Children's Home run by Fonjock's Social Work Practice Limited in Suffolk

Inspection report children's home: SC487702 1 SC487702 Registered provider: Fonjock's Social Work Practice Limited

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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 operated by a private company and provides care for up to 3 children who experience social and emotional difficulties.

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Information about this children's home

The manager registered with Ofsted in July 2025.

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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

Date of last inspection: 22 September 2025

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good

Overall judgement at last inspection: good

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good

Enforcement action since last inspection: none Inspection report children's home: SC487702 2

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

22/09/2025 Full Good 02/04/2024 Full Good 18/12/2023 Full Good 05/12/2022 Full Outstanding Inspection report children's home: SC487702 3

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Summary of findings

Children continue to make positive progress. Children experience trusting relationships from a dedicated staff team who show a strong commitment to children's individualised needs. Children enjoy a wide range of activities inside and outside the home. Staff encourage children to attend education provisions that are tailored to their needs. Children's health needs are prioritised, staff support children to attend health appointments and have strong communication with a wide range of health professionals to ensure children's health needs are met. Leaders and managers know children well and are strong advocates for them. Children experience warm, consistent care and at a friendly supportive home.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Since the last inspection, 2 children have moved out of the home and 3 children have moved in. At the time of this inspection, 3 children were living in the home and spoke with the inspector.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children's moves into and on from the home are well supported by the staff team. They benefit from a child-led approach, even when these moves happen quickly. This helps children to feel safe and valued. Children who leave the home choose to stay in touch, showing the strength of the relationships they have built.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

The home provides a warm, welcoming, and homely environment. The children receive individualised care that reflects their interests and preferences. Children are encouraged to personalise their bedrooms to their taste, which helps them to develop a sense of ownership and comfort.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff take time to build positive relationships with the children, they know the children well and demonstrate caring interactions. Staff and children have a relaxed rapport that is positive, warm and playful. This provides children with a strong and secure foundation that has contributed to their positive progress.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children's health needs are well met. Staff are working collaboratively with a wide range of professionals to ensure that children with complex health needs received individualised care. Children are supported to understand and manage their own health and wellbeing. This means children are experiencing 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: good

Children are encouraged to attend education provisions tailored to their needs. Children who struggle to attend educational settings are supported with home learning. Managers and staff work closely with educational providers and advocate strongly for the children, to help them access the right educational provision. One child's attendance has improved significantly and they now have a full-time timetable. Inspection report children's home: SC487702 4 Staff encourage the children to have fun, and they plan activities around the children's interests. This includes shopping trips, outings to theme parks, visits to the beach and local walks. They also have movie nights and karaoke singing in the home. This helps to strengthen relationships, build children's confidence and develops social and emotional skills.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children's voices are heard and captured through resident meetings, key work sessions and 'how best to support me' plans. However, when children make a complaint or 'grumble' these are not consistently responded to, which means children do not always know that action has been taken. This means that children are left feeling unheard and not confident their views lead to change.

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

Staff know children well and have a good understanding of each child's individual risks and vulnerabilities. These risks are managed effectively through clear and up-to-date individualised support plans. Changes to risk assessments are communicated promptly to the staff team. This means that staff practice remains responsive and children benefit from consistent support.

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

Since the last inspection there has been a high number of missing from home episodes. Staff follow the missing-from-home protocol. The police are contacted in line with procedures. Managers have a strong relationship with local police and the wider networks. This collaboration has supported a reduction in children missing from home. Children are given the opportunity to talk about their experiences on their return. Return interviews are offered, although not always accepted.

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

The manager and staff strongly advocate for the children in their care and work in collaboration with children's professionals. This ensures effective communication when there are identified areas of concern. The shared management of risks supports clearer understanding in children's needs and keeps them safe.

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

Staff recordings of daily logs, key work sessions and incident reports are not written in a child-friendly manner. Although improvements have been made since the last inspection, staff continue to use language that is not always written in a child friendly way.

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

The office fire door was found propped open during the inspection, this was addressed when raised by the inspector. However, staff showed a limited understanding of the potential hazards and risks of propping open a fire door. Inspection report children's home: SC487702 5

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The home is managed by a permanent manager. She is currently undertaking the required level 5 diploma in leadership and management. During the inspection the manager was supported by the responsible individual.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The registered manager has a clear understanding of each child's needs and is committed to providing a stable, nurturing and family-style environment. The home has a warm, relational culture that reflects the values set by the manager. Her commitment to the children is evident. She has a clear understanding of the strengths and weaknesses of the home

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Leaders and managers use internal and external systems to monitor and record children's behaviour, progress and overall experiences. The manager has good oversight of incidents, making sure that records reflect actions taken. Debriefs with staff and children are carried out where possible.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

There are good levels of support from senior management. Directors join team meetings and offer support to the manager. This demonstrates good organisational leadership, which helps the manager and staff team to feel supported at all levels during challenging periods.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Team meetings are strong and effective. These take place regularly and cover a range of topics. Reviewing procedures with the staff looking at safeguarding processes and learning from incidents. The manager promotes a learning culture by modelling reflective discussion. Staff have the opportunity to reflect on their practice and share learning. This strengthens a consistent approach and builds staff confidence in their practice.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Supervision sessions are high quality, frequent and effective at helping staff to learn more about their role. Supervisors demonstrate curiosity in discussions during supervision sessions. Inspection report children's home: SC487702 6

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Statutory requirements

This section sets out the actions that the registered person(s) must take to meet the Care Standards Act 2000, The Children's Homes (England) Regulations 2015 and the 'Guide to the Children's Homes Regulations, including the quality standards'. The registered person(s) must comply within the given timescales.

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Requirement Due date

After consultation with the fire and rescue authority, the registered person must—

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Requirement Due date

take adequate precautions against the risk of fire, including the provision of suitable fire equipment in the children's home;

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Requirement Due date

make arrangements for persons working at the home to receive suitable training in fire prevention. (Regulation 25 (1)(a)(c))

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Requirement Due date

In particular safety arrangements are followed and staff must understand that propping open a fire door is unsafe and prevents the fire door from operating, compromises evacuation routes and containment of smoke and fire. 30 September 2026

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Recommendations

 The registered person should ensure that staff record information about children in a non-stigmatising way. Information about children must always be recorded in a way that will be helpful to them. ('Guide to the Children's Homes Regulations, including the quality standards', page 62, paragraph 14.4)

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Recommendations

 The registered person should ensure that staff should have the skills and confidence to communicate easily and understand the importance of listening to, involving and responding to the children they care for. Staff should understand that they have a responsibility to observe, notice and respond to children who are expressing their views, acknowledging that it is not the sole responsibility of the child to 'tell'. ('Guide to the Children's Homes Regulations, including the quality standards', page 22, paragraph 4.10 ) Inspection report children's home: SC487702 7

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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 children's home: SC487702 8

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Children's home details

Registered provider: Fonjock's Social Work Practice Limited

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Children's home details

Registered provider address: Orchard House, 1 Old Convent Orchard, Bury St. Edmunds IP33 3PQ

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Children's home details

Responsible individual: Monica De Castro

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Inspector

Sallie Bloomfield, Social Care Inspector Inspection report children's home: SC487702 9 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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