Children's Home run by Silver Birch Care (Residential Services) Limited in Ealing

Inspection report for children's home: 2794761 1 Registered provider: Silver Birch Care (Residential Services) Limited

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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

The home and the manager registered with Ofsted in October 2024. The manager is dual registered for another children’s home owned by the same provider.

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Information about this children’s home

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

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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

Date of last inspection: not previously inspected

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good

Overall judgement at last inspection: not applicable

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good

Enforcement action since last inspection: not applicable Inspection report for children's home: 2794761 2

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children like living in the home and feel safe there. They are comfortable in their home and build positive relationships with staff. Staff provide consistent care and support, which helps children settle.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children live in a home environment that is clean, tidy, and well maintained. Any wear and tear is promptly fixed. Children’s bedrooms are personalised, and their artwork is on display in the home. There is a spacious back garden for activities such as trampolining and football. At the bottom of the garden is a large games room where children can play and relax on bean bags.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff promote children’s education. Children with a school placement are supported to have good attendance. When children are not provided with education, the registered manager maintains frequent communication with the relevant agencies to ensure that this is addressed. Staff have provided educational activities for one child by supporting them to complete daily work sheets until tuition is put in place.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children’s health needs are met. Staff support them to attend their routine health appointments and assessments and arrange for them to see the GP when health needs arise. Staff also encourage healthy eating and cook meals using fresh ingredients.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff ensure that children’s voices are heard. They hold regular house meetings where children are encouraged to share how they feel their week has gone. Children’s views are used to draw up the menu and activity planners, and goals are agreed for the week ahead.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff provide children with a wide range of enjoyable activities. These are individualised to their specific interests, and include swimming, bike rides, bowling, go-karting, and ice- skating. Staff also take children on outings to trampoline parks, theme parks and to the cinema.

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

Staff support children to be safe and well. They provide regular and comprehensive key- work sessions that address subjects including online safety, safe relationships, and personal care. They address discriminatory language and have conversations with children about how to treat others with kindness and respect.

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

Leaders have recently arranged monthly team consultations with a psychologist. These help to further develop the staff’s insight into children’s behaviour and how to provide effective support. Positive behaviour is regularly rewarded, and consequences are proportionate. Inspection report for children's home: 2794761 3 Incidents are safely managed and recorded well. The home’s therapeutic approach is embedded, and staff apply this to support children. Staff have focused key-work sessions with children following incidents and restorative conversations take place. The team does ongoing work with children around behaviours that challenge. This has led to a small reduction in the number of incidents.

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

Children’s vulnerabilities are understood by staff and their risk assessments are regularly updated. However, the triggers for risks are not clearly identified and not every risk is formally assessed. This means that staff do not have written guidance to refer to for managing every risk.

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

The use of physical restraint is proportionate. However, debriefs with children and staff, and manager oversight, are not always recorded.

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

Staff recruitment is safe and relevant checks are completed. Children’s views have informed the interview process and some questions in staff interviews are written by children. These questions cover the subjects that are important to them, and include questions about whether applicants can cook, how they would help an upset child feel better and what they think is important to children.

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

Staffing arrangements at night are not always effective. On one occasion, the police were called by a member of staff on waking night duty as they could not manage an incident, and the sleeping staff member did not wake up to provide support when needed. This resulted in the police responding to a situation that could have been safely managed by two staff members.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The newly registered manager is suitably qualified for the role. She has balanced the task of managing two homes, with strong support from the very experienced responsible individual, who is a regular presence in the home. An experienced deputy manager recently joined the home. The leadership team works well together and meets for a weekly reflective discussion. As a result, they have a good understanding of the children’s needs and a shared focus on achieving the best outcomes for them.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Staff feel well supported by leaders. They have reflective supervisions that address their well-being and any additional support they may need. Staff are suitably trained for their roles and attend monthly team meetings where helpful discussions take place about the children’s welfare. This has helped develop the team’s resilience since the home opened, which has led to staffing stability and consistency for the children.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Leaders take swift action when children raise concerns. They inform the relevant agencies and implement safe plans while investigations take place. As a result, children know their concerns are taken seriously and acted on. Inspection report for children's home: 2794761 4 Staff write good-quality case records. They are objective and describe children’s experiences well. This provides a clear picture of children’s journeys while living in the home.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Leaders do not monitor all aspects of the home’s service effectively. Although the responsible individual has recently started carrying out quality assurance visits, there are no systems to audit and track the quality of care. This limits the registered manager’s oversight and ability to drive improvements in the home. Inspection report for children's home: 2794761 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 protection of children standard is that children are protected from harm and enabled to keep themselves safe.

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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 the home’s day-to-day care is arranged and delivered so as to keep each child safe and to protect each child effectively from harm. (Regulation 12 (1) (2)(b))

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Requirement Due date

In particular, staff working during the night must understand their roles and responsibilities while on shift. 11 April 2025

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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 promotes their welfare.

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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)) 30 April 2025

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Recommendations

 The registered person should ensure that managers and staff record debriefs with children and staff, and manager oversight, following incidents of restraint. (‘Guide to the Children’s Homes Regulations, including the quality standards,’ page 62, paragraph 14.4) Inspection report for children's home: 2794761 6  The registered person should ensure that staff continually and actively assess the risks to each child and the arrangements in place to protect them. Risk assessments should be in place for all identified risks, be clearly written and identify the triggers for behaviours which put children at risk. (‘Guide to the Children’s Homes Regulations, including the quality standards,’ page 42, paragraph 9.5)

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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: 2794761 7

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Children’s home details

Registered provider: Silver Birch Care (Residential Services) Limited

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: SBCH House, 212 Ballards Lane, London N3 2LX

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Inspector

Jo Mitchell, Social Care Inspector Inspection report for children's home: 2794761 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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