Children's home run by Beaufort Care Group Ltd in Barnet

Inspection report for children’s home: SC470479 1 SC470479 Registered provider: Beaufort Care Group Ltd

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Full inspection Inspected under the social care common inspection framework

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Information about this children’s home

This home provides care for up to four children. It is operated by a private provider, which has several other homes in the area. There are currently three children living in the home.

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Information about this children’s home

The manager registered with Ofsted on 2 September 2024.

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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 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 provides effective services that meet the requirements for good.

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good

Overall judgement at last inspection: requires improvement to be good

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good

Enforcement action since last inspection: none Inspection report for children’s home: SC470479 2

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

01/06/2023 Full Requires improvement to be good 08/11/2022 Full Good 26/05/2021 Full Good 12/03/2020 Interim Sustained effectiveness Inspection report for children’s home: SC470479 3

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Childrens are making progress from their starting points. This is at different levels, as children are at different stages due to some being relatively new to the home. The home has been through an unsettled period which involved a significant amount of staff turnover and one child moving out more quickly than planned.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children are happy at the home. They feel safe and know the staff care about them. Some children said that things are much better more recently and that they have a settled staff team. They feel that all staff are approachable, and that staff love and care for them.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Two children have successfully moved on from the home for the next stage of their lives, living with family or living independently. These moves have been well managed and have included the staff strongly advocating for the children to enable them to achieve their goals. Staff continue to provide support to these children. Two children have moved into the home. Again, this has been well managed and resulted in the children settling in appropriately.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff are working hard to support, enable and encourage children with their education. One child is in full-time education and doing well. The other two children are attending alternative education providers, and their engagement is improving. Staff have secured a full-time education placement for one of these children, which commences after the school holidays.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff provide children with the opportunity to take part in a good range of activities. Some children can decline what is offered, but staff use their skills and enthusiasm to get children involved. Some children have joined local clubs, and others attend concerts, football matches or go for beauty treatments.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff provide children with a spacious, comfortable and well-furnished home. The large lounge is in the process of being redecorated and new furniture has been purchased. Children’s views, wishes and choices have been a part of this. Children’s bedrooms are spacious, well furnished and personalised. Children like the home, especially their bedrooms.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children’s plans are of a good quality. They are current and provide clear guidance for staff on how to meet each child’s needs. Children’s voices are evident within these plans as they spend time with staff sharing their views and wishes for the future. In addition, these plans are used to talk through events to enable the child to reflect on what happened, learn from these events, and develop their insight, understanding and self- confidence.

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How well children and young people are helped and protected: good

Inspection report for children’s home: SC470479 4 Children spend time with staff talking through their experiences. They reflect and learn from any significant events that occur and this helps them to develop their own insight to risk and increase their understanding and self-confidence.

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How well children and young people are helped and protected: good

Staff have good knowledge of safeguarding procedures which they follow when concerns arise. Leaders and managers review all safeguarding events and use lessons learned from these reviews to develop practice in the home. Safeguarding records are well maintained and link to other associated records, such as meaningful conversations with children and staff, as well as incident reports.

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How well children and young people are helped and protected: good

Staff take a supportive and educational approach to any behavioural events. They help to develop the children’s understanding of their behaviour and impact this has on themselves and others. Staff help children find more positive ways of dealing with times when they find things difficult. Incident reports are well written, presenting a clear picture of events before, during and after incidents.

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How well children and young people are helped and protected: good

When children go missing from home, staff mostly respond appropriately. Leaders and managers monitoring of safeguarding is effective, for example, when they identified concerns about the response to one missing from home event, they took action to address this effectively with the staff involved.

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How well children and young people are helped and protected: good

Staff recruitment follows safer recruitment practice. However, the profiles on agency workers do not consistently contain information on the agency workers’ experience of childcare. This does not provide assurance for leaders and the manager on the ability of agency staff to care for the children.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: requires improvement to be good

Leaders and managers have a realistic overview of the quality of care and children’s experiences. They understand the strengths and areas for improvement. Leaders recognise the period of instability they have experienced due to significant changes in the staff team. Most of the staff in the current team are new and still on probation, meaning they are in the early stages of developing and embedding their practice.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: requires improvement to be good

The manager, registered in September 2024. Senior leaders expressed their confidence in the manager and their ability to develop and improve.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: requires improvement to be good

Leaders and managers made the decision to end one child’s time at the home earlier than expected. They have reflected on this and carried out a good-quality analysis of this unplanned ending.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: requires improvement to be good

Where poor practice is identified, leaders and managers take supportive action to help the member of staff develop. Where this is not successful, leaders and managers take appropriate actions and use disciplinary process effectively. This has led to the probationary period being ended and staff leaving or being dismissed. Inspection report for children’s home: SC470479 5 Leaders and managers are working to stabilise the staff team and form a cohesive team. Staff skills and training is being embedded into their practice. Team meetings take place which are of a reflective nature, supportive and provide clear direction, guidance and information for staff. Each member of staff receives regular supervision that is reflective and linked to the development of staff. However, supervision records do not consistently reflect the discussion held and actions to be taken.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: requires improvement to be good

Staff reported that things have and are improving at the home. They acknowledged the unsettled time the home has gone through, but they are positive about the future. They are pleased that they have almost a full team, which is a mix of experience, gender and age. Staff feel the manager is very supportive and approachable.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: requires improvement to be good

The home’s development plan is comprehensive. However, due to all the staff changes, including a significant number of new staff, the majority of actions and developments are still in progress, in particular around training for the team to support the building of a cohesive and stable team.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: requires improvement to be good

Feedback was received from only one parent, but this was positive. The parent noticed the progress their child had made and praised the staff for ‘sticking with’ their child, as they feel this has really made a difference. One social worker also provided positive feedback on the care the home provides. Inspection report for children’s home: SC470479 6

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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 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

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

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Requirement Due date

ensure that staff work as a team where appropriate;

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Requirement Due date

ensure that staff have the experience, qualifications and skills to meet the needs of each child;

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Requirement Due date

ensure that the home’s workforce provides continuity of care to each child. (Regulation 13 (1)(a)(b) (2)(a)(b)(c)(e)) 13 May 2025

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Recommendations

 The registered person should ensure that profiles on agency staff contain information on their experience in childcare. (‘Guide to the Children’s Homes Regulations, including the quality standards’, page 54, paragraph 10.16)  The registered person should ensure that records of staff supervision reflect the discussion held and any subsequent actions to be taken. (‘Guide to the Children’s Homes Regulations, including the quality standards’, page 61, paragraph 13.3)

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Information about this inspection

Inspection report for children’s home: SC470479 7 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: SC470479 8

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Children’s home details

Registered provider: Beaufort Care Group Ltd

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: Beaufort Care Group LTD, Unit 2, Hollygrove Business Park, Verwood Road, Ringwood, Hampshire BH24 2DB

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Children’s home details

Responsible individual: Amanda Goodenough

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Inspector

Wendy Anderson, Social Care Inspector Inspection report for children’s home: SC470479 9 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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Inspector

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Inspector

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