Children's home run by Amegreen Children’s Services

Inspection report for children’s home: 2689713 1 Registered provider: Amegreen Children’s Services Limited Full inspection Inspected under the social care common inspection framework

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Information about this children’s home

This home is privately owned and provides care and support for up to three children who experience social and/or emotional difficulties as a result of past trauma.

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Information about this children’s home

At the time of this inspection, three children were living in the home.

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Information about this children’s home

The manager registered with Ofsted in May 2022.

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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

Date of last inspection: 21 November 2023

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outstanding

Overall judgement at last inspection: outstanding

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outstanding

Enforcement action since last inspection: none Inspection report for children’s home: 2689713 2

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

21/11/2023 Full Outstanding 29/03/2023 Full Outstanding Inspection report for children’s home: 2689713 3

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: outstanding

Children living in this home make exceptional progress. They thrive as a result of the excellent standards of care delivered by a highly skilled and dedicated staff team. Children benefit from the strong relationships they have with staff and are confident to seek out staff for guidance and support. Children thoroughly enjoy being with the staff. Children and staff demonstrate affection towards one another. This creates an environment that mirrors a family home as closely as possible.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: outstanding

Children enjoy a huge range of positive experiences and activities. Activities are planned in line with the children’s wishes and feelings. Staff ask them about the new experiences that they would like to explore and make these happen. Children enjoy activities such as trampolining, horse riding, boxing and weekend trips to a caravan owned by the wider organisation. Staff meticulously planned the children’s summer holiday abroad together. They ensured that the children were well prepared in advance. The children continue to speak fondly of their experience. Staff provide the children with opportunities to make positive, lasting memories.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: outstanding

All the children attend full-time education. Staff work closely and holistically with school staff to ensure that the children have stable and productive educational placements. Professionals speak unanimously of the strong commitment that staff and managers have towards promoting children’s educational attainment. Staff have provided face-to- face training for school staff to help them to better understand trauma and the complex needs of the children in their care.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: outstanding

Staff have worked tirelessly to build connections with the local community, and the children have been welcomed into the neighbourhood. As a result, children have created positive relationships with local peers. They have started to make friends and regularly engage in activities with them.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: outstanding

Inclusive practice is embedded in the home. The staff have engaged children in some innovative and creative work around equality and diversity. They have provided positive, educational sessions around cultural awareness and history. This has helped the children to learn about difference and create a positive culture of acceptance.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: outstanding

Staff treat children with respect and dignity. They foster a strong ethos of supporting them to celebrate who they are. Staff have sensitively helped one child to explore their personal identity in the home and in the wider community. The child has felt safe to do this without judgement and has been supported appropriately in their choices.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: outstanding

Staff have a highly developed capacity for reflective thinking and go above and beyond to understand how children are communicating through their behaviour. Staff demonstrate a deep understanding of the impact of children’s trauma and previous experiences. Regular reflective sessions with relevant professionals from outside the Inspection report for children’s home: 2689713 4 organisation allow the staff to continue to develop their already excellent skills and knowledge in caring for the children.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: outstanding

Staff are highly child focused and ensure that children are always at the centre of their practice. The love and care that staff have for the children are very evident. One social worker described the care from staff as ‘phenomenal’.

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

The manager and staff team prioritise children’s safety. The staff fully understand their roles and responsibilities in safeguarding children. They know the children well and the particular risks that they may face.

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

The manager ensures that children’s individual risk assessments are comprehensive and regularly updated. Behaviour support plans for children are individualised, thorough and provide successful strategies and suggestions for staff to follow. All support plans for children link with their wider care plans. The manager maintains clear oversight of any updates added to plans and ensures that staff are aware of any changes. This results in consistent and high-quality care and safeguarding for the children.

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

The highly trained staff seek to understand the children’s behaviour. When children need additional support, staff use the services of a therapeutic parenting coach. These sessions support staff to analyse what children are trying to communicate through their behaviours. This enables staff to provide responsive, dynamic and targeted support to children.

