Children's home run by White Orchid Marston Moretaine Limited in Dacorum

Inspection report children’s home: SC483714 1 SC483714 Registered provider: White Orchid Marston Moretaine 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 registered to provide care and accommodation for up to six children. It aims to provide a safe and nurturing home for children in which they can receive specialist care and therapy. The home is owned and operated by a small private organisation that also has one other home.

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Information about this children’s home

The manager was registered with Ofsted in October 2014.

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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: outstanding

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outstanding

Enforcement action since last inspection: none Inspection report children’s home: SC483714 2

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

18/05/2017 Full Outstanding 14/02/2017 Interim Improved effectiveness 05/10/2016 Full Good 24/03/2016 Interim Improved effectiveness Inspection report children’s home: SC483714 3

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Recommendations

 Ensure that the content and outcomes of supervision sessions are kept and both the person giving the supervision and staff member have a copy of the record. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 61, paragraph 13.4)

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Recommendations

This is in regard to the supervision of probationary staff.  Ensure that the review of the premises includes the identification of any risks in relation to the home’s location and the strategies for managing these. (‘Guide to the children’s homes regulations including the quality standards’, page 64, paragraph 15.1)

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: outstanding

Children make outstanding progress from their unique starting points in all areas of their development. Staff spend quality time with the children as a group and individually. The staff listen to the children’s views and actively fulfil children’s wishes. Interactions between staff and children are nurturing and stable, providing children with strong attachments and positive experiences.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: outstanding

The staff have high aspirations for the children and believe that they can all achieve well. The staff are resourceful in enabling children to do well. Children thrive because of staff members’ dedication, consistent routines, achievable targets and recognition of achievements. Each child receives well-planned individualised care, and each child’s identity is prominent in their care planning. A child described the home and staff as ‘excellent’.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: outstanding

The quality of relationships and communication with the children’s social workers, schools, the therapist and parents is instrumental in making this service a success. A professional said, ‘This home is one of the best that I have seen. The care is holistic, and [the staff] do a lot of joined-up thinking and working.’

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: outstanding

Staff support children to establish and maintain contact with their families. A dedicated worker ensures that families receive weekly progress reports. A parent said, ‘I would recommend it [the home] to any parent, it is amazing.’ Staff go above and beyond to ensure that appropriate family contact happens for all children, and that families feel welcomed into the home.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: outstanding

Children participate in an abundance of activities in line with their peers. Some children have friends to stay for sleepovers and have taken friends on holidays. At the home, the Inspection report children’s home: SC483714 4 children have role-play clothes, cycles and indoor and outside play equipment. Weekly hobbies and activities such as climbing Mount Snowdon and holidays broaden children’s horizons and ensure that they have fun. Children raise money for charity and help in the local community.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: outstanding

Children make considerable progress in their education. The home’s routines support good attendance and achievement. Children benefit from having consistent staff who take them to school. Effective communication with schools ensures that barriers to children’s learning are addressed. Staff support reading and spelling as part of the children’s routine. Consequently, children receive consistent messages about the importance of education.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: outstanding

Children develop independence skills. Some children enjoy cooking. They have structured free time, and understand the benefits of budgeting. Some children demonstrate enough responsibility to have pets, such as hamsters and fish. These pets help children to develop valuable life skills.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: outstanding

The children live at a home that is thoughtfully decorated. It provides a welcoming and calm environment. Pictures of the children are displayed around the home. Bedrooms are individualised by children. The home’s layout enables children to play, have quiet space and spend time together. The garden is inviting and maintained to a very high standard. This provides a stimulating environment for the children to play in.

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

The organisation’s psychotherapist undertakes assessments and writes reports, and sees children weekly when required. An external therapist attends team meetings, linking research to practice, and provides training to help staff understand the impact of trauma and attachment issues. The staff look beyond the behaviours of the children. This helps the children make considerable progress in their emotional well-being, their self-esteem and their self-confidence, thus building resilience. A social worker said, ‘I like this home. It is homely and nurturing. The staff are therapeutic, and do restorative work with [the child], which helps him to understand more.’

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

The manager is effective and innovative in following up incidents to reduce the risk of recurrence. Staff are provided with creative training to help them to understand the potential risks in activities that children are interested in, such as using games consoles, and how to keep the children safe. Physical interventions and measures of control are used appropriately. Effective reflection with children following incidents, coupled with meaningful behaviour targets and incentives, helps children to develop more suitable strategies to manage their behaviour positively.

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

The high levels of staff supervision keep children safe. There is no bullying, and children do not go missing. Highly effective relationships with external agencies, such as the police, enable professionals to visit and talk with children about how they can keep themselves safe. This proactive approach enables children to develop the skills that they will need in the future. Inspection report children’s home: SC483714 5 Embedded systems ensure that the staff have time to gain an in-depth understanding of the children. This time is invaluable. The staff consistently have up-to-date knowledge of the children’s needs and progress. Awareness and forward planning help the staff to identify potential risks and triggers of behaviours.

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

Staff have a good understanding of the action required to keep children safe. When concerns are raised regarding staff practice, immediate and effective action is taken to safeguard children. The staff provide children with a safe place to live.

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

The home’s location risk assessment does not provide all the required information. Although there has been no impact on children due to the high levels of supervision, the document does not include potential risks to children, such as the main road on which the home is situated.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

The registered manager is qualified and has the relevant experience to undertake her role to an excellent standard. She is highly dedicated to and passionate about achieving the best outcomes for the children and enabling them to have extremely positive experiences while living at this home. The manager has extensive knowledge of the children and a wealth of experience working with children.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

The staff speak highly of the manager and the organisation. A member of staff said, ‘The organisation is brilliant for me. It is totally different from where I have worked before. I came here and felt part of the team. The manager is supportive, and we have really good training. It’s brilliant.’ The way that the manager and the organisation support the staff results in flexible, willing and enthusiastic staff who work together to cover one another. Therefore, children receive care from an established, competent and stable staff team.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

The staff receive training that is inspiring and innovative and enables them to care for the children in line with the home’s statement of purpose. Weekly team meetings and monthly supervisions enable staff to reflect on practice. The manager supports each staff member’s professional development. Children are central to the practice at the home. The staff receive additional support during their probationary period. However, these discussions are not recorded. This does not evidence the full support provided to new staff.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

Effective internal and external monitoring continues to drive improvement in the quality of care for the children. The manager continually reflects on how children’s experiences can improve, and seeks feedback from families, children and professionals.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

Children’s records are clear and provide children and professionals with the information that they need. A professional said, ‘Reports for reviews are high quality and comprehensive.’ This is because the manager has made changes following research to produce reports that demonstrate children’s outcomes, progress, targets and plans. Inspection report children’s home: SC483714 6 Children are encouraged to read and comment on what has been written about them. When children leave the home and transition to their new placements, they take with them individualised memorabilia of their time at the home. This is significant because children will be able to look back at their time at the home.

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Information about this inspection

Inspectors have looked closely at the experiences and progress of children and young people. Inspectors considered the quality of work and the differences made to the lives of children and young people. They watched how professional staff work with children and young people and each other and discussed the effectiveness of help and care provided. Wherever possible, they talked to children and 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 whom it is trying to help, protect and look after.

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Information about this inspection

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: SC483714 7

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Children’s home details

Registered provider: White Orchid Marston Moretaine Limited

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: 77 Marlowes, Hemel Hempstead, Hertfordshire HP1 1LF

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Inspector

Natalie Burton: social care inspector Inspection report children’s home: SC483714 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 children looked after, safeguarding and child protection.

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Inspector

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Inspector

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Inspector

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