Children's home run by Heartwood RSL Ltd

Inspection report for children’s home - monitoring visit: 2528264 1 Registered provider: Heartwood RSL Ltd

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Inspected under the social care common inspection framework

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Information about this children’s home

This privately run home provides care for up to five children with social and emotional difficulties.

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Information about this children’s home

The home registered with Ofsted on 19 August 2011.

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Information about this children’s home

There has been no registered manager in post since 30 May 2025.

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Information about this children’s home

There were two children living in the home at the time of this visit.

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This monitoring visit

Ofsted completed an assurance inspection on 28 August 2025. Serious and widespread concerns were found. Shortfalls were noted in safeguarding practice, managers’ failures to adequately assess children’s needs before they move into the home, staff skills and abilities to support children’s needs and risks, and staff failing to complete records when restraint is used. After that visit, Ofsted issued compliance notices focused on the protection of children and the effectiveness of management and leadership. This monitoring visit was completed to monitor the compliance notices. These compliance notices have not been met. As a result of ongoing shortfalls in safeguarding, and leadership and management, Ofsted has reissued these compliance notices.

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This monitoring visit

Leaders and managers have not ensured that staff manage incidents effectively. Staff frequently fail to use appropriate de-escalation techniques or to implement creative, tailored alternatives that meet the specific needs of each child. This lack of effective strategies means that staff are often unable to calm difficult situations before they escalate. Furthermore, risk assessments and behaviour support plans do not provide clear, practical guidance to help staff understand and respond to Inspection report for children’s home - monitoring visit: 2528264 2 children’s unique behaviours. This limits their ability to prevent or reduce the severity of challenging incidents.

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This monitoring visit

Leaders and the manager demonstrate a lack of professional curiosity when reviewing incidents, and there is a lack of analysis of what could have been done differently or learned. As a result, poor interventions are repeated and opportunities to reflect and improve are missed.

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This monitoring visit

When children go missing from the care of staff, staff do not take adequate steps to search for them. Although staff call the children, they fail to ask important questions about their location or safety, missing key opportunities to gather vital information. These concerns are highlighted by key partners, such as the police. Additionally, when children return to the home, return home interviews are neither requested nor carried out. This is a missed opportunity for staff to understand children’s experiences and deepen their understanding of any risks they faced while missing.

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This monitoring visit

The home environment is poorly cared for. Leaders and managers have not taken sufficient action to provide children with a clean and nurturing home, including their bedrooms. There are now plans in place to address these concerns, and some repair work has started to begin to make the home safe, but there is a lack of urgency in ensuring that damage to the home is repaired.

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This monitoring visit

There is not always sufficient food in the house. Children raised this as a concern during the inspection. While they have raised this issue to the manager, this has not been clearly recorded, and no action has been taken.

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This monitoring visit

There are not enough staff to consistently meet the needs of children. Since the last inspection, six staff members have left the home. New staff are being slowly recruited but they have not yet settled into the home. This has placed added pressure on the existing team and impacted on the consistency of care.

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This monitoring visit

There is a new manager and a new responsible individual. Both have been in the home for less than four weeks. Leaders and the managers’ oversight and monitoring of the home is not currently effective. Potential risks, as well as weaknesses in practice, are not identified and addressed. External monitoring systems, including by the responsible individual, do not support managers to identify and address shortfalls in the home. For example, children’s records and documents are poor quality and incomplete. In addition, leaders and the manager could not find all required information during the inspection.

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This monitoring visit

Staff lack a full understanding of children’s individual complex needs. Staff’s ability to meet these needs is limited due to their lack of experience and insufficient training. In addition, staffing levels are not always aligned to children’s care plans. This means that children cannot be assured that they will always have agreed levels of support or receive the individualised care they need to keep them safe. Inspection report for children’s home - monitoring visit: 2528264 3 The requirements made at the previous inspection in relation to regulations 5, 7, 11, 14, 33 and 36 were not reviewed during this visit and are restated.

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This monitoring visit

Ofsted will carry out further visits to the home to monitor the compliance notices, as the provider’s response to addressing the serious shortfalls identified during this monitoring visit still remains ineffective. Inspection report for children’s home - monitoring visit: 2528264 4

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

29/04/2025 Full Good 16/04/2024 Full Good 25/07/2023 Full Requires improvement to be good 20/06/2022 Full Good Inspection report for children’s home - monitoring visit: 2528264 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 with 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. In particular, the standard in paragraph (1) requires the registered person to ensure—

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Requirement Due date

assess whether each child is at risk of harm, taking into account information in the child’s relevant plans, and, if necessary, make arrangements to reduce the risk of any harm to the child;

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Requirement Due date

help each child to understand how to keep safe;

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Requirement Due date

have the skills to identify and act upon signs that a child is at risk of harm;

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Requirement Due date

understand the roles and responsibilities in relation to protecting children that are assigned to them by the registered person;

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Requirement Due date

take effective action whenever there is a serious concern about a child’s welfare;

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Requirement Due date

and 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;

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Requirement Due date

that the premises used for the purposes of the home are designed, furnished and maintained so as to protect each child from avoidable hazards to the child’s health. (Regulation 12 (1) (2)(a)(i)(ii)(iii)(v)(vi)(b)(d))

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Requirement Due date

This requirement is restated. 15 December 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— 15 December 2025 Inspection report for children’s home - monitoring visit: 2528264 6 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

ensure that staff work as a team where appropriate; ensure that staff have the experience, qualifications and skills to meet the needs of each child;

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Requirement Due date

demonstrate that practice in the home is informed and improved by taking into account and acting on—

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Requirement Due date

feedback on the experiences of children, including complaints received; and

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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)(b) (2)(b)(c)(g)(ii)(h))

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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.

