Transition Care Peterborough Ltd

Inspection report for supported accommodation provider: Transition Care Peterborough Ltd 1 Transition Care Peterborough Limited

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Registered provider: Transition Care Peterborough Limited

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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. It can accommodate up to 16 individuals in six shared or group-living premises that are limited to accommodating looked-after children or care leavers. At the time of the inspection, eight looked-after children aged 16 or 17 were being accommodated.

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provider

The service manager registered with Ofsted in February 2024.

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provider

Inspection dates: The inspection was announced on 7 July 2025 and started that day. The inspectors were on site on 9 and 10 July 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. The next inspection will be within approximately six months.

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Summary of findings

Leaders and managers admit children outside of the registration conditions of supported accommodation. Children are admitted with complex needs that the service cannot meet.

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Summary of findings

Leaders and managers place children with complex needs in shared housing without adequately considering the needs of other children living there. This puts children in the accommodation at risk of harm.

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Summary of findings

Leaders and managers do not ensure that plans for children are comprehensive and meaningful. Their oversight of the service is ineffective. As a result, children Inspection report for supported accommodation provider: Transition Care Peterborough Ltd 2 do not always experience quality support that promotes their safety and well-being. Inspection report for supported accommodation provider: Transition Care Peterborough Ltd 3

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Overall experiences and progress of children

Leaders and managers do not always obtain sufficient information about children’s risks and needs before they move into the service. They accept children with needs that the service cannot meet. As a result, not all children make progress.

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Overall experiences and progress of children

Leaders and managers place children with complex needs in shared housing without considering the needs of other children living there. This puts children in the accommodation at risk of harm.

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Overall experiences and progress of children

Leaders and managers do not support children well to develop the skills they need to stay safe and live independently. Support work with children is infrequent, lacks structure and is often ineffective.

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Overall experiences and progress of children

Staff sometimes remove risks rather than supporting children to learn how to manage them. For example, staff accompany some children on every shopping trip and supervise their expenditure. These practices do not help children to gain the independent living skills that they need.

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Overall experiences and progress of children

Leaders and managers do not take sufficient steps to ensure that all children are supported to access education, training or employment. Most children are not employed or engaged in structured education or training.

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Overall experiences and progress of children

Staff support children to register with dentists, doctors and other primary healthcare services. They refer children to access specialist healthcare agencies, such as mental health and substance misuse services. However, staff do not help children to engage with the services. Furthermore, staff do not provide sufficient direct work with children to support them with these needs. Therefore, the children’s needs largely remain unmet.

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Overall experiences and progress of children

Children have caused considerable damage to walls and doors in two homes. Leaders and managers take appropriate steps to repair damage; however, they do not ensure that all children live in a homely environment. In addition, communal areas in children’s accommodation are not always welcoming. In some homes, there are indications of drug paraphernalia and cannabis use in children’s bedrooms.

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Overall experiences and progress of children

Some children said that they felt safe and were positive about the service. However, other children did not like their homes and tried not to spend time in them.

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How well children are helped and protected

Leaders and managers do not ensure that children are suitable to share accommodation. They do not adequately consider the risks that children may pose to each other. Leaders and managers have taken steps to improve this process; however, they are not yet applying these changes effectively. For example, they accommodated children with similar vulnerabilities in a shared house, and this increased risks for the children. Inspection report for supported accommodation provider: Transition Care Peterborough Ltd 4 Leaders and managers have recently made changes to children’s plans. However, these changes are not yet fully effective, as staff do not ensure that children’s plans are up to date. Plans do not always identify children’s vulnerabilities or set out what action should be taken to address these concerns. For example, one child was hospitalised through intoxication when they were in the community. Staff did not

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How well children are helped and protected

update the child’s risk assessment to clarify how they would be supported.

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How well children are helped and protected

Staff do not maximise opportunities for children to inform their own risk- management plans. As a result, risk management is not always as effective as it could be.

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How well children are helped and protected

Leaders and managers do not adequately ensure that children at risk of criminal and sexual exploitation and substance misuse are kept safe. In one home, children with exploitation and substance misuse vulnerabilities regularly ran out of money and required food parcels. Staff and managers do not provide sufficient support to children to help them learn how to manage their money effectively and stay safe.

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How well children are helped and protected

Leaders and managers do not always share child protection information with relevant agencies. One child alleged that a member of staff verbally abused them. The provider failed to notify the local authority designated officer about the allegation.

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How well children are helped and protected

Some children go missing from home regularly. Leaders and managers notify the police and the relevant placing authorities when children are missing from home. When children return home, they are offered a return interview by an independent service.

