Children's home run by Pebbles Care Limited

Inspection report for children’s home: 2788643 1 Registered provider: Pebbles Care Limited

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Full inspection Inspected under the social care common inspection framework

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Information about this children’s home

A private organisation operates this cluster of three homes. Ofsted registered the homes in June 2024 under a multi-build registration to provide care for up to three children who may experience social and emotional difficulties.

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Information about this children’s home

The home’s statement of purpose states that the staff are trained to apply a specific therapeutic model of care.

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Information about this children’s home

The manager also registered with Ofsted in June 2024. Three children were living in the cluster of homes at the time of the inspection.

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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

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: 2788643 2

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children have made varying degrees of progress since living in the cluster. Staff have been patient but persistent to give children a foundation to achieve this. All three children were spoken with, and most of them said that they are happy with their care. Fundamentally, for all children, staff are responsive and effective in supporting each child’s unique needs and circumstances.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

The decor in the homes reflects the children’s interests and individual personalities. Staff encourage children to add their personal touches to the home, such as displaying their artwork. Children are proud of their bedrooms. Additionally, staff work hard to keep a homely environment. Cumulatively, these attributes give children a sense of belonging and help children to eventually settle and make the space their own.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff nurture and sustain meaningful relationships with children. Led by the manager, staff understand the need for patience, continuity and perseverance to gain the children’s trust. This has resulted in children coming through times of challenge with their relationships with staff staying intact.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children are supported to maintain relationships with important family members. Notably, the manager supports children to understand and maintain family links when there are legal complexities to consider. This shows a good level of awareness around the practical and emotional support that children need in this aspect of their care.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

The manager has grappled with significant challenge around some children accessing school. In these instances, the manager is tenacious in her challenge to the virtual school and, when required and proportionate, she submits a formal complaint. Additionally, for one child, who is accessing alternative home-based education, their work is of high quality and is worthy of wider celebration.

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

For older children, the manager supports the child’s local authority in transition planning. This is particularly notable in respect of children who will require more help in adulthood. The manager’s working knowledge of the legal threshold associated with depriving children of certain liberties helps the local authority in its safety planning around transitions.

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

The manager has a sound grasp of applying statutory safeguarding guidance. This has triggered the correct processes to ensure that there is a multi-agency response to consider next steps to better protect children from harm. Additionally, the Inspection report for children’s home: 2788643 3 manager ensures that relevant outcomes are understood and applied by the staff to better protect each child.

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

There have been occasions when staff have considered it necessary to hold a child to keep them safer. Additionally, staff have contacted the police on occasion due to a child’s behaviour. The manager has been pivotal in these instances in supporting staff and the child to reflect, learn and recover. In doing so, incidents of this nature have either stopped or significantly reduced. This is owing to staff adapting their approach and learning about what works best for the child.

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

Staff are proactive and responsive in supporting children to be safer in the community. There is a consistent response when a child’s whereabouts are not known. In this instance, staff contact the police when other measures to find the child have been exhausted. However, the manager does not use the police template when applying the local safeguarding partnership agreement associated with children who are missing from home. Consequently, this could hinder police enquiries as important information is not passed on to them.

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good

There are fundamental weaknesses associated with the children’s written records that have affected the judgement in this area. Notably, unsubstantiated concerns are recorded as fact. Additionally, the children’s risk assessments and plans are ambiguous and distort the context. As a result, the children’s plans cannot be relied on to accurately reflect each child’s situation. Despite this organisational oversight, this has not been detrimental to the children’s care. However, this is a clear shortfall.

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good

Leaders and managers recognise and are taking steps to improve the organisation’s electronic recording system. However, in the current form, information is difficult to access, retrieve and evaluate. This increases the risk of important information not being pulled through to the children’s plans. Additionally, quality assurance tasks undertaken by leaders, managers and independent visitors are overly complicated.

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good

The manager undertakes monthly evaluative audits on all significant events concerning the children’s care. While this prompts the manager to assess and review identified risks associated with the children, the manager’s findings are not pulled through to the children’s plans. Consequently, the children’s plans are not live workable documents.

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good

The staff respect and value the support that they receive from their manager. Additionally, the manager is dedicated and is a role model to the children and staff. An example of this is the manager’s values in working transparently and promoting accountability.

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good

There is a culture of learning across the staff group. This is organisationally driven by providing a good level of support through staff induction and onto enrolling staff on Inspection report for children’s home: 2788643 4 the relevant diploma programme. Notably, the organisation supports staff to have dedicated time and resources to enhance their learning experience. Inspection report for children’s home: 2788643 5

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Statutory requirements

This section sets out the actions that the registered person 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 must comply within the given timescales.

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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

assess whether each child is at risk of harm, taking into account information in the child’s relevant plans, and, if necessary, make arrangements to reduce the risk of any harm to the child;

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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 (2)(a)(i)(b))

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Requirement Due date

In particular, the registered person must ensure that children’s written care plans distinguish fact from concerns that are unsubstantiated. Plans should accurately record known risks and give clear guidance for staff to reduce the identified risks in the children’s plans. 15 April 2025

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Recommendations

 The registered person should ensure that electronic records provide accurate information that can be easily accessed by anyone with a legitimate need to view it. (‘Guide to the Children’s Homes Regulations, including the quality standards’, page 61, paragraph 14.2)  The registered person should ensure that the local authority’s missing-from-home protocol and care plan are exercised. In particular, by using the template provided by the local police when reporting children who are missing. (‘Guide to the Children’s Homes Regulations, including the quality standards’, page 45, paragraph 9.23) Inspection report for children’s home: 2788643 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: 2788643 7

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Children’s home details

Registered provider: Pebbles Care Limited

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: 2 The Calls, Leeds LS2 7JU

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Inspectors

Steve Guirey, Social Care Inspector Kerry Chater, Social Care Inspector Inspection report for children’s home: 2788643 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

T: 0300 123 1231 Textphone: 0161 618 8524 E: enquiries@ofsted.gov.uk W: www.gov.uk/ofsted

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