Children's Home run by Almoner Care Group Limited in Liverpool

Inspection report for children’s home: 2746850 1 Registered provider: Almoner Care Group 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

The home is owned by a private organisation. It is registered to provide care for up to two children who may experience social and emotional difficulties.

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Information about this children’s home

At the time of the inspection, two children were living at the home.

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Information about this children’s home

The manager registered with Ofsted in February 2024.

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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/or widespread failures that mean children and young people are not protected or their welfare is not promoted or safeguarded.

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inadequate

Date of last inspection: 14 January 2025

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inadequate

Overall judgement at last inspection: requires improvement to be good

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inadequate

Enforcement action since last inspection: none Inspection report for children’s home: 2746850 2

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

14/01/2025 Full Requires improvement to be good 24/09/2024 Full Inadequate Inspection report for children’s home: 2746850 3

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inadequate

Children’s experiences of living at the home are mixed. One child has lived at the home for a significant period, and they have formed positive and trusting relationships with staff. However, the admission of a second child to the home was not well planned, and both children have become unsettled. The children did not have an opportunity to meet each other before moving in together, and no meaningful work was completed with either child to help them prepare to live together.

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inadequate

One child moved in quickly. The manager did not meet this child before they moved into the home. This compromised the manager’s ability to fully assess whether the child’s needs could be met by the staff team. In addition, managers have not sufficiently balanced the needs of the child requiring the placement with the child who already lives in the home. This created further disruption for children.

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inadequate

Children’s care plans do not contain important details about their needs. This means that staff do not have all the information they need to care for children effectively.

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inadequate

Staff have supported one child to return to school. The child attends school regularly, and this is significant progress from the child’s starting point. However, one child’s week lacks structure. The child does receive formal education, but they are on a reduced timetable. There is no plan in place to help the child learn informally and support a return to full-time education. Without additional support, the child is at risk of poor educational outcomes.

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inadequate

Staff support children to maintain relationships with people who are important to them. For example, children regularly speak with their families and spend time with their friends. Furthermore, staff work with children and their families to overcome any barriers or problems. This approach helps children to stay connected and reconnect with people who are important in their lives

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

Managers and staff have not always taken effective action to safeguard children. For example, they did not call an ambulance for a child after being advised to do so by health professionals. This placed the child at risk of harm.

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

Staff do not consistently adhere to established procedures when a child goes missing. In some instances, staff have failed to carry out necessary welfare checks and have delayed notifying the police. On occasion, efforts to locate missing children have been insufficient. Inspection report for children’s home: 2746850 4 Children are not always offered an interview with an independent person when they return home from being missing. This is a missed opportunity to learn about what has happened and to take steps to safeguard the child. In addition, the manager has not taken sufficient action to challenge the child’s placing authority when these interviews do not take place.

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

Records of significant incidents in the home are poor. Reports lack important details about the actions staff have taken to safeguard children. The manager has not always added their oversight or analysis to these records. The quality of the recording hinders the manager’s ability to evaluate whether staff are taking effective action to protect children from harm.

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

Risk management plans are in place. However, they do not reflect all the known risks for children. In addition, risk management plans are not always reviewed and updated following concerning incidents. These shortfalls mean that staff are not informed of all risks or the strategies to manage and reduce them.

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

Some risks to children are poorly understood. For example, managers had assessed the risk of exploitation for one child as low, despite there being a multi-agency exploitation plan in place. This means that there are ineffective safeguards in place to reduce the risk of harm for children.

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

The manager has not ensured that staff have the necessary training to care for children safely. For example, there have been several occasions when there are no staff on duty who hold a suitable first-aid qualification.

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

The manager has failed to ensure that the roster includes the full names of the staff on duty. In addition, the full names of visitors to the home are not recorded. As a result, these documents cannot be relied on to identify who has been responsible for the care of children.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

The manager’s oversight of significant events in the home is poor. The manager was not aware of some significant incidents that had taken place in his absence. This hinders his ability to ensure that children are cared for safely and effectively.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

The manager has not always ensured that staff appropriately record issues of concern. Incident records lack important details about the actions staff have taken to safeguard children. Furthermore, staff have not always recorded significant incidents involving children’s safety. This makes it impossible for the manager to identify whether appropriate action has been taken and to address poor practice when necessary. This does not promote children’s welfare. It is also a missed opportunity to learn from events and shape future practice. Inspection report for children’s home: 2746850 5 The manager has not considered the needs of the children moving into the home alongside the skill set of the staff team. Some staff are new and have no previous experience of working in residential childcare. Managers have not ensured that these staff are skilled, equipped and supported to meet the needs of complex and vulnerable children.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

