Lincolnshire County Council Supported Accommodation Service

Inspection report for supported accommodation provider: Lincolnshire County Council Supported Accommodation Service 1 Lincolnshire County Council Supported Accommodation Service Registered provider: Lincolnshire County Council

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Inspected under the social care common inspection framework

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provider

A local authority owns this supported accommodation service. It provides up to four group living premises that are limited to looked-after children and care leavers. The service can accommodate up to 10 children.

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provider

At the time of the inspection, the service provided supported accommodation for nine children aged 16 and 17 years old.

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provider

The children receive daily support, including access to staff members 24 hours a day, seven days a week and with out-of-hours support. The support offered can vary to meet each child’s individual needs.

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provider

The service manager registered with Ofsted in February 2024. The service was also registered at that time.

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provider

Inspection dates: The inspection was announced on 3 March 2025 and started that day. The inspector was on site from 5 to 7 March 2025.

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Outcome

Consistently strong service delivery leads to typically positive experiences and progress for children. Where improvements are needed, leaders and managers take timely and effective action. The next inspection will be within approximately three years.

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Summary of findings

Children are happy and they are satisfied with the quality of support and guidance that they receive as they progress towards full independence. They enjoy positive Inspection report for supported accommodation provider: Lincolnshire County Council Supported Accommodation Service 2 relationships with staff and these help them to feel comfortable, listened to and able to participate in their individual plans.

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Summary of findings

Leaders and managers have strong partnerships with other professionals and agencies. They work collaboratively to safeguard children.

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Summary of findings

Leaders, managers and staff have high aspirations for the children. They use effective internal and external monitoring systems that help them to continually improve the quality of service delivery. Inspection report for supported accommodation provider: Lincolnshire County Council Supported Accommodation Service 3

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Overall experiences and progress of children

Children receive a warm welcome from staff when they move in. They have opportunities to visit the service beforehand and meet with staff. This helps them to quickly settle into their new home. Children spoke positively about their experiences and progress, and about their relationships with staff. One child said: ‘The staff are really nice. They support me with my appointments and shopping. They supported me with painting my room to my desire and support me to see what I can cook so that I don’t go hungry.’

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Overall experiences and progress of children

Children’s individual plans are detailed and effective. Managers and staff regularly review these to ensure that they reflect children’s changing needs and risks as they move towards adulthood. This helps to ensure that when children are ready to leave the service, these moves are mostly well planned.

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Overall experiences and progress of children

Staff prioritise children’s education and employment, and work with them to realise their goals and ambitions. When children are not in education or employment, staff work with other agencies, such as the virtual school, to identify any barriers that prevent them from continuing with their learning or preparing for work. This collaboration helps children to find suitable training courses or employment opportunities; it improves their confidence and prepares them for independence.

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Overall experiences and progress of children

Children register with relevant healthcare services and staff support them to attend appointments when necessary. When children need more specific support and advice, for example, from drug misuse specialists, staff refer children to these bespoke services and reinforce this work through personalised key-work sessions. This helps children to make positive choices about their future.

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Overall experiences and progress of children

Staff encourage children to participate in meetings and their plans and about the running of the service. This consultation ensures that children are included in decisions about their lives as they become adults, and this gives them a sense of belonging. These meetings include ‘Chill and Chat’ sessions, key-work sessions and ad hoc discussions. Children are confident to raise any complaints or concerns that they have and these are quickly addressed. Consequently, children know that they are listened to and that their views and opinions matter.

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Overall experiences and progress of children

Children work towards their own independent living goals and staff also encourage them to participate in group activities. These enhance children’s social interaction skills, help them to establish positive relationships with others and to embrace the diversity of their peers and others that they have contact with. This further supports children’s progress to independence.

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How well children are helped and protected

Children said that they feel safe and that they can share their concerns or worries with staff whenever they feel that they need to. Access to 24-hour staff support, led Inspection report for supported accommodation provider: Lincolnshire County Council Supported Accommodation Service 4 by children’s needs, gives them a sense of stability and security and they take greater responsibility for their own safety.

