm and enabled to keep themselves safe.
In particular, the standard in paragraph (1) requires the registered person to ensure that staff understand the roles and responsibilities in relation to protecting children that are assigned to them by the registered person. (Regulation 12(1), (2)(a)(v))
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Inspection judgements
Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good
Children receive a good quality of care and benefit from having familiar staff who know them extremely well.
Staff prioritise children’s education. This active encouragement helps children to want to attend school and has resulted in children achieving 100% school attendance. This positive approach to education helps to support children to be aspirational for their future.
Staff are sensitive to children’s health needs. The same member of staff supports one child to attend their regular therapy appointments, even if the appointment falls on that member of staff’s day off. This attention to detail ensures that children are well supported to help to improve their mental health and can develop emotional resilience.
Staff ensure that every child is involved in setting up their own care plan. This includes setting targets that include practical steps to help each child to achieve realistic goals.
Children experience a range of activities, both individually and as a group. This includes regular day trips and a summer holiday together.
Staff work hard to ensure that children stay in touch with people who are important to them.
How well children and young people are helped and protected: good
Children have confidence that staff will keep them safe. This enables children to feel secure.
Staff ensure that children have written risk assessments in place. These assessments are regularly reviewed and updated to reflect new and emerging risks. These assessments provide staff with clear information about the individual risks that children can face. However, staff have not always followed the guidance contained in children’s risk assessments. This omission has resulted in a significant incident occurring at the home. Staff responded quickly to the situation and ensured that it was reported to all necessary statutory bodies. Senior managers have fully investigated this incident, and the learning from this has resulted in additional training being provided to all staff.
Staff ensure that a culture of celebration in the home promotes positive behaviour. All children have a range of rewards and star charts that reflect their progress, and staff take great pride in children’s achievements. There is a monthly awards night, when staff and children review the successes of the month and children’s achievements are celebrated. This ensures that children feel valued. As a result, children show improved patterns of behaviour and incidents are reduced.
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Staff ensure that children live in a safe home. The home is a warm and homely environment that reflects the individual characters of the children. Because of this, children respect and take pride in their home.
The manager ensures that safe recruitment practices safeguard children. This reduces the risk of unsuitable people coming to work at the home.
The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding
The manager is a highly child-focused practitioner who leads an enthusiastic and creative staff team. He encourages staff to innovate in how they response to individual children’s care plans. As a result, staff see that they have a direct and positive impact on children’s progress.
Staff receive regular supervision and an annual review of their performance. This provides regular opportunities for staff to reflect on and to develop their practice.
Staff receive a comprehensive range of training to increase their knowledge and understanding of the complex needs of the children. This enables them to become highly skilled practitioners whose practice is always child-centred.
Staff work extremely hard to build strong partnership links with other professionals. This supports a cohesive approach to children’s care. When the manager believes that the response from another professional is too slow, he is quick to escalate his concerns.
The manager makes excellent use of his review and monitoring systems to identify any patterns that arise in the home and to inform his development plan. As a result of his oversight, all the requirements and recommendations from the previous full inspection have been met.
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Information about this inspection
Inspectors have looked closely at the experiences and progress of children and young people. Inspectors considered the quality of work and the difference made to the lives of children and young people. They watched how professional staff work with children and young people and each other and discussed the effectiveness of help and care provided. Wherever possible, they talked to children and young people and their families. In addition, the inspectors have tried to understand what the children’s home knows about how well it is performing, how well it is doing and what difference it is making for the children and young people whom it is trying to help, protect and look after.
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’.
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Children’s home details
Unique reference number: SC398480
Provision sub-type: Children’s home
Registered provider: Hillcrest Children’s Services (2) Limited
Registered provider address: Hillcrest Children’s Services (2) Ltd, Turnpike Gate House, Alcester Heath, Alcester, Warwickshire B49 5JG
Responsible individual: Samantha Millward
Registered manager: Stuart Banks
Inspector
Tracey Coglan Greig, social care inspector
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The Office for Standards in Education, Children’s Services and Skills (Ofsted) 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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