Ofsted and relevant professionals are not always informed of significant incidents in the home. For example, neither the child’s social worker nor Ofsted were informed of a child’s admission to hospital. This compromises the regulator’s oversight of the home.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

Staff are not receiving supervision regularly. One new and inexperienced member of staff has not received supervision since starting their job. In addition, the manager could not locate the records of inductions for the new members of staff. Notes of supervision sessions are brief and lack reflection on staff practice.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

Appraisals have not been held for staff who have worked in the home for over 12 months. These are missed opportunities to ensure that staff understand their roles and responsibilities and their practice is reviewed.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

Internal monitoring systems are not sufficiently robust to identify shortfalls in staff practice and children’s plans. The manager has not completed a six-month review of the quality of care provided at the home. This does not support the manager to have a good understanding of the home’s strengths and weaknesses or identify areas for improvement. In addition, reports for the independent visitor are not submitted to Ofsted in a timely manner.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

Insufficient action has been taken to address the requirements made at the last full inspection. The manager has not prioritised making the improvements required effectively. All four requirements made at the last inspection are restated, and an additional six requirements have been made at this inspection. Inspection report for children’s home: 2746850 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

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;

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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)(v)(vi)(b)) 27 July 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

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Requirement Due date

In particular, the standard in paragraph (1) requires the registered person to— 27 July 2025 Inspection report for children’s home: 2746850 7 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 have the experience, qualifications and skills to meet the needs of 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)(c)(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))

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Requirement Due date

Specifically, ensure that the skills, experience and qualifications of the staff team are considered when making decisions about moving a child into the home.

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Requirement Due date

In addition, the registered person must ensure that they have sufficient information about the child to inform their decision about whether the child’s needs can be met at the home. 31 August 2025

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Requirement Due date

at all times, at least one person on duty at the home has a suitable first aid qualification. (Regulation 31 (2)(a)) 27 July 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

there is any other incident relating to a child which the registered person considers to be serious. ( Regulation 40 (4)(e)) 27 July 2025

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Requirement Due date

The education standard is that children make measurable progress towards achieving their educational potential and are helped to do so. 31 August 2025 Inspection report for children’s home: 2746850 8 In particular, the standard in paragraph (1) requires the registered person to ensure—

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Requirement Due date

promote opportunities for each child to learn informally;

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Requirement Due date

help a child who is excluded from school, or who is of compulsory school age but not attending school, to access educational and training support throughout the period of exclusion or non-attendance and to return to school as soon as possible. (Regulation 8 (1) (2)(a)(v)(viii))

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Requirement Due date

ensure that each employee completes an appropriate induction.

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must ensure that all employees—

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Requirement Due date

receive practice-related supervision by a person with appropriate experience; and

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Requirement Due date

have their performance and fitness to perform their roles appraised at least once every year. (Regulation 33 (1)(a) (4)(b)(c)) 31 August 2025

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Requirement Due date

Schedule 4 sets out the other information that the registered person must keep in relation to a children’s home.

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Requirement Due date

maintain in the home the records in Schedule 4;

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Requirement Due date

ensure that the records are kept up to date. (Regulation 37 (1) (2)(a)(b))

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Requirement Due date

This specifically relates to ensuring that the full names of the staff working at the home are recorded on the staff roster, the names of visitors to the home are recorded and incident reports should record the full names of staff involved in the incident. 31 August 2025

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must ensure that an independent person visits the children’s home at least once each month.

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Requirement Due date

The independent person must provide a copy of the independent person’s report to— 31 August 2025 Inspection report for children’s home: 2746850 9 HMCI. (Regulation 44 (1) (7)(a))

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must complete a review of the quality of care provided for children (“a quality-of-care review”) at least once every 6 months.

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Requirement Due date

supply to HMCI a copy of the quality-of-care review report within 28 days of the date on which the quality-of-care review is completed. (Regulation 45 (1) (4)(a)) 31 August 2025

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Requirement Due date

*These requirements are subject to a compliance notice.

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Recommendation

 The registered person should ensure that they challenge the child’s placing authority when children are not provided with an opportunity to have an independent return home interview following episodes when they have been missing from the home. (‘Guide to the Children’s Homes Regulations, including the quality standards’, page 45, paragraph 9.30)

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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: 2746850 10

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Children’s home details

Registered provider: Almoner Care Group Limited

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: Brunswick, Seymour Chambers, 92 London Road, Liverpool L3 5NW

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Inspector

Sophie Thomson, Social Care Inspector Inspection report for children’s home: 2746850 11 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 children looked after, safeguarding and child protection.

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Inspector

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Inspector

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Inspector

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