Children's home run by Inroads Essex Limited in Mid Suffolk

Inspection report children’s home: SC069178 1 SC069178 Registered provider: Inroads Essex 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 home is run by a private organisation. The home’s overall aim is to provide a nurturing atmosphere for up to six children who have learning disabilities.

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Information about this children’s home

The registered manager has been in post since 20 March 2012.

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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 outstanding

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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: 16 January 2019

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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: SC069178 2

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

16/01/2019 Full Good 07/11/2017 Full Good 27/02/2017 Interim Sustained effectiveness 14/09/2016 Full Good Inspection report children’s home: SC069178 3

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

The staff are creative in the way that they encourage the children to participate in learning about topics that support their education. As a result, a child who had not been in education, due to their behaviour, for four years, now attends education full time. The staff are proactive. They think ahead and demonstrate their commitment to the children in their care.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

The manager and staff understand the children’s complex needs and the plans for their care and support. Staff consistently spoke of wanting the best for the children. It is apparent that staff take time to form good relationships with children. These relationships also enable them to provide positive role models for the children. A parent said, ‘The staff have worked wonders with my child. He can now use a Picture Exchange Communication System and symbols, which he never used before. The staff have really helped his progress in speech and language.’

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

The children relate and respond to staff positively because of the special relationships forged. These relationships empower and support the children to communicate with the staff and express their wishes and feelings.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

The staff support safe, managed contact between children and their families, which helps children to develop relationships that will sustain them into adulthood. Staff take the time to understand family dynamics and build relationships with families, and use these experiences to enhance the outcomes for children.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children take part in a wide variety of social and leisure activities. These include frequent trips out in the community, such as going swimming, shopping and for walks. The staff work together to give the children new life experiences that bring them great enjoyment and awareness of the world around them.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Care planning processes, in which the children’s diverse needs are evaluated and understood, fully recognise and reflect children’s individual traits and personalities. Staff use consistent strategies to help children who find it difficult to manage their anger or have difficulties with communication. The strategies used help children to control and voice their emotions and feelings.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

The home is decorated and furnished to meet the children’s complex needs. The staff have worked hard to add warmth and special touches to the decor. The garden has an abundance of resources and play equipment to enhance the children’s fun, learning and development.

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

The children are safe and protected at all times, inside and outside the home. Children Inspection report children’s home: SC069178 4 benefit from having clear and consistent boundaries to ensure that they enjoy a sense of safety and can develop trusting relationships with staff. The children learn, over time, to manage their emotional responses to situations in a socially acceptable way.

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

There is a strong safeguarding culture at the home. The staff realise that effective multi- agency work with professionals such as social workers is valuable in enabling them to monitor and continually risk-assess the children’s complex needs. Advice and guidance are readily sought from the host local authority on complex issues such as children’s health needs and transport arrangements. When a response is delayed, the manager and staff pursue a resolution and conclusion to any concerns.

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

Safeguarding issues are investigated, recorded and resolved in a timely manner. All of the staff attend safeguarding training. They know what to do if they have a concern about a child’s well-being.

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

The staff understand the children’s vulnerabilities, and consider more specific risks in respect of their individual needs. Formal risk assessment procedures are well managed. Regular reviews of risk assessments and strategies ensure that risk management remains current and proactive.

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

The staff de-escalate challenging behaviour successfully. Physical restraint is only used when necessary, to protect the children and the staff from harm. All of the staff are trained in the use of restraint. Incidents of restraint are recorded. However, not all records include summaries of the debriefing sessions with the staff and children. The addition of a system to consider each incident to identify patterns of behaviour has enhanced the effectiveness of monitoring and evaluation.

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

There have been no incidents of children going missing. Sanctions are not used at this home.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

The home is led by a strong, nurturing and experienced registered manager who is supported by a deputy manager. Together, they work well to provide effective leadership for a stable staff team. The manager’s aspirations for children are high, as are her expectations of staff.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

The manager has cultivated a shared ambition to provide high-quality care that enables positive outcomes for children. Individual staff members identify where improvements can be made, and are keen to put forward suggestions and advocate for children. The staff reported feeling well supported by the manager. They welcome the opportunity to hold delegated responsibilities to support children’s development. Such delegation encourages shared responsibility and provides opportunities to develop skills in specific areas. The opportunities that staff have and the value that the manager places on the staff are reflected in the high staff retention rate. Inspection report children’s home: SC069178 5 The manager is very child centred and gives the needs of the children the highest priority. She has excellent relationships with all of the children and spends time with them individually on a daily basis. The children make good progress in most areas of

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

their lives. The registered manager has taken considerable time to ensure that children have the right education placements, and that additional help is implemented when needed.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

The manager works hard to establish and maintain good working relationships with families and with other professionals. She has put in place a formal system of consultation with families and social workers, and regular informal contact is also ongoing. Family members, placing social workers, health professionals and education professionals commented on the high quality of communication between themselves and the registered manager.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

The manager offers excellent supervision to all of the staff, and gives training a high priority. All of the staff either hold a relevant level 3 qualification or are undertaking a qualification and are due to finish within the required timescales. New training modules have been introduced that include psychological development, attachment steps and the development of the brain, so that staff can recognise trauma in non-verbal children. Annual appraisals have taken place and are thorough.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

The monitoring of the home, both internally and externally, is of a consistently high standard. Records are monitored regularly by leaders and managers, who inject meaningful evaluation and comment. The manager is adept at taking on board external observations, linking them with her own critical analysis and translating them into development plans. These plans identify strengths and areas for improvement at the home.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

The manager has met the two requirements and four recommendations raised at the last inspection to good effect. Inspection report children’s home: SC069178 6

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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: SC069178 7

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Children’s home details

Registered provider: Inroads Essex Limited

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: Suffolk House 7 Hydra, Orion Court, Addison Way, Great Blakenham, Suffolk IP6 0LW

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Inspector

Cathy Russell: social care inspector Inspection report children’s home: SC069178 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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