Hazel House

Inspection report for residential family centre: Hazel House 1 Hazel House Savannah Lodge Limited 39 Endersleigh Gardens, London NW4 4SD Inspected under the social care common inspection framework

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Information about this residential family centre

This residential family centre provides parental assessments for up to 4 families at any one time and is staffed on a 24-hour basis.

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Information about this residential family centre

The centre registered with Ofsted in August 2023. The centre’s manager is in the process of registering with Ofsted.

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Information about this residential family centre

At the time of this inspection, there were 4 families living in the centre.

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Overall experiences and progress of

children and parents, taking into account good

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Overall experiences and progress of

How well children and parents are helped and protected good

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Overall experiences and progress of

The effectiveness of leaders and managers good

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Overall experiences and progress of

The residential family centre provides effective services that meet the requirements for good.

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Overall experiences and progress of

Date of previous inspection: 6 August 2024

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Overall experiences and progress of

Overall judgement at last inspection: good

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Overall experiences and progress of

Enforcement action since last inspection: none Inspection report for residential family centre: Hazel House 2

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Summary of findings

Children and parents benefit from a nurturing, calm and well-managed residential family centre where parenting assessments are fair, evidence based and focused on children’s welfare. Staff build positive and trusting relationships with families while maintaining appropriate challenge and professional boundaries.

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Summary of findings

Strong leadership, effective safeguarding practice alongside good partnership working supports positive experiences and well-informed decision-making for children. A small number of shortfalls in recording, provider oversight and environmental health and safety require some attention but do not undermine the overall good quality of practice.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and parents: good

The centre has a welcoming, calm and nurturing environment. The décor and comfortable furnishings create a homely, family-like atmosphere. Families receive individualised care and support tailored to their identified needs.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and parents: good

Staff develop positive and trusting relationships with families that are balanced with appropriate professional challenge. This helps parents engage positively with the assessment process and enables staff to assess parenting capacity over time. Staff understand each family’s circumstances and adapt their approach to meet individual needs without losing sight of the child’s experience.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and parents: good

Interactions observed between staff, parents and children were natural, responsive and focused on promoting children’s welfare. Children appeared relaxed and comfortable in the presence of their parents and staff.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and parents: good

Assessments are thorough and balanced. They are evidence based, well reasoned, proportionate and focused on children’s lived experiences. Assessing social workers demonstrate good understanding of the assessment framework and triangulate evidence from the centre’s observations, key-work sessions, specialist reports and the legal bundle to develop a balanced, well-informed assessment of parental capacity. Assessing social workers consider parents’ strengths alongside areas of challenge in their assessments, which lead to realistic recommendations for the court. Reports distinguish clearly between fact, analysis and professional opinion, enabling recommendations to be proportionate and well evidenced. One child protection court team manager reported that they were ‘particularly impressed by the level of detail, analysis and professionalism demonstrated within the reports’.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and parents: good

Parents understand the purpose of their assessment and are encouraged to contribute throughout. Their views are actively sought following key-work sessions and are reflected in ongoing planning. This helps parents remain engaged and promotes openness throughout the assessment process. Inspection report for residential family centre: Hazel House 3 Importantly, some parents continue to maintain positive relationships with the centre staff after leaving, even when assessment outcomes were not what they had hoped for. This indicates that parents feel listened to, treated fairly and assessed transparently.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and parents: good

Children benefit from a well-equipped environment. Resources are extensive, of good quality and support children’s development as well as meaningful parent-child interaction. Staff use everyday routines, alongside targeted key-work sessions as opportunities to observe, guide and encourage parents in developing their parenting skills. One parent said, ‘Sessions were like life lessons; I feel I learnt a lot. They were very helpful.’

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Overall experiences and progress of children and parents: good

When incidents occur, staff respond consistently and proportionately. Managers review incidents promptly and ensure that follow-up actions are purposeful, helping parents reflect on their experiences and reducing the likelihood of similar incidents occurring.

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How well children and parents are helped and protected: good

Staff understand their safeguarding responsibilities and respond appropriately to concerns. They understand safeguarding processes and allegation and whistleblowing procedures. Staff know how to escalate concerns, and they place children’s welfare at the centre of their practice.

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How well children and parents are helped and protected: good

Incidents are recorded well with evaluative management oversight, which contributes to a balanced and reflective approach, where safeguarding of the child remains central. This approach is embedded in reflective team meetings, ensuring that staff remain alert to emerging risks or behaviours that may negatively impact progress or increase risk to children.

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How well children and parents are helped and protected: good

The manager and staff make sustained efforts to resolve any concerns and explore all viable options to continue working with parents, prioritising children’s safety, welfare and stability before considering decisions such as ending a placement.

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How well children and parents are helped and protected: good

Risk assessments are clear, proportionate and regularly reviewed. Staff understand the strategies they contain and apply them consistently in practice. As a result, identified risks are well managed, while parents are supported to develop safer parenting behaviours.

