Rubi Living Ltd.

Inspection report for supported accommodation provider: Rubi Living Ltd. 1 Rubi Living Limited. Registered provider: RUBI LIVING LIMITED.

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Inspected under the social care common inspection framework

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provider

A private provider owns and operates this supported accommodation service. The service can accommodate up to seven children living in solo accommodation and up to 54 children living in 22 shared premises that are not limited to looked-after children and care leavers.

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provider

At the time of the inspection, eight children and nine young people aged 18 years and over were being supported.

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provider

The organisation and the service manager registered with Ofsted in November 2023. The nominated individual and registered manager roles are held by the same person, who is also the director of the organisation.

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provider

Since registration, Ofsted has undertaken three monitoring visits in response to third-party concerns abouts staff’s ability to manage risk and keep children safe. This information alerted Ofsted to the possibility that the provider was accommodating children who should not be living in supported accommodation. Due to the significant breaches in regulation that Ofsted identified, a restriction of accommodation notice and two compliance notices were served.

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provider

Inspection dates: The inspection was announced and started on 16 June 2025. The inspectors were on site from 18 to 20 June 2025.

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Outcome

Serious or widespread weaknesses lead to significant concerns about the experiences and progress of children. Leaders and managers must take urgent action to address failings.

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Outcome

The next inspection will be within approximately six months. Inspection report for supported accommodation provider: Rubi Living Ltd. 2

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Summary of findings

Children are at risk of harm as leaders and managers do not respond to safeguarding concerns in line with their internal procedures or relevant statutory guidance.

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Summary of findings

Leaders and managers do not have effective oversight of risks to children’s safety or the quality of support that they receive.

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Summary of findings

Leaders and managers do not operate this service in accordance with the Supported Accommodation (England) Regulations 2023. For example, the needs of some children admitted to this service exceed the scope of the regulations.

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Summary of findings

Children’s known needs and vulnerabilities are not considered or reflected in their individual support plans when their placements are agreed.

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Summary of findings

Staff do not have the skills, experience or understanding to meet children’s complex needs. Inspection report for supported accommodation provider: Rubi Living Ltd. 3

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Overall experiences and progress of children

Staff do not provide children with tailored support to help them with their specific needs as their support plans are not specific to their needs. Children’s support plans do not include all their known behaviours, or specific information relating to their cultural or religious needs. Furthermore, staff do not capture children’s wishes and feelings effectively or include these in their plans.

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Overall experiences and progress of children

Staff support children with weekly key-work sessions. However, children spoken to stated that they did not know what these sessions are. When staff do carry out these key-work sessions, the quality of them are poor. The sessions are generic and focus on a basic standard of independence skills. Staff lack an understanding of the culture in England, which means that children are misinformed during these sessions.

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Overall experiences and progress of children

Staff support children from diverse backgrounds. However, children’s support plans do not identify their cultural identity, and do not identify how staff can support children to access local community services.

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Overall experiences and progress of children

Children said that they are happy and have positive relationships with staff. They are encouraged to continue to see people who are important to them, including family members and friends. This means that children are not isolated.

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Overall experiences and progress of children

One child has maintained a secure placement. Their settled home, following several previous placements ending, and positive relationship with their member of staff have helped them to make progress.

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How well children are helped and protected

Leaders and managers fail to follow safeguarding procedures. When children have been involved in incidents, the staff’s reports are inaccurate and poorly written. Management oversight has failed to identify these shortfalls. Furthermore, managers have failed to identify that safeguarding processes have not been followed, therefore, sufficient action has not been taken. This places children at further risk of harm.

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How well children are helped and protected

Leaders and managers do not consistently follow safer recruitment processes. While the organisation carries out a range of recruitment checks, insufficient professional curiosity has resulted in concerns being raised due to references not being fully explored.

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How well children are helped and protected

Leaders and managers do not consistently report these serious incidents to Ofsted. This means that the Ofsted has no initial oversight of what action staff take to support children’s welfare.

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How well children are helped and protected

Risks to children are not always managed well. Leaders and managers do not ensure that the children’s risk assessments include all their known or emerging risks. This Inspection report for supported accommodation provider: Rubi Living Ltd. 4 leaves staff without the knowledge and information that they need to identify and safely manage children’s vulnerabilities and risks.

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How well children are helped and protected

Staff complete the provider’s mandatory training. However, leaders and managers have failed to ensure that the staff have the skills and knowledge to manage the individual children’s known and emerging needs. Despite staff requesting additional training in their supervision sessions, leaders and managers have failed to provide the staff with relevant training to best support children who self-harm due to poor emotional health.

