Children's Home run by The Ryes College Limited in Suffolk

Inspection report for children’s home: SC429748 1 SC429748 Registered provider: The Ryes College Limited

p.1

Full inspection Inspected under the Social Care Common Inspection Framework

p.1

Information about this children’s home

This privately run home provides care for up to four children with emotional and social difficulties and learning disabilities. There were two children living at the home at the time of the inspection.

p.1

Information about this children’s home

The previous registered manager left in December 2024. An interim manager is currently managing the home.

p.1

Overall experiences and progress of

children and young people, taking into account

p.1

good

How well children and young people are helped and protected good

p.1

good

The effectiveness of leaders and managers good

p.1

good

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

p.1

good

Overall judgement at last inspection: requires improvement to be good

p.1

good

Enforcement action since last inspection: none Inspection report for children’s home: SC429748 2

p.1

Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

23/04/2024 Full Requires improvement to be good 18/07/2023 Full Good 12/07/2022 Full Good 02/12/2021 Full Good Inspection report for children’s home: SC429748 3

p.2

Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Since the last inspection, one child has moved into the home and another has moved out.

p.3

Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff help children to have planned, positive moves. One child has recently moved into the home and is settling in well. Staff listen to children’s views about their future. They work with the children, professionals and family to help make this a positive experience.

p.3

Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

The children are currently settled and are experiencing stability. Because the children feel settled and secure, they make good individual progress from their starting points. One child has made good progress with understanding and managing their emotions. Staff have helped them explore ways to repair damaged relationships with adults. One child’s social worker said, ‘From the very beginning, the care [the child] has received has been exceptional. They have shown significant progress in their emotional and social development, and they appear happy and content.’

p.3

Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff support the children to be healthy. The staff role model healthy living, encourage exercise and time outside. One child enjoys regularly going for long beach walks with staff, often walking miles. This helps children’s emotional well-being as well as their general physical health and stamina.

p.3

Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

The staff ensure that the children have fun experiences, and this helps create positive childhood memories. The children enjoy going on holiday and on days out such as visits to the sea-life centre. They also enjoy more local activities such as bowling, going to the cinema and to the gym.

p.3

Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff ensure that the children receive good educational support. Staff meet with, and challenge, professionals if they do not feel the child’s educational needs are being met in the best way. Staff advocated for one child to increase their previously reduced school timetable. This shows children that their carers value their education and are doing everything they can to make school or college a successful, positive experience.

p.3

Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff encourage children to develop independence skills. One child has been supported to budget, shop and cook some of their own meals. This child eventually wants to move to live independently, but staff are not yet providing the child with the depth and breadth of support they need to progress with their goal for independence.

p.3

Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff have developed positive relationships with the children and children enjoy spending time with them. Staff know the children well and speak about them with fondness and care. Since the last inspection, one child’s relationships with some staff changed and the child no longer wanted to live at the home. Even though there were challenges, the child’s parent said that the staff ‘had always done well’ with their child and that staff ‘went out of their way to give opportunities’ to the child. Inspection report for children’s home: SC429748 4 Staff understand children’s likes, dislikes and the children’s preferred ways of working with them. One child enjoys staff’s company and chooses to spend the vast majority of their time with them. However, staff are not consistently actively helping the child develop the skills to form and maintain friendships. The child is currently not in education and staff have provided some, but limited, opportunities for them to spend

p.3

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

Staff are proactive at helping children to return safely when they go missing from home. Staff know what to do when children go missing. They seek to understand any potential risks and harm the child may have come to. Managers work with the children and relevant professionals to review and revise plans when they have not worked.

p.4

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

Staff are proactive at seeking the individual support that children need. For example, one child started to have occasions of substance misuse. When this happened, managers quickly used their specialist advisers and the professional network to help address the concerns.

p.4

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

Individual care and support plans for each child help staff understand risk and offer staff clear direction as to how to respond to risks. Consequently, staff are clear about how they would respond at times of concern. The staff use their positive relationships with the children to help them think about risk and how to keep themselves safe. For example, staff had numerous conversations with one child to help them understand the effects of using substances and associated risks of exploitation. For other children, behavioural incidents have significantly reduced or have not occurred since moving into the home. This indicates the children are now safer and settled.

p.4

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

Staff understand the risks that using the internet and phones may pose for children and have strategies in place to help keep children safe. Staff turn the internet access off at night and are currently trialling monitoring technology. Children and relevant professionals know that this is in place. However, the extent of this monitoring is significant and potentially impacts on children’s privacy. This level of monitoring is not clearly outlined in the home’s statement of purpose or children’s guide.

