Children's Home run by Rubicon Children and Family Services Ltd in East Sussex

Inspection report for children's home: 2666309 1 OFSTED USE ONLY

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Registered provider: Rubicon Children and Family Services Ltd Full inspection Inspected under the social care common inspection framework

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Information about this children's home

This home is privately owned and provides care for up to 4 children who experience social and emotional difficulties.

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Information about this children's home

At the time of the inspection, 3 children were living in the home.

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Information about this children's home

The manager registered with Ofsted in April 2024.

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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: good

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outstanding

Enforcement action since last inspection: none Inspection report for children's home: 2666309 2 OFSTED USE ONLY

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

15/04/2025 Full Good 10/07/2024 Full Outstanding 15/08/2023 Full Good 05/07/2022 Full Good Inspection report for children's home: 2666309 3 OFSTED USE ONLY

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Summary of findings

Children have been able to make significant and outstanding progress in many areas of their lives. Staff develop positive and meaningful relationships with children and provide excellent support that aids children's social and emotional development.

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Summary of findings

All the children are accessing education, and staff provide enriching learning experiences for children if they are unable to be in class. The staff team offers direct support to children in school to ensure that children can flourish and engage in learning outside of the home.

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Summary of findings

Staff respond sensitively to any behavioural challenges that lead to incidents. Physical interventions are often avoided because staff skilfully use de-escalation and alternative strategies.

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Summary of findings

Leaders have vision for the home and its future. Outreach work is planned to aid and promote stability in children's lives even after they leave the home. The home's therapeutic model is effectively applied by staff and positively impacts all areas of the children's lives.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: outstanding

Staff create detailed plans when children move into the home. When children move on from the home, support and advocacy continues for them in line with what a parent would do for their own child. Staff care deeply for the children in their care, and this is evident in how they interact with and speak about them. Children receive care from a well-established core team of staff. There are trusting relationships among the staff, which contributes to stability and consistency for children.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: outstanding

Staff make excellent use of the therapeutic support available, which helps them to develop a deep understanding of each child's needs. Staff approach children with care and skill to create relationships that help children feel safe and secure. Children trust the staff and display genuine affection towards them, which is reciprocated.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: outstanding

Staff consistently listen to children and support them in numerous ways to communicate their choices, wishes and feelings. Staff provide excellent support to enhance children's communication skills. Some children that were non-speaking when moving into the home are now speaking. Communication aids for one child are displayed all around the house to ensure that this child can develop a sense of autonomy and control over their own life. Staff use their professional experience and knowledge effectively. Staff also recognise when specialist referrals are required, and this further enhances the progress children make. A parent said that without the care and support offered by the staff, their child 'wouldn't have made such amazing progress'. Inspection report for children's home: 2666309 4 OFSTED USE ONLY

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: outstanding

Staff tailor care plans to address the things that children have found difficult in the past and to help improve their life chances in the future. There is a therapeutic and trauma- informed approach throughout the care planning for children. Staff review care plans when needed to ensure that changing needs are understood and responded to. Staff communicate effectively to ensure that everyone provides consistent responses and care to children. Children experience stability, and this extends beyond their time in the home with excellent outreach work completed to provide them ongoing support and positive futures.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: outstanding

Staff understand the importance of family to the children. Staff are creative and innovative in building relationships with family and go above and beyond to help children maintain important connections. The staff will advocate for children to benefit from family time. The positive relationships that staff build with family have supported parents to be more involved in their children's lives. Life-story work is prioritised and seen as standard practice for each child. This work is used to support children to make sense of formative experiences and enable them to understand previous trauma, so they make progress in line with their care plans.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: outstanding

Staff are attentive to meeting children's health needs. They support them to attend routine appointments and are proactive in engaging health professionals to consult and assess where required. Some of the children in the home have significant learning needs that would normally be beyond the remit of the home. Due to the excellent care and support provided for children, local authorities have still sought placements in the home confident that all the children's needs can be met in their care.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: outstanding

Children are supported to engage in a variety of activities outside the home, and their individual interests are promoted. One child is now able to access brownies independently, which they would not have been able to do previously. Children are supported to meet their cultural needs, promoting their sense of identity. The home will work with family to ensure that these cultural needs are understood and met as they would be in the family home.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: outstanding

Staff advocacy is a strength, particularly around education placements and ensuring that children have access to the right support at the right time. The staff go beyond what would normally be expected for the children to ensure that they are accessing education and are able to progress both academically and socially within their respective schools. One of the children's head teachers said children are provided with a 'safe but stimulating home life'.

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

Staff understand the risks children present and respond to risk exceptionally well. Safeguarding practice is a significant strength within the home and runs through all the practice in the home. Staff ensure that risk assessments and safety plans are updated following any incidents taking place. Staff are supported to reduce and mitigate risks using reflective analysis and detailed planning. Children's voices are at the centre of Inspection report for children's home: 2666309 5 OFSTED USE ONLY

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

these plans and, when appropriate, are formed with the input of children. Managers ensure that staff have read updated plans and discuss these in their team meetings.