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How well children are helped and protected

Leaders and managers do not ensure that staff have the skills to help them to understand children’s needs. For example, all the children currently placed have experienced childhood trauma. However, none of the staff receive training to help them understand the impact of this on children’s development and progress, or how they can support children to understand their past experiences.

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How well children are helped and protected

Location assessments are completed and reviewed. While leaders and managers do assess the risks in the local area, they do not include any contextual safeguarding risks. This oversight prevents leaders and managers from identifying how they will mitigate against these risks once young people move into the accommodation.

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How well children are helped and protected

Leaders and managers ensure that the accommodation is safe, secure and provides privacy for children. Staff maintain accommodation to a good standard and encourage children to maintain their homes.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers

Leaders and managers do not sufficiently monitor or audit the quality of the service so they can focus on areas for development. The manager has not carried out a quality of support review since July 2024. This means that they have not formally consulted with children, staff or involved agencies to help inform the development of the service.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers

Leaders and managers do not routinely update required documents, such as the statement of purpose and the children’s guide, to reflect changes in the organisation or practice. This limits their usefulness to children and social workers, who rely on these documents for key information.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers

The provider has a workforce development plan. This does not detail the current staffing structure, the qualifications and training of staff, or how the service supports children. Furthermore, it does not identify the processes and timescales for staff to complete induction, probation and core training, the timescales of supervision sessions or how managers will address poor performance.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers

Leaders and managers do not ensure that the support needs of children fall into the scope of supported accommodation. Due to one child’s needs, leaders and managers have provided waking-night staff for eight months, without challenging the placing local authority. Despite Ofsted identifying and addressing this shortfall by taking Inspection report for supported accommodation provider: Rubi Living Ltd. 5 enforcement action at a previous monitoring visit, leaders and managers have continued to work outside the scope of their registration.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers

Formal staff supervision sessions do not provide them with an opportunity to reflect on their practice or discuss children’s progress. When staff raise concerns in these sessions about feeling ill-equipped to meet the children’s emerging needs, leaders and managers fail to take action. This prevents ongoing staff development and hinders the staff from responding to children’s needs safely. While the staff do receive yearly appraisals, these are poorly written and do not focus on development.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers

Leaders and managers fail to keep clear and factual records of any complaints and the staff team’s working hours. This, alongside the complex roster system, which is hard to understand, compromises the safety of children as there are no clear records of who has supported the child at any given time. The failure to record all complaints means that managers and staff cannot verbalise any action that may have been taken in response. Furthermore, there is no written evidence of the action taken to address the complaints raised.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers

Leaders and managers have not consistently demonstrated the qualities typically associated with good character and integrity. Consequently, an external agency is currently investigating the staffing arrangements of the organisation. Inspection report for supported accommodation provider: Rubi Living Ltd. 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 Supported Accommodation (England) Regulations 2023 and the ‘Guide to the Supported Accommodation Regulations, including Quality Standards’. The registered person(s) must comply within the given timescales.

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Requirement Due date

*The protection standard is that children are enabled to feel safe and that their needs are met.

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Requirement Due date

In particular, the standard in paragraph requires the registered person to—

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Requirement Due date

are familiar and act in accordance with child protection policies;

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Requirement Due date

have the skills to identify and act upon signs that a child is at risk of abuse, neglect, exploitation or any other harm, and act to reduce such risk;

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Requirement Due date

work collaboratively with children to help them understand how to keep safe, by offering guidance and support on how to minimise any potential risk of harm;

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Requirement Due date

work collaboratively with other professionals and agencies, and share information where relevant to keep children safe;

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Requirement Due date

understand the relevant roles and responsibilities assigned to them by the registered person in relation to protecting children. (Regulation 5 (1) (2)(a)(i)(f)(i)(ii)(iii)(iv)(vi))

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Requirement Due date

In particular, the registered person must:

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Requirement Due date

 review their statement of purpose to ensure that staff adhere to the ethos and values of the service, and the managers must review the staff rota to ensure it accurately reflects which staff is/have supported each 8 August 2025 Inspection report for supported accommodation provider: Rubi Living Ltd. 7 child, and that this is in line with the statement of purpose  ensure that the staff are trained so they have the skills and knowledge to identify and respond to the needs of children  review all their staff recruitment files and ensure that safer recruitment processes are consistently implemented  review the admission procedures to ensure the undertaking only admits children who have relatively high or increasing levels of independence and who are ready to gain further skills in preparation for adult living  obtain all the key information relating to children’s needs and risks prior to admission to ensure that they

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Requirement Due date

can meet the child’s needs, and keep this under review  ensure that there is effective oversight of children’s placements to ensure the supported accommodation remains suitable to meet their needs.

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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 supported accommodation undertaking that puts children first and prioritises their well-being and development.

