18 Outstanding Leadership and Management Strategies in Children’s Homes
At their most recent Ofsted inspection, this children’s home received outstanding for the effectiveness of leadership and management. Here are 18 highlights from their inspection report that you can use as a handy checklist to develop your leadership strategies.
The effectiveness of leaders and managers – outstanding
- Managers are organised and have a good understanding as to the progress that children are making.
- Managers spend time developing staff and ensuring that they feel supported in their role.
- Children’s memories are well captured through photos and scrapbooks.
- Before a child moves into the home, other children are consulted on an individual basis.
- When children leave the home, communication continues, and support is still provided.
- Managers have excellent oversight of incidents.
- Incidents are discussed with both children and staff in a timely way. Children receive full debriefs.
- Managers are professionally curious about why children may have become upset or frustrated.
- Children’s documents are updated regularly, and progress is noted and evaluated.
- When children do well, this is celebrated. Equally, when children are struggling, they are given more time with adults to work through any problems.
- There is a clear therapeutic model within the home, and this helps children to trust adults and feel secure.
- Language used by staff is nurturing and child-focused.
- Adults support children to understand their heritage, gender and sexual identity.
- Staff supervisions are regular.
- The importance of teamwork and training for staff is prioritised by managers.
- Staff unanimously love their roles caring for children and express that they have a good work-life balance.
- Probation reports and appraisal documents for staff contain lots of detail.
- Staff action plans for improvement are clear and well understood.
