Children's home run by BREAK

Inspection report children's home: SC424271 1 SC424271 Registered provider: Break Full inspection Inspected under the social care common inspection framework

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Information about this children’s home

This home, which is operated by a charitable organisation, provides care for up to four children with learning disabilities and/or sensory impairments.

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Information about this children’s home

Due to COVID-19 (coronavirus), at the request of the Secretary of State, we suspended all routine inspections of social care providers on 17 March 2020.

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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

Overall judgement at last inspection: outstanding

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outstanding

Enforcement action since last inspection: none Inspection report children's home: SC424271 2

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

06/01/2020 Full Outstanding 18/12/2018 Full Outstanding 08/11/2017 Full Good 30/01/2017 Interim Improved effectiveness Inspection report children's home: SC424271 3

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outstanding

Children are provided with highly individualised excellent-quality support. As a result, children make substantial and sustained progress from their individual starting points and they flourish. This home has a powerful impact on children’s quality of life which in turn enhances their future opportunities.

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outstanding

The experienced, dedicated and skilled staff forge strong relationships with children. Interactions between children and staff are extremely positive and filled with high regard and genuine compassion. This approach is modelled implicitly by the manager and deputy manager. Consequently, children develop the sense of security and stability that they need to make progress and thrive.

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outstanding

During the COVID-19 pandemic, staff have managed to provide the children with exciting opportunities between periods of national lockdowns. Camping trips, short breaks at a holiday lodge, circus workshops and a recent visit to a digger theme park form part of a wide range of meaningful activities. These provided children with new experiences that significantly enhanced their well-being during a difficult year in which important routines were disrupted.

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outstanding

All the children make significant progress in their education. The staff maintain effective links with school staff. Excellent communication with schools helps to make sure that children can get the most from their education. When a child’s education placement was at risk of breaking down, the manager tenaciously advocated for the child and worked with external professionals to find an alternative school. The staff were instrumental in ensuring that this move went well and provided direct support to ensure this. The child is now exceeding expectations and received a glowing end- of-year report.

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outstanding

The management team considers the combined group of children carefully. One child has moved in since the last inspection. In this instance, a highly effective and detailed group compatibility assessment was completed, which linked to an incredibly well-planned person-centred move for the child. As a result, the child enjoyed a very warm welcome and rapidly settled into a consistent and established routine.

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outstanding

The staff and managers demand the very best for the children who are moving on. Managers are proactive in influencing decisions for children moving out of the home. They research potential care providers and make substantial and assertive contributions to the decision-making process. One child successfully moved into his adult home. This child wrote to the staff, with the child’s family highlighting their gratitude and the positive impact that the child’s experiences at the home have had on his life. Inspection report children's home: SC424271 4 Children make exceptional progress with their daily living and self-help skills. The staff help children to develop these skills through using techniques such as visual schedules, hand over hand and graduated levels of prompting. Highly individualised approaches are tailored to children’s developmental stages so that children make progress that is significant for them. As a result, children are well prepared for their

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outstanding

The home is welcoming, spacious and vibrant. The children have contributed to the design of communal areas and personalisation of their bedrooms. Memorabilia and achievements are creatively displayed. Children are supported to grow vegetables and one child looks after a pet rabbit. A thoughtful approach to the layout of the home has resulted in individual spaces that meet the children’s sensory needs. This helps to create a nurturing home which reflects family values and meets children’s needs.

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outstanding

The children, who have complex needs and have been described as challenging in other settings, have thrived. The strong relationships between staff and children and the effective implementation of behaviour support plans have led to a significant reduction in disruptive behaviour for children. The management team’s robust oversight, eye for detail and analysis of all incidents have enabled effective identification of triggers to children’s anxiety. As a result, children who have previously required physical intervention to keep them safe have no longer needed this intervention. Children learn to manage their feelings and emotions effectively.

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outstanding

The implementation of high-quality risk assessments actively ensures that children are safer. The staff are not risk averse and use highly dynamic risk assessment processes to ensure that children are enabled to take balanced risks. The staff respond to the children’s progress by reducing levels of supervision when it is safe to do so. For example, one child has moved to one-to-one staffing from two-to-one staffing. This is an important milestone in the child’s development.

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outstanding

The staff actively encourage children to think about their safety. Creative one-to-one sessions with children improve their understanding of being safe online. When one child was potentially at risk while they were online, the skills that they learned from sessions enabled them to report this issue straight away and meant that swift action could be taken.

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outstanding

The staff are well trained and understand effective safeguarding practice. They are clear about their roles and responsibilities to safeguard the children and follow whistle-blowing procedures when necessary. When one potential practice issue was highlighted, this was well managed and effective action was taken. The implementation of strong safeguarding policies is an important protective factor in keeping children safe. Inspection report children's home: SC424271 5 Safe recruitment processes for full-time staff are robust. The staff team is stable, with exceptionally high retention levels. However, as a result of COVID-19 pandemic complications, staffing levels were reduced for a short period of time. During this time, agency staff were used sparingly. The management team ensured that most required recruitment checks were obtained before their deployment. However, in one instance, one piece of information on employment history was not obtained. At

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outstanding

the time of the inspection, the management team had not noticed this one omission.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

A creative, innovative and experienced management team leads the home confidently to provide high-quality care for children. The managers are inspirational and have high aspirations for children.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

Staff value the management team’s commitment, skills and knowledge. Staff feel well supported. This has created a positive team culture and a permanent stable workforce that provides children with consistent care.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

Staff meetings are well attended, child focused and dynamic. Staff members are delegated additional responsibilities and take turns to facilitate these meetings, which helps to develop their knowledge and improve their skills. The senior staff meetings are creative and innovative and include research-based models for reflection which enhance staff’s critical analysis skills. This empowers staff to drive continuous improvement in their practice.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

The manager makes good use of external monitoring visits by an independent person to enhance support. Internal quality of care reviews are extremely rigorous, and the home’s development plan identifies clear opportunities to further enhance support. This high-quality level of monitoring supports the manager in having a full understanding of the strengths and areas for development of the home.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

The management team continually advocates for children’s welfare. For example, effective professional challenge to health services has ensured that one child’s medication has been reduced and another child’s medication been stopped. These important developments ensure that children’s health and well-being are more effectively met.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

The staff take advantage of a comprehensive training programme. Effective and robust training ensures that staff are well equipped to meet the children’s needs. The staff implement this knowledge in their daily practice. Following training courses, staff continue to reflect on their learning through high-quality supervisions and practice discussions.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

The staff and management team have sustained exceptionally positive relationships with parents and professionals, who provided consistently strong feedback about the quality of care, excellent level of communication and the positive impact that the home has on children’s lives. Inspection report children's home: SC424271 6

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Recommendation

 The registered person should maintain good employment practice that safeguards children and minimises potential risk to them. In particular, they should ensure that all schedule 2 checks for agency staff are completed prior to their deployment. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 61, paragraph 13.1)

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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: SC424271 7

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Children’s home details

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

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Inspector

Mark Anderton, Social Care Inspector Inspection report children's home: SC424271 8 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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