The positive impact on children’s physical and mental well-being, along with their engagement in education, has been praised in the latest Ofsted report for Ivytree House.

Inspectors visited the Essex residential children’s home earlier this year and praised a variety of aspects of the home’s care of the young people who live there, finding it to be ‘good’ in all areas of inspection.

Their report particularly noted that the activities and trips organised for children, including visits to London and a theme park, were very positive for them and that their ‘physical and mental well-being improves because of these activities’ and that ‘children have positive memories of their time at the home’.

There was praise also for Ivytree’s approach to education with inspectors noting that all children are in education and have made progress in their education attendance despite that being a challenge for them before moving to the home. 

The report noted: “One child was keen to tell the inspectors about the things that they have been learning and the fun education trips that they have taken part in. Due to the work that the staff did with the child, the child now feels confident about starting school.”

Support for maintaining relationships with those important to the children was also praised with the report noting “One parent said, ‘Family time would not have been possible without the dedicated staff members.”

The report noted also that the home’s registered manager and deputy manager are ‘excellent role models for staff’ and had been praised by external professionals, adding: “External professionals are positive about the support that the children receive from the manager. One professional said, ‘The manager is fantastic. The child would not have made this much progress if it was not for the manager being the way she is.’”