Children's home run by BREAK

Inspection report children‟s home: SC424271 1 SC424271 Registered provider: Break

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Inspected under the social care common inspection framework

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Information about this children’s home

This charity-run home provides care, safety and stability for up to four children who have learning and physical disabilities. The suitably qualified manager registered with Ofsted in October 2011.

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Information about this children’s home

Inspection dates: 18 to 19 December 2018

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Overall experiences and progress of

children and young people, taking into account

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outstanding

How well children and young people are helped and protected good

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outstanding

The effectiveness of leaders and managers outstanding

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outstanding

The children‟s home provides highly effective services that consistently exceed the standards of good. The actions of the children‟s home contribute to significantly improved outcomes and positive experiences for children and young people who need help, protection and care.

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outstanding

Date of last inspection: 8 November 2017

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outstanding

Overall judgement at last inspection: good

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outstanding

Enforcement action since last inspection: none Inspection report children‟s home: SC424271 2

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

08/11/2017 Full Good 30/01/2017 Interim Improved effectiveness 29/06/2016 Full Good 24/03/2016 Interim Improved effectiveness Inspection report children‟s home: SC424271 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

For the purposes of paragraph (3)(b), an individual who works in the home in a care role has the appropriate qualification if, by the relevant date, the individual has attained—

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Requirement Due date

the Level 3 Diploma for Residential Childcare (England) (“the Level 3 Diploma”); or

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Requirement Due date

a qualification which the registered person considers to be equivalent to the Level 3 Diploma.

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Requirement Due date

in the case of an individual who starts working in a care role in a home after 1st April 2014, the date which falls 2 years after the date on which the individual started working in a care role in a home; or

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Requirement Due date

in the case of an individual who was working in a care role in a home on 1st April 2014, 1st April 2016. (Regulation 32 (4)(a)(b)(5)(a)(b)) 31/03/2019

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Recommendations

 As set out in regulations 31-33, the registered person is responsible for maintaining good employment practice. They must ensure that recruitment, supervision and performance management of staff safeguard children and minimise potential risks to them. („Guide to the children‟s homes regulations including the quality standards‟, page 61, paragraph 13.1) In particular, ensure that all schedule 2 checklists for agency staff are fully completed. Inspection report children‟s home: SC424271 4

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: outstanding

Children make excellent progress because they live at this home. The staff and managers consistently exceed the standards of good care. A social worker said about one child, „The changes in him have been so significant. The staff have equipped him to be successful in his adult life. It is something that should be celebrated.‟

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: outstanding

The children make extensive improvements in their behaviour. The staff support the children to learn how to regulate their feelings of frustration. This leads to a substantial reduction in the need for staff to physically intervene.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: outstanding

The staff enable the children to develop socially and emotionally. The confident and knowledgeable team builds trust with the children, who in turn develop confidence in the staff. Consequently, children experience new activities that were previously thought by parents and other professionals to be beyond the child.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: outstanding

Strong relationships with the children enable the staff to support children to manage their anxieties. This has been hugely significant in enabling children to accept important medical interventions that they had previously resisted.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: outstanding

The staff know the children extremely well. The staff are passionate about their work and highly committed to ensuring that children access services and resources that they are entitled to. An assistant headteacher said, „The staff know him like you would expect a parent to know their child.‟

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: outstanding

The staff and managers have excellent relationships with education professionals. The children who attend school are making progress. When there are issues with education, the management team advocates tenaciously on children‟s behalf. Feedback from school staff included:

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: outstanding

 „[The child] is doing absolutely brilliant to be honest. Attendance is tip-top.‟  „[The staff] have always been there for us. They provide flexible solutions. They are always prepared to work with us to find solutions.‟

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: outstanding

The children enjoy an extensive range of creative, exciting and enjoyable activities. One child has been on holiday for the first time. Another child travelled on public transport to a busy zoo. For these children, these are significant achievements and milestones. Memories of trips and activities are captured exceptionally well in memory books that are thoughtfully designed so that children have a reminder of the special times that they have with staff who care deeply for them.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: outstanding

The manager and staff have increased their understanding of what advocacy is and how it can be used to support children who cannot themselves instruct an advocate directly. As a result, two children now have access to an advocate. This is important for Inspection report children‟s home: SC424271 5 vulnerable children who cannot readily express themselves.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: outstanding

The staff and managers demand the very best for the children who are moving on. The staff and managers are proactive in influencing transition work for children moving out of the service. They research potential care providers and make substantial and assertive contributions to the decision-making process.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: outstanding

Families spoke very highly about the quality of the service, the quality of the staff and the quality of the managers. Feedback included:

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: outstanding

 „The staff are all good. Communication is really good. They know [my child] really well.‟  „It could not be better. Waking up every day knowing that [my child] is so well cared for is amazing. To know that he is safe is amazing. It is a wonderful place.‟

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

The children have access to consistent staff who know them well. The children interact positively with the staff. Children and staff appear relaxed in one another‟s company.

