Children's home run by Ambitious Children’s Homes Essex Ltd

Inspection report for children's home: 2820124 1 Registered provider: Ambitious Children’s Homes Essex Ltd

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Inspected under the social care common inspection framework

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Information about this children’s home

This private children’s home registered with Ofsted in March 2025. The manager was registered at the same time. This home provides care for up to two children who are experiencing social and emotional difficulties.

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Information about this children’s home

This is the first inspection. Two children have lived in the home since it was registered. At the time of this inspection, no 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 requires improvement to be 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: not applicable

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good

Enforcement action since last inspection: none Inspection report for children's home: 2820124 2

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children develop positive relationships with staff in the home. Staff work hard to help children settle in the home.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff strongly encourage children to engage in activities in the home and in the community. Staff are proactive in finding social and leisure opportunities for children, based on their interests. Staff supported one child to attend horse-riding classes and to go ice-skating.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children are provided with opportunities to express their views through home meetings, informal chats with staff and structured discussion sessions. Children know how to make a complaint and staff listen to children’s concerns. Managers respond appropriately to concerns raised by children.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff listen to children’s wishes and feelings and act on them if practicable. One child had a strong interest in animals and wished to have a pet. Staff created an incentive plan for the child, so that they could show their determination to care for a pet through successfully completing daily tasks. The child told staff, ‘I really want to do this, I think I can do this. It will give me something to look after and be proud of.’ This approach helps children to remain focused on tasks and to understand the value of working towards a reward.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

If children are not in education, staff work collaboratively with children’s social workers to seek access to appropriate alternative educational support. For one child who was involved with youth justice services, managers made links with an innovative mentoring and training programme to support the child.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff support children to maintain relationships with their family and friends. They understand that children may have conflicting feelings about their families and they work with the responsible authorities to promote positive experiences for children when they are with their families.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

When children move on from the home, staff ensure that there is an opportunity to say goodbye. Staff wrote a letter in the form of a story to one child, as part of their life history, which makes reference to their positive experiences at the home.

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

Staff and managers talk with the children about keeping safe in the home and in the community. Safety plans for children are reviewed when new incidents occur or when additional risks are identified. When safety plans indicate the need for additional staff, managers ensure that appropriate staffing levels are in place. Staff work collaboratively with children’s social workers to ensure that safety plans are implemented effectively. Inspection report for children's home: 2820124 3 For one child who regularly went missing, staff made efforts to follow them when they left the home, to ensure the child’s safety. Managers and staff communicate effectively with police and the responsible authority to ensure that the correct protocols for reporting children missing are followed.

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

There has been one allegation made against a member of staff since the home was registered. Managers responded effectively to safeguard the child and consulted appropriately with the local authority designated officer and placing local authority leaders.

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

Staff use children’s behaviour support plans to understand children’s areas of stress and anxiety. These help staff to recognise children’s potential triggers and to employ strategies to divert their attention and reduce their anxiety. Staff talk to children about their behaviours to understand better what may have triggered a particular action. However, this is not consistent, with some staff being less confident in challenging children, for instance, when boundaries are tested. This does not give children a clear message regarding expectations and has the potential to create unhealthy divisions or alliances between certain staff and children.

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

The home offers a safe and secure environment for children, with security cameras at the front, side and rear of the property. However, on one occasion, a child was able to bring someone known to them into the home, without authorisation, for a short period of time. No other children were living at the home at the time. In this instance, staff had not followed procedures to ensure that they knew who had come into the home. This could have compromised staff safety and security in the home.

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

When incidents occur in the home, effective recording takes place, with appropriate management oversight. Staff and children are offered an opportunity to talk about the experience from their own perspective after the incident. Managers use these discussions to consider what could have been done differently.

