Children's Home run by Esland South Limited in Kent

Outstanding

The children's home provides highly effective services that consistently exceed the standards of good. The actions of the home contribute to significantly improved outcomes for children and young people who need help, protection and care.

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The children's home provision is outstanding because:

 Young people are well cared for through outstanding practice. A culture of listening to young people and putting them first permeates throughout every aspect of care provided for them. Young people know this and it helps them to build their self-esteem.  Young people are safe because they are extremely well supported. They understand and gain insights into reducing their risk-taking behaviours. Staff know that safety can only be created and maintained through helping young people to understand and develop these skills for themselves.  Behaviour management strategies are excellent. They are well thought through, targeted and effective. They engage young people and promote a shared vision of how young people can take control of their behaviour and achieve their goals and aspirations. Young people take on increased levels of responsibility for their actions and manage relationships with their peers and families far better as a result.

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The children's home provision is outstanding because:

 Young people make exceptional progress from their starting points. They form trusting and genuine relationships with staff that provide the building blocks for strong and resilient relationships with others. This enables young people to share their concerns and worries, seek and follow advice and guidance and develop skills for social interactions.  Staff are highly motivated, committed and enthusiastic. They have high ambitions for the young people. They use innovative and creative ways to engage young people in learning, promoting both their education and their ability to keep themselves safe.  The manager is an excellent leader and motivator. She leads by example, inspires staff and promotes a progressive and developing culture of best practice. Young people value her a great deal. They trust and seek her guidance and counsel.

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Information about this children's home

This is a privately owned children’s home offering care and accommodation for up to four young people with emotional and behavioural difficulties. The home is one of many managed by this independent provider.

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Recent inspection history

Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

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Recent inspection history

31/03/2016 Interim Sustained effectiveness

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Recent inspection history

09/02/2015 Interim Sustained effectiveness

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Outstanding

Young people in this home are making excellent progress in all aspects of their lives. One social worker said, ‘The progress of the young person was exceptional. The home's commitment and the support they have provided the young person has been excellent.’ Young people recognise the progress that they make because it is valued and celebrated by the staff and other young people. One young person said, ‘Staff make you feel special and they give you the time that you need.’ Importantly, young people are motivated because they know and understand their goals and work well with staff in order to reach them.

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Outstanding

As a result of strong relationships, young people make outstanding progress. Young people who previously found it difficult to rely on others, trust the staff, and where young people previously refused to talk about their problems, they are now able to open up and express themselves. Young people build these relationships because they value staff and learn that healthy relationships enrich their lives. They seek guidance and support from staff who provide a culture in which they can grow and flourish. They value friendships with their peers and through consistent messages and support from staff, build strong and resilient bonds.

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Outstanding

Young people’s meetings are themed and exciting, providing rich learning opportunities. One meeting was used to look at relationships. A tower was made from building blocks detailing important elements of relationship building, such as trust and honesty. Named objects were used to knock down the structure, such as dishonesty and anger, enabling young people to understand how to build and maintain relationships.

p.5

Outstanding

Young people are listened to and their suggestions are not only heard but reflected upon when making changes in the home. They feel valued and included in making decisions about their care. A young people’s guide entitled ‘Me 2 You’ has been created and designed by the young people. They considered what they found most difficult about their move to the home, decided what information was important and designed the guide around this, making this a meaningful and thoughtful document that will be helpful to new young people moving into the home in the future.

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Outstanding

Staff promote education with vigour and tenacity and all young people in the home have made significant improvements in attending school and their attainment. School attendance is 100% despite some young people having long histories of school refusal and uneven progress. For example, one young person who joined the home and was not attending school was immediately supported by a daily school structure, including waking her, attending in-house studies in her school uniform and working to a school day routine until a school placement was found. This established formal routines, successfully enabling the young person to gain confidence and increase their self-esteem. Another young person who had experienced significant difficulties in managing her behaviour at school has made excellent progress through the home’s staff supporting her in school for five weeks.

p.5

Outstanding

Excellent advocacy is provided for young people to ensure that they get the best education available. The manager understands her role in driving young people's education and embraces her role in championing it. She assertively and energetically engages in the process, ensuring the best outcomes for young people. In one example, when a young person had been refused mainstream school provision, the registered manager appealed against the decision by the placing authority and local authority. The appeal was successful and the young person was provided with a mainstream school place. This young person has made excellent progress and has recently been successful in achieving a university summer school placement, which is one of only 60 on offer in the county. This young person had very poor school attendance prior to this placement.

