Children's home run by Barnardiston Hall Preparatory School Limited in West Suffolk

Good

The children's home provides effective services that meet the requirements for good.

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The children's home provision is good because:

 All the children are attending education and participating in extracurricular activities at school and in the community.  The staff are working to ensure that each child reaches their full potential.  The relationships between the staff and parents, carers, and professionals is positive.  The transition planning work minimises the anxieties that arise when the children are moving home.  The interactions between staff and children are warm and friendly, enabling children to develop strong attachments.  The inspection identified some shortfalls and areas for improvement, which include, updating the location risk assessment, reviewing and updating each child’s individual risk assessments, fully recording the staff induction process for each new staff member, appraisals and recruitment checks.

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Statutory requirements

This section sets out the actions that must be taken so that the registered persons meets 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 persons must comply within the given timescales.

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Requirement Due date

In order to meet the protection of children standard, with specific regard to risk assessments, the registered provider must ensure that staff:

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Requirement Due date

12(2)(a)(i) 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. 02/08/2016

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must ensure that each employee completes 02/08/2016 an appropriate induction. (Regulation 33(1)(a))

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must ensure that full and satisfactory information is available in relation to the individual in respect of each of the matters in Schedule 2. (Regulation 32(3)(d)) 02/08/2016

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must review the appropriateness and suitability of the location of the premises used for the purposes of the children’s home at least once in each calendar year taking into account the requirement in regulation 12(2)(c) (the protection of children standard). (Regulation 46(1)) 02/08/2016

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Recommendations

To improve the quality and standards of care further the service should take account of the following recommendation:  Ensure that all staff have their performance and fitness to carry out their roles formally appraised at least once annually. This appraisal should take into account, where reasonable and practical, the views of other professionals who have worked with the staff member over the year and the children in the home’s care. (‘Guide to the children's homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 61 paragraph 13.5)

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Information about this children's home

This is a privately owned home, registered to provide care for up to four children and young adults with complex learning and social difficulties, including autism. Children can access the school run by the provider, which is situated a short drive from the home.

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Recent inspection history

Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

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Recent inspection history

24/02/2016 Interim Sustained effectiveness

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Recent inspection history

09/02/2015 Interim Improved effectiveness

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Good

The staff get to know each individual well, and recognise trigger words or sounds. Staff work with the children using a variety of communication techniques, such as picture exchange. The children are able to communicate their views and wishes both verbally and non-verbally. The result is that children feel listened to and they have a good relationship with the adults who care for them. Relatives and professionals who are regular visitors to the home say that their children have grown both physically and emotionally because of the care that they receive. One parent said, ‘Knowing that my son is there makes me feel at ease.’ Another said, ‘Home and school are brilliant. They turned his life around.’ This demonstrates that those people who are significant to children recognise the progress they make. The home utilises a local resource to access psychological support for the children. This helps children to develop effective strategies, for example, to manage anger,

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Good

and helps them to maintain positive emotional well-being. One placing social worker said, ‘Since being at the home, he has done incredibly well and can turn things around much quicker now.’ The children are all registered with general practitioners, dentists and opticians. Staff support them to attend health appointments. One child has diabetes and attends hospital regularly to have his condition monitored. Staff take him to have his toenails cut professionally to avoid any of the complications that people with diabetes are prone to suffer. Children benefit from the individual care they receive to support their health. One child is due to move on to a supported living placement. He is benefiting from having a number of planned visits to his new home. He is seeing his new home being built and is being supported by the staff team to tell the builders what he wants for the layout of his new accommodation. This means that he has been

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Good

included in the design and planning. Additionally, to show him the building at various stages of construction, the staff have created a folder with photographs of the site and his new room. He is gradually being introduced to some of the staff in his new home. The care, time and dedication spent on planning this transition are greatly assisting with managing his anxieties about the move. Children of school age go to the school run by the provider. Attendance is excellent. Professional working relationships with school staff are very good and the effective communication between the settings enhances the children’s overall experiences both at home and at school and this helps children to reach their potential. For example, the care staff support and encourage the children to complete homework. They are aware of the work being completed at school, and they talk to children about what they are learning. Discussion with the headteacher

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Good

indicates that the children are progressing well from their initial starting points. One local authority social worker said, ‘His previous school wouldn’t recognise him now.’ The children benefit from accessing the local resources in the community. For example, they participate in a range of physical activities including swimming and roller-skating. This has a positive impact on their overall health and well-being. This has resulted in one child developing a friendship group in the local area, which helps him to feel included. The interior of the home is warm and welcoming. It offers generous accommodation for each child to relax and have visitors. The bedrooms are highly personalised, reflecting each child’s character. The garden is well maintained and offers a lovely large space for the children to play ball games, use the hot tub, swings or the trampoline. This helps children to feel safe and happy in their

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Good

Children say that they feel safe and can name a number of care staff whom they feel able to approach if they feel unsafe. Staff spend individual time with children, creatively helping to raise their awareness, for example, about road or internet safety. They create behaviour management plans. The plans are of a good quality and help to identify triggers and effective strategies to help each child to manage their behaviour effectively. Staff use physical intervention effectively and the frequency of use has reduced since the last inspection. Staff manage and address episodes of bullying effectively and appropriately. They ensure that each child involved has good opportunities to talk about events. Together they create strategies to minimise the possibility of similar situations arising. This approach helps children to feel safe and, as a result, has a positive impact because the number of incidents has greatly reduced.

