Children's home run by Norfolk County Council in Norwich

Inspection report children’s home: SC450045 1 SC450045 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

The home is run by a local authority. It provides care for up to six children who can present with challenging behaviour and need emotional support. The home is a crisis assessment and reunification service.

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Information about this children’s home

The manager registered with Ofsted in August 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: 11 January 2022

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good

Overall judgement at last inspection: improved effectiveness

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good

Enforcement action since last inspection: none Inspection report children’s home: SC450045 2

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

11/01/2022 Interim Improved effectiveness 27/07/2021 Full Requires improvement to be good 24/07/2019 Full Good 29/11/2018 Interim Improved effectiveness Inspection report children’s home: SC450045 3

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children who live at the home have highly complex needs and often move in during periods of crisis. Staff build positive relationships with children, which enables them to have periods of stability. Staff have worked with children and the wider network around them to support them to move back to families, foster care or longer-term placements. Children said that they like living at the home.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children receive well-planned care from staff, who have a good understanding of their needs. Plans for children include clear strategies on how staff care for them. Staff demonstrate a high level of knowledge of children’s needs and are highly committed to their roles. One parent said that the staff are ‘astonishingly dedicated’ to how they care for children. The parent said that this has enabled their child to build trusting relationships with staff.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Understanding children’s mental health is a priority for staff. This is supported by the work of a life coach, who is a clinical psychologist, and a speech and language therapist who are based at the home. Their work gives staff a greater insight into children’s communication needs and how trauma that children have experienced affects them. This supports a therapeutic and nurturing approach to working with children.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children have good experiences at the home. They undertake a good range of activities and do things that they may not have had the opportunity to do before. Staff arranged for one child, who had demonstrated an interest in and talent for working in the beauty sector, to visit a salon for an afternoon. Due to the child’s needs, it was felt that this could be difficult for them to manage so staff arranged for the salon to be closed for the time that the child visited. The child was able to experience what life is like working in such an environment, undertake treatments on a staff member, and receive professional treatments themselves.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff work closely with children’s families. One parent was complimentary about the knowledge that staff have of their child and how they are being helped. A social care manager commented on how staff have been able to build positive working relationships with some parents who have often found it difficult to work with some social care professionals. They said that this has enabled work to be undertaken with families by staff, which has supported children to return home.

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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 work with them to reduce these. Several children have been reported missing. Staff respond proactively to these incidents, looking for children and following their individualised plans. After incidents, managers ensure that return-home interviews are completed. Concerns relating to incidents when children are missing have been escalated to other Inspection report children’s home: SC450045 4 professionals when needed, ensuring that risks are considered by the wider professional network and actions agreed to address them.

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

Some children have been involved in incidents of self-harm. Staff respond to children in ways that help them calm at times of distress. For one child, who has been involved in several incidents of self-harm, the home’s life coach and speech and language therapist have put together guidance for staff to help them understand the behaviour and respond in ways that are suitable to meet the child’s needs.

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

Some self-harm incidents have led to police attendance. Managers have identified that responses given to children by police have not always been supportive in managing such situations. The home’s police liaison officer has communicated with the police to agree response plans for these incidents. It has been agreed that the home’s life coach will provide a training session to police relating to children who self-harm. Sharing knowledge and good practice with other agencies helps to ensure that children are responded to in the most supportive ways at times of crisis by external professionals as well as staff.

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

When risks are identified, these are considered in depth to help staff understand and respond to them appropriately. When there were risks relating to fire safety for one child, a specific piece of work was undertaken by the life coach. This work centred on research about young people who have experienced trauma and display dangerous behaviours in relation to fire safety. The work helped to provide staff with a greater understanding of the risk. It also considered what strategies would be best to manage the risk. However, there are risks for some children relating to substance misuse and sexual health. While staff have undertaken some work with children in these areas, this is limited and their plans are not clear on how this work is to be undertaken.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The registered manager is suitably experienced and qualified to level 5. Her and other managers are highly motivated and have high expectations for children. Managers understand children’s needs well and work closely with staff to ensure that these are being met. Managers challenge other professionals when needed and advocate for children.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Managers work closely with external professionals. Social workers said that communication with the home is good and that they can identify how children have been helped by staff to make progress. The police liaison officer based at the home has been central to ensuring good links with local police. The sharing of information relating to potential risks for children has been identified by police as a strength that is helping to keep children safe.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Children access help from the specialist staff, which has previously not been available to them. Speech and language assessments have identified unmet needs for several children who have moved to the home. This has led to plans being developed to meet these needs that would not have been in place without the Inspection report children’s home: SC450045 5 specialist input that the service provides. These plans are shared with the wider network around children. This increases the understanding of children’s needs by staff and others who are integral to children’s care.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Staff spoke highly of the support that they receive from managers. They said that managers are approachable and available to them. Team meetings are held each month and last for a whole day. This provides the opportunity for in-depth discussion about how children’s needs are being met, the specific training to be provided, and time to allow staff to reflect on how their roles affect them. Staff said that this is valuable in providing the support that they need. However, some staff supervisions have not taken place regularly. This has included some newer staff who have limited experience of working in similar environments. While other support is available for staff, including access to clinical supervisions, this means that the support that individual supervision provides for staff to learn and undertake their roles is sometimes missing.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Staff are provided with a range of training. They are positive about how this has increased their skills and can identify how they have been able to use it in their practice. However, some newer staff have not completed first-aid and safeguarding training in appropriate timescales, and some more experienced staff’s first-aid training has expired. This is due to a lack of availability within the wider organisation. However, it has meant that staff are not always provided with the training that they need.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

There are effective systems for the monitoring of the home. Good monitoring has helped to ensure that learning is taken from incidents and that this contributes to strategies to care for children. However, one incident of a child going missing for a significant time, which included significant concerns about risks that they had been exposed to, was not notified to Ofsted. This affects Ofsted’s ability to provide oversight of the home. Inspection report children’s home: SC450045 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 registered person must ensure that all employees—

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Requirement Due date

undertake appropriate continuing professional development; and

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Requirement Due date

receive practice-related supervision by a person with appropriate experience. (Regulation 33 (4)(a)(b)) 28 June 2022

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must notify HMCI and each other relevant person without delay if—

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Requirement Due date

there is any incident relating to a child which the registered person considers to be serious. (Regulation 40 (4)(e)) 23 May 2022

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Recommendation

 The registered person should ensure that, in line with their individual health plans and the ethos of the home, children are offered advice, support and guidance on health and well-being. Staff should work to change behaviours in areas of health and well-being, such as, but not limited to, sexual relationships, sexual health, contraception and substance misuse. (‘Guide to the Children’s Homes Regulations, including the quality standards’, page 35, paragraph 7.18)

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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: SC450045 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

Joe Cox, Social Care Inspector Inspection report children’s home: SC450045 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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