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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 supported accommodation undertaking in a way that is consistent with the ethos, and delivers the outcomes, set out in the undertaking’s statement of purpose;

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Requirement Due date

ensure that staff work effectively as a team, where appropriate, to meet the needs of children;

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Requirement Due date

ensure that staff have the experience, qualifications and skills appropriate for the work that they are to perform;

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Requirement Due date

implement recruitment practices that ensure staff are suitable to work with children and to keep them safe from harm;

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Requirement Due date

ensure that arrangements are in place to manage referrals of children to the supported accommodation undertaking and admissions of children to premises used as supported 8 August 2025 Inspection report for supported accommodation provider: Rubi Living Ltd. 8 accommodation, including, where relevant, emergency referrals and admissions;

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Requirement Due date

ensure that arrangements are in place for the supervision, training and development of staff. (Regulation 4 (1) (2)(a)(b)(c)(e)(g))

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Requirement Due date

In particular, the registered person must ensure that all staff:

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Requirement Due date

 understand what action to take in the event of an allegation  take immediate action in line with the organisation’s child protection procedures  maintain accurate and complete records of these events, which can be produced when required  ensure that all safeguarding incidents are shared with all relevant professionals without delay  ensure that all the children’s risks are identified in their individual support plans  understand the risks to children, and know what action they must take to keep children safe from harm  are skilled and trained to understand all safeguarding risks to children and that this competence is assessed, which is to be clearly evidenced.

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Requirement Due date

*If there is a referral of a person working for the supported accommodation undertaking pursuant to section 35 of the Safeguarding Vulnerable Groups Act 2006(20), the registered person must without delay notify—

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Requirement Due date

any relevant person not included in sub-paragraphs (a) and (b);

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Requirement Due date

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

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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 27 (2)(a)(b)(c) (3)(b)(f))

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Requirement Due date

In particular, the registered person must ensure that they have a process in place so that Ofsted is notified of all serious events, and the registered person must ensure that 8 August 2025 Inspection report for supported accommodation provider: Rubi Living Ltd. 9 leaders and managers notify Ofsted, without delay, about all serious events involving children who are accommodated at any of their premises.

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Requirement Due date

The support standard is that children receive individual and tailored support that meets their needs.

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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

ensure that children are encouraged and enabled to take a lead role in determining the support they receive and to participate in and influence how the supported accommodation operates;

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Requirement Due date

ensure that plans for support are based on initial referral information, are meaningful and are created in full consultation with the child, taking account of relevant plans for the child;

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Requirement Due date

engage and work with the accommodating authority if the registered person has concerns or if the child’s support needs to be changed, including where that change may mean that the child requires more intensive support;

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Requirement Due date

before a child arrives or upon a child’s arrival, ensure that the child is given a written guide, in an accessible format, containing information about—

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Requirement Due date

the support and accommodation provided by the supported accommodation undertaking;

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Requirement Due date

what advocacy support or services are available, how the child may access that support or those services, and any entitlement the child may have to independent advocacy;

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Requirement Due date

how to make a complaint or representation in relation to the support and accommodation provided and how any such complaint or representation will be dealt with;

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Requirement Due date

what services and facilities are available that take account of children’s needs arising as a result of cultural differences or disability;

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Requirement Due date

and which the registered person must keep under review, seeking children’s comments before revising the written guide. (Regulation 7 (1) (2)(a)(b)(f)(j)(i)(ii)(iii)(iv)) 8 August 2025 Inspection report for supported accommodation provider: Rubi Living Ltd. 10 The registered person must recruit staff using recruitment procedures that are designed to ensure children’s safety.

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Requirement Due date

Subject to paragraph (4), the registered person may only—

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Requirement Due date

employ an individual for the purposes of the provision of supported accommodation, or

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Requirement Due date

if an individual is employed by a person other than the registered person to work for the supported accommodation undertaking in a position in which the individual may have regular contact with children, allow that individual to work for the supported accommodation undertaking, if the registered person is satisfied that the individual satisfies the requirements in paragraph (3).

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Requirement Due date

the individual has the experience, qualifications and skills appropriate for the work that the individual is to perform;

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Requirement Due date

full and satisfactory information is available in relation to the individual in respect of each of the matters in Schedule 1. (Regulation 17 (1) (2)(a)(b) (3)(b)(d)) 8 August 2025

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Requirement Due date

Subject to paragraph (6), the registered person must establish a procedure for considering complaints and representations made by or on behalf of children.

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Requirement Due date

In particular, the procedure must provide that no person who is the subject of a complaint or representation takes any part in its consideration or investigation, except at the informal resolution stage if the registered person considers it appropriate.

