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

Inspection report for children’s home: SC429702 1 SC429702 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

The home is privately operated and provides care for up to 4 children who experience social and emotional difficulties and have learning disabilities.

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Information about this children’s home

At the time of this inspection, 4 children were living at the home.

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Information about this children’s home

The manager registered with Ofsted in June 2012.

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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: 27 January 2025

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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: SC429702 2

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

27/01/2025 Full Outstanding 09/05/2023 Full Good 27/06/2022 Full Good 06/12/2021 Full Good Inspection report for children’s home: SC429702 3

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: outstanding

Since the last inspection, one child has moved into the home. The inspector met 4 children during the inspection and spoke with 3 of the children. The children clearly benefit from the long-term stability and permanence they experience living at the home.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: outstanding

All the children continue to make exceptional progress from their individual starting points, particularly with their social skills and ability to recognise and manage difficult emotions. Staff are incredibly dedicated to securing the best possible outcomes for children. Children are proud of their progress.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: outstanding

Managers and staff fully understand the importance of routine and structure for children. Staff help children to identify hobbies and find clubs of interest. Children attend the local youth club and have regular sleep overs at friend’s house and invite friends into the home. This helps children feel part of the community and develop a sense of belonging.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: outstanding

Children’s health needs are exceptionally well met. Staff demonstrate a deep commitment to working collaboratively with a wide range of professionals to ensure that children with unique or complex health needs received individualised care. Children are supported to understand and manage their own health and wellbeing. This means children are experiencing excellent support and developing confidence in managing their own health needs and creating healthy lifelong habits.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: outstanding

For some of the children, this is their first time residing in a children’s home. Staff understand the children’s past experiences and how these may shape their view of the world. Staff use various child-focused approaches when communicating with the children and take time to build strong and loving relationships. Staff take their roles in the children’s lives very seriously. They are fully committed to providing the children with excellent care.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: outstanding

The children living at the home make exceptional progress in their education from their starting points. Leaders, managers and staff work proactively and highly effectively with the virtual school and an alternative education provider to secure the most appropriate provision for every child. The manager offers tenacious and highly effective advocacy, ensuring that children’s educational needs are prioritised and met. Communication with school and college staff is consistent, purposeful and highly responsive, enabling the team to monitor progress closely and address any concerns.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: outstanding

Family time is prioritised and well supported by the very flexible staff. Parents describe the team as ‘brilliant’. They say that staff always make time for them and listen closely to their views. Professionals echo this, highlighting the manager’s strong, joined-up approach and consistent communication. They say that staff go ‘above and beyond’ to Inspection report for children’s home: SC429702 4 support family relationships and children’s wider interests, ensuring that any emotional effect on children is promptly shared and sensitively followed up.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: outstanding

Children have exceptionally positive links with their neighbours and the local community. At Christmas, a neighbour gave the children Christmas gifts. The children wrote thoughtful thank-you letters, showing they are learning how to build meaningful relationships beyond the home.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: outstanding

The home is welcoming and well maintained throughout. Children’s bedrooms are personalised. Staff demonstrate pride in the home, maintaining and decorating it as they would their own, which offers a warm, family-like atmosphere.

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

Staff have a thorough understanding of the children’s vulnerabilities and the risks they face. They work closely with external professionals and therapists to devise helpful strategies, which staff follow to help children become safer. These strategies are extremely thorough and are underpinned by research. As a result, the risks for children are well understood and considerably reduced.

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

The children benefit from consistently strong, trusting and respectful relationships with the staff. The children are open and honest with staff. This reflects the depth of these relationships and contributes to a significant reduction in risk. Staff confidently support the children in taking appropriate developmental risks, helping them build resilience and enjoy ordinary childhood experiences. A well-embedded therapeutic model of care underpins practice, and staff apply this with skill and confidence in their daily work. These relationships mean that children feel safe and secure. This helps them thrive.

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

The staff follow an extremely well-embedded therapeutic model of support. Staff fully integrate this approach in their practice. Therapeutic parenting is at the core of the home’s therapeutic model. Staff are highly skilled at adapting their approach to ensure that children’s needs are met. This allows for more personalised care that meets children’s needs and enhances their progress.

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

Staff use natural and restorative consequences that are clearly linked to children’s behaviours. Rewards are used highly effectively to reinforce positive choices, helping children build their self-esteem and develop empathy for others. Records, daily logs and ‘wow’ moments demonstrate consistent nurturing care, reflective practice, and a strong focus on children’s achievements. Staff consistently acknowledge and celebrate children’s acts of kindness and thoughtful gestures.

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

Professionals report overwhelmingly positive feedback about the care and support children receive. They report strong partnership working and note that children have made significant progress from their starting points due to the exceptional, consistently nurturing care provided by staff. Inspection report for children’s home: SC429702 5

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

The home is managed by an experienced, suitably qualified permanent manager who is supported by a highly skilled deputy manager. Both have a strong commitment to the children and staff. They are innovative and aspire for the children to succeed.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

The manager uses internal and external systems to monitor and record children’s behaviour, progress and overall experiences. Leaders and managers regularly review the home’s strengths and areas for development to enable sustained high-quality care. As a result, the exceptional progress that children have made can be easily identified. This helps children receive consistently high-quality individualised care.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

The close relationships developed between the manager and professionals are highly valued. This is a strength of the home. Professionals are extremely complimentary about the positive relationships. One professional said, ‘I wish I could copy and paste the manager across all the homes I work with.’

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

The manager values staff and invests in their professional development. She provides staff with regular team meetings and workshops that offer a wide range of learning and development opportunities. A clinical psychologist brings further expertise to these meetings and provides additional support. As a result, therapeutic practice is fully embedded, understood and delivered by staff. These approaches are making an exceptional positive difference to children’s lives.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

Staff describe leaders and managers as ‘supportive’ and ‘approachable’. Staff receive regular, good-quality supervision in line with the home’s therapeutic model. This helps them explore important topics and reflect on their everyday practice. Children’s views are sought as part of the staff’s annual appraisal process. This helps staff’s ongoing development, and children believe their input is valued.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

The attention to staff support means that staff retention is excellent, with some staff having worked alongside the manager for many years. This consistency contributes significantly to children’s emotional security and positive behaviour.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

The previous recommendation has been fully addressed by the manager . Inspection report for children’s home: SC429702 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: SC429702 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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Inspector

Sallie Bloomfield, Social Care Inspector Inspection report for children’s home: SC429702 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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