Children's Home run by Institute of Integrated Systemic Therapy in Kent

Inspection report for children's home: 2641682 1 Registered provider: Institute of Integrated Systemic Therapy Full inspection Inspected under the social care common inspection framework

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Information about this children's home

The home is operated by a charitable organisation. It provides care and support for up to 4 children who may experience social and emotional difficulties.

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Information about this children's home

At the time of this inspection, 2 children were living at the home.

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Information about this children's home

The manager registered with Ofsted in May 2025.

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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: requires improvement to be good

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good

Enforcement action since last inspection: none Inspection report for children's home: 2641682 2

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

17/03/2026 Full Requires improvement to be good 26/11/2024 Full Good 05/03/2024 Full Good 07/02/2023 Full Good Inspection report for children's home: 2641682 3

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Summary of findings

The home is managed and supported by stable and consistent staff. Children are helped to settle and make appropriate progress from their starting points. Staff know the children well, understand their individual needs and are responsive to these.

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Summary of findings

Children are encouraged to be fully involved in their care and are supported to share their views. They know how to raise any concerns if these arise.

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Summary of findings

Children's relationships with those who are important to them are encouraged. Staff are creative in their approaches to maintaining these relationships outside of the home.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children are making good progress from their starting points, particularly in relation to their developing identities and emotional wellbeing. Approaches to exploring children's culture and heritage are embedded in staff's day-to-day practice. Children engage well with this, and, as a result, they have an emerging sense of self. One child said, 'The home helped me connect to my culture.'

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children's relationships with those who are important to them are nurtured, and visits are well planned and child focused. One child's family member said their experience had been positive and that staff had helped to ease their initial anxieties.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

The manager and staff are fully present in the home, and children experience natural and warm interactions. Staff are confident and knowledgeable about the home's model of care and use this to develop trusting, secure relationships with the children.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children are provided with age-appropriate opportunities and experiences in line with their peers, which has directly supported one child to develop friendships outside of the home and build connections in the wider community. Staff have an awareness of risk- taking behaviour for teenagers and provide children with advice and guidance to support their decision-making.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children's attendance and engagement with education is variable. One child who had a period of not attending education is now accessing a college course, and another is being supported to re-engage with their education. They also have access to an independent advocate to ensure that their voice is heard. Educational professionals report that communication has improved and the network is working well together to increase attendance and attainment.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children are supported to develop skills for adulthood, and one child is accessing driving lessons, which will provide them with a lifelong skill. However, some plans for Inspection report for children's home: 2641682 4 encouraging independence, particularly for children approaching adulthood and preparing to transition out of the home, lack focus and determination.

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

Staff are trained in safeguarding and demonstrate an understanding of roles and responsibilities in keeping children safe. The manager sources specialist training to supplement staff skills and promote knowledge and confidence in the team in response to any emerging risks. Staff understand children's physical and mental health needs and respond to these sensitively. One child said they feel safe and know that staff help them.

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

Safeguarding practice in the home has been strengthened by regular supplementary ‘bite-size learnings’ within team meetings and staff supervision sessions.

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

Children are settled in the home, meaning the occurrence of incidents is low. Children do not go missing from this home. Physical interventions are only used as a last resort to keep children safe. Staff are trained in the home's model of de-escalation and restraint. Records of any incidents, however, do not show that staff and children have been offered the opportunity to reflect and talk about their experience. This is a missed opportunity to learn lessons from these infrequent events.

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

The home has active door alarms on children's bedrooms overnight. Children and professionals are aware and consent to their use, and these are regularly reviewed. However, for one child the use was not assessed to establish if it is the least restrictive practice. There is no plan to reduce the need to routinely use these.

