Children's home run by CF Support Services Limited

Inspection report for children’s home: 2575713 1 Registered provider: CF Support Services Limited

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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 two children aged between seven and 17 years with social and emotional difficulties.

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Information about this children’s home

There has been no registered manager since December 2022.

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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 requires improvement to be good

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good

The children’s home provides effective services that meet the requirements for good.

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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: 2575713 2

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

15/08/2023 Full Good 13/09/2022 Full Good 07/12/2021 Full Good Inspection report for children’s home: 2575713 3

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Since the last inspection, four children have moved into the home and four children have moved out. At the time of this inspection, one child was living at the home.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

The child has started to make positive relationships with the staff. The child said that they enjoy living at the home and feel comfortable to talk to any member of staff about their feelings.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

The child is supported with their education. A headteacher has recently visited the child to explain the learning package that is available for them. The headteacher is planning to visit the child again. This is a creative way to introduce learning to the child, who has been out of school for some time.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children who are leaving the home are supported to learn independence skills. One child had a comprehensive plan, which covered various aspects of adulthood, including information about the minimum wage. This helps to ensure that children develop some financial skills for adulthood.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children are helped to understand what racism is. This is particularly important to support children to recognise when they are experiencing racism and what they can do in response to this.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Leaders and managers have built relationships with the activity centre that is on the same site. Staff have resourced bikes for children. One child was provided with the opportunity to go horse-riding and volunteer at the stables. This increases children’s confidence and self-esteem.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Key-work sessions are thoughtful and sensitive to children’s needs; however, they do not take place regularly. Risk assessment strategies identify that key-work sessions will minimise risk. However, these are not happening and therefore the work to minimise risks is not effective.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children’s health needs are not always met. One child said that they use a vape regularly. This is not covered in the child’s care plans and, therefore, there is no meaningful strategy to support the child to cease vaping.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

The child has a significant health condition. Care plans do not provide clear guidance on the medication that the child needs to take. There are gaps in the medication recording. This means that issues with the administration of medication are not easily recognisable.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Care plans do not recognise neurodiversity and what this means for individual children. The staff do not have instructions of effective responses to take to support the child or information about what help they might need in their day-to-day life. Inspection report for children’s home: 2575713 4 The living room is decorated to a high standard. The kitchen is modern and well appointed. A summer house was recently built in the garden and the child is choosing furniture for this. However, some areas of the building need attention. The upstairs bathroom is not clean. The area around a plug socket is damaged and, although this is in a staff area, it could pose a risk. An area of skirting around the stairs is broken, which exposes damaged wood. These issues detract from a warm and nurturing environment.

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

The staff rarely use restraint. They are sensitive towards children and understand their needs and expression of feelings. The staff are thoughtful and reflective about the right action to take. Following two incidents when restraint was used, staff ensured that children were given the time to talk about what happened and how they were feeling. Staff are appropriately trained.

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

There has been a high level of self-harming behaviours, such as using a ligature. Staff have responded to these incidents with a calm manner and patience, ensuring that the child is kept safe. Health partners have been involved when needed.

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

When children move to the home, their missing-from-home episodes reduce. When children do go missing, staff follow children and report them to the police at an appropriate time. Risk assessments are updated in a timely manner. Staff spend time with children when they return, to help them to reflect on the reasons why they went missing and what staff can do to help children in the future. However, the required independent return-home interviews do not take place. This means that information to help them to understand why children go missing from the home is not being collected.

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

While managers respond to emerging risks and ensure that risk assessments are updated following incidents, the work to minimise other risks is not detailed. For example, a child living at the home had friends to visit. This was not appropriately planned and sensible safeguards were not in place. This led to substance misuse at the home, which resulted in a child going to hospital. Other areas of risk are not appropriately covered. For example, a child has no behaviour management plan. This means that staff do not have clear instructions to prevent behavioural incidents from occurring.

