PCH Integration Services Ltd

Inspection report for supported accommodation provider: PCH Integration Services Ltd 1 PCH Integration Services Ltd Registered provider: PCH Integration Services Ltd

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Inspected under the social care common inspection framework

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provider

This supported accommodation service is operated by a private provider in the east of England. The provider can accommodate one child in a single occupancy house, and up to 31 individuals in 11 shared or group living homes that are limited to accommodating looked-after children or care leavers.

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provider

At the time of the inspection, 26 looked-after children aged between 16 to 17 years were accommodated.

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provider

The service manager registered with Ofsted at the same time as the organisation in November 2023.

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provider

Inspection dates: The inspection was announced on 11 August 2025 and started that day. The inspectors were on site from 13 August 2025 to 15 August 2025.

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Outcome

Inconsistent quality of service delivery adversely affects some children’s experiences, and this may limit their progress. Leaders and managers must make improvements. The next inspection will be within approximately 18 months.

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Summary of findings

Children feel positive about the support and help they receive. They feel happy and enjoy the supportive environment and the different activities they do. They want to engage in more activities.

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Summary of findings

Leaders and managers and staff work well with other services and share relevant information.

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Summary of findings

The manager does not have good oversight of the service. Staff do not receive regular supervision and record-keeping is inconsistent. The staff lack curiosity in children’s background and experience. There is a lack of appropriate work following incidents. This affects the quality of protection and support provided to children. It Inspection report for supported accommodation provider: PCH Integration Services Ltd 2 also limits staff’s understanding of how best to support children to make positive progress into independence.

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Summary of findings

The quality of the accommodation is variable. For some children, their environment and living conditions are welcoming and homely but, for others, their homes are not. This does not nurture a consistent environment of feeling equal, worthy and loved.

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Overall experiences and progress of children

Children are encouraged to maintain good physical and emotional health. Staff are proactive in supporting children to access universal health services by registering with appropriate universal services. They also take children to specialist and other medical appointments. This helps children to develop a positive self-view and resilience while moving into adulthood.

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Overall experiences and progress of children

Most children are accessing education, employment or training. For those children who are new and not accessing education, employment or training, staff actively support and encourage them to access relevant opportunities. This fosters children’s independence, self-worth and positive socialisation.

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Overall experiences and progress of children

Staff encourage children to take part in positive activities, such as sports day and trips to the zoo. This gives the children new opportunities to enjoy, build memories and build positive relationships with adults and peers. The children have access to technology and Wi-Fi within the homes. This helps to enable children to connect with people who are important to them.

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Overall experiences and progress of children

Professionals from social care and healthcare agencies say that the children are supported and make positive progress into independent living. Staff support children with life skills, such as getting on a bus to get to school, college or employment. Children develop life skills linked to daily chores, cooking and budgeting. However, the support plans are not regularly updated with known or emerging risks. In addition, the plans lack evaluation or analysis. This limits their usefulness in effectively monitoring the progress that children make.

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Overall experiences and progress of children

Staff have good relationships with children. However, staff are not consistently taking responsibility for recording or updating records. This reduces the oversight of the children’s needs, progress and record-keeping.

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Overall experiences and progress of children

For children who have separated from their family and country of origin, staff are sensitive to their individual cultural and religious needs. Staff are proactive in ensuring that these needs are met by linking children with the local cultural and religious provisions. Staff use translation tools to communicate with them. Staff support children to understand and engage in British culture. This promotes the children’s sense of belonging, identity and self-esteem. Inspection report for supported accommodation provider: PCH Integration Services Ltd 3

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How well children are helped and protected

Children receive out-of-hours support from staff. There is a system for ensuring that this support is available as and when children require it. However, missing-from- home responses for some children lack urgency and do not reduce the risk of harm to them. Children are not reported as missing until 48 hours after they are missing.

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How well children are helped and protected

Children’s risk assessments effectively capture areas of need. However, some children do not receive the help or support to develop a positive self-view and to overcome any previous experiences of neglect and trauma. A child with a range of safeguarding needs did not receive support following incidents to provide them with strategies to manage difficult situations. In addition, their risk assessment and support plans were not updated.

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How well children are helped and protected

Records relating to incidents are not always appropriately recorded. This makes it difficult to understand how children are kept safe during incidents. Some children’s known risks are not considered when actioning any new incidents.

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How well children are helped and protected

Leaders and managers adhere to safer recruitment procedures. This helps to reduce the potential for unsuitable people to be recruited.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers

The staff group is stable. The manager offers effective support to staff and is actively involved in the running of the services. Feedback from staff was positive. They feel supported and well looked after.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers

Leaders and managers challenge placing authorities effectively. They act when they are concerned that placing authorities are not making decisions in the best interest of the children.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers

The manager has provided a quality of support review, which looks at areas of development and how to improve. However, routine monitoring is ineffective and has not identified issues with the recording of incidents, lack of evaluation and gaps in actions within support plans.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers

New staff receive robust induction training. This tests their development and effectiveness in their role. Staff receive a range of training, including trauma- informed practice in relation to separated migrant children, which helps them to understand their role and provides knowledge in meeting children’s needs. Staff have access to training that they value and helps to give them the skills to work effectively and safely with most children. However, for one child, staff lacked an understanding of how to manage associated risks despite undertaking the relevant training.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers

Staff do not receive regular supervision. This was highlighted as an issue during a local authority quality assurance visit, but supervision remains inconsistent in frequency and inconsistently recorded. Irregular or missed supervisions limit the Inspection report for supported accommodation provider: PCH Integration Services Ltd 4 opportunity for staff to discuss their well-being, development and progress, and reduce opportunities to reflect on practice. Although staff feel valued, the inconsistency of supervision can impact on staff’s understanding of the children’s needs and risks, and how to best support children make positive progress into independence. Inspection report for supported accommodation provider: PCH Integration Services Ltd 5

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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 (1) requires the registered person to—

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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. (Regulation 5 (1) (2)(f)(iii))

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Requirement Due date

In particular, the registered manager must ensure that staff work with children following safeguarding incidents, review risk assessments and update support plans. 3 October 2025

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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 a plan for support is in place to support the child to develop the resilience and skills required to transition out of supported accommodation when the child is ready to live more independently;

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Requirement Due date

ensure that children are supported to understand and manage the impact of any experience of abuse or neglect. (Regulation 7 (1) (2)(k)(n)) 3 October 2025

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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. (Regulation 18 (4)(b)) 3 October 2025 Inspection report for supported accommodation provider: PCH Integration Services Ltd 6 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

are kept up to date. (Regulation 24 (1)(b))

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Requirement Due date

In particular, the registered manager must ensure that staff keep clear and accurate records and update them promptly when needed. 3 October 2025

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Recommendation

 The registered person should ensure that policies and practices around overnight stays are clear to staff and young people so that risks to a young person, including going missing, are mitigated and quick action can be identified and taken when there is cause for concern. (‘Guide to the Supported Accommodation Regulations, including Quality Standards’, page 23)

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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: PCH Integration Services Ltd 7

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Supported accommodation provider details

Registered provider: PCH Integration Services Ltd

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Supported accommodation provider details

Registered provider address: Unit 2a, Flag Business Exchange, Vicarage Farm Road, Peterborough PE1 5TX

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Supported accommodation provider details

Registered service manager: Cassandra Cooling

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Supported accommodation provider details

Email address: Cassie.Cooling@pchomes.org

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Inspectors

Shelley Chowdhury, Social Care Inspector Leah Stannard, Social Care Inspector Inspection report for supported accommodation provider: PCH Integration Services Ltd 8 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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Inspectors

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Inspectors

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Inspectors

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