Children's home run by Clover Childcare Services Limited

Inspection report for children’s home: 1263776 1 Registered provider: Clover Childcare 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 operated and provides care for up to three children. The home offers therapeutic care to children with complex behavioural and social care needs.

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Information about this children’s home

There were three children living at the home at the time of the inspection.

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Information about this children’s home

The manager has been registered with Ofsted since October 2024.

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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 good

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good

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

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good

Overall judgement at last inspection: good

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good

Enforcement action since last inspection: none Inspection report for children’s home: 1263776 2

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

04/03/2025 Full Good 16/01/2024 Full Good 06/09/2022 Full Good 19/04/2021 Full Good Inspection report for children’s home: 1263776 3

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

There have been no children who have moved into or from the home since the last inspection. Staff have provided the children with the stability that these young children have often not previously experienced. As a result, the children have made positive progress in all aspects of their lives. Parents and professionals are very positive about the quality of care provided and the difference that this makes for the children.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff build positive relationships with the children and establish routines that help them to settle. They understand that bedtimes can be a difficult time for the children and work to help them feel secure. At bedtime, the staff sit with each child, talk about their day and have a bedtime story so that they are reassured and ready for sleep.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children benefit from supportive staff who use a therapeutic model to underpin their work. Staff understand the enduring impact that early life trauma experiences have on children. The children are supported by specialist therapy staff who provide play therapy and life-story work. This helps the children to understand their personal history and develop their sense of identity.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children are encouraged to express their views in age-appropriate ways. Staff celebrate the children’s achievements and create records of these for each child. This helps build children’s confidence and self-esteem.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

All of the children attend school. Staff have helped children who had not previously attended school to begin a programme of integration into education. Staff are committed to developing the children’s skills and undertake educational activities, such as phonics work, to help the children develop their literacy.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

The staff provide children with opportunities to try new things and enjoy new experiences. The children enjoy trips to the beach and have holidays. The staff encourage and support the children to pursue their interests, such as the gym, swimming and football. Staff help the children to make positive memories and collate mementoes to take with them when they eventually move on.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff help the children develop appropriate life skills according to their ages and understanding. Children are encouraged to make choices and manage their personal self-care with appropriate prompts and support from staff. Staff encourage the children to have family dining while being sensitive to how difficult this can be for some children. They encourage the children to be involved in household chores, such as wiping up the dishes after a meal or clearing the table. This gives children a positive sense of responsibility and the opportunity to informally develop life skills. Inspection report for children’s home: 1263776 4 Staff encourage the children to be active and healthy. This encourages children’s positive physical and mental health. The staff keep the children physically active; they enjoy the climbing frame, trampoline and games in the garden. Outdoor activities and garden apparatus help reduce conflict inside the home.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

The house is generally homely, clean and tidy. However, some areas require general repairs and maintenance. A bathroom has water damage and damage to the floor sealants, and one child’s bedroom walls are stained and marked.

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

Staff understand their core role in keeping children safe. They all undertake suitable safeguarding training. Their knowledge is built on through discussions and the use of scenarios in team meetings. With the children’s ages, staff support them to understand relevant risks such as road safety, keeping safe in the car and appropriate privacy. There are suitable checks in place to help the young children navigate elements of the online world.

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

Staff understand how important routine is for children to help them feel safe and secure. Staff use their knowledge of the children to understand routines that work well. They anticipate tricky situations, change routines that no longer work and avoid situations that are likely to cause children distress.

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

The staff manage incidents well. Staff are creative in distracting and using approaches that best suit each child. For example, staff have set up a snug area for children to take some quiet space away from the others when they are struggling with their emotions.

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

Physical intervention is used only as a last resort. When physical intervention occurs, it is generally well recorded. The manager reviews incidents to ensure that any restraint used is fair and appropriate. The manager ensures that conversations take place with staff and children after each event. These are used to explore their feelings and seek to understand how to reduce the risk of needing to use physical intervention in the future.

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

Staff are alert to risks that children may be vulnerable to and take suitable action to reduce these. Children rarely go missing from the home, and when they do, staff take all appropriate action, as a parent would, to ensure the child’s safe return.

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

Staff are alert to group dynamics, and any concerns regarding potential bullying are quickly addressed. The children can struggle to share and have positive relationships with each other. Staff work with them to help them develop their social skills and ability to get along together. Staff supportively help children to develop skills in repairing fractured relationships with each other. Inspection report for children’s home: 1263776 5 When safeguarding incidents have occurred, these have been well managed. Any allegations against staff have been appropriately reported to the local authority designated officer and other relevant professionals.

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

On occasion, audio speaker systems, which enable monitoring of noise and all children’s conversations, have been used when staff may be in other areas. There is a generalised consent to use these in the initial consent documentation. However, children’s parents and placing authorities have not always been informed when these monitoring devices have been used, the reasoning for their use and the length of time they are to be used.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The manager ensures that a therapeutically informed child-focused ethos permeates through the home. The warmth and nurture in approach is modelled from the manager and deputy to the staff and influences their interactions with the children. The therapeutic models are well known and used by the reflective staff. Staff are professionally curious and understand behaviour as a form of communication.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Staff are child focused and motivated to ensure that children receive the help and support that they need. Staff work well as a team and are well supported by an accessible manager, deputy manager and senior leaders.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

New staff feel well supported with an effective induction, including shadow shifts and core training. The manager ensures that all staff receive regular good-quality reflective supervision sessions and new staff have enhanced support.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Staff have the required core training. Further training to meet the specific needs of the children is provided. Staff are encouraged to enhance their professional development through training in the therapeutic models used.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The manager and staff are held in high esteem by parents and children’s social workers. The manager and staff work well with parents and other professionals to ensure that children’s needs are well met.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The manager maintains effective oversight of the service to drive improvement. One child’s social worker said that the manager ‘has been really good at oversight of all things and will stand back and think what does it mean, how can we do it differently.’

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The manager has overseen staff recruitment checks. However, there was not enough professional curiosity in exploring one member of staff’s previous work history. Furthermore, records of staff Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) checks do not always clearly detail important relevant information, such as whether there was any information arising from the check, when it was checked and the DBS number. Inspection report for children’s home: 1263776 6

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Recommendations

 The registered person should ensure that the home is a well maintained, nurturing and supportive environment that meets the needs of children. (‘Guide to the Children’s Homes Regulations, including the quality standards’, page 15, paragraph 3.9)  The registered person should ensure that limits on privacy and access are only put in place to safeguard each child in the home (regulation 21(c)(i)). All decisions 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)  The registered person should, as set out in regulations 31-33, maintain good employment practice. They should ensure that recruitment of staff safeguards children and minimises potential risks to them. (‘Guide to the Children’s Homes Regulations, including the quality standards’, page 61, paragraph 13.1)

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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: 1263776 7

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Children’s home details

Registered provider: Clover Childcare Services Limited

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: The Old Rectory, Old Rectory Road, Brumstead, Norwich NR12 9EU

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Inspector

Rebecca Hannell, Social Care Inspector Inspection report for children’s home: 1263776 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.

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Inspector

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Inspector

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Inspector

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