Llee House

  • Registered: 2001
  • Registered Places: 3
  • DfE Education: Yes
  • Assessment/Therapy: Yes
  • Step Down Placements: Yes
  • Staff Ratio: 2:3

Llee House - An 'Outstanding' Children's Home

 

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.

 

"Children are thriving in a safe, clean and well organised home. They have personalised their bedrooms and there are photos of the children around the house.This contributes to children s sense of belonging and gives the environment a homely feel.
 
The current group of children have lived together for several years and are very settled in the home, which they describe as the best ’’. They are comfortable and relaxed with the adults caring for them. Children understand their care plans and they talk about their individual targets and the excellent progress they are making towards them. Children told the inspector that their views are listened to and that any complaints or worries are taken seriously and addressed.
 
Staff are aspirational for the children and use every opportunity to offer praise and help them to understand how to build and to maintain positive relationships with each other and with staff. For example, during the inspection, staff members appropriately reminded children about respecting each other’s personal space in a way that was kind yet clear. This approach supports children’s continuing personal development and awareness of social skills.
 
Children benefit from consistent boundaries, routines and predictable responses from staff. Children make exceptional progress in relation to learning how to manage their emotions. Staff have a sound awareness of children's early life experiences and understand how these may affect their emotional well being and behaviour. This understanding is developed through training, supervision, team discussions and support from the therapy team. Because of the progress they have made at the home, one child is soon going to move to live with a foster family. They are encouraged to talk about their conflicting emotions and worries about the move. Such conversations are well recorded and significant points followed up appropriately.
 
Children's wishes and views are sought and acted on swiftly by manager s and staff. For example, one child was feeling unhappy following a change to their medication. The manager requested a review with the relevant medical team and ensured that the child's views were made known.
 

All children attend education in one of the organisation's schools. Additionally, one child spends an afternoon a week at a local mainstream school to build their confidence and inform longer term planning. The child told the inspector that they love going to the school and they hope to be a full time pupil there one day. They have made friends in their class and were recently invited to join them on an activity day. The head teacher at the school spoke extremely highly of the mutual benefits of  this collaborative arrangement and the excellent levels of communication between the school and the manager and staff at the home.

 

Children sit with the adults at mealtimes and talk about their day.They enjoy healthy, nutritious meals which they are involved in choosing. Children's independence is fully promoted by them helping with age appropriate tasks.
 
The manager and staff develop and maintain strong partnerships with other professionals, and this improves outcomes for children. The high-quality care that children receive is acknowledged and appreciated by social workers and other professionals. One social worker said that a child had made ‘huge progress’ in the home, and an independent reviewing officer said that they had observed ‘warm and rewarding relationships’ between children and staff.
 
Comprehensive reports are written for children’s statutory reviews. The reports give a good overview of progress in the review period, and children have a say about the information that is included. The reports would be enhanced by clearly capturing children’s views and comments about the report content."

 

Ofsted Inspection - July 2023 - Full report available by request

Residential Care

Llee House offers and provides care for children who have emotional, behavioural and mild learning difficulties.

 

Since early 2014, the home has worked predominantly with younger children with an emphasis on providing a wraparound care that normally includes transitional plans for the children to return home or to move on to longer term fostering environment.   In order for outcomes to be successful, staff within our home understand the importance of establishing trusting and respectful relationships, forming a foundation for the young people to move forward. Creating this environment also allows for the young people to explore past experiences and outlining their own understanding of the reasons that they are “children looked after.”

 

Llee House also welcomes the advice and support of outside professionals in order to support the young people within the home and ultimately assist in positive outcomes which will impact on the young people’s future.

 

The home aims to provide a caring, nurturing “family” environment. The staff team provide a parental approach to the children with rules and expectations similar to that of a traditional family home. The foundations are established by offering support and encouragement and by working towards developing sound and valuable relationships between the staff members and the young people and enables us to address and meet the young people’s primary/basic needs. This allows for the young people to develop, achieve, feel safe and secure and ultimately flourish.

 

Creating healthy and positive relationships with the young people allows them to feel supported when expressing their emotions and also gives them the opportunity to understand their own experiences and emotions. The management and staff members understand that all behaviours are a form of communication and that it reflects the thoughts, feelings and needs of our young people.  When presenting certain behaviours, relationships between staff and young people will have to be such that the young people will continue to feel safe and cared for irrespective of presenting situations, in addition the relationships between us all also assist in the understanding of how to process and express themselves in a more positive and socially accepted manner.

 

Achievements for children will be as individual and diverse as their own personalities.  Every child placed has different starting points from which to progress and develop within the home. For some children, progression into a fostering environment may be a possible goal, for others a successful transition back to the family environment may be possible and for some older children, preparation planning and transition into independent accommodation may be a realistic achievement and success. Our ultimate goal is that for the time the children/young people remain at Llee House their childhood is a positive experience, that they are happy, safe and have secure childhood in order to be able to maximize their potential and move forward with confidence to determine their own future. 

Education

The home is directly affiliated to both our DfE registered, specialist SEMH schools: The Davenport Primary School and The Old Priory Secondary School.

 

The respective school and the home work in close partnership to ensure continuity in respect of learning support, achieving developmental goals and behaviour management.

 

The Davenport School (Key Stage 2: 7-11yrs) offers a differentiated curriculum in order to meet the individual learning needs of each young person. The school operates with small group settings where children are closely supported and supervised by a qualified teacher and learning support assistants.

 

The Old Priory School (Key Stages 3 & 4: 11 – 16yrs) offers the national curriculum allowing for GCSE study in essential subject areas, alongside alternative, differentiated curriculums, including ASDAN and City & Guilds NPTC vocational awards, both of which lead to nationally recognised qualifications.

Assessment & Therapy

Children and young people residing in our care have access to a range of assessment and therapy services including:

  • Psychological Assessment
  • Psychotherapy
  • Systemic Therapy
  • Cognitive Behavioural Therapy
  • Speech & Language Therapy
  • Equine Therapy
  • Music Therapy
  • Drama Therapy
  • Art Therapy
  • Play Therapy

All therapy referrals are overseen by the organisation’s dedicated Therapy Services Manager in consultation with the allocated social worker and other key stakeholders as appropriate.

 

Our assessment and therapy services are an inclusive element of our residential care provision and attract no additional funding requirement.

Health Support

In addition to our therapy services and panel of consultants, each of our homes have direct access to a health promotions worker and, in the event of any significant health concerns arising, oversight from a registered, dual diagnosis nurse. This ensures effective, professional guidance in respect of health profiling, together with the immediate and ongoing health needs of each individual child and young person placed in our care.

Statement of Purpose

Llee House | Statement of Purpose
SC023741 - SOP - LH.pdf
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Ethelbert Children's Services -
Residential Children's Homes, Fostering and.Specialist Education
17 Leigh Road, Ramsgate, Kent CT12 5EU
Tel: 01843 823762
© Ethelbert Children's Services 2018

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