Children's Home run by Rubicon Children and Family Services Ltd in East Sussex

Inspection report for children’s home: 2666309 1 Registered provider: Rubicon Children and Family Services Ltd

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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 children’s home is registered to provide care for up to four children who experience social and emotional difficulties. At the time of the inspection, four children were living at the home.

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Information about this children’s home

The suitably qualified manager has been registered with Ofsted since April 2024.

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Overall experiences and progress of

children and young people, taking into account

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outstanding

How well children and young people are helped and protected outstanding

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outstanding

The effectiveness of leaders and managers outstanding

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outstanding

The children’s home provides highly effective services that consistently exceed the standards of good. The actions of the children’s home contribute to significantly improved outcomes and positive experiences for children and young people who need help, protection and care.

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outstanding

Overall judgement at last inspection: good

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outstanding

Enforcement action since last inspection: none Inspection report for children’s home: 2666309 2

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

15/08/2023 Full Good 05/07/2022 Full Good Inspection report for children’s home: 2666309 3

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: outstanding

The home environment is warm and welcoming and has a real family feel, with photos of the children displayed. These include photos of children who no longer live in the home enjoying activities. The spacious bedrooms have been furnished according to each child’s taste. Current improvements underway in the garden give the children more spaces to enjoy. For example, the children enjoy a small area where they plant vegetables. This encourages children to feel ownership of their space and enjoy the fruits of their labour.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: outstanding

Children are settled in the home. Staff have built strong relationships with the children. As a result, the children trust them and feel safe with them. The children ooze confidence and speak openly about how good it feels to live in their home. The relationships that staff develop with the children bring the children a sense of stability and belonging. One child said that they clearly identified the home as belonging to them.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: outstanding

Staff gather children’s views through regular meetings with them both individually and as a group. Staff also have lots of conversations with children as part of their day-to-day practice. Staff understand children’s preferred methods of communication and consistently support children to participate fully in their daily lives.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: outstanding

Children are provided with a range of social, educational, and recreational opportunities that are tailored to their abilities. Children are encouraged to participate in community- based activities as well as going on day trips, weekends away and holidays.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: outstanding

The manager ensures that when a child moves in or out of the home, the transition is child centred and planned well. This gives the child the time that they need to adjust to the change. The needs and feelings of all children living in the home are considered when children move into, or on from, the home.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: outstanding

Staff work incredibly hard to help children to have appropriate, carefully assessed, and supported family contact. Consequently, children are able to maintain relationships with their family, friends and other people who are important to them. Staff proactively work with parents and former carers to ensure that they maintain a role in the children’s lives. One child was able to transition safely back to their family home because of the support that staff provided to them and their family. This collaborative approach has enabled strong and child-focused work with the parent to continue.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: outstanding

Staff actively support children to safely develop their independence at the child’s pace and according to their individual needs. Advocacy is a huge strength of the home. The manager is tenacious in advocating for children. She challenges other professionals when there are concerns about future planning.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: outstanding

Staff encourage the children to attend and engage at school. The children are progressing well, considering each of their individual starting points. When a school Inspection report for children’s home: 2666309 4 place has not yet been identified for a child, staff provide educational activities to stimulate children’s learning and development while continuing to vociferously advocate for their return to full-time education as soon as possible.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: outstanding

Staff effectively support children with their health needs. Their support has enabled one child to significantly reduce their use of their wheelchair. Staff have enabled the child to see their strengths and abilities rather than their disabilities. This has increased their self-confidence and has given them a new, more positive outlook for their future.

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

Suitable health and safety arrangements ensure that children live in a safe environment. Staff undertake regular checks to ensure the ongoing suability of fire safety equipment. Regular fire drills are undertaken to ensure that staff and children know what to do and how to safely exit the building in an emergency.

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

Staff understand the risks and vulnerabilities of the children. They respond to any concerns effectively. Children’s support plans and risk assessments are comprehensive and give a great insight into the children’s needs. Risk management plans provide clear guidance to staff on how risks are to be managed to ensure children’s safety and well- being.

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

Motion sensors are used to ensure that staff are alerted should a child leave their bedroom during the night. This ensures that children feel safe and supported. Each child’s placing authority has given written consent for the use of the sensors, and the monitoring arrangements for each child are used in accordance with assessed risk. However, these monitoring arrangements are not always kept under regular enough review. This means that some children could potentially become subject to surveillance that is no longer necessary.

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

The staff are familiar with all safeguarding processes and procedures. They know what to do should a child disclose a concern or make an allegation. All appropriate steps are taken to respond to such concerns in a child-focused manner. Managers escalate concerns to other professionals when required, including police, children’s placing authorities and the local authority designated officer.

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

Managers and staff are transparent in their practice, which enables collaborative working to safeguard children.

