Children’s Home registration (Sept 2019 – February 2021)

• Advised and supported A & S Children’s Services Ltd to gain a successful registration with Ofsted after initially having been refused. This involved ensuring that the right person was found to manage the home, reviewing policies and procedures to ensure they were of a good standard and the systems/people in place were robust enough for Ofsted to feel secure in granting registration.

 Children’s Home Registration (Southend) (July 17-ongoing)

• Providing on-going support and advice to move into the children’s residential care sector achieve Ofsted registration.

Children’s Home Registration (Sunderland) (Sept 2017)  

• Advised and assisted with their residential care registration with Ofsted.

Children’s Home Registration (London) (2015-2016) 

• Advised and assisted with their residential care registration with Ofsted.

(please see a testimonial from the Director)

Children’s Home Registration (Halifax) (2016-2018) 

• Advised and assisted with their residential care registration with Ofsted.
• Provided mentoring sessions to the Responsible Individual.
• Provided ongoing support to the company Director.

Residential Special School (Kent) (January 2012 – July 2014)  

• Provided advice and assistance with their residential care registration (Children’s Home) with Ofsted.
• Designed/delivered bespoke staff training (Children’s homes Regulation and National Minimum Standards).
• Carried out a full audit in line with the National Minimum Standards and Ofsted’s evaluation schedule for children’s homes in preparation for their first Ofsted inspection as a children’s home. Provided feedback and an evidence based report, highlighting strengths, weaknesses and suggestions for improvement.

Children’s Home Registration  (London) (Sept 2013 – Feb 2014) 

• Assisted with the ‘fit person’ aspect of Ofsted’s registration process for children’s homes.

• Achieving Greater is currently assisting other potential children’s home providers with the Ofsted/CQC registration process.

Children’s Homes Provider (West Sussex) (June 2018) 

• Carried out an independent review of provision across 3 children’s homes.

Some aspects of the work included:

• Liaison and communication with SMT via email and phone prior to 2 day site visit.
• Communication with care and education staff prior 2 day site visit via email and phone.
• Review of documents provided.
• Background research, including: review of Ofsted reports and regulation 44 reports provided.
• Analysis of information gathered.
• Planning the task/preparing for the 2 day visit.
• 2 day visit to the children’s homes (observation/discussion with care staff and young people).
• Face to face discussions with SMT, care staff, education staff.

Children’s Homes Provider (Kent) (May 2013-Sept 2013)

• Achieving Greater assisted with a change and improvement project. Angela was asked to carry out an audit in one of the organisation’s children’s homes and to use this as a magnifying glass to give a wider view of organisational issues. The brief was to help with improvement to organisational systems, process and structures and to make recommendations (including on cultural and management issues).
• A full audit in line with the National Minimum Standards and Ofsted’s evaluation schedule for children’s homes was carried out. Feedback and an evidence based report, highlighting strengths, weaknesses and suggestions for improvement was provided. This provided advice and suggestions for improvement across the organisation. The audit carried out gave the organisation a clearer picture of where they stood in meeting Ofsted’s inspection regime.
• Part of the brief and criteria for establishing the success of the project was that the organisation improves consistency in achieving good Ofsted inspection outcomes. Following the change and improvement process all of the children’s homes received a positive inspection outcome and were judged to be ‘good’ by Ofsted. The homes that were previously rated as inadequate were rated as ‘good’ and made good or satisfactory progress.
• Through this change and improvement project Achieving Greater identified there was a lack of clarity and understanding around significant events and notifications to appropriate authorities (Ofsted). The interpretation of Schedule 5 with regards to child protection appeared to be a grey area and varying amongst providers. Achieving Greater… provided support and guidance with this issue to enable a change to Ofsted’s national policy regarding child protection notifications. Ofsted then sent out a guidance note to all social care providers so that there was clarification and clear expectations for all social care providers.

Children’s Home (Kent) (Sept 2020)

I was asked to carry out an independent and unbiased review and report for a company where Ofsted had issued a Decision to Cancel registration of one of their children’s homes. This piece of work involved reviewing and analysing various sources of evidence, identifying key issues and themes, and providing some  key points, conclusions and recommendations for the company and Ofsted.

Please see testimonial from Children’s Home Quality (Nov 2020)

Children’s Home (Staffordshire) (July 2019)

• Review of Ofsted compliance notices and action plan.
• Advice/guidance regarding challenging compliance notices.
• Policy review and advice.

Children’s Home (Brighton) (March/April 2017) 

I provided advice and assistance following an Ofsted inspection that resulted in an inadequate judgement/compliance notices. Aspects of the work included:

• Review of Ofsted compliance action plan for children’s home in preparation for monitoring visit
• Audit visits to children’s home
• Visits to children’s home for review of practice/embedment of compliance action plan
• Feedback of review of practice/embedment of compliance action plan
• Development and delivery of bespoke training on notification of serious events
• Provided support and advice (evidence for Ofsted inspection evaluation criteria under the new Social Care Common Inspection Framework)

Children’s Home (Liverpool) (September 2015)

• Achiever Greater provided advice and assistance following an Ofsted inspection that resulted in an inadequate judgement and receiving compliance notices.
• The home was re-inspected by Ofsted and the service provision was judged as ‘good. Angela Gunning was informed that the Ofsted Inspectors were complimentary about the quick response and all the work done to achieve this outcome.

Aspects of the work included:

• Planning and preparing for the audit visit to the home.
• Assistance in the development/review of the Ofsted compliance action plan.
• Carry out 2 day audit visit at the home.
• Supporting and checking progress and completion of work to meet Quality Standards/requirements highlighted in Ofsted inspection and compliance notices.
• Provided evidenced based verbal and written feedback for improvement in line with Ofsted inspection framework and evaluation criteria.

Children’s Home (Kent) (February 2015 – April 2015)

• Achieving Greater provided advice and assistance following an Ofsted inspection that resulted in an inadequate judgement and receiving compliance notices.
• The re-inspection (26/3/15) resulted in the overall effectiveness of the home being rated as Good. The Inspector commented that ‘prompt action has been taken to address shortfalls and areas requiring improvement following the last inspection. And actions taken have been far-reaching, proportionate and effective, significantly improving the outcomes for young people and promoting their welfare.

Aspects of the work included:

• Reviewing key documents pertaining to the Ofsted inspection.
• Visits to the children’s home and provide feedback to the Responsible Individual.
• Assisted with Ofsted compliance notices to develop an action plan.
• Provided other assistance to facilitate the progression of compliance with Ofsted re-inspection.
• Organised and chaired structured meetings at the children’s home.
• Monitored and reviewed compliance with Ofsted inspection requirements.
• Supported and checked the completion and progress of work in-line with the action plan sent to Ofsted.
• Investigated the anomalies between Regulation 33 findings/reports and the Ofsted Inspectors findings.
• Carried out a mock Ofsted suitable person interviews for prospective managers.
• Provided on-going feedback, advice and assistance to the Responsible Individual.