Children's home run by Cherish Children’s Care Limited

Inspection report for children's home: 2776999 1 Registered provider: Cherish Childrens 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

This is a private children’s home registered for up to three children who may have social and emotional difficulties.

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Information about this children's home

The registered manager left his role in April 2025 due to unforeseen circumstances. An interim manager is currently managing the home and has applied to register with Ofsted.

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Information about this children's home

At the time of the inspection, two children were living in the home. Both children spoke to the inspector about their experiences living in the home.

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Information about this children's home

The inspection was brought forwards due to a high number of serious safeguarding incidents and some complaints received by Ofsted.

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Overall experiences and progress of

children and young people, taking into account

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inadequate

How well children and young people are helped and protected inadequate

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inadequate

The effectiveness of leaders and managers inadequate

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inadequate

There are serious and widespread failures that mean children and young people are not protected or their welfare is not promoted or safeguarded and the care and experiences of children and young people are poor and they are not making progress.

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inadequate

Date of last inspection: 6 November 2024

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inadequate

Overall judgement at last inspection: good

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inadequate

Enforcement action since last inspection: none Inspection report for children's home: 2776999 2

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

06/11/2024 Full Good Inspection report for children's home: 2776999 3

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: inadequate

Children do not experience positive outcomes due to poor quality care. The home environment is chaotic. It does not provide a calm and homely environment for children living there. There is frequent damage to the home when children become distressed. One child reported that when they spend time away from the home, they worry about the damage the other child might be causing.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: inadequate

Care planning is ineffective. Staff have been unable to safely manage children’s relationships with each other. Following a serious incident between two children, one child’s placement ended unexpectedly after living in the home for only a few weeks. The placements of children currently living in the home are also unstable because staff do not have the skills to meet their needs.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: inadequate

Children do not make progress in many areas of their lives while living in the home. Children’s behaviours have a negative impact on one another. During the inspection, one child was extremely unsettled. Staff were unable to manage the child’s behaviour effectively.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: inadequate

Managers and the staff team do not understand one child’s health needs and diagnosis. The child’s health plan does not include accurate or up to date information about their mental health or physical health needs. Statutory health records were also not in place for staff to refer to. Staff have been unable to encourage and support the child to take their medication to manage their diagnosed health condition.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: inadequate

Children have developed positive relationships with some staff, who they feel comfortable with and can talk to. One child has made some progress since the last inspection with regard to their attendance in education and is now working towards attending full-time. For the other child, although they are not engaging in their education in a meaningful way, they recently sat some exams and successfully passed them.

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

Inspectors identified serious safeguarding concerns that have compromised children’s safety and wellbeing. Staff do not have the skills to manage children’s behaviour and to keep them safe. Consequently, risks for both children have continued to increase.

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

Serious incidents have occurred between children. These incidents have taken place despite children’s plans stating that they are to receive one-to-one staffing and that they are fully supervised.

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

Children who are at risk of using ligatures do not receive safe care. Staff have not always reported and recorded incidents of ligature use. This means that timely action has not been taken to reduce the risk of children using ligatures. Leaders and managers failed to Inspection report for children's home: 2776999 4 identify a ligature incident recorded on a child’s risk plan during their monitoring of records. This means that no action was taken to mitigate these risks at the time of the incident.

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

Staff do not always take effective action to prevent further ligature incidents. For example, they do not always undertake timely room searches to remove items which could be used as ligatures. They also do not consistently follow written plans to conduct regular welfare checks on children following any serious incidents.

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

For one child who has set some fires in the grounds, the child’s fire setting risk management plan is not proportionately risk graded. The control measures identified to reduce risk, such as room searches, have not been implemented by the staff team. In addition, direct work has not been carried out with the child to educate them about the risks of fire setting.

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

Children who are at risk of involvement with drug use, gangs and criminal exploitation are not safeguarded effectively against these risks. Risk management plans do not clearly tell staff where, and how, children can spend their time in the community. Staff do not always follow children’s missing-from-home plans, and they do not report children missing within the agreed time limit. On one occasion, staff were not aware that a child had gone missing from an organised activity in an area of significant risk for the child. This resulted in a delay in staff reporting the child missing to the police.

