Children's home run by Assure Residential Care Limited

Inspection report for children’s home: 2723872 1 Full inspection Inspected under the social care common inspection framework

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Information about this children’s home

This home is privately owned and provides care for up to four children who may have social and emotional difficulties.

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Information about this children’s home

The home was registered on 13 June 2024. There has been no registered manager since August 2024. The acting manager has not yet applied to register with Ofsted. They were present throughout this inspection.

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Information about this children’s home

At the time of the inspection, two children were living in the home and contributed their views.

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Overall experiences and progress of

children and young people, taking into account

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good

How well children and young people are helped and protected requires improvement to be good

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good

The effectiveness of leaders and managers requires improvement to be good

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good

The children’s home is not yet delivering good help and care for children and young people. However, there are no serious or widespread failures that result in their welfare not being safeguarded or promoted.

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good

Date of last inspection: not previously inspected

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good

Overall judgement at last inspection: not applicable

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good

Enforcement action since last inspection: not applicable Inspection report for children’s home: 2723872 2

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improvement to be good

Children develop positive, trusting relationships with staff. One child shared that they have settled into living at the home and feel staff care about them. Children feel safe to talk about their past experiences and share information about when they go missing from home.

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improvement to be good

Staff promote children’s health needs by encouraging and supporting them to attend health appointments. This has led to one child accessing specialist health services after refusing to do so previously. Staff understand children’s mental health and emotional well-being; however, not all children have the right support in place to meet their mental health needs.

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improvement to be good

Staff complete key-work sessions with children regularly, which focus on supporting their identified needs and risk factors.

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improvement to be good

Staff support children to take part in activities in the home and community to promote their confidence and positive socialisation. One child said that attending a local sports club has helped them to increase their confidence and engage in positive activities.

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improvement to be good

The manager has advocated for one child’s school place to be secured. However, despite escalation to the child’s local authority, proactive steps have not been taken to ensure the child is attending school. The other child is not in education or training, and there are no plans in place. Staff encourage children to engage in home tuition in the meantime to provide structured routine to their day.

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improvement to be good

Staff support children to see their families and important people to them. Staff have developed positive working relationships with children’s families and promote regular communication with these individuals.

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improvement to be good

Children’s missing incidents have been high risk in nature, with children being placed at risk of further exploitation.

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improvement to be good

Staff have adapted their supervision of children in the home following a serious incident where children were missing from home together. The manager has taken steps to increase staffing and introduce waking night shifts following the most recent missing incident, due to the serious nature of it. Inspection report for children’s home: 2723872 3 When children go missing, staff follow missing procedures and work with local safeguarding partners to protect children. Leaders and managers ensure there is a coordinated response when working with several safeguarding partners. However, staff do not attempt to contact children overnight when they are missing for more than 24 hours. This is a missed opportunity to establish a child’s whereabouts and ensure their safety.

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improvement to be good

Staff understand children’s risk factors, including indicators of exploitation. Staff share information with safeguarding partners and attend multi-agency meetings to share concerns of exploitation.

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improvement to be good

Staff check children’s bedrooms daily; however, staff do not complete bedroom searches in response to safeguarding concerns. This has led to children having items in their bedroom that could place them or others at risk of harm. Children also have items in their bedroom that could pose a fire risk. Children vape in their bedrooms, which has not been fully explored or evaluated in an up-to-date fire risk assessment. This is despite a child having known fire-setting behaviours.

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good

The manager has not recorded oversight of care provided to children or incidents. Clear systems to oversee and monitor the care of children are not in place. This impacts on the manager’s ability to scrutinise the quality of care provided to children and identify areas for improvement. There are no systems in place to account for oversight in the manager’s absence, meaning leaders and managers have not recorded their oversight of incidents in the absence of a manager.

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good

Not all members of the team have completed mandatory training, including physical intervention training. Staff supervision and team meetings take place; however, recordings are limited and do not include reflection of practice or of the home’s chosen therapeutic approach.

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good

Despite the above areas for development, the manager and staff do show a commitment to understanding the children they care for. Leaders and managers have established good working relationships with partner agencies, including the police, local authorities and specialist services, including youth offending and exploitation professionals.