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Outstanding

Young people value education. They understand its importance and staff successfully integrate learning within their day-to-day care. Budgeting for meals, shopping and buying furniture and furnishings for the home are all used as opportunities for young people to learn literacy and numeracy skills.

p.6

Outstanding

The encouragement and support provided to young people is excellent. One young person showed an interest in music and has now been supported to make a professional recording, which is to be aired by the BBC. A charitable music foundation, providing opportunities for talented young people, has agreed to offer her a place at 17 years old despite the foundation ordinarily only working with those aged 18 or over. She will attend their young talent course where she will learn about business, merchandising and promotion along with the professional skills and the therapeutic value of music.

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Outstanding

Staff provide young people with excellent support with all aspects of their healthcare. They learn about healthy eating, personal care and valuing good health. Through this guidance, they understand the importance of maintaining a healthy diet and make informed decisions regarding their lifestyle choices. Young people said that they had learned to plan, budget for and cook healthy meals. Young people earn rewards from choosing healthy eating and healthy lifestyles, encouraging and establishing routines and their awareness of maintaining their diet.

p.6

Outstanding

Staff enable young people to understand the importance of good health. They do this through day-to-day discussions, key working and leading by example. Staff also understand that to instil a lasting awareness in young people, they must help them to establish a desire to be healthy and make this behaviour their routine. Innovative practice provides an excellent focus on establishing these routines. The staff and young people have created a game where players are rewarded for making good lifestyle and health choices. Registering and attending the doctors’ surgery, planning and making a healthy meal and giving up smoking are all gain points. This board game is a regular favourite and played with all new young people when they move into the home.

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Outstanding

This game also includes promoting activities, clubs and inclusion in the wider community. Young people who have had no previous experience of clubs and activities or who have experienced problematic peer relationships have formed and sustained valuable friendships. One young person is in a drama club. Another young person is in a football club. One young person sings for her school and is soon to join a dance club. One young person, who recently sang and performed for an audience, said, ‘I didn’t used to like showing my face or looking at people.’ This is superb progress.

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Outstanding

All young people in this home are safer than when they first arrived. Young people’s ability to keep themselves safe grows as they increase their knowledge and understanding of risk.

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Outstanding

Young people with previously high levels of risk taking and going missing, cease this behaviour following placement. All of the young people arrived with extensive histories of frequent, in some cases daily, episodes of running away. None of these young people have run away since being placed in the home. One placing social worker said, ‘Staff form strong and resilient relationships with young people. They establish and maintain clear boundaries and this is what underpins their stability.’

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Outstanding

Young people are protected from child sexual exploitation because staff work intensely with them. Staff establish effective communication tailored to the level of understanding of each young person. This increases young people’s insight into how to keep themselves safe. One of these strategies included the home using a board game specifically designed by a charity. This tackles child sexual exploitation by helping young people to understand the key risks and to be aware of grooming, consent and online safety. Young people spoke about how they had gained a better understanding as a result.

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Outstanding

Essential skills in keeping safe, avoiding exploitation and maintaining good health are taught through engaging and captivating games and learning scenarios. These provide creative opportunities, which are used very well to create a learning environment, enriching young people’s knowledge and experiences. Staff and young people have also created an anti-bullying board game. Young people researched information, facts and figures around bullying and the impact that it can have in order to create the game. They developed the questions that needed to be answered in order to move forward. One young person said, ‘You can understand how people feel if they are bullied and how your behaviour can feel like bullying to others.’ Their high level of knowledge and understanding reflects the success of this practice.