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

Different documents provide contradictory information as to whether there are any associated fire risks linked to children. To compound this, the fire risk assessment for the home is out of date.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: requires improvement to be good

The manager has applied to be registered with Ofsted. The manager is working towards their level 5 qualification. Inspection report for children’s home: 2575713 5 The overall leadership and management of the home requires improvement. Oversight of children’s care plans and risk assessments is ineffective. Important information has been missed out, including details of children’s health conditions and the strategies to support children, such as help to reduce vaping. There have been medication administration errors. Despite these errors, leaders and managers have not ensured that risk assessments and care plans contain clear details of a child’s prescribed medication. Gaps in medication records have not been identified and, therefore, are not addressed. This means that poor practice and errors continue.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: requires improvement to be good

Crucial training that covers a child’s specific health needs has not been provided for all staff, including the child’s key worker. Other training is also required, such as training about neurodiverse conditions. This means that staff do not have the knowledge to fully understand the child’s health conditions and the risks associated with these.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: requires improvement to be good

After incidents occur, the manager monitors reports and supports the staff to reflect on the action that they have taken. This helps the staff to learn ways to adapt and improve their practice.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: requires improvement to be good

Staff supervision sessions are regular. These sessions include time spent discussing staff well-being, as well as their relationships with the children. As a result, staff said that they feel supported and valued.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: requires improvement to be good

The feedback from a social worker and parent about a child who has recently moved in is initially positive. Inspection report for children’s home: 2575713 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 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

ensure that staff have the experience, qualifications and skills to meet the needs of each child;

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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)(c)(h))

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Requirement Due date

In particular, ensure that children’s care plans are monitored regularly so that they accurately cover children’s needs and meet neurodiversity and other significant health needs.

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Requirement Due date

Ensure that children have detailed behaviour management plans and that these are regularly monitored and reviewed.

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Requirement Due date

Ensure that sufficient key-work sessions take place.

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Requirement Due date

Ensure that staff are trained in specific health needs, such as cystic fibrosis and diabetes, neurodiversity, such as attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, and any other specific areas.

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Requirement Due date

Ensure that there is effective oversight of medication records and review any errors.

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Requirement Due date

Ensure that the fire risk assessment is updated when there is an increased risk of fire-starting behaviour. 1 May 2024 Inspection report for children’s home: 2575713 7 Ensure that following missing-from-home episodes, independent return-home interviews take place.

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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

help each child to understand how to keep safe;

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Requirement Due date

have the skills to identify and act upon signs that a child is at risk of harm;

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Requirement Due date

manage relationships between children to prevent them from harming each other;

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Requirement Due date

understand the roles and responsibilities in relation to protecting children that are assigned to them by the registered person;

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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;

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Requirement Due date

that the home’s day-to-day care is arranged and delivered so as to keep each child safe and to protect each child effectively from harm. (Regulation 12 (1) (2)(a)(i)(ii)(iii)(iv)(v)(vi) (vii)(b))

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Requirement Due date

In particular, ensure that risk assessments contain all risks and details of how to minimise these risks by providing clear instructions to the staff. 1 May 2024

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Requirement Due date

The health and well-being standard is that—

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Requirement Due date

the health and well-being needs of children are met;

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Requirement Due date

children receive advice, services and support in relation to their health and well-being; and 1 May 2024 Inspection report for children’s home: 2575713 8 children are helped to lead healthy lifestyles.

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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

achieve the health and well-being outcomes that are recorded in the child’s relevant plans. (Regulation 10 (1)(a)(b)(c) (2)(a)(i))

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Requirement Due date

In particular, ensure that children’s health needs are clearly detailed in care plans.

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Requirement Due date

Ensure that issues affecting health, such as vaping, are addressed.

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Recommendations

 The registered person should ensure that all areas of the home are kept clean, in a good state of repair, and that the communal indoor and outdoor areas are child friendly. (‘Guide to the Children’s Homes Regulations, including the quality standards’, page 15, paragraph 3.7)  The registered person should ensure that a workforce plan is in place. (‘Guide to the Children’s Homes Regulations, including the quality standards’, page 53, paragraph 10.8)

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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: 2575713 9

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Children’s home details

Registered provider: CF Support Services Limited

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: C F Support Services, 11 Three Rivers Business Centre, Felixstowe Road, Foxhall, Ipswich IP10 0BF

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Children’s home details

Responsible individual: Joanne Henderson

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Inspector

Hannah Phillips, Social Care Inspector Inspection report for children’s home: 2575713 10 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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