Children's Home run by Ancora Children’s Homes Limited in Southend on Sea

Inspection report for children’s home: 2744303 1 Registered provider: Ancora Children’s Homes Limited 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. It provides care for up to three children of either gender with emotional and social difficulties and learning disabilities. One child was living in the home at the time of the inspection.

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Information about this children’s home

The manager registered with Ofsted in September 2024.

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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

Overall judgement at last inspection: good

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outstanding

Enforcement action since last inspection: none Inspection report for children’s home: 2744303 2

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

30/04/2024 Full Good Inspection report for children’s home: 2744303 3

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: outstanding

One child has lived at the home since the last inspection. Managers decided not to move any other children in to focus on providing the highest standard of care for this child.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: outstanding

The child spoke with the inspector. They said, ‘I love living here… I feel safe.’ The child spoke positively about the staff and described several activities they enjoyed doing that staff help with. The child’s parent also gave positive feedback and is happy with the care their child receives.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: outstanding

The child feels highly valued. There is an embedded culture in the home of staff seeking and responding to the child’s views. Staff record the child’s wishes and feelings comprehensively across a range of documents, including in daily logs, records of meaningful conversations, weekly ‘get together’ meetings, children’s plans and debriefs after incidents. Records often show great depth or detail and include analysis of the child’s views, showing how these have been acted on.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: outstanding

Staff understand the child’s physical needs extremely well and help them access necessary local services. This means that the child has caught up on previously missed health checks and immunisations. Healthy day-to-day routines and a healthy diet are encouraged. There is an effective medication management system in place. Staff place a high emphasis on supporting children’s emotional well-being, including seeking additional intervention when needed.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: outstanding

Staff promote the child’s identity, individuality and diversity. Staff come from diverse backgrounds. Monthly themes promote a range of cultural identities. This goes further than simply promoting varied meals or diets and includes sharing information with the child about a country’s history, geography and cultural practices. Detailed records show meaningful conversations about places and well-presented visual records for the child, with pictures and photos.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: outstanding

Staff help and encourage the child to develop their independence skills in preparation for adulthood, returning home or moving to an independent setting. Considerable progress in life skills, such as cooking and personal care, is well recorded. Future moves are proactively planned months ahead so that the child will be well prepared.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: outstanding

The home is furnished to a high standard throughout. All areas of the home are clean and tidy, well laid out and well furnished. Rooms are decorated in a manner that is to the child’s liking, and staff have supported the child to help with some decorating. An outside annex has been created to remove the office space from the home itself, which has allowed for the creation of a second lounge area in the home. Inspection report for children’s home: 2744303 4

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

The child feels extremely safe and well supported. They are carefully safeguarded and protected. When incidents occur, staff have a strong understanding of safeguarding procedures and follow these.

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

The child experiences high-quality support. Managers and staff are absolutely focused on the child’s well-being and best interests. Support consistently exceeds expectations. Staff have excellent relationships with the child and speak about them in the highest regard. There is a genuine sense of warmth and of the adults and children being a ‘family’ within the setting.

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

Staff use detailed risk assessments and plans. These cover a range of topics, including daily routines, risk of self-harm, violence or aggression. Staff know the child extremely well and identify their triggers and risks effectively. The child has a version of their plan written in a format they understand, with their views recorded and evidenced as central to this plan. This has led to the home experiencing very few incidents since the last inspection.

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

The use of physical intervention is exceptionally rare and, when used, is always a last resort. When incidents do occur, records show that staff’s actions are proportionate and justified. Reports are of an incredibly high standard. Descriptive summaries allow the reader to have a real sense of what happened. Follow-up responses, such as debriefs with staff and the child, always take place and show good reflection. Lessons are learned as staff and managers review and evaluate practice in detail. Further reviews take place in reflective team meetings, which are led by a psychologist. This high level of reflection and learning has also helped contribute to the low frequency of incidents.

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

The home has excellent systems in place to monitor all aspects of health and safety. Fire and safety checks are conducted routinely. Fire drills take place regularly and all children have personal emergency evacuation plans.

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

The child is subject to a restrictive order and has not gone missing since moving into the home. There is a highly detailed step-down plan, and an evidence tracker records progress. However, work to support the child to attain greater independence has been limited.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

The home has a manager who is enthusiastic about seeking the best for children. The manager is an extremely strong advocate for the child. They challenge other agencies, including the local authority and police, when they feel children have not received the support or service they should expect. The manager is supported by an equally enthusiastic and committed deputy manager. Inspection report for children’s home: 2744303 5 Staff speak entirely positively about the home and their roles. They are enthusiastic about supporting the child. They also speak positively about the registered manager and the deputy manager, and their support.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

The manager strives for the best practice among staff. The manager or the deputy manager review and evaluate all records and make excellent use of monitoring and audits to influence further development in the support provided. Reflection and learning regularly take place, even for minor points, to help improve practice. When staff practice has fallen short, it is addressed robustly, but fairly.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

Supervisions take place monthly for staff. Staff speak positively about supervision as an open and reflective forum where they can raise problems without fear. The home also holds regular team meetings, which include input from a psychotherapist. These have helped staff to deliver a therapeutic approach to care for children effectively.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

Leaders and managers ensure that staff are skilled and have access to comprehensive training. A core ethos of raising staff competency is embedded, and multiple staff are working towards the level 5 leadership and management qualification. Additional, ongoing training is also explored, which is specific to the needs of the children, for example training on neurodiversity and on speech and language support. The child has also proudly completed fire marshal and first-aid courses of their own choice, which adults promoted.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

The home has developed excellent links with the multi-agency network. Regular dialogue takes place with these partner agencies. The manager shares weekly updates with external professionals and family. This gives a detailed summary of events and includes photos.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

The child has made one complaint. This was dealt with to a high standard. The manager quickly and competently investigated the complaint and replied back formally to the child with a measured response. This further reinforces that the child is valued and respected.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

All previous requirements have been met. Inspection report for children’s home: 2744303 6

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Recommendation

 The registered person should ensure that staff take reasonable precautions and make informed professional judgements based on the individual child’s needs and developmental stage about when to allow a child to take a particular risk or follow a particular course of action. In particular, staff should consider ways to proactively support and encourage children to take responsibility for their own actions and decisions appropriate to their age or level of understanding as part of their development of independent living skills, and encourage children to learn from any incidents when things do not go to plan. (‘Guide to the Children’s Homes Regulations, including the quality standards’, page 42, paragraph 9.7)

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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: 2744303 7

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Children’s home details

Registered provider: Ancora Children’s Homes Limited

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: 8 Madeira Avenue, Leigh on Sea, Essex SS9 3EB

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Children’s home details

Responsible individual: Wendy Edward-Tsuro

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Inspector

Daniel Rankin, Social Care Inspector Inspection report for children’s home: 2744303 8 to 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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