Children's Home run by Anna House Limited in Havering

Inspection report for children’s home: SC058603 1 SC058603 Registered provider: Anna House 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

This privately owned children’s home provides long-term care and short breaks for up to six children with special educational needs and/or disabilities.

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Information about this children’s home

The home was registered with Ofsted in March 2005, and the manager registered in May 2018.

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Information about this children’s home

At the time of the inspection, six children were living at the home.

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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 good

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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: SC058603 2

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

12/07/2023 Full Good 28/02/2023 Full Good 07/12/2021 Full Good 07/01/2020 Full Good Inspection report for children’s home: SC058603 3

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: outstanding

Children receive excellent, high-quality care from a highly committed staff team. Children’s care is tailored to meet their often complex needs. The experienced staff are very skilled in meeting the unique needs of individual children. All children currently living at the home are non-verbal. Staff have an excellent understanding of how children express themselves and are creative in ensuring that they understand children’s wishes, feelings and needs.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: outstanding

Children enjoy positive relationships with staff. The staff are enthusiastic and passionate about caring for children. A social worker said, ‘I am impressed with the level of care provided to the children and feel confident that their needs are being met on a daily basis. Staff have positive and caring relationships with young people, and from my observations, are skilled in engaging children with special needs, including those that are non-verbal.’ This positive engagement was observed consistently during the inspection.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: outstanding

Children make significant progress from their starting points. Staff devise support plans that establish children’s individual goals and targets. Staff know these targets very well and work diligently with children to achieve their goals. Children’s experiences are creative, rewarding and meaningful. Children develop practical daily skills that significantly improve their personal care skills and develop their communication.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: outstanding

Staff meet children’s identity needs very well. Staff have a clear anti-discriminatory approach to their practice. This enables them to work sensitively and effectively with children. For example, some children choose to attend church, staff have a hairdresser skilled in working with disabled children who visits the home to braid children’s hair, and children regularly enjoy fun experiences in the local community. Staff ensure that children’s disabilities are not a barrier to them accessing fun and educational experiences in the local area and beyond. A local authority team manager said of staff, ‘They see children as children first, not disabled children.’

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: outstanding

Children’s learning outcomes are very good, as all children enjoy and attend school regularly. Staff work in highly effective collaboration with children’s schools. Each child has a communication book that travels with them so that staff and school staff can share important information. Children’s goals and targets in the home frequently have the same focus of work as at school. This provides consistency in children’s learning and ensures children regularly achieve targets.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: outstanding

Staff are very effective and highly skilled in meeting children’s often complex healthcare needs. This is essential for those children with profound physical disabilities or complex health needs and adds to the excellent care children receive.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: outstanding

Managers and staff strongly advocate for the life chances of children in the home, for example when they experience life-threatening health concerns. This has led to staff Inspection report for children’s home: SC058603 4 having additional training so they can support children to be discharged from hospital. As a result, staff help children to significantly improve their health and quality of life.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: outstanding

Staff’s knowledge of children, their understanding of children’s wishes and their commitment to ensuring children reach their full potential are consistently praised by external professionals. A local authority team manager told inspectors, ‘Managers and staff are always confident and clear about the work they are doing with children. They know their children in and out. There’s excellent collaboration. I can’t fault them.’

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

Children are well protected from harm, abuse, neglect and bullying. They benefit from staff’s knowledge and understanding of the home’s safeguarding policies and procedures. Staff regularly complete child protection training and training specific to caring for disabled children.

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

Staff’s care and practice have a strong focus on keeping children safe. Their vigilance and supervision of children are appropriate and sensitive. As a result, there are very few safeguarding incidents. When there are safeguarding concerns, managers complete thorough and comprehensive investigations. These include consultation with safeguarding professionals such as the local authority designated officer.

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

Children benefit from staff’s knowledge, skills and understanding of the impact disability can have on children’s behaviour. Some children initially present with extreme and challenging behaviour. Staff are skilled in managing this and encouraging positive behaviour. Behaviour management plans are comprehensive and address children’s specific needs.

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

Staff’s use of restraint is rare. When this happens, records are clear and explain how staff were able to ensure the safety of the child and others. There have been no instances of children missing from home, substance misuse, or a child’s involvement in child sexual or child criminal exploitation since the last inspection.

