Norwich Road (15)

Inspection report children’s home: SC034480 1 SC034480 Registered provider: Norfolk County Council Children’s Services Full inspection Inspected under the social care common inspection framework

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Information about this children’s home

A local authority owns and operates this home. The home provides emergency and short-term placements for up to four children for whom, at the time of admission, family, foster care or other community-based placements are not possible.

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Information about this children’s home

The registered manager left on 13 January 2019. A new manager is in post and has applied for registration.

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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: 16 October 2018

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good

Overall judgement at last inspection: sustained effectiveness

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good

Enforcement action since last inspection: none Inspection report children’s home: SC034480 2

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

16/10/2018 Interim Sustained effectiveness 29/08/2018 Full Requires improvement to be good 10/01/2018 Interim Declined in effectiveness 24/08/2017 Full Inadequate Inspection report children’s home: SC034480 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 registered person must ensure that all employees—

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Requirement Due date

have their performance and fitness to perform their roles appraised at least once every year. (Regulation 33(4)(c)) 31/08/2019

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Requirement Due date

Subject to paragraph (6), the registered person must establish a procedure for considering complaints made by or on behalf of children.

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must ensure that a record is made of any complaint, the action taken in response, and the outcome of any investigation. (Regulation 39(1)(3)) 31/08/2019 Inspection report children’s home: SC034480 4

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

The staff understand the children’s needs and treat them as individuals. The children are happy at the home and feel well looked after. They have good relationships with staff.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

All the children are in education. The manager and staff understand the impact that events and experiences in the children’s lives can have on their ability to engage in education. They work with other professionals to make sure that the children get the education that is right for them. This helps the children to make progress in their education.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Some of the children have specific health needs. The staff understand these needs and help the children to receive the right services. The staff also provide good emotional support for the children.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

The children have regular key-work sessions with staff. Staff use these sessions to obtain children’s views, discuss things that are important to the children and provide them with support and reassurance.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

The manager and staff have done considerable work to make sure that the home is well maintained and welcoming for the children. The children have been involved in decisions on the home and decor. They have been involved in growing tomatoes and sunflowers, which are in pots at the back of the house. This all gives children an investment in the home.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children have good opportunities to take part in a wide range of activities, including paddle boarding, cooking with staff, sewing, trips to museums, walks and learning about nature. In providing activities for the children, staff avoid gender stereotypes so that children’s opportunities are not limited.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

The home’s manager and senior managers are matching children and assessing which children’s needs staff can meet, now, much more effectively than previously. Managers make practical and child-centred decisions to manage difficult situations. This means that children are more settled at the home and have more positive experiences of being there.

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

The staff understand the risks for the children and know what the plans are to reduce and to manage these risks. This helps to keep the children safer. The children said that they feel safe at the home.

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

Instances of children going missing have reduced at the home in general and, for some individual children, while they have been at the home. When children do go missing, the Inspection report children’s home: SC034480 5 staff look for them, try to contact them by phone and, when necessary, report them as missing. All children have return-home interviews after they have been missing. This all helps to protect children.

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

The staff provide clear boundaries and expectations for the children. There has been little police involvement and, when it has happened, it has been done in a way that supports the children to understand and change their behaviour rather than to criminalise them.

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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 think about their behaviour. This is effective in helping the children to understand that how they behave affects other children and staff. There is an extremely low level of physical intervention. Staff have used restraint on a child on only one occasion since the last full inspection in August 2018. Children said that restraint is used as a last resort by staff.

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

Managers respond to complaints appropriately and use them to learn from. However, records of complaints are not always fully completed. This would prevent children from understanding how their complaints were responded to, if they look at their records in the future. It also makes monitoring more difficult.

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

At present, the home does not provide Wi-Fi internet access for children. One child had questioned this, and the manager helped him to put a proposal forward for it. This has been successful, and internet access is due to be in place in the near future. The manager and staff are aware of the measures that they will need to implement so that the children can use this safely. Staff already help children to understand about safe internet use so that they can make good choices and keep themselves safe.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The staff have seen several improvements since the new manager has been in post, and they feel well supported by her. She knows the children’s needs and the progress that they make and cares about how well they do.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The manager understands the areas in which the home needs to develop. She uses monitoring to inform her development plan and to improve the quality of care for the children.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The home is suitably resourced with enough staff to provide individual care for children, who can be of varying ages and have different needs. A good proportion of staff are qualified.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The staff have good training and supervision to help them to look after the children well. However, there are no effective processes in place to make sure that the staff have their performance and fitness to perform their roles appraised annually. This can limit the opportunities for staff to develop and for any areas of need to be addressed. Inspection report children’s home: SC034480 6 Managers and staff work well with other agencies. When necessary, they will challenge other professionals and advocate for children to help to make sure that they receive the service that they need. In particular, the manager has been successful in making sure that there are moving-on plans for the children. This has helped to prevent children from becoming ‘stuck’ at the home and aligns with the statement of purpose to provide interim and bridging placements for children.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Although many placements at the home are made in emergencies, the staff help the children to settle in. Managers and staff make sure that children’s moves on from the home are as planned as they can be. One child recently had to move on to her next placement sooner than was planned. She had still had a good introduction to her new home. As she had missed a ‘goodbye’ celebration, several of the staff went to take her from her new home to have a picnic. Moves into and out of a home can be traumatic times for children. The way that the staff manage these helps the children to cope with the moves more successfully. Inspection report children’s home: SC034480 7

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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 difference 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: SC034480 8

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Children’s home details

Registered provider: Norfolk County Council

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: County Hall, Martineau Lane, Norwich NR1 2DH

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Inspector

Clive Lucas, social care inspector Inspection report children’s home: SC034480 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 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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