Children's Home run by Solent Child Care Limited in Hampshire

Inspection report for children’s home: 1247384 1 Registered provider: Solent Child 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 privately owned children’s home provides care for up to two children who experience social and emotional difficulties. At the time of the inspection, there were two children living in the home.

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Information about this children’s home

The manager registered with Ofsted in March 2025.

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Information about this children’s home

Staff are referred to as ‘adults’ in this report, as this term is used in the home.

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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 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: good

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good

Enforcement action since last inspection: none Inspection report for children’s home: 1247384 2

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

10/07/2024 Full Good 12/03/2024 Full Outstanding 13/03/2023 Full Outstanding 29/06/2021 Full Outstanding Inspection report for children’s home: 1247384 3

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Adults work hard to build trusting and secure relationships with children. They treat children with warmth, interest and enthusiasm. Since the last inspection, four children have lived in the home. For most of them, this has helped them to develop a sense of belonging in the home and make progress from their original starting points.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

One child moved on from the home to live with foster carers. The child’s ability to make this move is indicative of the positive impact of the care and support they received. The child was well supported to prepare for their move, to make this a positive experience and to recognise their progress and achievements while living in the home.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

One child left the home after senior leaders served immediate notice following a significant incident. Before this, managers shared concerns appropriately with the placing authority and worked in partnership with them to try and support the child. While the child had some positive experiences in the home, they did not feel settled and happy, and they did not experience a positive ending. Senior managers have completed a learning review about what happened. However, there has been a delay in providing the adult team with structured time to reflect on the findings.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children’s moves into the home are well considered and supported. Leaders and managers consider relevant information about the needs of the child and those of children already living in the home. Adults work effectively with other professionals and children to help them have a positive experience of moving into the home.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Adults spend regular one-to-one time with children to offer them support and guidance with issues that are relevant to them, such as peer relationships and managing emotions. This helps children to feel cared for and to approach challenges in their lives.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Children’s differing communication needs are understood well by adults, and this promotes effective and helpful interactions. For one child, the use of social stories and visual aids has helped them to understand changes in the home and make significant progress with their communication.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Adults help children to have fun. Children enjoy a wide variety of activities, such as ice-skating, trampolining and football. Their individual enthusiasms and interests are nurtured. For example, one child has built a home for a pet caterpillar and is working towards having a pet fish. Children’s experiences and achievements are meaningfully captured in memory books. This helps children to have new experiences and build their self-esteem. Inspection report for children’s home: 1247384 4 Adults value education and learning. They collaborate with education professionals to support children’s progress and to try and overcome obstacles to this. When children are not in school, adults provide them with appropriate educational activities. One education professional said, ‘[Child’s name] has made excellent progress this year and this is in part down to the team supporting their emotional, social and mental

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

The home is furnished in a comfortable and child-friendly manner. Children also benefit from access to a large outdoor space, which is well used and provides easy access to local nature. Adults support children to personalise their bedrooms and to exercise choice in how they are decorated and furnished. This helps children to feel at home and have a sense of ownership of their environment.

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

Safeguarding children is a priority for adults. They understand children’s individual vulnerabilities well and are guided by plans and assessments that are clear and kept up to date. As a result, children receive appropriate responses when there are concerns about their safety, such as if they harm themselves or go missing from the home.

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

When children have accidents or injuries, adults understand their responsibilities well. They provide children with immediate comfort and first aid and make sound judgements about when medical advice should be sought. This helps to ensure that children are safe and well.

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

Adults understand that behaviours that challenge are a form of communication. If children are upset, adults try to understand what is wrong and help them to express feelings safely. Physical interventions are only used as a last resort. When used, there is timely and effective management oversight to review practice and ensure that adults have a chance to reflect and learn and that children are fully supported.

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

Adults routinely acknowledge and reward positive behaviour. They support children to be involved in setting their own targets, which helps motivate them. Consequences for unwanted behaviours are sometimes used. While most of these are appropriate and well recorded, some are not natural and restorative in nature. For example, adults removed access to online platforms for one child, restricting them having contact with their friends. Additionally, some consequences are not fully recorded or scrutinised by managers. These are missed opportunities to ensure that children receive consistent messages from adults.