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Outstanding

The manager maintains effective links with partner agencies, including the police and local authority, ensuring local protocols and good practice are shared. The manager has just completed the Kent Children’s Safeguarding Board training for trainers and is now an accredited trainer. This further establishes the home’s commitment to safeguarding young people.

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Outstanding

Behaviour management is extremely effective. Young people with previously aggressive or destructive behaviour successfully develop strategies to minimise or cease this behaviour. Staff work with young people to identify triggers, warning signs and stress points and design highly individualised programmes around them.

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Outstanding

Where young people need extra support, the home swiftly provides one-to-one staffing and extra supervision, enabling them to manage more difficult periods. Partnerships are established through key working where young people and staff openly and objectively discuss progress, making this a shared and effective forum.

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Outstanding

Physical intervention is uncommon. When it is used, it is only to ensure safety and in accordance with the regulations. Well-trained and confident staff follow good practice guidance during any episode of physical control. Following any incident, the manager meets the young person and their comments and views are gathered and considered. A formally recorded meeting with the staff also takes place to look at any lessons to be learned and to review the behaviour management plan. This creates a learning environment where physical intervention is actively avoided and as a result is rarely used.

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Outstanding

Recruitment practices are well managed and effective. A formal recruitment panel interviews new staff using exercises and scenarios to enable candidates to demonstrate their suitability for the role. Young people are also part of the interview process and have the opportunity to meet, question and express their views of candidates. All necessary statutory checks are completed and references are gathered, ensuring that only those people considered suitable to work with young people join the team.

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Outstanding

Diligent and effective health and safety measures keep young people safe and reduce avoidable hazards to them. Fire evacuation and equipment checks are undertaken at appropriate intervals ensuring safety for all. Maintenance and repairs are prioritised and carried out promptly. This provides a safe and well-maintained and decorated home.

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Outstanding

Notifications of concerns to external agencies and to Ofsted are uncommon. However, when notifications are made, information is concise and clear. This provides sufficient information to describe events and the actions taken by the home in response.

p.9

Outstanding

The registered manager has managed the home for six years and is a dedicated and effective leader. Since being in post, she has further advanced her professional development by gaining the foundation degree in supporting young people and completing a Bachelor of Arts Degree in supporting young people with complex needs.

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Outstanding

The registered manager has high aspirations for young people, high expectations of her staff and she leads by example. She ensures that her practice is maintained by undertaking training and then providing training across the staff team. Six members of staff have completed the level 3 diploma for residential childcare, with two new starters due to enrol. Staff possess a wealth of experience and engage in training targeted to their roles and to the needs of the young people. This includes training around child sexual exploitation, identifying potential radicalisation and gang cultures. Staff also have specific ‘Think You Know’ online anti-grooming training and the manager and senior staff are accredited trainers in this subject. Senior staff also receive other specific training, which includes the Kent Local Safeguarding Children Board training for trainers.

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Outstanding

A staff member said, ‘Training is fantastic. The training on self-harm was very rewarding, implementing plans and developing strategies. It helped me to develop my skills to understand this behaviour better.’ This senior staff member subsequently attended an advanced training course at Kent University on self- harming awareness, implementing the learning within the home and disseminating this knowledge to the staff.

p.9

Outstanding

Practice in the home is effective and guided by a clear statement of purpose, which details the care that young people will receive and the manner in which it will be provided. The statement of purpose makes clear the value that the home places on mutual respect and good parenting models, including the importance of promoting privacy, dignity, independence and choice for all young people. One staff member said, ‘If you show respect and value towards young people, they are more likely to respect you back and then you can be in the privileged position of helping them.’

p.9

Outstanding

Young people without exception make very good progress because they are well supported by focused care and placement planning. Well-managed transition and matching practices ensure that young people’s needs are known and evaluated prior to them moving in. Staff respect the views and feelings of the existing young people and careful planning ensures that they are appropriately prepared and supported through this process. One young person said, ‘Staff know us so well. They make sure we are supported.’ Young people are consulted and influence placement decisions as part of the matching process.