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

When there are concerns regarding keeping children safe, managers and staff respond quickly to review plans with responsible authorities and consider the next steps. For example, requests were made by managers for increased staffing levels for one child, and for greater clarity around curfew arrangements for another child.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: requires improvement to be good

The leadership and management team is still developing as a group. The home is managed by a suitably qualified and experienced manager, who is supported well by a deputy team manager, service manager and responsible individual. Leaders and managers have high aspirations for the home in supporting and caring for children.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: requires improvement to be good

Leaders and managers are developing systems for measuring the difference that the care provided makes to children’s lives. They are open to learning from practice. One example of this is a review of children coming to live at the home in an emergency. Inspection report for children's home: 2820124 4 Leaders and managers acknowledge that a clearer assessment of children’s histories, the impact of trauma on children’s responses and the skills of the staff team is needed before they agree to children moving in in an emergency.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: requires improvement to be good

Managers provide regular supervision to staff, which follows a reflective practice framework. However, this is not being applied consistently by all managers. This means that some staff are not benefiting from opportunities to think in more depth about the impact of their practice when working with children.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: requires improvement to be good

Leaders and managers provide staff with learning and development opportunities through online and face-to-face training. They recognise that staff will benefit from focused training that helps them to have better understanding and responses to children’s trauma and associated behaviours. However, some staff have not completed mandatory training such as in de-escalation, managing challenging behaviour, first aid, fire safety and internet safety.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: requires improvement to be good

There have been two incidents involving the use of restraint in the home since registration. Although most staff have received training in the use of restraint techniques, not all staff have completed the training. In addition, managers acknowledge that ongoing support is needed for some staff who are not confident in using restraint techniques.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: requires improvement to be good

Leaders and managers work collaboratively with responsible authorities and youth offending team workers to ensure that children’s plans are actioned. They escalate concerns around planning for children appropriately and advocate for children to receive support to meet their needs.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: requires improvement to be good

Leaders and managers have a good understanding of the areas that need to be developed for an effective service to be offered to children living at the home. They appreciate that a skilled and competent staff team is key to meeting the objectives set out in the statement of purpose. In addition, leaders and managers understand that it is essential to work effectively as part of a multidisciplinary team when planning for children with complex needs, to promote greater consistency and stability. Inspection report for children's home: 2820124 5

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Recommendations

 The registered person should ensure that staff have the capacity and competence to build constructive, warm relationships with children that actively promote positive behaviour, providing the foundations for managing any negative behaviour. Staff should have the skills to respond to each child’s individual behaviour. When necessary, they should manage conflict, maintain constructive dialogues and react appropriately if challenged by a child in their care. (‘Guide to the Children’s Homes Regulations, including the quality standards’, page 39, paragraph 8.14)  The registered person should ensure that all their staff have been adequately trained in the principles of restraint and are confident in using any restraint techniques appropriate to the needs of the children the home is set up to care for as defined in the home’s statement of purpose. (‘Guide to the Children’s Homes Regulations, including the quality standards’, page 49, paragraph 9.57)

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Recommendations

 The registered person should ensure that there are detailed processes and agreed timescales for staff to achieve any core training (such as safeguarding, health and safety, and mandatory qualifications) to enable the delivery of the home’s statement of purpose. (‘Guide to the Children’s Homes Regulations, including the quality standards’, page 53, paragraph 10.8)  The registered person should ensure that all staff consistently follow the home’s policies and procedures for the benefit of the children in the home’s care, specifically in relation to ensuring that no unauthorised persons gain access to the home. (‘Guide to the Children’s Homes Regulations, including the quality standards’, page 54, paragraph 10.20)  The registered person should only accept placements for children where they are satisfied that the home can respond effectively to the child’s assessed needs as recorded in the child’s relevant plans. (‘Guide to the Children’s Homes Regulations,

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Recommendations

including the quality standards’, page 56, paragraph 11.4)  The registered person should have systems in place so that all staff, including managers, receive supervision of their practice from an appropriately qualified and experienced professional, which allows them to reflect on their practice and the needs of the children assigned to their care. (‘Guide to the Children’s Homes Regulations, including the quality standards’, page 61, paragraph 13.2)

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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: 2820124 6

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Children’s home details

Registered provider: Ambitious Children’s Homes Essex Ltd

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: Radial House, Unit 106, 3-5 Ripple Road, Barking IG11 7NP

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Children’s home details

Responsible individual: Muhammad Ishtiaq

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Inspector

Colin Bent, Social Care Inspector Inspection report for children's home: 2820124 7 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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