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How well children are helped and protected

Staff have a good understanding of children’s risks because their individual risk assessments and safety plans detail known vulnerabilities and provide strategies to safeguard children. Children are supported to take age-appropriate risks as part of their journey towards independence. This gives children confidence to make positive decisions for themselves. When children are at risk of, or subject to, exploitation, they benefit from a well-coordinated partnership approach that means children quickly receive the support that they need. This helps children to develop their own strategies to manage and reduce risks to their safety.

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How well children are helped and protected

Safeguarding training helps staff to recognise and respond to safeguarding concerns. Allegations management is thorough, and the learning outcomes are clearly identified to prevent any further incidents.

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How well children are helped and protected

Relationships between children and staff are positive and these help to keep children safe. They understand the impact of adverse childhood experiences and show empathy when speaking to and about the children. When incidents occur, staff manage and monitor these well. They hold open and honest discussions with children to help them to understand the consequences of their decisions and behaviours, and their personal responsibilities towards others as they progress towards adulthood. Some practices have emerged across the service following behavioural incidents, such as children being placed on ‘supervised spends’ or no longer having access to knives. These restrictions are not always appropriate for a supported accommodation service. Leaders and managers are now reviewing these.

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How well children are helped and protected

Children’s accommodation is safe, secure and homely. This provides them with communal space and privacy and helps to prepare them for independence.

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How well children are helped and protected

Leaders and managers ensure that safer recruitment practices are effective. These help managers to determine if staff are suitable to work with children and to support them.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers

Children benefit from a stable, experienced and child-focused management team that is visible and approachable. Leaders and managers know the children well and have high aspirations for them. This positively shapes the culture across the service and ensures that everyone is accountable for children’s safety, experiences and progress.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers

Leaders and managers ensure that all staff receive regular supervision that supports their learning and development, reviews their practice and focuses on children’s progress. Daily handovers and regular team meetings provide further opportunities for staff to discuss their practice and the impact that this has on children. This Inspection report for supported accommodation provider: Lincolnshire County Council Supported Accommodation Service 5 collaborative approach means that staff receive suitable support and professional challenge, and ensures that children remain the focus of the service. Children’s records are informative and include details of their needs, risks and progress. The ‘traffic light’ system used across the service is a quick and useful method to oversee the children’s progress against their individual objectives. However, one child’s ethnic origin was not accurately recorded. This gap prevents

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers

staff from identifying if any other support is needed.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers

Leaders and managers have established strong partnerships with other professionals within the local authority and with other agencies. Feedback from other professionals is consistently positive about the children’s progress and the effectiveness of working together practices and shared ownership to support and safeguard the children. This collaboration means that children can quickly access the wider support services that they may need.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers

Management monitoring systems help leaders and managers to continually improve the quality of the service delivery to children. This includes internal and external monitoring practices that enable leaders and managers to understand the strengths of the service and areas for development. However, there is no clear audit trail to demonstrate how leaders and managers fully consider the impact of placing children with the existing group of children and vice versa. This is a missed opportunity to continually develop the service and reflect on the suitability of children’s placements. Inspection report for supported accommodation provider: Lincolnshire County Council Supported Accommodation Service 6

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Recommendations

 The registered person should ensure that when making decisions about a child’s placement, that they, and the accommodating authority, have regard to the Equality Act 2010. In particular, the registered person should ensure that children’s ethnic origin is made explicit in their plans to promote their identity. (‘Guide to the Supported Accommodation Regulations, including Quality Standards’, page 17)  The registered person should ensure that they have a clear audit trail to demonstrate how they fully consider the impact that the placement will have on the existing group of children in that setting and vice versa. (‘Guide to the Supported Accommodation Regulations, including Quality Standards’, page 17)

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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: Lincolnshire County Council Supported Accommodation Service 7

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Supported accommodation provider details

Registered provider: Lincolnshire County Council Supported Accommodation Service

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Supported accommodation provider details

Registered provider address: Lincolnshire County Council, County Offices, Newland, Lincoln LN1 1YL

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Supported accommodation provider details

Registered service manager: Andrew Morris

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Supported accommodation provider details

Email address: mso.childrens@lincolnshire.gov.uk

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Inspector

Jacqueline Malcolm, Social Care Inspector Inspection report for supported accommodation provider: Lincolnshire County Council Supported Accommodation Service 8 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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