Children's Home run by Elm Lodge Residential limited in Southend on Sea

Inspection report for children’s home: 2726010 1 Registered provider: Elm Lodge Residential Limited

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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 owned and provides care for up to 4 children aged 7 to 17 years, who may experience emotional and social difficulties.

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Information about this children’s home

Two children were living at the home at the time of the inspection.

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Information about this children’s home

The manager registered with Ofsted in September 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

Overall judgement at last inspection: good

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good

Enforcement action since last inspection: none Inspection report for children’s home: 2726010 2

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

05/08/2025 Full Good 22/10/2024 Full Good 07/11/2023 Full Good Inspection report for children’s home: 2726010 3

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Summary of findings

The children living in this home receive warm and nurturing care from dedicated staff. Since the last inspection, there has been a high number of incidents. However, staff remain committed to maintaining good-quality, consistent care for children. Feedback from professionals and children’s families is positive.

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Summary of findings

Children build trusting relationships with staff, and they are making good progress from their starting points. Staff work closely with external professionals to meet the children’s needs.

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Summary of findings

The home is well decorated and has a family feel. The children are supported with their education and are encouraged to develop new independence skills.

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Summary of findings

The management team is stable and experienced. Managers and staff keep the children at the front and centre of every decision made about their care and welfare.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Since the last inspection, 6 children have left and 7 children have moved into the home. At the time of this inspection, 2 children were living at the home. The inspector spent time with both children.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

The home has recently been through a turbulent period, with group dynamics that led to escalating incidents for some children. At times, this has affected staff morale. Despite this, managers and staff have ensured that good standards of individualised support and care have been maintained.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff understand the importance of creating a warm, relaxed and welcoming home that generates a family feel. Children have ample space to enjoy their time at home. The children’s bedrooms have been decorated in keeping with their preferences.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

The staff follow a child-focused therapeutic model of communication and support, giving careful consideration to how the children’s lived experiences affect the way they view the world. This approach is threaded into the staff’s practice and captured in the children’s records. Staff are skilled at adapting their style of communication, ensuring that they approach the children with empathy and understanding.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff are strong advocates for the children. As soon as children move to the home, staff seek education providers. Since moving to the home, one child has excelled in Inspection report for children’s home: 2726010 4 their education with consistent support and guidance from staff. As a result, the child is now working towards their GCSEs and has plans to follow a vocational apprenticeship. Another child, who was out of education for a prolonged period before moving to the home, has been supported to gradually return to school under a tailored schedule that is in line with their ability and needs.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

The manager undertook a review of the dynamics relating to the children living together. As a result, 3 children moved on from the home because staff could not meet their changing needs. These children were supported to move on in a positive and child-focused way. The staff have kept in touch with the children since they moved.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

The initial experiences for children who have moved into the home recently have been positive. This has helped children to settle into routines quickly. One child who moved to the home recently said that staff have been very welcoming and supportive. However, on occasion, managers have not ensured that they undertake thorough assessments of children’s needs before the children move in. They have not always identified and followed up on gaps in information supplied by the child’s placing authority. This potentially undermined stability for some children and resulted in them moving on from the home.

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

The children have complex needs, with histories of going missing from home, self- harm and being vulnerable to exploitation. Due to their lived experiences, the children sometimes struggle to express their feelings in ways that do not compromise their or staff’s safety. The staff understand this and respond to children in a child-focused and trauma-informed way. This approach helps to enable discussions that support children to reflect on their difficult emotions and learn healthier ways to manage them.

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

Children benefit from a nurturing environment in which positive behaviour is actively reinforced. Staff use incentives and consequences to encourage positive behaviour. These are personalised and help children to work towards goals that are important to them. The number of missing-from-home episodes has remained relatively low, and staff manage these well.

