Children's home run by Suffolk County Council in Ipswich

Inspection report children’s home: SC038761 1 SC038761 Registered provider: Suffolk County Council

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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 local authority home provides care and accommodation for up to six children aged between 11 and 17. Children placed at the home will usually have some form of social, emotional or behavioural difficulty, and may have suffered from severe trauma. The home can also accommodate children who have additional needs when these have been properly assessed, such as autistic spectrum disorders, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, Asperger syndrome, Tourette syndrome, self-harming behaviours, substance misuse issues and mental health needs. The manager has been registered for this home since May 2018.

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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: good

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good

Enforcement action since last inspection: none Inspection report children’s home: SC038761 2

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

02/08/2017 Full Good 29/03/2017 Interim Sustained effectiveness 05/07/2016 Full Good 02/02/2016 Interim Improved effectiveness Inspection report children’s home: SC038761 3

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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 independent person must provide a copy of the independent person’s report to HMCI. (Regulation 44(7)(a))

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Requirement Due date

In particular, ensure that the submission of reports to HMCI is timely. 09/08/2018

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Requirement Due date

The children’s views, wishes and feelings standard is that children receive care from staff who take their views, wishes and feelings into account in relation to matters affecting the children’s care and welfare and their lives. (Regulation 7(1)(c))

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Requirement Due date

In particular, take effective action to respond to children’s wishes and feelings in house meetings 31/08/2018

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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. (Regulation 12(1)(2)(a)(i)

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Requirement Due date

In particular, ensure that risk assessments and placement plans are updated. 31/08/2018

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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))

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Requirement Due date

This is in relation to particular information regarding the local area that has been identified. 31/08/2018 Inspection report children’s home: SC038761 4

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Recommendations

 The children’s guide should help children to understand what the day-to-day routines of the home are. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 24, paragraph 4.22) The guide should also include information about key workers, religious places of worship, rules and boundaries.

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Recommendations

 The registered person must demonstrate every effort to achieve continuity of staffing so that children’s attachments are not overly disrupted, including ensuring that the employment of any temporary staff will not prevent children from receiving the continuity of care that they need. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 51, paragraph 10.1) This is in relation to the shortage of staff to support the children with activities outside the home.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children make good progress. The children have positive, trusting relationships with a staff team that knows and understands them well.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children spoken to were positive about the staff and enjoy spending time with them. However, there is a shortage of staff, and children comment that because of this they cannot do as many activities outside the home as they would like. The manager is in the process of trying to recruit in order to give the children more opportunities to spend time with staff.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

The children have high education attendance. The manager is proactive and has challenged education providers if children are not receiving adequate support in school. The children know that the staff see education as an important part of their daily life.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children are supported to build and maintain positive friendships in the community. A child was observed making arrangements with staff to contact a friend’s parent to see him over the holidays. This gives the children the opportunity to make and maintain friendships.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff understand the importance of children feeling valued and listened to. Children have weekly house meetings where a wide range of topics are discussed. However, there is no feedback given to children to ensure that they know that their views, wishes and feelings have been listened to or acted on.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children have individual placement plans, which are regularly reviewed. Children have the opportunity to read these with their key workers. However, staff need to ensure that Inspection report children’s home: SC038761 5 updated relevant information is manually written on the plan before being typed up, to support staff working with and safeguarding the children.

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

The children say that they feel safe living in the home because of the staff. They feel that the staff listen to them if they are worried or upset.

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

Sanctions are fair and proportionate. The children have the opportunity to sign and comment on sanctions, and the manager evaluates the effectiveness of each sanction. This supports the children to discuss and understand the consequences of their actions.

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

Children have individual risk assessments in place which support the staff working with them. However, for one child where there are complex safeguarding concerns the risk assessment does not give staff a full picture of the risks or actions that they need to follow. Although the information is available, it is in lots of different places. This means that staff could miss important information in order to safeguard this child.

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

Incidents of missing from care have increased since the last inspection. This is due to an increase in incidents for one child. The manager, police and the child’s social worker have excellent communication with each other and are working together to safeguard this child. Staff actively search for children when they go missing.

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

The location risk assessment has not been updated and does not contain relevant information regarding the local area to support the staff in keeping the children safe.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The manager continues to work with a wide variety of professionals to support the children’s progress and development. Social workers and other professionals comment that the manager is committed to the children and works hard to support their progress.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The staff have undertaken training in safeguarding and the Prevent duty. Some staff have completed gang and county lines training, and there is information available to staff. Training has been booked for the remaining staff. This will further safeguard the children.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The manager provides regular supervision. The staff spoken with said that they found this supportive of their work with the children. Regular staff meetings take place which support the development of the home.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The manager has met the requirement from the last inspection, and one out of the two recommendations. The shortfall is in relation to the children’s guide. There is a guide in place, however it lacks information about the home and does not help children in understanding what they can expect from living there. This recommendation is repeated.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

There are clear monitoring systems in place. However, Ofsted has not received the Inspection report children’s home: SC038761 6 reports of the monthly external monitoring visits in a timely way. Failure to submit these reports within reasonable timescales means that Ofsted does not have an up-to-date view of the home, and the care provided for the children.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

There is clear evidence that the manager confidently raises issues with professionals. He works well with a wide variety of agencies to support children’s progression and to keep them safe.

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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: SC038761 7

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Children’s home details

Registered provider: Suffolk County Council

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: Endeavour House, Russell Road, Ipswich IP1 2BX

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Inspector

Trish Palmer, social care inspector Inspection report children’s home: SC038761 8 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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