Children's home run by Norfolk County Council in Norwich

Inspection report children’s home: SC065883 1 SC065883 Registered provider: Norfolk County Council Children’s Services

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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 local authority children’s home provides short-term breaks for children who have severe learning and/or physical disabilities, including complex health needs. The home can accommodate up to nine children at any time. The registered manager has been in post since October 2009.

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Information about this children’s home

Inspection dates: 20 to 21 November 2019

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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: 12 November 2018

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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: SC065883 2

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

12/11/2018 Full Good 31/08/2017 Full Good 05/10/2016 Full Good 30/03/2016 Interim Sustained effectiveness Inspection report children’s home: SC065883 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 recruit staff using recruitment procedures that are designed to ensure children’s safety. The registered person may only— employ an individual to work at the children’s home; or if an individual is employed by a person other than the registered person to work at the home in a position in which the individual may have regular contact with children, allow that individual to work at the home, if the individual satisfies the requirements in paragraph (3). The requirements are that— full and satisfactory information is available in relation to the individual in respect of each of the matters in Schedule 2. (Regulation 32(1)(2)(d)) In particular, this relates to obtaining full employment histories, together with a satisfactory explanation of any gaps in employment, in writing. 31/12/2019

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must ensure that all employees— receive practice-related supervision by a person with appropriate experience. Regulation 33(4)(b)) In particular, ensure that all members of staff have regular supervision. 31/12/2019

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Recommendations

 Staff should be familiar with the home’s policies on record-keeping and understand the importance of careful, objective, and clear recording. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 62, paragraph 14.4) Inspection report children’s home: SC065883 4

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

This home is an important resource for children and their families. Being able to use the service helps to keep families together, as well as giving children the opportunities to take part in a range of opportunities that they may not otherwise have. Several parents and placing social workers spoke about the chances that children get, when they are at the home, to socialise and spend time with other children. The children benefit from opportunities to develop friendships and social skills. One parent said that the stays at the home enable their child to experience relationships with male carers, which they would not have at home. The staff help children to take part in a wide range of activities both at the home and in the community. These include arts and crafts, cooking, playing on the specialist play equipment, going shopping, going on boat trips and visiting a wildlife park. The staff encourage and help the children to develop specific independence skills.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Depending on their abilities, these skills include healthcare routines, shopping and helping with cooking and cleaning. Thorough shift planning, carried through in practice, helps the children to meet their identified targets. The staff are experienced and skilled in using alternative communication methods to help the children learn self-care and independence skills. In some cases, the staff work with other professionals to achieve this. The staff also use these skills to help the children express their views about the home and the things that they do there. This helps to make sure that all the children can participate and are listened to. Managers and staff manage children’s moves into and out of the home very well. For one child who has recently started to visit the home, staff had to work closely with his school and parent to make sure that the move was as good as it could be for him. This included

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

having the child’s whole class visit the home with him. By putting the needs of the child first and using the knowledge of his parent and school, the staff made the child’s introduction to the home effective. Because of this, he is having positive visits to the home. When children leave the home they are given ‘journey’ books. These include photographs of their time at the home. Parents and the children value these mementos. Managers and staff work very well with parents, schools and health services to make sure that children’s education and health needs are met.

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

The home is a safe place for children to visit and stay at. Parents are confident that their children are kept safe. There are good levels of supervision of children and so there have not been any instances of children going missing from the home. Because of careful consideration of which children stay together and good staffing levels, there have not been any concerns about bullying. There are very low levels of the use of physical intervention and behavioural Inspection report children’s home: SC065883 5 consequences. When the staff do use them, they do so appropriately and with children’s best interests in mind. Managers had identified that the method of physical intervention that they had been using was not effective for the children with whom they work. Staff are being trained in a new method. Early feedback is that it is more effective and so staff are more likely to be able to intervene and keep children safe when they need to.

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

Thorough shift planning helps the staff to understand each child’s needs and behaviour, which enables consistent behaviour management. Staff understand the children and how to communicate with them, and they give the children space to communicate with staff. This helps to make sure that behaviour management is effective. Managers follow safeguarding procedures and work well with other professionals, such as the designated officer. This helps to make sure that any safeguarding concerns are responded to appropriately so that children are kept safe. Written risk assessments consider each child’s risk from sexual and criminal exploitation. Risk assessments are mostly comprehensive and appropriate. However, in one case, the way that staff should respond to a potential risk was not recorded. The staff’s skills and experience are such that they do know how to respond in this case, but this did reflect some limited inconsistencies in records.

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

Managers have taken effective action following the last inspection to make sure that, when recruiting new staff, they explore the reasons why those staff left any previous jobs with children or vulnerable adults. However, the managers have not made sure that they have full written employment histories for all staff starting at the home since the last inspection. Although the recruitment processes are mostly appropriate, this shortfall does limit their potential effectiveness to a degree.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The registered manager and staff team are well experienced and qualified. The staff described the manager and deputy manager as supportive, approachable, very focused on meeting children’s needs and well aware of what is happening at the home. Staff are pleased and proud to work at this home. Managers know the children, their needs and the progress that they are making. They have effective systems in place to monitor and improve the quality of care. A previous monitoring report written by the manager identified actions such as the need for a new method of physical intervention and for some play equipment to be repaired. These matters have been addressed. An external professional said that the staff and managers had listened and responded to any comments that they made about the care at the home. The managers’ understanding of the strengths and areas for development in the home, as well as their willingness to listen to external feedback, helps to make sure that children receive good

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

levels of care. The managers and staff work very well with children’s parents and other agencies. This helps to make sure that there is effective and consistent care of the children, that they are kept safe and their needs are met. One external professional said that they could not speak highly enough of the service or linked-up working. Other external professionals Inspection report children’s home: SC065883 6 said that this home stands out among the services they work with. Staff feel well supported by the managers. They have access to suitable training to help provide them with the skills and knowledge to look after the children safely and well. Care staff have regular supervision, but ancillary staff do not. There are gaps of up to eight and a half months in their supervision. This does not enable appropriate management oversight of their work. There are some examples of records not being consistent. In general, all the required

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

information is in children’s files, but not always in the places expected. For example, one child’s pen picture did not include all his health needs, although the information was recorded elsewhere. In more limited cases, some information was missing. The impact of this is limited by the managers’ and staff’s thorough knowledge of the children and the detailed shift planning. However, it does leave the potential for information to be missed.

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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: SC065883 7

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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, Norfolk NR1 2DH

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Inspector

Clive Lucas, social care inspector Inspection report children’s home: SC065883 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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