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How well children are helped and protected

Leaders and managers ensure that they carry out all relevant employment checks when recruiting staff. This ensures that children receive support from staff deemed suitable.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers

Leaders and managers have made changes to their admissions processes. However, these processes are not yet fully effective. Leaders and managers continue to accept children who, at the point of referral, are not ready to live in supported accommodation. This means that some placements are outside the scope of the supported accommodation regulations.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers

Leaders and managers do not take sufficient steps to ensure that they are in receipt of all relevant information at the point of referral. They do not provide effective challenge to the placing authority when they are unclear about placement expectations for children.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers

Leaders and managers use a range of methods to monitor the quality of the service. However, quality assurance processes are not as effective as they should be. They do not identify weaknesses in children’s plans, for example. Furthermore, leaders Inspection report for supported accommodation provider: Transition Care Peterborough Ltd 5 and managers do not complete a quality of support review at least once every six months. This is a missed opportunity to reflect on areas of identified strengths and weaknesses and the experiences of children.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers

Leaders and managers do not consistently inform Ofsted when serious events occur. For instance, they did not inform Ofsted about an allegation of abuse by a member of staff or when a child protection enquiry was instigated. Additionally, leaders and managers do not always submit notifications without delay, and the notifications do not always contain sufficient detail. This limits the regulator’s ability to maintain oversight and ensure that responses to serious incidents protect and support children.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers

Leaders and managers ensure that staff receive a wide range of mandatory training that helps them to understand children’s needs. Members of staff said that they had completed training courses that they had found beneficial to their work.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers

Managers and staff receive regular supervision. Staff said that they receive good- quality supervision and are well supported by managers. However, leaders and managers do not always ensure that supervision is held in line with their policy’s timescales.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers

Leaders and managers have increased the frequency of team meetings. Staff said that this had been beneficial. They said that the meetings gave them the opportunity to share information about the children and discuss how to support them. Staff members were positive about leaders and managers.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers

Social workers are positive about communication with staff and managers. They receive a weekly report about each child, which they find helpful. They said that children have a particularly good relationship with the registered manager, who they trust and share information with. Inspection report for supported accommodation provider: Transition Care Peterborough 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 (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;

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Requirement Due date

work collaboratively with other professionals and agencies, and share information where relevant to keep children safe. (Regulation 5 (1) (2)(a)(i)(ii)(iii)(f)(iii)(iv)) 24 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 supported accommodation undertaking that puts children first and prioritises their wellbeing and development.

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Requirement Due date

In particular, the standard in paragraph (1) requires the registered person to— 24 August 2025 Inspection report for supported accommodation provider: Transition Care Peterborough Ltd 7 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 arrangements are in place to manage referrals of children to the supported accommodation undertaking and admissions of children to premises used as supported accommodation, including, where relevant, emergency referrals and admissions. (Regulation 4 (1) (2)(a)(f))

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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 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

keep the child’s support under review, taking into consideration the plans for support, and relevant plans, to ensure that the child’s needs continue to be met and that the child is kept safe;

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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

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. (Regulation 7 (1) (2)(b)(c)(f)(k)) 24 August 2025

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Requirement Due date

The registered person must notify the CIECSS and any relevant person without delay if—

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Requirement Due date

a child is involved in or subject to, or is suspected of being involved in or subject to, sexual exploitation or child criminal exploitation;

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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; 24 August 2025 Inspection report for supported accommodation provider: Transition Care Peterborough Ltd 8 there is an allegation of abuse against the supported accommodation undertaking or a person working for it;

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Requirement Due date

concludes (in which case, the notification must include the outcome of the child protection enquiry);

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Requirement Due date

there is an incident involving the use of a measure of restraint of a child;

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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 (3)(a)(b)(c)(d)(i)(ii)(e)(f))

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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 24 August 2025 Inspection report for supported accommodation provider: Transition Care Peterborough Ltd 9 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))

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Requirement Due date

*These requirements are subject to a compliance notice.

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Recommendation

 The registered person should ensure that supported accommodation settings are homely and welcoming environments. They should ensure that children can access all shared areas of the setting unless there are specific reasons why this is not possible. (‘Guide to the Supported Accommodation Regulations, including Quality Standards’, page 29)

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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: Transition Care Peterborough Ltd 10

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Supported accommodation provider details

Registered provider: Transition Care Peterborough Ltd

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Supported accommodation provider details

Registered provider address: 2 Water Street, Stamford, England PE9 2NJ

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Supported accommodation provider details

Registered service manager: Kelly Belding

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Supported accommodation provider details

Email address: info@tcpeterborough.co.uk

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Inspectors

Steve James, Social Care Inspector Amie Pearson, Social Care Inspector Inspection report for supported accommodation provider: Transition Care Peterborough Ltd 11 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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