Children's Home run by The Kennedy and Elliott Partnership LLP in Newham

Inspection report children's home: 2654867 1 Registered provider: Kennedy And Elliott Partnership Limited Liability Partnership

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Full inspection Inspected under the social care common inspection framework

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Information about this children's home

This home is owned and managed by a private provider to care for up to four children who may experience emotional and/or social difficulties.

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Information about this children's home

The home was registered with Ofsted in August 2021. There is no registered manager in post. The previous registered manager left in May 2024.

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Information about this children's home

Two children are currently living in the home. The inspector spoke to both children.

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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: 20 February 2024

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good

Overall judgement at last inspection: requires improvement to be good

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good

Enforcement action since last inspection: none Inspection report children's home: 2654867 2

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

20/02/2024 Full Requires improvement to be good 10/05/2022 Full Requires improvement to be good Inspection report children's home: 2654867 3

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff care about the children and are a stable team. The reliability of staff means that children make progress physically, emotionally, socially and educationally.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children are registered with the relevant health professionals and are supported by staff to attend appointments. One child is now accessing dental care, despite having been reluctant to do so in the past.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Both the children attend school. Staff understand the challenges that children can experience when returning to school after a long period of absence. This understanding aides the staff in their support of children. Children are encouraged to improve their school attendance and are rewarded and praised for engaging in education. However, one child’s education, health and care plan is out of date.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children are encouraged to participate in weekly children’s meetings. This gives them the opportunity to contribute towards planning activities and meals.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children are supported to see their families. When one child raised an issue with the arrangements in place for seeing their mother, the staff were quick to raise this with the child’s social worker.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children are supported to learn life skills. For example, children are supported to learn how to cook meals.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff have worked with one child to ensure that they understand how to stay safe online, and the expectations about having a mobile phone. However, staff have not explored ways to help both children to grow their friendship groups.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children are encouraged to engage in activities. This can include going to the cinema, going out for meals and shopping trips.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

The home has been recently decorated and is a welcoming environment. Children have personalised their bedrooms and are encouraged to keep them tidy with the support of staff. Inspection report children's home: 2654867 4

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

There have been relatively few incidents at the home and only one incident where a child needed to be held.

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

Children rarely go missing from the home and when they do, staff are quick to contact police and social workers. Staff welcomed children home when they return and ensure that the missing-from-home co-ordinators are updated and that children are spoken to.

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

An in-house therapist visits the home once a week and offers clinical supervision to the staff. Children are encouraged to meet with her if they want to.

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

There are ongoing shortfalls in the consistencies of risk assessments setting out risks for children. For example, records are not clearly written on how much time a child can be unsupervised or the level of independence they can have with their personal finances. The requirement made at the last inspection has therefore been reinstated.

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

Leaders and managers ensure that safer recruitment policies and procedures are followed. This provides assurances that staff have been appropriately vetted before they provide care to children.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The responsible individual has been overseeing the management of the home with an interim manager, who has been in post for two months. A new manager has been identified and is due to start work at the home in July 2024.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Staff speak positively about changes that have been made since the last full inspection and feel supported and optimistic about the future of the service.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The leadership team has a vision for the service and plans to develop trauma informed practice in the home. Workshops and training have been scheduled to take place in the coming months.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Staff work closely with professionals, and feedback is positive. These partnerships mean that children are protected, feel secure and know that everyone has their best interests at heart.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Staff receive regular supervision and team meetings. These meetings consider the individual needs of the children and provide staff with the opportunity to learn from each other.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The leadership and management team have effective monitoring systems in place to ensure that the quality of care provided to children is regularly reviewed. Inspection report children's home: 2654867 5

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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, 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

The protection of children standard is that children are protected from harm and enabled to keep themselves safe.

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Requirement Due date

In particular, the standard in paragraph (1) requires the registered person to ensure—

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Requirement Due date

assess whether each child is at risk of harm, taking into account information in the child’s relevant plans, and, if necessary, make arrangements to reduce the risk of any harm to the child;

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Requirement Due date

help each child to understand how to keep safe;

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Requirement Due date

have the skills to identify and act upon signs that a child is at risk of harm;

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Requirement Due date

manage relationships between children to prevent them from harming each other;

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Requirement Due date

In particular, this refers to ensuring that risk assessments clearly set out and evaluate all known risks to children. 31 August 2024

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Recommendation

 The registered person should ensure that children are supported to understand how to build friendships with other children. They should be able to spend time with their friends in the local community, in their home area, and by having friends visit them at the home, in line with the child’s plans, age and understanding. This should include children in the home being supported to get along with each other. (“guide to the Children’s Homes Regulations, including the quality standards”, page 38, paragraph 8.7) Inspection report children's home: 2654867 6  The registered person should ensure that staff are aware of whether a child has an education, health and care plan and the information in it. An education, health and care plan details the education, health and social care support that is to be provided to a child or young person who has special educational needs, In particular staff to ensure this is up to date and recommendations are incorporated

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Recommendation

in the child’s care plan. (“guide to the Children’s Homes Regulations, including the quality standards”, page 26, paragraph 5.4)

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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: 2654867 7

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Children's home details

Registered provider: Kennedy And Elliott Partnership LLP

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Children's home details

Registered provider address: Abacus House, Forest Road, Loughton, Essex, IG10 1DX

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Inspector

Matilda Clode, Social Care Inspector Inspection report children's home: 2654867 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 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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