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good

Leaders and managers have created an open culture within the home, and staff talk about feeling able to voice their views. The responsible individual is present within the home and offers support to the manager and staff team. Inspection report for children’s home: 2723872 4

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Statutory requirements

This section sets out the actions that the registered person(s) must take to meet the Care Standards Act 2000, The Children’s Homes (England) Regulations 2015 and the ‘Guide to the Children’s Homes Regulations, including the quality standards’. The registered person(s) must comply within the given timescales.

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Requirement Due date

The protection of children standard is that children are protected from harm and enabled to keep themselves safe.

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Requirement Due date

In particular, the standard in paragraph (1) requires the registered person to ensure—

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Requirement Due date

understand the roles and responsibilities in relation to protecting children that are assigned to them by the registered person;

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Requirement Due date

take effective action whenever there is a serious concern about a child’s welfare;

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Requirement Due date

that the home’s day-to-day care is arranged and delivered so as to keep each child safe and to protect each child effectively from harm. (Regulation 12 (1) (2)(a)(v)(vi)(b))

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Requirement Due date

This particularly relates to ensuring that appropriate action is taken when children are missing from home overnight. 1 November

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Requirement Due date

The leadership and management standard is that the registered person enables, inspires and leads a culture in relation to the children’s home that—

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Requirement Due date

helps children aspire to fulfil their potential; and

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Requirement Due date

In particular, the standard in paragraph (1) requires the registered person to—

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Requirement Due date

ensure that staff have the experience, qualifications and skills to meet the needs of each child; 1 November Inspection report for children’s home: 2723872 5 understand the impact that the quality of care provided in the home is having on the progress and experiences of each child and use this understanding to inform the development of the quality of care provided in the home;

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Requirement Due date

demonstrate that practice in the home is informed and improved by taking into account and acting on—

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Requirement Due date

research and developments in relation to the ways in which the needs of children are best met; and

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Requirement Due date

feedback on the experiences of children, including complaints received; and

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Requirement Due date

use monitoring and review systems to make continuous improvements in the quality of care provided in the home. (Regulation 13 (1)(a)(b) (2)(c)(f)(g)(i)(ii)(h))

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Requirement Due date

This particularly relates to ensuring that all staff have completed mandatory training in a timely manner.

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Requirement Due date

This also particularly relates to ensuring management oversight of children’s care planning, including incidents, is present. This also includes ensuring that adequate management systems are in place that account for the manager’s absence.

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Requirement Due date

This also particularly relates to ensuring that management monitoring systems are in place.

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Requirement Due date

After consultation with the fire and rescue authority, the registered person must—

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Requirement Due date

take adequate precautions against the risk of fire, including the provision of suitable fire equipment in the children’s home. (Regulation 25 (1)(a))

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Requirement Due date

This particularly relates to ensuring that risk assessments consider specific fire risks relating to children’s identified risk factors. 1 November Inspection report for children’s home: 2723872 6

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Information about this inspection

Inspectors have looked closely at the experiences and progress of children and young people, using the social care common inspection framework. This inspection was carried out under the Care Standards Act 2000 to assess the effectiveness of the service, how it meets the core functions of the service as set out in legislation, and to consider how well it complies with The Children’s Homes (England) Regulations 2015 and the ‘Guide to the Children’s Homes Regulations, including the quality standards’. Inspection report for children’s home: 2723872 7

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Children’s home details

Registered provider: Assure Residential Care Ltd

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: 2-4 St. Georges Way, 1st Floor, Leicester LE1 1SH

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Inspectors

Chloe Harvey, Social Care Inspector Caroline Hose, Social Care Inspector Inspection report for children’s home: 2723872 8 and inspects to achieve excellence in the care of children and young people, and in education and skills for learners of all ages. It regulates and inspects childcare and children’s social care, and inspects the Children and Family Court Advisory and Support Service (Cafcass), schools, colleges, initial teacher training, further education and skills, adult and community learning, and education and training in prisons and other secure establishments. It assesses council children’s services, and inspects services for looked after children, safeguarding and child protection.

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Inspectors

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Inspectors

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Inspectors

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