Children's home run by Norfolk County Council in Norwich

Inspection report children’s home: SC065883 1 SC065883 Registered provider: Norfolk County Council 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 with severe learning and/or physical disabilities, including complex health needs. It can also provide longer-term care for one child in an emergency situation. 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

Due to COVID-19, at the request of the Secretary of State, we suspended all routine inspections of social care providers carried out under the social care common inspection framework (SCCIF) on 17 March 2020. We returned to routine SCCIF inspections on 12 April 2021.

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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: 20 November 2019

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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

20/11/2019 Full Good 12/11/2018 Full Good 31/08/2017 Full Good 05/10/2016 Full Good Inspection report children’s home: SC065883 3

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children and families highly value the breaks that children have at this home. Children enjoy their stays, which include taking part in a wide range of activities. Parents spoke highly of the care that children receive and said that they feel reassured when their children have stays.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Managers and staff undertake careful planning for children before they start visiting for breaks. This includes working closely with children’s parents and social workers to gain a good understanding of children’s individual needs. Children then visit the home on a number of occasions, both with parents and on their own. This planning is done at a pace that children and parents are comfortable with. Good planning for children’s breaks means that when children start to stay overnight, they are happy to be doing so and have already started to build good relationships with staff.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff have a clear commitment to equality and diversity. They work in ways that ensure that children’s and families’ cultural needs are met. For one child and their family, for whom English is not their first language, the manager identified during the planning process that additional support was needed. This was gained through an interpreter to help ensure that the family understood exactly what the service could offer. This helped the child and family feel confident in the service being offered and provided significant reassurance for the child’s parents before overnight stays began.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff help children to make progress in different areas of their lives. Children have clear targets, which are agreed between parents, staff and external professionals. One parent said that their child learns tasks on their breaks that they now do at home. Other parents said that staff have supported improvements in children’s communication skills.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Some children have highly complex health needs. Clear and detailed plans support staff to manage these, and specialist training has been put in place for staff. Staff are clear about how to meet children’s health needs. There are generally good systems for the administration of medication. However, for one prescribed product, there is no system to record when it was opened. This means that it is not clear when it should be disposed of, in line with the manufacturer’s instructions.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

The home environment is child friendly and safe for children. There are photos of children undertaking a range of activities throughout the home. However, the decoration is worn in several places, some areas of paintwork are patchy, and some furniture shows wear and tear. There is a plan for a full refurbishment but there is no definite date for this to happen. Inspection report children’s home: SC065883 4

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

Staff have a good understanding of risks to children and how to keep children safe. Clear risk assessments and support plans cover a wide range of risks and give strategies to help staff to reduce them.

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

Staff help children during incidents when they are distressed. Staff intervene in ways that are agreed in children’s plans. This helps children to calm down and incidents to end more quickly. The use of physical interventions is rare. When it is used, it is as a last resort to keep children or others safe. However, some records of physical intervention lack full details of the methods used and they are not always written consistently with incident forms. A lack of clarity in records hinders effective oversight and learning from such incidents.

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

The manager has made improvements to recruitment practices. Appropriate checks are undertaken before staff start working at the home. This helps to ensure that suitable staff are recruited.

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

There have been two child protection concerns raised in relation to children at the home. In one case, although the incident was investigated and addressed by the manager, no referral was made to the designated officer, despite the manager recognising that actual harm had been caused to the child. The second concern was reported to the child’s social worker in a timely manner. However, the subsequent investigation lacked depth and did not clarify how an injury to the child had occurred. The manager failed to challenge this outcome. Failure to follow safeguarding policies means that concerns have not been appropriately investigated.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The manager is suitably experienced and holds a relevant level 5 qualification. She is well respected by staff, parents and external professionals. She is child focused. The registered manager and other managers have worked to ensure that the service has remained open throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, despite the challenges that this has caused.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The manager has good systems to ensure effective monitoring of the home. Children’s plans are kept up to date and they accurately reflect the care that children receive. There is effective oversight of incidents. This helps to ensure that learning is taken from incidents to support staff to manage children’s behaviours.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Staff said that they are well supported by managers and that managers are available to them when needed. Managers undertake debriefs with staff after incidents, which helps the staff to think about how situations could be managed differently in the future.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Most staff receive regular supervisions, and these consider how staff are working with children and any improvements that could be made to practice. However, some part-time and ancillary staff have not received regular supervision. All staff work Inspection report children’s home: SC065883 5 with children who have high levels of need. A lack of supervision for some staff means that they are not as effectively supported as they could be.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Staff are well trained and training considers the specific needs of children who come for short breaks. Thorough annual appraisals for staff consider learning from the previous year and targets for them to achieve moving forward.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The manager has built good links with external professionals and children’s parents. All spoke of good levels of communication with staff and of close working with them to ensure that children’s needs are met and regularly reviewed. Inspection report children’s home: SC065883 6

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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

take effective action whenever there is a serious concern about a child’s welfare; and

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Requirement Due date

are familiar with, and act in accordance with, the home’s child protection policies. (Regulation 12 (1) (2)(a)(vi)(vii))

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Requirement Due date

In particular, ensure that allegations against staff are referred to the designated officer and that managers effectively challenge external professionals in relation to allegations of harm to children to ensure that these are appropriately investigated. 10 November

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must ensure that all employees—

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Requirement Due date

undertake appropriate continuing professional development;

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Requirement Due date

receive practice-related supervision by a person with appropriate experience. (Regulation 33 (4)(a)(b))

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Requirement Due date

This requirement was made at the last inspection and is restated. 30 November

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Recommendations

 The registered person should provide a nurturing, homely and supportive environment that meets the needs of the children. In particular, ensure that decoration of the home is maintained to a good standard. (‘Guide to children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 15, paragraph 3.9) Inspection report children’s home: SC065883 7  The registered person should ensure that staff are familiar with the home’s policies on record-keeping and understand the importance of careful, objective, and clear recording. In particular, records of restraint should provide a clear overview of methods used. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 62, paragraph 14.4)  The registered person should ensure that suitable arrangements are in place to manage and dispose of any medication. In particular, ensure that it is clear when any prescribed items have been opened so that it is known when they should be

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Recommendations

disposed of. (‘Guide to children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 35, paragraph 7.15)

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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: SC065883 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, Norfolk NR1 2DH

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Inspectors

Joe Cox, Social Care Inspector Jamie Cousins, Social Care Inspector Inspection report children’s home: SC065883 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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Inspectors

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Inspectors

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Inspectors

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