Children's Home run by CF Support Services Limited in Essex

Inspection report for children's home: 2616993 1 Registered provider: CF Support Services Limited Full inspection Inspected under the Social Care Common Inspection Framework

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Information about this children's home

This privately owned home provides care for up to 2 children with emotional and social difficulties.

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Information about this children's home

At the time of this inspection, 2 children were living at the home.

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Information about this children's home

There has been no registered manager since March 2026.

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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: 2616993 2

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

19/08/2025 Full Good 14/05/2024 Full Good 19/04/2023 Full Good 15/06/2022 Full Inadequate Inspection report for children's home: 2616993 3

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Summary of findings

Since the last inspection, leaders and managers have made improvements to their documenting and recording processes, which has helped the manager to have more of an oversight of the home. Two children were living in the home at the time of this inspection, and they are making positive progress. The children are settled, and staff are continuing to provide them with good care. Leaders and managers have a clear development plan for the home.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Since the last inspection, one child has moved in. There has been a prolonged period of stability for both children living in the home. One child has lived in the home for 3 years and the other child for 9 months. This period is the longest both children have lived in one place since being accommodated by the local authority.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children are offered a variety of activities. Staff know children's individual likes and interests, and children are encouraged to pursue hobbies, trips and clubs of their choice. Children are able to choose an annual holiday. One child has chosen to take an international trip and is looking forward to their holiday with the staff members they have chosen to come with them. Another child has been taken to several music concerts and is attending another in the summer.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children are supported to share their wishes and feelings. Staff provide children with regular one-to-one sessions each week. These sessions are individual to the children, covering discussions that need to take place but also providing children with the opportunity to share their views. Children also receive formal monthly catch-ups and are encouraged to take part in weekly home meetings. Children's records are written to them, and their voice is recorded clearly within documents.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children are supported to access education. One child is in full-time education and is making significant progress. Another child, who historically did not engage in education, is now engaging positively with a tutor and is eager to start full-time education in the next school year. Staff are proactive at being a part of plans to get an appropriate educational provision for this child. Staff help children plan for their futures and support children to build independence skills.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff ensure that children's health needs are met. Medication records are kept up to date, and the manager has put several recording measures in place to ensure good oversight of medication administration. One child was frequently using a vape. Staff worked closely with external professionals to help the child to stop. Inspection report for children's home: 2616993 4 Staff have positive relationships with children. Children can be open and honest with the staff and the manager with how they are feeling. Staff respond to children in a caring and nurturing way. When children disagree with decisions that have been made, staff provide clear rationales as to why decisions have been made, and, where appropriate, staff work closely with children to see if alternative decisions can be made.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

The home environment is comfortable and welcoming. The home is spacious and has a range of areas for the 2 children to spend time in. The children's bedrooms are individualised with photos, wall decorations and their personal belongings, which reflect their interests and personalities. Children are allowed to have pets, and they enjoy looking after them. However, there are some areas of relatively minor damage within the home. These haven't been repaired in a timely manner.

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

Children are appropriately safeguarded by staff. Children's plans and risk assessments are detailed, current and individual to each child.

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

Staff respond well when children go missing from the home. Staff follow the home's missing-from-home protocol, actively look for children and contact the police appropriately. Staff are proactive in searching areas they know the children have been known to go to and continue to contact them regularly. When children return from home, staff are supportive and caring, ensuring that children know staff are happy that they are home safely.

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

When children have self-harmed, staff have responded proactively, in line with the child's safety plans. Staff consider children's immediate mental health needs as well as their physical health needs. Children are responded to by staff with compassion and care.

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

When room searches are required, these are justified, proportionate and in the child's best interests. Children are present when room searches are conducted or their permission is sought.

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

When significant incidents occur, staff use effective de-escalation techniques. This has meant no physical interventions have been used. Staff manage children's heightened behaviour using a therapeutic parenting and communication framework, which is the home's policy.

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

Staff make good use of health and safety monitoring. Fire drills happen regularly, and external fire assessments are completed, with any recommendation acted on.

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

Complaints by children are taken seriously and listened to by staff. However, while one complaint raised by a child was investigated appropriately, staff did not fully risk assess the staffing arrangements in line with their safeguarding policy. This meant a risk of further allegations or of children possibly experiencing reprisals for raising their concerns. Inspection report for children's home: 2616993 5

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The previous manager left the home in March 2026, and a new manager has been appointed internally. They have applied for registration. In the short time the new manager has been in role, there has been a noticeable improvement to the quality and consistency of documentation and how the home is managed daily. The manager is committed to the children, focuses on helping the children to progress and is proud of the children and the staffing team. Feedback from staff, professionals and family members was positive and shows that the manager has been the catalyst of positive change in the home and for the children.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Staff said they feel well supported by the manager. Staff receive regular supervision sessions, annual appraisals, and, when on probation, staff receive reviews. When there are specific practice concerns, the manager talks to the member of the staff, records the dialogue well and follows up identified actions in follow-up supervision sessions. The manager is confident in addressing worries and concerns with staff and ensures that there is transparency when these concerns are discussed.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Staff have access to regular training, including areas that specifically link to children's individual needs and risks. New staff have suitable inductions. There are regular team meetings, and staff are provided with monthly clinical supervision by a clinical psychologist. Staff have good insight into the home's policies and procedures when managing various situations or incidents.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Staff work well with external agencies. When an allegation was made by a child regarding an external member of staff, staff responded promptly and appropriately. Thorough investigation takes place, and staff followed up on outcomes from other professionals that where outstanding. Additionally, staff ensured that the child's voice was present throughout and they were updated with any outcomes.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

While the manager and responsible individual have made improvements to record- keeping since the manager came into post in March 2026, gaps were identified in recording and files, including missing admission records, and some records did not have manager oversight or important information included.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Staff and managers maintained generally good relationships with professionals and family members. However, records did not show children's legal status clearly, and one parent raised that they did not feel they were always kept up to date about some matters to do with their child. Staff and managers must know each child's legal status which underpins their overall care planning and decisions that are made about children. Inspection report for children's home: 2616993 6

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Recommendations

 The registered person should ensure children must be listened to and enabled to report any allegations at the earliest opportunity. Staff should report any allegation of abuse immediately to a senior manager within the home. Any allegation of harm or abuse must be addressed in line with the home's child protection policy. ('Guide to Children's Homes Regulations, including the quality standards', page 44, paragraph 9.17)  The registered person should ensure that staff should be 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 Children's Homes Regulations, including the quality standards',

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Recommendations

page 62, paragraph 14.4)  The registered person should 'seek to involve' the placing authority that places a looked-after child in the home, which in practice means working primarily with their statutory social worker. In particular, the registered manager should ensure that children's files have all key documents including placement plan and in date delegated authority/section 20. ('Guide to Children's Homes Regulations, including the quality standards', page 11, paragraph 2.5)  The registered person should ensure or children's homes to be nurturing and supportive environments that meet the needs of their children, they will, in most cases, be homely, domestic environments. In particular, repairs should be completed in a timely way. ('Guide to Children's Homes Regulations, including the quality standards', page 15, paragraph 3.9)

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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: 2616993 7

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Children's home details

Registered provider: CF Support Services Limited

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Children's home details

Registered provider address: Three Rivers Business Centre, Unit 11 Felixstowe Road, Ipswich, Suffolk IP10 0BF

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Children's home details

Responsible individual: Joanne Henderson

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Inspectors

Maisy Griggs, Social Care Inspector Daniel Rankin, Social Care Inspector Inspection report for children's home: 2616993 8 regulates 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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Inspectors

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Inspectors

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Inspectors

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Inspectors

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