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

Children are empowered to do things for themselves because the staff understand children‟s potential and they are not risk-averse. When one child used the internet in a way that could have placed him at risk, the staff worked with him to increase his understanding of the issue while enabling him to continue to access the internet.

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

The staff manage incidents well. Their knowledge of the children and strong relationships with them mean that staff manage children‟s behaviour without routine recourse to physical intervention. When physical intervention is required, the manager scrutinises the records of the incidents to identify discrepancies and potential opportunities for improvement. This scrutiny further increases the potential to reduce the likelihood of future incidents occurring and provides a safeguard for children.

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

The staff understand how to raise concerns about colleagues‟ behaviour. When staff witnessed an incident in which the behaviour of external workers caused concern, the staff raised this promptly, which resulted in an appropriate investigation taking place.

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

The staff take action when the behaviour of children indicates potential concerns. When one child made a comment that caused concern, the staff promptly followed safeguarding procedures.

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

Safe recruitment processes are in place. Permanent staff have checklists that confirm the necessary checks have been made. However, in one instance, one agency member of staff‟s checklist was missing one piece of information. Although the management team had completed other, additional safe recruitment checks above and beyond statutory requirements, they had not noticed this one omission. Inspection report children‟s home: SC424271 6

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

This home is managed by an established and inspirational manager. The manager has been in post for seven years. She works closely and very effectively with the deputy manager, who has quickly gained the trust and confidence of the staff and has identified research-informed ways in which this already strong service can be further improved. The continual striving for improvement means that the managers and staff are not complacent; they consistently look to improve their practice and children‟s lives.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

The staff team is confident and child-focused. The staff are excited and enthused by their work. This ethos stems from the management team and results in the staff having high aspirations for the children.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

The management team has a comprehensive knowledge of the children. Managers are insightful and understand children‟s plans. Case records are clear, with some exceptional records of children‟s activities. When records have been less clear, managers have taken prompt and effective action to address this.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

The service has excellent relationships with external professionals and with families. The feedback from professionals is glowing. Working relationships with school staff, social workers and healthcare professionals are strong and effective, resulting in positive experiences for children.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

The management team is a strong advocate for the children. Team members and managers challenge external professionals, including those in senior positions of power, when they feel that the actions being taken are not in the best interests of the children.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

The combination of strong relationships, strong advocacy and excellent knowledge of the children results in better outcomes for children. For example, the manager worked in a highly effective way with healthcare professionals to advocate on behalf of a child. This resulted in a body of evidence being built to successfully challenge senior medical professionals. As a result, a child was not prescribed potentially unnecessary controlled medication.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

The staff receive supervision that they describe as supportive and enabling. The staff have access to training, which includes training in safeguarding disabled children. New staff have discussions about safeguarding disabled children during their induction period. This ensures that new staff, prior to the availability of formal training, can reflect on and develop their understanding of issues affecting disabled children.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

The managers seek feedback and challenge. They have sought scrutiny of their supervision processes to identify areas for improvement. External monitoring is welcomed and positively responded to.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

The management team monitors records and provides staff with guidance and reflection opportunities to further improve actions and records. Inspection report children‟s home: SC424271 7 All staff have or are working towards a level 3 qualification. However, one member of staff has not completed this in the requisite timescale. This is because the member of staff was working at a children‟s home prior to their current role. This shortfall is not a reflection on the quality of this service. The member of staff was quickly enrolled on a relevant level 3 qualification and is now working towards it.

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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: SC424271 8

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: Schofield House, Spar Road, Norwich NR6 6BX

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Children’s home details

Responsible individual: Catherine Kenney

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Inspector

Ashley Hinson: social care inspector Inspection report children‟s home: SC424271 9 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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