Children's Home run by Flying Spur Limited in Norfolk

Inspection report children’s home: SC470585 1 SC470585 Registered provider: Flying Spur Limited Full inspection Inspected under the social care common inspection framework

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Information about this children’s home

This children’s home provides care and accommodation for up to six children who have emotional and/or behavioural difficulties. It is privately owned by an individual.

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Information about this children’s home

Inspection dates: 15 to 16 November 2017

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Overall experiences and progress of

children and young people, taking into account

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good

How well children and young people are helped and protected good

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good

The effectiveness of leaders and managers good

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good

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

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good

Overall judgement at last inspection: improved effectiveness Inspection report children’s home: SC470585 2

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Key findings from this inspection

 The children build good, trusting relationships with the staff. These help them to feel valued and part of the home.  Children are involved in discussions and decisions about their daily care and wider plans.  The staff ensure that the children’s varied health needs are met.  Some children make good progress in their education and progress well towards their independence.  The staff plan children’s moves into the home well and support them when they have to move on. This helps the children to cope with the uncertainties of such moves.  The manager and staff are child focused.  The children feel safe and become increasingly safe while living at the home. They reduce their levels of being missing from care and substance misuse.  The registered manager understands that engaging children in the home can help to reduce their levels of being missing from care.  The staff understand issues such as radicalisation, child sexual exploitation and

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Key findings from this inspection

gang involvement. This helps the staff to identify risks to children.  The new registered manager is making a positive difference in the home.  The training for the staff helps them to understand children’s behaviour and informs their practice.

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Key findings from this inspection

The children’s home’s areas for development:

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Key findings from this inspection

 The children’s plans do not include comprehensive details of how their cultural needs will be met.  The recording of matching placements does not show that all relevant areas have been considered.  The children’s risk assessments, while quite detailed, do not all include all areas of risk.  When there is a need identified for discussions with individual children about how to keep themselves safe, their records do not always include details of these discussions. Inspection report children’s home: SC470585 3  There is monitoring undertaken within the home and by an independent person; however, this is not as comprehensive as it could be, or as the Children’s Homes (England) Regulations 2015 require.  Although bullying is dealt with, the records kept within the home do not always make it clear if there has been an incident of bullying. This prevents effective oversight and monitoring.

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

29/03/2017 Interim Improved effectiveness 23/11/2016 Full Requires improvement 10/02/2016 Interim Improved effectiveness 28/07/2015 Full Good Inspection report children’s home: SC470585 4

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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, 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 that staff 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 and to help each child to understand how to keep safe. (Regulation 12(1)(2)(a)(i)(ii))

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Requirement Due date

This is with particular regard to ensuring that all risk assessments include all of the relevant information and are kept up to date, and to ensuring that staff have discussions with children about keeping themselves safe from all identified areas of risk. 31/12/2017

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Requirement Due date

The independent person’s report must set out, in particular, the independent person’s opinion as to whether children are effectively safeguarded and the conduct of the home promotes children’s well-being. (Regulation 44(4)) 31/12/2017

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must ensure that the quality of care review provides for ascertaining and considering the opinions of children and staff. (Regulation 45(5)) 31/03/2018

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Recommendations

 Children’s home staff should take every step to make sure that individual children and young people are not subject to discrimination, marginalisation or bullying from their peers by virtue of their gender, religion, ethnicity, cultural and linguistic background, sexual identity, mental health, disability or for any other reason. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 16, paragraph 3.12)

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Recommendations

This is with particular regard to ensuring that children’s cultural needs are fully considered in within their plans.  The registered person should only accept placements for children where they are Inspection report children’s home: SC470585 5 satisfied that the home can respond effectively to the child’s assessed needs as recorded in the child’s relevant plans and where they have fully considered the impact that the placement will have on the existing group of children. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 56, paragraph 11.4)  Staff should be familiar with the home’s policies on record keeping and understand the importance of careful, objective, and clear recording. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 62, paragraph 14.4)

