Urban Land Management Limited

Inspection report for supported accommodation provider: Urban Land Management Limited 1 Urban Land Management Limited Registered provider: Urban Land Management Limited

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Inspected under the social care common inspection framework

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provider

This supported accommodation provider was registered on 8 May 2024. The service manager registered with Ofsted at the same time.

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provider

The provider can accommodate up to 38 children. The provider has seven group- living homes that are not limited to accommodating looked after children or care leavers, and one self-contained flat where the accommodation is for the sole use of one person.

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provider

At the time of the inspection, 29 children aged 16 and 17 were living at the provider’s shared supported accommodation. The self-contained flat has been vacant since August 2024.

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provider

Inspection dates: The inspection began on 2 December 2024 when we announced the inspection. Two inspectors were on site from 4 to 6 December 2024.

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Outcome

Inconsistent quality of service delivery adversely affects some children’s experiences, and this may limit their progress. Leaders and managers must make improvements.

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Summary of findings

Positive relationships between staff and children underpin the children’s positive experiences. Staff create a nurturing environment for children. Children receive a wealth of support in many areas of their lives. They are safe and make progress with their independence.

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Summary of findings

Poor record-keeping leads to inconsistency in the support provided to children. The children do not have individual support plans, which means that the staff could not demonstrate how they consult with children in a systematic manner about the Inspection report for supported accommodation provider: Urban Land Management Limited 2 individual support they need. Weaknesses in communication with the children mean that, at times, some children feel that nothing is done about their concerns. Additionally, some practices are restrictive and undermine children’s liberties.

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Summary of findings

The poor record-keeping reduces the quality of leaders’ and managers’ oversight of the support provided. The managers and leaders have begun to address the shortfalls and are in the initial stages of a systemic change in approach to record- keeping and communication.

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Overall experiences and progress of children

Children have mainly positive experiences. They say that they feel safe and have positive relationships with staff. Children said, ‘All workers are lovely and will help you in any way they can,’ and ‘All staff are very nice, and they support me with whatever I need.’

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Overall experiences and progress of children

Some children said that, when they have talked to staff about things that made them feel unhappy, managers have not done enough. Children have raised issues about the cleanliness of the shared bathrooms, maintenance requests relating to their bedrooms and poor internet connection. Although issues started as small, they grew in significance as children were waiting for a response. Staff were working in the background to resolve the issues, but this was not made clear to the children.

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Overall experiences and progress of children

Staff ask children each day what they would like to do. Children receive a wealth of support across a range of areas in their lives, such as education, personal safety, health and life skills. Staff write children’s monthly progress reports. However, children do not have support plans. This means that the support that they receive relies on verbal communication between staff and fragmented written information. This approach leads to inconsistency in the overall support provided and undermines the work of the staff team as a whole, who are available for each of the children. Children do not have the opportunity to contribute to their individual support plans. Therefore the support provided is not consistently targeted to help children to achieve the goals that are important to them. Children do not know how to access advocacy services to support them in representing their views.

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Overall experiences and progress of children

Staff promote children’s education and learning. Most children are in education. One child is resitting exams as they plan to study medicine. Two children are working. Those who are not in education, employment or training receive appropriate support from staff about next steps. One child looking for work was excited to have support from staff to create a formatted CV using online software.

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Overall experiences and progress of children

Staff celebrate children’s creativity and interests. One child is a committed basketball player. Some children have written books and produce music.

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Overall experiences and progress of children

Staff are skilled in promoting different aspects of children’s identity, gender and physical ability. They work well with unaccompanied children to support them to learn English and achieve social integration, while respecting their ethnic, cultural and religious backgrounds. Inspection report for supported accommodation provider: Urban Land Management Limited 3

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How well children are helped and protected

Staff promote children’s independence while encouraging them to understand risks and remain safe. Staff have created a physically and emotionally safe environment for children. All 12 children spoken to said that they feel safe. The children talked about staff always being there for them.

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How well children are helped and protected

Children can identify trusted adults they can talk to about any concerns. This has a positive impact on individual children’s safety and well-being. For example, one child’s coping strategy was to talk with the staff when they had an urge to harm themselves. This approach worked well, and the child stopped self-harming. Another child said, ‘When bored, I can kick off. I remember that nobody likes me when I am like that and staff are nice, so I stop.’

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How well children are helped and protected

Staff receive training on a wide range of specific safeguarding topics, such as county lines, child sexual exploitation, modern slavery, forced marriage, female genital mutilation, radicalisation, online safeguarding and trauma-informed practice. Staff also know what to do with allegations or suspicions against any staff and how to contact the service’s designated safeguarding lead.

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How well children are helped and protected

Proactive safeguarding means that incidents are rare. The incidents that have occurred usually happened away from the accommodation. Working in close partnership with other professionals, staff managed the incidents well to ensure that children were safeguarded.

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How well children are helped and protected

Some restrictive practices limit the opportunities for children to learn how to be independent while staying safe when they are at home at night. Examples include restricting children’s access to the kitchen and locking the main door to the property, with only the staff member on duty having the key to let children out. These restrictions are applied for all the children (and adults) who live in the shared accommodation, without taking into account where individual children are on their journey to full independence.

