Children's home run by Care Focus Limited in Mid Suffolk

Inspection report for children’s home: SC047894 1 SC047894 Registered provider: Care Focus Limited

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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 provides care for up to four children aged between 10 and 16 years who experience social and emotional difficulties.

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Information about this children’s home

At the time of this inspection, two children were living at the home.

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Information about this children’s home

The registered manager left the home in May 2025. A new manager was appointed in June 2025. There is a registered school on site. The inspectors only inspected the social care provision on this site.

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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 requires improvement to be good

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good

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

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good

Date of last inspection: 18 September 2024

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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: SC047894 2

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

18/09/2024 Full Requires improvement to be good 21/11/2023 Full Good 09/11/2022 Full Good 02/11/2021 Full Good Inspection report for children’s home: SC047894 3

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Since the last inspection, one child has left the home. At the time of this inspection, two children were living at the home. Both children were seen and shared their views.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

The children are making progress with their education. They have personalised education plans, which help them to engage well. Overall, children’s attendance at school has increased since the last inspection.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff know the children well and have developed positive relationships with them. Children and staff spend time together on activities that reflect the children’s interests. These include going to the gym, the arcades, the cinema and going for walks. Both children said that they are happy and that the staff listen to them.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff help children to understand their identity and what this means to them. Staff support children to explore their heritage, culture and religion. This is celebrated and recognised through themed events and significant cultural events. Children said that this is important to them.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff support children to see people that are important to them. One child has been supported to see their parent again, which previously was not possible. Increased visits and regular phone calls have strengthened these relationships. This supports children’s sense of identity and belonging.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

The home is well presented, clean and tidy. There are pictures of the children around the home. The children recently took part in deciding how to decorate the home. They chose paint colours and helped design the communal areas and their bedrooms. The home’s appearance has improved since the last inspection.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

When one child moved into the home, at the time of the last inspection, leaders and managers did not gather sufficient information about the child’s needs. As a result of this, staff were unable to manage this child’s behaviour. This child then moved out of the home as staff were no longer able to meet their needs. Despite this unplanned ending, leaders managed the child’s move out of the home sensitively. This helped the child to have a positive ending.

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

Staff help to keep children safe. Staff have regular conversations with children about keeping safe. This helps children to understand how to keep themselves safe online and in the community. One child has a mobile phone agreement with staff, which helped them to have a mobile phone again. Staff help the children to understand different risks in the online world. Inspection report for children’s home: SC047894 4 Children’s behaviour can challenge staff. Staff support children to keep safe despite these challenges. Following incidents, staff update children’s relevant care plans to reflect any new behaviours or risks. Children take part in devising their own safety plans. This helps them to learn how to identify risks and the actions they can take to stay safe.

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

Leaders and managers take appropriate action when children raise concerns about staff. They involve other professionals such as the police and the local authority. The manager ensures that the local authority designated officer and Ofsted are notified of any serious incidents. Leaders and managers work with these professionals to keep children safe.

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

There have been several incidents of children going missing from home. Staff have responded appropriately. They attempt to locate the children and work with families and other professionals to do so. Staff welcome children home and talk to them about their absence. When there have been concerns, staff have responded well to these and communicated with other professionals. Although missing-from-home protocols and risk assessments are in place, these are not specific enough. This does not help staff to respond on an individual basis.

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

Staff are trained in the use of physical intervention. On occasions, when staff use physical restraint, this is a last resort to keep children safe. Leaders provided refresher training to staff who said that they lacked confidence. Restraints are proportionate and well recorded. However, managers do not provide their oversight of these incidents within the required timeframe. This makes it hard for the manager to understand how staff practice can be improved.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: requires improvement to be good

Leadership and management oversight have been poor since the last inspection. This is due to several organisational changes. The registered manager has not been at the home since November 2024. Since the last inspection, there has been inconsistent managerial oversight. The registered manager left the home in May 2025. The responsible individual has since left the home in May 2025.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: requires improvement to be good

The changes in leadership and management have led to limited management oversight. The organisational changes have unsettled staff and, as a result, some staff have left the home. A new responsible individual has been appointed, and a new manager joined the home in June 2025. The new manager has begun to make some changes at the home, but the impact of this on children’s experiences and increased management oversight is yet to be seen.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: requires improvement to be good

