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 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 manager was registered in June 2019.

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Information about this children’s home

Inspection dates: 16 to 17 December 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 outstanding

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good

The children’s home provides effective services that meet the requirements for good.

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good

Overall judgement at last inspection: outstanding

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good

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

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

13/03/2019 Full Outstanding 23/01/2018 Full Outstanding 21/02/2017 Interim Sustained effectiveness 30/11/2016 Full Outstanding Inspection report children’s home: SC361385 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—

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Requirement Due date

that the effectiveness of the home’s child protection policies is monitored regularly. (Regulation 12(1)(2)e)) 14/02/2020

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children are making outstanding progress, but the judgement of good overall reflects the judgement of how well children are helped and protected.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

The managers and staff use research-based practice very effectively to inform their work with the children. Through this work and their links with consultants, the staff provide children with high levels of nurturing and therapeutic care. They have used high-quality life story work to help children to understand their backgrounds and the reasons why they are living in a children’s home. The strong, trusting relationships between children and staff help to make this work more effective.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

One child, who has been at the home for a little over a year, has made so much progress that he may be able to move to live with a foster family. His social worker described this as amazing.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Another child has made exceptional progress in his education. He has gone from not attending school to attending every day. A member of his family said that the staff had helped him progress from not liking reading to it being a joy for him. Staff provide a lot of support for children to attend and do well at school. The staff also help the children to learn informally through play. This all boosts children’s educational achievement and significantly increases their opportunities in later life. Inspection report children’s home: SC361385 4 The home has had a dog for several years. She provides emotional support for the children, who said that they love her. As the dog becomes older, she can no longer live at the home all the time, but she still visits at weekends. These visits enable this important relationship to continue for as long as it can and help the children to understand that things change.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff encourage and support the children to take part in activities in the community and to find things that they can excel at to boost their confidence and have fun. These activities include swimming, skating, squash and horse riding. Staff help the children to build friendships outside the home. Being able to build and keep friendships helps the children to have the same experiences as other children and can stop them being socially isolated in the future.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

All the children recently took part in a photo shoot, alone, in groups and with staff. They will have wonderful photographs to keep. Their very strong relationships with the staff shine through the photographs. Staff also use very high-quality memory books to record the children’s time at the home and help them to keep memories of their childhoods.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Managers and staff remain committed to the children long after they leave the home. One child has moved to foster care since the last inspection. There was a detailed moving-on plan, and staff used the child’s memory book to help the new carers to understand the child and his experiences. The managers and staff continue to keep in contact with the child and provide ongoing support.

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

Managers and staff help the children to understand and manage their behaviour. A social worker spoke of the high levels of structure and consistency that the staff provide to meet their child’s needs. The review notes for another child referred to him being given a ‘consistent world therapeutically’, which reduces the risk of him having an outburst.

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

There are extremely notable improvements in some children’s behaviour. A social worker spoke of a child who, initially, had lots of behavioural issues which are not seen now. Another child was involved in physical intervention frequently at his previous home, but this rarely happens at this home.

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

There is a very low level of police involvement at the home. When the police do become involved, the aim is to help the children to understand how serious their behaviour was, but not to criminalise the children. This significantly reduces the risk of children getting criminal records.

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

Behaviour management is very effective. Children are fully involved in decisions about the consequences for poor behaviour. Staff seek and record the children’s views on this as well as helping them to think about the impact of their behaviour and how it could be different. There is a strong restorative ethos at the home, and the children understand this. Inspection report children’s home: SC361385 5 There are clear processes to identify and manage risks to children. These are well known to staff, who work very effectively to reduce the risks. There are low levels of risk-taking behaviour. No children have gone missing from the home since the last inspection. Staff are trained in areas such as understanding child exploitation. The staff recognise how vulnerable the children can be, so they are well able to recognise any signs of exploitation. There have not been any indications of children being exploited. This is also

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

due to the high level of supervision, which is appropriate to the ages of the children.

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

There are clear and appropriate safeguarding procedures. However, in one case, these were not followed fully. While this does not appear to have had an impact on a child this time, not consistently following such procedures does have the potential to reduce the safeguards for children.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

Leaders and managers know the children very well and lead the staff team by example. They want the children to do well and this expectation is passed on to the staff. The managers and the staff really care about the children, take pride in their achievements and want the very best for them.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

Managers work extremely effectively with other people who are involved in the children’s lives, including school staff, social workers and families. Managers challenge strongly when they believe that children require services that they are not getting. This helps to make sure that children receive consistent and appropriate care to meet their needs exceptionally well.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

Good-quality training, regular use of specialist consultants and reflective practice help the staff to work in line with the research-based practice that is set out in the statement of purpose to very good effect. Social workers, school staff and family members spoke about the very positive impact of the therapeutic practice at the home.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

Managers and staff help the children to understand about people’s differences. They work with children who express views which may be discriminatory to help them think about what they are saying. The managers and staff have successfully involved the children in regular visits to a home for older people. Through the visits and the time spent at that home, the children are developing an understanding and caring attitude.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

Managers and staff seek children’s views and take these very seriously. This helps the children to be really involved in decisions about many aspects of their lives. Examples of this include choice of bedroom, layout of the home, activities that the children want to do (and those they wish to stop) and which members of their family they get to see. With the support of managers and staff, one child has begun to see a very significant member of his family again after a long break.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

There is a wide range of training, regular supervision and very well-received inductions for staff and managers. These activities help to create a supportive and learning environment so that managers and staff can look after the children exceptionally well. Inspection report children’s home: SC361385 6 Managers and leaders know the strengths and areas of development of the home very well. The registered manager’s review of the quality of care has helped to raise the standards of care. Leaders and managers are not complacent. They are continuously looking for ways to improve.

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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: 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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Inspector

Clive Lucas, 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 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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