Children's home run by Juventas Services

Inspection report for children’s home: 2566488 1 Registered provider: Juventas Services

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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 owned home provides care for up to four children aged between 11 and 17 years who may have experienced trauma, a sense of rejection, neglect or abuse.

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Information about this children’s home

The manager registered with Ofsted in October 2023.

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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

Overall judgement at last inspection: requires improvement to be good

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good

Enforcement action since last inspection: none Inspection report for children’s home: 2566488 2

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

11/07/2023 Full Requires improvement to be good 04/04/2022 Full Good 08/12/2021 Interim Improved effectiveness 18/08/2021 Full Requires improvement to be good Inspection report for children’s home: 2566488 3

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Since the last inspection in January 2024, one child has moved out of the home and one child has moved in. Three children remain living at the home. Two of the children have been settled there for over two years.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children’s moves in and out of the home are carefully considered by the manager. He takes the time to visit children before they move to the home and ensures that they receive helpful information about the home before they move in. One child, in response to the information that they received, made their own ‘about me’ profile, and this was shared with the children already living at the home. Staff speak to children about changes at the home. This helps them to feel part of the decision-making. Careful moves help to make all children at the home feel more settled.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children know how to make a complaint. One child has made a complaint about a member of staff. This was appropriately reported to senior leaders and reviewed by the responsible individual. The child was provided with a response and outcome to their complaint. This helped the child to feel that their views were heard.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff help children to spend time with their families and travel long distances to help children see family members who live far away. Children know that their family relationships are seen as important by staff.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children’s thoughts and feelings are explored in direct conversations with staff and through regular children’s meetings at the home, as well as through their care plans. However, one child, who recently moved in, has not been spoken to by staff about their care plan. This does not help staff or the child to understand what their plan means to them or how staff can help them.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

All three children have education support packages. One child is doing online learning, and two children have learning that is blended between their learning placements and online learning at the home. One child was previously out of education for over a year but is now attending a specialist school twice a week. This is progress for this child. However, the support provided by the home around online learning, and the daily routines to promote it, is not well documented. This does not help staff to understand how children are making progress through their online learning.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff now provide more varied and balanced meals, and the manager encourages staff to cook more meals from scratch. This is in response to the health needs of one child. This child struggles to engage with social activities and rarely wants to leave the home. Recently, staff have encouraged the child to go swimming and to go for walks in the community to support their fitness. There is some progress being made for this child; however, these efforts are yet to be consistent. Inspection report for children’s home: 2566488 4 Children are not consistently provided with varied social and activity routines. Staff are not always proactive or creative about encouraging children to engage in new activities. Staff do not regularly record activities that children could do or have done over time. This does not help children to have new experiences or to enjoy regular activities outside of the home.

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

Since the last inspection, no children have needed to be physically held by staff. Instead, staff talk to children about their feelings, their relationships with their families and things they feel worried about. As a result of the support provided by staff, children are more able to communicate their feelings and to express themselves in calmer and safer ways.

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

Staff understand the different risks that children face when accessing the internet. Staff act to discourage unsafe interactions online through direct work and conversations with children, as well as monitoring their games consoles. Appropriate restrictions are placed on children’s access to the internet at certain times of the day to encourage healthier daily routines.

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

One child became more vulnerable in the community, and there were concerns for the child with regard to their substance misuse. Staff had regular conversations with the child about certain risks to them in the community. The manager ensured effective information-sharing between the child’s social worker and police to help inform plans to keep the child safe. Staff referred the child to support services to help stop their substance misuse. A parent said, ‘The staff did everything you would expect them to do to protect [name of child].’ Despite staff offering consistent support, they were not able to keep this child safe from community risks, which meant the child moved out of the home.

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

Children rarely go missing from the home. Since the assurance inspection in January 2024, there have been two episodes when a child has gone missing from the home. Staff were responsive to this child when they were absent from the home. They followed the home’s policy about reporting children missing to the police and continued to try to encourage the child to return to the home. Despite staff’s efforts, the child remained missing overnight.

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

Children have positive relationships with staff. However, staff are not recording clearly how they encourage and celebrate children’s achievements. Staff are not recording if children are being routinely praised for their positive behaviour.

