Top rating for Shifnal children's home

Villa Farm House, in Shifnal, recently has retained its 'Outstanding' rating, an accolade it first gained in 2011.

The rating puts the home in the top 11 per cent of children's homes in the country.

It is the second celebration for Villa Farm House in the last six months, as registered manager, Lorraine Gregory, was awarded The Great British Care Awards for Registered Care Home Manager title in April.

David Morgan, Ofsted inspector, praised the manager and the team as whole for the successful Ofsted rating.

In his report, Mr Morgan said: "Children benefit from an extraordinarily effective service.

"An excellent standard of care continues to be given, which helps children achieve.

"Children flourish because the staff care deeply about them.

"The staff display a particularly high level of positive regard for every child, which is the basis of their excellent relationships.

"The service is exceptionally well organised.

"There is close attention to detail and high standards are sustained in care of children and also in the administration of the service."

Villa Farm House, which first opened in 2001, is part of Options' Behavioural, Emotional and Social Difficulties division.

Options provides specialist services for children, young people and adults with autistic spectrum conditions, learning disabilities and complex needs and behavioural, emotional and social difficulties.

Villa Farm provides an important step in the Options 'journey of care'. It offers a nurturing environment to children and young people whilst preparing them to transition back into a family environment.

Many of the young people at Villa Farm have successfully moved into foster care placements.

Villa Farm also works closely with Options College Shifnal, where its students are provided with personalised education programmes, dependent on their needs and abilities.

Speaking of their recent Ofsted inspection, registered care home manager Lorraine said: "I can't express how pleased I am that we have retained our 'Outstanding' Ofsted rating for the fifth year.

"It is an incredible achievement. I am extremely proud of the whole team working together, we could not have achieved this without the support of everyone."

Graham Baker, Options chief executive officer, said he was immensely proud of the staff at Villa Farm House for retaining their rating.

"We're always very proud of the hard work, professionalism and dedication of our staff. We are able to achieve some fantastic outcomes for the people we support and it's all down to the people who deliver our services. It's great that their hard work has been recognised and they have retained their 'Outstanding' rating."