Children's home run by Lavender Grove Cares Ltd

Inspection report children's home: 2569520 1 Registered provider: Lavender Grove Cares

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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 home provides care for up to two children who experience social and emotional difficulties.

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Information about this children's home

No children were living at the home at the time of the inspection.

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Information about this children's home

The manager has submitted an application for registration with Ofsted.

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Overall experiences and progress of

children and young people, taking into account

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requires improvement to be good

How well children and young people are helped and protected requires improvement to be good

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requires improvement to be good

The effectiveness of leaders and managers requires improvement to be good

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requires improvement to be good

The children's home is not yet delivering good help and care for children and young people. However, there are no serious or widespread failures that result in their welfare not being safeguarded or promoted.

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requires improvement to be good

Overall judgement at last inspection: good

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requires improvement to be good

Enforcement action since last inspection: A compliance notice and a restriction of accommodation notice have been issued. Inspection report children's home: 2569520 2

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

10/04/2024 Full Good 20/04/2023 Full Requires improvement to be good 15/06/2022 Full Requires improvement to be good 09/03/2022 Interim Improved effectiveness Inspection report children's home: 2569520 3

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improvement to be good

There have been significant changes in the management of the home within this inspection year. These have not been well managed. This has resulted in shortfalls in help and protect and leadership and management judgment areas which has undermined the overall judgment of the home.

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improvement to be good

The last inspection found serious shortfalls in respect of how the provider managed the move into and on from the home for children. They failed to fully assess the risks of children moving into the home and the emerging risks that became apparent. As a result, a compliance notice and restriction of accommodation notice was issued. No children have moved into the home since the last inspection, therefore this requirement has been re-stated.

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improvement to be good

Staff use institutional words when they write about children. The children’s records also fail to accurately reflect the warmth of staff relationships which children’s social workers said they had observed when visiting their children. This indicates that staff do not understand how these records are an important part of children’s life stories. This potentially undermines children’s understanding about their experiences should they wish to review these records in the future. Managers have failed to identify, challenge and escalate the poor quality of some recordings of time with children and the use of blaming language.

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improvement to be good

Children make good progress. One child’s social worker said staff had helped their child to, ‘Achieve things that I never thought they would achieve before living at the home’ and that as a result, the child had ‘become more stable’.

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improvement to be good

Staff use their knowledge of children’s likes and dislikes to plan for activities which they know children will enjoy. This ensures that time spent with children is meaningful. The activities planned show children that staff understand and accept them, which builds and strengthens trust and relationships.

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improvement to be good

Children’s physical health needs are generally well met. Staff provide the children with advice and guidance about healthy living and ensure they access primary health support services. One child previously smoked in their room. The child’s social worker felt that staff had done all they could to educate the child and help them to smoke outside where it was safer’.

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improvement to be good

Staff support children effectively with their education, learning and development. Staff have effectively advocated for children to have the right type of education to suit their particular needs. Consequently, children are making individual progress. Inspection report children's home: 2569520 4

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improvement to be good

Staff use appropriate consequences to help manage children’s behaviour. However, time limits for these consequences are not always clear. This means that there is potential for staff to not apply consequences consistently. Staff do not always offer restorative alternatives, to formal consequences to help children reflect on their behaviour and to rebuild the relationship between staff and children. The manager has not challenged staff around this area of practice.

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improvement to be good

Staff generally have up-to-date information about risk and understand children’s presenting risks and vulnerabilities. However, one child’s individual risk assessment was missing vital chronological and contextual information related to recent changes in risk and the rationale for the changing risk. While managers have since implemented measures to mitigate this shortfall, during the intervening period, staff would have been using guidance that did not contain important and relevant information. This had the potential to mean that staff would not respond appropriately.

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improvement to be good

When children have been missing from the home, staff have acted appropriately to ensure their safe return. Independent return home interviews have been completed meaningfully and consistently. There is a good line of communication between the local missing from care police officer and staff at the home. The officer said that staff, ‘Have an amazing partnership and engagement ethic. They will work with police and social care to ensure the children are safe and looked after when missing’. However, the protocol which staff follow if children go missing from the home does not provide sufficiently clear guidance in terms of timescales that staff should follow to escalate concerns to the police. This could be confusing at a time of crisis and has the potential to undermine staff actions to ensure children’s safety.

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improvement to be good

One significant incident involving a child had not been notified to Ofsted. Actions taken to safeguard the child were proportionate and safe. However, failure to notify Ofsted as the regulator undermines regulatory oversight and the ability to ensure that actions taken by the provider are appropriate.

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improvement to be good

Staff have built positive relationships with the children, consequently the children view staff as trusted adults. At times of crisis, they have asked staff to spend time with them and staff respond sensitively and with care to these requests. Children have been able to have some very sensitive conversations with staff, exploring their experiences of loss and abuse. The trusting relationships the staff have developed with the children mean the staff have not had to restrain or hold a child since the last inspection.

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improvement to be good

Children’s social workers said that their children were safer since living at the home.

