Children's Home run by Consensus Support Services Limited in Suffolk

Inspection report for children’s home: SC386258 1 SC386258 Registered provider: Consensus Support Services Limited Full inspection Inspected under the social care common inspection framework

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Information about this children’s home

This privately run home provides care for up to six children with autism spectrum disorder and learning disabilities.

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Information about this children’s home

The registered manager has been in post since 2015.

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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: 14 February 2023

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good

Overall judgement at last inspection: good

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good

Enforcement action since last inspection: none Inspection report for children’s home: SC386258 2

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

14/02/2023 Full Good 02/02/2022 Full Good 26/02/2020 Full Good 31/01/2019 Full Outstanding Inspection report for children’s home: SC386258 3

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

This inspection was brought forward because of concerning notifications and information received by Ofsted. The inspector reviewed these concerns as part of the inspection.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Since the last inspection, two children have moved in to the home and two children have moved on from the home. These moves were carefully planned and well managed. At the time of the inspection, seven children were living at the home.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children are supported with good-quality individualised care that improves their well-being and future opportunities. Children provided positive feedback about staff and said that they enjoy spending time with them.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Most children are engaging well with education and have high attendance. Staff support children’s education targets and maintain children’s learning experiences at the home. Staff are working hard to help one child to return to school. In this instance, staff have maintained positive routines, supported home tutoring and encouraged learning opportunities in day-to-day activities to assist these plans. Staff also provide additional support for another child to manage their anxieties about using school transport. School staff have praised this ongoing work.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children take part in a wide range of meaningful activities. These include visits to London, theme-park attractions, forests and trips to the coast. One child attended a large concert. Other children have regular opportunities to go shopping and eat out at restaurants. Well-planned activities meet children’s interests and provide new experiences that they have not previously had.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Parents and social workers spoke about the positive difference that staff’s support has made to children’s development. This includes children having increased confidence to share social spaces, becoming more independent when managing their continence, and improvements in children’s emotional well-being.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

The home is well appointed and equipped to meet children’s preferences and needs. Children value their spacious and personalised bedrooms, which are decorated in line with their interests. However, damage to two doors has not been repaired promptly, hallways require redecoration, and two bathroom floors need replacing. These issues detract from what is otherwise a welcoming home.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff celebrate children’s milestones and recognise their achievements. Children take part in routine activities to support their wider independence and self-care skills. However, capturing the steps to assist children to become more independent is variable. This is important for children as they prepare for adulthood. Inspection report for children’s home: SC386258 4

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

Staff are nurturing, kind and committed to children. Interactions between children and staff are based on positive regard and mutual respect. Children’s strong relationships with staff are an important protective factor in children feeling safer.

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

Managers maintain safer recruitment processes for staff. Agency staff checks have recently improved, and ensure that these staff have had appropriate suitability checks before working at the home.

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

Staff work closely with the specialist behaviour support team to create personalised strategies for children. Staff have a good awareness of potential triggers to children’s anxiety, and combine this with effective de-escalation approaches to minimise difficult incidents. When restraints have been necessary, these are proportionate and justified. Managers have recently improved systems to monitor and identify learning from these incidents.

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

There are appropriate safeguarding procedures. Staff have attended safeguarding training. However, on two occasions, staff have not reported safeguarding concerns in line with these procedures. This has meant that managers have been unable to take immediate action to provide the necessary protective measures required. This reduces the safeguards for children. Managers have addressed this issue with individual staff.

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

Most allegations against staff are managed appropriately. Referrals to the local authority designated officer are made, and objective investigations are completed. However, for one child, two allegations against staff have not been managed in line with their agreed plan. Records of the manager’s discussions with the child following these allegations are not complete and have not been shared with the child’s social worker. Therefore, it is unclear if the child had retracted these concerns.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The experienced, long-standing registered manager is an excellent role model to staff. The manager has support from a competent deputy manager. Staff value the management team’s commitment, skills and knowledge. This has created a positive team culture, and a stable workforce that provide children with consistent care.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Regular team meetings are well attended. Staff receive good-quality supervision sessions. New staff have thorough inductions to help them to begin to work with the children. Fully developed training programmes equip staff with the skills to meet the children’s individual health needs.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Managers and staff are good advocates for children. The manager has successfully challenged safeguarding professionals when information relating to a recent concern was not shared appropriately. When children have difficulty accessing other settings, such as school, managers and staff provide additional insight and support alongside other professionals to improve children’s experiences. Inspection report for children’s home: SC386258 5 Managers give careful thought to the group of children who live at the home together. Effective group compatibility assessments link with well-planned and personalised moves for children. The current group of children get along well together.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

External monitoring from the independent person has improved. There is now consistent scrutiny of information to inform the visitor’s view of safeguarding arrangements. However, the independent person has not contacted parents and family members during six of the last seven monitoring visits. As a result, the views of family members are not regularly explored at these visits. This is important as children find it difficult to express their views.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

There are areas of managerial monitoring and review systems that need to be addressed. Gaps in the recording of important safety checks on a child’s breathing support machine are not always identified. Information in one child’s risk management plan contains contradictory guidance in respect to the child’s communication preferences. Actions following internal investigations are not always recorded. While these issues have not individually led to increased risk for children, they have the likelihood to do so if left unresolved. Inspection report for children’s home: SC386258 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

assess whether each child is at risk of harm, taking into account information in the child’s relevant plans, and, if necessary, make arrangements to reduce the risk of any harm to the child;

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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)(i)(vii))

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Requirement Due date

This is in regard to staff reporting safeguarding concerns without delay and managers following agreed procedures when responding to allegations made against the staff. 30 November

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Requirement Due date

The leadership and management standard is that the registered person enables, inspires and leads a culture in relation to the children’s home that—

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Requirement Due date

helps children aspire to fulfil their potential; and

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Requirement Due date

In particular, the standard in paragraph (1) requires the registered person to—

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Requirement Due date

use monitoring and review systems to make continuous improvements in the quality of care provided in the home. (Regulation 13 (1)(a)(b) (2)(h)) 30 November Inspection report for children’s home: SC386258 7

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Recommendations

 The registered person should ensure that the home is decorated to a consistently high standard throughout the accommodation. (‘Guide to the Children’s Homes Regulations, including the quality standards’, page 15, paragraph 3.9)  The registered person should ensure that children’s progress in their independence is systematically monitored and supported. (‘Guide to the Children’s Homes Regulations, including the quality standards’, page 52, paragraph 10.4)  The registered person should make best use of information from independent monitoring to ensure continuous improvement. The independent person’s consultations with children’s families should be more frequent. (‘Guide to the Children’s Homes Regulations, including the quality standards’, page 55, paragraph 10.24)

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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 for children’s home: SC386258 8

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Children’s home details

Registered provider: Consensus Support Services Limited

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: 3 The Courtyards Phoenix Square, Wyncolls Road, Colchester CO4 9PE

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Inspector

Mark Anderton, Social Care Inspector Inspection report for children’s home: SC386258 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 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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