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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

plan for, and help, each child to prepare to leave the home or to move into adult care in a way that is consistent with arrangements agreed with the child’s placing authority;

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Requirement Due date

that each child’s relevant plans are followed. (Regulation 14 (1)(a) (2)(b)(iii)(c))

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Requirement Due date

In particular, leaders and managers must ensure that children are suitably supported to progress with their education and to develop their independence in line with their care plans.

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Requirement Due date

This requirement is restated. 15 December 2025 Inspection report for children’s home - monitoring visit: 2528264 7 The registered person must maintain records (“case records”) for each child which—

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Requirement Due date

include the information and documents listed in Schedule 3 in relation to each child;

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Requirement Due date

are kept up to date. (Regulation 36 (1)(a)(b))

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Requirement Due date

In particular, leaders and managers must ensure that children’s records are accurate and up to date, reflecting the child’s current circumstances.

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Requirement Due date

This requirement is restated. 15 December 2025

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Requirement Due date

The positive relationships standard is that children are helped to develop, and to benefit from, relationships based on—

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Requirement Due date

an understanding about acceptable behaviour.

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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

meet each child’s behavioural and emotional needs, as set out in the child’s relevant plans;

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Requirement Due date

help each child to develop and practise skills to resolve conflicts positively and without harm to anyone;

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Requirement Due date

strive to gain each child’s respect and trust. (Regulation 11 (1)(b) (2)(a)(i)(iv)(viii))

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Requirement Due date

In particular, leaders and managers must ensure that they manage the dynamics between the children in the home. They must also strive to ensure that staff build positive relationships with the children.

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Requirement Due date

This requirement is restated. 15 December 2025

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Requirement Due date

In meeting the quality standards, the registered person must, and must ensure that staff—

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Requirement Due date

seek to involve each child’s placing authority effectively in the child’s care, in accordance with the child’s relevant plans; 15 December 2025 Inspection report for children’s home - monitoring visit: 2528264 8 if the registered person considers, or staff consider, a placing authority’s or a relevant person’s performance or response to be inadequate in relation to their role, challenge the placing authority or the relevant person to seek to ensure that each child’s needs are met in accordance with the child’s relevant plans. (Regulation 5 (a)(c))

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Requirement Due date

In particular, leaders and managers must ensure that when children go missing, they escalate to the local authority when return home interviews do not take place and work effectively with the police when children are missing from the home. Leaders and managers must also ensure that they keep social workers up to date when there are changes to how a child is cared for.

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must ensure that the following items, which may be kept in electronic form, are kept in an accessible manner—

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Requirement Due date

children’s case records (see regulation 36). (Regulation 38 (1)(i))

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Requirement Due date

In particular, leaders and managers must ensure that there is a central and organised place where all children’s records are kept.

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Requirement Due date

This requirement is restated. 15 December 2025

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Requirement Due date

The children’s views, wishes and feelings standard is that children receive care from staff who—

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Requirement Due date

develop positive relationships with them;

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Requirement Due date

and take their views, wishes and feelings into account in relation to matters affecting the children’s care and welfare and their lives. In particular, the standard in paragraph (1) requires the registered person to—

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Requirement Due date

ascertain and consider each child’s views, wishes and feelings, and balance these against what they judge to be in 15 December 2025 Inspection report for children’s home - monitoring visit: 2528264 9 the child’s best interests when making decisions about the child’s care and welfare;

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Requirement Due date

help each child to express views, wishes and feelings; help each child to understand how the child’s views, wishes and feelings have been taken into account and give the child reasons for decisions in relation to the child. (Regulation 7 (1)(a)(b)(c) (2)(a)(i)(ii)(iii))

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Requirement Due date

In particular, leaders and managers must ensure that children’s views, wishes and feelings are well considered and that appropriate action is taken to address this.

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Requirement Due date

ensure that each employee completes an appropriate induction.

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must ensure that all employees—

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Requirement Due date

receive practice-related supervision by a person with appropriate experience. (Regulation 33 (1)(a) (4)(b))

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Requirement Due date

This requirement is restated. 15 December 2025

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Requirement Due date

*These requirements are subject to a compliance notice.

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Recommendation

 The registered person should ensure that the home’s statement of purpose is kept under review and amended, especially when there are staff changes. The reviewed statement of purpose should then be sent to the regulator within the appropriate timescales. (‘Guide to the Children’s Homes Regulations, including the quality standards’, page 14, paragraph 3.5)

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Information about this inspection

The purpose of this visit was to monitor the action taken and the progress made by the children’s home since its last Ofsted inspection.

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Information about this inspection

This inspection was carried out under the Care Standards Act 2000. Inspection report for children’s home - monitoring visit: 2528264 10

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: 416 Green Lane, Ilford, Essex IG3 9JX

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Inspector

Sadia Akhtar, Social Care Inspector Inspection report for children’s home - monitoring visit: 2528264 11 and inspects 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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