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must ensure that a record is made of any complaint or representation, the action taken in response, and the outcome of any investigation. (Regulation 31 (1) (2) (3)) 8 August 2025

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Requirement Due date

An organisation may only carry on a supported accommodation undertaking if—

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Requirement Due date

each director of the organisation, except for a director who is the nominated individual, who is involved in the carrying on of the supported accommodation undertaking by that organisation, satisfies the requirements in paragraph (6). 8 August 2025 Inspection report for supported accommodation provider: Rubi Living Ltd. 11 The requirements are that—

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Requirement Due date

the individual is of integrity and good character. (Regulation 11 (4)(a) (6)(a))

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must maintain records ("case records") in relation to each child accommodated by the supported accommodation undertaking which—

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Requirement Due date

include the information and documents listed in Schedule 2;

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Requirement Due date

are signed and dated by the author of each entry. (Regulation 24 (1)(a)(b)(c)) 8 August 2025

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must maintain a system for monitoring and improving the quality of support provided by the supported accommodation undertaking by completing a review ("a quality of support review") at least once every six months, which must take into account—

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Requirement Due date

the views of children, including any feedback and complaints received;

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Requirement Due date

feedback from individual children on the impact the supported accommodation has had on the child’s life, especially regarding how well prepared the child felt for transition into supported accommodation and how well prepared the child feels for transition out of supported accommodation;

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Requirement Due date

feedback from each child’s accommodating authority, staff and any relevant persons;

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Requirement Due date

any relevant research and developments in relation to the way in which the needs of children are best met.

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Requirement Due date

After completing a quality of support review, the registered person must produce a written report setting out the actions the registered person intends to take as a result of that quality of support review.

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must provide a copy of the review report to the CIECSS within 28 days beginning with the day on which the report is completed, and make a copy of it available on request to each child’s accommodating authority. (Regulation 32 (1)(a)(b)(c)(d) (2) (3)) 8 August 2025 Inspection report for supported accommodation provider: Rubi Living Ltd. 12 The registered person must compile a statement ("the statement of purpose") which covers the following matters in respect of the supported accommodation undertaking—

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Requirement Due date

how it ensures that the child’s rights and views are at the centre of the support, service delivery and planning;

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Requirement Due date

the arrangements in place to ensure a child is fully aware of their entitlements throughout the duration of their placement in supported accommodation;

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Requirement Due date

the positive outcomes the service seeks to achieve for children and its approach to achieving those outcomes;

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Requirement Due date

the arrangements in place to support the development of children’s independent living skills, in line with their identified individual needs;

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Requirement Due date

the arrangements in place to promote children’s involvement and progress in education, training or employment;

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Requirement Due date

the arrangements for and policies on protecting and promoting the mental and physical health needs of children, including medication handling, recording and safekeeping;

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Requirement Due date

anti-discriminatory practices in respect of children and their families;

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Requirement Due date

how it supports the cultural, linguistic and religious needs of children;

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Requirement Due date

details of who to contact if a person has a complaint and how that person can access the complaints procedure (see regulation 31); and

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Requirement Due date

details of how a person involved in the support or protection of a child can access the supported accommodation undertaking’s child protection policies. (Regulation 9 (1)(i)(j)(k)(l)(m)(n)(o)(p)(q)(r)) 8 August 2025

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Requirement Due date

*These requirements are subject to a compliance notice. Inspection report for supported accommodation provider: Rubi Living Ltd. 13

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Recommendations

 The registered person should ensure that the workforce development plan includes the current staffing structure and the managerial arrangements for oversight of the premises. The plan should also include how staff support children when there is on-site or floating support and how staff promote continuity of support. The registered person should ensure that the plan sets out the experience and qualifications of staff and managers, and any training they receive. (‘Guide to the Supported Accommodation Regulations including, Quality Standards’, page 47)  The registered person must review the appropriateness and suitability of the location of the premises used for the purposes of the supported accommodation setting. This review should include a full risk assessment, considering risks and opportunities presented by the setting’s location, and including any relevant risk mitigation strategies and actions taken to reduce potential risks as well as the

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Recommendations

views and experiences of young people. (‘Guide to the Supported Accommodation Regulations, including Quality Standards’, page 28).

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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: Rubi Living Ltd. 14

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Supported accommodation provider details

Registered provider: RUBI LIVING LIMITED

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Supported accommodation provider details

Nominated individual: Kennedy Sigobodhla

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Supported accommodation provider details

Registered service manager: Kennedy Sigobodhla

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Inspectors

Helen Fee, Social Care Inspector Clare Hannah, Social Care Inspector Inspection report for supported accommodation provider: Rubi Living Ltd. 15 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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Inspectors

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Inspectors

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Inspectors

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