Children's Home run by Break Charity in Norfolk

Inspection report children’s home: SC025718 1 SC025718 Registered provider: Break Full inspection Inspected under the social care common inspection framework

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Information about this children’s home

This children’s home is registered to provide care for up to four children who have experienced neglect, abuse or trauma along with family and placement breakdowns. It is owned by a registered charity.

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Information about this children’s home

The registered manager has been in post since 11 February 2009.

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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: 31 October 2018

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outstanding

Overall judgement at last inspection: good

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outstanding

Enforcement action since last inspection: none Inspection report children’s home: SC025718 2

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

31/10/2018 Full Good 21/11/2017 Full Good 17/01/2017 Interim Declined in effectiveness 06/09/2016 Full Good Inspection report children’s home: SC025718 3

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outstanding

The children enjoy an outstanding standard of care. They are extremely positive about their experiences of living at the home. The children are making progress in all areas of their lives, and the staff acknowledge and celebrate every achievement. A child who, prior to moving to the home, had no education and would not go out, attained GCSE exams, went to college for two years and is doing extremely well. Another child, who suffered from serious and sometimes violent outbursts, has not had any form of physical intervention since the last inspection.

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outstanding

The children are working successfully towards their individual goals. They recognise the progress that they are making. One child is looking forward to starting college, where he will be studying sport. He is passionate about football and aspires to become a professional footballer. He currently plays football for two local football teams and was recently made captain for a tournament, which the staff are proud of.

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outstanding

The children said that they feel valued, supported and listened to. They play an integral role in making decisions about their care and their futures. The staff are fully committed to meeting the children’s needs. They work closely with schools and other agencies to ensure that the children have opportunities to succeed. Consequently, the children build self-confidence and make excellent progress. They experience a strong sense of belonging and take immense pride in their home and themselves.

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outstanding

The children are making exceptional progress in education. One child, who had not engaged in any form of education for over seven months, is now fully engaged and committed to learning. The staff’s skills and experience, coupled with careful planning and excellent inter-agency cooperation, have contributed to the transformation in this child’s attitude to learning.

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outstanding

Preparation for children to move on is managed extremely well. A child has benefited from excellent early transition planning that is enabling her to make informed choices about her plans for semi-independent living. Parallel planning means that there are two options for her, which provides a sense of security and gives a well thought-out contingency. A specialist team from within the organisation has provided excellent support to help this child to develop the skills that she will need in adult life. The organisation ensures that children move on to self-contained properties that the organisation has either sourced or built itself. This gives children stability and provides them with long-term support after leaving the home. One child, who recently moved to live independently, comes to visit the staff every Friday. The strength of relationships means that children retain a sense of belonging, security and feeling loved despite having left the home.

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outstanding

Inspection report children’s home: SC025718 4 The staff enable the children to maintain and develop their relationships with their families and people who are important to them. The staff understand the impact of positive family relationships on the children’s emotional well-being. The staff have been instrumental in reuniting a child with their family. The child was able to resume seeing their parent and the staff provided excellent support that enabled the child to move back to their family home.

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outstanding

The staff support the children to set the agenda for and chair their own meetings to ensure that this is a forum in which they can express themselves. The staff have facilitated various activities that the children have requested. One child experienced a holiday to Benidorm, which he thoroughly enjoyed. Other children took an educational trip to Poland to visit Auschwitz and two children joined the crew of a boat to help sail across to Holland. These life-changing experiences broaden children’s horizons and show them that the staff act on their wishes and requests.

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outstanding

The staff use a social pedagogy model to inform their practice and to underpin their approach to safeguarding the children. Models of attachment theory, coupled with behaviour management frameworks that focus on de-escalation, are central to the staff’s practice. The staff have an excellent understanding of these models and how to apply their training and knowledge in these areas to help the children to understand and manage their feelings and develop their emotional resilience.

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outstanding

Staff put the welfare and safety of children at the heart of their practice. The registered manager and the staff team understand the risks faced by the children. They encourage the children to make good choices about how to spend their free time. As a result, there have been no incidents of children going missing since the last inspection. This is significant for some children. A child who was at high risk of going missing and exploitation has not gone missing since they moved into the home.

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outstanding

Staff support the children to feel safe and secure and to communicate their feelings. The children talk to the staff and explore their issues. Since the last inspection, there have been no serious safeguarding incidents and the staff have only used physical intervention once. All the children said that they feel safe, and they could name staff whom they trust and can confide in. The staff respond quickly to any disputes or issues, which avoids conflict escalating.

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outstanding

The children said that consequences are fair, and the rewards that they receive are excellent. The children receive rewards that are individualised and, therefore, meaningful.

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outstanding

The children benefit from work on keeping themselves safe on the internet. The staff work with individual children to risk-assess exploitation. Involving the children in drafting their risk assessments helps the children to understand the risks and how to manage them. The risk assessments are responsive to the children’s needs and Inspection report children’s home: SC025718 5 progress and enable the children to have increasing levels of freedom. This means that they can safely experience new challenges and develop new skills.

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outstanding

The staff work well with other agencies to support the children’s understanding of substance misuse. Excellent work with the children on understanding the difference between being unkind and bullying has helped the children to reflect on their interactions and the impact that their actions can have on others.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

The experienced registered manager provides excellent leadership and management oversight to ensure that the staff team maintains exceptional standards of care for the children. The manager has high aspirations for the children and the staff. He is uncompromising in improving the lives of children and ensuring excellent standards of care. His monitoring and oversight of the operation of the home is excellent.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

The manager has developed an exceptionally positive culture in the home. Staff morale is high and the feedback from staff was overwhelmingly positive. All the staff reported total confidence in the manager’s leadership style. The staff fully contribute to the successful running of the home.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

The staff have regular and highly effective supervision and reflective practice sessions that enable them to discuss the care of children as well as their own practice and development.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

The staff benefit from an excellent range of training opportunities, including courses that are relevant to the children’s specific needs and the staff’s own developmental needs. The staff benefit from training in understanding mental health, brain development in adolescents, understanding attachment, building positive relationships and role-modelling expertise. There is a commitment from managers to ensure that the staff receive high-quality development opportunities. Learning is used to inform the care and support provided to children and there is clear evidence of how this improves their quality of life.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

Most of the staff are qualified and have a relevant level 3 diploma in caring for children, or an equivalent qualification. The remaining staff are enrolled on and working towards a relevant qualification.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

The manager understands the home’s strengths and areas for development. He continues to ensure that the home acts on lessons learned. The manager scrutinises all aspects of the home to ensure that it continues to meet the children’s needs. The development of the home is guided by clear plans. These plans show a systematic and measurable approach to continually driving improvement.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

The manager and staff work closely with the children’s families. A social worker said, ‘The communication that I receive from the home is excellent. I and the family receive regular updates and reports. The staff communicate with parents without judgement, which is fantastic.’ Inspection report children’s home: SC025718 6 The staff treat all the children with dignity and respect. They recognise the children’s individual strengths and understand their needs. The staff and managers regularly review and update the information that is held on the children’s files, which are maintained superbly. Everything is organised and to hand.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

The manager has met the one requirement and one recommendation raised at the last inspection to good effect. Inspection report children’s home: SC025718 7

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Information about this inspection

Inspectors have looked closely at the experiences and progress of children and young people, 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: SC025718 8

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: Schofield House, 1 Spar Road, Norwich NR6 6BX

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Inspector

Cathy Russell, Social Care Inspector Inspection report children’s home: SC025718 9 to 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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