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

Managers carry out various safer recruitment checks before new adults start working in the home. However, for one adult, there is no documentary evidence of their qualification certificates. As a result, managers are unable to demonstrate if these were seen as part of the recruitment process. Inspection report for children’s home: 1247384 5 Managers have carried out a review of the use of electronic door alarms in the home. Careful consideration was given to children’s needs and decisions that were made in partnership with the placing authority. The outcome of the review is that there is no current need for monitoring devices to be used in the home. This shows children that their needs and risks are regularly reviewed and that their privacy is respected.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The home is managed by an enthusiastic registered manager. The manager has a good understanding of the children and is fully committed to ensuring their well- being and progress. This supports an aspirational culture for children.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Senior managers have a good understanding of the service and its strengths and weaknesses. They are actively involved in the day-to-day running of the home and provide a high level of support to the manager.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

There have been significant changes in the adult team since the last inspection. Managers recruited proactively and retention has been good. Consequently, there is no use of agency workers, the adult team is stable and children receive consistency of care.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Adults say they are well supported by colleagues and managers. They say that managers are present and available and provide helpful individual supervision as well as sensitive ad-hoc support when needed. Adult support is bolstered by monthly team meetings with external clinical input to aid reflection and learning. This helps adults to approach the care of children from a resilient standpoint.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

While adults receive regular supervision, those in their probation period are not all receiving it at the frequency required. This means support for some adults is inconsistent at times.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Adults are required to complete an appropriate range of mandatory training to fulfil their roles. They have also completed additional training in line with the individual needs of children, such as speech and language and self-harm. Managers’ oversight of training is effective in ensuring that adults remain up to date. This helps make sure that children are cared for by well-informed adults.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Managers understand the regulations in relation to the requirements for adults’ qualifications. Although they have deemed some qualifications that adults hold to be equivalent qualifications, they have not demonstrated or kept a record of the information considered to establish the equivalency. Managers have recently devised a new system for recording this; however, this is not implemented currently.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Monitoring of the service includes monthly visits by the independent person. The independent person seeks feedback from professionals and adults regularly. Managers value their advice and respond constructively to recommendations. However, the independent person has often visited during school hours, meaning Inspection report for children’s home: 1247384 6 that one or both of the children are not seen, and they do not seek the views of family members. This weakens the level of scrutiny provided. Inspection report for children’s home: 1247384 7

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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

demonstrate that practice in the home is informed and improved by taking into account and acting on—

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Requirement Due date

feedback on the experiences of children, including complaints received; and

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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)(g)(ii)(h))

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Requirement Due date

In particular, ensure that adults are provided with supported time to consider, reflect and contribute to the learning from the unplanned ending and overall experiences of living in the home for one child. 9 July 2025

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Requirement Due date

No measure of control or discipline which is excessive, unreasonable or contrary to paragraph (2) may be used in relation to any child.

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Requirement Due date

The following measures may not be used to discipline any child—

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Requirement Due date

any restriction, other than one imposed by a court or in accordance with regulation 22 (contact and access to communications), on— 6 August 2025 Inspection report for children’s home: 1247384 8 a child’s contact with parents, relatives or friends;

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Requirement Due date

visits to the child by the child’s parents, relatives or friends. (Regulation 19 (1) (2)(c)(i)(ii))

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Recommendations

 The registered person should ensure that, as part of safer recruitment checks, original copies of relevant qualifications are seen, and a clear record is kept of this. (‘Guide to the Children’s Homes Regulations, including the quality standards’, page 61, paragraph 13.1)  The registered person should ensure that all adults, including those in their probationary period, receive supervision of their practice at a frequency in line with company policy. (‘Guide to the Children’s Homes Regulations, including the quality standards’, page 61, paragraph 13.2)  The registered person should ensure that there is careful consideration to establish whether adults have equivalent qualifications to those required in the regulations and that a record is kept of the information considered to establish equivalence. (‘Guide to the Children’s Homes Regulations, including the quality standards’, page 68, Annex A, paragraph 1.3)

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Recommendations

 The registered person should ensure that the independent person makes a rigorous assessment of the home’s arrangements for safeguarding and promoting the welfare of the children in the home’s care. This should include visiting at a time that allows them to see and speak to children and obtaining the views of the relatives of children, where appropriate. (‘Guide to the Children’s Homes Regulations, including the quality standards’, page 65, paragraph 15.5)

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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: 1247384 9

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Children’s home details

Registered provider: Solent Child Care Limited

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: 9 St Georges Yard, Castle Street, Farnham, Surrey GU9 7LW

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Inspector

Jacob Robson, Social Care Inspector Inspection report for children’s home: 1247384 10 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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Inspector

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