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

The children feel happy and safe. This is evident through the warm, positive interactions between children and staff. Consequently, no children have gone missing from the home. However, should a child go missing, all staff, including those who are new, are fully aware of how to respond effectively.

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

A trauma-informed approach underpins the ethos of the home and consequently the practice of all staff. Consequences are rarely used. When they are used, they are only implemented after discussions with the children’s therapists to ensure that they are therapeutic in nature. Physical intervention is kept to a minimum and is only used when necessary to keep children safe. Staff are able to reflect on incidents with the manager to understand if there are any lessons that can be learned. Children are given the opportunity to talk openly about their feelings after incidents and explore other ways to express their emotions. As a result of this work, the use of physical intervention in the home has reduced.

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

Staff are confident in discussing sensitive subjects with children. Children are encouraged to ask questions and widen their knowledge. Recent discussions with children include conflict resolution, managing positive relationships and managing peer pressure. These conversations help children to build their understanding of their own feelings and behaviours, to strengthen their self-esteem and to better understand how to have positive interactions with others. Inspection report for children’s home: 2689713 5 The manager is committed to only employing suitable staff. Safer recruitment processes are thorough. The manager uses the interview process to test knowledge through scenario-based questions. The upskilling of staff safeguarding awareness is threaded through staff induction, supervision and training.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

The manager knows the children well and her focus is always on them. She is dedicated to ensuring that the children achieve well in all aspects of their lives. She is a strong advocate for them and has challenged any decisions made that she believes are not in their best interests. These challenges have led to improved outcomes for the children in her care.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

The manager leads by example. She models expected behaviour and has high expectations and aspirations for the team. She has created a staff team that is committed to delivering high-quality care and support. The manager ensures that the home’s ethos and trauma-informed model of care are embedded in practice and permeate all staff actions.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

The manager attends conferences and training courses for her own continued development. This ongoing professional development means that she constantly strives for ways to improve practice among the team.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

Morale among the staff team is high. Staff speak fondly of the manager and her unwavering dedication to the home. The manager identifies good practice, which is highlighted and celebrated across the team.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

The manager has effective oversight of the home. Monitoring tools are used to review and understand any shortfalls, and these are proactively addressed. There is a strong commitment to obtaining feedback from a broad range of relevant professionals to support the growth and development of the service. Feedback is sought at every opportunity.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

Staff benefit from excellent systems of support and supervision. Leaders provide regular supervision sessions and annual appraisals. Leaders enhance this by the offer of regular critical reflection sessions and opportunities to reflect on the work that they are doing for children. Staff also have opportunities to explore the personal impact of working with highly vulnerable children with complex needs. When a staff member leaves, a thorough analysis is carried out to help support staff retention in the future.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

Newer members of staff experience a thorough induction process that includes regular reflective supervision. They speak positively about how supported they feel during induction by the manager and their colleagues. New staff can work shadow shifts until they feel confident to become an established team member on shift. Inspection report for children’s home: 2689713 6 Senior leaders are actively involved in the home and visit regularly. This has allowed them to build solid relationships with the children. Consequently, the children feel comfortable to talk to senior leaders. Senior leaders attend team meetings and reflection groups to maintain their knowledge and oversight of the needs of the children and the practice of the staff.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

No requirements or recommendations were set at this inspection. Inspection report for children’s home: 2689713 7

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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: 2689713 8

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Children’s home details

Registered provider: Amegreen Children’s Services Limited

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: The Corner House, West End Road, Mortimer, Berkshire RG7 3TF

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Children’s home details

Registered manager: Patrycja Soroczynska

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Inspectors

Louise Webling, Social Care Inspector Peter Jackson, Social Care Inspector Inspection report for children’s home: 2689713 9 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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Inspectors

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Inspectors

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Inspectors

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