Since the last inspection, staff have not received regular supervision sessions. This is despite this being a time of challenge and change. This does not help staff to reflect on their practice or help leaders and managers identify what needs to change. This was raised at the last full inspection. Management oversight and staff support remain inconsistent. The new manager has introduced a new supervision session template to Inspection report for children’s home: SC047894 5 undertake with all staff to help explore staff’s skills and experience. Most staff have now had a supervision session in June 2025.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: requires improvement to be good

Since the last inspection, staff have undertaken some additional training to address some of the shortfalls identified at the previous inspection. Information is now more consistently shared in team meetings regarding children’s needs. Despite some improvements in training, there are still some gaps in mandatory training and specific training to children’s needs. This does not assure leaders and managers that staff have the necessary skills and experience to meet children’s needs.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: requires improvement to be good

Management oversight is inconsistent, and some reviews of incidents are not recorded quickly with gaps of up to two weeks before incidents are reviewed. This does not help the manager to understand the quality of care provided to children and what can be done to improve staff practice. In addition, the report used to help the manager understand the quality of care at the home fails to include relevant feedback from children or professionals.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: requires improvement to be good

The manager has not always ensured that necessary information about children is recorded at the home. This does not help leaders to ensure that staff are working to children’s relevant plans. The new manager has started to request missing documents from relevant professionals. Inspection report for children’s home: SC047894 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 leadership and management standard is that the registered person enables, inspires and leads a culture in relation to the children’s home that—

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Requirement Due date

helps children aspire to fulfil their potential; and

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Requirement Due date

In particular, the standard in paragraph (1) requires the registered person to—

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Requirement Due date

lead and manage the home in a way that is consistent with the approach and ethos, and delivers the outcomes, set out in the home’s statement of purpose;

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Requirement Due date

ensure that staff have the experience, qualifications and skills to meet the needs of each child;

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Requirement Due date

understand the impact that the quality of care provided in the home is having on the progress and experiences of each child and use this understanding to inform the development of the quality of care provided in the home;

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Requirement Due date

use monitoring and review systems to make continuous improvements in the quality of care provided in the home. (Regulation 13 (1)(a)(b) (2)(a)(c)(f)(h))

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Requirement Due date

In particular, the registered person should ensure that:

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Requirement Due date

staff receive regular, reflective supervision sessions and support;

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Requirement Due date

staff complete mandatory training and additional training to meet children’s specific needs. 30 November 2025

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must ensure that— 31 August 2025 Inspection report for children’s home: SC047894 7 within 48 hours of the use of the measure, the registered person, or a person who is authorised by the registered person to do so ("the authorised person")—

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Requirement Due date

has spoken to the user about the measure; and

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Requirement Due date

has signed the record to confirm it is accurate. (Regulation 35 (3)(b)(i)(ii))

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must complete a review of the quality of care provided for children ("a quality of care review") at least once every 6 months.

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Requirement Due date

In order to complete a quality of care review the registered person must establish and maintain a system for monitoring, reviewing and evaluating—

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Requirement Due date

the feedback and opinions of children about the children’s home, its facilities and the quality of care they receive in it. (Regulation 45 (1) (2)(b)) 31 December 2025

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Recommendations

 The registered person should only accept placements for children where they are satisfied that the home can respond effectively to the child’s assessed needs as recorded in the child’s relevant plans and where they have fully considered the impact that the placement will have on the existing group of children. (‘Guide to the Children’s Homes Regulations, including the quality standards’, page 56, paragraph 11.4)  The registered person should specify the procedures to be followed and the roles and responsibilities of staff when a child is missing from care or away from the home without permission and how staff should support the child on return to the home. In particular, ensure that actions staff should take when children go missing are clear and that these plans are individual to each child. (‘Guide to the Children’s Homes Regulations, including the quality standards’, page 45, paragraph 9.28)  The registered person should ensure that all children’s case records (regulation 36)

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Recommendations

are kept up to date and signed and dated by the author of each entry. In particular, the registered person should ensure there is a clear process for staff to follow when updating records so that children’s care plans and updates can be found by staff and leaders and managers.. (‘Guide to the Children’s Homes Regulations, including the quality standards’, page 62, paragraph 14.3) Inspection report for children’s home: SC047894 8

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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: SC047894 9

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: 2nd Floor, 168 Shoreditch High Street, London E1 6RA

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Inspectors

Rebecca Hannell, Social Care Inspector Emilja Myers, Social Care Inspector Inspection report for children’s home: SC047894 10 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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