Children's home run by The Ryes College Limited

Inspection report for children's home: 2651665 1 Registered provider: The Ryes College 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 privately run home provides care for up to 4 children with emotional and social difficulties and learning disabilities. Four children were living at the home at the time of inspection.

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Information about this children's home

There is a school registered with the Department for Education on the same site. The inspectors only inspected the social care provision on this site.

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Information about this children's home

The manager registered with Ofsted in February 2023.

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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

Overall judgement at last inspection: outstanding

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outstanding

Enforcement action since last inspection: none Inspection report for children's home: 2651665 2

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

07/01/2025 Full Outstanding 22/08/2023 Full Good 01/03/2023 Full Good 01/02/2022 Full Good Inspection report for children's home: 2651665 3

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: outstanding

Leaders and managers have continued to build on the excellent progress highlighted at the last inspection. Children continue to benefit from excellent care and support, enabling them to reduce risk and sustain considerable progress over a significant period.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: outstanding

Children consistently experience long-term stability because of the high-quality care they receive. Two children have moved out of the home and 2 children have moved into the home since the last inspection. One child moved in a planned way shortly after the last inspection. The other child moved on from the home in a planned way, moving closer to their education setting. Staff remain committed to supporting children after they have left the home, continuing to stay in contact and visit in line with the children's individual wishes.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: outstanding

Children form excellent, highly positive relationships with staff. These extremely strong relationships enable the commitment that staff have to ensure that children are safe, cared for and feel loved to be realised. One child credited the staff and management for 'saving their life' and stated, 'without them I wouldn't be where I am today'.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: outstanding

The home is warm and welcoming, with a significant family feel, helping children to feel valued and settled. Communal areas are adorned with photos of the children and staff spending time together and taking part in fun and exciting activities. Children's bedrooms are individualised to their own personal taste and interests.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: outstanding

Staff strive to enable children to develop and maintain relationships with their family and friends. They ensure that friends are regularly invited to visit and, on occasions, children have sleepovers with their friends. This provides children with wonderful opportunities to experience important connections with their peers. Regardless of distance and location, staff ensure that children and their families are supported to spend quality time together.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: outstanding

Children's individual health needs are very well met. There are highly detailed plans in place for children's complex health needs, such as epilepsy support plans. These ensure that staff have access to clear, necessary information. When needed, external support is promptly sought to provide staff with training that is specific to children's individual health needs.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: outstanding

Children attend education that is tailored to their individual learning needs. Children who have previously experienced poor school attendance now attend school or alternative education provisions regularly, with support and encouragement from staff. Leaders and managers have advocated strongly and challenged appropriately when children's education has been disrupted. The staff and management have the children's best interests at the forefront and look for creative solutions when faced with challenge. Inspection report for children's home: 2651665 4

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

Children benefit from very well planned, highly individualised care that meets their safeguarding needs with great effectiveness. Staff understand children's vulnerabilities and the associated potential dangers. Detailed, strong risk assessments for children guide staff practice and clearly clarify the actions that staff should take to safeguard children. These assessments are regularly updated and take into account the views of partner agencies and children.

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

Children make excellent progress in improving their emotional and mental health. Managers and staff have access to speciality therapeutic advice, which helps them to support children consistently. Staff have implemented individualised approaches to managing self-harm and other risks that children experience. This has helped to improve children's mental health and emotional wellbeing greatly.

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

Behaviour management is excellent. Positive behaviour is consistently promoted in the home. Staff make use of reward systems and incentive charts to reward children's positive achievements and behaviour. The implementation of this is highly effective and is helping to develop children's self-esteem.

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

The use of consequences is very rare. The culture of respect in the home means that emphasis is placed on restoring and repairing relationships if there are any areas of conflict. Children are supported with mediation to aid reflection and talk about their differences. This approach has helped children to live in a harmonious setting.

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

Children feel safer with staff. Before moving to the home, one child was regularly running away. This has significantly reduced since they moved in. The child's social worker attributes this change to the nurturing relationships that the staff are providing.

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

One-to-one sessions between staff and children are used to explore areas that are relevant for each child and discover how the children's developing and changing needs can best be met. The quality, regularity and content of these sessions further enhance the excellent care that children receive.

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

When children have raised concerns, these have been responded to extremely well. Information is appropriately shared with professionals. The manager ensures that children are spoken with after these events and their concerns are thoroughly explored.

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

Adults are acutely aware of the importance of social media and the internet. They advise and teach children about its safe use and respond comprehensively if there are any concerns. There is a strong emphasis on helping children to understand the risks of the internet and implementing safe strategies to deal with these.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

The home is managed by a permanent, passionate and confident manager who knows the children well and has high aspirations for them. The manager is supported by an Inspection report for children's home: 2651665 5 equally efficient deputy. The quality of the management team and the effectiveness of their approach mean that children are able to thrive.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

Managers lead the staff by example and ensure that the staff have a clear sense of purpose and direction. The inclusive relationships across the home are clear to see and allow children to feel comfortable in expressing themselves.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

Staff benefit from a multitude of resources as well as learning based on research and therapeutic theory, which are meticulously implemented in their practice. Leaders and managers demonstrate a commitment to ongoing challenge and development of both the home and staff practice, with continuous and forward-thinking action plans.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

Managers advocate passionately for children when this is required. These efforts are appreciated by the children and further strengthen the sense of trust they have.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

Children benefit from a stable and consistent team of staff, who communicate with each other effectively. Staff morale is exceptionally high, helping children to receive continuity of care.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

The manager uses internal and external monitoring systems to monitor and record children's behaviour, progress and overall experiences. The clear tracking and recording systems in place make for easy triangulation of data and help staff and managers to recognise patterns and trends. This contributes to leaders and managers having an excellent understanding of the progress that children make.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

Management and staff collaboratively work with multi-agency partners, seeking out their advice and knowledge both routinely and proactively to address areas of concern. Families and professionals provide consistently excellent feedback about the quality of the service. The staff and managers' commitment to supporting children was described as 'flexible, adaptable and creative' to ensure that children's needs are being met. Inspection report for children's home: 2651665 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: 2651665 7

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Children's home details

Registered provider: The Ryes College Ltd

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Children's home details

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

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Children's home details

Registered manager: Jessica-Rose McWilliams

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Inspector

Naomi Starbuck, Social Care Inspector Inspection report for children's home: 2651665 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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Inspector

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