Blossom Living Limited

Inspection report for supported accommodation provider: Blossom Living Limited 1 Blossom Living Limited Registered provider: Blossom Living Limited

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Inspected under the social care common inspection framework

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provider

This supported accommodation service is owned and operated by a private provider. It can accommodate up to 29 individuals in nine shared-living homes that are limited to accommodating looked-after children and care leavers.

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provider

At the time of the inspection, this service was providing supported accommodation for 20 children aged 16 or 17.

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provider

The organisation and the nominated individual registered with Ofsted in May 2024. The service manager registered with Ofsted in January 2025.

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provider

Inspection dates: The inspection was announced on 1 September 2025 and started that day. The inspectors were on site from 3 to 5 September 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 enjoy the homes they live in and feel that staff are on hand to support them when they need it.

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Summary of findings

Staff build good working relationships with children. They make sure that social workers are kept informed of important issues for the child and work collaboratively with the local authority to address them.

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Summary of findings

When possible, staff and managers support moves for children leaving the service. This helps children have positive endings with the service and familiar support to help them settle in their new home. Inspection report for supported accommodation provider: Blossom Living Limited 2 Leaders and managers do not have effective oversight of the organisation. This has led to several staff not receiving supervision or appraisals and safer recruitment processes not being followed.

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Summary of findings

When children have known risks, their assessments do not effectively identify them or provide staff with support to manage them. When children arrive with additional needs, staff do not receive specialist training to support them in their role.

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Overall experiences and progress of children

Children enjoy good relationships with staff. They feel the support they get helps them. One child said, ‘Whenever I need them, I know they are there.’ Another child said, ‘When I am having a bad day staff can tell. They are really nice, and it helps me feel better.’

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Overall experiences and progress of children

Children have a good understanding of the steps staff take to keep them safe and are generally accepting of their actions. When there are restrictions in place, children appear to know and understand these. For example, children were able to speak about staff carrying out welfare checks and imposing curfews, with an understanding of why these are in place. Children engage positively with the reward system, which gives them targets to help promote their independence and recognises their achievements.

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Overall experiences and progress of children

The organisation works with partner agencies to support children with ‘staying close’ arrangements. This provides ongoing support to children from staff they are familiar with when they move on from the service. This helps ensure that young people who have turned 18 can receive some ongoing support when they move on to independent living.

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Overall experiences and progress of children

Staff build positive and caring relationships with children. They speak positively about the children they support. Staff support unaccompanied asylum-seeking children to familiarise themselves with the local area, as well as ensuring that they can access resources for their dietary and cultural needs.

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Overall experiences and progress of children

Some children are engaged in education or employment. When children are not in education, staff work with them to consider different opportunities. The provider offers its own training courses for children to complete to help them achieve qualifications, which can help them to gain future employment or enrol on a college course.

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Overall experiences and progress of children

Children’s support plans do not effectively capture the work needed to help them fulfil their potential. When staff identify that children need specific support, this is not effectively followed up, meaning actions identified are not sufficiently addressed through direct work. This means that children are not consistently receiving the support they need. There is also no system in place to support staff to understand the progress made by children, or to identify what additional support children need. Inspection report for supported accommodation provider: Blossom Living Limited 3 Children know how to make complaints and have been supported to do so. However, children’s complaints have not always been overseen effectively by managers, meaning actions recommended to address staff conduct have not been implemented.

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Overall experiences and progress of children

Some children’s homes are warm and welcoming. However, a few had maintenance issues which have not been addressed. One floor was significantly worn, and this had not been addressed by staff in a timely manner. These maintenance issues meant some homes lacked a welcoming atmosphere and were not somewhere that children can be proud of.

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How well children are helped and protected

For some children, effective action has been taken to manage known risks. For one child, this has meant a significant reduction in episodes of going missing since they moved to their accommodation. For another child, systems have been put in place to support them to spend ongoing time with their family.

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How well children are helped and protected

When incidents occur, staff keep social workers informed. Staff and social workers meet jointly with children to address concerns and work collaboratively to try to ensure children have the support they need. Leaders and managers are also involved in multi-agency meetings about children, increasing the likelihood that information is shared effectively across agencies.

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How well children are helped and protected

When children have a high level of staffing, this is kept under review. Managers want children to be able to move on and be more independent. If this cannot happen, then leaders are able to recognise that this is not the correct provision for the child and make plans for them to move to a more suitable provision that can meet their needs.

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How well children are helped and protected

Children’s risks are not effectively understood and reflected in risk assessments. Risk assessments do not support staff to understand the concerns for the child or the actions to take to keep children safe. In some risk assessments, significant known risks for children were not mentioned. Managers have not had effective oversight to address the lack of quality or clarity in these documents.

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How well children are helped and protected

When the organisation supports children with additional needs or risks, staff do not receive suitable training to support them to understand and respond accordingly. Training directly relating to the needs and experiences of some children living in the supported accommodation has not always been provided, for example, training in working with asylum-seeking children, and serious youth violence. This reduces the potential for staff to be able to recognise and respond to emerging needs in these areas. For one child with autism and foetal alcohol syndrome, staff have not had training to know how to meet their needs. And following incidents involving several children carrying knives, no additional training has been provided for staff, despite managers identifying that this is needed. Inspection report for supported accommodation provider: Blossom Living Limited 4 Incidents involving children are not always effectively followed up by managers.

