Children's Home run by Essential Therapeutic Care and Education Limited in Hampshire

Inspection report for children’s home: 2794302 1 Registered provider: Essential Therapeutic Care and Education Limited

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Inspected under the social care common inspection framework

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Information about this children’s home

This privately owned children’s home provides care for up to 3 children who experience social and emotional difficulties. There were 3 children living in the home at the time of the inspection.

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Information about this children’s home

The manager has been registered with Ofsted since February 2026.

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Overall experiences and progress of

children and young people, taking into account

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outstanding

How well children and young people are helped and protected outstanding

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outstanding

The effectiveness of leaders and managers outstanding

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outstanding

The children’s home provides highly effective services that consistently exceed the standards of good. The actions of the children’s home contribute to significantly improved outcomes and positive experiences for children and young people who need help, protection and care.

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outstanding

Overall judgement at last inspection: good

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outstanding

Enforcement action since last inspection: none Inspection report for children’s home: 2794302 2

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

28/07/2025 Full Good 19/03/2025 Full Good Inspection report for children’s home: 2794302 3

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Summary of findings

Children receive highly personalised care from staff who know them extremely well. They make significant progress from their starting points and are meaningfully involved in decisions about their care, safety and relationships. Staff manage complex risks effectively while ensuring that children’s views remain central to safety planning. Highly effective partnership working enables children to access specialist health and therapeutic support. Children maintain important family relationships and benefit from positive experiences. Leaders are ambitious, reflective and have strong oversight of safeguarding practice. Children feel listened to and safe, and parents speak extremely positively about the high-quality care their children receive.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: outstanding

The home is beautifully presented, welcoming and maintained to a high standard. The physical environment reflects the highly personalised nature of the children’s care. Children are proud of their home. Photos and other personal items are displayed throughout. Staff understand that some children find displaying personal photos difficult, and they support them sensitively to choose alternative images that represent their identity, interests and what is important to them. Consequently, children experience a strong sense of ownership and belonging.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: outstanding

Children make significant and sustained progress from their individual starting points. They benefit from highly personalised care provided by staff who know them exceptionally well. For one child, incidents of self-harm have reduced considerably. This child has benefited from specialist support alongside consistent care from staff, helping them to develop safer ways of managing their emotions and improving their wellbeing.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: outstanding

Children’s wishes and feelings are central to the care provided. Staff listen carefully to children and take meaningful action in response to what they say. One child expressed a wish to have a prom. Staff embraced this idea and supported the child to be actively involved in organising the event, including preparing invitations and identifying a venue. Children from other homes in the organisation and young people who previously lived in the service attended. Photos capture the importance of the occasion to the children. The event provided children with an opportunity to celebrate together, develop memories and maintain connections with people who have shared similar experiences.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: outstanding

One child spoke extremely positively about their relationship with staff, describing how they feel cared for and safe in the home. The child confidently reflected on the significant progress they have made and expressed pride in their achievements. This demonstrates the positive impact of trusting relationships and the child’s growing confidence and sense of self-worth. Inspection report for children’s home: 2794302 4 Children develop increasing confidence to communicate their emotions and contribute to decisions about their care. One child, who initially struggled with boundaries, is now able to engage in more reflective conversations with staff and increasingly understands and accepts boundaries. This demonstrates considerable progress in the child’s ability to communicate their feelings and regulate their responses.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: outstanding

Children benefit from highly effective support to maintain important family relationships. All children have opportunities to spend time with their families. Staff support family holidays, and leaders and managers provide financial assistance to ensure that children do not miss important experiences because of financial barriers. Consequently, children maintain meaningful connections outside of the home.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: outstanding

Children’s health needs are exceptionally well supported through highly effective partnership working. Specialist services are responsive to children’s individual needs. One child, who previously struggled to engage with health professionals, now accepts fortnightly visits from a paediatrician and engages weekly with the therapy team. This represents significant progress from the child’s starting point and demonstrates their growing trust and confidence in accepting specialist support.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: outstanding

Children are consistently encouraged and supported to engage in education. Staff recognise that accessing education can be particularly challenging for some children and work proactively with external professionals to overcome barriers. When appropriate, children are supported to continue learning in the home. This ensures that difficulties engaging with formal education do not prevent children from continuing to learn.

