Children's Home run by Institute of Integrated Systemic Therapy in Norfolk

Inspection report for children’s home: SC065792 1 SC065792 Registered provider: Institute of Integrated Systemic Therapy

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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 private provider and provides care for up to eight children who experience social and emotional difficulties. Seven children were living at the home at the time of this inspection.

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Information about this children’s home

The manager registered with Ofsted in January 2021.

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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 good

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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: SC065792 2

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

10/05/2023 Full Good 18/01/2023 Full Good 20/12/2021 Full Good 14/10/2019 Full Outstanding Inspection report for children’s home: SC065792 3

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: outstanding

Three children have moved out and two children have moved into the home since the last inspection. All seven of the children living at the home were given the opportunity to share their views during the inspection. Six children were seen and spoken with; one child chose not to share their views.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: outstanding

Children make exceptional progress at this home. One social worker said that their child has come on ‘leaps and bounds’ since they moved in and is making excellent progress socially and emotionally. All professionals spoken with are resoundingly positive about children’s experiences.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: outstanding

Children have new and exciting experiences. Staff encourage all children to engage in new activities. Children have participated in swimming, horse riding, cheerleading, paddle boarding and rock climbing. Staff gain additional training certificates in outdoor activities to ensure that children have the best and safest experiences. In addition, staff bring in guest activity instructors, which encourages children to take part in exercise and yoga in the garden as part of their programme of summer holiday activities.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: outstanding

Children are part of a cohesive community. The manager encourages a holiday each year, which includes all staff and children together. Staff take time to plan holiday events and activities that suit each child’s individual interests. Children talk about the holiday with enthusiasm. The manager has helped to inspire a culture of togetherness even when children have different likes and interests.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: outstanding

Staff create exceptional theme days for children across the year, which include costumes, awards and decorations. These whole-day events have featured magicians, clowns, creative workshops, food stalls and games. These days are rich and varied; they surprise children and give them memorable new experiences.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: outstanding

All children are in education and are making good progress. Children access bespoke timetables and education support to meet their needs. Staff have close working relationships with school professionals. One child has taken some GCSE exams a year early. Another child has their artwork on display in the school entrance. The manager has challenged and advocated effectively for children’s educational needs to be met.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: outstanding

Children’s identity and life stories are celebrated. Children attend support groups and events that help them to explore their identity. Skilled staff help children to understand their life experiences and capture this in thoughtful records created with children over time. Children are learning new things about their families and are sensitively helped to rebuild relationships.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: outstanding

Staff are exceptionally committed to supporting children to spend time with their families. A professional said: ‘Staff have been very good at rebuilding relationships,’ Inspection report for children’s home: SC065792 4 when a child had previously not spent any meaningful regular time with their family. Staff have supported another child to have regular overnight stays with their family when previously they had none. Another professional said: ‘Staff have gone above and beyond [expectations] to support the child to see people who are important to them.’ Staff support children in line with their wishes, even when this can be challenging.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: outstanding

Innovative children’s meetings enable children to regularly explore their experiences at the home. There is commitment from staff to make these meetings valuable for all children. The meetings are fun and playful and children lead in show and tell sessions each week. Staff listen to children’s views and children gain confidence over time to share their views.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: outstanding

The home is furnished to a high standard. Children have contributed to design choices in the home that help make it their own. All their bedrooms are individually personalised. Children value improvements to their outdoor space and play equipment. Additionally, children have worked with a local graffiti artist to create a large mural across the living room wall. This is designed with children, and each child who moves in designs something new to add to the wall. This helps children to feel a sense of belonging when they move into the home.

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

Children build strong relationships with staff. Through these relationships, children are encouraged to have important conversations that help them understand the story of their lives. Children take part in regular one-to-one sessions and staff create detailed and thoughtful books to reflect these. These include handwritten notes and photos.

