Children's Home run by Aspire Supported Living Services in Croydon

Inspection report for children’s home: 2748913 1 Registered provider: Aspire Supported Living Services Full inspection Inspected under the social care common inspection framework

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Information about this children’s home

This privately owned home cares for one child with social and emotional difficulties.

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Information about this children’s home

The home and the manager registered with Ofsted on 26 January 2024. The manager is suitably qualified.

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Information about this children’s home

There was one child living at the home at the time of this inspection.

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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: 2748913 2

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

12/06/2024 Full Good Inspection report for children’s home: 2748913 3

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Since the last inspection, one child has moved on from the home and another child has moved in. This child was living at the home at the time of the inspection and spoke to the inspector.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff ensure that the child lives in a comfortable, warm and welcoming home that they can call their own. Staff empower children to personalise their bedrooms and to express their unique personalities. Within the first few weeks of moving into the home, the child has displayed photos of people who matter to them and their own artwork around the house.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff encourage children to take part in a variety of activities. They ensure that children can do activities that they are interested in, such as a cheerleading. Staff also encourage children to develop their creative talents by holding ‘sip and paint nights’. These are fun activities where children sip juice and paint blank canvases, or paint by numbers with staff, and the artwork created is then displayed in the home.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff understand the importance of children’s time with their families and help them maintain relationships that are important to them. The child currently living in the home recently celebrated their birthday with a surprise meal, and staff ensured that family members were included in this special event. The child said, ‘I was made to feel so special it was such a great day, and my family came.’

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: good

Staff encourage children to share and talk about their emotions by using an ‘emotions mood board.’ This is a visual tool to help children communicate how they are feeling so that staff can take action to help them to name their emotions and manage them more effectively. Staff and children participate in this activity together daily. The child and staff spoke about important conversations that are taking place, but these are not always recorded, which means that the wider network and staff may miss crucial information.

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

Children understand how to raise concerns and complaints. If children make complaints against staff, leaders and managers consult with the local authority designated officer to seek advice and ensure that children are kept safe.

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

Staff know how to support children when they go missing from care, and they follow agreed procedures to ensure their safety. Leaders and managers acted on feedback from the police, who are also supporting children missing from care, after they advised that recordings needed more detail. Leaders and managers provided training to ensure staff improved the accuracy of these records. Inspection report for children’s home: 2748913 4 Leaders, managers and staff try to avoid using physical intervention to manage behaviour and want to create a homely and safe environment for children. As a result, there has only been one incident of physical intervention. All staff have completed training to ensure that they are equipped to use physical intervention when and if it is required. Although staff know what they need to do during a physical intervention, on the occasion it was used, a debrief with the child did not take place afterwards. This

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

means that the child did not have the opportunity to understand what happened and share their feelings about the incident.

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

Staff demonstrate a good understanding of the individual risks identified for children and the safety measures needed. Risk assessments are in place and tailored to each child, but updates to specific risks are not always made. This reduces the detail available to guide staff practice.

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

Safer recruitment practice needs to be more robust. Although reference checks are in place, these do not ensure that the most recent or current employer has been contacted.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Leaders and managers are committed to provide quality care for children and create a culture that ensures that children feel safe and flourish. Staff consistently spoke with warmth, pride and positivity about the child currently living at the home, highlighting the progress the child has made.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

The registered manager offers visible leadership, role models good practice and is actively involved in the day-to-day running of the home. Staff said that leaders and managers are supportive and want to ensure that they are learning and developing. Staff said that leaders and managers have high expectations of them and give them the space to reflect through monthly group reflection meetings with an external trainer and therapist.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Leaders and managers ensure that staff have the relevant qualification or are enrolled on courses to achieve the relevant qualification. Staff training is a strength at the home, and some of the team have specific training qualifications to provide training to other members of staff. Leaders and managers believe that training to meet the children’s specific needs is important, and training is put in place prior to a child moving into the home.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

Social workers and independent reviewing officers spoke highly of leaders and managers. They said that communication is effective and that leaders and managers are available for meetings, which helps with planning for the children’s futures. One social worker commented that the strengths of the home are the skills within the team and the relationships they have with the child. The social worker feels that this enables the child to settle and keeps them safe and happy, while providing a home- from-home environment. Inspection report for children’s home: 2748913 5 Leaders and managers ensure that staff receive regular supervision in line with the frequency set out in the home’s statement of purpose. However, probation protocols are not consistently followed for most of the staff, and they have not had regular reviews as set out in the home’s guidance and policy. This results in missed opportunities for staff to

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: good

receive support and self-evaluate their performance and for managers to provide structured feedback to staff on their competence for the role. Inspection report for children’s home: 2748913 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

ensure that each permanent appointment of an employee is subject to the satisfactory completion of a period of probation.

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Requirement Due date

In particular, leader and managers must ensure that all staff receive a probation review. 20 August 2025

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must recruit staff using recruitment procedures that are designed to ensure children’s safety.

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Requirement Due date

employ an individual to work at the children’s home; or

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Requirement Due date

if an individual is employed by a person other than the registered person to work at the home in a position in which the individual may have regular contact with children, allow that individual to work at the home,

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Requirement Due date

if the individual satisfies the requirements in paragraph (3).

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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 2. (Regulation 32 (1) (2)(a)(b) (3)(d))

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Requirement Due date

In particular, the manager must ensure that, when recruiting staff, references are sought from the most recent employer. 20 August 2025

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Recommendation

Inspection report for children’s home: 2748913 7  The registered person should ensure that children are given the opportunity to express their feelings about their experience of restraint as soon as is practicable, ideally within 24 hours of the restraint incident. (‘Guide to the Children’s Homes Regulations, including the quality standards’, page 50, paragraph 9.60).

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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: 2748913 8

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Children’s home details

Registered provider: Aspire Supported Living Services

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: 41 Lakehall Road, Thornton Heath CR7 7EG

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Inspector

Jo Tarbie, Social Care Inspector Inspection report for children’s home: 2748913 9 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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