Children's home run by Rubicon Children and Family Services Ltd in Lewes

Inspection report for children’s home: SC403905 1 SC403905 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 home is privately owned and is registered to provide care for up to five children. The home specialises in supporting children who may have a diagnosis of moderate learning disability, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder or autism, and who may have social and emotional difficulties. At the time of the inspection, five children were living in the home.

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Information about this children’s home

The manager registered with Ofsted in November 2019.

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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

Date of last inspection: 14 November 2023

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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: SC403905 2

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

14/11/2023 Full Good 28/02/2023 Full Good 05/07/2021 Full Good 02/10/2019 Full Good Inspection report for children’s home: SC403905 3

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: outstanding

Children are looked after by an experienced, skilled and loving staff team. With support from consistent staff who pride themselves on the importance of relationships, children have made some significant changes and progress which have had life-changing results.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: outstanding

Children thrive in this home. The successes are significant and include re-engagement in education for children who were previously not in school, a reduction in episodes of going missing and physical interventions, preparedness and successful transitions to foster care, comprehensive family and life-story work and a positive increase in children’s self-esteem.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: outstanding

Staff have a thorough understanding of children’s education needs and ensure that there is individualised support for them. Staff maintain ongoing communication with education professionals to ensure that children’s plans are regularly reviewed. As a result, all children make progress. For children who do not have a school placement, leaders have been tenacious in their attempts to secure education, identifying alternative education provision in the short term.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: outstanding

Children’s health needs are met extremely well. As well as ensuring that children attend routine appointments with medical professionals, staff readily advocate when there are concerns regarding a child’s health. This has resulted in prompt changes to medication when necessary and working in partnership with children and health professionals to reduce medication when possible. This has had a significant and positive impact on children’s well-being, such as enabling a child to travel to education independently.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: outstanding

Children’s opinions and wishes are paramount. There are a variety of ways in which they can raise how they feel. As well as general discussions with staff, there is regular, planned one-to-one work with an assigned worker. Impromptu sessions are also available, meaning that if something happens in the home, such as a new or unexpected behaviour, this can be responded to immediately.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: outstanding

Alongside this, there are weekly meetings where all staff and children are invited to think about how it feels to live in the home. These have been used to discuss any disagreements or challenges that the children may have with peers; equally, staff also provide a space to consider choices for activities, food and learning about what is happening in the world that week. Children engage well with these meetings and are supported to join when they feel ready. Children are helped to learn important life skills as part of living in a group, such as managing conflict, sharing, and thinking about others.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: outstanding

To further ensure that children are heard, advocacy sessions take place once a month. These support children to think about and raise any concerns. Anything that is raised as a concern is shared with the manager, who ensures that she responds. This Inspection report for children’s home: SC403905 4 comprehensive way of gaining views ensures that children feel genuinely heard and that they can have an impact on their care.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: outstanding

Since the last inspection, the introduction of a new therapeutic lead has provided a greater emphasis on the importance of how staff communicate with children and document their work. This shift has helped children to be able to express their feelings with individual staff, peers and in whole-house meetings. This also ensures that the team is providing the best possible support based on well-informed, theory-based assessments of the children’s needs.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: outstanding

Staff specialise in reunification work between children and their families. Carefully planned work, carried out in conjunction with relevant professionals, has resulted in the repairing of significant family relationships. This has resulted in increased contact for some children and plans to return home for others. Families talk positively of this and the impact on their children. One parent commented: ‘My daughter’s care is very important to me and I feel staff do a fantastic job at providing the care and understanding my daughter needs.’ Social workers and external safeguarding professionals equally praise the work that staff do, especially acknowledging the impact of both the significance and success of this family work.

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

Staff demonstrate a robust knowledge of the risks that children face. Guidance, in the form of risk assessments, ensures that children’s needs are clearly understood by all staff. This guidance is regularly updated following any changes to a child’s behaviour or known risks.

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

For children who are new to the home, staff carry out extensive work with other professionals to ensure that all historical information, the child’s strengths and areas of vulnerability are understood. This approach supports leaders to make effective decisions about whether their needs can be met and are compatible with children already living in the home. When children move into the home, this is well planned.

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

Children rarely go missing. When this happens, the response is exemplary. Relationships with the children are strong and staff worry about them in the same way as a caring parent would. This helps children to know that they are cared for, loved and held in mind. Staff help them to understand the risks that they may face. As a result, missing- from-home incidents have reduced.

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

Staff have effective working relationships with external safeguarding professionals. Where safeguarding concerns arise, comprehensive safety plans are in place that are written alongside social workers, safeguarding professionals and, where appropriate, the children. These safety plans are consistently kept under review to ensure that they are relevant and protect children from harm effectively. Inspection report for children’s home: SC403905 5 As a result of the positive relationships, children engage well with the well-informed support from staff; children have been supported to learn coping skills and the number of behaviour incidents has significantly reduced.

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

Since the last inspection, leaders have developed comprehensive monitoring systems that enable the registered manager to have immediate oversight of any incidents of concern in the home. Any identified themes and patterns are rapidly shared with the team to enhance care practice and to ensure that children are as safe as possible.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

The home is led by a dedicated and experienced registered manager and two deputy managers. They lead a skilled, stable team of staff, many of whom have been in post for several years. As well as formal methods of support, such as supervision sessions and team meetings, there is an open-door policy that staff particularly value. Leaders are very clear about their high aspirations for both children’s outcomes and staff development and these are well understood by all. Staff are unanimous in their praise for management support and report that they feel that managers are dedicated and lead by example.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

The registered manager uses high-quality, well-embedded monitoring systems to support the development of the home and to maintain oversight of the progress that children make. These systems support the registered manager to make positive changes and enable her to react when issues arise for any of the children.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

All staff receive regular supervision. These sessions provide staff with time and space to reflect on their work. Staff are supported in supervision to further develop their understanding of the therapeutic work that is used in the home. They are supported to identify how their practice can continue to support children to achieve and to have a positive experience of care.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

Leaders actively challenge other services when their expectations are not being met. There have been significant changes to care plans because of the advocacy of leaders, resulting in life-changing outcomes. As well as the previously identified example of medication, leaders have influenced care planning decisions for children where an inaccurate assessment was made about them not being ready for fostering. As a result of this, a successful transition to foster care was achieved, where the child continues to thrive. Inspection report for children’s home: SC403905 6

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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: SC403905 7

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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 Andrew’s Place, Southover Road, Lewes BN7 1UP

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Inspector

Mark Newington, Social Care Inspector Inspection report for children’s home: SC403905 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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Inspector

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Inspector

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