Children's Home run by Heartwood RSS Limited in Redbridge

Inspection report for children’s home: 2701539 1 Registered provider: Heartwood RSS 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 run home provides care for up to four children with social and emotional difficulties.

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Information about this children’s home

The home was registered with Ofsted on 19 December 2022.

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Information about this children’s home

A new manager has been in post since May 2024 and has applied to Ofsted to be registered.

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Information about this children’s home

Three children were living in the home at the time of the inspection.

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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

Overall judgement at last inspection: good

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good

Enforcement action since last inspection: none Inspection report for children’s home: 2701539 2

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

18/04/2023 Full Good Inspection report for children’s home: 2701539 3

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children’s overall experiences and progress are good.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Senior leaders have improved the way they make decisions on when it is right for a new child to move into the home. This includes considering any potential impact on children who are already living at the home. Consequently, the children currently living in the home are settled and have benefited from carefully planned moves into the home.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children can identify adults to speak to if they are unhappy about something. Children participate in regular children’s meetings. This gives them an opportunity to share their feelings and concerns.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

The children’s guide is child-friendly and personalised to each new child. This makes children feel valued and understood.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children are offered a range of activities according to their interests. One child is part of a local football group and goes swimming weekly. For some children, their faith is important to them. Staff ensure that they are supported to follow their faith, including regularly attending church.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

All children are in education. Staff have positive relationships with children’s schools. This enables staff to stay up to date about children’s academic progress. However, not all education-related plans are up to date. Senior leaders have not escalated this with the placing local authority effectively.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff support children to attend medical appointments. Referrals are made to specialised services when staff think that children will benefit from additional support. Staff also encourage healthy eating. For example, one child has a food diary to help them improve their eating habits.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children are supported to maintain safe relationships with their family. This enables them to stay in touch with people who are important to them.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

The home environment is warm, inviting and decorated to a good standard. Children are encouraged to personalise their bedrooms to reflect their interests and hobbies.

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

The children currently living in the home do not go missing from the home. When previous children had gone missing from the home, the staff were not consistent in arranging return home interviews. Furthermore, staff did not always hold discussions with the children to help them to think about their safety. Inspection report for children’s home: 2701539 4 When incidents previously happened, the police were often called out to de-escalate situations. Senior leaders did not always provide the regulator with prompt information when serious incidents happened. This is no longer a concern. Serious incidents now rarely occur. Staff are more skilled in de-escalating situations. Staff have a better understanding of the impact an incident can have on a child and the importance of support.

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

Staff understand children’s vulnerabilities. Staff regularly review children’s risk assessments to ensure that they stay up to date and reflect children’s changing needs.

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

When children are unhappy about something, staff try hard to sort out the situation. However, there is not a clear procedure in place for the management of complaints.

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

All staff are safely recruited. This offers reassurance that only suitably vetted staff get to care for children.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The new manager is ambitious and passionate about providing a good quality of care to the children. However, the manager’s monitoring and oversight of children’s records are at an early stage.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Staff are settled and feel well supported by the manager. They have a good understanding of safeguarding children and their responsibility to whistle-blow if they have concerns about the care of children.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Staff have several forums to discuss their practice. For example, they benefit from regular supervision sessions, frequent team meetings and regular training.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The review of the quality of care does not include sufficient analysis and feedback.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

All staff are suitably qualified to meet the needs of the children.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The staff team works well with the children’s professional network and feedback from external professionals is positive. Inspection report for children’s home: 2701539 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, 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 registered person must complete a review of the quality of care provided for children (“a quality of care review”) at least once every 6 months.

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Requirement Due date

In order to complete a quality of care review the registered person must establish and maintain a system for monitoring, reviewing and evaluating—

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Requirement Due date

the quality of care provided for children;

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Requirement Due date

the feedback and opinions of children about the children’s home, its facilities and the quality of care they receive in it; and

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Requirement Due date

any actions that the registered person considers necessary in order to improve or maintain the quality of care provided for children.

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Requirement Due date

After completing a quality of care review, the registered person must produce a written report about the quality of care review and the actions which the registered person intends to take as a result of the quality of care review (“the quality of care review report”).

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Requirement Due date

The system referred to in paragraph (2) must provide for ascertaining and considering the opinions of children, their parents, placing authorities and staff.

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Requirement Due date

(Regulation 45 (1) (2)(a)(b)(c) (3) (5)) 2 September 2024

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must maintain records (“case records”) for each child which—

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Requirement Due date

include the information and documents listed in Schedule 3 in relation to each child;

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Requirement Due date

are kept up to date. 2 September 2024 Inspection report for children’s home: 2701539 6 (Regulation 36 (1)(a)(b))

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Requirement Due date

In particular, senior leaders should ensure that all children’s case records are accurate, completed properly and are available on inspection.

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Recommendations

 The registered person should ensure that when a child returns home after being missing, the local authority provides the child with an opportunity to have an independent return home interview. Information from the interview is important to ensure that risks are reviewed and that measures are in place to protect the child. (‘Guide to the Children’s Homes Regulations, including the quality standards’, paragraph 9.30, page 45)  The registered person should ensure that when a child makes a choice that would place them or another person at significant risk of harm, staff assist them to understand how to keep themselves and others safe. (‘Guide to the Children’s Homes Regulations, including the quality standards’, paragraph 9.7, page 42)  The registered person should ensure that details of regulation 40 notifications include details of the action taken by staff to respond to the event. The notification should

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Recommendations

also provide clear details of the incident to avoid any confusion. (‘Guide to the Children’s Homes Regulations, including the quality standards’, paragraph 14.13, page 63)  The registered person should ensure that they challenge the local authority when it does not provide the input and services needed to meet a child’s needs during their time in the home. (‘Guide to the Children’s Homes Regulations, including the quality standards’, paragraph 2.8, page 12)  The registered person should ensure that when children complain there is a clear procedure to consider this. There should be a record of the child’s complaint, the action taken and the outcome. (‘Guide to the Children’s Homes Regulations, including the quality standards’, paragraph 4.13, page 22)

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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: 2701539 7

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Children’s home details

Registered provider: Heartwood RSS Limited

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: 416 Green Lane, Ilford, Essex IG3 9JX

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Inspector

Chelsea Agyeman, Social Care Inspector Inspection report for children’s home: 2701539 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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