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

Due to the ages and complex behavioural needs of the children, difficult situations regularly occur. However, staff manage these incidents well. There is extensive monitoring of children’s behaviour to help staff understand triggers, patterns and trends. This information is incorporated into the children’s individual behaviour support plans to better guide staff in how to provide bespoke support. Staff appropriately attempt to redirect and de-escalate situations through a patient and clear approach. Physical intervention is only ever used as a last resort to ensure the safety of children and/or others. The manager’s review of incidents is reflective and seeks to understand potential Inspection report for children’s home: 2666309 5 triggers for children. This information is used to adapt practice. Updated advice and guidance on new approaches are shared with staff effectively. Staff talk to the children

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

after each incident to better understand the children’s perspective. They help the children to reflect on what happened and explore ways to prevent future situations occurring. This enables children to learn and grow in their emotional responses.

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

The children are happy living in the home and rarely go missing. When children do go missing, staff respond swiftly and take effective action to ensure the children’s safe return home. Staff follow children’s individual missing-from-home protocols. Staff discuss these incidents with the children to better understand how to support them to make positive decisions and stay safe. Staff liaise with police and social workers effectively. This ensures that there is a shared understanding of risk and an agreement of how to keep the children safe. Staff’s effective implementation of one child’s safety plan enabled the child to continue to enjoy their time out of the house with their friends while keeping in touch with staff. This had an immediate positive effect and safeguarded the child.

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

Children are treated with dignity and respect. They experience care and help that are sensitive and responsive to their identity, family history, age, faith, belief, gender, language and race. The care provided helps them to develop a positive self-view and sense of identity. This, in turn, increases their ability to form and sustain attachments, build emotional resilience and begin to overcome any previous trauma. Staff are proactive in encouraging conversations and celebrations around other cultures and religious beliefs. For example, staff recently helped a child who wanted to attend a local Sunday school. Staff and children also recently celebrated Eid and Ramadan.

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

The manager ensures that there is careful recruitment and regular monitoring of staff practice. This prevents unsuitable people from having the opportunity to harm children or place them at risk. The relevant authorities and professional bodies are informed of any concerns about inappropriate adults.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

The registered manager is well respected by those who work with them. They display an unwavering passion for providing the best possible care for children, and this influences the staff in the home to do well by children. Staff are proud of their contribution in helping the children to succeed. This drive for high-quality, child-focused practice means that children receive excellent care from staff. The staff care about the children and want them to flourish.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

The manager is proactive in sharing information and best practice with the team to drive their continued professional development and practice. Staff training is good quality and relevant to the needs of the children. Senior leaders invest in upskilling deputy managers and shift leaders with professional courses that enhance their knowledge, skills and practice. This knowledge is then cascaded to other staff. The well-embedded approach to continued learning enables staff to feel fully supported by leaders and more confident in their role. Inspection report for children’s home: 2666309 6 Leaders and managers lead by example. They innovate and generate creative ideas to sustain the highest quality care for children. Managers’ and staff’s supervision is focused on children’s experiences, needs and plans. However, sometimes, supervision has not always taken place sufficiently regularly. This has not undermined staff practice.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

Staff and leaders receive effective support and challenge, including through team and management meetings. This ensures that their professional development results in the right environment for good practice to thrive. Leaders and managers recognise the emotional impact of the work on staff. They manage this well, with daily debriefs and reflection forming part of daily practice.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

The registered manager knows the home’s strengths and weaknesses well and has driven improvement over a sustained period. They have addressed the requirements and recommendations made at last inspection. There are transparent and respectful relationships between leaders and managers, who work closely with the staff team to provide a child-focused and trauma-informed approach.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

The PACE (Playfulness, Acceptance, Curiosity and Empathy) therapeutic model is fully embedded in staff practice. Activities are evaluated to ensure that they lead to effective therapeutic practice.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

The home is well staffed and resourced to meet the needs of the children. A small number of familiar agency staff are sometimes used. This ensures that children are cared for by familiar adults who they trust. Living at the home has had a significant positive impact on individual children’s progress and life chances. The home is a home full of love, laughter and unwavering acceptance of each other. Inspection report for children’s home: 2666309 7

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Recommendations

 The registered person should ensure that there are systems in place so that all staff, including the manager, receive regular supervision of their practice from an appropriately qualified and experienced professional, which allows them to reflect on their practice and the needs of the children assigned to their care. (‘Guide to the Children’s Homes Regulations, including the quality standards’, page 61, paragraph 13.2)

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Recommendations

 The registered person should ensure that any modifications to the environment of the home must only be made where this is intended to safeguard the child’s welfare. The use of any surveillance should be informed by a rigorous assessment of that individual child’s needs, be properly recorded and be kept under regular review. (‘Guide to the Children’s Homes Regulations, including the quality standards’, page 15, paragraph 3.10)

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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: 2666309 8

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Children’s home details

Registered provider: Rubicon Children and Family Services Ltd

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: Clarke Brownscombe, 2 St. Andrews Place, Southover Road, Lewes BN7 1UP

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Inspector

Emma Haskell, Social Care Regulatory Inspector Inspection report for children’s home: 2666309 9 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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