Children's Home run by Promoting Youth Ltd in Central Bedfordshire

Inspection report for children’s home: 2780237 1 Registered provider: Promoting Youth LTD

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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 home provides care for up to three children with social and emotional difficulties.

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Information about this children’s home

The manager registered with Ofsted in January 2025.

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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: 18 February 2025

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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: 2780237 2

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

18/02/2025 Full Good Inspection report for children’s home: 2780237 3

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inadequate

One child was living at the home at the time of the inspection and spoke to the inspector. Since the last inspection, one child has moved in, and one child has moved on in an unplanned way. This was following an escalation of incidents, which led to managers and staff deciding that they were unable to keep them safe.

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inadequate

The shortfalls identified in the leadership and management of the home have affected children’s experiences. At times, the staff have failed to provide safe or effective care to children. This has resulted in an overall judgement of inadequate.

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inadequate

Managers and staff do not have the skills and experience to manage difficult situations and prevent incidents from escalating. Consequently, the house is unsettled, and incidents happen on a daily basis. This has contributed to low staff morale, inconsistent responses to children and poor communication between the managers and staff. As a result, children do not experience a secure and stable home.

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inadequate

Children regularly go missing from home. Managers and staff fail to advocate for the children. They do not request that return home interviews are carried out by the child’s local authority. As a result, these are rarely offered. Therefore, opportunities to understand why the children go missing and how to reduce these incidents and associated risks are not explored.

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inadequate

Staff and managers have not supported children effectively to behave safely and appropriately in the local community. As a response to complaints, the local authority undertook a focused visit to the home. This found shortfalls in staff’s skills and knowledge to meet the child’s complex needs. A three-month action plan was set for staff to access further relevant training. This training has not yet been arranged.

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inadequate

Managers and staff do not promote children’s independence effectively. There is no clear plan to support and guide staff in how to help the child develop the skills needed to build independence. This potentially delays the necessary development for the child.

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inadequate

The children have been supported to access appropriate education provisions. One child has completed their GCSE exams, and the staff took the child on holiday to celebrate their achievement.

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inadequate

Managers and staff support the children’s interests and hobbies. One child enjoys playing guitar. Managers and staff sing along with them while they play. This creates enjoyable memories for the child and supports positive relationships. Inspection report for children’s home: 2780237 4 The manager and staff have established trust with the child. This allows them to have helpful conversations with them about important subjects, such as positive relationships.

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

Staff have not been able to manage incidents safely or confidently. This has not given children confidence in the staff or promoted a sense of safety and adults being in control. This has resulted in children’s exposure to known risks and physical harm. On one occasion, when staff did not have the skills to de-escalate a situation, they locked themselves in a car and filmed a child. The distressed child subsequently went missing. On another occasion, male members of staff took over the management of an incident from a female member of staff without clear reason. This escalated the situation, which resulted in the child assaulting a staff member and going missing. The child said that they felt confronted and intimidated by the staff.

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

Managers failed to share essential information about a child with staff. Managers knew that a child was not to visit a certain area but neglected to share this information with staff. This resulted in staff taking the child to the high-risk location. This placed the child at risk.

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

Staff have not known how to keep children safe online. The safety plan developed in response to particular online risks for one child states that the child needs one-to-one support for computer use. The child purchased a computer console and regularly used this unsupervised in their bedroom. This enabled them to access the internet and be exposed to the known risks. Risks had not been reviewed, and the safety plan had not been updated to include the console use. Consequently, staff were unaware of the risks and had not adapted their practice.

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

Following damages to the home, staff failed to promptly clear away broken glass despite known risks to children. As a result, a child was able to access the glass, which they used to cause themselves harm.

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

Physical intervention is not often used by the staff. However, staff have used unrecognised holds when using physical restraint. Despite this, follow-up training for staff in de-escalation and physical restraint has not been completed. This has left staff without the knowledge, skills, confidence or ability to use physical intervention safely should it be required.

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

Managers have failed to ensure adequate oversight of the fire safety arrangements. The fire risk assessment has not been appropriately reviewed, and the fire checks have not been completed for several weeks.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

Leadership and management arrangements are weak, and leaders and managers’ oversight is ineffective. Communication between senior leaders is poor. They have Inspection report for children’s home: 2780237 5 not provided sufficient oversight to oversee staff practice to ensure consistent and safe care for the children.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

The registered manager and deputy manager have resigned from the home. The responsible individual has created an operational transitional plan to encourage management oversight of the home. However, there is no identified manager in day- to-day charge of the home.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

