Children's home run by SureCare Residential Limited – The White Trees Group

Inspection report for children’s home: 2525634 1 Registered provider: SureCare Residential Ltd - The White Trees Group

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Inspected under the social care common inspection framework

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Information about this children’s home

This home is privately operated. It provides care for up to five children who may experience social and emotional difficulties.

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Information about this children’s home

At the time of the inspection, there were four children living in the home. The inspector spoke with three of the children.

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Information about this children’s home

The manager registered with Ofsted in April 2024.

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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: 29 January 2025

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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: 2525634 2

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

29/01/2025 Full Good 16/08/2023 Full Good 03/10/2022 Full Good 27/09/2021 Full Good Inspection report for children’s home: 2525634 3

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

The home is a large and busy household. There has been a recent turbulent period when children’s experiences were negatively affected by difficult group dynamics. However, children are well cared for by a consistent staff team and are making good progress from their individual starting points.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff have built positive relationships with the children and interactions between the children and staff are positive. Children are comfortable in staff’s presence and said that they like the staff and doing things with them. Staff know the children well and can quickly identify any change in their presentation.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

At the time of the inspection, the home was being redecorated throughout, which caused disruption in some of the communal areas. The children’s bedrooms are personalised and reflect their interests. Children say that they enjoy spending time with each other and eating together.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children have pets in the home, including rats and a snake. Staff support the children to care for their animals. Through these experiences, children develop a sense of responsibility and ways to positively express their emotions.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children have had mixed progress with their education, but this has improved in recent weeks for some children. When children are not attending school, they are encouraged to keep to a daily routine and take part in other educational activities.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children are encouraged and supported to attend health appointments. Staff have a good understanding of how to support individual children to overcome any barriers to attending appointments.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Feedback from professionals and families is positive. One professional said they could not praise the staff enough for their support and care and that this has really helped the child to make good progress.

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

Staff know the children well and understand their behaviours. This means that staff are often able to use de-escalation strategies effectively and are sensitive to children’s needs when managing difficult situations.

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

Staff provide a strong and proactive response when children go missing from home. Staff actively look for children and use the good relationships that they have with children to discuss and review incidents. Children’s plans are then updated so they include the most current information. Inspection report for children’s home: 2525634 4 A clinical support and well-being service is used effectively. This has resulted in effective plans being put in place to meet the changing needs of individual children. The registered manager and staff have advocated for children when they are no longer able to meet their needs in the home, to ensure that suitable alternative provisions are found.

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

Some children said that the group dynamics in the home have at times affected their feelings of stability and safety. This has been addressed by the registered manager and staff to ensure that the impact on children is fully understood and acted on.

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

On occasion, risk assessments have not always been updated in a timely manner to reflect the current level of risk. This includes a younger child in the home being up in the night and staff not always being aware of this. The registered manager accepts that the recording of this risk requires updating and regular review to ensure that the staff understand how to keep the child safe.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The registered manager and deputy manager are child focused and committed to improving the children’s outcomes. Staff are positive about the support provided by managers and staff morale is high.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Leaders and managers have effective oversight of the support provided to children. Staff report that managers are knowledgeable and offer continued direction and feedback in relation to their personal development and practice.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Staff are provided with regular and reflective supervision sessions and have access to high-quality training, including bespoke sessions with a training manager. Training is tailored to the specific needs of the children in the home.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Leaders and managers take effective action to address staff practice that has fallen short of expectations. This includes completing appropriate investigations and identifying wider learning. Learning opportunities are used to improve staff practice, and the registered manager ensures that all staff are aware of their roles and responsibilities. This work is ongoing to ensure that staff practice is consistently in line with the home’s ethos and therapeutic nature.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Ofsted is not always notified of significant incidents in a timely manner. In addition, some professionals said that they are not always informed in a timely manner of all incidents which have occurred with children. Staff do not immediately report all incidents in the home to managers. The registered manager accepts this and has a development plan in place to improve the consistency of reporting, including training for all staff and specific training for senior members of staff. Inspection report for children’s home: 2525634 5

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Statutory requirements

This section sets out the actions that the registered person 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 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

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

manage relationships between children to prevent them from harming each other; and

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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. (Regulation 12 (1) (2)(a)(i)(ii)(iii)(iv)(v))

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Requirement Due date

This specifically relates to keeping risk assessments updated. 12 January 2026

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must notify HMCI and each other relevant person without delay if—

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Requirement Due date

there is an allegation of abuse against the home or a person working there;

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Requirement Due date

there is any other incident relating to a child which the registered person considers to be serious. (Regulation 40 (4)(c)(e)) 1 February 2026 Inspection report for children’s home: 2525634 6

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Recommendations

 The registered person should ensure that there are effective working relationships with each child’s placing authority and other relevant people, including timely communication. (‘Guide to the Children’s Homes Regulations, including the quality standards’, page 52, paragraph 10.3)  The registered person should ensure that there is consistent high-quality care for all children living in the home. In particular, they should play a key role in shaping the ethos of the home through developing a culture of high aspiration for children which is demonstrated through the care, resources and opportunities offered to the children by all staff. (‘Guide to the Children’s Homes Regulations, including the quality standards’, page 52, paragraph 10.4)

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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: 2525634 7

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Children’s home details

Registered provider: SureCare Residential Ltd - The White Trees Group

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: Whitetrees Group, The Old Snap Factory, Twyford Industrial Estate, Twyford Road, Bishop’s Stortford CM23 3LJ

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Inspector

Dawn McCluskey, Social Care Inspector Inspection report for children’s home: 2525634 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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