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How well children are helped and protected

There have been significant delays in managers signing off incident reports. This affects managers being able to promptly be assured that appropriate action was taken to address safeguarding concerns and reduce the potential for recurrence. On one occasion, staff had requested additional self-harm training following an incident, but this had not been picked up or actioned by managers.

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How well children are helped and protected

When children return home after going missing, staff are not taking sufficient action. There is limited evidence of staff following up with children to understand and address the reasons why children have gone missing. Debriefs for children and staff are not routinely recorded. Consequently, opportunities to understand why children have gone missing are limited.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers

Leaders and managers are aspirational for children. They want to support them to succeed. They celebrate children’s achievements with them. Small steps are recognised and rewarded, giving children a positive sense that staff and managers care about them and their successes.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers

The registered manager meets with area managers to ensure that information about children is shared and that there is some oversight of the service. However, there are also significant shortfalls in leaders and managers’ oversight of the organisation. Despite managers being aware of gaps in staff recording, effective action has not been taken to manage this. When there are known concerns about staff’s recording practice, this has not been addressed with them, which has allowed the problem to continue.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers

Staff say they feel supported by leaders and managers. They feel that if they had issues or concerns these would be taken seriously and acted on. They say they benefit from an on-call system that gives them access to management support and advice to help them manage difficult situations. They also say that working for the organisation is a positive experience, which creates an environment that children benefit from.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers

Leaders and managers have not followed safe recruitment practices. When staff have previously worked in roles with children or vulnerable adults, the reasons they left that employment are not routinely explored other than through the applicant self-reporting. In addition, gaps in employment histories are not always followed up. Monitoring by leaders and managers has not identified this. This lack of management oversight could lead to unsafe individuals working with children.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers

When concerns about staff conduct have arisen, leaders and managers have shared information with Ofsted and the local authority designated officer (LADO). However, on one occasion, leaders carried out their own investigation, including interviewing the member of staff, before the LADO had responded. Although there is no indication that this resulted in harm to a child, this meant that the investigation took place without the necessary independent oversight of the LADO. Inspection report for supported accommodation provider: Blossom Living Limited 5 Leaders and managers have not ensured that staff receive regular supervision. Monitoring systems have not been effective in enabling leaders to know when supervisions have taken place. There is a lack of understanding from leaders and managers of the frequency and quality of supervision for staff. When supervisions have taken place, the records of these have not always been good enough, lacking

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers

clarity about comments made or actions to be taken. In addition, leaders recognise that annual appraisals have not been consistently taking place.

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The effectiveness of leaders and managers

Leaders and managers have not ensured that staff training is monitored effectively. The systems for recording staff training are unclear and, at times, records are inaccurate. Leaders and managers have not created an environment that promotes ongoing learning and development for staff. Training focuses on staff completing mandatory training, without considering how wider training would further develop staff’s ability to recognise and respond to the needs of children in supported accommodation more effectively. Inspection report for supported accommodation provider: Blossom Living Limited 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 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—

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Requirement Due date

ensure that staff have the experience, qualifications and skills appropriate for the work that they are to perform;

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Requirement Due date

implement recruitment practices that ensure staff are suitable to work with children and to keep them safe from harm

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Requirement Due date

ensure that arrangements are in place for the supervision, training and development of staff.

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Requirement Due date

(Regulation 4 (1) (2)(c)(e)(g)) 17 November 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

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. (Regulation 7 (2)(c)) 17 November 2025

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Requirement Due date

The registered provider and the registered service manager must, having regard to— 17 November 2025 Inspection report for supported accommodation provider: Blossom Living Limited 7 the number of premises used as supported accommodation by,

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Requirement Due date

the number of children accommodated in the premises used as supported accommodation by,

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Requirement Due date

the geographical scope of the premises used as supported accommodation by,

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Requirement Due date

the category or categories of supported accommodation provided by

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Requirement Due date

the supported accommodation undertaking concerned, carry on or manage that undertaking with sufficient care, competence and skill.

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Requirement Due date

In particular the registered manager must ensure they have effective oversight of the running of the service. They must be aware of shortfalls of the service and take prompt and effective action to address these.

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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

receive practice-related supervision by a person with appropriate experience, and

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Requirement Due date

have their performance and fitness to perform their roles appraised at least once every year.

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Requirement Due date

(Regulation 18 (1) (4)(a)(b)(c)) 17 November 2025

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Recommendations

 The registered person should ensure that reviews take into consideration any feedback and complaints by children in the service so that any changes made have a positive impact on those affected. When children make complaints, leaders and managers need to take effective action to address their concerns. (‘Guide to the Supported Accommodation Regulations, including Quality Standards’, page 46) Inspection report for supported accommodation provider: Blossom Living Limited 8  The registered person should ensure that the monitoring and evaluating of missing-from-home incidents identify any gaps in training, skills or knowledge for staff and record and retain evidence of what worked well. In particular, staff should keep accurate records of children’s missing-from-home incidents, as well as discussions held on the child’s return to ensure that each child’s reasons for going missing is understood and addressed appropriately. (‘Guide to the

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Recommendations

Supported Accommodation Regulations, including Quality Standards’, page 55)

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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: Blossom Living Limited 9

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Supported accommodation provider details

Registered provider: Blossom Living Limited

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Supported accommodation provider details

Registered service manager: Kimberley Harvey

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Supported accommodation provider details

Email address: admin@blossom-living.co.uk

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Inspectors

Leah Stannard, Social Care Inspector Ashley Hinson, Social Care Inspector Inspection report for supported accommodation provider: Blossom Living Limited 10 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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