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How well children are helped and protected

There are appropriate arrangements for health and safety, including fire safety. For example, when the fire alarm is triggered, this automatically disengages all the locks on external doors. This means the restrictive practices do not physically impede evacuation. However, there is a risk that if there is a fire at night, children may go to look for staff instead of leaving the building immediately.

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How well children are helped and protected

When children are out, they usually stay in contact with staff and return home at agreed times. If children do go missing, staff follow children’s protocols which have been agreed with their social worker. Children rarely go missing.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers

Leaders and managers are aware of the shortfalls, and they are taking action to address the issues identified during this inspection. The managers have introduced Inspection report for supported accommodation provider: Urban Land Management Limited 4 an online data system to bring structure to record-keeping. This is a significant change for the organisation. The management of this change is in the initial stages.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers

Staff speak highly of the vision, compassion and work ethic of leaders and managers. Staff are proud to work for this provider. The stability in the organisation contributes to the development of a great team spirit. Staff retention is high.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers

Leaders and managers have created a supportive working environment and staff say they feel supported. However, the arrangements for staff supervision include one manager supervising 14 staff members. These arrangements have had an impact on the frequency of the supervision meetings and the speed with which actions for improvement have been implemented.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers

Impressively, the service has developed organically around the needs of children over many years before the sector became regulated. The continued experience of providing supported accommodation in close partnership with two local authorities, together with extensive training opportunities, has enabled staff to develop a deep understanding of the support needs of children in care and care leavers.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers

Poor and fragmented written records impact on the quality of communication internally, and externally with other agencies. Poor recording also undermines the manager’s monitoring of the service. For example, the service does not have a system for recording complaints and there is no log. It is not possible to quality assure the complaints procedure, monitor the effectiveness and timeliness of action taken and identify any learning from complaints.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers

External professionals speak highly of the service and highlight the many strengths. The areas for improvement identified by some professionals relate to ensuring that all staff have relevant and up-to-date information about children, to support their individual transition to independence. Inspection report for supported accommodation provider: Urban Land Management Limited 5

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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 Supported Accommodation (England) Regulations 2023 and the ‘Guide to the Supported Accommodation Regulations, including Quality Standards’. The registered person(s) must comply within the given timescales.

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Requirement Due date

The support standard is that children receive individual and tailored support that meets their needs.

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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 children are encouraged and enabled to take a lead role in determining the support they receive and to participate in and influence how the supported accommodation operates;

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Requirement Due date

ensure that plans for support are based on initial referral information, are meaningful and are created in full consultation with the child, taking account of relevant plans for the child;

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Requirement Due date

keep the child’s support under review, taking into consideration the plans for support, and relevant plans, to ensure that the child’s needs continue to be met and that the child is kept safe;

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Requirement Due date

ensure that processes are in place to enable children to access support from other organisations and community services, such that they are encouraged and enabled to access a range of services, including those offered by advocacy organisations and training providers. (Regulation 7 (1) (2)(a)(b)(c)(g)) 10 February 2025

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must prepare and implement a behaviour management policy setting out—

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Requirement Due date

how appropriate behaviour is to be promoted in the premises providing supported accommodation. (Regulation 22 (1)(c)) 10 February 2025 Inspection report for supported accommodation provider: Urban Land Management Limited 6 In particular, the registered person must review the use of restrictive practices and find more positive ways to ensure that children are safe when at home at night.

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must ensure that a record is made of any complaint or representation, the action taken in response, and the outcome of any investigation.

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must provide to the CIECSS upon request a statement containing a summary of any complaints or representations made during the 12 months preceding the date of the request and the action that was taken in response to each complaint or representation. (Regulation 31 (3) (5)) 10 February 2025

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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 supported accommodation undertaking that puts children first and prioritises their wellbeing and development.

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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

lead and manage the supported accommodation undertaking in a way that is consistent with the ethos, and delivers the outcomes, set out in the undertaking’s statement of purpose;

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Requirement Due date

ensure that staff work effectively as a team, where appropriate, to meet the needs of children;

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Requirement Due date

ensure that arrangements are in place for the supervision of staff. (Regulation 4 (1) (2)(a)(b)(g)) 10 February 2025

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Recommendation

 The registered person should ensure that the accommodation is a nurturing and positive environment. Children should receive swift and effective responses when they raise issues and requests relating to the physical environment. (‘Guide to the Supported Accommodation Regulations, including Quality Standards’, page 29) Inspection report for supported accommodation provider: Urban Land Management Limited 7

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Information about this inspection

Inspectors have looked closely at the experiences and progress of children 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 Supported Accommodation (England) Regulations 2023. Inspection report for supported accommodation provider: Urban Land Management Limited 8

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Supported accommodation provider details

Registered provider: Urban Land Management Limited

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Supported accommodation provider details

Registered service manager: Sandra Protheroe

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Inspectors

Seka Graovac, Social Care Inspector Julie Cresswell, Social Care Inspector Inspection report for supported accommodation provider: Urban Land Management Limited 9 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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