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

There have been several allegations made by children about staff. Leaders and managers have taken appropriate and prompt action to investigate these allegations. They communicate their concerns to the local authority designated officer and placing authorities. During the inspection, one child alleged that a member of staff had hurt them during a restraint. The provider acted immediately to respond to the allegation.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

Changes to manager post earlier in the year, has resulted in different managers overseeing the home. Which has resulted in instability in the leadership and management arrangements for the home. Consequently, there has been extensive shortfalls in the oversight and monitoring of the home. Which has led to significant safeguarding concerns and a poor level of care for children who have lived in the home in this period of time.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

Leaders and managers have failed to identify when risk plans and procedures have not been followed by staff when they have evaluated incidents. Discussions with staff do not highlight or address any shortfalls in staff practice. Managers have failed to demonstrate professional curiosity when exploring incidents where children’s safety has been compromised. Furthermore, managers have failed to identify any lessons learned or take action to address concerning staff practice.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

The review of children’s risk plans by leaders and managers is ineffective. They have missed serious concerns relating to children’s safety and well-being. Risk management Inspection report for children's home: 2776999 5 plans contain inaccurate and conflicting information, which means that staff are not provided with clear procedures to follow to safeguard children.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

Leaders and managers have not taken proportionate action to address incidents when staff have overstepped professional boundaries. This relates to a senior staff member’s inappropriate conduct while supporting a child, by oversharing personal information.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

Leaders and managers have failed to notify Ofsted of all serious incidents, such as incidents of ligature use and fire setting. This means that the regulator has been unable to monitor the safeguarding practice in the home effectively.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

There have been several complaints from the neighbours. Leaders and managers were unable to provide evidence of the actions that they had implemented, or any follow up work carried out, in response to these concerns. In addition, there was no evidence of any direct work undertaken with children to educate them about developing and sustaining positive relationships in the local community.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

Compliance notices were served under regulation 12, the protection of children standard and under regulation 13, the leadership and management standard. Inspection report for children's home: 2776999 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 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

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

have the skills to identify and act upon signs that a child is at risk of harm;

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Requirement Due date

manage relationships between children to prevent them from harming each other;

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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; and

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Requirement Due date

are familiar with, and act in accordance with, the home's child protection policies;

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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)(i)(iii)(iv)(v)(vi)(vii)(b) 21 May 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 children's home that—

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Requirement Due date

helps children aspire to fulfil their potential; and 21 May 2025 Inspection report for children's home: 2776999 7 promotes their welfare.

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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;

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Requirement Due date

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

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

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Requirement Due date

The care planning standard is that children—

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Requirement Due date

receive effectively planned care in or through the children's home; and

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Requirement Due date

have a positive experience of arriving at or moving on from the home. (Regulation 14 (1)(a)(b)) 13 June 2025

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Requirement Due date

The quality and purpose of care standard is that children receive care from staff who—

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Requirement Due date

understand the children's home's overall aims and the outcomes it seeks to achieve for children;

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Requirement Due date

use this understanding to deliver care that meets children's needs and supports them to fulfil their potential.

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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

understand and apply the home's statement of purpose; 13 June 2025 Inspection report for children's home: 2776999 8 ensure that staff—

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Requirement Due date

understand and apply the home's statement of purpose;

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Requirement Due date

protect and promote each child's welfare. (Regulation 6 (1)(a)(b) (2)(a)(b)(i)(ii))

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Requirement Due date

The health and well-being standard is that—

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Requirement Due date

the health and well-being needs of children are met;

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Requirement Due date

children receive advice, services and support in relation to their health and well-being; and

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Requirement Due date

children are helped to lead healthy lifestyles.

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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

achieve the health and well-being outcomes that are recorded in the child's relevant plans;

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Requirement Due date

understand and develop skills to promote the child's well-being. (Regulation 10 (1)(a)(b)(c) (2)(a)(i)(iv)) 13 June 2025

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must ensure that a record is made of any complaint, the action taken in response, and the outcome of any investigation. (Regulation 39 (3)) 13 June 2025

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must notify HMCI and each other relevant person without delay if—

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Requirement Due date

a child is involved in or subject to, or is suspected of being involved in or subject to, sexual exploitation;

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Requirement Due date

an incident requiring police involvement occurs in relation to a child which the registered person considers to be serious;

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Requirement Due date

there is an allegation of abuse against the home or a person working there; 13 June 2025 Inspection report for children's home: 2776999 9 a child protection enquiry involving a child —

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Requirement Due date

concludes (in which case, the notification must include the outcome of the child protection enquiry); or

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Requirement Due date

there is any other incident relating to a child which the registered person considers to be serious. (Regulation 40 (4)(a)(b)(c)(d)(i)(ii)(e))

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Requirement Due date

* These requirements are subject to a compliance notice.

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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: 2776999 10

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Children's home details

Registered provider: Cherish Childrens Care Limited

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Children's home details

Registered provider address: Unit 8a, Skyways Commercial Campus, Amy Johnson Way, Blackpool FY4 3RS

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Inspectors

Cheryl Field, Social Care Inspector Charlie Bamber, Social Care Compliance Inspector Inspection report for children's home: 2776999 11 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 children who are looked after, safeguarding and child protection.

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Inspectors

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Inspectors

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Inspectors

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