Children's home run by Mig House Residential Care Home Ltd in Waltham Forest

Inspection report children’s home: SC062785 1 SC062785 Registered provider: Mig House Residential Care Home Ltd

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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 by a private provider, and it provides care for up to nine children who have a learning disability.

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Information about this children’s home

The home registered with Ofsted in February 2005; the Interim Manager has applied to Ofsted for registration.

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Information about this children’s home

At the time of this inspection, eight 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 Outstanding

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Outstanding

The effectiveness of leaders and managers Outstanding

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Outstanding

Date of last inspection: 23 January 2024

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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: SC062785 2

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

23/01/2024 Full Outstanding 21/03/2023 Full Outstanding 20/12/2021 Full Outstanding 12/11/2019 Full Outstanding Inspection report children’s home: SC062785 3

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: outstanding

Children receive outstanding care in the home. They benefit from highly individualised responsive care plans, which meet their needs to a very high standard. Consequently children make exceptional progress while living at the home.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: outstanding

Staff at the home work exceptionally well with partner agencies. Feedback from partners is uniformly positive. They report that the home communicates positively and provides, in the words of one agency, ‘a wonderful level of care’. One professional has commented on the ‘incredible’ work staff at the home do to support children to be healthy. This work supports changes in children’s care that they describe as ‘life changing’.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: outstanding

Staff at the home are committed to ensuring that children have positive experiences and sustain meaningful and beneficial family relationships. One parent said that the support she receives from staff in the home is great. She says that staff supported her and her child to re-establish family time, after this had broken down. This took a great deal of time, commitment, and patience, impacting positively on this child’s sense of belonging.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: outstanding

Children are making significant progress in all areas of their lives. One good example of this is the support provided to a child to help them to better understand risk outside the home, which resulted in them no longer needing to wear a harness.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: outstanding

The home has a culture in which staff really care about children, their unique identities and the progress they make. Children develop positive supportive relationships with skilled staff. This secure base allows children to progress and develop well.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: outstanding

Staff work very hard to help children develop a range of skills for the move into adult life. This starts with small steps to support children to undertake relevant tasks. These tasks are devised and coordinated through the process of reviewing care plans to measure progress. Reviews are regular, and this means that care plans can be continually updated to match children’s developing needs and circumstances and to ensure that they are effective.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: outstanding

Children enjoy participating in decisions made in the home. Children communicate their choices using Makaton, PECS and other communication methods. Children are involved in deciding what activities are available to them. There is a wide range of activities for children to participate in, including seaside days out, visits to local parks and visits to restaurants. Children’s views are actively sought, listened to, valued and acted on.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: outstanding

The home is well maintained and decorated to a high standard, which helps to generate a sense of calm. Children personalise their bedrooms to be reflective of their individual wishes. Children make good use of a playroom that is sensory based, and has lots of toys, games and arts and crafts. This is used effectively by staff to support children’s Inspection report children’s home: SC062785 4 social and education development. There is also a second sensory room, which is beautifully decorated as a jungle, creating a peaceful environment which children enjoy.

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

The use of medication is very well managed in the home with appropriate safeguards in place, including safe storage. Children are very well supported to attend a full range of medical and specialist appointments. This ensures that children’s health needs are continually reviewed to enable them to be met. When children have been placed on long term medication, the manager has vigorously advocated for reviews to make sure that these medications continue to be necessary for children’s health needs. One child no longer requires bedtime medication, due to the comprehensive care provided, including developing specific individualised routines and care planning.

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

One child in the home has seizures. The manager actively researched sleeping equipment to support staff to know when the child is having a seizure during the night. This equipment was then purchased. Its implementation and use, coupled with an effective care plan, has very positively impacted on the safety of this child.

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

Children have comprehensive risk assessments that are amended, as necessary, to reflect emerging risks and needs. Staff know children well and have a thorough understanding of safeguarding, and consequently, any risks to children are very well identified and addressed. Staff are very alert and responsive to any changes in children’s moods or behaviour and respond appropriately. There have been no missing-from-care episodes for children living at the home, no allegations made concerning staff conduct and no physical restraints since the last inspection. This is reflective of the high levels of care children receive. Relevant, and highly child-focused, policies and procedures are in place for these areas of intervention. These policies ensure that there is a robust coordinated approach by the staff team in place to keep children safe. Staff are very familiar with these policies and any updates are discussed at team meetings. This helps

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

One child is supported in the community by an innovative approach. The child wears a ‘smart’ watch, which allows staff to monitor the child’s heart rate and so be aware when their levels of stress increase. This supports staff to encourage the child to have time and individual space so that the child’s behaviour does not escalate and cause distress.

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

Children’s care records are exceptionally detailed. They evidence very well children’s lived care experience, their wishes and their unique individual journeys.

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

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

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

Effective home premises checks are completed in a timely manner, ensuring a safe environment for children. Inspection report children’s home: SC062785 5

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

Leaders and managers have been very effective in providing an exceptional quality of help, protection and care for children living in the home.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

Leaders have high expectations and aspirations for children, and the manager is persistent in providing challenge and advocating for children when there are any concerns about decisions being made which may not be in the best interests of children.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

The home’s efficient and responsive manager supports the stable staff team well. Managers understand children’s needs, their individual plans and the progress that they are making to achieve their potential. Managers have created an exceptionally nurturing and homely environment, so children feel cared for and safe.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

Staff describe leaders and managers as very encouraging, helpful and readily available to provide support. Managers provide staff with regular supervision, which gives staff the opportunity to reflect on their work with children and to receive feedback on their progress.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

Staff receive a dynamic development programme to ensure that they meet the needs of children living in the home. A comprehensive induction and training programme for new starters ensures that they develop the skills and knowledge needed to respond effectively to children.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

The manager is well aware of the development needs of the home and has a forward- thinking vision for further strengthening the already high standards of care and safeguarding in the home. Leaders have highly effective monitoring systems in place to ensure that the quality of care provided to children is regularly reviewed.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

Team meetings are impactful. They are productively used as reflective learning spaces and an opportunity for learning for the whole team. Inspection report children’s home: SC062785 6

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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: SC062785 7

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Children’s home details

Registered provider: Mig House Residential Care Home Ltd

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Children’s home details

Responsible individual: Khairoonessah Dustagheer

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Inspector

Helen Daniel, Social Care Inspector Inspection report children’s home: SC062785 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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