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good

Inspection report children's home: 2569520 5 There have been significant changes and loss of management oversight in the home in this inspection year. These have not been well managed with interim managers managing the home. This has resulted in inconsistent management oversight across every area of the home. As a result, a compliance notice and a restriction of accommodation notice were issued following the last inspection. The restriction of accommodation notice was complied with and has now expired. While the conditions of the compliance notice had not been met in full senior leaders had overseen improvement. Therefore, the remaining shortfalls are raised as requirements at this inspection.

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good

Since the last inspection staff have not been adequately supported and challenged to remain consistently professionally curious in response to significant incidents. Despite these gaps, social workers, police and commissioners spoken with agreed that children have been safe, and actions taken by staff have safeguarded children.

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good

Senior leaders have now appointed a permanent manager, and she has applied to register with Ofsted. She feels well supported in her role and has begun to oversee some improvement.

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good

Senior management have responded to concerns raised at the last inspection. They have sought to use learning reviews and reflection to implement changes to processes within the home. While these processes are now in place, the impact is yet to be evidenced. Additionally, much of the learning is still ongoing. It has not yet been widely disseminated to the staff group to ensure they fully understand gaps in their practice and the expectations of senior leaders.

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good

Staff meetings are not consistently well documented and are generally procedural. There is little evidence of time taken to support staff to reflect and learn together. This is a missed opportunity to upskill and train staff. It is also a missed opportunity to add an additional layer of safeguarding which could stretch staff practice and their focus on children at a time of such significant change.

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good

Staff have access to a varied and relatively comprehensive training schedule. However, this is not consistently in line with children's needs. Senior managers have not ensured that staff are trained to understand the impact of children’s diagnoses of conditions such as, attention deficit disorder and foetal alcohol syndrome. This potentially limits staff’s ability to respond to the child’s behaviours in an attuned manner and is not in line with the statement of purpose.

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good

Overall, staff supervision is regular. However, the quality of recording of this time is variable some are rigorous and well written. However, some staff supervisions were procedural and lacked reflection. This fails to evidence that staff have been consistently supported and challenged to remain professionally curious.

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good

Leaders and staff work proactively and positively with other agencies and professionals. Professionals such as commissioners and social workers are generally positive in their feedback. One commissioner said, ‘I would be happy to place children in this home. I Inspection report children's home: 2569520 6 have no concerns about their practice, and they continue to work well with the Local Authority’. Another social worker said, ‘They did everything they could to meet my child's needs despite their complexity’.

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good

Staff's performance is appraised annually. New staff receive an effective induction. One member of staff spoken with said they felt appreciated and valued.

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good

The management team have met four requirements and one recommendation from the previous assurance inspection. Inspection report children's home: 2569520 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

lead and manage the home in a way that is consistent with the approach and ethos, and delivers the outcomes, set out in the home’s statement of purpose;

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Requirement Due date

ensure that staff have the experience, qualifications and skills to meet the needs of each child;

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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.

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Requirement Due date

(Regulation 13 (1)(a)(b) and (2) (a) (c ) )(h)) 18 July 2025

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Requirement Due date

The care planning standard is that children—

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Requirement Due date

receive effectively planned care in or through the children's home; and

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Requirement Due date

have a positive experience of arriving at or moving on from the home.

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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

that children are admitted to the home only if their needs are within the range of needs of children for whom it is intended that the home is to provide care and accommodation, as set out in the home's statement of purpose. 30 May 2025 Inspection report children's home: 2569520 8 (Regulation 14 (1)(a)(b) (2)(a))

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Requirement Due date

In particular, only accept children into the home when they are satisfied that the home can respond effectively to the child's assessed needs as recorded in the child's relevant plans and when they have fully considered the impact on the existing group of children The registered person must notify HMCI and each other relevant person without delay if—

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Requirement Due date

there is an allegation of abuse against the home or a person working there;

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Recommendations

 The registered person should specify the procedures to be followed and the roles and responsibilities of staff when a child is missing from care. In particular, ensure that children’s missing from care protocol and plans detail clearly for staff specifics such as timescales to follow if a child is missing from the home. ('Guide to the children's homes regulations, including the quality standards', page 45, paragraph 9.28)  The registered person should ensure that staff are familiar with the home's policies on record keeping and understand the importance of careful, objective, and clear recording. Staff should record information on individual children in a non-stigmatising way that distinguishes between fact, opinion and third-party information. Information about the child must always be recorded in a way that will be helpful to the child. ('Guide to the children's homes regulations, including the quality standards', page 62,

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Recommendations

paragraph 14.4)  The registered person should ensure that any sanctions used to address poor behaviour should be restorative in nature, to help children recognise the impact of their behaviour on themselves, other children, the staff caring for them and the wider community. ('Guide to the children's homes regulations, including the quality standards', page 46, paragraph 9.38)

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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: 2569520 9

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Children's home details

Registered provider: Lavender Grove Cares

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Children's home details

Registered provider address: Gothic Cottage, Moreton Road, Ongar CM5 0EZ

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Inspector

Majella Russell, Social Care Inspector Inspection report children's home: 2569520 10 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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