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Recommendations

This is with particular regard to ensuring that incidents of bullying are clearly identified to help with monitoring children’s progress.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Since the last inspection, the home has continued to make progress. There are some shortfalls identified in this report, but the strengths outweigh them so that the children have good experiences and make progress while they are living at the home. There is good individualised care that reflects the needs of individual children. The children are involved in discussions about their daily care and wider plans. They attend their care reviews and know what their plans are. This helps to ensure that the children understand what is happening, and that their views can inform their daily lives. The children are made aware of how to get advocates if they wish to, and staff discuss this with them.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

There are good relationships between the staff and the children that help children to feel valued and part of the home. The children list the staff among the things that are good about the home. External professionals say that the staff provide a good level of support to the children and build good, trusting relationships with them. The staff spend time with the children and listen to them. The children have opportunities to express their views through regular children’s meetings, key-work sessions and general discussions. If the children ask for something that cannot be agreed to, the staff explain to them why this is. Sometimes the children’s requests are agreed to with clear expectations of what they need to do to make it work. For example, one child does not like staff going into her room. She has been told that if she can keep her room tidy, staff will not need to go in.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children’s health improves while they are living at the home. The staff work to meet the children’s health needs by obtaining routine and specialist health input including, for example, mental health support, therapeutic services and antenatal support. This has proved more difficult for some children who live away from their home authorities, but the registered manager keeps in touch with other agencies to drive the process. The staff make sure that the children get good information on how to look after their health. The staff support the children in their education, for example by going to children’s schools to help calm situations when children are upset. Some of the children do very Inspection report children’s home: SC470585 6 well in education.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

One child is attending a further education course in animal care which is directly linked to his desire to work with animals as a career. He used to keep chickens in the home’s grounds, but now has a wider collection of animals which he looks after away from the home with his parent. He has a moped to allow him independence and make it easier to get to and from the land where he keeps his animals. The staff and the other children visited this land so that he could share his interest with them. This child has been at the home for nearly two years, and is making notable progress towards his future career and independence. The staff work with him to prepare him for his future independence and help him to develop the knowledge and skills he will need. Depending on their ages and situations, some other children are involved in planning, shopping for and cooking their own meals, and are helped to open bank accounts. The children also develop age-

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

appropriate social relationships outside of the home.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

One child has recently moved into the home. Her social worker said that she had a well- planned move into the home, and that the staff have been very good at thinking about how they can support the child. She described the staff as very child focused and said that she could only commend them on what they have done in a very short space of time. Another child is due to move out of the home very shortly, and is finding this very difficult. The staff are very well aware of how the child is feeling, and are working hard to provide her with support through this process. The registered manager and senior staff discuss potential referrals to the home. They record their decision-making in detailed groups dynamic risk assessments. However, these do not always show that all relevant issues have been considered. For example, matching with other children already in placement takes place and is recorded, but the records have not included details on

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

how risks of bullying could be managed. One child from a different cultural background has moved into the home. She says that she stands out in her school due to her culture, but that it is ‘OK’ in the home as nobody judges her there. While it is positive that she feels so good about the home, her plans do not reflect what staff can do to help her to live in a predominantly White area. The staff are doing more than her plans suggest, but if the plans are not recorded there is a possibility that the work will be inconsistent. This will limit the effectiveness of monitoring and reviewing the quality of care for this child.