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

The home has employed a therapist, who offers sessions to children. Several children at the home are enjoying time with the therapist. This helps to promote their well-being and sense of self.

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

Children do not frequently go missing from the home. The manager and staff are not risk-averse and they manage situations of children leaving the home without labelling them as missing from home. Each child has a plan that is in line with police protocols. Proactive planning like this ensures that children receive well-thought-out care that is not reactive.

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

Staff help children to do individual pieces of work depending on their needs. One child was supported to learn about being safe online. Another child looked at their anger and how this could be managed in a safer way for everyone.

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

Children’s plans are written in a child-friendly format. Staff help children to understand their plans and the decisions made about their care. This was clear in conversations with children, who clearly knew what their day-to-day care should look like. Inspection report for children’s home: SC065792 5 The manager has recently completed a review on physical intervention. She realised that the model that the staff were previously using did not meet their needs. Staff have undergone further training using a new model. Consequently, the frequency of restraint has reduced. There have been a few occasions when staff have used a physical intervention that is not part of their new training. The manager has identified this and is working with staff to upskill them further.

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

On occasions, children have received consequences for behaviour that challenged the staff, such as damage to the home and physical aggression. The consequences do not always relate to the behaviour, which does not help the children to learn from their experiences.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

The home is run by a confident, experienced and qualified manager. A dedicated deputy manager and staff team support them. The manager and deputy manager have high aspirations for children and set ambitious expectations for children and staff.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

Leaders and managers successfully use a therapeutic model to support the way in which children are helped and cared for. A professional said: ‘The home integrates its theoretical framework into practice with the young people in a way that I haven’t experienced so coherently before.’ A number of social workers gave exceedingly positive feedback about the support that children receive and the stability that they have achieved as a result of their experiences and therapeutic support at this home.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

Staff receive high-quality supervision that uses the home’s therapeutic approach to help staff explore important topics and reflect on their everyday practice. When staff are not meeting the manager’s practice standards, there is clear challenge in supervision sessions to address any practice issues; this is monitored over time. This helps the manager to ensure that staff are making progress and working to the same standards to achieve the best outcomes for children.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

The manager uses extensive internal monitoring systems to record children’s behaviour, progress and overall experiences. This helps to support the manager’s already extensive knowledge of children’s lived experiences and needs.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

Leaders and managers provide staff with excellent training. This includes the therapeutic model used in the home. This training is also extended to administrative staff and other staff at the home who might not work as closely with children. This helps the whole staff team to work together under the same therapeutic model. In addition, staff have attended training sessions offered by a child’s local school. This helps to support effective multi-agency working. Leaders and managers ensure that further training is provided to staff as they progress. This includes university-accredited modules as part of an in-depth training programme. However, leaders and managers have not recently mapped their accredited training programme to the most recent national residential qualifications. Inspection report for children’s home: SC065792 6

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Recommendations

 The registered person should ensure that all incidents of restraint follow the home’s behaviour management policy. (‘Guide to the Children’s Homes Regulations, including the quality standards’, page 46, paragraph 9.36)  The registered person should ensure that any consequences used to address behaviour are restorative in nature. In particular, they should link to the behaviour and not be punitive in approach. (‘Guide to the Children’s Homes Regulations, including the quality standards’, page 46, paragraph 9.38)  The registered person should ensure that staff have the required qualification. When these are an equivalent qualification, the registered person should show how they are compared with the Qualifications and Credit Framework (QCF) diploma qualifications and regularly review this. (‘Guide to the Children’s Homes Regulations, including the quality standards’, page 53, paragraph 10.14)

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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: SC065792 7

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Children’s home details

Registered provider: Institute of Integrated Systemic Therapy

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: 210 Borough High Street, London SE1 1JX

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Inspectors

Rebecca Hannell, Social Care Inspector Mary Costello, Social Care Inspector Inspection report for children’s home: SC065792 8 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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Inspectors

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Inspectors

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Inspectors

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Inspectors

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