Children's Home run by Woodford Children's Services Ltd in Tower Hamlets

Inspection report for children’s home: 2661346 1 Registered provider: Woodford Children’s Services Ltd 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 four children aged between 11 and 17 with social and emotional needs. The home is part of a commissioning partnership contract with eight local authorities.

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Information about this children’s home

A suitably qualified and experienced registered manager has been in post since June 2023.

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Information about this children’s home

At the time of the inspection four 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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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

Overall judgement at last inspection: good

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good

Enforcement action since last inspection: none Inspection report for children’s home: 2661346 2

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

20/08/2024 Full Good 24/01/2024 Full Good 08/09/2022 Full Good Inspection report for children’s home: 2661346 3

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff understand children’s needs well. They demonstrate positive and nurturing relationships, applying these bonds in their daily practice to help children feel a sense of belonging and confidence in the staff’s ability to care for them.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children are included in their care planning, which takes account of their diverse cultural backgrounds.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

The home’s drama psychotherapist meets with the children every week to support them to explore their emotions in a safe space.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children have been helped to develop their independence skills. They are supported to learn skills such as how to budget and how to cook nutritious meals. One child was aware that they would be moving on to supported living after their birthday.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Leaders and managers consistently work with educational professionals to support children in engaging with education. This support has led to some children regularly participating in education, resulting in academic success, although other children continue to struggle with their engagement.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff carry out regular key-work sessions, focusing on children’s risks, needs, previous experiences and worries. These sessions help children to build their social skills and to improve their self-awareness.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

The children are involved in creating the weekly menu. However, alternative dishes are sometimes prepared without giving them the opportunity to share their views.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children are offered exciting and wide-ranging activities that reflect their interests and hobbies, such as baking, going to the cinema, boat trips and eating out at various restaurants.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff ensure that the home environment is clean and tidy and that children are safe. One social worker said the home’s level of cleanliness is consistent.

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

Safer recruitment is good. This prevents unsuitable people from working at the home and helps to promote the children’s safety.

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

Staff are trained in carrying out fire evacuation drills. In addition, children are aware of fire evacuation procedures and engage in a timely manner when a fire evacuation takes place. Inspection report for children’s home: 2661346 4 When children go missing from home they are reported to all the appropriate agencies and professionals. Staff work closely with the relevant agencies to reduce risk. However, for one child the information recorded on their missing grab pack does not provide all required information, such as their Oyster card details, in line with the local area missing protocol.

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

Incidents are managed well, including children being offered key-work sessions following an incident. However, there is not always sufficient evidence captured in records to show how relationship building is promoted following an incident.

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

The home’s location risk assessment is up to date and includes risks that are known in the local area.

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

Staff ensure that there are risk assessments in place for each child. Although these are informative, they do not always fully help staff to identify all risks that are specific to individual children, particularly when children are out in the community.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Children benefit from leaders and managers who are compassionate and motivated to provide a good quality of care to the children living at the home. Social workers are complimentary and say that managers understand the needs of the children well and advocate for them.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Staff receive monthly supervision sessions. However, the records are not always child focused.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The company’s systemic psychotherapist provides monthly supervision to the manager, leaders and staff. This therapeutic approach is effective and supports the staff to meet the specific needs of the children.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

When the home receives an invitation to participate in a point-in-time survey, it is not always shared with professionals, staff, children or parents. This is a missed opportunity for the leadership team to gather feedback that could inform the running of the home.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Staff receive core training, delivered either online or face-to-face. However, the training matrix has not been updated to reflect the training completed by individual staff members. Additionally, staff have not received training to help inform their practice in getting a more informed understanding of child exploitation, serious youth violence and self-harm.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Staff support children when they sustain injuries. Although the level of management oversight of these incidents is not always well recorded. Inspection report for children’s home: 2661346 5 Although suitability assessments for identifying the compatibility of children moving into the home are in place, these are not always detailed to show how the matching of children is fully considered.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The home has an up-to-date workforce development plan. Inspection report for children’s home: 2661346 6

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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

use monitoring and review systems to make continuous improvements in the quality of care provided in the home. (Regulation 13 (1)(a)(b) (2)(a)(h))

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Requirement Due date

 rebuilding relationships between children and staff following incidents

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Requirement Due date

 ensuring that monitoring and reviews extend to oversight of injuries. 24 September 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. (Regulation 14 (1)(a)(b)) 24 September 2025 Inspection report for children’s home: 2661346 7 In particular, this relates to improve the detail and quality of suitability assessments and implement an effective system to understand the combined risks of children living together.

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Recommendations

 The registered person should ensure that staff consider all concerns when considering the level of risk to children to ensure their safety, particularly when they are in the community. (‘Guide to the Children’s Homes Regulations, including the quality standards’, page 42, paragraph 9.5)  The registered person should actively seek independent scrutiny of the home and make best use of information from independent and internal monitoring. This should include actively encouraging children and staff to complete point-in-time surveys to ensure continuous improvement. (‘Guide to the Children’s Homes Regulations, including the quality standards’, page 55, paragraph 10.24)  The registered person should ensure that the home’s procedures take account of the views of appropriate local services and have regard to police and local authority protocols for responding to missing person’s incidents. This includes ensuring that

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Recommendations

children’s missing grab packs contain all required information. (‘Guide to the Children’s Homes Regulations, including the quality standards’, page 45, paragraph 9.29)  The registered person should ensure that staff are appropriately trained and maintain the training and development of staff in the home. (‘Guide to the Children’s Homes Regulations, including the quality standards’, page 53, paragraph 10.11)  The registered person should ensure a record of supervision is kept for all staff. The record provides evidence that supervision is being delivered in line with regulation and includes taking into account children’s needs. (‘Guide to the Children’s Homes Regulations, including the quality standards’, page 61, paragraph 13.3)  The registered person should ensure that children are included with the choice of meals being prepared in order to meet children’s needs. ((‘Guide to the Children’s Homes Regulations, including the quality standards’, page 14, paragraph 3.3)

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Recommendations

 The registered person should ensure that staff understand children’s barriers to education when supporting children to participate positively in learning activities and formal education. (‘Guide to the Children’s Homes Regulations, including the quality standards’, page 26, paragraph 5.3)

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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: 2661346 8

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Children’s home details

Registered provider: Woodford Children’s Services Ltd

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: 37B Chipstead Valley Road, Coulsdon, Croydon CR5 2RB

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Inspector

Ruth Okezie, Social Care Inspector Inspection report for children’s home: 2661346 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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Inspector

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Inspector

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Inspector

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