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

Staff attend meetings with internal and external specialists to help keep children safer. They look at the progress children are making and assess new and emerging risks, both in and outside the home, in partnership with these professionals. This provides a joint approach to supporting children’s safety and wellbeing. This also helps staff use a positive approach to managing the children’s needs and behaviours. One member of staff said, ‘I feel that safeguarding is taken seriously.’

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

Incidents of restraint occur rarely, and restraint is used only as a last resort. All interventions are reviewed by the manager, and risk management plans are Inspection report for children’s home: 2726010 5 updated. The manager provides children and staff with the opportunity to reflect on incidents. They ensure that the children are provided with child-focused aftercare.

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

Managers have developed a reflective and therapeutic culture in the home. This reflective practice has identified learning from events, and a number of actions have been taken since the last inspection that have driven developments in staff practice. There are strengthened safeguarding protocols, including improved quality of recording, responses and management oversight. Staff have received additional training, and there are ongoing workshops in place that are tailored around incidents, new emerging risks and the needs of the children. This helps staff feel more equipped to deal with difficult situations effectively.

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

Staff help the children to understand healthy and safe relationships. Staff have planned discussions with the children and guide them on how to ensure they can have positive relationships with people outside of the home.

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

Concerns relating to staff conduct are very rare. When they do happen, they are managed sensitively and quickly. Collaborative work with social workers and the local authority designated officer ensures that children are kept safe. The manager identifies learning points and addresses these with staff. Such learning is fully embedded into staff practice.

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

The physical environment is safe, secure and protects children from the risk of harm. Risk assessments are regularly reviewed, updated and comply with statutory requirements. A member of staff said, ‘There is a genuine effort to provide a safe, supportive and stable environment for the children.’

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The suitably experienced and qualified registered manager has a strong desire to achieve positive outcomes for the children. She is supported by a committed and experienced management team. Leaders and managers provide the staff and children with stability and encouragement. The registered manager was not present for the inspection.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Leaders and managers have created a positive and reflective culture. They provide ongoing professional development for staff and ensure they are well supported. Staff benefit from regular and reflective supervision. They have regular training and broaden their knowledge through focused meetings and workshops. This is alongside regular in-house therapeutic support, clinical supervision sessions, team meetings and annual appraisals. Staff value feedback and use it to help them deliver the best care to the children. Consequently, morale is positive among the team, and the feedback provided by staff was overwhelmingly positive. One staff member said, ‘I am grateful for the opportunity to work at [name of home] and believe the hard work of the staff and management should be recognised.’ Inspection report for children’s home: 2726010 6 Communication between managers and professionals is good. Professionals say

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

they are regularly informed about any areas of concern or changes concerning the children. The effective multi-agency working in place benefits the children. Feedback from professionals and children’s families is positive. One professional said there is ‘brilliant communication with the home,’ saying, ‘They are very responsive and provide the weekly reports in time,’ and ‘The manager is absolutely knowledgeable about all of the children in the home.’

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The quality of care review report completed by the manager lacks analysis as well as feedback from children, staff and other stakeholders. The report only considers the progress of the children living in the home at the time of the report. This is a missed opportunity to fully evaluate the successes and areas for development in the home in order to better support all children and staff in the future. Inspection report for children’s home: 2726010 7

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Recommendations

 The registered person should ensure they work closely with the placing authority to understand the child’s relationship history and the impact that the child’s arrival may have on the children living at the home. (‘Guide to the Children’s Homes Regulations, including the quality standards’, page 38, paragraph 8.3)  The registered person should ensure that they actively make the best use of information from independent and internal monitoring (including under regulations 44 and 45) to ensure continuous improvement. They are responsible for proactively implementing lessons learned and sustaining good practice. (‘Guide to the Children’s Homes Regulations, including the quality standards’, page 55, 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: 2726010 8

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Children’s home details

Registered provider: Elm Lodge Residential Limited

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Inspector:

Anda Roddy, Social Care Inspector Inspection report for children’s home: 2726010 9 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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