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

The input and support of the therapeutic lead contribute to a notable and sustained reduction in incidents. Staff are highly skilled in understanding children's behaviours, and they are supported to reflect on what impact children's behaviours have on them. This results in a staff team that is skilled in de-escalation and positive behaviour support.

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

Staff use physical intervention rarely in the home. When it is used, it is proportionate to the risk or behaviour presented by children. Managers complete debriefs with children and staff following any incidents. These are reflective discussions and are child centred. Staff build positive, loving and caring relationships with the children, and this supports effective de-escalation. Staff responses to children's behaviour align with the therapeutic models used in the home.

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

Staff intervene quickly when there is conflict between children in the home. Staff ensure that work is completed with the children to help them understand the impact of their actions upon others. Staff champion restorative work with children. When staff use consequences, they are proportionate. Staff also ensure that consequences remain in line with the home's therapeutic ethos and the child's age and stage of development. This has enabled children to form and build positive relationships with each other. Boundaries and routines in the home are clear and consistent for the children.

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

Any allegations that children may make are responded to appropriately and reported to the local authority designated officer and children's social workers. Children are listened to, and their wishes and feelings are always taken into consideration. There is effective management oversight when there are any incidents or concerns. This promotes a consistently high level of safeguarding practice in the home.

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

Children are given individualised and meaningful support to understand any risk-taking behaviours. Staff complete regular child-centred key-work sessions with the children. There is a strong emphasis on educating children to enable them to make better choices and keep themselves safe. Specialist support is always sought for children, and they are given the choice to engage with this if they feel able.

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

Staff receive specialist training and support to ensure that they are skilled in managing risk and keeping children safe. Children's risk assessments are dynamic and responsive to the needs of individual children. In one case, managers worked with a parent to aid their understanding of risk to the child and to ensure that their actions were not undermining the boundaries that the home was putting in place to keep that child safe.

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

Staff support children in school when this is needed. This has had a positive impact on children's ability to learn and regulate their behaviour when there. As a result, the team ensures that children can achieve and maintain this important aspect of their lives. Children's needs are always prioritised and carefully considered. When children have not been able to engage with the specialist support required, decisions about their futures Inspection report for children's home: 2666309 6 OFSTED USE ONLY

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

are always made in their best interests. Extensive efforts are made by the home to offer the children stability, but managers and staff recognise when children's needs may exceed what the home and staff team can offer.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

Leaders and managers have a clear vision for the home and the organisation's future development. Leaders strive to improve the services and care provided to children and their families when this is appropriate. They are ambitious and aspirational for the children in the home. Children are empowered to approach adulthood with the skills they need, a sense of autonomy and hopes for positive lives when leaving care. Children are held in mind after they leave the home, and these important relationships are maintained for adults and children that have shared significant periods of their lives together. Leaders want stability for children's futures when they leave the home. The therapeutic ethos of the home is role modelled by leaders and is at the core of the exceptional quality of care and support children receive.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

Managers provide regular supervision for staff. Staff feel supported by their managers and benefit from professional and reflective supervision. There are also many professional development opportunities available to them. Team meetings are purposeful, meaningful and effective. There is evidence of proactive staff engagement throughout. Staff describe job satisfaction as well as a strong and positive culture. They feel invested in the ethos of the home and wider organisation.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

Leaders are heavily invested in the home's practice development, the staff and the children. This is reflected in the positive outcomes, stability and progression for children. The responsible individual is present and has a demonstrably positive relationship both with staff and children. They are a tenacious advocate for their staff and for children in the home, supporting the registered manager to escalate concerns where needed and ensuring that children have access to the right support at the right time.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

Positive working relationships are developed with children's professional networks. There is effective challenge from leaders when the professionals in the network are not responsive or fail to deliver appropriate support for children. Leaders will also ensure that professionals are helped to understand children from a therapeutic and trauma- informed perspective. This can help prevent responses or expectations for children that are not realistic. Leaders ensure that children are accessing the correct support and having their needs met when outside the home.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

Staff demonstrate a strong alignment and consistency with the way that leaders and managers aspire for the home to be run. Morale appears high, though staff do relay that they are tired because of some current staffing challenges. Nonetheless, active efforts for recruiting staff are ongoing, and the commitment to safer recruitment processes is evident and uncompromising, despite these challenges. When used, agency staff are expected to meet the same exacting standards and expectations required of all staff. Children's feedback is integral to decision-making around the recruitment of new staff. Inspection report for children's home: 2666309 7 OFSTED USE ONLY

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

No requirements or recommendations were raised at this inspection. Inspection report for children's home: 2666309 8 OFSTED USE ONLY

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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: 2666309 9 OFSTED USE ONLY

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Children's home details

Registered provider: Rubicon Children and Family Services Ltd

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Children's home details

Registered provider address: Clarke Brownscombe, 2 St. Andrews Place, Southover Road, Lewes BN7 1UP

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Inspectors

Lee Muchmore, Social Care Inspector Alexia Hosker, Social Care Inspector Inspection report for children's home: 2666309 10 OFSTED USE ONLY

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Inspectors

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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