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Outstanding

All staff and the manager receive excellent supervision. One staff member said, ‘Supervision provides goals and a clear focus, which I find motivational and challenging.’ Another staff member said that, ‘Supervision helped me develop my care role, to understand the importance of my role and the influence that it has on my practice and the young people. We use supervision to look at our practice and consider together how we can improve it.’

p.10

Outstanding

At the previous inspection, one recommendation was made in respect of using young people’s group meetings to gather and record views, wishes and feelings. Young people’s views and comments are now effectively gathered across a range of key consultation practices that include young people’s meetings, key working, workshops and a range of other occasions. This recommendation is therefore met.

p.10

Outstanding

External monitoring of the home is regular and welcomed by the manager and staff and any areas for development are used to improve practice, for example the recent review of the staff handover process, which was found to be lacking detail. Following quality assurance oversight, handover documents are now a rich source of information. These detail explicitly the key features of the shift and enable staff to gain a clearer focus of areas of strength and development.

p.10

Outstanding

Young people’s personal files are well managed, clear and sensitively compiled. The manager and staff know that these important records will provide young people with a sense of their time in the home. Young people’s opinions are sought in respect of key documents, enabling them to look back at decisions made with staff. These documents are collaborative, shared accounts of their time in the home, which further demonstrate the importance that staff place on engaging young people and placing them at the centre of practice. No requirements or recommendations are made from this inspection.

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What the inspection judgements mean

The experiences and progress of children and young people are at the centre of the inspection. Inspectors will use their professional judgement to determine the weight and significance of their findings in this respect. The judgements included in the report are made against ‘Inspection of children's homes: framework for inspection’.

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What the inspection judgements mean

An outstanding children's home provides highly effective services that contribute to significantly improved outcomes for children and young people who need help and protection and care. Their progress exceeds expectations and is sustained over time. A good children's home provides effective services that help, protect and care for children and young people and have their welfare safeguarded and promoted. In a children's home that requires improvement , there are no widespread or serious failures that create or leave children being harmed or at risk of harm. The welfare of looked after children is safeguarded and promoted. Minimum requirements are in place. However, the children's home is not yet delivering good protection, help and care for children and young people. A children's home that is inadequate is providing services where there are widespread or serious failures that create or leave children and young people being

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What the inspection judgements mean

harmed or at risk of harm, or that result in children looked after not having their welfare safeguarded and promoted.

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Information about this inspection

Inspectors have looked closely at the experiences and progress of children and young people living in the children's home. Inspectors considered the quality of work and the difference adults make to the lives of children and young people. They read case files, watched how professional staff work with children, young people and each other and discussed the effectiveness of help and care given to children and young people. Wherever possible, they talked to children, young people and their families. In addition, the inspectors have tried to understand what the children's home knows about how well it is performing, how well it is doing and what difference it is making for the children and young people who it is trying to help, protect and look after. This inspection was carried out under the Care Standards Act 2000 to assess the effectiveness of the service and to consider how well it complies with the Children's

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Information about this inspection

Homes (England) Regulations 2015 and the ‘Guide to the children's homes regulations including the quality standards’. the guidance ‘Raising concerns and making complaints about Ofsted’, which is available from Ofsted's website: www.gov.uk/government/organisations/ofsted . If you would like Ofsted to send you a copy of the guidance, please telephone 0300123 4234, or email enquiries@ofsted.gov.uk .

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Information about this inspection

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, work- based learning and skills training, adult and community learning, and education and training in prisons and other secure establishments. It inspects services for looked after children and child protection. If you would like a copy of this document in a different format, such as large print or Braille, please telephone 0300 123 4234, or email enquiries@ofsted.gov.uk . You may reuse this information (not including logos) free of charge in any format or medium, under the terms of the Open Government Licence. To view this licence, visit www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/doc/open-government-licence , write to the Information Policy Team,

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Information about this inspection

The National Archives, Kew, London TW9 4DU, or email: psi@nationalarchives.gsi.gov.uk .

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Information about this inspection

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Information about this inspection

Store Street Manchester M1 2WD T: 0300 123 1231 Textphone: 0161 618 8524 E: enquiries@ofsted.gov.uk W: www.gov.uk/government/organisations/ofsted

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