Children's Home, Residential special school run by SES Turnstone Limited in Norfolk

Inspection report children’s home: SC452461 1 SC452461 Registered provider: SES Turnstone Limited

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Full inspection Inspected under the social care common inspection framework

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Information about this children’s home

The home is one of two homes owned by a private organisation. The home provides a therapeutic blended model of care and education. The home provides long-term placements for up to eight children who have traumatic backgrounds and may have experienced neglect and/or emotional abuse. There is a school on site that is also run by the organisation. The manager of the home was registered in November 2015.

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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

Date of last inspection: 14 November 2018

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good

Overall judgement at last inspection: inadequate

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good

Enforcement action since last inspection: none Inspection report children’s home: SC452461 2

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

14/11/2018 Full Inadequate 17/05/2017 Full Outstanding 07/03/2017 Interim Improved effectiveness 13/06/2016 Full Good Inspection report children’s home: SC452461 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 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—

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Requirement Due date

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))

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Requirement Due date

In particular, ensure that children’s risk assessments contain details of all relevant risks and how they can be managed. 16/03/2019

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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

In particular, provide clear strategies to reduce the risks to children that are associated with the local area. 16/03/2019

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Recommendations

 A record of supervision should be kept for staff, including the manager. The record should provide evidence that supervision is being delivered in line with regulation 33 (4)(b). (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 61, paragraph 13.3) In particular, ensure that supervision records are sufficiently detailed. Inspection report children’s home: SC452461 4

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

This home is providing some notable, positive outcomes for the children who live there. High-quality and individualised care helps the children to make significant progress. A family member spoke about their child being ‘completely changed in a positive way’ and said that the child had made ‘extreme progress’. A child’s family member said, ‘The home has been absolutely fabulous for [the child]. I could not criticise the staff at all. She has a fabulous time there. She really loves it. The staff are so helpful. I could not praise them enough.’

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

The children have very good relationships with the staff. Living at the home gives the children a consistent and fulfilling place to live. Other professionals who work with the children spoke of the stability that the staff have provided for the children and how much the children like being at the home. The staff help the children to keep albums or memory boxes to remind them of their childhoods and the time that they spend at the home.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

The staff support the children to try a wide range of activities. They use these activities to help the children to learn skills such as using public transport and managing money.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

The children make progress in their education, and the staff support them to see the members of their families who are important to them. A child spoke about the improvements in her education and the quality time that she spends with her family. She said that she did not take part in education before she came to the home, but now she attends full time. Both she and her parent said that their time together has improved because of the work that the staff and, in particular, the therapist do with them. The staff help other children to see their families more often, or help them to begin seeing members of their family with whom they had lost contact. These relationships will help the children to understand about their lives, develop their sense of identity and provide them with support in later life.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

The staff help the children to look after their health. One child is very uncomfortable with people who she does not know, but the staff are helping her to attend health appointments. Some children have therapy and others access specialist health services if they need them.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

One child has very recently moved from the home. The registered manager and staff are continuing to support her until she has a settled and long-term new placement. The child’s independent reviewing officer said that the staff had tried hard to make the placement work and are showing an ongoing commitment to her. This ongoing support will help her to manage the change of placement and understand that, even though she cannot continue to live at the home, the staff still care about her. Inspection report children’s home: SC452461 5

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

The staff help the children to become safer while they are living at the home. Some children reduce risk-taking behaviour and others learn about keeping themselves safe. In one case, there is some good, planned work that is helping a child to move towards having a smart phone and using it safely.

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

The staff and managers have had refresher training in safeguarding. They have responded appropriately to recent safeguarding issues. The designated officer said that she has a positive experience of working with the home. This helps to protect children.

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

The staff use a restorative approach to help the children to understand the impact that their behaviours can have on others, such as when there are difficulties in the children’s relationships. The staff have recently had refresher training in dealing with bullying. They know how to respond to any concerns.

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

There has been a reduction in the number of physical interventions with the children. There is close management oversight of any such incidents, which helps the staff to reflect on their practice and consider whether any alternative strategies may have been more effective. A child said that the staff help her to find strategies to avoid the behaviours that may lead to a physical intervention. This helps to promote an environment in which children can learn to manage their behaviours ands staff can find the most effective ways of helping them.

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

The staff use written risk assessments to help them to assess and manage the risks to the individual children. In some cases, the risk assessments do not include some areas of risk. Although the staff were involved in discussions about how to protect the child, and some action to reduce risk had been implemented, the lack of detail in some written plans limits the effectiveness of the process to a degree.

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

The location risk assessment identifies clearly the risks associated with the location of the home. However, the plans to mitigate all of these risks are not comprehensive. This has the potential to limit the effectiveness of staff’s responses to risk, such as children going missing in the dark.

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

Continued work is making the home a safer environment for the children to live in.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Senior managers are working with the registered manager to develop the monitoring and review of the home’s operation. Although this needs time to settle in, it is already having a positive effect, for example, in the way that physical interventions are reviewed. This leads to better experiences for the children.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The organisation’s philosophy of ‘no limits’ for children helps to encourage managers and staff to have high aspirations for all of the children. The staff help children to be successful in undertaking challenging tasks by breaking the tasks down into steps and Inspection report children’s home: SC452461 6 supporting the children to achieve the task.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Managers and staff have good working relationships with the children’s families and other professionals. The managers and staff challenge other professionals when they need to, to help ensure that children get the services and support that they need in a timely way. A child’s family member said, ‘I can’t thank [the staff] enough for the support that they have given us.’ Another family member said, ‘[The home] has been absolutely fabulous for [the child]. I could not praise the staff enough.’

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The staff are proud to work at the home and of the work that they do. They said that managers lead from the front, including during challenging times. The staff value the support that they get from managers and colleagues, including through professional supervision. These supervisions take place regularly. However, the records of supervision are very brief and do not provide a clear account of the discussions. This can limit the ability of managers to monitor the supervisions and to identify ongoing or recurring issues.

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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: SC452461 7

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Children’s home details

Provision sub-type: Residential special school

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Children’s home details

Registered provider: SES Turnstone Limited

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: The Old Vicarage, School Lane, Heckingham, Norwich NR14 6QP

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Inspector

Clive Lucas, social care inspector Inspection report children’s home: SC452461 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 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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