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

Staff have a comprehensive understanding of children’s individual risks and vulnerabilities. Risk management is not unnecessarily restrictive. Staff carefully balance their responsibility to safeguard children with the importance of promoting independence.

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

Children are meaningfully involved in understanding and managing their own risks. Staff work collaboratively with children to develop safety strategies, ensuring that their views influence how they are supported. This helps children to better understand their vulnerabilities and feel confident in the support provided to keep them safe.

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

Staff respond well to significant self-harm concerns. Following a serious incident, managers advocated strongly for the child and worked collaboratively with the professional network to develop and review a comprehensive safety plan. Increased staffing, supervision and restrictions were introduced proportionately and reviewed alongside purposeful direct work with the child. This ensured that immediate risks were managed effectively while avoiding unnecessary long-term restrictions.

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

Staff use physical intervention proportionately and only as a last resort. Records are detailed and provide clear accounts of incidents and staff responses. Staff consider Inspection report for children’s home: 2794302 5 children’s individual communication needs when helping them reflect on the incident. Following one physical intervention, a child was offered a visual debrief. This provided an accessible opportunity for the child to communicate their experience and contribute to learning following the incident.

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

Leaders maintain meticulous oversight of safeguarding practice. Monthly safeguarding trend analysis enables managers to identify patterns, emerging risks and areas where practice needs to develop. Learning from this analysis informs risk management and staff practice. Consequently, safeguarding arrangements remain dynamic and responsive to children’s changing needs.

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

Allegations made by children about staff are responded to promptly and taken seriously. Leaders ensure that relevant professionals are informed and that children are kept updated throughout the process. They take appropriate action in response to concerns, helping children to feel listened to, reassured and safe.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

Leaders and managers are highly ambitious for children and have a comprehensive understanding of their individual needs, experiences and aspirations. This knowledge is reflected in the personalised care children receive and in leaders’ expectations that children should make meaningful progress, regardless of the complexity of their starting points.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

Leaders promote highly effective partnership working. They work collaboratively with health, therapy, education and other professionals and advocate persistently when children require additional support. This has resulted in children who previously struggled to engage with professionals receiving specialist intervention in an environment in which they feel safe.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

Staff speak extremely positively about leaders and managers. They describe them as open, approachable and highly supportive. Staff benefit from a comprehensive induction and regular supervision. This enables staff to feel valued, confident and well equipped to provide consistently high-quality care.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

The manager has a strong understanding of the strengths and areas for development for the home. They have a clear and ambitious vision for the service, with a particular emphasis on preparing children for their futures. The manager’s aspiration is that children leave the home with the skills, experiences and confidence they need to succeed.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

Two parents spoke extremely positively about the care their children receive. They described staff as going ‘above and beyond’ and knowing their children exceptionally well. This gives parents confidence that their children are understood and valued and that the children receive highly personalised care. Inspection report for children’s home: 2794302 6 Managers recognise the importance of positive and appropriate risk-taking. Their approach does not seek to eliminate all risk through restriction. Instead, leaders support staff to understand risk, maintain clear boundaries and work collaboratively with children to develop safer strategies.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

There is a strong culture of reflection and learning. Detailed records, safeguarding analysis, supervision and multi-agency working provide leaders with information about children’s experiences and staff practice. Leaders use this information to identify strengths and areas requiring further development. Inspection report for children’s home: 2794302 7

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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: 2794302 8

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Children’s home details

Registered provider: Essential Therapeutic Care and Education Limited

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: Unit 9, Court Farm, Rag Hill, Aldermaston, Reading RG7 4NT

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Inspector

Ken Bedwell, Social Care Inspector Inspection report for children’s home: 2794302 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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