Children's home run by Clover Childcare Services Limited in North Norfolk

Inspection report children’s home: SC361385 1 SC361385 Registered provider: Clover Childcare Services 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

This privately owned home provides care for up to five children. The home offers therapeutic care to children who have complex health and social care needs. Children who live at the home may have a history of insecure attachments and challenging behaviour, and/or may have experienced the breakdown of numerous placements in foster care or children’s homes.

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Information about this children’s home

The registered manager moved from the home to another home within the organisation in December 2018. A new manager was appointed immediately. She has applied to Ofsted for registration.

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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 outstanding

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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: 23 January 2018

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outstanding

Overall judgement at last inspection: outstanding

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outstanding

Enforcement action since last inspection: none Inspection report children’s home: SC361385 2

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

23/01/2018 Full Outstanding 21/02/2017 Interim Sustained effectiveness 30/11/2016 Full Outstanding 29/03/2016 Interim Sustained effectiveness Inspection report children’s home: SC361385 3

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: outstanding

Children make exceptional progress because staff and managers understand their immediate needs and what is best for them in the longer term. The staff care deeply about children’s futures. The ethos of high warmth and high aspirations permeates the home. A social worker said, ‘The key worker has been remarkable. She has provided emotional therapeutic work, supports [the child] in school and engaged him with education again, which is real progress.’

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: outstanding

A child who has now moved on experienced excellent support in finding a foster family that could meet his needs. An external professional fed back that the staff provided the child with a bespoke package of therapeutic support that enabled him to thrive and become his best self. The staff worked closely with social workers, family members and carers to enable the child to move seamlessly, at his own pace, into long-term foster care. The staff met with potential foster carers and influenced the final decision. Because of this work, the move has been successful; the child and his foster family are happy.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: outstanding

Key working is based on a ‘pyramid of need’ model. The work that staff do with children focuses on offering them empathy, comfort and co-regulation and enabling them to feel safe, build positive relationships, resolve issues relating to trauma and become more resilient. Individual targets ensure that children are encouraged to reach their potential. Excellent life-story work has a significant and lasting impact on children’s ability to understand their backgrounds and their journeys into care. Staff work exceptionally well with parents and family members, as well as directly with the children, so that all of those involved receive help with working through past trauma. A parent said about his son, ‘He did not know who some members of his family were, but he does now.’

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: outstanding

The quality of resources that staff provide is a direct reflection of how much staff value the children, and results in children knowing that staff love them and want the best for them. Individualised printed hardback books, such as an independence passport and an ‘I want to have a chat’ book, contain records of discussions, children’s wishes and their achievements. These will provide excellent keepsakes for children when they move on, as well as being a helpful resource for children while they are living at the home.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: outstanding

Children experience activities that help them to develop their skills and interests. Involvement in community-based activities increases the opportunity to socialise outside the home. They attend a swimming club for children who have special needs, go to a youth club, belong to groups such as scouts and cadets and enjoy going skating. Children are involved in fundraising for Comic Relief. They have contributed to the planning for the event. Children enjoy activities with the staff because the staff participate.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: outstanding

The provider has set up a registered school to enable children to access education. Staff from the home support the children at school, in the classroom and through homework club after school. The staff know the children’s education targets and provide focused Inspection report children’s home: SC361385 4 help. A carer said that her child has improved his reading significantly. The child now enjoys reading and asked for a book for Christmas. This is significant progress for a child who had no interest in reading previously.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: outstanding

Parents, carers and professionals unanimously said that the care is exceptional. They could identify the progress that children have made as a result of living at the home. Their comments included, ‘The staff are fabulous, very creative’, and ‘It is a remarkable place.’

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

Leaders and managers are innovative and creative in their approach to safeguarding children. A consultant psychiatrist works with the staff team on a monthly basis to help them understand behaviours and develop strategies for managing them. This dedicated time enables staff to work through incidents and unpick them. The staff have time to reflect, process their own feelings and identify what works well and what needs to change. The success of the approaches is evident. Since the last inspection, there have been no incidents of children going missing, no allegations and no complaints.

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

The therapeutic approach is embedded into practice. Staff work hard to produce comprehensive nurture–trauma timelines for each child. These detailed chronologies enable staff to understand what has happened to each child and link past events with their current behaviours. Staff said that these timelines help them to apply the therapeutic model because their knowledge of the child increases their empathy and their ability to look beyond the presenting behaviour.

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

Staff take a proportionate approach to unwanted behaviours. They explore children’s behaviour and avoid an immediate response of labelling behaviours as bullying, unless that is warranted. Staff work with children to help them to understand what positive relationships look like.

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

Children benefit from having regular sessions with a therapist, who tailors the therapy to the individual’s needs. Children who would not engage previously have developed the trust that they need to start to engage.

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

Managers have written a workshop to deliver to the children about the approach that staff use to de-escalate and manage behaviour. This workshop is designed to help children understand why staff respond to unwanted behaviour in a certain way, and to stimulate discussion with children about self-regulation. The delivery of the workshops is still to take place and therefore the outcome is yet to be established. However, this creative thinking means that children are likely to develop their understanding of what happens to them, and take more responsibility for their own behaviour. Inspection report children’s home: SC361385 5

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

Leaders and managers have high expectations that staff will provide exceptionally high- quality care. The whole team, including leaders and managers, invests in the ethos of giving children the best possible experiences and chances of future success. The investment in staff training and development and the commitment to growing skills and knowledge in-house mean that staff develop areas of expertise that have a direct impact on children. Nominated staff have undertaken life-story training and used their knowledge to make life-changing differences to children and their families. Children who did not have contact with significant family members have been able to establish and maintain these relationships.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

The staff provide children with a high-warmth environment. The staff understand what children need and what is best for them. This results in staff and managers influencing decisions about family contact, education and long-term care plans, so that children’s needs are at the forefront of all decisions made about them. The staff are skilled in prioritising needs. External professionals said that the relationships that they have with the managers and staff are very good.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

The staff advocate on behalf of the children and appropriately challenge relevant professionals if children’s needs are not being met. The staff represent children well. A professional said that the format in which staff had prepared a child’s review report was exceptional, and that they would like to use it as an exemplar.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

Managers have undertaken an analysis of practice in order to understand the home’s strengths, weaknesses, threats and opportunities. They have developed actions that they can take to continue to drive improvement.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

Staff said that they feel well supported. They spoke of excellent training resources, career development and supervision. The responsible individual and director have a presence at the home, so children know who they are and have a relationship with them. Consequently, the children benefit from feeling cared about by every staff member, whatever their role.

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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. Inspection report children’s home: SC361385 6 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

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Information about this inspection

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: SC361385 7

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Children’s home details

Registered provider: Clover Childcare Services Limited

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: The Old Rectory, Old Rectory Road, Brumstead, Norwich NR12 9EU

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Inspectors

Clive Lucas: social care inspector Louisa Bayley: social care inspector Inspection report children’s home: SC361385 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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Inspectors

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Inspectors

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Inspectors

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