Children's home run by Westmorland and Furness Council

Inspection report for children’s home: 2731337 1 Registered provider: Westmorland and Furness Council

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Inspected under the social care common inspection framework

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Information about this children’s home

This home is owned and managed by a local authority. It provides care for up to four children who may experience social and emotional difficulties. The home often provides short-term emergency placements.

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Information about this children’s home

The home and the manager registered with Ofsted on 1 April 2023.

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Information about this children’s home

At the time of this inspection, there were no children living at the home.

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Overall experiences and progress of

children and young people, taking into account

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outstanding

How well children and young people are helped and protected outstanding

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outstanding

The effectiveness of leaders and managers outstanding

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outstanding

The children’s home provides highly effective services that consistently exceed the standards of good. The actions of the children’s home contribute to significantly improved outcomes and positive experiences for children and young people who need help, protection and care.

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outstanding

Overall judgement at last inspection: outstanding

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Enforcement action since last inspection:

An assurance inspection was carried out on 13 February 2025 in response to a significant increase in safeguarding notifications since December 2024. This included an incident Inspection report for children’s home: 2731337 2 when children had set a fire inside the home. The inspector did not identify any serious or widespread concerns in relation to the care or protection of children.

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Inspection date Inspection type Inspection judgement

14/05/2024 Full Outstanding 10/10/2023 Full Requires improvement to be good Inspection report for children’s home: 2731337 3

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: outstanding

There were no children living in the home at the time of this inspection as all children had moved on to long-term placements. The manager has taken the opportunity to carry out refurbishment of the home while there were no emergency referrals to consider. This report is therefore based on a retrospective review of children’s experiences and progress.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: outstanding

Children are supported by staff to navigate difficult circumstances when moving to the home. The team works closely with the managers of other local authority children’s homes to support positive moves in and out of the home. This has included creating social stories to support children to understand the changes taking place. This has helped children to settle well in their longer-term placements.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: outstanding

Staff are proactive in understanding children’s needs and finding ways to help children settle. This includes helping children who are new to this country to understand their new environment, while respecting their identity. Staff identified a place of worship for one child, contacting its leaders to establish important links. They also made links with a multicultural centre to ensure that children continued to receive support from workers they trusted.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: outstanding

Staff have maintained appropriate relationships with children who have left the home, to support positive transitions. This includes continuing to advocate for children by helping them to share their views and feelings. This helped one child to share their worries with a trusted member of staff who could support the child with appropriate actions.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: outstanding

Children, including those who only live in the home for a short time, make positive progress in all areas. This includes developing lifelong skills which will benefit their future independence.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: outstanding

Children receive tailored support which promotes their development. Staff support children to access health services that they have not engaged with previously. The team uses detailed tracking to analyse children’s health issues and identify triggers and provide support. For example, a social story was developed for one child around teeth brushing. The child said how much they enjoyed their bedtime teeth brushing with their favourite staff.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: outstanding

The placement of one child had a temporary negative effect on the progress of another child. The manager had identified that the children were not compatible. However, the team worked hard to manage the dynamic between the children until the child placed could move to a home more suitable for their needs. This included encouraging separate activities and family time. The positive relationships between staff and the first child enabled the child to continue making progress so that they could take the next steps to independence. Inspection report for children’s home: 2731337 4 Staff promote children’s education to improve their life chances. The team understands the benefits to children of maintaining routines and social networks while there are significant changes in their family life. The manager has challenged education professionals when decisions have been made which are not in a child’s best interests.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: outstanding

Children are supported to develop skills which will enhance their lives. This includes skills which will benefit them as children and adults, for example, learning to swim, riding a bike and understanding the social norms in a new country.

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Overall experiences and progress of children and young people: outstanding

The home is currently undergoing refurbishment. The environment is welcoming, child focused and distinctive. Consideration has been given to creating a supportive environment for children through colour, with vibrant colours in the hall and games room and calming colours in the lounge and bedrooms.

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

Safeguarding practice is highly effective. Children describe feeling safer because of the consistent care and routine provided by staff. This is particularly the case for children who have experienced significant distress in the lead-up to their move into the home.

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

Managers make use of a combination of assessment, analysis and planning to ensure that staff practice is personalised to children’s needs. There is a constant focus on how to sustain positive changes for children around risk. The team uses reflection and research effectively to support their understanding of children’s behaviours and to consider their own responses.

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

Staff handle difficult situations well and find creative ways to support children to manage their emotions. Physical intervention is rarely used by staff. When incidents do occur, staff follow protocols and work with professionals and colleagues to consider ways to improve practice. These improvements have benefited all the provider’s homes.

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

The team works closely with the emotional health and well-being team to consider preventative measures to manage risk. Staff have worked with children to find ways to mitigate the risk of them going missing. This included making changes to children’s time in the community and understanding children’s patterns of behaviour to pre-empt incidents.

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

Debriefs are used effectively to support improvements. The manager has used research- led assessment tools to facilitate group discussions with the team to support learning from their experiences and to improve practice.

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

Impact risk assessments have been improved to support managers to demonstrate their robust decision-making around the suitability of referrals to the home. These are live documents which continue to be used throughout children’s placements to provide ongoing assessment of dynamics in the home in response to changing risk and the impact on all children living in the home. Inspection report for children’s home: 2731337 5

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

The manager’s leadership of the home is exemplary. She sets high standards for herself and her team and in achieving excellent outcomes for children. She is a supportive presence in the home and has a thorough knowledge of the children in her care and her staff team.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

The manager is proactive in advocating for children and for staff. She challenges others and has escalated concerns in an appropriate and professional way to support improved outcomes. She has a high level of self-awareness which supports her team to reflect effectively and improve their practice as a result.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

The manager is meticulous in her oversight of the home. Alongside this, she involves staff in looking at how the home will develop to meet the needs of children and families. Professionals who work with the manager commend her knowledge, drive and creativity in continuing to improve the home..

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

There have been challenges to staff due to the impact of recent placement decisions by the local authority. Staff feel supported and engaged with their roles but reflected on the difficulties around decisions being made by senior leaders.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

Supervisions and team meetings are used to positive effect to support staff and to aid reflection. There is a clear focus on progress for staff, with target setting and sharing of feedback from professionals and children. Any staff practice issues are managed in a safe, timely and sensitive way to minimise the impact on children and staff.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

The manager keeps informed about emerging concerns for children and uses this information alongside research to ensure that staff are well trained to meet children’s needs. She has also developed a partnership with the local public health board to support a research project around vaping by children.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers: outstanding

The home’s statement of purpose has not been regularly updated or shared with Ofsted. Inspection report for children’s home: 2731337 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

keep the statement of purpose under review and, where appropriate, revise it; and

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Requirement Due date

notify HMCI of any revisions and send HMCI a copy of the revised statement within 28 days of the revision. (Regulation 16 (3)(a)(b)) 31 August 2025

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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: 2731337 7

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Children’s home details

Registered provider: Westmorland and Furness Council

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Children’s home details

Registered provider address: Westmorland and Furness Council, Town Hall, Duke Street, Barrow in Furness, Cumbria LA14 2LD

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Children’s home details

Responsible individual: Elizabeth Curtis

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Inspector

Andrea Foreman, Social Care Inspector Inspection report for children’s home: 2731337 8 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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