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

Risks for children are not clearly reflected in children's plans and risk assessments. Risk assessments do not provide staff with clarity on the steps to take to manage these on a day-to-day basis. Information is lengthy and cumbersome and, therefore, not easily and quickly accessible to further guide staff. Children are safe because staff understand children's risks and are provided with training and support to best manage these.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The manager is suitably experienced and qualified. They promote a positive culture across the team. This was evident in the unanimous feedback from the staff team, which described a positive working environment in which it feels well supported in its roles. The manager has a good understanding of the home's areas of strengths and areas of development. They have responded decisively to the shortfalls identified in the previous inspection and implemented clear action and development plans in response.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Staff support is an area of strength. Staff experience clear plans of induction and probationary periods. Staff training is well maintained and amended to reflect the needs of the children. Staff have access to regular supervision sessions. To supplement this, team meetings take place regularly, are well attended and actively encourage reflection and information-sharing across the team. Inspection report for children's home: 2641682 5 Professionals described good working relationships and high levels of communication and information-sharing. Professionals say that children have good relationships with staff who know them well and understand their needs. One child's social worker said they can see 'the positive change and development of independence with [child's name] since living in the home'.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The manager is working to strengthen the monitoring and oversight of the home. These changes remain in their infancy, and work is ongoing, meaning they are not yet fully effective or embedded. Shortfalls were particularly evident in case records, which lacked information from children's moves in, including placement plans and delegated authority, affecting the manager's ability to understand and evidence their decision-making capabilities. Records have been further impeded by the migration to a new recording system. Information is not being held in one central place, causing delays in the manager and staff being able to locate and access requested information.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

While the manager submits regular quality-of-care reports to the regulator, these do not meet the requirements of regulations. The manager does not currently demonstrate how children's feedback helps in their assessment of the quality of care or identify actions they will take to improve or maintain the quality of care provided to children. Inspection report for children's home: 2641682 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 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 signed and dated by the author of each entry. (Regulation 36 (1)(a)(b)(c))

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Requirement Due date

In particular, children's records should be stored in a way that ensures that information is easily accessible to those who provide care for them. 24 July 2026

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must complete a review of the quality of care provided for children (“a quality of care review”) at least once every 6 months.

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Requirement Due date

In order to complete a quality of care review the registered person must establish and maintain a system for monitoring, reviewing and evaluating—

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Requirement Due date

the quality of care provided for children;

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Requirement Due date

the feedback and opinions of children about the children's home, its facilities and the quality of care they receive in it; and

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Requirement Due date

any actions that the registered person considers necessary in order to improve or maintain the quality of care provided for children. (Regulation 45 (1) (2)(a)(b)(c)) 24 July 2026 Inspection report for children's home: 2641682 7

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Recommendations

 The registered person should ensure that any limits on privacy and access may only be put in place to safeguard each child in the home are made where this is intended to safeguard the child's welfare. All decisions should be informed by a rigorous assessment of that individual child's needs, be properly recorded and be kept under regular review. ('Guide to the Children's Homes Regulations, including the quality standards', page 15, paragraph 3.10)  The registered person should ensure that staff work closely with placing authorities to support children to prepare for any moves from the home, whether they are returning home or moving to another placement or adult care or to live independently. This includes supporting the child to develop emotional and mental resilience to cope without the home's support. ('Guide to the Children's Homes Regulations, including the quality standards', page 17, paragraph 3.27)

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Recommendations

 The registered person should ensure that they have access to each child's placement plan, which should set out the permissions that their placing authority has delegated to the registered person. This should provide clarity on the home's ability to give permission for school trips, sleepovers or the child's involvement in sporting, leisure and cultural activities. Wherever possible, the home should secure the appropriate authority to support children to be involved in the same positive activities as their peers. ('Guide to the Children's Homes Regulations, including the quality standards', page 30, paragraph 6.2)  The registered person should ensure that staff continually and actively assess the risks to each child and the arrangements in place to protect them, including details of the steps the home will take to manage any assessed risks on a day-to-day basis. ('Guide to the Children's Homes Regulations, including the quality standards', page 42,

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Recommendations

paragraph 9.5)  The registered person should ensure that any child who has been restrained should be given the opportunity to express their feelings about their experience of the restraint as soon as is practicable, ideally within 24 hours of the restraint incident, taking the age of the child and the circumstances of the restraint into account. ('Guide to the Children's Homes Regulations, including the quality standards', page 50, paragraph 9.60)

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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: 2641682 8

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Children's home details

Registered provider address: Institute of Integrated Systemic Therapy , 91-95, Southwark Bridge Road, London SE1 0AX

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Inspectors

Cassie Martin, Social Care Inspector (Lead) Lee Muchmore, Social Care Inspector Inspection report for children's home: 2641682 9 regulates 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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Inspectors

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Inspectors

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Inspectors

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Inspectors

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