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

Staff make great efforts to ensure they are aware of any dissatisfaction children may have. Staff use their acute knowledge of children’s communication and presentation to alert them to any sense of unhappiness. Since the last inspection, the home has received no complaints.

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

Staff devise risk assessments that provide them with clear strategies to help reduce risk. Typically, these focus on risks posed due to children’s communication methods and their vulnerability due to their significantly reduced understanding of danger. However, some risk assessments fail to highlight more specific risks. For example, one child’s risk assessment failed to highlight the risks posed should they have a severe asthma attack.

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

The building is safe and secure, and there are no health and safety issues. Specialist equipment, such as hoists, adapted bathing equipment and beds, ensures that staff can provide safe care. There are effective fire precautions in place, and children have Inspection report for children’s home: SC058603 5 personal emergency evacuation plans. Children’s bedrooms are well presented and personalised in accordance with children’s preferences.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

The leadership of the home is highly effective. The registered manager has worked at the home in varying roles for 17 years consecutively. They have extensive experience of providing high-quality, person-centred care to disabled children.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

The registered manager is supported by the responsible individual and a service manager who both have a weekly presence at the home. The leadership of the home is additionally strengthened by the home’s deputy and senior staff, who contribute to the oversight of the home’s operation. As a result, leaders, managers and senior staff have a comprehensive overview of the home. In addition, managers are passionately committed to improving the quality of care provided to enhance the experiences and progress of children.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

The responsible individual and owner of the home is an effective and influential leader. They are ambitious and aspirational for children. The responsible individual has excellent insight into children’s needs and is committed to ensuring that children receive high- quality care. For example, she or another of the home’s directors conducts occasional unannounced visits to the home at night to monitor staff practices and to satisfy themselves that children are cared for to the standard that they expect.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

There are comprehensive systems that help to oversee children’s progress or placement issues. Managers monitor staff performance closely. They also meet with children, parents, staff and others to obtain their views of the home. Senior staff complete case file audits. As a result, the quality of case records shows improvement. However, initial support plans are not always updated to reflect changes to the child’s routine. For example, in one case, there was no updated plan to reflect that a child had started attending school.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

Staff are very well supported by their line managers. Staff training opportunities are very good, and staff appreciate managers’ open and encouraging manners. Staff receive regular formal supervision and annual staff appraisals, where practice can be discussed, and staff are supported in their development. This means that managers are assured that staff’s care practices are safe and meet the needs of children.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

Staff receive ongoing training to support their approach to care. They have good access to training that is relevant to caring for disabled children. For children who have very complex needs, managers ensure that staff receive bespoke specialist training from health care professionals to ensure that children are cared for safely.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

Staff genuinely care about the children in their care and thoroughly enjoy working with them. A staff member said, ‘The best thing about working here is the children, bringing smiles to their faces. Their smiles and gestures make me know that they are happy. It’s very rewarding.’ Inspection report for children’s home: SC058603 6 Managers and staff share positive working relationships with parents and children’s professional networks. Communication between staff, parents and external professionals is regular and highly effective. Staff share monthly summaries that outline children’s progress and any placement difficulties. Professionals are appreciative of this, and it helps the network to celebrate success and support any worries.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

A local authority social worker said, ‘The key strength of the service is the commitment and motivation of staff in providing a stable and secure home for children with disabilities. Overall, staff go the extra mile to ensure that children and young people are safe, and that their needs are being met.’ A local authority team manager said, ‘The staff are very open in their approach and attitude to care. It’s a family home, not an institution, it’s relaxed and the home looks beautiful.’ Inspection report for children’s home: SC058603 7

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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

The leadership and management standard is that the registered person enables, inspires and leads a culture in relation to the children’s home that —

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Requirement Due date

helps children aspire to fulfil their potential; and

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Requirement Due date

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

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Requirement Due date

use monitoring and review systems to make continuous improvements in the quality of care provided in the home. (Regulation 13 (1)(a)(b) (2)(h))

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Requirement Due date

This relates to the monitoring of the quality of support plans, and risk assessments. 15 July 2024

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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: SC058603 8

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: 207 Chase Cross Road, Collier Row, Romford RM5 3YJ

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Children’s home details

Responsible individual: Margaret Akullo-Odiya

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Inspector

Sandra Jacobs-Walls, Social Care Inspector Inspection report for children’s home: SC058603 9 regulates and 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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Inspector

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Inspector

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