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Good

Staff complete risk assessments to help them to identify where potential areas of concern could be. However, reviews are neither effective nor robust. For example, one child accessed the office and self-injected an overdose of his insulin. The incident was notified to Ofsted. Both prior to and during this inspection, the registered manager evidenced the actions taken to ensure that there is no repeat. While staff took effective action, in the moment, the subsequent review of the risk assessment does not evidence how the new information about potential risks is acknowledged or communicated with all members of the team. This practice does not help to keep children safe at all times. Children rarely go missing. One child who went missing on one occasion said, during the inspection, that he felt that staff were stopping him from being able to go out on his own. On the single occasion when this occurred, staff took robust

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Good

action, acting as a responsible parent would. They searched the grounds, local area and contacted the police. The child returned safely and the placing authority conducted a return home interview. Until this episode, no child had gone as far as the main road, located 500 yards away, unaccompanied. However, the location risk assessment was not then reviewed because of this incident, and does not include the main road as a newly identified environmental hazard. This does not help to raise staff’s awareness about potential hazards during a crisis.

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Requires improvement

The provider follows a clear system and process for the recruitment and vetting of staff. However, on one occasion when employing an agency worker as a permanent staff member, one reference was not sought from the previous employer. This does not contribute to ensuring staff employed in the home are safe to work with children. There is a lack of consistent approach to induction for new staff. Records do not demonstrate that staff receive induction in line with the organisational policy. This does not help to ensure that new staff receive the same messages and has the potential to undermine their effectiveness in working with the children. The manager ensures that staff receive regular supervision, which enables them to discuss and reflect on the children’s progress. The manager completes annual appraisals as required and, in most cases, identifies actions to help to improve practice in the home. However, the process does not show how the views of other

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Requires improvement

professionals who have worked with the staff member are taken into account. This does not help staff to reflect on the impact of their contribution or the overall effectiveness of the work taking place in the home. The registered manager has been in post since February 2016 and is undertaking the national vocational qualification (NVQ) level 5 qualification. He has an excellent rapport with the children and is growing into the management and leadership role. Staff say that he is approachable and makes himself available to them. He is developing good relationships with other agencies, professionals and parents involved with the home, who all provide positive feedback about the team and, particularly, the effectiveness of communication. He calls or visits the school to speak with the headteacher to establish how the care staff can better support work being done with the children at school. He also works two evenings a week to

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Requires improvement

enable him to spend time in the home and on activities with the children. This means he has a good understanding of the care children receive. New staff have joined the home and the children now benefit from this stability, which means a reduction in the use of agency staff. All who are required to, have the NVQ level 3 qualification. The home works in line with its aims and objectives as written in the statement of purpose, which was reviewed in May 2016. The manager has addressed the one requirement made at the last inspection. The manager reviews the quality of care offered in the home and is aware of its strengths and areas to be developed further. The manager and staff make child-centred decisions, advocate for the children, and work proactively with other stakeholders. He is making a positive difference to the overall experiences of the children in the home and is gradually developing a good understanding of the home’s strengths and areas of development.

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What the inspection judgements mean

The experiences and progress of children and young people are at the centre of the inspection. Inspectors will use their professional judgement to determine the weight and significance of their findings in this respect. The judgements included in the report are made against ‘Inspection of children's homes: framework for inspection’.

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What the inspection judgements mean

An outstanding children's home provides highly effective services that contribute to significantly improved outcomes for children and young people who need help and protection and care. Their progress exceeds expectations and is sustained over time. A good children's home provides effective services that help, protect and care for children and young people and have their welfare safeguarded and promoted. In a children's home that requires improvement , there are no widespread or serious failures that create or leave children being harmed or at risk of harm. The welfare of children looked after is safeguarded and promoted. Minimum requirements are in place. However, the children's home is not yet delivering good protection, help and care for children and young people. A children's home that is inadequate is providing services where there are widespread or serious failures that create or leave children and young people being

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What the inspection judgements mean

harmed or at risk of harm or that result in children looked after not having their welfare safeguarded and promoted.

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Information about this inspection

Inspectors have looked closely at the experiences and progress of children and young people living in the children's home. Inspectors considered the quality of work and the difference that adults make to the lives of children and young people. They read case files, watched how professional staff work with children, young people and each other and discussed the effectiveness of help and care given to children and young people. Wherever possible, they talked to children, 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. This inspection was carried out under the Care Standards Act 2000 to assess the effectiveness of the service and to consider how well it complies with the Children's

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Information about this inspection

Homes (England) Regulations 2015 and the ‘Guide to the children's homes regulations including the quality standards’. the guidance raising concerns and making complaints about Ofsted, which is available from Ofsted's website: www.gov.uk/government/organisations/ofsted . If you would like Ofsted to send you a copy of the guidance, please telephone 0300123 4234, or email enquiries@ofsted.gov.uk .

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Information about this inspection

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, workbased learning and skills training, adult and community learning, and education and training in prisons and other secure establishments. It inspects services for looked after children and child protection. If you would like a copy of this document in a different format, such as large print or Braille, please telephone 0300 123 4234, or email enquiries@ofsted.gov.uk . You may reuse this information (not including logos) free of charge in any format or medium, under the terms of the Open Government Licence. To view this licence, visit www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/doc/open-government-licence , write to the Information Policy Team,

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Information about this inspection

The National Archives, Kew, London TW9 4DU, or email: psi@nationalarchives.gsi.gov.uk .

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Information about this inspection

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Information about this inspection

Store Street Manchester M1 2WD T: 0300 123 1231 Textphone: 0161 618 8524 E: enquiries@ofsted.gov.uk W: www.gov.uk/government/organisations/ofsted

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