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How well children and parents are helped and protected: good

Staff have received recent training in the use of body maps, which are used routinely when children are left in the care of staff if parents need to attend appointments. However, some records lack full detail, including parents’ and staff’s full names and management sign off. Body maps generally correspond with incident reports and daily records, although recording is not yet sufficiently streamlined. Leaders have identified this and have planned to introduce an electronic recording system to strengthen recording and management oversight. Inspection report for residential family centre: Hazel House 4 Surveillance and monitoring using CCTV is used proportionately to enhance safeguarding arrangements. It does not replace the close, one-to-one supervision provided by staff. Staff understand that it is the direct observations of parents with their children that remain central to their practice. Recent upgrades to the system

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How well children and parents are helped and protected: good

have improved coverage internally and in the garden, ensuring there are no blind spots. Motion activated cameras provide an additional safeguard by alerting staff to movement when required. The manager can access the system remotely when on call, further strengthening oversight and ability to respond promptly to any safeguarding concerns.

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How well children and parents are helped and protected: good

A small number of environmental health and safety shortfalls were identified within the kitchen area, namely ensuring that child safety locks on cupboards are consistently utilised and ensuring that the stair gate remains closed. Given the close staff supervision of parents these matters have not compromised the safety of children or parents. Nevertheless, leaders have not addressed this promptly so that the environment consistently reflects good health and safety practice. Leaders responded positively during the inspection and recognised the need to strengthen oversight in this area.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The centre manager is an experienced, qualified and a registered social work professional. He is in the process of registering with Ofsted and is awaiting his fit person interview. He provides assured and reflective leadership and has established high expectations of practice, while creating a culture in which staff feel supported, challenged and accountable. He is child focused and professionally curious. His ambition for the service is evident, and he has a clear understanding of both its strengths and the areas requiring further development.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The manager communicates effectively with partner agencies and is a strong advocate for children and parents, demonstrating constructive and measured challenge when needed to ensure the best possible outcomes for children and parents.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The manager has developed reflective practice across the service. Group reflective supervision is effective, and staff openly explore practice issues, challenge one another constructively and develop shared learning, which strengthens consistency across the team. Individual staff supervision is regular and purposeful, providing staff with opportunities to examine their practice, consider the impact of their interventions and identify further learning.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Staff report that they enjoy their work and feel valued by the manager and organisation. Staff describe having good opportunities for training and further professional development.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The responsible individual knows the service well and provides regular support to the manager alongside the organisation’s service manager. Appropriate oversight is evident through the completion of regulatory audits, regular discussions about the Inspection report for residential family centre: Hazel House 5 operation of the centre and its continuing development. However, the manager’s probationary review has not been completed in line with the provider’s own procedures. While this has had no adverse impact on the manager’s effectiveness or on outcomes for families, this demonstrates a gap in governance oversight.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Recruitment processes are comprehensive. Appropriate employment checks are completed before staff begin work, helping to ensure that only suitable adults work with vulnerable children and families.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Leaders have established generally effective oversight of recording practice. Most records are detailed, reflective and clearly demonstrate the work undertaken with parents and their children. However, there are some inconsistencies in the quality of some records, with some containing minor inaccuracies or insufficient detail. These inconsistencies do not undermine the quality of the work undertaken with families, but do mean that written records do not consistently reflect the standard of practice observed during the inspection. Inspection report for residential family centre: Hazel House 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 Residential Family Centre Regulations 2002 and the national minimum standards. The registered person(s) must comply within the given timescales.

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Requirement Due date

The registered person shall maintain in respect of each family accommodated in the residential family centre a record which—

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Requirement Due date

includes the information, documents and other records specified in Schedule 3 relating to the members of the family; is kept up to date;

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Requirement Due date

The record referred to in paragraph (1) shall be kept securely and may not be disclosed to any person except in accordance with—

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Requirement Due date

any provision of, or made under, or by virtue of, a statute under which access to such records is authorised; or

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Requirement Due date

any court order authorising access to such records.

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Requirement Due date

The registered person shall also maintain the records specified in Schedule 4 in respect of the residential family centre.

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Requirement Due date

The records mentioned in paragraphs (1) and (3) may be kept in electronic form, provided the information so recorded is capable of being reproduced in a legible form. (Regulation 19 (1)(a)(b) (2)(a)(b) (3)(5))

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Requirement Due date

In particular, the registered person should ensure that body maps are fully completed and have management oversight. 31 August 2026

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Requirement Due date

Subject to regulation 4(6), the registered person shall provide facilities and services to residents in accordance with the statement of purpose.

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Requirement Due date

The registered person shall having regard to the size of the residential family centre and the number and needs of residents— 31 August 2026 Inspection report for residential family centre: Hazel House 7 take adequate precautions against risk of accidents. (Regulation 14 (1) (2)(g)

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Requirement Due date

In particular, the registered person should ensure that the use of kitchen cupboard safety locks and stair gates are regularly used.

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Recommendation

 The registered person should ensure that management employment processes, including probation reviews are completed within the organisation’s expected timescales so that provider monitoring arrangements are implemented effectively. (Residential Family Centres: NMS, 17.2 and 17.3)

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Information about this inspection

Inspectors have looked closely at the experiences and progress of children and parents, 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 Residential Family Centre Regulations 2002 and the national minimum standards. Inspection report for residential family centre: Hazel House 8

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Residential family centre details

Registered provider: Savannah Lodge Limited

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Residential family centre details

Registered provider address: Primrose Cottage, High Wych Road, Sawbridgeworth CM21 0HH

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Residential family centre details

Email address: accounts@savannahlodge.org

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Inspectors

Amanda Burrows, Social Care Inspector Sandra Jacobs-Walls, Social Care Inspector Inspection report for residential family centre: Hazel House 9 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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