Children’s home near Shrewsbury rated ‘outstanding’ by inspectors

A Shropshire Council-run children’s home near Shrewsbury has again been rated ‘outstanding’ by Government inspectors, following an inspection in November 2016.

It is the fourth time in a row that Chelmaren has been judged to be outstanding, with the inspectors concluding that: “The children’s home provides highly effective services that consistently exceed the standards of good. The actions of the home contribute to significantly improved outcomes for children and young people who need help, protection and care.”

Chelmaren was also rated outstanding by Ofsted in January 2014, January 2015 and January 2016.

The inspector's’ report – which was published in late December 2016 – says that the home provides ‘exceptional stability for young people, who are fit and well, and benefit from a diverse range of activities to meet their individual needs’.

It says that young people feel safe living at the home, maintain settled placements over a long period of time, and return home or into adult care in an ‘extremely well-planned and sensitive manner’.

It finds that young people at the home remain in, and do well in, education, and ‘don’t engage in socially unacceptable behaviour’.

The report praises the staff at the home, saying that ‘the manager is committed and supported by a passionate, well-trained, skilled and knowledgeable staff team’, which is ‘long-standing, committed, dedicated and passionate about the home’.

It says that ‘staff work closely with young people, family and parents/carers to help to strengthen bonds and increase the chance of young people returning home’.

The report does identify some areas for improvement, notably recording complaints, activity risk assessments, monitoring records, the quality of independent visitor reports, record keeping and reporting significant events. Staff are already working to make these improvements.

David Minnery, Shropshire Council’s Cabinet member for children and young people, said:

“This is a huge achievement for the staff at Chelmaren and is a credit to their hard work, commitment and dedication to providing an outstanding level of care. Achieving an outstanding judgement is a feat in itself, but to maintain an outstanding judgement is a far greater challenge. This is a huge achievement for our staff and we are very proud of them.”