The staff do not have the skills, knowledge and experience to meet the children’s needs. The responsible individual, previous registered manager and other professionals have identified that the staff are inexperienced and require further training to be able to understand and meet children’s needs effectively. However, the identified training to help address this has not yet been scheduled.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

There is limited evidence of senior leaders understanding staff’s skills and areas for development. Staff have not received annual appraisals. This is a missed opportunity to reflect on staff’s practice and support their development.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

Communication between managers and staff has not been effective. Staff have not responded positively to the manager’s approach. When practice developments have been identified and highlighted, staff have challenged this, and managers have felt unsupported by senior leaders. The divide in the team has contributed to the unsettled environment and hindered staff’s professional and practice development. This has impacted on the quality of care experienced by the children.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

Managers have failed to reduce the known risks to children. The failure to keep risks under regular review and provide clear guidance for and communicate with staff has placed children at risk.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

Managers and staff have failed to keep accurate or full records. Some incident records are missing, and children’s plans are not up to date. Regular meetings have been attended by managers to review children’s care needs and risks. However, updates have not been recorded or shared with staff.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

Managers have failed to share all details of a significant safeguarding incident with Ofsted. This undermines Ofsted’s ability to maintain suitable regulatory oversight and ensure that suitable actions are taken to help keep children safe.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: inadequate

The home has experienced staffing challenges. When staffing levels have been low, managers have covered support worker roles to ensure an adequate number of staff on shift. This has undermined managers’ ability to complete management tasks. Oversight of the day-to-day running of the home has been poor as a result. Inspection report for children’s home: 2780237 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; and

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Requirement Due date

that the premises used for the purposes of the home are designed, furnished and maintained so as to protect each child from avoidable hazards to the child’s health; and

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Requirement Due date

that the effectiveness of the home’s child protection policies is monitored regularly. (Regulation 12 (1) (2)(a)(i)(iii)(v)(vi)(d)(e)) 14 August 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

promotes their welfare. 14 August 2025 Inspection report for children’s home: 2780237 7 In particular, the standard in paragraph (1) requires the registered person to—

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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

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

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)(b)(c)(f)(g)(ii)(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.

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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

plan for, and help, each child to prepare to leave the home or to move into adult care in a way that is consistent with arrangements agreed with the child’s placing authority;

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Requirement Due date

that the child’s placing authority is contacted, and a review of that child’s relevant plans is requested, if—

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Requirement Due date

the registered person considers that the child is at risk of harm or has concerns that the care provided for the child is inadequate to meet the child’s needs;

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Requirement Due date

the child is, or has been, persistently absent from the home without permission. (Regulation 14 (1)(a) (2)(b)(iii)(e)(i)(ii)) 14 August 2025 Inspection report for children’s home: 2780237 8 After consultation with the fire and rescue authority, the registered person must—

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Requirement Due date

ensure, by means of fire drills and practices at suitable intervals, that persons working at the home and, so far as reasonably practicable, children are aware of the procedure to be followed in case of fire.

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Requirement Due date

If the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005(30) applies to the home—

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Requirement Due date

the registered person must ensure that the requirements of that Order and any regulations made under it, except for article 23 (duties of employees), are complied with in respect of the home. (Regulation 25 (1)(d) (2)(b)) 14 August 2025

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must ensure that all employees—

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Requirement Due date

undertake appropriate continuing professional development;

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Requirement Due date

have their performance and fitness to perform their roles appraised at least once every year. (Regulation 33 (4)(a)(c)) 14 August 2025

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Requirement Due date

*These requirements are subject to a compliance notice.

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Recommendations

 The registered person should notify Ofsted and other relevant persons if one of the situations specified in regulation 40(4)(a)-(d) occurs, or if there is an incident relating to the protection, safeguarding or welfare of a child living in the home which the registered person considers to be serious (40(4)(e)). In particular, the notification to Ofsted must contain all relevant details pertaining to the safeguarding incident. (‘Guide to the Children’s Homes Regulations, including the quality standards’, page 63, paragraph 14.10)  The registered person should ensure that when a child returns to the home after being missing from home or away from the home without permission, they request that the responsible local authority provides an opportunity for the child to have an independent return home interview. The home should take account of information provided by such interviews when assessing risks and putting

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Recommendations

arrangements in place to protect each child. (‘Guide to the Children’s Homes Regulations, including the quality standards’, page 45, paragraph 9.30) Inspection report for children’s home: 2780237 9

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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: 2780237 10

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Children’s home details

Registered provider: Promoting Youth Limited

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: Phoenix House C/O JP Accountancy, Phoenix House, Rosslyn Crescent, Harrow HA1 2SP

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Inspector

Sarah Cooper, Social Care Inspector Inspection report for children’s home: 2780237 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 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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