p.4

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

Leaders and managers work with relevant professionals, including their own specialist advisers, to manage safeguarding incidents such as self-harm, missing from home and risk of exploitation. A social worker said, in respect of their child, that, ‘All safeguarding incidents have been appropriately dealt with and reported within the timescales.’ Another said, ‘The staff have demonstrated a strong commitment to maintaining a safe and secure environment for all the children.’ However, one professional said that information relating to a child’s emerging risks was not shared at the time. Since the last inspection, not all notifications of serious events have been shared quickly. This potentially undermines external oversight at the time. Inspection report for children’s home: SC429748 5

p.4

The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Since the last inspection, there have been several changes in management and leadership. An interim manager has been managing the home since the last manager left. The registered provider has recently appointed a new responsible individual. The interim manager has applied to register with Ofsted. Leaders have worked to reduce the effect of these changes for staff and children.

p.5

The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Leaders and managers have maintained suitable oversight of the service despite the changes. They are ambitious and motivated to continue to improve and achieve the best outcomes for children. They understand their strengths and weakness. They have a clear development plan to drive improvement that is progressing well.

p.5

The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Leaders and managers encourage and challenge the staff. Consequently, the staff feel well supported. Staff said that the new managers have improved communication in the team and ensured a more consistent approach to care.

p.5

The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Leaders and managers have provided staff with more relevant training, which has increased the staff’s knowledge and skills. This, in turn, has improved staff’s direct work with children. Any staff practice issues have been dealt with quickly and effectively. The manager has identified, and followed through, any learning outcomes to help prevent similar occurrences. This has helped staff to begin to develop a reflective learning culture.

p.5

The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The quality of recording has improved in recent months and most records are now child centred and capture the child’s voice. However, the quality of some recording continues to be variable with, on occasion, missing or inaccurate records that sometimes lack detail, and staff are not yet consistently capturing information from post-incident discussions with children.

p.5

The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Leaders and managers have invested in the home since the last inspection. The home is now modern, homely and decorated to a high standard. Inspection report for children’s home: SC429748 6

p.5

Recommendations

 The registered person should have a system in place so that all serious events are notified, within 24 hours, to the appropriate people. The system should cover the action that should be followed if the event arises at the weekend or on a public holiday. (‘Guide to the Children’s Homes Regulations, including the quality standards’, page 63, paragraph 14.13)  The registered person should ensure that as part of reviewing and revising, where appropriate, the statement of purpose (regulation 16(3)(a)), the registered person should review and update the children’s guide as necessary, and make sure children are given an explanation of any changes. The statement of purpose and children’s guide should include all relevant information for children, including the home’s monitoring of children’s mobile phone use. (‘Guide to the Children’s Homes Regulations, including the quality standards’, page 24, paragraph 4.23)

p.6

Recommendations

 The registered person should ensure that children are supported to understand how to build friendships with other children. They should be able to spend time with their friends in the local community, in their home area, and by having friends visit them at the home, in line with the child’s plans, age and understanding. (‘Guide to the Children’s Homes Regulations, including the quality standards’, page 38, paragraph 8.7)  The registered person should ensure that staff are familiar with the home’s policies on record-keeping and understand the importance of careful, objective and clear recording. Staff should record information on individual children in a non-stigmatising way that distinguishes between fact, opinion and third-party information. Information about the child must always be recorded in a way that will be helpful to the child. (‘Guide to the Children’s Homes Regulations, including the quality standards’, page 62,

p.6

Recommendations

paragraph 14.4)  The registered person should enable children to develop independence skills within the supportive environment of the home. (‘Guide to the Children’s Homes Regulations, including the quality standards’, page 17, paragraph 3.25)

p.6

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: SC429748 7

p.6

Children’s home details

Registered provider: The Ryes College Limited

p.7

Children’s home details

Registered provider address: Maybrook House, Third Floor, Queensway, Halesowen, West Midlands B63 4AH

p.7

Inspector

Carrie Twinn, Social Care Inspector Inspection report for children’s home: SC429748 8 and inspects 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.

p.7

Inspector

If you would like a copy of this document in a different format, such as large print or Braille, please telephone 0300 123 1231, or email enquiries@ofsted.gov.uk . You may reuse this information (not including logos) free of charge in any format or medium, under the terms of the Open Government Licence. To view this licence, visit www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/doc/open-government-licence , write to the Information Policy Team, The National Archives, Kew, London TW9 4DU, or email: psi@nationalarchives.gsi.gov.uk .

p.8

Inspector

Interested in our work? You can subscribe to our monthly newsletter for more information and updates: http://eepurl.com/iTrDn .

p.8

Inspector

T: 0300 123 1231 Textphone: 0161 618 8524 E: enquiries@ofsted.gov.uk W: www.gov.uk/ofsted

p.8