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

The children say that they feel safe in the home. They do become safer while living there. For some children their levels of going missing from care and consequently being at a real risk of sexual exploitation have reduced dramatically since moving to the home. However, the records for these children do not show that staff have been speaking to them about how to keep themselves safe and the risks associated with going missing, as set out in one child’s risk assessment and another’s looked after child review report. It is unclear whether there have been ad hoc, unrecorded discussions. If there have been such discussions, the lack of records means that any work done cannot be effectively built upon and appropriate messages reinforced. Even though these children are not going missing at present, they may be influenced to do so again, especially if they return Inspection report children’s home: SC470585 7

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

to their home areas. The registered manager understands that involving children in the life of the home and activities that they are interested in, and ensuring that they feel listened to, will help to reduce the likelihood of children going missing. When children have gone missing, the staff have taken appropriate steps to try and find them, and have reported them to the police. The missing-from-care coordinator from the police said that the working relationship with the home is very good from a missing perspective, and that the management and staff are approachable and receptive. Staff understand issues such as radicalisation, sexual exploitation and gang involvement, which helps them to protect children and identify any concerns. The staff pass on any concerns about the children’s safety so that they can be properly investigated. The staff support the children to take age-appropriate risks; this helps them learn how to keep

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

themselves safe both now and in the future when they live more independently.

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

Some of the children have reduced their substance misuse and are safer as a result of this. One child is working with the youth offending team. At times her behaviour continues to be challenging and aggressive. Due to a reluctance to criminalise the child, staff had not reported several incidents to the police. The youth offending team expressed a view that in order to give clear messages and help the child understand the impact of her behaviour, serious incidents should be reported to the police. The registered manager has quickly acted upon that advice and has provided clear guidance for staff on when to contact the police. This work with the youth offending team will help to ensure that there is a consistent and appropriate response to the child’s behaviour.

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

The staff and the children have good relationships; this helps when the staff are working with the children to encourage appropriate behaviour. The staff use restorative approaches and incentives to help the children to manage their behaviour. There is a very low use of physical intervention. When it is used, staff record it appropriately and the registered manager ensures that the children and the staff involved are spoken to after the incident.

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

There are written risk assessments to help the staff manage the risks for the children. These are mostly up to date and appropriate, but some have not been fully implemented, as detailed above. There is some bullying at the home, but the staff and the children say that this is identified and addressed. One incident was recorded on a restraint record, but not included in the bullying overview. While the most important thing is that it is being dealt with, this makes it hard to monitor patterns and identify if the situation is improving or not.

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

The home environment is physically safe. The staff undertake appropriate health and safety checks, including regular checks of the fire safety system.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

There is a registered manager in post who is making a positive difference to the home. The staff and other professionals speak positively about his influence. The registered manager has good relationships with other agencies and when necessary will question or Inspection report children’s home: SC470585 8 challenge them to ensure that there is a consistent approach to meeting the children’s needs. The registered manager is currently working towards his level 5 qualification. The staff and managers are committed to working with the children and helping them make good progress. They know the children well and understand their individual needs. Consequently, children receive good levels of individualised care. There is a suitable level of staff to look after the children and when necessary the manager will put additional staff on duty, for example to help with contact arrangements or to provide additional

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Leaders and managers help the staff to provide good care for the children through regular supervisions and providing relevant training. Recent training on attachment has been particularly well-received by the staff, who are using it to help understand the children’s behaviours and inform their responses to the children This helps to ensure that the home meets its aims and objectives as set out in the statement of purpose. The staff enjoy working at the home. The registered manager and staff do promote children’s individuality and diversity. However, as described above, this is not always included in their plans and so a consistency of approach is not assured.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The registered manager understands the strengths and weaknesses of the home. He carries out regular monitoring, including reviews of the quality of care. However, these reviews do not include the views of the children and the staff, so while they do contain some good evaluation and identify actions to improve the care for the children, there are areas of feedback and evidence which are missing. There is an independent visitor who undertakes monthly visits to the home and reviews how the home is looking after children. However, the reports which he produces do not state his opinion as to whether children are effectively safeguarded and whether the conduct of the home promotes children’s well-being. These are important elements of the report and are required by the Children’s Homes (England) Regulations 2015.

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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 differences 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.

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Information about this inspection

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 children’s home: SC470585 9

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Children’s home details

Registered provider: Flying Spur Limited

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Inspector

Clive Lucas: social care inspector Inspection report children’s home: SC470585 10 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 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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