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

The manager reports safeguarding concerns to relevant professionals appropriately and in a timely way. However, on one occasion following a safeguarding concern, the manager notified Ofsted nine days after the event. This did not help Ofsted to have good oversight of the safeguarding concern on this occasion. Inspection report for children’s home: 2566488 5

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The home is managed by a qualified and experienced manager. He registered with Ofsted in October 2023. Since the last full inspection, he and the staff team have made and sustained changes to improve the care provided to children, making the support provided to children good.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Staff said positive things about the manager, noting that his approachability, proactiveness and availability were positive attributes to his leadership style. Staff said that they feel well supported by the manager and the deputy manager and that the culture at the home is now one of all staff working together to support one another. Staff’s positive teamworking experiences help them to provide better overall care to children.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Staff receive regular training. They said that training is helpful and informative and improves their thinking and knowledge about different ways to support children. Staff understand the model of care used by the home to support children to manage their feelings.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Staff receive regular supervision sessions with the manager or deputy manager. Sessions include topics relevant to the home, the children and staff’s development. Staff attend team meetings, which occur fortnightly. The meetings are regularly used to discuss areas for practice development. Combined, this regular communication helps staff to make improvements to the care to children.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The manager uses effective monitoring tools, including the workforce development plan, to help them to understand the quality of care provided to children. He uses feedback from children, staff and independent visitors to make changes or improvements to the home. For example, children asked for a room to be repurposed to a games room, and this is now being repurposed for this function. The manager continues to use these monitoring tools to outline areas for further development and set future targets for staff to meet.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The manager has not shared the statement of purpose for the home with Ofsted since changes have taken place. Inspection report for children’s home: 2566488 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, The 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 enjoyment and achievement standard is that children take part in and benefit from a variety of activities that meet their needs and develop and reflect their creative, cultural, intellectual, physical and social interests and skills.

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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

develop the child’s interests and hobbies;

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Requirement Due date

participate in activities that the child enjoys and which meet and expand the child’s interests and preferences; and

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Requirement Due date

that each child has access to a range of activities that enable the child to pursue the child’s interests and hobbies. (Regulation 9 (1) (2)(a)(i)(ii)(b)) 1 August 2024

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Recommendations

 The registered person should ensure that the home’s staff recognise and celebrate the achievements of the children. In particular, staff should clearly record the positive praise and rewards offered to the child and show how this contributes to the child’s achievements and progress. (‘Guide to the Children’s Homes Regulations, including the quality standards’, page 31, paragraph 6.7)  The registered person should ensure that staff encourage children to take a proactive role in looking after their day-to-day health and well-being. When children have specific health needs, they should be supported to manage these subject to their age and understanding. In particular, the registered person should ensure that staff help children to monitor their eating habits and promote a healthy, balanced diet. (‘Guide to the Children’s Homes Regulations, including the quality standards’, page 34, paragraph 7.10) Inspection report for children’s home: 2566488 7

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Recommendations

 The registered person should ensure that the ethos of the home supports each child to learn, emphasising the value of independent study and reading for enjoyment. Staff must support children with home study by encouraging them to learn independent study skills and helping them to practise those skills. (‘Guide to the Children’s Homes Regulations, including the quality standards’, page 29, paragraph 5.18)  The registered person should ensure that each child is provided with support (appropriate to their age and understanding) to communicate their views, wishes and feelings and participate as fully as possible in all aspects of their care planning and daily care. In particular, ensure children are helped to understand their care plans and that their views are clearly recorded. (‘Guide to the Children’s Homes Regulations, including the quality standards’, page 22, paragraph 4.6)  The registered person should have a system in place to ensure that all serious events

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Recommendations

are notified to Ofsted within 24 hours. (‘Guide to the Children’s Homes Regulations, including the quality standards’, page 63, paragraph 14.13)  The registered person should keep under review a statement of purpose and notify Ofsted of any revisions. (‘Guide to the Children’s Homes Regulations, including the quality standards’, page 14, paragraph 3.5)

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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: 2566488 8

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: Yare House, 62-64 Thorpe Road, Norwich NR1 1RY

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Inspector

Rebecca Hannell, Social Care Inspector Inspection report for children’s home: 2566488 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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